enjoying summer

I have been missing in action, but mostly because we are enjoying summer. When I am not at work we are out and about at the park or the beach enjoying ever warm moment!



Last weekend one of the physicians I worked with in Maryland stopped by for a visit. She was vacationing in Vermont and met us on the way home. We spent the day at the beach and gave them a taste of Maine. Below is Hailey swinging with one of her three kids ...



The little town we live in has "Strawberry Festival" every year. There are tons of booths with things to buy and things to eat. There are also fun things for the kids. It is something we look forward to every year and since we live right in town we can walk and not have to deal with the traffic! YEAH! :-) Last year we took Hailey, but she was kind of young to really enjoy it. This year she loved walking around and even rode a horse ...



As for Hailey updates, we are still having fun with her reflux. We increased her zantac with no luck so as of today she started prevacid. It comes in pill form and I open it up and give it to her in applesauce. She took it with no problem, bu we have to give it up to 3 weeks to see if we notice a change so no update yet. I did noticed she had the hiccups at least 3 times today. Usually that is a sign that her reflux is acting up. I hope she gets some relief soon!

Her vocabulary is expanding everyday and its fun to see what she will come out with next! She is also trying to put sentences together now which is fun, but you really have to stop and listen to make out what she saying.

We were at Target the other night and Tim was trying to find us, I saw him a few aisles down and yelled his name. Sure enough Hailey follows suite ... TIM, TIM ... it was SO funny! Daddy also was doing something the other night and hurt himself, Hailey was right there and he was good to say "sugar" instead of other words that I won't list! Good thing he did keep his tongue because Hailey was listening and now runs around saying - sugar, sugar ...



We are still "playing around" with potty training though nothing serious yet. She runs around in pull-ups and is very proud of herself. Today she decided her baby had to go potty ...

In just two weeks my baby is going to be 2! I can't believe it! Some days I wish we could keep her this age forever, but then I look back and remember when I said that before and I would have missed out on all this fun so I guess (since I have no choice anyway :-) she will keep growing and we will watch every moment unfold.

"o sit"

Hailey is quite a talker and when she talks she likes to add "o" before alot of her words. I am not sure where this started or why she does it. For example, she will be walking around looking for her monkey and say "o monkey" - or "o banky" when looking for her blanket. Well, one of her newer words is sit, for example when she wants to sit in her highchair or she will even say this when she wants to get out of her carseat because she wants to come sit up front with mommy. Well, last night we were driving home and she started pulling on her carseat straps wanting to get out and she was saying "o sit" - this was quite a picture since in her baby talk it sounds alot like something else and we couldn't help, but laugh!



Here are a couple pictures from the concert ... Don't you love the one above? That is Hailey dancing with her friend Elijah. Below she is trying to climb on the stage! She is definitely not shy!

cousins

Hailey had a fun-filled afternoon! She was able to meet her cousins, Luke and Alyssa, at the park for some fun in the sun. They had a great time!

Here is Hailey trying to push Alyssa on the swing :-)





Then we went back home to try out Hailey's new pool. Can anyone say "cold"!!!!!



Lastly, we ended the day with a kids concert at the school across the street from our house. Every summer they have different concerts at the school with local artists. Today's concert was Wayne From Maine. It was cute for the kids. Hailey loved it and of course danced with the best of them. She is the most social child I know. She was going up to other kids and taking their hands to dance with them. It was quite funny, this little 2 year old dancing with probably 4-9 year olds. I shockingly didn't bring my camera so a friend took some silly picks of Hailey dancing and trying to climb on the stage. I will add them when she sends them to me.

dance, baby, dance

Here is part of the video I was trying to upload. Here she is dancing before many people were out on the dance floor. She is hamming it up for the camera's!

wedding and "I get you"

This past weekend Tim and I were in a wedding together. We had a great time and thankfully they gave Tim Thursday-Saturday off so we could enjoy every part of it. Sadly, since I was in the wedding I didn't get any pictures of Tim and I together or of the three of us. I did take a few random pictures you can see below. Other than the flower girl and ring bearer Hailey was the only child invited to the wedding. She LOVES Jaimi and Chris (aka "Kiss" - as Hailey would say) and lights up everytime she sees them. My mom took care of Hailey during the wedding and brought her to the reception, but when it was time to dance we let her loose and lets just say she was quite the life of the party. I have a great video to share of her dancing while the photographer and videographer are gathered around, but its taking forever to load so I will wait another day ... Here are a few pix!









On "Daddy's" Day, Daddy had to work so we took advantage of the morning and went out to breakfast and then early morning golf (mini-golf that is). Hailey enjoyed running after the ball, picking it up and bringing it back to us ;-)





And a cute story ... Dooda (my dad, Hailey's grandfather) alway pretends to come after Hailey with pincher fingers and says I'm going to get you and then tickles her. Lately she started pinching back at him. Well, the other day Tim and I were in the car with her and she starts talking, and all of the sudden she says "I get you Dooda"! It was hilarious! She must have been thinking of him. This is her first full phrase. Now she runs around telling everything "I get you"!

She is really following her thoughts through and verbalizing more words together. She looks around the house when daddy is at work and when she can't find him she looks at me and says - daddy, work, choo, choo. She also talks to us on the phone when are at work which is cute and melts my heart.

Right now both her and I are fighting small colds, lets just hope they stay small!

back to square one

Thanks for the congratulations on being off zantac, but I guess I spoke to soon. As of yesterday Hailey started showing signs of reflux again, including spitting up. I don't know if you even call it that at 2 years old, but that is what it was. I felt so bad, and after she spit up she just looked at me and said "I'm o.k." - "I'm o.k.". She is defintely not sick because she is eating/drinking fine and keeping stuff down.



Anyway, we are back to square one. I will be calling the pharmacy today to get a refill of her zantac :-(

no more zantac!

Well, as of today Hailey is "unofficially" off zantac for her reflux. The ped wanted her off of it by her first birthday, but her reflux was still acting up so we increased the dosage for another few months. At her last check-up, 18 months, they wanted to give it a month or two more and then meet back to see where she was at. Well, the day of the appointment came and went because I was to chicken to take her to the doctor. Around that time the norovirus and other yucky stuff was going around so I cancelled. Lately, though I have noticed that she is fine so I started weaning the dosage. She was on 3ml's 3 times a day, then we went down to 2 times a day, then 1 and now today - none! I am sure her ped will be happy at her 2 year check-up next month.



So Hailey has now been weaned off the apnea monitor, reglan and zantac by the ripe age of 2! The only thing she is on now is the miralax. We are actually still having bowel issues so I am going to bring this up at her check-up. For those of you who don't know, in the NICU they thought her intestines were malrotated. She ended up having many tests and a surgery consult. She ended up going but was "suppository dependent" even once she left the NICU. They never really clarified what they think it was, but did say it wasn't a malrotation because if that was the case nothing would get through. We were supposed to get follow-up tests at her 1 year check-up, but at that time she seemed fine so they didn't order any. We will see what they say at this point.



And lastly, yesterday after work we went to the lake. Last year Hailey was not fond of the water, but this year she loves it!

friends, froggies and the potty

Yeah! I have my camera now and I love it! Well, the last couple of days have been fun. Hailey's friend Sidney came to visit yesterday afternoon and we spent the evening together. Her friend Elijah joined us as well ...





For dinner we ate corn on the cob and Hailey decided it was more fun to eat straight from the cob ...



I have been meaning to share with you Hailey's obsession with her "froggies" (thank you Robin). For Alyssa's 3rd birthday, the "goody bags" were little froggies in clear container where you can catch/watch bugs - the birthday theme was "A Bug's Life". Well, you would think those froggies are gold because every day since Alyssa's birthday (back in April) Hailey has played and played with those froggies and still to this day it is her favorite toy! She takes it to Nana's during the day, plays with it at night and even brings them to church.



She has also started to make-believe play. She has a Noah's Ark set and will actually make the animals talk, eat etc ... its so fun to watch.



Lastly, a potty update ... we are still "playing" around with potty training. I don't want to push it and make her hate the potty so when I am home we "go potty" and she wears pull-ups. She gets the idea, but has never actually gone on the potty. Well, yesterday I asked her if she had to go potty and she pulled on her diaper and said off. So I (very stupidly) took her diaper off in the living room expecting us then to walk to the bathroom to go potty like we usually do. Well, I guess she is getting the idea, because as soon as the diaper is off she squats and pees on the floor! I didn't know what to do, because I guess its good that she understands she needs to take her diaper off and go potty - but not on the living room floor!

and to end this post I had to share this picture from our vacation that Kim send me. I think its a great pix!

bath time and play-doh

Bath time has been bittersweet with Hailey. She goes through phases where she loves bath time and then all of the sudden she will decide she doesn't like it anymore and throw a fit when I start filling the tub. Lately she has been o.k. with it, but when it comes time to wash her hair she cringes because she doesn't really like the water in her face. I have tried different things trying to rinse without water in her face, but so far it hasn't worked well since she won't put her head back!!! I have been wanting to try the shampoo rinse cup I saw online at onestepahead.com (see pix above), but I didn't want to pay shipping (I am cheap I know)! This weekend though I was shopping at Walmart and noticed they had one. I purchased it right away! Let me say it was one of the best purchases I have ever made! Its keeps the water from running in her face and she now loves rinsing her hair. She even puts her head back without a fight. Actually, she loves it so much she has me rinse her hair 5-6 times in a row!

Also, after I wash her up with her pouf she loves to take her washcloth and rinse the soap off. Its so cute! She takes the washcloth, dips in the water and rubs herself down. What is funny is that she does it over and over on her face, but if I wash her face - watch out!!!

I also decided to buy some play-doh while at Walmart. I have never tried play-doh with Hailey because everything goes in her mouth, but I decided it was time. Let me say, it was a hit! She sat at the table for a good 20 minutes playing with it. We used cookie cutters and made "twinkle, minkle" (this is what Hailey calls stars because she associates stars with the song "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star").

Lastly, my camera is on its way ... I wanted a point and shoot, I didn't need all the bells and whistles, but I figure if I was going to spend my money I might as well get a good one. I talked tomy dad who is a photographer and this is what we ended up ordering ...


I can't wait for it to arrive!!!

toddlers

Well, Hailey is almost 2 and our 2 years of RSV scares are behind us so for the first time Hailey attended our churches toddler program all by herself! I have helped and brought her in on occasion, but have never left her.

She, of course being the social butterfly she is had no problem and really enjoyed herself. Mommy had trouble leaving her, but really enjoyed being in church with daddy and the hugs and smiles upon my return were priceless. The funny part was when I went to pick her up she was running toward me with a HUGE smile on her face yelling something. At first I couldn't tell what she was saying ... but as she got closer it became more distinct ... poop, poop mommy ... poop, poop .. So I received hugs, kisses and a whiff of something sweet ;-)

And since my camera is broke, I had to share some recent pix that I never posted ...

Hailey and Wyatt at the park, I just thought this picture was so cute with them looking at eachother ...




She has been obsessed with monkeys ever since we bought her a Wiggles dvd and she heard the monkey song! She asks us to play it over and over again as she dances with her monkey!


Hailey in her new big-girl chair at the table (thank you Auntie Tracey!)
I think she is going to be a lefty like mommy though she still switches back and forth ...

Davis' Farmland

Hailey is at the age where she is fascinated with animals. I found a brochure in our grocery store last winter about a children's discovery farm with a petting zoo and above ground children's water park. Its about an hour and a half from home so we set out yesterday to find it. It turned out to be beautiful day, sunny and 90 degrees. A little hot, but it made it perfect when it was time for the water! Sadly, after our first couple of pictures my camera died so I don't have many pictures to share. I am really bummed because I missed some great moments!

The last thing we caught on camera before it died, thankfully, was, Hailey's first pony ride (or donkey if you want to be technical :-)! It was supposed to be a pony ride, but they pulled out the donkey. It was all the same to her though and she LOVED it! She squealed all the way around!



And our only picture of her feeding the animals. Before going into the farm you buy a cup of food to feed them. Hailey was very brave and stuck her hands right out there for the goats and animals to eat. They were in your face and she didn't mind a bit.



The picture above is actually from outside the barn area. Once inside you can go in almost all of the caged in areas and some animals just walk around freely - goats, sheep, chickens - it was amazing! You can also go in to see the newborn calves which was quite interesting. I think they were hungry so they were suckling Tim's hand and trying to follow him out of the barn!

They also had great play areas for both toddlers and older kids with playgrounds geared for both ages, a huge sand area and then a little village complete with a vet hospital, tool shed, a house - and all had the necessary add-ins for the kids to play.

Lastly, we ended up at the kids water park, it is above ground with water spraying everywhere. They also had a water table for the kids. Again, they have a toddler play area and one geared for older kids. Hailey was hesitant at first, but by the end of it she was running around screaming with the best of them. I wish I had pictures!

If you are interested to see actual pictures of the farm the link to the website is above and be on the lookout for news of my new camera ;-) I am not going to survive long without one!!!!

The website is linked below for anyone who lives in the area and wants to check it out!

Davis' Farmland