Mommy Forgetfulness...

 I find it amazing that I have now had three children...they all go through the same phases/stages but yet, I'm still surprised when Hailey enters a new stage and say, "oh I forgot about that".  Hailey went from struggling to move 3 inches this week to moving across the floor into another room, behind furniture, into everything in the time that you turn your head to pick up something or run into another room.  I forgot about children's curiosity and they seem to be born with knowing what is forbidden (and that is what they head for first!)  I guess that is why women continue to have children....we know labor is painful but we forget the pain :-)

We had a low-key weekend.  Brayden had a full social schedule and the rest of us entertained one another.  Here are a few pics from the weekend.

Ready for big brother's game.

One last squishy face :-)

Basketball games and church can sure wear a girl out :-)

This one is blurry because she moved faster than I thought she could!

Hey guys...let me play!

C'mon...please?

No, really...I want to play!

Hailey seems to have gained a new sense of humor.  She now thinks almost everything is funny and frequently looks at us and cackles like she thinks she is funny too.  She is more into the boys and their toys (but, of course, they would rather go in another room most of the time.)  Fortunately, Hailey's appetite is still going strong despite the 2 teeth that are trying so hard to move through her gums.  She is down to only eating anything remotely close to baby food in the morning.  Partly, because we don't have a lot of time and partly, because she needs her to eat her daily dose of prunes.  Knock on wood, she hasn't refused much.  I think her favorite food is still beef stew and anything Mexican.  She is still quite found of Chipotle.  I figure I will keep giving her everything until she hits that dreaded toddler stage where she starts refusing foods (that is one stage I remember with both children!).

We are still working on moving from army crawling to 4 point hands and knees crawling.  We are doing a lot of kneeling and reaching (sides and center) to keep building core strength.  We are also doing a lot of sitting and reaching.  Clapping is getting closer.  Hailey has a habit of when we ask her to do patty cake, she will grab our hands and clap our hands together.  She also does this when we ask her how big is Hailey.  She raises our hands for "so big".  I'm getting so frustrated with a straw that I'm ready to recruit someone else to teach her.  Sorry, if that makes me a bad mom, but it is wearing my patience :-) 

Hard to believe that baby girl will be one in 40 some days!  She has a lot of big appointments coming up in the next couple of months.  She has another follow up audiology appointment.  My mommy heart can't take many more of these that are "inconclusive".  I'm requesting if she fails this one again that they try to do the ABR while she is sedated for her echo in February to check her heart.  I'm praying they can do them both at the same time.  I'm very much against having her sedated an extra time for her ears.  We know she can hear...we just don't know what she can't hear.  So we have hearing, cardiology, ophthalmology, follow up at the Down syndrome clinic, a 12 month well check, and then an eval for our EI services.  These appointments always make me nervous...her ophthalmology, cardiology and audiology are a given.   I'm always terrified of bad news or something I missed medically and that I'm a bad mom because I didn't "know" it.  Her appointment at the DS clinic and her eval for EI can have the same "bad"mom feeling but more along the lines that I "didn't" do something or "didn't" work hard enough with her.  The mommy-guilt can be overwhelming and the feelings after eval can be raw.  For now, I'm going to celebrate the the strides Hailey is making and live in the moment.  I can't change the outcome of the appointments so...let's start party planning!  1 here we come!