Miss Independent

I always knew deep down that Haley would someday walk, and would do so independently. I knew she would walk without a cumbersome walker or holding out hands. But the uncertainty of how long she would be tethered to someone or something remained a mystery……an agonizing mystery.

She began taking independent steps several months ago, but still required us to be near by to hold her hand to go any significant distance. Today she has proven that she can walk independently wherever she wants to go. We have known that for a long time, I think she just lacked the confidence that she could actually do it. Her teachers at school have been telling us how much she walks at school, but this is the first that she has done this much walking at home.

We ate dinner at my mom and dad's house tonight and she just started walking a little farther and a little farther. Then she walked down the hall to her bedroom, then to the kitchen, then back to the living room. She continued to do this for over 30 minutes. Walking. Completely. INDEPENDENTLY. For. 30. Whole. Minutes!!!!!!

Here is a short video of her showing off her independent walking. The noise she is making is her imitation of a chicken….”bok, bok, bok”. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did tonight!!!!

Time Flies……

……when you have a busy toddler.  I was just looking back at the blog and was appalled that I have not posted in 2 MONTHS!!!!!!!  Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s have come and gone.  Hopefully I will be more diligent this year in updating on Haley’s progress.

So, what has she been doing?  Her speech has really REALLY improved.  She is saying more and more words, some of them very clearly, and even saying some 2 word phrases.  Of course, true to toddler form, her favorite word is “no”, but she says a cute, high pitched “doh”.  Its cute for now, but I’m sure the cuteness will fad soon.  My mom got a really good video of her talking, but she is in the bathtub.  I had thought about posting it here, but then decided against it….too many creep-o’s out there.  Maybe I can get another video in a more modest setting LOL. 

Speaking of the bathroom area, we are trying to up the emphasis on potty training.  We take her to the potty every 2-3 hours to “try” to potty.  Sometimes she goes willingly, other times we have to bribe her with her favorite treat, mints.  She has not “produced” yet, but she is at least warming up to the routine.  I put “big girl panties” on her for the first time yesterday and she promptly peed in them.  At least I know she won’t tolerate being dirty.  She immediately whined and cried to be changed.

She is becoming more and more mobile.  We all totally think she could walk wherever she wants to, but either is too afraid to, or just chooses not to for some reason. 

Christmas was very fun this year.  I think she actually “got it” somewhat this year.  She knows who Santa is and that he brings presents.  Says ‘ho ho ho” every time she sees a Santa now.  Her big present was a train table, which she absolutely LOVES.  She could spend hours playing with it I think. 

For those of you that I did not manage to get Christmas cards out to, I apologize….just ran out of time…but here is our belated card from our family to yours:

Well, those are pretty much the highlights over the past two months.  I leave you with a few pictures….enjoy!

 

Three Day Halloween

Toto…..we’re not in Kansas anymore!

Haley was “Dorothy” this year for Halloween. Although she has never seen The Wizard of Oz, and has no idea who Dorothy is, she chose her own outfit this year. While at Target, she gravitated towards the costume….it had to be the shoes! In fact, we had to hide them from her until Halloween because she kept wanting to wear them early.

We definitely got our money’s worth out of this years costume. We did Halloween celebrates on three different occasions last week. Needless to say, I am tired of red ruby slippers and attempts at braiding thin wispy hair!

Haley’s school had a Fall Festival with fun and games. She actually got in the bounce house, which I was super excited about!

And what school party is complete without a cookie-filled classroom party. There was fruit on the plate, but she chose cookies instead, which lead to lots of lots of crazy crawling on the floor and she eventually lost the shoes.

Saturday night, our little hometown had a “Trick or Treat on the Square”. For such a rinky dink little town, there was quite a turn out. She was more interested in collecting fallen leaves and acorns than the free candy….that’s my girl!!!!

Sunday we went on a road trip to my BFF’s little boy’s 3rd B-day party. We totally intended on dressing up for his party, but it was too hot and hectic.

Our last stop on the Halloween tour was to trick or treat in the neighborhood. Our original costume idea was for Haley to be Dorothy and Rhett (our German Shepherd) to be (and overgrown) Toto. Sadly, she (and me) were just worn out from the party and Rhett was being less than cooperative. We only made it to two houses….which was fine by me. I think we all were starting to come off our sugar high and getting grumpy….early bedtime for everyone!

Put That Girl to Work!

In the olden days, isn’t the reason people had a dozen or so children was to have more help out on the farm??  Well, its high time that Haley start earning her keep in this household!  She has been assigned the nightly task of feeding the animals (it kind of is a small farm in our house). 

We taught her how to feed the animals several weeks ago.  I have been meaning to post these pictures.  She is very regimented about her chores too.  She never forgets that it needs to be done and sometimes has to remind us its time to feed everyone. 

Sadly, these pictures were taken 1 week before our youngest dog, Clyde, passed away suddenly.  I don’t want to rehash the tragic event, it was horrific and traumatizing for me.  We still don’t know what happened to him, he had a seizure one night and died the next day.  Haley misses him, she points out the window and says “dog” then hold up two fingers as if to ask “why is there only 1 dog now”.  She still insists on filling two tupperware bowls of food, one for Rhett, one for Clyde.  How do you explain the death of a pet to a 2 year old….you can’t.  Anyhow, that was depressing….on to the pictures. 

She pushes her little desk chair to the food box in the pantry and gets two tupperware bowls of dog food

Then she pushes the chair and food to the door, we have to help her cross the threshold. 

Then she puts the food in the bowl, she often has to push Rhett out of the way, that 28lb girl can hold her own with a 90lb German Shepherd!!

Then she puts the tupperware bowls back in the pantry and INSISTS she must close the door

Now time to feed the cats

Good Job!!!! 

Little Betty Crocker

Look who likes to help in the kitchen.  Haley helped me make some pumpkin spice cookies today.  Super easy recipe…if you can even call it a recipe with 2 ingredients!  And a pretty healthy, low fat recipe too!!! 

~1 can of pumpkin

~1 box of “spice cake” cake mix (no other ingredients, just the mix)

Mix together, put on a cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes.  Makes approx 2 dozen cookies….depending on how much batter your toddler eats prior to baking :)

Can it get any easier????  Little fluffy pumpkin pies that melt in your mouth!!!!

However, there was a misunderstanding when it was time to put the cookie dough onto the cookie sheet.  It seems Haley felt like she should be allowed to eat the entire bowl of cookie dough, instead of actually baking it.  Massive meltdown occurred, but was shortly resolved after she got a fresh baked pumpkin cookie….YUM-O!

News Flash

We interrupt this irregularly scheduled blog for some breaking bathroom news.  Earlier this evening, Haley was asked if she wanted to use the potty.  Instead of the usual sitting on the potty unproductively for 10 minutes followed by standing to play at the bathtub and then urinating in the floor instead of the appropriate receptacle……Haley actually pee-pee’d in the potty!!!  Yes, you heard it here first folks….Haley made pee-pee in the potty.  Next up…poo-poo in the potty.   

In related news, Haley will under-go her “three year old testing” tomorrow.  She will be tested on several areas including (but not limited to) fine and gross motor skills, speech, cognitive learning and problem solving abilities.  Although Haley is not, in fact, 3 years old yet, this is in preparation for the impending switch to the school system taking over Haley’s therapy needs.  This testing will show where Haley falls compared to her peers, and help determine what and how much therapy she will receive in the near future.  Haley will be phasing out of the state’s Infant-Toddler program once she turns 3 in February(the program responsible for assisting in coordinating Haley’s therapies and financial coverage for said therapies).  When she turns 3 she will be moving on to the school system to handle her therapies.  Hopefully Haley will continue to receive all her needed therapies and this transition will not decrease the amount of therapy she so desperately needs to continue to flourish.  Stay tuned for most cutting edge and up-to-date news, here on Channel Bogey

First Haircut….2 1/2 Years Later

Yes, you read that right…..we are just now getting around to getting Haley’s very FIRST haircut.  She was blessed with a full head of hair from birth, which we have had to put in bows to tame pretty much from the very beginning.  Everyone has been pressuring us to cut her hair forever now, and I just couldn’t do it.  Cutting her hair somehow signifies she is no longer a baby.  But at 2 1/2 it was getting a little out of control and ridiculous. 

I was also so worried that it would be a sensory overloaded, drama and tear filled event for her.  I was simply putting off making a huge scene at my hairdressers.  As usual though, I don’t give her enough credit…..when will I learn!!!!  She sat on the booster seat all by her self, like a BIG girl, and didn’t fuss one single bit the entire time.  She actually acted as if nothing was going on.  I guess she is so used to people playing with her hair that she didn’t even think twice about it.  I’m really proud of her!

I didn’t want to do anything drastic, just a trim.  She has such beautiful long hair that I couldn’t bear to cut it all off.  You can’t even tell by the pictures that it has even been cut.  But looking at her tonight after her bath, she somehow looks older, bigger, more grown up.  What a difference a half inch of hair being cut off makes.

Before the big “chop” with her scraggly ends 

 

Just playing with her toys like nothing is going on

Almost done!

I’m so pretty (notice my clip-on earrings!)

Gawking at myself in the mirror