monkeys, zebras and bears oh my!

Hailey had a fun filled weekend, finally after a couple long weeks daddy had a day off and we went to the zoo. Hailey LOVED seeing the monkey, zebras and bears oh my! She loves animals and those are her favorites, but she has never seen them live, so it was so much fun watch her expression as she saw them.



As usual Hailey hates car rides so we usually do alot of singing, usually we will sing and she will repeat her version, but on Friday she actually sang the whole song "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" with us - it was priceless.



On Saturday, it was 90 degrees, can you say hot, hot, hot! We celebrated Ashleigh's 15th birthday! It is fun to watch her grow up, I have known her since she was born and babysat her for years after school while her mom worked when I was a teenager. I think I was the age she is now!



Hailey, with my brothers girlfriend Laura discovering an iPod. She was amazed that she could hear music by sticking that little earphone in her ear!



"Cuddling" with Uncle Matt



And sadly, Hailey had to say goodbye to "Peppy" tonight. We had a goodbye party for him as he leaves for bootcamp. He is my brothers best friend and a great friend of my family. Hailey loves his lots and even put her name in his "little black book" - ha, ha! He promised to write and we are holding him to it!

Happy Birthday Munca Matt!

Finally pictures from Labor Day ... Monday was my brother's 22nd birthday and he spend the day with us at the beach. Later that day we took Hailey on a few rides at a local amusement park.





Before Hailey could say "Uncle" she would call my brother "gunca", then it became "gunca Matt" so she could distinguish between him and her other uncles. Now the older she gets the better she pronounces it - he has now officially became "Munca Matt"!



We love you "Munca Matt"

favorite words

Tonight Hailey went to visit Luke and Alyssa at Meme and Papa's house. Luke started building a model car with Papa and Hailey and Alyssa played with Meme. I love the picture above of them holding hands. Too cute!



For a Hailey update, I need to make note of three statements that she now makes quite often around our house. "I throw it" - "I dump it"- and "I hit it". Do you see a pattern? She really isn't a violent child, but she comes out with these things. Its hard not laugh sometimes. She has never hit another child or us, but when things don't go her way or she just feels like being silly, she will lightly tap a toy or her blanky and say "I hit it". The throwing is usually in reference to her binky and this is usually in the car, I think she does it for entertainment purposes, but it can get old fast and the dumping is usually in reference to dumping out her toys or blocks from a bin, but tonight she used it in reference to a drink she didn't want. At least she just voiced it and never really dumped it :-)

And as of this week she finally says the number 2! The strike is over - yeah! Ha, ha ...

Lastly, another binky idea I got from the pediatrician. She said at this age she feels its ok for them to have their binky in the car, at bedtime and at the doctors, but they shouldn't need it at home. So she suggested keeping it in the crib/bed and if she wants it she has to go in the crib. The broken binky has been working well at my mom's, but not at my house because I forget to hide the "unbroken" ones and she loses it when she sees them. So tonight when she saw an "unbroken" one in her crib she asked for it and I told her if she wanted it she had to go in the crib. She accepted the offer and happily stayed in her crib, jumping up and down until we had to pry her away for dinner. It made dinner prep easy, but she can't live in her crib can she?

no longer a "preemie"

They say by the age of 2 most preemies should have caught up to there peers and you no longer have to adjust for their age. For the record, as of next week Hailey's actual age will be 26 months, adjusted 24 months. We may no longer have to adjust her age, but we will forever be changed by her entrance into this world and she will always be our little miracle.

Today we had Hailey's official two year check-up. Drumroll please ... Hailey is on the charts and by a pretty good margin - 20%! The two extra months I waited to schedule her check-up helped :-) She weighed in at 24lbs, 11oz and 32 and 1/2 inches. Not bad for starting at 2lbs, 15oz a couple years ago! Her pediatrician was quite impressed with her progress. She would like to see us wean Hailey off her reflux meds in the next 2 months and see how it goes. The miralax we will continue for now as needed. And believe it or not we don't have to see the doctor for a year! YEAH! Lets hope we keep healthy through the winter and can really stay away.

labor day weekend

We had a fun Labor Day weekend spent with lots of family. Sadly, daddy had to work everyday including his usual Friday off so we worked in what time we could with him. Friday before daddy left for work he took Hailey to Toy's R Us and bought her the train below ... she loves it! Notice the concentration, its quite funny!



On Sunday we went to camp and spent the day with Tim's family. We had lots of fun and of course Hailey was showered with attention from her cousins.







We ended the day with a boat ride, Hailey was a little apprehensive at first, but eventually relaxed and enjoyed the ride!



And if you are wondering what she is looking at - Taylor caught a bug in the cup holder :-)

Today was my brother's 22nd birthday - Happy Birthday Uncle Matt! We spent the day with my parents and him at the beach. My dad took most of the pix (being the photographer that he is) so once I get them from him I will post them.

savings

Do you see a problem here? Yes, it is good to teach them early to save, but she is taking my mall money to fill her new bear bank ... Ha, ha! Do you love the hair as well?! I don't understand how she can walk around with hair in her face and not care ...



Isn't that the cutest "piggy" bank? It's soft and fuzzy like a stuffed bear ...

Hailey's cousin Alyssa has one and Hailey loves it so when I bumped into it while at Target searching for a stool for the bathroom (another idea I got from Robin) I had to get it. I will post pix of the stool soon. Its has two steps up so its high enough for Hailey to now wash her own hands and brush her teeth. She absolutely loves it!

water bottle - don't leave home without it

Hailey is in love with the new "large" Poland Spring water bottles. We figured this out the other day when my mom and I were shopping at the mall. She is not such a fan of shopping at this point in her life, so we were trying to get out of the mall as soon as possible, when we passed the cookie counter. Hailey noticed and asked for a cookie so we bought one and a water. Needless to say she loved the cookie, but there was something about the water and the new sip spout she loves. Sure enough she sat still, happily sipping and playing with that water for the rest of our trip. I think these will become a staple for our future shopping expeditions!

My mom watched Hailey's second cousins, Kaylee and Amber the last couple of Tuesday's and brought Hailey to their house. They love Hailey and Hailey loves them so they had lots of fun. Kaylee looked at me this afternoon and said "Hailey is soooo cute, I want to squish her like a blueberry" - I was laughing so hard!



Tonight we went to visit Robin, Luke and Alyssa. It was fun to watch Hailey and Alyssa interact. Hailey lately has become so much more verbal and will actually stay focused on a book or toy for more than a minute or two so they were able to communicate and actually sit down to play or read a book. I think both Luke and Alyssa loved to hear Hailey try to talk and figure out what she was trying to say. At one point we were trying to get her to say her numbers and if you remember earlier I said she has a vendetta against the number 2 and sure enough she would repeat the word "Nascar" when Luke asked her to say that, but ask her to say 2 and you can forget about it. Also, in the last week she has aged - last week she was 3, this week ask her and she says 4!



Robin has been great lending me clothes for each stage of Hailey's growth. Tonight we were going through shoes. Alyssa had a pair of great sandals from last summer that Robin loved so much she went to buy another pair for this summer and so tonight the girls walked around in their matching shoes ...

Davis Farmland

We took Hailey back to Davis' Farmland last Friday, Nana and Dooda joined us. We had a great time!

Since my camera broke last time we went here are a few pix ...









And for good measure, this is Hailey playing before bed with her Thomas trains ...



Is she her father's daughter or what?!

articles

I found a couple good articles I thought I would share ...

http://parentcenter.babycenter.com/0_time-outs-how-to-make-them-work_63909.pc

http://parentcenter.babycenter.com/0_what-to-do-when-time-outs-dont-work_63927.pc

Let me clarify from my earlier post, Hailey really is a great and doesn't do anything exceptionally bad, but she does test her limits and have a small temper, which is normal at this age, but when it goes to far I am trying to let her know its unacceptable. That is why we go to a quiet corner. I figure we are at least letting her know to calm down and that behavior is unacceptable. At this age I don't know how effective it is, but at least we are setting a small standard early.

And a cute story from this morning ... I get up at 5:50a to get ready for work and I wake her up around 6:15a ... after changing we go out and she gets some milk. She was a little whining this morning (as we all are at this time of morning) so I asked her whats wrong and in a little baby voice she looks at me and says "I tired". My heart melted! I knew what was wrong, but to hear her respond to my question and tell me was priceless.

discipline

Hailey is defintely a 2 year old with a personality all her own. She has started to test her limits and this brings in a new learning step as a parent "discipline". I like to get my advice from talking to others mom and seeing what works. I also watch "SuperNanny" on occasion :-)

I like the time out approach and staying put for as many minutes as you are old. So Hailey gets 2 minutes in time out. My problem is I fear this is not working.

She does something wrong, I tell her to go to the corner. She trots off directly to the corner happy as can be. I proceed to go over to her, crouch to her level, look her in the eye and tell her what she did and why it was naughty. She stays for her time out, she says sorry, we hug and off she goes - TO DO IT AGAIN! Today, she was in time out for throwing her tooth brush, she has decided brushing teeth is just not fun to do so she proceeds to throw it at the cat food. So to time out, you know the drill - after she was released she went to her bedroom and comes out carrying a chair to the corner and spends another few minutes just sitting there - FOR FUN!

Any suggestions??!!

And a completely non-related, but cute pix ... After much studying of mommy and daddy who drink the milk after eating their cereal Hailey has decided she likes the milk the best anyway and so she asks for cereal, then drinks the milk and disposes of the cereal when she is done!

broken binky

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Since Hailey was born she was destined to be a binky baby :-) As soon as her little mouth was big enough they stuffed a "preemie" binky in her mouth to help teach her to suck before she could really breastfeed or take a bottle. Once she caught on to the bottle (sadly she never caught on to breastfeeding) we still didn't kick the binky habit because BINKY = PEACE and QUIET. Hailey has always suffered from reflux and due to this was a pretty fussy baby. Thankfully binky was there to fill in the gaps when I couldn't comfort her or take away the pain.



I don't know if this was a good crutch to lean back on, but it was sure a lifesaver! Then as she grew she became attached to her banky as well. It has gotten to the point where I feel sometimes when she is hurt it doesn't matter if mommy or daddy is around as long as she has binky/banky. So now at 2 years old mommy has to make sure she does not leave the house without the two of them or we are in BIG trouble!



Now that I have created this problem for myself I realize it may be time to back off them a little. She needs to learn to soothe herself without binky. I figure I will take one step at a time. Banky isn't such a big deal during the day, she just needs it for nap/bedtime so I feel that is fine. So we start with binky. I feel at this point having it to fall asleep is o.k., but needing it throughout the day to soothe is a little excessive. So we are trying to wean down slowly. I have read what others mother have tried and decided to try the approaching of cutting the nipple down. Some mom's say their kids will use it anyway, but I figure why not give it a try since she didn't buy the story that other little babies needed them :-)



One day last week I cut one of her binky's down and when she asked for it I handed it to her and told her it was broken. She looked at me, threw it in disbelief and went about playing. During the day my mom watches her while I am at work so I sent the broken binky on to her house. Like clockwork when Hailey is starting to getting a little tired or restless she ask for binky. My mom handed her the cut binky and she proceeded to look at it and say - " binky broken" - "I cut it" then again she throws it and is off and running. The next day she is at my mom's house again and instead of asking for her binky as she usually does she looks at my mom and says "binky broken - I wanna to see it". Now she walks around talking about her broken binky. She looked at me yesterday after leaving Nana's - "mommy, binky broken, I cut it". Now if we can just wean it down during car rides without constant screaming - argghh!

On another note it is so much fun hearing her try to put sentences together. When I am at work and my mom calls me I hear Hailey in the background "I wanna talk to Mommy". She also just started asking the question - "what is this"? Tonight at dinner she had to ask me that question right before every bite even if what she was putting in her mouth was the same as the bite before. We are still working on her ABC's and counting skills. The kid can remember the words of many songs, but ask her to count 1,2,3 and you can forget about it. I think its stubborness since I am constantly counting 1, 2,3. This is Hailey counting ... 1, 3, 5, 7, 8 - and she yells - 10! And ask her how old she is, she will tell you 3! I think she has a something against the number 2 ...

life marches on

Its hard to fathom how life can go on when you lose someone you love so much and yet life marches on whether you are ready or not. I stand back, my heart aching for my family. Each of us hurts in a different way, but yet the loss is felt by all. I guess we go on reaching for the hope of heaven that lies ahead when we will all be reunited again ...



This week went over and visited Robin, Luke and Alyssa. All the cousins were together and had fun eating "lockilos" ... not really sure how to spell that one :-) Hailey has a new found love of popsicles, but it is sure a hard word to say!





I love these two pix. Above is Alyssa and Hailey sharing a hug and below is Luke playing ball with Uncle Jeff ...



Once every two weeks Tim, Hailey and I get one full day together. With his job Tim works 2nd and 3rd shifts and his days off are Thursday and Friday's and of course mine are Saturday and Sunday's. This can make family time tough. To remedy this my job has allowed me to have every other Friday off so to make the most of our one day together we try to plan something fun. This Friday we went to the beach and then celebrated Taylor's 10th birthday! Happy Birthday Taylor - we love you!





This last picture Auntie Robin took and I just thought it was so cute!

shoes, songs and names

First let me say, it is strep throat - argghh! We took her to the ER Wednesday with a high fever and they sent us home telling us to let it run its course because it was a virus. Not until last night did we get a call saying it was strep and she needed antibiotics. I kind of had a hunch since her fever wasn't going away, but overall she has been acting like herself. I actually thought she was getting better. Oh well - at least we are finally on the road to recovery and hopefully now we can get this out of our house! It went through all three of us over a month period.

These pictures were taken Tuesday night BEFORE her fever started. Sadly she was probably contagious, but lets hope and pray Jordyn does't get it. Auntie Tracey and Taylor were the first ones in the family to get it so they are all set!



Now the reason for my title. Hailey LOVES shoes, when we go to a store and she sees the shoe section she heads straight there, sits down and tries on shoes no matter what size they are. She also does a great job of matching up pairs of shoes. I have a basket in her closet with all her shoes mixed together. When it is time to go out I tell her to go get her shoes and she actually will go and get a matching pair. Also, when I am picking out shoes I have to give her a choice because sometimes she doesn't like what I pick out.

She also loves to pick out our shoes. She knows which are daddy's, which are mine and she matches them up. So when we say we are going out, she picks out her shoes and then looks at our feet to see if we need shoes and proceeds to get them .... I think I am in trouble as she gets older :-)



She also loves to sing just like her daddy. She started this at quite a young age and now can sing quite a few songs. She remembers most of the words and is even better at remembering tunes. In her repertoire is Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, Rock-A-Bye-Baby, ABC, Jesus Loves Me, E-I-E-I-O and from the Wiggles - the Monkey Song and Rock-A-Bye-A-Bear. She is not a fan of the car and so many times we will ask her to sing to distract her and off she will go. Her numbers though we are still working on. She REFUSES to say two and proceeds to count 1-3-5-6-7-10. I think I see a pattern?

As most kids her age, I think you will find their memory is amazing. She is will hear something once and later repeat it. It surprises me what she comes out with. One of the things she repeats and is great at remembering is names. She is will see someone once or twice and later repeat their name to me. She is better at this than some adults I know :-)

poor baby

I thought during the summer you were supposed to get a break from sickness? Ha, ha! Well, I don't think I posted during all of this because it wasn't that important, but about 3 weeks ago I came down with strep, was put on antibiotics etc ... Sadly, on top of all he was dealing with Tim came down with it the day after his brothers accident.

Well, last night Hailey decided it was her turn. She has been cranky and drooling the last couple of days, and she really does have 4 teeth coming in so I passed it off, but when she came down with 103.5 fever I decided it was time to get her checked out. The strange thing is she doesn't really have other symptoms. We took her to the ER and they did a strep test, looked at her ears etc ... nothing other than her throat does look red ... they think its the coxsackie virus (a form of hand, foot, mouth) that is going around. The symptoms can be so wide ranged so they have no way to positively diagnose it. So we wait it out.

While we were at the ER Hailey of course was not happy. She even screamed about the bracelet they put on you with your hospital id. This is the first real sickness she has had since she has really blossomed in her vocabulary so it was interesting to see what she thinks about everything. Well, the nurse came in and out taking throat cultures, giving her tylenol, taking her temp. After the throat culture Hailey lost it crying hysterically, once composed (the nurse had left), she looks at the door with tears in her eyes and in her meanest voice she says "I GET YOU" - "I GET YOU". I nearly fell over laughing! Does this child take after Tim or is it just me?

And drumroll please, finally a weight update ... (I don't know how accurate this is as she was moving around and screaming over the scale), but her weight at 25 months is 24.5lbs! Not bad for starting out at 2lbs!

rememberance ride

Joe on his bike getting ready for Jordyn's ride (http://www.jordynsride.com/)

On Sunday - what would have been Joe and Robin's 7th wedding anniversary - they had a ride to honor Joe and what an honor it was ...












This has been the hardest week of my life. I miss Joe and I ache for Robin and the kids. Still I fall short for words. Please keep praying for our family and especially his wife and kids.


Jordyn, Alyssa and Hailey on Sunday

Here is a link to the article about the ride:
http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070730/FOSTERS01/107300247