Christmas 2008

From christmas.08

\

From christmas.08

From christmas.08

From christmas.08

From christmas.08

From christmas.08

From christmas.08

From christmas.08

SNOW!

What should I wear?

From Dec.08

Lets go!

From Dec.08

Winter wonderland

From Dec.08

Warming up!

From Dec.08

Realizing daddy just dropped the camera we just spent $100 on to get fixed!!

From Dec.08

PT and Preschool

I had to share the pix below ... Hailey, Laura and Karen sleeping in the "infamous" box
This morning we had a PT evaluation for Hailey per my request. As many of you know she has been in gymnastics and I have noticed subtle things that caught my eye. I also noticed some small, some bigger differences between her movement and that of her friends.

Sure enough Hailey has some "tightness" in her upper legs (which is where she is always complaining of having pain) ie, when she had strep and I took her in for upper leg pain. She also has issues with climbing stairs, sitting cross legged, jumping and posture in general. She did notice Hailey cannot sit/stand still and believe this could have to do with muscle tone, but only time with tell. Its nothing life changing or anything that can't be fixed with a little PT. Her PT said she is about a year behind in some general areas that I mentioned above. We will be going once a week for 6 weeks and then re-evaluate.

She will also be starting preschool January 5th and we are quite excited. I think both these things will help her alot in general areas. Her preschool was actually a suggestion from her PT and the teacher is actually a certified occupational therapist so all in all she is well covered.

Tomorrow we are going to the preschool for two hours in the morning for a test run before the big day.

All in all, for being premature we have been VERY blessed with how well Hailey has done. I am slightly nervous with Hailey starting preschool (and how bad she did at gymnastics) to see if any more physical or learning issues come up, but I think at this point we are doing the best we can to make sure she succeeds!

its beginning to look alot like christmas

From Dec.08

Per Hailey's (numerous) requests she had her ears pierced last weekend. It was funny because here and there a few people stopped to watch how this little 3 year old would handle it and believe it or not she didn't even cry and she tells me they didn't hurt. Maybe she has a high pain tolerance or maybe the excitement was more than the pain, but either way she now believes she is more beautiful than ever. In the pictures above she is trying to mimic me putting on makeup.

From Dec.08

On Saturday Hailey's friend Sidney, and her baby sister Riley came up from Mass for a visit. Elijah also joined us and the kids had loads of fun playing as usual. Sidney ended up getting her ears pierced as well!

From Dec.08

This past week the area where we live was devasted by an ice storm. Many of my family and friends are still without power and it was a week ago from Thursday. On Sunday, Meme and Papa were still without power and Jon was in the hospital so daddy and Hailey decided to make them some homeade meatballs to cheer them up!

From Dec.08

Hailey requested I take this picture tonight of her and "her" christmas tree. She loves to hug, yes, hug her tree and all ornaments are fair game. In the past years we have never had a problem with her taking ornaments off or messing with the tree. This year I cannot keep an ornament on the tree. There is a pile of them by our recliner and I still do not know why?!

From Dec.08

Lastly, a story I won't soon forget. On Sunday we were doing our usually laundry, washing sheets etc. Well, our sheets came out of the laundry and felt gritty, like dirt was smeared all over them. I couldn't figure out what had happened, but I knew the load needed to be re-washed. As I was putting them back in the washing machine a pull-up had fallen out! Hailey who is potty trained now, wears pull-ups at night for safety sake and is so used to putting her undies in the laundry basket she must have thought that is where her pull-up should go! It was gross at the time, but looking back now I thought it was quite funny!

home for the holidays

From christmas tree

On Thursday night we went to get our tree and first thing Friday morning we decorated it. Hailey could not have been happier. First thing when she wakes up in the morning she asks if she can see "her" tree. She also loves to take the ornaments off and use them as toys.

From christmas tree

Last night in our little town they had what is called "Home for the Holidays." It is a great event where you can "shop and stroll" through town and they have lots of christmas events going on for the kids. Hailey was able to paint some stars for the tree, visit Santa, make a necklace, get her face painted and write a letter to santa that will be send to the North Pole directly. All of the shops downtown, the bank, the medical office all participated. It was great fun!

From christmas tree

From christmas tree

From christmas tree

From christmas tree

From christmas tree

stories

Hailey has strep throat. She was complaining of leg pain and had a fever so I took her to the doctor and her diagnosis is strep! Go figure. As with most kids she hates taking meds, but it helps that amoxicillin is pink, so with some "coaxing" that it is the medicine of "princesses" she decides she likes it.

I am also having a hard time keeping her in bed at night, her ploy last night - "mom, I have many cavities and need my medicine!" Now where did that come from? (and no she doesn't have any cavities :-)

Tonight we watched the Polar Express on tv which got Hailey quite excited about Christmas so she starts telling me stories about when santa will arrive at our house. Tonight she said that santa would wake her up when he comes and eat chocolate with her!

Lastly, she randomly has decided she wants to start playing what she calls "pay". So we set up shop and use monopoly money to buy toys. Her prices are a bit high at $100-$200, but how she pronouces $100 is the funniest part. You would have to hear it yourself, but its something like ... one hundy dolla's. Its so cute!

santa express

From christmas train ride & parade

We spent Thanksgiving at the Meme and Papa's house with the Chalifour's. The whole family was able to attend and we had a fun, relaxing time. Believe it or not I never took my camera out so sorry no photos to share :-(

From christmas train ride & parade

On Friday we decided to start this season off right and took Hailey to North Conway to ride the "Santa Express". What a great way to start the Christmas season as it snowed on our ride up and they already had about 2 inches on the ground.

From christmas train ride & parade

From christmas train ride & parade

From christmas train ride & parade

From christmas train ride & parade

Hailey had a blast and when she first saw Santa she was jumping up and down in her seat asking for a Belle movie. No hi, or greetings, just got down to telling him what she wanted then she grabbed him and gave him a big hug! No fear here. You can tell this photo was not staged because neither are looking, but it was so funny how she just grabbed and hugged him.

From christmas train ride & parade

From christmas train ride & parade

From christmas train ride & parade

Yesterday, our little town had a christmas parade. Here are Hailey and her nana watching the parade.

From christmas train ride & parade

success

From Elijah's Birthday

From Elijah's Birthday

Saturday we celebrated Elijah's 3rd birthday. Elijah and Hailey would have only been 10 weeks apart if she had waited until her due date. His mom and I were pregnant together and these two have been friends for a long time. Happy Birthday Elijah, we love you!!!!

From Elijah's Birthday

We have success! At 3 years of age we finally got rid of binky and not how I had planned. I had decided that Christmas Eve we were going to stick her binky in her stocking and let santa take then to kids who needed them, and in return he would leave gifts. I had started telling her this story to start prepping her for our future plans. She is really excited about christmas so I thought this would be a smooth time for our transition and make her feel good about giving her binky away.

During this planning stage Hailey has somehow managed to lose all 3 of her remaining binky's. The last one was lost three nights ago right before bed. I searched, really searched since my plan was set up, but I couldn't find it so she went to bed understanding they were lost. No problem, the next night, no problem, nap, no problem. What was I thinking?! Why did I worry and not do this sooner? I have no idea, but they are gone and she is no worse for the wear.

I love this picture below ... On Sunday we went to Meme's for lunch and the girls played dress up with Meme. They were even treated to sparking grape juice and chocolate. Who could ask for more?

From Elijah's Birthday

Halloween

Halloween was fun this year because Hailey LOVES dress up (in case any of you didn't already know that :-) Where we live they have a parade of costumes from the fire station to the school and give out candy before the kids go door to door. It was quite cold when we went out and by the end of the parade Hailey was already decomposing because of the cold, but God forbid she put a jacket on!
So daddy carried her to about 5 door and then we were done. Way to much stress with the cold to be enjoyable! Either way Hailey was thrilled with the candy she did get and tried to tell me she could eat it all that night!

On Friday we had to travel to Massachusetts because one of Tim's co-workers bought our Subaru. Close to where he lives is a restaurant called the Rainforest Cafe. We had been to one in MD before Hailey was born and couldn't wait to share the experience with her. The whole restaurant is decorated like a rainforest and they have animated gorillas, elephants etc ... Every 20 minutes a thunderstorm occurs as well. It was fun and of course just keeping her in her seat was a chore!

Lastly, on Friday night we had a harvest party/bonfire for the teens at our church. Hailey decided to be Belle for that party.

Alot has happened since my last post. First of all Hailey had her first dentist appointment. At first we had a scream fest, but then she settled down and let them count/clean her teeth. She has always been awful when it comes to brushing her teeth so I was worried maybe we missed something, but at least at this point her teeth look great! YEAH! Now if only I can get through her flu shot today :-)

I also spent my first night away from Hailey last Friday. Tim, is the youth leader for our church and we had a overnighter with a hockey game, pizza, inflatable games and bowling. This went from 4:30p - 6am. We had a blast and Hailey spent the night at Nana's. I was thinking it was going to be hard, but Hailey could care less. Nana told her they were going to make cookies so all day Friday Hailey kept asking if it was time to go to Nana's yet. It did make it easier since she went with no looking back and Mommy survived.

On a funny note, Hailey is "scared" of what she calls "the crab" in her room. She cries hard and I now have to put a nightlight on and keep the door open. She does have a stuffed crab so I took it out, but I am not sure that is what she is scared of ... the funny thing is when she woke up at my parents she said - crab - Nana replied, Hailey is there a crab at Nana's house too? Hailey's response, no, nana - you don't have a crab at your house!!! and then went on her way. Its funny how they come up with these things. Now why is at my house and not Nana's? I guess I have to find out what this "crab" really is and get rid of it.

Here are pix from our "superbowl" teen night!

The next day the school where Hailey will be starting Preschool next year held a festival day to raise money. We took Hailey and she had a blast. She rode a pony, played some games, won a prize and got her own big bag of popcorn! What could be better!

Sunday, we went over Auntie Robin's house and carved pumpkins. Sadly, $100 later I got my camera fixed and now my computer won't except any more pix so I am stealing pix from Robin's blog :-) Go over to her blog to see more pix. We had a blast, I can't even come close to their pumpkin carving skills, but I did get some good lessons for next year!