I Can't Turn Around for a Second...

This is what happened when I turned around for a second today...literally a second, to put a bowl in the cabinet.

Life is never boring with you Hailey! I wouldn't change a thing.

15 Months

Hailey turned 15 months last Saturday (June 8th) but we just had her 15 month doctor's appointment yesterday. She weighed 21 lbs. 4 oz. (60%) and was 29 and 1/2 in. tall (20%). Her head was 44 and 1/2 cm (25%). All of her percentiles are pretty much holding steady to where they were at her 12 month appointment. Her head circumference has come up a little bit but not much.

The doctor was amazed at Hailey's speaking and vocabulary. She was impressed of all that Hailey was saying and mimicking and how much that she (the doctor) and others could understand of what she said.  She was also impressed at how Hailey communicated non-verbally. For example, at one point Hailey took my hand and said "Go. Go." and walked me over to the door of the room! She really wanted to go see the fish in the waiting room and kept doing the fish face all throughout the appointment.

Other 15 month updates:

• Hailey is still sleeping from about 7:30pm to 6:00am. We now only rock her for about 5 minutes and she goes to sleep the rest of the way by herself in her crib. I know I can't rock her forever but I miss it already! This morning when Hailey woke up she stood up in her crib and said "Dada! Dada!" for Ryan to come and get her. (He gets up with her in the mornings.) It was so sweet!
• She is still taking one nap from about 12:15 to around 2:00 or 2:30 in the afternoons. If we are out and about in the morning she almost always falls asleep in the car for about 15 minutes. 
• Hailey still loves to be read to. She now has her own little titles for her books. For example Goodnight Moon is "mouse" because she likes the mouse in it.  Baby's House is "tick tock" because of the clock. Just Like Mommy is either "eek" because of the spider or "hoo hoo" because of the owl. I love that she is understanding and remembering things!
• Hailey loves to help. If I'm folding clothes she will hand me things from the basket. The other day I handed her a towel and asked her to take it into the bathroom and she did. She put it in the bathtub; but at least it was in the bathroom! If I ask her to put something in the dirty clothes she will take it to the hamper too. 
• I can't even list all of the words she can say. See the Things I Don't Want to Forget post for a partial list. She is starting to put together a few word combinations. Sometimes when Ryan leaves for work she will say "bye bye dada" instead of just bye bye. 
• Hailey LOVES her baby dolls. She carries one around the house a lot of the time. Whenever she finds a blanket or something she can use as a blanket she puts one of her babies "night night"". We were at the park today and another little girl had brought a baby doll and Hailey was more interested in it than playing. 

That's all I can think of for now...
I can't wait to see my girl continue to grow and change!

Highlights From our Trip to Charlotte

Last Wednesday Hailey and I traveled to Charlotte for a few days. We were going for my best friend's baby shower on Saturday and decided to make it a little longer trip so we could swim in Grams' pool. Well of course it rained on and off everyday except Sunday so we didn't get to swim. Oh well... Anyways here are a few picture highlights from our trip.

Hailey giving Elmo a hug and "pat" when she woke up from her nap on the way there.

 

Mom and I decided we were going to make Hailey a dress so we went to the fabric store to buy fabric. Hailey decided she wanted to unload the shelves instead.

Giving "Map" a kiss. She was absolutely obsessed with him while we were there. She asked for him every morning.

"Das" (my dad) gave her some raspberry ice cream. I think the picture speaks for itself. She loved it!

Visiting Mimi and Beau (and Poppi)

Mimi let Hailey play her piano.

Hailey and Tucker playing with his train table. They had a love-hate relationship...well Tucker did at least. Hailey loved him. He didn't really care for the fact that she wanted all of his toys and his food.

Hailey's dress that Mom helped me make! It needs buttons and maybe a monogram on the front... But, it wasn't too hard. Maybe I can make one by myself after all...

The girls at Jackie's baby shower. I can't wait for baby Charley to get here!

Sweet girl on her 15 month birthday. I told her we were taking a picture to send to Daddy and look at the big smile that I got. She loves her daddy! It was so sweet when we got home. Ryan took her out of the car and she laid her head on his shoulder and just snuggled on him for several minutes.

My baby in church Sunday morning. She was fascinated by the lights and the screens.

We didn't make it in service too long. So we hung out in the lobby and said hi to everyone that walked by.

 I realized that I didn't take any pictures of Hailey with Julie, Mary Katherine or Justin...or really my parents either. Ahhh! One day I'll remember to take pictures of everything. Until then, you just get the highlights...

Relaxing Weekend

For the first weekend in over a month, we didn't have anything to do! May has been so crazy for us, wonderful, but crazy...We enjoyed lots of family time this weekend.

 These pictures are from earlier in the week, but I had to show how big my girl is getting. She is loving going to the park in our neighborhood. We go a few times a week and she now goes down the slide by herself, can climb the equipment by herself for the most part and loves to swing.

She's figured out how to make these two things rock when she's on them too!

And she loves to play in her car. She just found the steering wheel this week. Now she turns it and pretends she's driving.

Anyways....So Friday morning we went strawberry picking (see previous post) and just enjoyed some sweet family time with nowhere to go and nothing we had to do. Hailey and Ryan grilled out hamburgers and we played outside a lot. We went on a little walk after dinner too.

Saturday morning we, meaning Ryan while Hailey and I watched, washed my car. I thought Hailey would love the water and bubbles, she's ALL about bubbles these days, but she didn't really care. I couldn't even get her to put her sponge in the bucket. Oh well...

 When we came inside, I went upstairs to take a shower and then I saw this...melts my heart!

Daddy took us to ice cream after Hailey's nap!

Saturday night we enjoyed another quiet night at home...Just the weekend we needed!

Strawberry Picking

Friday morning we took Hailey strawberry picking. I've been wanting to take her for a while, but something kept happening and we got too busy. But this weekend was actually free for us so Friday was finally the day! We went in the morning, before it got too hot, to this little farm not too far from our house. Hailey had a blast! At first she didn't know what to do, but after she saw Ryan and I pick a few she started to say "pick" and then pull some strawberries off. Now of course she mostly smashed them with her little fingers, and she liked the white ones better than the red ones, but it was the memories that mattered.

Here are a few pictures from our adventure:

Off to the strawberry fields

Daddy had to help her actually get to the field, she was interested in everything else.

Cutie in her hat from my Aunt Mitsey...and if you're wondering, yes she has on a dress with tennis shoes because I was worried that she wouldn't be able to walk well if she had sandals on

Finding a few strawberries

At first she wouldn't put any in the bucket, she wanted to carry them all in her hands.

Then we got her to put them in the bucket and she wouldn't let it go,

She wanted to drag it all by herself!

Miss Independent

Hailey and Daddy with our loot. Someone was more interested in the berries than taking pictures.

Hailey and Mommy

We had so much fun picking strawberries. We might have to make another trip this year!

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!