artist

Hailey has been going back and forth eating/writing with both hands, but I think she is finally settling on her left. Both I and my grandfather (dad's side) are lefties.

I was worried about her lack of choosing a hand, but the ped at her two year check up said that usually this is a sign that she will be a lefty and this is proving true.

makeup

christmas 2007

I think the pictures tell the story better than I ever could. Christmas eve was spent at Meme's where the kids exchanged presents, ate lots of food and played together.

I love the picture above, Taylor is having a "ticklefest" and the kids were laughing so hard!

Christmas day started at our house and ended at my parents house. Hailey was quite spoiled and actually overwhelmed. She opened each present slowly and precisely and wanted to stop and play with each before opening the next.


My parents among many other things got her a bike and my brother probably got her the favorite gift of all - drums! I don't know who likes them better Hailey or daddy! Both daddy and my brother play drums so she has alot of exsposure to them.

family

Last night we went up to celebrate christmas with my dad's side of the family. They live 2 hours hours north of us so we don't get to see them all that often. My cousins daughter, Kailee is about a year and a half older than Hailey and Hayden the other girl in the in the picture is quite a bit older, but Hailey had a blast playing with them and they did great including her in everything they did.

I had to add this picture of my mom and dad giving shoulder massages to my Grammie and my dad's sister.

Below is my brother and his girlfriend Laura. Don't they look thrilled that I am taking their picture?!

Hailey was able to have ANYTHING she wanted while at my cousins house, so she had chicken nuggets, a popsicle, popcorn and then washed it down with ice cream while walking around the house!

sugar cookies

Hailey made her first sugar cookies tonight for our MOPS christmas party tomorrow night. She followed those cookies from start to finish. Added the ingredients, stirred, cut them out, sprinkled, frosted ... you name it.

singing

oh christmas tree

Today we helped Robin, Luke and Alyssa decorate their tree for Christmas. It was great being together and the kids did a great job decorating!

sledding and snowmen

Today we got some snow! YEAH! We were excited for our first significant snow this year so we could take Hailey out sledding. She had a blast! She could be heard yelling - "Do again daddy"! "I want to make a slide" (go sledding) and for some reason she called the sled, the beach. My assumption is she thinks it looks like a float you use at the beach?!

Below is the beginning of a snowman, the snow was perfect for building, but sadly we had to go in because daddy had to leave for work.

Since she never was able to finish her snowman she has been saying all day that she wanted to build a snowman so this evening my mom and I took Hailey back out in the snow. We attempted to build a snowman. Notice the word attempt and lack of a picture. It doesn't take much of a snowman to please a toddler :-)

big girl bed

Hailey is officially in a "big girl bed". It is actually a toddler bed, but it defintely makes her feel all grown up! Meme has been saving this toddler bed for Hailey since Hailey's second cousin, Amber grew out of it. We brought it home thinking we could store it and maybe try it after the new year, but as soon as it was home Hailey decided she had enough of her crib and would throw a fit every time we put her in the crib.

So "for fun" Tuesday night I put the bed in our room and laid her down. She came out twice laughing, but when it came down to it she went to sleep and slept through the night. She woke up with the biggest smile on her face the next day.

Wednesday we made the switch to her room and she has been sleeping in there ever since. The only problem is she doesn't stop moving even in her sleep and so I am using a bolster pillow to keep her in the bed. The first couple nights without it I found her sleeping half on/half off the bed. Once she was off headfirst! So the problem we have is not keeping her on the bed when she is awake, but when she is asleep!

gastro appt

Yesterday we had to drive an hour and a half, yes, you read that correctly, for Hailey's gastroenterology appointment. BIG difference from MD where we lived 20 minutes from Hopkins. Anyway, the appointment went well - Hailey is now 25lbs, 7oz and is 32 3/4 inches tall or short, however you want to state the obvious :-)

The appointment went well, the doctor we actually saw studied at Hopkins and was really great. He said at this point her reflux may be controlled by meds, but he said in "most" cases she should have outgrown it and so at this point we have to make sure there is nothing else going on. He ended up sending us for an Upper GI scan where Hailey had to drink some "chocolate barium, sounds yummy - and then we had to hold her down under this x-ray so they could watch the barium go through her GI tract. She was such a trooper through the whole thing! Thankfully she LOVES chocolate milk and settled down under the xray once she had her binky and banky (thank God for them).

After the test we went back upstairs and the doctor met with us to say all looks normal, with the exception of mild reflux (this is while on meds). So he said to continue the course we are on, then in March (after cold and flu season) wean the meds again and then schedule an appointment to see him again. He will then test her again off her meds to get a better view of how bad it is and to see if she is still refluxing. If she is still refluxing we will then proceed to scoping her to get a better view.

So lets hope and pray she grows out of it between now and March because I can't imagine she will do well with that test! On a side note, you may remember in the NICU there was talk of a "possible malrotation", but because she eventually started pooping with help (glycerin) they wanted to let her grow and re-test when she was older. Since she is going with the help of miralax our ped never saw it necessary to re-test, but since we had to for the reflux they also looked at that and the possible malrotation was ruled out! YEAH! So he wants us to eventually wean the miralax as well and start giving her more fruit and fruit juice and try to regulate her that way. She already eats fruit everyday for a snack so I am not sure this will work, but we will try.

All in all, we were at the hospital for 3 hours, which isn't to bad considering all we got accomplished. My mom talked to Hailey on the phone after the testing and asked her if she liked the doctor and Hailey emphatically stated "NO". She then proceeded to tell my mom that she drank chocolate milk and was crying! Poor baby! You always wonder what goes through their heads since you can't really explain what is going on at this age. Well, at least its over till next year!

its beginning to look alot like christmas

Since we had a few extra days off this weekend we started decorating for Christmas. It is so much fun to see christmas through a child's eyes. This year Hailey is really excited about it, I don't think she understands that she gets presents yet, but she just loves the lights, parades and santa of course!

Saturday they had a small parade through our town and Sunday there was a larger parade in a town close by that Hailey attended with her cousins. The parade itself I think kind of bored them a little, but they were all excited to get a glimpse of santa at the end!

bittersweet

Thanksgiving this year can be summed up in one word "bittersweet". Someone who we all loved deeply was missing and it was felt by all, as I know it is felt everyday we live and breathe. This part - BITTER. We also missed the rest of our family, on top of all they are going through Robin and the kids have been fighting that awful norovirus for a week and weren't able to make it.

You ask o.k. so we see the bitter part, what was sweet? Jordyn. She has been fighting this AWFUL disease, ALL since she was 18 months old and she is now 6. Having her living and breathing and sharing Thanksgiving with us - SWEET. She has missed many Thanksgiving due to having to be in quarantine and when she relapsed the day after Thanksgiving in 2005 we weren't sure if she would celebrate with us again, but she is a fighter and God is good!

After all our family has been through I try to look at each moment we have as a gift. Above the door in Joe and Robin's room is this quote ... we do not remember the days, we remember the moments. I read this a couple days after Joe left this earth and I will never forget it.

Last year ...

We love you so much Joe and can't wait to see you again someday!

first snow

Yesterday we had our first snowfall. I don't know who was more excited daddy and I or Hailey.

Hailey has a cold, we were up most of the night. Sadly, daddy was at work so it was all mommy. She enjoyed sleeping with mommy, but boy do I have a few bruises this morning from all her tossing and turning!

santa and stickers

Yes, its only November 19th and Hailey has seen Santa 3, yes 3 times so far. Believe it or not he has been at the mall since November 10th and sadly enough we frequent the mall more often than maybe we should :-) Yesterday we went to walk around with my brother, his girlfriend and our friend Meesh. Well, to our surprise my brother is a good friend of "sanca claus" and Hailey was given extra special attention and a special sticker book.

Hailey has been a little more timid this year with Santa, but she seemed to losen up this visit and even shook his hand.

Lately, she has been taking notice on who buys her what, and later in the day will state the fact. So today she has been walking around with her sticker book and she will stop to show me and state - "sanca got you". She still refers to herself as you.

personal hygiene and toddler woes

Hailey has decided personal hygiene is overrated. Those things that our children have no choice but to do, Hailey despises. Brushing her teeth, taking a bath, washing her hands, getting her diaper changed, sitting on the potty ... Whenever I even whisper the word she runs and either cries, screams or whines (sometimes all 3 at once).

She also likes to scream now when she gets excited. When she sees her friends or we walk into a store she loves she lets out a high pitched scream. It is not a good habit and I am having trouble nipping this one in the butt :-)

Also, she loves to tell people to cry. "cry mama, cry daddy". At first we thought this was quite funny and would pretend with her, but let me tell you this request is getting asked way to often ...

Oh the joys of toddlerhood :-) I look forward to these phases ending, but I know it will just bring more "fun" phases to follow as she learns to test her/our limits!

Yesterday Alyssa came over to play for a couple of hours. I think the highlight was when daddy aka uncle Tim brought out Thomas and the tracks. I didn't get a picture of the finished product, but they had a pretty big track built by the end of it.

that awful word that won't leave us alone - reflux

Remember my post stating that we were off the reflux meds and doing wonderful? The reflux is back and bad as ever. I follow many preemies who have it much worse so I am not complaining, but I was quite happy to finally put this behind us, but I guess it was not to be.

At Hailey's 2 year check up her ped asked that we take her off her reflux meds within a months time because by the age of "2" she should have grown out of it. Remember, we were told this at the age of 1 as well, no such luck. Well, around the 20th of September we stopped the meds and about a week later I was happy to report she was doing wonderful and this continued for about a month. Why, I am not sure, but around the end of October the symptoms starting sneaking up again. Gagging, spitting up, coughing, stuffy nose, waking up in the middle of the night crying. As the days go on the symptoms are getting worse so I called the ped to see if we could re-start her meds. She did restart them so hopefully we will notice improvement soon, but she is referring us to a gastroenterologist in Boston. I have mixed feelings about this because on one hand I just wish it would go away, but on the other hand I am hoping we can get this under control. She also still has bowel issues I hope to discuss all lasting issues and maybe come up with a solution. Her appointment is Tuesday, November 27th so I will update once we know more.

Lately, she has taken quite an interest in doctors and "boo-boo's". In the past couple of months, I had two small surgeries to remove a mole from my back (thankfully it came back non-cancerous), my mom had foot surgery and Hailey, of course, had croup so she has been surrounded with boo-boo's and doctors. She talks about going to the "doctor man" all the time and enjoys taking her babies to the doctor, she also loves to ask for bandages to be put on her hand. Hopefully, this "doctor man" visit will be a pleasant one!

birthday's

Can anyone say cake?! Hailey attended 3 - yes 3 birthday's in two days. Saturday at noon we celebrated Elijah's 2nd birthday with a Thomas the Tank Engine theme birthday. I don't know who enjoyed it more daddy or Hailey.

The at 2pm we celebrated Sarah's 1st birthday with an Elmo themed party. After having cake and pizza I expected Hailey to take a nap, right ... What was I thinking?!

So she decided to call her cousins at Meme's house to see if they wanted to come over to play.

Sure enough Meme brought them over and the kids had a blast playing!

Then today we celebrated Michelle's 18th birthday! Her brother and a friend put together a murder mystery party which was really cool and loads of fun. Sure enough party=cake and then mommy again expects a nap. NOT! She laid in her bed for 1.5 hours talking and never slept and this now puts us at 2 days without a nap. Good luck tomorrow Nana!

So Happy Birthday to Elijah, Sarah and Michelle! We love you all!