Hailey Nash's Blog

What a blessing you are to our family.  I thank God each and every day for you!

It amazes me how much and how fast you are growing.  You’re articulate, curious, cautious, helpful, loving, kind, caring, and funny.  We were in Toys R Us the other day and I said “I love you Hailey”, and you replied with “I am special?!”.  It made me laugh and cry at the same time!  

You seem excited about your brother’s arrival.  You give my belly kisses and talk to him a lot.  I don’t think you have any clue what his arrival will mean for you but I am glad you are excited…at least for now.  :-)

There have been many (negative) changes at your daycare over the past few months.  After giving it MUCH thought, your father and I decided it would be best to move you to a different school.  We checked out a few and decided on the Children’s Courtyard off Glade & 121.  It’s a little bit farther but the positives will definitely be worth it:  nicer facility, more organized classrooms, more structured curriculum, more staff, more extracurricular activities, and a super cool playground!  

I am a bit nervous about introducing too much change in your life, but feel confident this is the right thing to do.  Luckily your dance class (same company and teacher) is offered at the new school so you’ll still get to see Miss Wendy once a week.  And we signed you up for gymnastics, too.  I really think you’ll enjoy that!

We went on our usually weekend morning coffee run Saturday and I drove you by the school – want to try and get you excited about the change.  All we really did was see the playground but that was enough to get you fired up!  My plan is to leave work early one day this week so we can go tour the place and introduce you to all the new teachers and kids.  You’ll start there next Tuesday (2/21/12).  

You are officially in your big girl room!  We moved your stuff over and had your furniture delivered a few weeks ago (12/3)…and you’ve been sleeping in your big girl bed ever since.  You done a great job with the transition to your new room and bed.  You love the freedom of your twin size bed but don’t take too much advantage of it.  For the most part you stay in bed from the time we put you down til the time you wake up!

It’s hard to believe how fast you are growing up!  You are speaking in full, grown up sentences.  You are so vivacious and full of life.  You are rather stubborn and opinionated though – not sure where you get that from?!  Your father, I am guessing.  :-)

You are excited about Christmas but you’re not a huge fan of Santa Clause.  We’ve tried twice now to get you in his lap but you will have no part of it.  We are trying to decide if we should force you into it and get one of those infamous screaming kid pictures or just leave it be for this year?!  We went to Interlochen and looked at Xmas lights last night and you loved it!  You were asking to see more and more lights!  We’ll have to do it again before the season is over…maybe when we are in Iowa next week!

Grandpa and Abby asked if you could spend the night with them on Thanksgiving.  Knowing you’d probably outgrown a pack ‘n play and that we’d need a solution for our visit to Luli & Papaw’s house later in the week, we decided to invest in a blow up big girl bed!  Your first night in the new bed was Wednesday and it’s safe to say things didn’t go just great.  You woke up many times and called for me or your daddy each time.  But you did much better Thursday at Grandpa and Abby’s – only woke up once!  You did pretty good in your bed at Luli & Papaw’s house and tonight we are trying you on an actual twin size matttress on your bedroom floor.

We are well on our way to getting you 100% converted to a big girl bed…which is good news considering your new bedroom set is scheduled to arrive on Saturday!  We ended up getting you a 4 post bed, nightstand, dresser w/mirror, and an armoire from Haverty’s a few weeks back.  We delayed the delivery knowing your new room would not be quite ready for you to move into for a few more weeks.

This is all just one more sign of how fast you are growing up….TOO FAST!  :-(

Our sweet, sweet Maddie is 8 ½ years old. Knowing that we always want to own pets (dogs) we decided it would be a good time to get a new dog acclimated and potty trained so that it would be all settled into our home by the time the new baby arrives. We applied for a Mastiff puppy through a rescue group but the puppies went fast to other homes. Realizing that wasn’t meant to be, we began researching other breeds and Greandma Karen mentioned the “Teddy Bear” puppies. LONG story short….we ended up with not one, but TWO new puppies!

Tucker is a mix between a Shihtzu & Bichon Frise and Bandit is a mix between a Shihtzu and a Coton de Tulear. Both are absolutely adorable and super lovable! Tucker is weighing in at a whopping 2.5 lbs and Bandit almost doubles him at 4.6 lbs! It’s quite the drastic change from our 175 pound Maddison! You have already been such a big helper with the puppies — it only proves what we already knew to be true…you are gonna be a GREAT big sister!

So we are currently a household of 3 ½ people and 3 dogs! Are we crazy or what!?

When daddy went to get you from you bed after nap today you were clearly still interested in laying around.  So daddy told you to let him know when you were ready to get out of bed.  To that, you proceeded to grab the end of the bed, throw your leg over the railing, and lower yourself down onto the floor!  I was in the other room but you came in shouting “I got out of bed”….shortly after your dad explained that you meant that quite literally.  So, we put you back in bed and asked you to do it again.  And you did.

I guess you could say this is officially the end of an era…the era where mommy and daddy are in control of your whereabouts at all times.

We had a super fun weekend!  We met Michelle, Kevin, and Charlotte at the pumpkin patch Saturday morning.  We got to feed the goats, see a pig race, go on a hay ride, and pet lots of way cool animals–cows, horses, chickens, bunnies, sheep, and guinea pigs!  You had a fantastic time and we all went for lunch afterwards.  We realized that this time next year, our table of six would be a table of 8 given that Michelle & I will both have our babies around the same time in 2012!

After your nap we dressed you in your Halloween costume – a cute little witch – and met up with Kim & Catrina at their church’s Trunk or Treat event.  You were VERY intimidated by the holding of the bag and saying trick or treat part.  Towards the end you were finally getting the hang of it though.

Then today we carved pumpkins!  Mommy did one and Daddy did two.  You found that interesting for about the first 10 minutes….then you started getting a little bored.  Oh, and then daddy cooked bloody fingers for your dinner….hot dogs with pasta noodles hanging out the end of them with lots of ketchup.  Needless to say it was an action packed weekend!

You know how to say Kristine & Brad — and you know that is me and daddy!

You are a religious thumb sucker…and 2 years of that has finally caught up with you. In the form of a big ol’ wart on your right thumb. When we noticed a second wart forming on your ring finger we decided it was time to take action. Unfortunately, the action came in the form of having the doctor freeze it off. You were a trooper though and even the doctor commented on what a tough little girl you are. Oh, and at the end of all the freezing you had to get a flu shot. You definitely get your tough genes from mommy.

Your allergy/sinus troubles continue to be an issue. It seems like you are only able to do good for short periods of time on your own. In between the good times, we have you on Zyrtec/Claritin and Nasonex. That combinations seems to work well for you — meaning you aren’t coughing up a lung every time you lay down. You are definitely destined for a lifetime of sinus and allergy problems. Sorry punkin’!

Oh, and we are proud to report that you are pretty much offically potty trained! You still wear a diaper at night and during most nap times, but you are 100% trained during your waking hours. You are doing such a good job….and potty training….and everything really. You are absolutely amazing!

Well, the cat is finally out outta the bag! It’s officially public knowledge that you are going to be a big sister!

Everyone is super excited for us….especially the daycare girls! We decided to tell them by sending you to school in your Big Sister shirt – they were all completely caught off guard and very happy! Especially Catrina – she just can’t get enough babies to love in that infant room!

I am guessing your shirt got you a lot of attention that day because the first thing you said both Saturday and Sunday mornings was “Big Sister shirt”.