Smarty Pants

Can you guess how this ended up?

If you said with Mommy vacuuming puffs off of the floor, you're right!

So, I was trying to get a picture of Hailey to send to the Grandmas and she was playing with the puffs container. She got it open using her bottom teeth and I thought it was an accident. So I put the lid back on and gave it back to her. She did it again! And then spilled them on the floor...Think she wanted a snack?!

Weekend with MK

My sister, Mary Katherine and her fiancee, Justin, came to Raleigh this weekend. He had an interview with Duke for a residency so Mary Katherine got to hang out with Hailey and I! Here is our fun weekend in pictures... (because I know that's what everyone wants to see anyways!)

Hailey trying to get MK to play with her...playing peek-a-boo around the computer.

She was happy when Mary Katherine let her play on her computer some.

Mary Katherine and Justin babysat Hailey one night because we had an event at church. This was the picture she sent me of Hailey eating dinner. Apparently they had lots of fun...until bedtime and then Hailey wanted her mommy. We'll get better with babysitters one day right? On a side note, Hailey pretty much refuses to let us feed her baby food anymore. She wants to do it herself. So I am now taking suggestions on good, soft finger foods.

These are all pictures from this morning before church:
Justin teaching Hailey dental hygiene. Hailey was fascinated with the sound of his electric toothbrush and was so excited when I gave her hers to use (or play with).

MK teaching Hailey how to put on make-up.

Sweet girl ready for church wearing a dress that used to be Mary Katherine's when she was a baby

And a few other random pictures from the weekend:
First walk in the backpack carrier

Hailey decided she wanted a clementine...peel and all!

Oh how I love weekends with family!

10 months

I'm only a day late...

Hailey turned 10 months old yesterday. I can't believe it's only two months until my sweet girl turns 1!

Hailey weighs around 20 pounds and is wearing mostly 12 month clothes. (She can still wear 9 month ones but most of her winter clothes are 12 months so we're going with it.) She is wearing a size 3 shoe and size 3 diapers. She still nurses about 5 times a day, eats 3 solid meals and an afternoon snack. Hailey goes to bed around 8 pm and wakes up anywhere between 6 and 7 in the morning. (unless we're traveling and then she wakes up at 5 am. Not fun.) She has gotten into the habit of taking a good hour to hour and a half morning nap (yay!) and then will take one or two 30 minute naps in the afternoon.

The biggest news this month is that we have a walker! Hailey started taking a few steps here and there a week or so ago and really started walking more and more this past week. She will walk to things and around the room if she's not in a big hurry. If she wants to get somewhere quick, then she'll take off crawling. She's a bit impatient! (just like her Mama, ha!) She's not a full-time walker yet, but it won't be long. She loves to walk behind her push toys too.

I love this picture of her because it shows her doing something she loves...screaming. Hailey has perfected her little high-pitch scream / shriek this month too. It is ear piercing.

Hailey's favorite pass time is still reading. She loves to bring / throw us a book and crawl into our laps to read to her.

We have a little Miss Independent girl on our hands. Hailey loves to feed herself and it is getting harder and harder for us to feed her baby food. So far she loves diced veggies, any kind of cheese, cheerios, puffs, pancakes, monkey bread...pretty much anything we can make small enough for her to pick up and eat.

This month Hailey has also started to play more and more with us. She will roll / throw a ball with us, pretend to feed us her play food or toys, and she LOVES peek-a-boo. She will play peek-a-boo around anything she can: the shower curtain, any door, curtains, blankets, tables, etc.

She can say "mama, dada, Bobo, hi and occasionally bye". She has also perfected waving bye-bye. Sometimes she kind of does the sign for "more". We're working on that one.

With all of the new things this month, I don't know what is in store next! We love you Hailey Grace!

Christmas 2012- part 2

After we celebrated Christmas with my family in the morning, we traveled down the road to celebrate with Ryan's family. I was even worse about taking pictures here. I blame it on the fact of trying to keep Hailey out of the Christmas tree and sparkly ornaments, helping her open presents and then having to put her down for a nap in the middle of it all. She got a lot of cute clothes and toys at the Epley house, including a walk-behind toy that she has already worn out! That thing made many a lap around their house and now ours. I think she'll be walking before too long!

Here are a few snapshots of what we did with the Epleys:

We practiced walking

played with Mimi's Christmas decorations

notice the walking toy; she realized she could use it to get to things she wanted to play with

went shopping

played with her new toys (this is a remote, so she will stop stealing ours! Ha!)

discovered our love for whipped cream

went out to eat

We had so much fun, we were worn out every night!

We had a blast celebrating Christmas and our trip to Charlotte!

Christmas 2012- part 1

Before Christmas gets too far gone, I need to do a post about it. Christmas Eve we went to service with my family and then got together with Ryan's extended family for dinner. This is the only picture I took all night of Hailey and her cousin (second cousin, I think) Maddox. Aren't they cute?!

We arrived in Charlotte on Friday for my nephew's birth and spent until Christmas morning with my family. Here are a few things we did...

Read lots of books with Mary Katherine

got a cute new paci (how perfect?!)

practiced walking behind Grams' basket (don't worry, she got walking toys for Christmas)

found and played with Tucker's trains

played with Grams' Christmas decorations (she LOVED this little snowman that sang and danced, perfect for her!)

explored the Christmas tree

and played with everyone's presents.

Ryan said she's gonna play the flute like me! Look at that form already!

Unfortunately, all of the pictures of Hailey actually opening her presents are on Dad's camera. The first thing she opened was a book and after that had no interest in opening any more. She just wanted to read the same book over and over. Unless she saw that someone else got a book, then she wanted to read that one too. (MK got a cookbook and Hailey really wanted her to read it to her. Too funny!)



We had such a great time with my family, but it didn't end there...

Seeing Old Friends

While we were in Charlotte we had to opportunity to go to Hickory Grove and see some old friends. We saw a lot of people but unfortunately I didn't take nearly enough pictures. It was so fun for our friends to get to see Hailey and how much she's grown. Here are a few pics of people that we saw. (These are a few of the guys that Ryan mentored in the College Ministry)

Ben. "I don't know how to hold a baby!" (I think he did pretty good)

Evan making the same face as Hailey

Matt

We also saw Cailtin, Cody, Rachel, Jackie, Anna, Jud, the Woodys, Hamiltons, Wagoners, and so many more. We were able to attend church there on Sunday morning and for Christmas Eve so you can imagine the friends we saw. I hate that I didn't get more pictures. After we left church Hailey was worn out! Can you tell?!

I also got some cute pictures of Hailey in front of the Christmas tree, but they are on my dad's camera. Oh well!

Baby Mack

One of the reasons we traveled to Charlotte as early as we did before Christmas was because my sister was having a baby on December 21st and we wanted to be there. So we packed up early Friday morning (the 21st) and drove to Charlotte to visit them in the hospital. It was Hailey's first experience with a baby. She wasn't too impressed...until I started holding him and then she got a little jealous. Ha!

Introducing Mack!

Grams and Gramps with two of their three grandchildren. Unfortunately Tucker (Mack's big brother) got sick right before he was born so he couldn't go to the hospital to meet him.)

The Epleys meeting Mack

Oooh! What's that? He looks like my baby doll.

But my book is more interesting.

So sweet!