Your mom and I knew this dad would come, we just didn’t expect it so soon, and so, so suddenly.  This saturday out of the blue “Why Daddy” and “Why Mommy” started.

Eat your green beans…  “Why Daddy” …because they are good for you… “Why Daddy”
Get in the car… “Why Daddy”  …because we are going to the store… “Why Daddy”
I have to let Maddie outsite “Why Daddy”  …because she has to go potty…  “Why Daddy”

“Why Daddy”, “Why Daddy”, “Why Daddy”  ALL day Saturday.  Never before this day had you asked.  It’s now Wednesday and it has continued all week.  Looks like this is going to be a trend for a while.

Where did you learn this?  and “Why Hailey”

Love you Monkey!

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!?

Brother!!!!  We just left the Dr’s office for mommy’s 16 week check-up.  While your little sibling wasn’t fully cooperative we’re 95% sure it’s your brother!  Mommy and daddy are very excited!

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”. 🙂

Well Hailey, you’ve had your first right of passage as a toddler. A right of passage that every toddler most go through…the obligatory item up the nose.

I had just come back from a business trip and mom picked me up from the airport. We headed straight to daycare to pick you up. When we arrived, Ms. Amanda informed us you had decided to put Play-Doh in your nose earlier that day. At just over 2 years old you don’t exactly understand how blow your nose yet. What does that mean? Manual intervention. Ms. Amanda and team had to hold you down and try to extract the Doh. That didn’t go so well. You were not happy about being held down…and two-year-olds are freakishly strong. After several failed attempts you let out a big scream. Somehow along with the scream was a snort and out flew the Play-Doh.

I hope the trauma of this event was enough to teach you not to stick things up your nose…but for some reason I doubt it. Don’t worry, not need to be embarrassed…all toddlers do it. For me it was raisins dislodged with a little help from some black pepper.

Love you,
Daddy