Year 4

Wow! I really did let this blog fall off the face of the earth! Now I have to try and play catch-up!

So much has changed in the past 8 months! Haley just had her FIRST real birthday, being a Leap Day baby! It was nice to celebrate her birthday on her actual birthdate! We wanted to do something special for her birthday, so we had it at the Schiele Museum. It was the funnest party ever!

Its so hard to believe she is four years old now! Where do I begin??? Haley’s verbal communication is just blowing us away! I can’t keep up with how many words she can say now. We can have real conversations now, albeit short ones. Right now she is in the “why” stage. “why do dat”, “what do dat”, “whyyyyeeee”??? We are trying to be patient with it, but as parents of typical children also know, it can be so ANNOYING!!! We still have to play our fair share of charades and often its like interpreting a foreign language, but we (and she) are learning to function a little better with her often challenged communication. She can recite her ABCs, numbers up to 20, and has memorized the blessing

We took another beach trip. She enjoyed playing in the sand, but is still not interested in getting in the water…be it ocean or pool. We are SO hoping that she will swim this year!

Haley “played” soccer this fall. To say it was a complete disaster would be an accurate statement thru about 75% of the practices and games. Will was her team coach, and he really enjoyed that. I’m sure it was somewhat intimidating to her watching the other kids run, kick, jump, and be rambunctious. She did what she could, and spent the rest of the time watching from the sidelines. But we will try again next year, hopefully she will be more confident by then.




What she is really interested in is singing and dancing! This girl can shake her groove thing. We think she will be very musically inclined as she gets older.

She insisted she be a “PINK dog” this year for Halloween. Do you know how hard it was to find a PINK dog costume??? Harder than you think!

And for Christmas she, of course, wanted a BLUE dog….equally as hard to find!

Haley has been completely potty trained for several months now! We are so relieved to finally be out of diapers, although she still requires help getting her pants off and on and help onto the potty….I will take that any day over diapers! No more stinky diaper laundry!!!

Haley has lot of “boyfriends”. Is it starting already??!!
 




And of course she is still quite the camera ham!







Well, I know I just skimmed over the last several months. But this amazing little girl surprises us everyday. It is such a joy to watch her grow and change! Maybe I can do a better job of letting you all watch her grow by updating more often….we’ll see :)

2 Year Stats

Haley had her 2 year pediatrician appointment earlier this week and she is growing like a WEED! I can't remember the exact numbers (I should write these things down). She weighed almost 27 lbs I beleive, which is little over the 50th percentile and she had a pretty big height growth spurt and is now in the 75th percentile. She has always been below the 50th percentile for both height and weight, sometimes closer to 25th, so she really made a big leap at this appointment.

The doctor was pleased with how she is doing and the progress she is making. He talked to me a little about potty training. And although it is still early to expect her to fully potty train, he told me to go ahead and start introducing it. He said that we should not let the fact that she doesn't speak and can not walk hold her back from at least introducing potty training. We got her a potty for her birthday, but haven't really done anything with it yet. From what I hear potty training is a pain in the butt for the parents (no pun intended) to not be in any rush, so I will just let Haley tell us when she is ready.

Not much else to report, but I did want to leave you with some new pictures. There are a ton more on the Picasa album (the link is on the right side of this page). Enjoy!

Haley on her potty

At the Build-a-Bear party

Random cuteness

Happy 2nd Birthday My Sweet Baby Girl

Two years have come and gone. There is no truer statement than "they grow up so fast". This has been especially true this year. You have been through so much this year, more than some people have to endure in a lifetime. You have shown us the true meaning of perseverance, strength, patience, faith and love. But this year has also been much more than about your "differences". We refuse to let your difference define who you are.

You are coming in to your own and changing so much everyday. You have a huge personality. You are so silly and witty, even at just 2 years old. You have the greatest sense of humor. Your laugh is the best sound on earth, and its the most unique laugh. Although you do not speak true words yet, you certainly do know how to communicate and are very good and telling us what you do and do NOT want. You can be very opinionated in your own little way. It is hard to sometimes remember that although you can't talk to us, that you understand every single thing we are saying and can comprehend its meaning.

You are generally a calm and even tempered kid, although sometimes it does not feel that way. Parenthood is difficult and sometimes our patience wears thin and we have to remind ourselves that you really are an easy baby compared to others. You enjoy playing and can entertain yourself for hours. You love animals. Your puppies and kitties are some of your best friends. Playing with baby dolls and dollhouses is also something you enjoy doing. Jewelry has also become something that fascinates you, I have to hide my rings and necklaces from you sometimes! You like to play outside and it has been a really rough Winter, we have not been able to go out much and that does not make you happy. We are going to get you a swing set for your birthday so there will always be somewhere to swing and slide and play outside! We hope to be able to teach you how to swim this Summer, you really enjoy the pool.

You have always slept well at night and for the most part still do. For a brief time when you had your first ear infections, you did not want to lay down to sleep and kept sitting up in your bed at night. You go to sleep easily around 7:30 and sleep solid through the night, that is a great blessing!!!! Naps are starting to become sporadic though and we are afraid they will soon become a thing of the past, another sign that you are growing up!

You started going to preschool earlier this year, a special school where there are others with "differences" just like you. Your teachers are very special and care very much for you. You have made lots of friends and really enjoy going to school. Some days when we pick you up, we think you would rather stay there and play with your friends than come home and take a nap. You now have all your therapies at school. You have been using a walker to get around for a couple months, but much prefer crawling...its so much faster right now. But one day you will get the hang of walking and will no longer be held back by the limitations of your walker.

You are a very smart little girl too. You are starting to learn some of your colors and shapes. You can point to several parts of your body. You are the biggest copy-cat too, and really enjoy copying everything your Daddy does. Puzzles and shape sorters have become old hat to you and not very challenging. You are very analytical at times and we can just see the little wheels in your mind at work when you are trying to figure something out. We can only imagine what is going on in your mind if it could only come out!

Eating has become a struggle lately. You are not a picky eater, but it is hard to figure out what it is that you want to eat some days. And you must be the only child in America that does not much care for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Some of your favorite foods are bean burritos, blueberries, waffles, tuna, and slaw. You have very strange tastes, just like your Daddy!

You are simply the most beautiful little girl we have ever our laid eyes on, and have always thought so (and we am not just saying that because we are your parents). We can't go anywhere without at least one person stopping to admire how cute you are. Your hair is so long and pretty, we have still yet to cut it, we can't bear to cut it yet. And your big brown eyes could melt the coldest heart. You are going to be a heartbreaker! Mama has been horrible, horrible, horrible about not taking enough pictures this year and she will try harder this year to take as many pictures as she can of your sweet face!

And you are so very sweet at times. For a while you were giving out kisses like they were going out of style. Kiss and hug everybody! But now you have become more conservative with them, kisses are not free anymore. You love to cuddle your stuffed animals and will hug and pat them on the back. Blowing kisses is something you are very good at and do all the time.

Physically you are growing so big too. Although you still look kind of tiny, you are deceptively heavy. Picking you up is sometimes a struggle, you are very "solid" even if you are only 27ish pounds. You still have the tiniest feet, only wearing a size 4, when most kids your age are in at least a 6 or 7. You are starting to wear some size 24 month clothes, but mostly still fit in most size 18 month. Packing up the clothes you have grown out of is something that is hard for Mama to do, it reminds her of how tiny you used to be. You came in to this world at 7 pounds and now you are 20 pounds heavier, it is hard to believe!

It seems like just a blink of an eye ago that you were born, when we first met you and our lives as we knew it changed forever. That was the best day of our lives! You are such a joy and a blessing, and we love you so very much.

Love,

Your MaMa and DaDa

A baby becomes a toddler

Well, I guess after today, Haley is no longer a baby, she is officially a toddler. The party was so fun, and Haley seemed to love all the attention. She barely had a nap before the party. I was just anticipating her becoming a beast in the middle of the party, but she did really well. She got so many neat gifts. I can't tell you enough how generous our family and friends are, we are so blessed have you all in ours and Haley's lives. Thank you again for sharing this special day with us!!!!



The cake was WONDERFUL!!!! Haley didn't seem too impressed though. She wasn't quite sure what to make of it, and didn't tear it apart like most kids do at their 1st birthdays. She is such a girly girl, she didn't want to get too dirty I guess.







And here are just some random pics from the party. I will put the rest on Picasa. I can't believe her first year has come and gone....and that she actually survived US!!! I now really know what people mean when they say time passes in the blink of an eye, to enjoy every moment of it. They do grow up so fast. It seems like yesterday when we were bringing our newborn baby home for the first time. I can't wait to see what the next year holds for us!!!

A girl so special she gets TWO birthdays!!!

As most of you know, and much to her Papa Smith's chagrin, Haley is a Leap Day baby. People ask me all the time, "don't you feel sorry for her, she only gets a birthday every 4 years" or "when are you going to celebrate it" Well my answer to that is Haley is just so special that it takes two days to celebrate her birthday this year, especially because its her First birthday!! I'm not sure how we will do it in the future. I have heard some Leap Day babies say they celebrate on March 1st because it is the day after the 28th, and they were born the day after February 28th. I've also thought of just celebrating it when its more convenient while she is too young to care then letting her pick her birthday on the off years. I don't know what we will end up with, but for this year it TWO BIRTHDAYS!!!!

I am, of course, getting nostalgic as the anniversary of her birth approaches. This time last year I was getting ready to be admitted to the hospital for induction. Will and I went to eat at Outback before going to the hospital. A "last meal" of sorts for me, I knew it would be a clear liquid diet for me until Haley was born, I was going to enjoy myself one more time!!!! And it would also be our last meal alone, just the two of us. The next time we ate together two would then be three. I remember being so nervous when we checked in at the hospital, it was weird being a patient for once. It was an unexpected emotion for me, I am used to being in a hospital, I've worked in one for what seems like an eternity!!! But I was all of a sudden freaked out by being in the hospital. Weird putting on that hideous gown, weird laying in that horribly uncomfortable bed, weird being the one the IV was going in (that hurts a lot more than I ever thought it would!!), weird being the one the nurse checks on. And then I thought I would be brave and stoic and do this without an epidural, I would be that crunchy granola mom who did it "au naturale"!!!! HA!!! Bring that epidural STAT next time!!!! Things didn't go at all like I had envisioned. I had dreamy thoughts of my water breaking at home in the middle of the night and Will driving franticly to the hospital. Images of us walking in the hallways, stopping to "breathe" through contractions, sitting and bouncing on the birthing ball, and most of all it being quick. Instead I was almost literally chained to the bed because the slightest movement sent my blood pressure through the roof, I could only get up to pee. Labor progressed very slowly. I was technically in labor for over 24 hours. Don't get me wrong, things could have been WAY worse, but it was not like I had imagined. And this wouldn't be the first time having a baby wouldn't be like I imagined. Nothing happens like the Hallmark card vision in your head when it comes to parenthood!!!

And then came Haley. Some of you may not know, or remember, that Haley's middle name was originally going to be Grayce. But the second she was born, Will and I looked at each other and said together...."Haley Gray". She was so much smaller than I had expected. The ultrasounds were all predicting a 9lb baby. She weighed in at exactly 7 pounds. I would have never thought I would have a baby that small, thanks for the petite genes Martha, a 9lb baby would not have been fun to birth!!!! She was so calm and quite that first night, she just laid in the bassinet and took in the new world around her quietly. It was just a preview of her personality to come. She is normally the most laid back baby you could imagine.

Everyone was right, there is nothing like the birth of your child. Your life changes in an instant, and all for the good. You fall instantly in love with this person that you just met. It is amazing!!!!

Well, the big party was today. It was an all out PINK extravaganza, pink giraffes to be exact. The theme of her nursery was jungle animals, I thought I would bring it full circle and do a giraffe theme for her first birthday. For those that came to the party, thank you so much for coming and sharing this special day with our little family. I will post pictures of the event hopefully by tomorrow.