Let's Dance

I've always danced around the room like a fool when Hailey was little. She would smile and giggle at her mommy jumping and dancing around the room. I started closing the blinds so that our neighbours wouldn't see me but now we run around the house, dancing with out a care. I turned the music on today and of course Michael Buble was in (one of our favorites) and she walked towards me with her arms out and was trying to say 'dance'. So I took her hands and we danced around the room for probably 15-20 minutes. I feel like that memory will forever be burned into my heart. After she got tired of dancing with me she ran and got Tigger, Mini Mouse, her cat, a little stuffed star and a teddy bear.

She has so much joy in the small things of life. She has helped me appreciate the little things on a more regular basis. One of the many reasons I'm thankful for my little girl!

Been a while

Ok. I'm terrible at up keeping this blog. I think the last time I wrote was around her birthday...6 months ago. So much has happened since then. She has started walking, almost running at times after kosmo and talking like crazy (for those of you who know Brad this shouldn't be a surprise that his daughter is chatty). She is at times independent but still doesn't enjoy playing on her own. She wants to feed herself or walk down into the garage without my help but some days she wants me to carry her every where. Her ramblings no longer sound like little baby ramblings but rather a kid trying to speak. It's really amazing to watch her learn and grow in this area. Just watching her love life is incredible. She gets excited over the littlest of things. She sees a plane, hears a plane, sees a dog, the slide....anything and everything gets the big eyes and open mouth with an "ahhh".

She is still hilarious, getting more and more funny each day. Her personality is really coming out. We have learned she is very particular, she likes things to be a certain way. If she hands me her cup I can't place it on my knee I have to hold onto it, she likes to take her cereal out of her bowl and then place it back in one by one. I have to hold her blanket, it can't sit beside me touching me...etc. I could go on and on. She loves to laugh and daddy still gets the deepest, best laughs from her.

She is still enjoying reading and loves to come to the library with me to pick out books. She is so smart, we were driving into the library and she was trying to say "book". Recently she has been brining me books throughout the day to read and we sit in her chair and read for 20-30 min. The problem with that is her chair is in the sun in the afternoon, I'm rocking back and forth reading the same book over and over...the eyes are hard to keep open some times.

She gives me a new attitude face when she's not impressed with me or doesn't want something. She scrunches up her face and says no and shakes her head. One thing for sure is you are never guessing at what she is feeling, she's very obvious. I've said she's got her daddys dramatic personality and the McLaughlin facial expressions - that pair is a hilarious combination. We love it.

We traveled to Powell River this summer for a week to see Brad's family. I was scared out of my mind to fly with her. It was hard, I do not enjoy doing it but we made it. It was a great week with the family but she crashed the day before we left. I know now that we can't push her every day all day to be busy, she needs down time to play by herself or just me for some quiet time. Hailey will push herself and run on empty for as long as she can. She loves people and loves to be busy with new experiences but I've learned a good lesson from that trip.

Less then a week later we drove to Myrtle Beach to vacation with most of my family. We rented a house in Ocean Lakes Campground. It was a great time, very relaxing. Very stupid of us to book our vacations back to back. Lesson #2 from the summer! The ride down was good but I think she had heat stroke the day before we left on the way home so she was miserable that day and the way home. We were lucky to experience projectile vomit for the first time. I felt so bad for her and tried to hold down the puke myself. Ugh, so gross. I remember some one saying to me that puke and poop isn't that bad when it's your own kid. Nope. Still disgusting to me.

She loved the pool and the ocean but not the sand. She's a texture kid. That's my girl! If she doesn't like the look of something there is no chance she's going to touch it at all. You can't force her (stubborn like both of us).

Overall it was a great summer. Too much traveling but we enjoyed all the family time. It was hard to say goodbye and go back to the reality of living without our parents around for Hailey. It's not even about us anymore, we just want our parents to enjoy Hailey and have a relationship with her and her with them. We do oovoo which is like skype as much as we can with our parents and Hailey knows their names and faces when we see them. She actually says "nana" when oovoo starts up. I'll let the nana's decide who she's talking about (pretty sure she means both)

So there is a brief summary of our summer. We packed a lot of traveling and fun into it; it was a busy but fun. We are happy to be home adjusting to our new schedule that came with Brad's job change. We are aware once again of how blessed we are with our family's and our family here in Brownsburg. Traveling seems to make you aware of how good you have it :)

14 months

So I'm a little behind in keeping up with this blog. I have great intentions of writing more often but remembering to do so is the challenge. I'll get pictures and maybe video up soon.

Hailey will be 14 months on the 30th and it seems that she is learning so much so quickly now. She took forever to crawl and now is walking very well. She walks around the house with her hands up by her face just in case she falls. When she does she cries for a few seconds then she's ready to be released and is on the move again. She is a very active little girl and you can tell she is so happy to have the freedom.

She is now obsessed with Thomas the Train, she still enjoys The Wiggles but nothing compares to Thomas at the moment. If I ask her "do you want to watch Thomas" (we watch an episode close to bed time) she starts walking towards her little seat I created (our pillows) with her mouth wide open making a funny noise. She plops down and waits for me to turn on Thomas. She starts dancing when ever the show starts. She's so funny. I love that she makes us laugh as much and as often as she does.

Her love of music and dance seems to continue. I got the new Michael Buble CD and she was dancing to him, she dances almost every time I put on music or even sing. I'm still thankful no one sees me dancing or singing...oh what we do for our kids :)

She says momma and daddy, we are working on nana and papa but B words are her favorite. Blanket, Bible, book etc. She loves them all. Most mornings she wakes us up with "mom mom mom" I'm not sure if she wants me or just likes saying it :) The other morning she gave up calling for me and started calling for her daddy. Even though I don't enjoy the 6:30am wake up call it's still cute. A little more cute while I'm awake though.

I went to get her up from her nap and when I went in she was wanting her blanket since she was calling for "b" so I gave her that. She was still whining...she was pointing to her Bible that was on the table. So as soon as I gave her that she was happy. She held onto it for 20 min. It's so nice to see her enjoying it.

She loves to read. She will walk into her room, grab a book and bring it to us and try to get onto our legs. If we sit cross legged she reverses and drops down onto our legs. We love this. We are so thankful that she loves us to read to her this much. She likes to just carry them around too, she even held onto her Thomas the Train book the whole time we were walking - 40 min walk. We were in the car the other day and she had her book, it was upside down and she knew this so she turned it the right way and it looked like she was actually reading. Brad said she looks like she needs a coffee she was that into her book. She even turned the pages one by one.

She likes to hold onto a book, kosmo's leash and even cotton balls while we walk. Before we went walking the other morning and she went into our bathroom, found the cotton balls and grabbed a bunch. She held onto the cotton balls the whole time we walked, it was so humid out but she didn't let go of those cotton balls until we got home. She had little fuzz everywhere.

She will walk into her room if we tell her it's time to change her diaper and she seems so aware of so many more things now. I tell her it's time to go work with mommy and she walks into my office with me and plays most of the time on her own. She likes to go into her room, shut the door and play for a bit but not long after she'll call out and make sure we are still here and she'll open her door back up. She's playing a lot more on her own and I love it.

She still loves to chase poor Kosmo around the house, she has taken over all of this "spots" around the house except for under the bed, she gets on her hands and knees and tries to look at him under there. He is still so good with her, I really couldn't ask him to be any better. He even tries to bring her his toys for her to throw. She loves to play with him. Kosmo will bring me his toy, I'll take it give it to her and she'll throw it. Now she tries to say "throw" when ever she is near him. I think it's throw, it's either that or "go". I can't tell yet.

This past week I eliminated her morning nap. She was waking up just after 6:00 and she was sleeping well in the mornings but not in the afternoon so we decided to try. So now she's awake around 6:30am but we have a rule that we won't get her before 7:00am. So she goes back down around 1:00 for 2 hours. I feel like I''m in another learning curve right now with her sleeping and even her eating. I guess being a parent your constantly in a learning curve.

She is signing "more" and at times "eat". Maybe it's because she wants to eat all the time. We are working on "please" but for some reason she's not picking that one up as quickly :)

So she is growing, learning, changing so fast. We love her so much and she brings so much fun and joy to our lives. She is such a blessing and I thank God for her every day. We continue to pray and lean on the Lord for wisdom, I just want so badly for her to know the Lord and experience a relationship with him. I pray one day she will.

Photo Shoot

12 Months Pictures

1 Year Old!

Our baby girl is now 1 year old! So crazy to think she is already one. I've been asked a few times now if i'm ready for another one and the answer is still no, not yet. I want to enjoy Hailey as much as possible before we try for another one and I'm just not ready. I have also successfully weaned her as of 2 1/2 weeks ago so I want to enjoy the new found freedom for a while yet too :) My good friend has a 6 week old and it almost seems impossible that Hailey was once that small....funny how the hard stuff is blurry in my memory.....maybe that's why people have more then one kid...they can't remember how tough it is.

When I first started writing on this blog it felt like she would accomplish one major mile marker a month but the older she gets the quicker she picks things up. She is crawling like a champ and now starting to stand up on her own without holding onto anything and even has take a few steps towards me. Her first steps were actually on her birthday. My friend has a little girl who is 2 months older then Hailey and just to see her walking around seems so strange. I'm sure the next time I write on this blog she'll be walking.

When Hailey was 5 months we started signing to her but only really did "more" and "all done". She always just looked at me like I was crazy each time I did it, then she started to just stare and yesterday she signed "more" for the first time. It's so awesome to see her connect the words with actions.

She is still eating really well and will eat anything you give her and in large amounts. She still only weighs 22 lbs and is 29 1/2 inches long. I am so thankful that she eats so well.

I was looking at Hailey while we were out eating the other night and for some reason it hit me that she's not going to slow down. She's going to get bigger and bigger. I know your thinking....that's not much of a revelation but when Hailey was first born I only tried to think of the present, then the next month then her first birthday was the furtherest I've ever thought of. Sounds funny I know but it just hit me that she's going to grow up.

We had a party for her with Brad's parents who flew in for her birthday and some close friends. It was small but just perfect. Hailey did great with everyone and she loved her cake.

She is still making us laugh daily and as we say she's got a touch of crazy in her and we love it.

Is she Crawling???

We can finally answer YES to the question. Two weekends ago Brad put his phone across the room and she crawled towards it. Kinda funny that our phones motivate her more then us but what ever works. I never thought she would crawl, I'm sure every first time parent feels that way but it feels like it took forever. Now that's she's mastered crawling she moves to where ever she wants to go, pull her self up, walk around and then drop to her butt. It looks like she's hovering over a toilet the way she sticks her butt out waiting to drop to the ground. I'm assuming crawling means more energy from mommy is needed but I'm actually relieved. Yes she'll be a handful but she's independent and thats what I've been waiting for. She still likes to be cuddled when she first gets up but eventually she wants to be put down so she can get moving and she's great at expressing how she feels when I remove her from cords or the TV :)

We have been working on waving hello and good-bye and she started doing that this past month too. At times it's random and rarely does it when we ask but we wave good-bye to daddy every morning and wave hello to our Nanas and Papas over oovoo; she also likes to wave to the Wiggles when they are on and at times while she's eating dinner with us sitting right in front of her.

We are working on blowing kisses but at the moment she just makes a funny noise with her mouth trying to mimic the sound we make.

She still enjoys reading and likes to turn the pages on her own. We sit in her chair every day and read, I hope she develops a love of reading.

She is focused on everything she can't have - cords, TV, books, DVD player, keyboard...the list goes on. But I am still just so thankful that she can keep herself entertained now. I had a breaking point two weeks ago...I was determined for her to play on her own while I made dinner and did the dishes. I'd seen her sit and play quietly on her own before...she'd do it now for me right? Nope. Cried for 45 min straight, yelled, got all red faced and tears streaming out of her eyes. Lesson learned...I can't force her to be ready to be indepenant. Funny thing is that very next day she played on her own and has been every day since. Ya she still has her days when she needs more attention from me or Brad but she's able to play on her own. Just funny that I tried to make her do it and she did it when she was ready. I am really hoping that strong will will help her later on in life.

She is still sleeping like a champ. Goes to bed around 7:45ish and sleeps until 7:15. Lately she's been waking around 6:00 but goes back to sleep eventually, we're assuming her teeth are bugging her b/c she normally doesn't wake up before 7:00.

She's experimenting with her voice and it's hilarous. She sounds like she is trying so hard to talk, she babbles on and on while playing with herself and seems to be working on her B's. I love to hear her talking. When ever kosmo barks she tries to talk back to him, it's so cute. Even today she was eating lunch and I had the windows open. She heard a dog barking and would call back inbetween barks.

It's so fun to see her personality develop even more. The more I learn about her the more I see her daddy in her. She loves people and for the most part she's not shy. She normally warms up to people really fast. When ever I take her out she'll smile or laugh at who ever is looking at her.

We walk almost every day as long as the weather permits and she loves being outside. I can hardly wait for the grass to dry up to go play outside. The sun kinda scares me with her but I'll learn.

I've started weaning already. My goal is to be completly done nursing by 12 months. I've done my best and I think we are both ready. We just took away one feeding and she's handled it great. It's only been two days but so far so good.

11 month pictures

10 Months

Is she crawling yet? Is she crawling yet? Every Sunday when we drop Hailey off at the nursery we're asked that question. Answer is....nope. But we are feeling encouraged that she still may actually crawl. She has found her way onto her knees and can move a little bit, she tends to stick her butt in the air and tries to cover ground that way instead. But she is trying and I believe one day will actually crawl. I'd always been so worried about it, that a friend's kid was developing faster then her. But I can honestly say now that I'm fine with it. She will develop in her own time at her own pace. I can't make her crawl nor do I want to, I will keep providing opportunities for her to do so and she'll have to do the rest.

I feel like this past month she has learned a few more things. She pulls herself up a lot easier now onto everything. At times she still whines and wants help but for the most part when she wants to do it she does...and quickly. It's kind of funny b/c she'll protest some times if I am not helping her but I've seen her just turn and pull up on the couch. She actually just did it while I was typing this. Once up she can walk around the coach holding onto it of course.

She is able to turn individual pages a lot better, her fine motor skills...if that's what you call it seem to be improving. She also turns to the front of the house when ever I saw dada or daddy. Really cool to see her recognize Brad as daddy. We are working on waving hello and goodbye, the past few days she seems to be getting it a little better. She'll stretch her arms out and move her fingers. We were playing on our bed the other day and she saw a picture of Brad and myself and she smiled and waved to the picture.

She is still really enjoying bath time every night. I think Brad got to experience her first poop in the tub, it seemed really likely that I'd get that honor since I normally am the one who does it (just because he works at night) but lucky Brad got to deal with that present.

She recognizes both sets of grandparents when ever she sees them on oovoo. What a blessing oovoo is. I don't know how others have done it in the past without it. When ever we sign in she starts smiling and moving, she gets so excited to hear that sound.

She still loves The Wiggles and we have about 20 episodes taped and ready when we need it. I really think it's the music. Every time she 'works with mommy' I put music on and she instantly starts dancing, bopping up and down.

Every week it seems to be something new that she learns or that we learn :) We love her more and more each day and some days we just watch her or listen to her talk to her self (which she does a lot!) and think 'man I love this kid'!

Getting Better

So x-rays came back good, she just had a virus. It's just been a VERY long 2 weeks though. Her cough is pretty much gone and she hasn't had a fever since Tuesday morning. Tuesday morning she developed a rash so of course I was worried b/c it followed her fever. This is the first time she's actually been sick so I've got nothing to compare this to. So I called the doctor and that made me feel better, basically this is a good sign and she's getting better.

Kinds weird b/c she has been so fussy, crying and just so unhappy these past few days. The only time yesterday that she seemed to be happy was when her daddy was around.

So we're almost over this virus which I know will just be one of many. Showed me that I probably need to toughen up when it comes to this parenting deal but it's so tough to see your child hurting and unable to fix it. So crazy to me that she can be a handful the whole day and I can be so tired or frustrated and watching her smile when he daddy walks through the door makes it all better. There is nothing sweeter right now then seeing my baby girl smile that beautiful toothless smile at her father.

Life is good.

Doctor

Hailey has been sick for a little more then a week with a bad 'smokers' cough and a runny nose. I had been debating if I should take her to the doctor or not. I was concerned about the sound of her cough and the fact that it seemed to be in her chest. Once again I found myself feeling completely clueless and not wanting to be an over worried first time mom. So I let it go.

Saturday she got a fever, still had it Sunday and in the morning got one again. So I called, got her in and while we were there her fever was the highest it's been. So she got checked out and everything seemed to be ok. The doctor sent her for x-rays of her chest to make sure she doesn't have phenomena. My first thought was 'am I going to have to hold her for an xray?'. I soon found out...let's just say I hope I NEVER have take her to have an xray ever again. She had to be placed in a tight plastic tube, with her arms straight above her head. It was terrible, I feel sick to my stomach just thinking about it. She was screaming and there was nothing I could do. I was standing beside her for all of it but the first shot she was facing a black slate and the next she was turned facing me, screaming, looking desparate for me to help her and I couldn't. I HATED it. I was so worried she'd think I didn't want to help her.

I know I'm going to have to learn to be tougher but it breaks my heart to see her in pain and not being able to fix it.

9 Months

As Voula once said to me Hailey has now been out of me longer then she has been inside of me. We feel that 9 months is such a big milestone. I keep thinking...9 months...I can't believe it's gone by this quickly and we have enjoyed every second of it. Ok maybe not EVERY second, I wasn't a fan of 2 hours of sleep a day and the learning curve was pretty steep but we couldn't imagine our lives without her. She has brought us so much joy in such a short time, its overwhelming.

Just saw the doctor today. She is 19lbs 13oz (I actually thought she was heavier) and 28inches long.

Hailey is not crawling but she has found a way to move backwards. She is trying to move and I can see her wanting to move so badly but she just hasn't put it together yet. So we are making progress and I believe one day it'll click and she'll start to crawl. It's kinda funny when she's on her tummy and wanting to reach for something she tries to move and just ends up reversing.We are spending much more tummy time and she seems to enjoy it. Some times I just give her a teething ring and she rolls all over the place talking away to it. She needs her alone time...maybe like her mother :)

She is still standing really well and starting to move her way around what ever she is holding on to. She can't stand alone yet but I hover around her so that she doesn't fall over. Some times I wonder if she wouldn't be progressing faster if I wasn't such a new mommy. But she is doing great and she loves to stand and try to pull her self up.

She does not have the gift of patience, I''m not sure if any kid has it but I have about 1 second to give her what she wants or else I get the grunting, hip thrusting, stiff body and of course some tears and she vocally lets me know what she is thinking. Some times I have to try not to laugh when she does this. She always seems to put on a big 'show' to show us her disapproval of us not running to her every whim but then she calms right down and just tries to get it herself. I actually try to ignore these mini temper tantrums.

She does love to laugh though and Brad and I absolutely love that about her. Normally daddy can only get the deep belly laughs from Hailey, I try my hardest but I think she holds out and waits to give daddy those.

She is very curious, always trying to see around a corner or around me. I'm assuming her curiosity will lead her to crawling...that or maybe a trail of puffs might do the trick too I think.

9 Months

Christmas

Four generations! Mom, Grandma, myself and Hailey

We all sqeezed into this picture, only some of the family was there but it was nice nice to see everyone. This is my moms side of the family

Cuddle time with Granny (she asked that Hailey calls her Granny and we call her Grandma)

She's mastered the sippy cup

Playing with Great Aunt Della (she's way to young to be a great aunt!)

Just ignore the crazy look I have in my eye...this is a cute one of Grandma and Hailey

My dad's parents. They are so amazing, they play cards every night and constantly raise money for work.

Hanging out at Uncle Randy's place.

Grandma McLaughlin made her this mittens - they are so cute! I was hoping she would make her a pair since but didn't want to ask. She made me half a dozen pairs that I wore all through college.

Wearing her new snow suit - well not sure if it's a snow suit but its really fuzzy and adorable! (thanks Nana and Papa Mac)

Had lots of cuddles and kisses from Nana

Our daughter already giving her dad a look...

Hailey's cousin Tasia got her Tigger (Uncle Matt and Aunt Voula) and Uncle Adam bought her Mini Mouse. She LOVES them booth! She wrestles with them all the time.

Uncle Matt and cousin Tasia.

Probably our favourite part of the holidays, all of us gathered around the table. There was 11 of us. Dad just made us the traditional BIG breakfast.....so yummy.

Tasia helping Hailey open her gifts

Beautiful Aunt Voula

Aunt Siona and her boyfriend Sheldon.

Reading with Nana Mac

Another Christmas has come and gone so quickly, seems that time passes by much faster when you have a kid. This Christmas we drove up to Ontario to see my family. We left at 8:30pm and arrived around 6:00am on the 24th. It was such a long night but I believe if we travelled during the day it would have been a much longer trip. We had yet to attempt a day trip with Hailey, but I am doing my best to avoid it. I know we will have to eventually but it is so much easier have her sleep through the night.

I was so stressed out before we left about the travelling, how she would do sleeping at my parents place now that she was much more aware, napping, eating....so much to worry about and so little time! All my worries were pointless as I learned. She slept great, we fought with her for some naps - which is to be expected. She ate like a champ and was friendly with everyone who approached her. She even let my family hold her with me in the room. This was so amazing. It is such a huge step for Hailey, normally if I'm going to be in the room I have to hide or not talk. This is an on going battle for Brad but she is making improvements.

It was so nice to be around family again, and as always I shed a tear or two while leaving. Now that we have Hailey we find it some much harder to be away from family but we believe 100% that God has brought us here and we have peace this is where we are to be.