Little Sister's Days

So, I've had several people ask how Hailey is doing with school starting.  How she likes the boys gone all day.  She stays busy...boy, has she been super active recently.  She's climbing more, on the move more, and into more. 

Hailey has been going to child watch at the YMCA several times a week.  She loves the women who work there and they truly seem to care for her, too.  She loves seeing babies and it gives her an opportunity to be around children younger than 10 & 6 :-)  She also loves playing outside.  Mom gets her workout in and Hailey gets plenty of attention and socialization!

She chats nonstop to herself, her dolls, her "puppy", and of course, mom.  She loves puzzles and taking her babies and her "puppy" for walks. 

Hailey seems to love hanging out with mom, but the boys get greeted with the biggest smile I've ever seen...I know she's just as happy to see them come home!

I'll let you see the rest in pictures....

She sneakily waits, planning her attack.

She "reads" books all day.

She turns off the XBox...in the middle of the game...and then gives you the look "what? I didn't do it".

She steals Daddy's pillow when he gets up to leave the room.

She walks her puppy throughout the house.

She generally walks backwards the entire time...not sure why, but I guess we can mark it off of our PT list :-)

She also loves stealing the iPad and remote control :-)

Is it me or is she adorable?!?!

Vacation or Therapy?

I always worry when Hailey has a break in therapy or a change in our schedule.  I don't know why, but I'm always worried she will regress or not progress in areas.  Vacation was fun for all of us, but by just having fun and being with family Hailey had LOADS of therapy!

Last year we had issues with Hailey having sensory issues at Disney.  She didn't like the shows when the rooms would get dark.  She didn't like loud music.  This year, she watched the shows, danced and threw her hands in the air and she giggled.

Hailey LOVES music.  No matter where she is, if she hears music, she has to move.  Disney was no different (there is a LOT of music).   Here are two examples, one in a stroller and one on the loose.  The night one (it was about 10 p.m.), she couldn't decide if she wanted to dance or run, so she did both :-)

Hailey did a LOT of walking at Disney...on different surfaces:  grass, sand, in the water, up inclines, down inclines and up stairs.  She followed big cousins, she followed little cousins.  She is almost running.  She has the fastest walk of any little kids I've ever seen (especially if she thinks she has something she's not supposed to have or if she thinks you are chasing her).  The "run" is accompanied with the funniest giggle you have ever heard!


I was amazed at how verbal Hailey was at Disney.  She imitated sounds and tried to say more words than ever.  I don't know if it was all the extra people, the excitement of being somewhere else.  Who knows and I don't care...it was awesome!!!  She has continued that at home and has been increasing both verbal and signed vocabulary.  Her communication followed suit.  She started requesting more items and did much better at getting her point across...both positively and negatively.  I think all of us got a few doses of her "no, no, no".  She found out quickly that signing "cookie please" to her aunt would lead her straight to a cookie display where she requested the same from the cashier.  She also learned how to be sneaky.  When the cookie was given to Hailey before dinner, she quickly shoved all of it into her mouth as mom approached.  Such a character!!!

Cookie?  What cookie?

Hailey wanted to spend a lot of time with Aunt Staci that week....I wonder how many cookies she ate :-)

She also signed with strangers.  One morning she started signing cookie to the woman sitting beside her on the bus to a park.  The woman asked Hailey why she was asking for a cookie so early in the morning.  My sister-in-law was surprised that the woman knew what Hailey was signing.  The woman chatted with Hailey and asked her aunt questions.  As we were getting off of the bus, she told me that she was a special education teacher for children ages 3-6.  She was impressed with Hailey's social, verbal and signing skills.  As I said yesterday, she added signs too.  She came up with new signs for 8 family members and kept using all her old signs.

Vacation turned out to be a huge boost of speech therapy mixed in with bursts of physical therapy.  I do think, however, we were all tired by the end of the week with "What's that" and "Who's that"?  She insisted on high-fiving and waving to as many as she could.  There are a lot of strangers at Disney and apparently, our social butterfly thought she needed to meet them all!

Can't wait to see how she reacts when we go back!!!

Disney Part 2....(Photo bomb)

This was Hailey's second trip to Disney.  Her first trip was right before her first Heart-anniversary.  We celebrated the one year anniversary of a fixed heart, Ian's 5th birthday, Brayden's 9th birthday and Jason and I's 10 year anniversary during our trip to Walt Disney World last year.  It was a celebration...the icing on the cake trip.  It was just the 5 of us.

This year, there were 19 of us (yes, you read that right and most of the time we are sane, but some might think we are crazy!).  My husband's parents, siblings, spouses, and our nieces and nephews met us in Florida for 9 days of very hot, sticky weather.  Some may say we are obsessed with the land of the Mouse.  My in-laws have gone there somewhere between 25-30 times in their lives.  I went for the first time when I was in my 20s and I think I've been almost a dozen times already.  At times it can get a little stressful with 19 of us, but it is always good to spend time with my nieces and nephews and the kids LOVE spending so much time with all of their family from Indiana.  Hailey even came up with her own signs for the family members names that she can't say.  I asked her speech therapist if that was "normal" (you know how I hate that word!)...she said no, but it didn't surprise her with Hailey :-)  She is still using them two weeks after vacation to ask for family members.  (Some of them are funny, so I almost feel like I should apologize to them!)

We "might" have had special manicures and pedicures for the occasion. 

Fortunately, the flight to Orlando was uneventful and everyone was fabulous!  Hailey even slept half of the flight!

Hailey did well in the hotel without all of her "toys" because we all know that most of the time she is playing with dishes, shoes, boxes, etc.  It was officially her last time to sleep in a pack-n-play.  She had about 2 inches clearance both directions.  She slept good so that is all that matters :-)  She felt, however, that it was better for shoe storage than her bed!

Thank goodness, Hailey slept good at night and she napped good.  We were very excited about that...except for the naps that she took "on" Dad.

We did 5 days at the park and a few "off" days in between.  The first day we headed to Hollywood Studios and Magic Kingdom.

Ready for our first park!

The three little ones hanging out with Papaw while everyone else rides Tower of Terror

Ian & AJ with a green army man....yes, we all wear matching colors at the park!

Waiting for Jedi Training and to fight Darth Vader

Apparently, dinner was very exciting that night!

First day got the best of the little three!

The girls all took Hailey to breakfast to see Alice in Wonderland and Mary Poppins.  I think Hailey would fit in perfect if Disney decides to add a mischievous princess :-)  The boys all went to a character breakfast with Mickey, Goofy & Donald.  We ended the day with smores on the beach of our hotel and a swim.

Hanging out with Aunt Staci right before smores.

Roasting marshmallows

Hailey very unsure of the texture of the sand

You always have to worry when Jason and Scott are both smiling...poor Dylan in between them...generally means they are up to something.

Despite the heat, the weather was gorgeous.

Hailey cheering after her trip down the slide.

She tried to break through the fence when the dumping bucket scared her!

Cousin Dylan rescued her!

Someone get me out of here before it dumps again!

 

There are no words for this one....

Ha!  Mamaw will save me :-)

The next day was...yes, you guessed it...yellow day!  We spent time at Epcot and Magic Kingdom again.

The "big" kids

Can you tell that she "thinks" she's cute :-)

At least the boys will take good pics with the characters...even if it is Minnie Mouse!

Ian with his favorite...a baked potato

 Apparently day 4 was boring and uneventful because I didn't take any pictures :-)

Day 5 we headed back to Epcot and Hollywood Studios.  The boys love going to the SciFi Dine in Theater restaurant.  They love watching the black and white movies while they eat and they think it is cool to eat in the "car".  Mamaw and Papaw joined us for lunch. 

Hailey eyeing Papaw's ice cream sundae!

Unfortunately, the girl has a sweet tooth!

 I took Hailey to see Disney Junior Live after lunch.  The girl was in heaven...Mickey Mouse, Sofia the First and her favorite...Doc McStuffins.  She had so much fun..she squealed and yelled Doc!

Look at the pure joy on her face!

Yes, she likes attention.  Yes...that was green day...Hailey had an early "incident" and had to ditch her green shirt.

Yes, she's a ham, too!

Hailey never lacked for someone to entertain her or someone for her to entertain.  She is quite the social butterfly (most of the time).  She had to say Hi, wave and high five everyone she saw.  She loved the crowds and waved like "she" was the parade!  

Hanging with Dad on the bus

Ian is always fun to play with

For our "blue" day, we spent the entire day at Magic Kingdom.  We even got Ian to ride Space Mountain this year.  

Catching a ride on Papaw's shoulders

We had to take a picture of Aunt Kerri's door (the one on the right)...yes, she is a little shorter than the rest of us.

Cousin Dylan is always one of her faves to hang out with.

Brayden & Ian at our dinner at the Polynesian resort - Ohana.  One of our regular faves.

Hailey showing her disapproval of dinner.  This was the only meal she wouldn't eat and I thought it would be her favorite!

Ian ate better here than he did all week.

They brought her a "special" plate of kid favorites.

Coconut races around the restaurant.

Ian trying to eat everyone's ice cream by himself.

Some days, Disney was just too much for our little girl.

Dumbo!

I liked the way this new addition looked against the dark, cloudy sky.

I only made out for a run one day that week.  I forgot how exhausting Disney can be with a group of professionals :-)  The sunrise was worth the lack of sleep!!

Ian and Hailey passing the time until we left for the airport.

Brayden chose technology over crayons.

Unfortunately, the trip home was not as smooth.  We spent 7 1/2 hours in the Orlando airport.  Ughhh....luckily the kids were troopers and didn't complain (Mom did enough of that for all of them!)

 As always, we had a great trip and within a few days, we started discussing/planning our next trip to Disney World.  The adults never seem to tire of it...will the kids follow our footsteps or tell us they have had enough.  I'm sure as they get older, they won't "enjoy" the matching shirts, but with 19 of us...it makes finding one another so much easier!!!  Maybe next time, Hailey will actually enjoy the characters.  I'm sure by that time the boys will be rolling their eyes at them or refusing pictures!

Oh...we did get to enjoy lots of great food (if you don't count the one night with raw steaks....)

This was Hailey's special plate the night she refused to eat...no, none of it was healthy, but at least she ate a little!