Party!

Sunday night Hailey went to a birthday party for Rex who is turning 1! She had a great time in spite of being sleep deprived :-) They held the party at the Portsmouth Children's Museum. One of Hailey's favorite parts was the little table/kitchen area where she could play.

Here she is about to feed daddy dinner ...


After lots of pizza and blue cupcakes she got a second buzz of energy and suprisingly made it to bedtime without a breakdown after only sleeping for 15 minutes the entire day!

Getting daddy some lobstah!


Happy Birthday Rex!

nap strike

Hailey has gone on a nap strike. Never in her 18 months has she ever gone on a complete strike. Sure we have had our difficulties, but eventually we get her to sleep or move around/consolidate her nap schedule to make it work. Well, yesterday she woke up at her usual (on the weekend) around 6:30am. We got up, ate breakfast, played a little and went to put her back down around 8:30am, but she would have none of that. When on strike she doesn't scream and cry, to the contrary, she laughs, plays, sings and melts my heart, by saying ... momma, momma ... dadda, dadda. Well, we played this little game for awhile and gave up because she was in such a great mood. Around noon we went out for lunch and she slept in the car for about 15min and then when we got home, we let her play and around 3pm we tried this nap thing again. Nope, still on strike ... laughing, playing, singing ... momma ... What can one do?!

I tried just letting her play, nope, I tried rocking and singing to her, nope - heck she starts singing with me (I need a new song that she doesn't know :-) So we got her up and took her to Rex' birthday party! Happy Birthday Rex! She actually did great and just started acting really tired about 7pm. Today was a little different because I was at work, but she fought naps again. Morning nap with daddy, afternoon at Nana's. Finally around 4:45pm once I was home she fell asleep, but now its 5:15p and I think I need to wake her up so she will sleep tonight!

On her normal schedule during the week she gets up at 6:15a, goes back down around 7:30a at Nana's house and sleeps till between 9-10am, then takes another nap around 3pm (when I am home from work) till about 4:30pm, then bed by 8pm. Maybe its time to start working out a new schedule ... lets see how the rest of the week goes.

clothing connoisseur

Close friends of ours, Wayne, Kim and Travis Ward who live in PA sent Hailey a christmas gift. Lots of new clothes! For those of you know both Hailey and I you know she loves clothes and I love to dress her up! Tonight we had a fashion show so we could send pictures to them and thank them for the gifts. I had to share the pictures with everyone ...

shopping

Yes, I still fit in my doll stroller!

Hailey is a born shopper! Just like her mom, nana and her great-nana. Growing up, every Friday my mom and nana would go shopping and I would go until I was old enough to go to school or if I had Friday's off. They are very fond memories of being with two ladies I love and getting spoiled rotten by my nana.

Now Hailey, my mom and I don't get out that often, but we do plan shopping trips every couple of weeks and without fail Hailey gets spoiled rotten by her nana.

Because of this Hailey LOVES the mall. As soon as we enter the mall she screeches ... Last night her dad and I took her to the mall and since it was so slow we let her walk around. At this moment she does not follow because she is so easily distracted so we followed her. First she choose Hallmark because of the stuffed doggie right in the window, then off to Gymboree to watch the tv and sit in the chairs (she LOVES the chairs), but don't fret we taught her well because she didn't leave the store before looking at the clothes. She would walk up to racks, stop, look at the clothes and go to the next rack. It was so cute and she didn't pull them, just looked and went on ...

Lastly, she went to Baby Gap, where she knows exactly where the shoes hang, she sits on the floor and pulls them off the rack one by one (until mommy stops her :) The Gap must love us!
Train a child when they are young and when they are old they will not depart from it ... ha, ha!

This week she also learned to say tummy and knows where it is. I love sitting with her and asking her where her body parts are and actually have her repeat the names of them and point them out!

Another cute thing she has started doing is shouting our names when she wakes up. She used to wake up crying, but all of the sudden the crying changed to names ... so in the morning she wakes up saying Momma, Momma ... it just melts your heart!



Lastly, we are having a hair crisis! Her hair is getting longer in the front so she needs clips to hold it back, but she won't let me put anything in or she pulls it out. I found these cute headbands at Gap and she won't leave it on for 10 sec! HELP! I thought I had found a solution with ponytails, but sure enough she searches her head for anything that might be holding her hair back and pulls it out.

Game Day

Chalifour-esqueness

Its fun to watch your child grow and see who they look like. My sister-in-law Robin did a post on how Alyssa is a Luke-Alike. You can clearly see the resemblance. Too Cute!

As Hailey is growing up we have compared her to many of her family members and I see the remsemblance to many of them, but this one really shows how her style is taking after her Meme. She is following in Taylor's foosteps ... I kid you not, she walks around the house like this all day and cries if I take the scarf off.

what do you think!?


Below are two great pictures that show her Chalifour-esqueness. How do you like that word?! Notice the tongue for those of you who don't know this a definite sign that she is related to the Chalifour's. She is already practicing :-)





Lastly, though she is alot like the Chalifour's she does have some Stevens in her blood ... and I personally think she has the perfect mix to make a perfect little girl!

snow what fun!

love is in the air!

A couple of my fellow preemie mom bloggers have been talking about how much they love their kids and how unfathomable the love we have for our kids is. I definitely agree!!!! You never know how deep your love can go until you have kids of your own. I think of my sister-in-law, Tracey and all she has been through with Jordyn. Sometimes you wonder how she gets through it, but really all of us know its this unfathomable love that gets her through. You would do anything for your child, and when you say you would change places with them, your truly mean it and I know this is the kind of love we all feel for our children and I know that is also what makes "motherhood" not only wonderful, but also painful at time, even physically painfully because we love our kids with all our heart and soul.

A couple cute stories ... tonight we were reading Hailey her books before bed and she just started shooting off a whole list of new words, first she said "book"! Then while reading her books she would copy what I said. The first book I read was actually animal sounds and she would repeat the sounds after me - grunt, grunt for the pig, cock a doodle do for the rooster (that one was funny!), quack, quack for the duck. Then I read a book about what babies say and at the end it says "night, night" and sure enough she said it! Then I was really testing her and asked her to say I love you - she didn't repeat me, but puckered up and gave me a kiss! I melted and then daddy tried it and got a kiss!

And I know this blog is about Hailey, but I am so proud of both my husband and I that I had to post these off topic things ...
First of all, Tim started a job as a train operations manager back in November. He has been in training since then, well Friday was his big test that decided whether he was back on the job market or ready to be "qualified". He has been in class and studying hard all week. Well Friday he passed!! YEAH! I am so proud of him! For the next two weeks he will be on the road traveling the railways that he will dispatch for (this is part of the training) and then he will be official. We will miss him these next two weeks, but for those who know him, you know he will be loving every minute.

Then for me, both Tim and I will be in a wedding June 17th. Today the girls went to get our bridesmaid dresses. To premise, I have been faithfully trying to lose weight for the last few months, I am now the smallest I have been since I was 15 years old and have lost 26lbs! I have a few more I want to lose, but it felt so good today to be in a single digit size!!! Go me!!!



Well, Hailey is in bed right now and over the monitor I hear her saying, mommy, mommy, mommy ... just talking to herself. Talk about melting a mommies heart!

We are supposed to get ice tomorrow night into Monday ... yuck! Last week we had a 70 degree day - I am ready for spring!!!

tongue

Hailey has discovered how to stick out her tongue. Lately, I have been showing her where her tougue is and sticking mine out. She has always been fascinated with making sound with her mouth/tongue, but never seemed to get the idea of sticking her tongue out at me. It has been fun watching her try to copy what I do. Well, finally last night she got it and then wouldn't stop. It was so cute! I am not saying this is a good habit, but its all part of childhood discovery, right?!

She also is obsessed with patting her head. She is learning body parts right now, so we ask her where her head is and she pats it. Well, now she pats it all the time and has discovered that I put little clips in her hair to keep her bangs out of her face. So now when she pats her head she looks for the clip to pull it out and because this is a choking hazard I now have to let her live with bad hair days for awhile until she gets over the obssession with patting her head! So please disregard the messy hair in all of my pictures from now on :-)

New words ... she takes stuff and says "mine", she has also learned to say "no", "cookie" (both for the cookie monster and her biscuit cookies), and finally she says "Elmo". After her love for Elmo I wouldn't have been surprised if it was her first word so I was amazed that it took this long! She kind of puts a d on the front though and says "delmo".

Believe it or not Hailey and Daddy still have this awful cold, but I can't complain because she is doing amazing. She has had it since two days after christmas and her cough still sounds awful, but she is acting as normal and playful as ever. She also has been sleeping through the night regardless of how stuffed up she is or how bad she is coughing. When she first became sick the ped recommended benadryl at night to dry her out and I really think that helps with the good night sleep. At her check-up last Friday the ped said her lungs sounded good so we should just keep on doing what we have been. I am just hoping she and daddy can kick this bug soon!!!!

Teething, no toy is safe!!!!

GO PATS!

I had to post this quick story. Hailey is just like her dad, outgoing, social and LOVES attention (ha, ha). We always joke that we should have put her in baby modeling, and after last night I really think she missed her calling :-) Last night we took her to church. As always, she can't just sit she has to walk around. So off she goes, once in awhile, whether they noticed her or not, she would stop, wave and just say hi to random people. Well, for those of you who don't know my dad is an assistant pastor at the church we attend and I had her in her Patriots cheerleading outfit. My dad thought it would be cute to have her come up on stage and make a cute announcement about the Patriots winning yesterday's game. So at the right time Tim brings her up front and puts her on stage. Most kids would cling to daddy, cry or just freeze. Not Hailey ... she stops, walks up to the pastors to say hi, then she looks out at the audience who on cue start to clap so sure enough she gets a HUGE smile on her face and starts clapping with them. Oh my gosh I lost it. It was so cute!!!! We couldn't have planned it better if it was rehearsed. I am going to have to get the video of the service so we can show her when she is older.
GO PATS!

18 months

Yesterday Hailey had her 18 month well baby check-up. She cried as soon as we were placed in the examine room. She decided to carry her santa ornament with her on the trip and wouldn't let go for dear life. The ped thought it was so funny! We all placed bets on how much we think she would weigh in at and it averaged out to 20 lbs. Lets just say we were wrong ... our little baby weighed in at 21lbs and 29in! Can you believe it?! We made it over the 20lb mark!!!! Go Hailey! And get this - she even made it on the charts! 5th percentile for height and weight! To top it all off it was a "normal" office visit. How great is that?! No problems, no delays, no concerns!

We do have to come back in 3 months instead of waiting till she is 2 because they want to try to start weaning her reflux med. Other than that you would never know by looking at her all she has gone through these last 18 months.

Yeah, I still have the preemie mom phobias especially with all the sickness around right now, but I am always being reminded of how blessed I am.

I have been following another preemie for awhile now who already lost her two brothers and now she has lost the fight. My heart is broken, please keep this family in your prayers.

Hailey still has a cold, really all that is left is a cough, but its a bad one. We have all been sick going on two weeks now, but at least its mild. The ped said her lungs sound good and her ears are fine. She is sleeping through the night so for that I am grateful.

She is still adding new words to her vocabulary all the time. She also is starting to put words together. She loves to ask where stuff is ... where is blanky? where is dooda? Finally she has also remembered how to say Mommy, Nana and Meme :-) It used to be all about Dada, Dooda and Papa. She is also cutting more and more teeth which probably adds to the discomfort of her cold. I cannot believe my little baby is 18 months. Where does time go?

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! My first post of the New Year I have some pictures I have been dying to share. At the end of November we got all of the cousins together for a photo shoot. Most of you who read my blog know that Hailey's cousin Jordyn was diagnosed with ALL back in 2002, in November 2005 she relapsed and in March 2006 she got a life saving bone marrow transplant. We are so blessed to know her and love her deeply. The picture above is right before transplant and the pictures below are recent. Due to Jordy being immuno-supressed and kids under 2 (ie Hailey) getting live vaccines Hailey and Jordy have not seen eachother since the picture above (February 06). I haven't been able to share the pictures because it was christmas present for Meme, but now that Meme has seen the pictures I can share them. They mean so much because last year we were going to try to get a picture of all of them together and that is when Jordy relapsed and was in the hospital. Look at her now! We still have to be careful being around her as she is still recovering, but we are hoping next Christmas she will be at the Christmas Eve party playing with all her cousins who love her so much!

Alyssa, Luke, Hailey, Taylor and Jordyn


Hailey and Jordy together again!


The girls ...


As I say for Hailey - the same goes for Jordyn - You've come a long way baby! These kids are what I am thankful for and I am looking forward to watching them grow up together in this coming year!

Meme

Hailey says lots of words, including Meme, but she has never said Meme in front of Meme. So today while Meme was visiting, as always, we kept asking to her to say it. I really believe she thinks its a game and clams up on purpose. Well, today we tried with no avail and just as Meme was turning to walk away she says "BYE MEME"! We all clapped and cheered. Then for good measure she said "MEME" one more time before leaving. FINALLY!

As you can see from the picture above she also stole Meme's scarf and kept calling it banky. She is starting young already taking Meme's stuff.

And for good measure ....

GO PATS!

too much cuteness?!

Is there such a thing as too much cuteness?! If so I think Hailey can be classified in that category. I had to share a couple cute things Hailey is doing because I never want to forget them. First of all, I have already shared that she started saying Santa. Well, she is still obsessed with Santa. For christmas she got a cute Noah's Ark Little People Set and she thinks Noah is Santa. So everytime she opens it up and says Santa I can't help but laugh. I also have to note she has learned to say Jesus as well, so everytime she sees a nativity scene or Noah's actual ark she says Jesus. I guess the nativity scene and ark look alike to a toddler?!
Also I have been practicing teaching her body parts and tonight she got it. At least her head and her nose. She even said nose! She just gets smarter every day. Her new favorite song is the alphabet song. She got a doggy for christmas that sings the alphabet song. She tries to sing with him, but starts at "d". She also sings the clean-up song with me. I am not sure if I heard this song somewhere or made it up, but when I used to babysit Ashleigh we would sing the clean-up song when picking up toys. A few weeks ago I started it with Hailey. She loves that song and will now sing it with me and its clear enough that you can tell what she is saying.
She is also going through a phase where she loves books! She will sit down and pull books off her shelf and open each one, put it aside, pull at another - until the whole bookshelf is empty. If I am in there with her she hands them to me and lets me read about a page till she is ready for the next one. Tonight though she decided she didn't want to share and everytime she would pull one out she would pretend to hand it to me then withdraw and laugh.
Lastly, my mom taught her "ouch". Whenever Hailey takes off my mom's glasses, my mom says ouch. Well, now Hailey has learned I say ouch when she pulls my hair - so on it goes - she pulls I say ouch - she repeats with an "ow" and then laughs at me.
Silly, silly, silly ... thankfully she doesn't pull hard, but I better break this habit before its too late.
And to end this post, my little cuteness is sick with a cold and breaking a few teeth through all at once. Today is the worst of the cold so far. You can hear the congestion in her chest when she coughs, stuffy nose etc ... but as long as she is in good spirits and sleeps through the night we are o.k. Maybe I shouldn't jinx myself. Lets hope it stays this way and tomorrow she is a little better.

Baby kisses ...
I was laying on the floor and she attacked me with kisses.


I did a couple post today so make sure to scroll down to see some cute NICU pix I just found in the vault :-) Also, I added a family christmas pix to my christmas post.

NICU pix

I was raiding my dad's computer today for christmas pictures he took and found a couple NICU photos of Hailey that I absolutely loved and had to share ....






Well, I have lots more to update, but I had a video in for Hailey and she just learned how to use the remote and has gone from rewinding, to changing channels to now snow so I better go.

More later!

Christmas 2006

The pictures pretty much say it all. Hailey had a great christmas! I have so many pictures I would like to share, but I can't put them on all at once or you may not be able to open the page :-) Christmas Eve was spent with daddies side of the family and Christmas Day with mommies side. We did get a wonderful surprise today, because daddy worked Christmas Eve 2-11pm and was supposed to work today 2-11pm. About 11am he got a call saying to take the day off. That was quite a sweet surprise! As you can see Hailey was showered with lots of wonderful presents and came away a little overwhelmed. She was so overwhelmed she would not take a nap today. For an hour she just laid in her bed talking and laughing. For missing her nap she was quite good natured and never stopped playing. She didn't quite get into the opening of the presents, but once she saw what was inside she would take it, play with it, go back to the last thing she opened, play, open another, go back to the last one ... on it went. I really think she enjoyed herself and though she might not understand the whole concept of christmas she defintely knows she loves this day filled with lots of new toys!!!

oversized doll

Hailey was able to visit with some friends tonight, Natalie (7) and Erin (3). She loves playing with them and they have so much fun with her. While us mommies were out talking they were in Hailey's room playing quietly and then out walks Hailey in her butterfly wings and 1st birthday headband. Earlier they had her Happy New Year headband on her with a purse in her arms. SO CUTE! She is like an oversized doll they can dress up and the funny thing is she didn't even make a fuss about it. Then they very kindly cleaned up Hailey's room before leaving without me even asking. I need to invite them over more often :-)

8 days till Christmas

8 days till Christmas and my dad is home from the hospital. The homecoming is bittersweet because after Christmas he has to go back for another scan to see if what is going on has resolved, worsened or stayed the same. If it has stayed the course or worsened they will do exploratory surgery. So please pray it resolves! They still don't have an official diagnosis, but that takes surgery and they don't want to be quick to open him up. He is doing better so they are hoping it is resolving. On the xrays it looks "somewhat" better. They have three "theories". 1. some foreign object caused this, it will resolve and they will never know the cause. 2. crohns disease or 3. lymphoma, but we won't go there because that is very last on their list and it wouldn't make sense if that was it because it is slowly getting better. Also, his bloodwork looks great. So we wait and pray for the best.

Anyway ... not much new to report on Hailey. She is cuter than ever and so much fun! She is starting to love books and we spend hours with her pulling out all her books one by one, we read a page or two, she gets bored and hands us another book. She also has started to wave at everyone and say "bye".

We have alot of Christmas prep to do this week as we lost time last week with all that was going on. Wish us an event-less week with lots of holiday fun!!!

Here are a few more of our attempted christmas card pictures that my dad took. They have been on his computer all this time and I went to upload them today so I could share.

What you want me to sit in the chair?


For me?! You shouldn't have ...



With her friend Elijah who came to cheer her on!