Fun with Friends

Before we left to go on the Singles Beach retreat (see two previous posts), we kept our friend Clara for the day. Hailey is only one day older than Clara and it is so interesting to see them interact with each other. Here are a few snapshots from our day.

And they're off!

Hailey giving Clara a kiss while she was trying to eat a snack. I don't think she appreciated it too much. They were hilarious with their snacks. They each had their own snack cup with the same thing in it, but when one of them would put it down to do something else, the other one would pick it up and start eating it.

They each had to have something to push outside, and neither one wanted the toy lawn mower. They started like this, but Clara ended up with the shopping cart. Hailey just wanted to carry her baby.

 This one makes me laugh. Clara figured out how to get into the bathroom and unrolled the toilet paper. Then she tried to roll it back up! Hailey has yet to figure that one out yet.

Hailey taught Clara how to take all of the DVDs off of the shelf. What a good friend...

The girls before naptime. Clara layed in the floor and Hailey decided to lay on top of her and say "night night". They both took good naps that day.

I love seeing Hailey grow and learn to play with her friends. It is so sweet! I'm sure we'll have many more play dates like this in the future.

Caswell- Part 2

So I left on with Saturday night... Sunday morning a certain someone woke up a little too early for my liking. I guess she was just excited to give me a birthday kiss. Ha! So she got to have breakfast in bed with Daddy. Don't be fooled; I didn't get to go back to bed, I got a nice shower instead.

Even if she does wake up early, she sure is cute!

Walking with Poppi on the way to breakfast.

She had a ball with these two packs of tissues that morning in the cafeteria at breakfast. She slid them on the floor, clapped them together, put them on different tables and just carried them around. It's the little things... I might have to start giving her rags to mop the floor with ;)

Ryan's mom and dad got me a birthday cake and ice cream that afternoon. We all ate some after beach time for Ryan and I and a nap for Hailey. She loved it of course. But I can't blame her; it was yummy!

That night we had BBQ on the lawn outside. It was so fun, minus the tiny little biting gnats and swooping sea gulls trying to get everyone's food. Hailey walked around and layed down on anyone's blanket she could find and said "night, night". Hilarious! Then she decided to sit / stand in other people's chairs. That girl is not shy!

mooching off of Daddy's plate

sitting in Olivia's chair (one of the other Life Class teacher's kids)

Then my not-shy little one decided to interrupt a game of corn hole. And wasn't too happy when I removed her.

We came back home on Monday. Hailey did a little better in the car than on the way down. The fun part for me was getting to stop and have lunch with our leadership council. We ate at a place called Elijah's in Wilmington. So good! While we were waiting on our food Hailey and I decided to walk out on the board walk by the river.
We looked at the fish

and smelled lots of flowers.

Here is sweet girl trying to entertain herself in the car with Mommy's sunglasses. She would point and say "gasses" (glasses) and then see herself in them and say "Hannah!" (Hailey). So cute!

We got home and my little helper decided to help me unpack, and by help I mean sit in an empty suitcase and eat frozen peas. I love her!

We had an awesome weekend at the Singles Beach Retreat. Looking forward to next year already!

Caswell- Part 1

This past weekend (Memorial Day) our church had their Singles Beach Retreat to Fort Caswell in Oak Island, NC. It was so much fun! We went last year, but it was right after Ryan had started as the Singles pastor and Hailey was so little that, honestly, it was a little overwhelming. This year was totally different. It was so fun and refreshing to get to spend time with the people that have become our friends over the past year, hear wonderful worship and great teaching. I have a ton of pictures from the weekend of course, so I'll have to break it up into two posts...

Thursday afternoon we started by going to the church to load up the vans for the retreat. Hailey was a great helper...She found a soccer ball and was entertained the entire time!

She looks more like a little girl and less like a baby!

 Hailey slept for about the first hour of our trip...not quite what I was hoping for. So the rest of the time I ended up in the back trying to entertain her. She was not having it. Finally, I let her watch some Praise Baby on Daddy's phone and there was silence. Ahhhh, silence!

 After we unloaded everything at Fort Caswell, we went out to dinner with the Singles Council (leadership team). We went to a fun little place on the water called Fishy Fishy. Hailey loved getting walked around to see the scenery, but didn't enjoy sitting in the high chair so much. Luckily, Mimi and Poppi had already arrived to help!

making the fish face for her picture

The next day, Friday, we spent most of the day setting up for the retreat. Hailey had a blast with Mimi and Poppi! Poppi taught her how to feed the sea gulls and she just laughed and laughed.

giving them a kiss

I was actually able to help this year! I wasn't needed for feedings and such like last year. It was such a blessing to have Ryan's parents there so I could spend time with friends.

Susan, me and Kiale at the resgistration table

That night we went to dinner with our Life Class, sans Hailey. She stayed with Mimi and Poppi; I'm telling you, I didn't know what to do with myself without having a little attachment. It was so weird!

Saturday we played outside a lot. Somehow a game of "Homerun Derby" got started between the guys and ended up with a wiffle ball, bat and football up in a tree. They got them out, but the fun really stopped when the wiffle ball and then a tennis ball got split in half. They were serious!

Hailey walked around, picked flowers and gave kisses!

At dinner, she played with another little girl's baby doll and had her own personal entertainer!

Hailey and Elizabeth

"Eyes"

Saturday night the retreat officially began...see why I broke it up into two posts?!

Just So I Don't Forget

I haven't been doing monthly posts since Hailey turned one but there are a few things I don't want to forget.

• Hailey's climbing- I think that has been fairly well documented... If I leave her little chair in front of the couch and walk out of the room to do anything, she is on the couch in a heartbeat. She has figured out how to step on things to get to whatever is higher now too.
• Sleeping- We moved to one nap a day around 14 1/2 months. It was a tough transition, and still is some days, but I'm now getting about a 2 hour nap almost everyday. She has been easier to put to sleep at night and is sleeping more soundly through the night too.

• Talking- The girl talks constantly! Words I hear most often are: Mama, Dada, Bear, Bobo (stuffed dog), "papa" (paci), juice, "milp" (milk), Elmo, "Gogo" (Grover), help, girl, baby, socks, "pea" (please), hi, bye bye, open, pull, hot, cold, bite, more, play, sit. night night and the list goes on. I love that she calls Mack, my nephew, "Map". Any time we are close to the oven she says "hot" and when we open the refrigerator or freezer she says "cold". She will repeat just about anything you say including words like "nasty" "poop" and "hiney".  Lately if you ask her where something is she will say "I no?", shrug her shoulder and put her hand in the air. It is absolutely precious! If you say "I love you", Hailey's response is "night night". When she says her name it sounds like Hannah.
• Smarty Pants-  Hailey can say all kinds of animal sounds: cat, dog, pig, snake, sheep, owl, lion, bunny (hop hop). She is beginning to name lots of them too. I have a barn game on my phone and she has surprised me with how many animals she can recognize including donkey (for a while she called it "dada") and even goat. She can also show you where her eyes, ears, nose, belly button, mouth, hair, toes, feet and teeth are. She will show you where your tongue is but not her own.
• Books- still loves reading and has memorized so many books! Before I turn the pages she names something on the next one. For example, we have a book where there is a spider on one page. She pointed it out one day and I said "Spider. That makes mommy say EEEK" and now when we get close to that page she says "eeek". Most times if you ask her to find a certain book she can: Noah, the owl book and Elmo being the most popular.

• Pictures- Hailey loves to look at photographs and can name a lot of people in them. One day she was looking at a maternity picture of Ryan and I and pointed to Ryan and said "dada". I said "that's right and who is that", pointing to myself. She said "girl". Ha! She's done that a few times since then too.
• People- Hailey is getting more comfortable around other people, like our friends at church and in the neighborhood. Several times she has walked up to our neighbors (who are pregnant or just had a baby) and hold out her arms to be picked up. She is more comfortable with our friends at church too. She will walk around our Life Class classroom when I bring her up there and talk to people and make animal sounds for them. She likes when Jared plays the guitar for her. She has started to blow kisses at other people too. Daddy gets a little jealous sometimes. Ha!
• Kids- Hailey is starting to interact more with other kids. When we go on our walks in the park with friends, Hailey and Clara (who is her age) now pass graham crackers back and forth to each other from their strollers. They "talk" to each other too. It is so cute!

I know this might not be interesting or entertaining for anyone but me (and a few family members), but I don't want to forget this age. I'm loving it!

Last Week in Pictures

It seems like our weeks have been getting busier and busier and I'm slacking on the blogging. So here is our week in pictures.

On our walk today Hailey wanted to carry her baby doll. And then she started giving her kisses. So sweet!

Helping Mommy sweep the kitchen.

 First taste of a popscicle

Chillin in her car with her sunglasses

First peanut butter and jelly sandwich. She loved it!

My mom sent Hailey a baby bottle for her dolls. Here she is feeding them for the first time...in a box. She played in that thing for hours!

While I was in the shower one day Hailey got into the tissues and decorated our bathroom floor. She was so proud of herself and I couldn't be mad at her. It was too cute, so I took a picture instead!

Playing in her water table. She didn't really care about it. She would rather carry around a bucket of ice and eat it. Seriously. She asks for "ice" every time we go outside.

Visit from Mimi, Poppi and Kristin. These are the only pictures I got... She was quite the little ham during their visit.

I promise, better posts coming soon!

Fun on the Farm

This past weekend Evan and Caroline (or "Ernie" and "Ca-line" as Hailey called them) came to visit! On Friday we decided to go to a friend's farm and go fishing. Well, let's be honest, I was going to chase Hailey and the others were going to fish...just the way I wanted it!

We stopped by to see the animals when we first got there. They have lots of chickens, goats, rabbits and a few ducks. Hailey was fascinated by them.

Mommy even got brave and let her touch them thru the fence. She laughed when they licked her hand.

Daddy let her touch a worm before the fishing began. I love her face in this one! Just like her Mama.

 Hailey found this little bunny statue sitting by the pond and kept going over and telling it "hi" and trying to feed it grass and leaves. It was hilarious.

She had a picnic lunch while the others fished.

Caroline even caught one (or four) and Daddy let her touch it!

She also got to play with some of Daddy's fake worms. She loved those!

We tried to help Daddy fish, but didn't last long.

It was boring, so we took pictures instead.

Before we left, Hailey got her first ride on a tire swing.

We had a great time at the farm and everyone took a good nap that afternoon!