Just Like Mommy or Daddy???

Mommy


Hailey

Luke

Hailey

I think that she looks just like Luke these days, especially with that curly hair.

Hailey's Christmas Dance

Merry Christmas

Thanks, Fanara Family! I love my new bike. Mama said that I have to play with it outside now, but it was pretty cool to ride it around the house. I'm soooo good at it that I won't let anyone helps me anymore. I just speed around on my own. Now, if only I could figure out how to use the pedals.


Thanks, Auntie Ann, Melissa, and Joey. This Magna Doodle is super cool. One of my favorite things is to guess what Mama is drawing on it. It's amazing how well I can guess when everyone else can't figure out what it is she's drawn. Maybe we can play when I come to visit. Miss you guys!

We would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and thank you for our wonderful presents. We haven't opened everything yet because we are savoring each and every new experience. We'll have some more pictures up here or on our Flickr site soon. Merry Christmas!!!!

My House Defies Newton

The first of Newton’s breakthrough laws of motion is “an object at rest tends to stay at rest; an object in motion tends to stay in motion.” It’s hard to imagine a time when that was breakthrough and even harder to imagine that I remembered that without looking on the internet (but I did for the most part, thank you 12^th grade physics).

Unfortunately, my house defies this law every single day. No, we don’t live in zero gravity; we live in zero sanity. I have tried to create a house where everything has a place, but on any given day objects move about seemingly on their own. I can’t imagine anything that could cause such chaos other than maybe a toddler. What else could create a scenario in which everything is tucked snuggly in drawers and cabinets one night and then within 24 hours, there’s a comb in the kitchen, a spoon in the bedroom, and a sock in the office. Well, that last one might be Luke, but still, those items do not belong in those places. I didn’t put them there. No rational person would leave their comb in the middle of the kitchen floor or move a baby potty to the center of the hallway where people need to walk. And yet, every day I fight the same battle with objects that seem to have been put in motion by some unseen force. At least I’ve learned to hide the objects that I need to find in a pinch, like keys, credit cards, makeup, and toothbrushes. I guess for the time being, everything else will be subject to unforeseen and unexpected motion.

Learning Lab

This child has become like a learning laboratory every minute. She doesn’t want you to hand her something; she wants you to hand her something and tell her its name. She doesn’t want to read a story; she wants to point to things in the book and tell you what they are. She doesn’t even want to eat; she wants to raise each piece of food in the air so that you can tell her it’s a bean or corn or whatever. She is supremely interested in everything around her. It’s kind of unbelievable how fast she learns things. Her favorite new words are octopus, your welcome, Julia (the little girl in her class), and yellow. Oh and did I mention that she sings Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star from start to finish. It’s craziness. Where did this little person come from? And where has my sweet baby gone?

School Update

Hailey is receiving rave reviews from her teacher, parents are stopping me in the halls to tell me how sweet she is, and she is eating and sleeping like a champ throughout the day. And yet, we have screaming and crying when I drop her off. The good news is that I can hear her stop crying by the time I reach the exterior doors now. It’s a step in the right direction. All in all, things are going about as I expected for the second week. Well, with one exception. Let me take a moment to tell you about Monday morning.

On Monday, all was fairly right with the world except that Luke was driving in separately (we normally carpool). So, I went to drop Hailey off by myself. No big deal except as I’m getting her out of the car, I inadvertently closed my thumb in the front door. Now, we’re not talking the tip of my thumb, like a normal person, but the area right below the knuckle. I’ve never done that before. Have you? I was so surprised that the door actually latched that I tried to pull my thumb out several times before it dawned on me to reach around and pull the handle. It must of have been really funny to watch. Anyway, the thumb is totally recovered now, but the whole scene was just ridiculous. There I was juggling a toddler and all of her crap in one hand and trying to open doors with a swollen, blue thumb in the other all the while trying not to lose it when Hailey started her screaming/crying routine. It was a bad scene, but I hope imagining how silly it looked gives you a chuckle. I’ll definitely be laughing about it for a long long time.

A Brief Interlude to Solicit Advice

I’m going to take a break from our Hailey School Saga (although it continues) to share with you a brief but amusing story from my own adventures. Yesterday, I decided that it would be a good day to try to get contacts. I’ve never worn contacts and hate having things near my eye so I can’t imagine why I thought this was a good idea. Picture me looking up at the optometrist approaching with this innocent little lens. Now picture the struggle that ensues as he starts prying my eye open to put it in. He keeps saying, “open both your eyes!” And, I would think to myself “they are open” only to realize that they were indeed clenched shut. This happened about 10 times before he finally got both lenses in. It was really an absurd scene. What kind of a moron can’t open her eyes I thought afterwards. Anyway, it was kind of like the Friends episode where Rachel has to put drops in her eyes.

So, the contacts are not at all as comfortable as I imagined. In fact, I found them totally irritating and itchy, but I’m determined to give it an honest try so I do not run home and take them out. On the contrary, one decided to fall out on it’s own (with maybe a little help from me rubbing my irritating and itchy eyes). At this point, I’m sitting on the floor playing with Hailey only to find this contact coming out of my eye ball. I swoop her up, run to the bathroom, and convince myself that I must immediately get the other lens out before I end up with migraines, eye infections, and other seemingly unlikely repercussions. Of course, as I’m fiddling with my eye in the mirror, Hailey decides that she should start sticking her finger in her eye. This, I thought, was a perfect time for her to go to bed. After putting her down a half an hour before her bedtime, I continued to struggle to get the lens out. It took about 10 minutes, which doesn’t sound like long; however, I was repeatedly poking myself in the eye during that time, which makes it seem much longer. Needless to say, I’m back to glasses today.

If you happen to be a successful contact wearer and have any words of advice, I’d certainly appreciate it. I have until Monday before I have to tell the eye doctor whether I’m going for glasses or contacts. You can imagine which way I’m leaning.

Hailey's Fourth Day Drop Off

I don't want to go to school today!

I'm really not feeling like smiling right now because I know you're leaving soon.

Fine, just this one smile, but then I'm going to scream again. Cheeeese!

A Rough Transition

Well, after her great success the first day at her new school, things have gotten a bit choppy. She’s definitely realized now that Mommy is going to leave her there, and she’s not really cool with that anymore. So, the past two mornings there has been much crying and gnashing of teeth at drop off time. Yesterday I got a report that she was “moody” all day. I saw a bit of that this morning when she was happy as a clam reading a book and then stood up and started crying for no reason at all. I finally caved and let her have her binky before handing her off to her teacher. I’m utterly depressed about the whole thing and missing her old daycare terribly. In my mind, I know that this is the right place for her to be, and it’s a great opportunity for her to get into a private school. Unfortunately, that doesn’t make it any easier at drop off time. At this point, I’m trying to will both of us to just make it through the week.

Working Already

When I went to pick Hailey up at school, she was being escorted around on a little truck by another little girl. She quickly relinquished her queeny position, dismissed her minions, and ran over to see me. I picked her up for only a few seconds before she started saying "down, down, down." She immediately went over to what was her favorite toy...a vacuum (she's clearly not my real daughter). It was several minutes before I could pull her away to go home. All in all, a successful first day!

First Day of New School

Today is Hailey’s first day at her new school. I’m very excited for her to meet new friends, but am also nervous, as any Mommy would be. She’s clearly the most advanced one in the class, and I swear I’m not being biased. She can eat by herself, say please/thank you, drink milk from a cup. These are all things that the teacher was astonished by, but I thought, “Hello! She’s 16 months old.” Then, I was telling other people at work about it, and they were astonished too. Is she that advanced?

I’m only bragging now because yesterday I was getting a bit nervous. Hailey was running around in socks and fell face first into the wooden leg of the chair. Ouch! She had a huge bruise under her eye. I mean, is that not just our luck? Her first day of school, and she has a black eye! Oh well. She recovered rather quickly, and I don’t think that anyone at school was really concerned, particularly because the bruise turned out to be tiny. Here’s a picture of the bruise from last night. I’ll try to take some more pictures when we go to pick her up. Hopefully, there won’t be any tears. There weren’t any when we dropped her off, by the way. She's such a star!