Good Jumping Shamu!!

 Last weekend, Bryan's cousin Nick married his beautiful bride Carrie in San Diego. The wedding was lovely and Hailey had a fantastic time dancing the night away. Seriously, she danced all. night. long. About 9:00 (an hour past normal bedtime) we asked her if she was ready to go and go to bed and she said, "No! Hailey not tired yet! Want dance!" This girl is a party animal! Attending a wedding with a 2 year old is definitely a different experience than going without (as in a lot more trying to shush a squirmy toddler and a lot less consumption of adult beverages.) But she had fun and it was fun for us to watch her dance the night away. She looked sooooo cute in her party dress, and she knew it too. She twisted and twirled all night to make her skirt swish.

Since we had traveled all the way down to San Diego, we decided to make a weekend of it and take Hailey to Sea World. I was so excited to take her because I have always loved Sea World and I knew Hailey would like it because of how much she loves the zoo and all her books about animals. To get her ready for the trip I made her a little book of all the animals we would see and her daycare provider, Debbie, did sea animal themed art projects with her all week. All that prep payed off because she was SO EXCITED to see all the animals and shows! The first thing we did was see the Shamu Show and to be honest I got a little choked up when Shamu came out and Hailey breathed, "Oh wowwwww." I had no idea how happy and emotional it would make me to watch her wonder and amazement at something I grew up loving so much. All through the show she clapped and told Shamu what a great job he was doing ("Good jumping!" "Good splashing!" "Good swimming!") Obviously I had to buy her a stuffed Shamu as a souvenir from the day. She absolutely adores it and has taken it with her everywhere all week long.She was really excited about everything at the park and kept asking, "What NEXT??" She loved the penguins, polar bears, sea lions, and even touched a starfish! It was a really fun day and I am so lucky to be blessed with such a happy and flexible little girl. We were at the park from 10:45 to 5:00 with no nap and she only had 1 tiny meltdown at lunchtime that was easily diverted. Of course, she totally passed out before we had even pulled out of the parking lot to head home. What a memorable day!!

Trick or Treat(bag Throwdown)

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's.... SUPERHAILEY!!
This year for Halloween Hailey picked her costume out herself (out of 3 Mommy-approved choices, of course) and she picked Supergirl! It's just a costume from Party City but I swear it looks like it was made just for her, it fits so perfectly. She absolutely adores it and wants to wear it all the time. I have a feeling it will stick around as a dress-up costume long after we have polished off the last of the candy.

Each year for the past few years my friend and fellow blogger, Joanna, has issued a Treat Bag Throwdown to all of her mommy friends, encouraging them to make a trick-or-treat bag that will coordinate with their child's costume. For the past 2 years I have quietly hidden in the back of the class hoping to avoid being noticed, but this year she totally CALLED ME OUT! Since I couldn't hide anymore, I headed over to Michaels to see what I could put together. I'm actually pretty excited with how it turned out! I bought a plain black canvas bag, some felt, and some pipe cleaners, and voila!

Personalized treat bag! The absolute BEST part is how much Hailey loves it. She carries it around with her everywhere and it's the first thing she asks for every morning. Treat bag challenge - Accepted!


We had quite a whirlwind weekend this past weekend doing all kinds of Halloween activities. Bryan was in Vegas so my mom came up and got to join in on all the fun! First stop, Halloween party at The Little Gym. Hailey was a little overwhelmed at first because there were A TON of people and the gym was set up very differently from what she is used to, but after a few minutes she was jumping on the air track and following a little boy dressed as Mickey Mouse around relentlessly.

On Saturday night we headed over to the zoo for ZooBoo. The whole zoo is decorated for Halloween and several local businesses have tables set up where the kids can Trick-or-Treat. Hailey caught on to this process very quickly and had lots of fun opening up her bag for goodies. She could have cared less what actually went into the bag, saying "Trick-or-Treat" and holding her bag was the fun part for her.

As if that weren't enough Halloweening for one weekend, we met my friends Ashley, Chris, and Colin at the pumpkin patch to pick out pumpkins and take some cute pictures. Hailey even took a little ride on the train with Colin and I was pretty shocked that she was willing to do it without me riding with her. Normally doing something like that would scare her, but my little girl must be growing up because she loved it!


Hailey really had fun this year and by the time we made it back to the car she had straw stuck in her hair, a baby pumpkin, and a huge smile on her face. I really love some of the pictures we got and I know this will definitely be a Halloween tradition for us.

Such a whirlwind weekend!! Hailey took it all in stride and was in a great mood the whole weekend. My mom and I, on the other hand, were exhausted!

Thwarted... But Not Deterred

Pop quiz Hotshot... you're 48 hours away from setting sail on a Caribbean cruise you've been planning for months, your babysitter is already in town, and the airline calls and tells you that your flight to your departure port is cancelled due to Tropical Storm Maria and there is no way they can get you there before the cruise ship departs. What do you do? WHAT DO YOU DO????

(If you haven't caught on to the Speed reference by now there is no hope for you and we can no longer be friends.)

The answer? You hit up Priceline and look for a last minute deal to somewhere WITH NO HURRICANES! In this case, Maui!! If you know me at all you know that Maui is one of our favorite places of all time and when faced with a last minute change of plans, we decided to go somewhere we knew and loved so as to cause ourselves the least amount of stress. It ended up being the absolute best thing that could have happened because I had been so stressed out about the weather and getting sea sick on rough waters caused by the storm and we ended up having the most perfect weather in Maui while it rained in every single port we were scheduled to be in. I was also really apprehensive about leaving Hailey for so long for the first time and it made me feel better to be in the states and easily reachable by phone if needed. We enjoyed ourselves so much in fact that while I of course missed Hailey, it wasn't as desperately as I thought it was going to be.

I think it ended up being the perfect relaxing vacation because we did absolutely nothing the whole week since we'd been there several times before. We didn't feel like we needed to kill ourselves doing all kinds of sightseeing so we just went to our favorite beaches, did a little snorkeling, and r-e-l-a-x-e-d! It was heaven! We stayed at the Wailea Marriot because that is our favorite side of the island and we spent most of our days the beaches nearby. We also took a few days to spend over on the Ka'anapali/Lahaina side of the island so we could snorkel and eat at some of our favorite places. The one new thing we did was take a paddleboard lesson. It was so much fun and I felt really proud of myself because I'm not usually one to try new things that are physical because I am not that strong and I'm always afraid of hurting myself. I am so glad I did it and we couldn't have asked for calmer water. It was so clear you could see fish, turtles, and even a sting ray while we were paddling!

Needless to say, I think everything worked out exactly the way it was supposed to. I'm sure we would have had a good time on the cruise but this trip was so perfect and relaxing, it is exactly what we needed at this moment in time.



Infinity pool at our hotel. Soooo gorgeous and relaxing and they bring you umbrella drinks!



The snorkeling was AWESOME!



TURTLES!!





Don't we look relaxed??



Paddleboarding! And I only fell once :)





Hailey's beach! (Makena beach)

Luau at the Wailea Marriot on our last night. Great show and yummy food!

Turning 2!!!

How on earth is my baby girl 2 years old already?? I swear I blinked and my tiny little peanut turned into a little girl! She grows every single day and she talks like a little adult. The things she says absolutely crack me up! On the advice of some of my mommy friends, I've started a journal of my favorite "Haileyisms." Here are a few of my recent favorites:

-While eating her NutriGrain bar, "Mommy! Dat is a taaaaasty bar!!"
- Using her fork to eat her lunch, "Mommy! Hailey forking!"
- Talking about her new Dora doll, "Do-do my fav-it" (Dora's my favorite) and "Love Do-do!" (I love Dora) while giving the doll a hug.
I know there are a million more but I can't remember them off the top of my head (which is precisely why I'm going to start writing them down!)

Here are some more of Hailey's 2 year stats:

-Weighs 29 lbs.

Is 2ft 11in tall (!!)

Wears size 2T

Feeds herself with a fork and spoon

Wants to do EVERYTHING herself! The most commonly heard phrase around our house these days is "Hailey do it!" or "Hailey turn!"

Loves to boss Cookie around. She wants Cookie to follow her everywhere and likes to tell her what to do.

Absolutely loves to go to The Little Gym! She has come so far since we first started going! This morning she was practically jumping up and down with excitement to go.

Is completely obsessed with Dora the Explorer. She wants to watch Dora, read about Dora, play with Dora, sing along with Dora... it's Dora overload over here!

Has been going to swimming lessons for 5 months. She can hold her breath and glide underwater, monkey crawl along the side, and glide to the step and stand up. She doesn't love to practice the skills but she does love to play around in the water. She hasn't quite figured out how to kick while she's underwater yet but hopefully that's coming soon.

Loves to eat fruit!!

Loves to play with baby dolls and read more than anything else.

Is loving and so sweet 90% of the time but has a sassy stubborn streak that is starting to get her put in time-out from time to time.

Is 100% the light of my life!

Last weekend we had Hailey's birthday party for her friends and family at The Little Gym. It was soooooo much fun, all the kids and the adults had a great time! Here are a few cute pics from the party:

Bubbles!!

The party guests telling everyone that Hailey is 2!

The very popular "donut rides"

Mmmmmm.... birthday cake!

This is by far Hailey's favorite skill at Little Gym! So cute!