Mornings with Hailey

Mornings with Hailey are always interesting, totally depends on her mood and what she is willing to do or how fast she is willing to do something I should say.

But one thing that I find so funny and love to listen to is her current thing with Dora and Blues Clues shows. She gets so into it and will run from the couch to the TV and point out the correct answer (which explains why my TV screen is always filled with fingerprints) or yelling at the TV with the answers and the occassional getting mad because they don't get to the right answer as fast as she would like.

She also is HUGE into doing the singing/dances and motions to whats going on in the shows. Its very cute and funny to watch how much she gets into it.

I seriously LOVE this age!!!

2008 in Rewind...

2008 was a good year for me and Hailey when I look back on it. We had our good times and our bad times but we definitely came out on the good end.

I worked my 2nd tax season and didn't know it at the time but it was my last (thank God!) I hated tax season, it broke my heart to hear my mom tell me that Hailey would come home at night and look for me. It wasn't fair to her, she needs me around and I want to be around. My career is not that important that I have to miss out on her.

Hailey turned 2 on March 4, 2007. Of course I cried and was so proud of her and how much she has grown. She really is a strong kid and adjusts so well to what is thrown at her. We had a Dora themed birthday party for her.

April 18th I lost my job...most devastating news I had ever received. I hated my job but I think I was just so upset about it because that was my full-time income and that I had just finished working all those hours and not to be appreciated it at all. I felt so deceived and I am so glad to not be apart of that place anymore. God knew what he was doing when he got me out of there.

April 19th-July 6th I was home with Hailey. It was rough, lots of boring days at first and lots of crying but we turned it around and realized that we can enjoy each other and I learned that I really want to be a stay at home mom someday, I really do. Never thought I would say that but it meant so much to be to be able to spend those days with Hailey. Her getting to sleep in until she woke up, staying in our PJs till 10am, going to the park and the pool. It was a lot of fun. I wish I would have enjoyed it more during that time, but of course i was stressed too about having to find a job. But thankfully God provided me with lots of jewelry shows during that time and we were able to actually save money then. And of course it broke my heart when I told Hailey that Mommy was going back to work that she told me no and that she wanted to stay with me. I was crying too because i didn't want to miss out on anymore time with her that I had already missed out on.

July 7th - I started my new job with Robert Half International and I love it! Well...not love it that i wouldn't want to be home with Hailey but what a difference it makes. I'm able to talk to my boss and express any concerns I have with her. The people i work for actually appreciate me. What a difference!!

Week before July 7th I went full force with potty training Hailey, went straight to underwear and never looked back. She did awesome. By the end of July she had everything down and we were down to maybe 1 accident a week if that. It took her a while to learn how to poop on the potty but once she got it she had it.

September after Labor Day Hailey went to daycare and KinderCare in Troy. She loved it and did very well there. She was the leader in the potty training area and the teachers adored her. Hailey also now will refer to herself as a Big Girl!!! And she loves that she is!

I always knew I would make sure my kids knew how I felt about them and I would tell them constantly that I love them and that I am proud of them. I love to see Hailey's face light up when I tell her I am proud of her, she may not know what proud means but you can tell she just is glowing!! And I promise that I will always be there for all of her ups and downs and she can count on me to always be there - no matter what and I truly mean that.

October - Hailey went through a 2 week phase of being very aggressive and it really scared me. Didn't know where it came from and had to crack down pretty hard on standards of what was ok and not ok and following through more.

November - Thanksgiving and seeing Santa Claus for the first time this year.

December - Christmas parties like crazy!!

Hopefully 2009 will be a good year for us. Hailey will be turning 3 and I'll be turning 26 and in September of 2009 Hailey will be attending St. John the Baptist's pre-school program 2 days a week in the morning. Its going to be a good year...

End of 2008...

Well Christmas with Hailey this year was great. The holidays are always tough because we have to make things work with Hailey going to her dad's house and family parties. There is always so much going on and we have to really focus on what the priorities are and go with those rather than trying to do everything.

But this year with Hailey was great. I was kind of bummed after leaving my parents house on Christmas Eve at 9;30pm and Hailey already asleep in the car after not even 5 minutes that I wasn't really going to get to spend time with her for our Christmas. I just felt like everything was so rushed and I couldn't really just sit there and enjoy it with Hailey. But we got home and I woke her up and carried her in and I told her to look under the tree and SANTA CLAUS CAME!!!!

Her face was the one I had been waiting to see all night. She was amazed and loved it and was so excited she didn't know where to start first. She asked me "Mommy can I hope my presents?!" and she went to one opened it and then wanted to open another. And of course I couldn't get things put together fast enough. Hailey I think really just enjoyed opening the presents and seeing the surprises hidden beneath the paper. She was so excited!

I got everything put together finally and Hailey was playing with all of her baby dolls that Santa Claus brought. Finally at 11:30pm we had to get to bed. Hailey wanted to play but she needed to get to bed because we had to be at her dad's at 8am on Christmas morning.

It was the best thing ever though...I could have skipped everything else and just spent the night with Hailey and enjoyed our Christmas together.

From Santa Hailey got:
2 baby dolls
food for her kitchen
baby set that included a stroller, swing, high chair, car seat and diaper bag
shopping cart
Leap frog Tag system and books
microphone - which she loved and sang into right away!!
play dough set

Christmas - Hailey is getting it...

With Christmas just around the corner, obviously Santa Claus (Ho Ho) is being mentioned often. And it amazes me how much in a year things change for a child. Hailey actually gets Christmas this year, well kind of. She knows she needs to be a good girl or Santa Claus will not bring her any toys...and this one is SO nice to be able to use to get her to be a good girl.

All she ever wants to do is go sit on Santa's lap and tell him what she wants for Christmas. She is amazed by all the christmas lights and decorations. I'm not sure if it was a good thing but I pointed out to her all the ornaments on the tree that were her's. Kind of special seeing that this is now our 3rd Christmas together. However, when I was trying to get some work done, she later brought a chair up to the tree to try and see her ornaments up closer I'm guessing and yeah....she fell into the tree. Not a lot of damage done but boy was she scared! ha! Ahh the curiousity of it all...

I'm excited to start our traditions we will do as a family. I'm so excited to have so much time off around the holidays this year that I hope to get to spend a lot of time with her. I can't wait to see her reaction of when she sees all her presents under the christmas tree from Santa...that will probably be...no...most definitely it will be the best thing ever!

Last year she woke up at 5am with a fever and ended up doing Christmas right then but of course she didn't get it and didn't feel good so it wasn't exactly what I hoped for.

But this year...I know it is going to be great.

This past Friday (day after thanksgiving as though I wasn't already tired enough - up at 3:30am)....Hailey remembered that I said we might go see Santa and sit on this lap this weekend. Well not a minute passed after I got home from shopping did she want to go see Santa. Well...what was I supposed to do...so we got her all dressed up in her Christmas dress and her hair all pretty and we went off to find Santa. Meanwhile I'm praying that he is actually there...my luck would be that he isn't at the malls yet.

So we get there, obviously its insane with being the day after Thanksgiving and we get to the middle of the mall and through the crowd I see him...and guess what...there is NO LINE!!!!! We walked right up there...Hailey kind of freaked out at first but I went up to Santa with her. She gave him a five and told him right away...I want a baby Santa! haha this girl was on a mission and she knew what she needed to do! She sat on his lap after a while and we got a great picture! However, she would not give him a hug...no way no how! She sat on his lap, told him what she wanted and now she wanted the man to deliver! ha! She didnt' quite get that she had to wait until Christmas to get the baby she asked for. Hopefully she'll get it on Christmas Eve!

Kristina's wedding

Being quiet is NEVER a good sign...

So you would have thought by now with Hailey being 2 1/2 that I would have learned that her being quiet should set off alarms and bells and all kinds of red flags....but it doesn't...still!!!!

So last night, I'm in my room working on some stuff and Hailey is out in the living room and in my head I'm thinking she is playing with the cat or playing by herself. Continuing to do my work and I yell for her and ask what she is doing....no response....

A little while later I walk up to the room and I look around and I don't see her and I look down and she is hiding underneath my island under the bar stool with my PURSE, all contents out and with gum wrappers in her hand!!!! Made her spit it out and I took my stuff back and told her that mommy's purse is not a toy and that needs to stay out of it.

So I got back to my room again, working on the computer and again....I hear nothing for a while....yell for her again and she doesn't come....hmmmm??? Walk back out there and she is now under the END TABLE with my purse and all its contents out and now 3 peices of gum in her mouth!?!?!?!?!?

Needless to say, she was put in timeout....but man was it hard to not laugh at her hiding in the spots she chose....ahhh 2 year olds

Moving away from daycare...

So next week is Hailey's last week at KinderCare. My cousin Becky, who has always been my back up sitter and who I really get along with out of the blue offered to watch Hailey full-time if I wasn't really happy with daycare. This totally through me for a loop and had to really make me think.
I've never not been happy with daycare, Hailey's only been there for 2 1/2 months and so I didn't know if we gave it enough time. But after some consideration and talking over things with Becky we're going to do it. It'll save me some money, which will be great and I think Hailey will love going to Becky's every day.

Hailey has never complained about going to school (daycare) but she is always ready to leave, has never fought me on staying, which that makes me wonder because she has always fought me to leave a sitters that she has enjoyed. So this will be a good move...Becky is so active with her kids, going to the pool, library, parks and picinics with her kids. It'll be great for Hailey and I'll love her being with Becky.

With me working so much, I want someone who is going to care for her like I would and give her the attention she needs and yet allows her to be a kid too. So we'll see...