Tug-Of-War

Hailey isn't crawling yet but she's a rolling machine! A few days ago she rolled up on Cookie's toy and they had an impromptu game of Tug-of-War! It was soooo cute!!

Discovery

For Memorial Day weekend we went down south for a little visit. My mom decided that the giant tub of toys I was bringing with me did not provide quite enough selection for Hailey so she bought some toys to keep at her house. Hailey is completely fascinated with anything new. It doesn't matter if it is a $40 toy or a used paper towel roll, new is the the key. However, one of the new toys captivated her like I've never seen before. It was a shape-sorter cookie jar that says the name of the shape when you put it in the correct slot and also sings songs when you put the shapes in from the top of the jar. It was so incredible to watch this little person figure out how this toy worked. She's obviously too young to identify the shapes and match them to their appropriate holes, but she figured out very quickly that the lid comes off and goes back on the top of the cookie jar, the shapes are supposed to go inside, and that if she presses the nose on the front, it will laugh or sing a little song. She seriously played with that toy for 2 hours straight!! Obviously I couldn't let such a gem stay in Southern California gathering dust, so I hijacked it and brought it home with me.

This stage is so much fun to watch because she is learning SO MANY new things every day. I love to watch her little face with a very serious look of concentration as she figures out something new. I wish I could read her mind... I'm just dying to know what she thinks about this amazing world around her!

Rip Van Winkle

IT'S OFFICIAL!!! I have a baby who sleeps ALL THE WAY THROUGH THE NIGHT!! And not just what doctors consider "sleeping through the night" which is actually only sleeping about 6 hours at a time, which is NOT through the night at all when 6 hours after 8:00 bedtime is 2 AM!! No, I'm talking 8:15 PM to 7:30 AM without a feeding, without waking up, THROUGH.THE.NIGHT!!! YAHOO!! It has been this way for the last 2 weeks so I am calling it official.

Words cannot express how good it feels to get a full night's sleep, although the memory of how it felt to wake up multiple times during the night is starting to fade already. I heard it time and again before I had a baby but you never really believe it until it happens to you: the Mommy brain is a magical thing. Even though I know intellectually that labor was painful and it sucked to get up every 2 hours during the night, I don't feel the memory. I remember it in a vague sort of way, like I read it in a book or watched it on TV. I don't have a physical reaction to thinking about it like I do, say, when I think about the excruciating toe surgery I had 7 years ago! Never again will I have a toe block, but another kid? Piece of cake!

I'd like to place a future order for another one like this please.

My First Mother's Day!

I have waited my whole life to be a member of the "Mommy Club" and celebrating my very first Mother's Day felt like my official initiation! I still can't believe I have been so blessed with such an amazing little girl and I was so excited to celebrate being her Mommy.

I actually got to celebrate a few days early by treating myself to some much needed "me time." I had a non-duty day on Thursday and since those are Hailey's daycare days, I took the opportunity to get a massage and a pedicure. I had a leisurely lunch outside in the sunshine and read a book. It was awesome. =)

On Sunday I was treated to a breakfast of banana macadamia nut pancakes, cheesy biscuits, and cheesy eggs with sausage made by my hubby. Yummy! Then I got to open my wonderful presents: a silver bookmark engraved with "Happy Mother's Day, Love Hailey" and a beautiful necklace. Bryan said he picked the necklace because the 3 butterflies represented him, me, and Hailey. Awwwwww!

That afternoon we headed to visit my in-laws and Hailey used her big-girl carseat for the first time. I can't believe how big she looks sitting in it!!

It was a great day and I look forward to many Mother's Days to come. I already have space reserved on the fridge for future handmade cards. :)

Beach Baby

Yes, I'm still here! March was a crazy month and I'm just now starting to catch my breath! I attended a professional conference in Sacramento (and I was lucky enough to get to bring Hailey since my sister-in-law lives in Sac and volunteered to watch her), I went to LA for a belated birthday celebration with my family and to celebrate Amy's 30th, and we took our first family trip to Maui for spring break. AND I've been sick for the last 3 1/2 weeks!

The trip to Hawaii was wonderful and Hailey was such a good girl!! She didn't make a peep on the flight either way and she was so easy-going on the trip, napping on the beach and taking the time change like a champ! We planned this trip with our friends Herbie and Kristin, who have a daughter 2 months older than Hailey. It was so much fun to watch Hailey and Samantha together, she really enjoyed having a little friend her size to play with.

Although having kids on the trip made it a different type of vacation than we're used to having, I really enjoyed sharing our favorite place with Hailey and watching her experience the beach for the first time. She thought the sand was completely fascinating and kept picking up handfuls and squeezing them. Of course a little bit also made it into her mouth but a little digested sand never hurt anyone. =)
Hailey was also quite the star in her itsy bitsy bikinis!! She looked so cute I could hardly stand it and she was admired by many passers by. Although she looked beach ready and enjoyed the sand, she was NOT a fan of the ocean. She is used to hot tubbin' in her bathtub at home and the cold ocean water was just.not.the.same! She was quite content to lounge on a chaise in her sunglasses instead of splashing in the water.

One thing we were really excited to do was visit Makena Beach with Hailey and get a family picture next to the sign. Since her middle name was chosen because of this beach, we consider it "her" beach and hope to get a picture of her next to the sign each time we go.

It was a beautiful day when we went to Makena and Hailey looked so cute just sitting on the beach towel, taking it all in. I think it's her favorite beach too!

Some of the other highlights from the trip were:

Taking a lei making class, getting a nanny and having an "adult day", getting a massage on adult day, spending quality time with my husband and daughter, enjoying the beautiful sunsets and rainbows, snorkeling in Kaanapali, seeing a giant sea turtle on the beach at Makena, shopping Front Street in Lahaina, and taking Hailey to her first Luau.

We also had a MAJOR event happen on the trip...Hailey got her first teeth!! I say "teeth" because one tooth broke through on Easter evening, and when I checked her mouth in the morning, there were suddenly two!! I think they're too cute and I can't believe she's turning into such a big girl!!

Whew! It was great to be on vacation and now I have only 6 more weeks of school before summer vacation. Have I mentioned how much I love having a teacher's schedule?!? I can't wait!

Teething Bites

My poor little munchkin is having a rough time with those teethies =( The last two days have been hard on her and she constantly has anything she can get her hands on crammed in her mouth. She is waking up more at night and not napping well either, which does not help matters. I really hope these teeth make an appearance soon!

Bustin' Out

Ever since I read The Happiest Baby On The Block by Harvey Karp, we have swaddled Hailey to sleep at night and for naps. We have gone through three sizes of swaddle wrap as she has grown because being wrapped up nice and snug has helped her sleep longer. Lately, I have been getting increasingly frustrated with the swaddle because it doesn't fit and I can't get it to stay tightly wrapped around her. Every time I go in to get Hailey out of her crib she has either worked an arm out the top and is waving it around or she has busted her hands out the bottom. Struggling out of the swaddle wrap seems to be waking her up more than it is helping her sleep so last night I decided to ditch the swaddling cold turkey and see how she would do. I expected her to be upset with the unfamiliar sleeping conditions so I decided to do it when I knew I didn't have to go back to work for a few days, just in case I ended up being up with her all night. Well, apparently I was worried for nothing because SHE. DID. AWESOME!! It seems she was more than ready to be free of the swaddle because not only did she sleep well during the night, she napped without it easily today as well. Why didn't she just say so in the first place?? =)

On another note, I was downloading some pictures of Hailey from my camera and something struck me...I'm not in any of them! Out of all the zillions of pictures we have taken of Hailey since she was born, I have only a handful of pictures of us together! Since I am the one who is always grabbing the camera for a photo op (unless my mom is around, she's a picture snapping maniac!), by default, I don't end up in any of them. I don't want to have to tell Hailey when she's older, "Yes honey, I promise I was around when you were little, I'm just behind the camera." So, I need to make more of an effort to hand the camera to someone else every once in a while...like tonight!