I See You!

OK, so I hit post #100 and then hit a stall...ha ha! I'm back! The past 2 weeks have been pretty busy, but very good. I worked both days last weekend and Ahmad started his job and was in training for 2 weeks, so we were all adjusting to that. He used to have dinner ready when I got home with the kids, but now we get home about the same time, so we cook, eat and then it's about time for jammies and on to winding down for bed. The evening sure seems to go faster now! However, we still have a good time! One evening, we had a great time playing hide and seek-Hailey is a great seeker! She loves to look for Miles and can usually find him. We did painting one afternoon and Hailey got to paint for her first time (and yes, her mouth was blue by the end of the 5 minutes that lasted)! We got out Miles' race track one night as well and they both had a blast playing.


Hailey is hilarious when she nurses these days-such an acrobat! I tell you, she's nearly standing on her head sometimes. One day, while she was nursing, she was facing down, booty in the air, one leg raised and one arm raised. She cracks me up! I remember Miles doing those things as well when he was little, but it doesn't seem like she should be old enough to be doing this. Isn't she still my little baby?! Another thing she likes to do is grab my hand and make me hold onto her foot while she nurses. Or she takes my hand and holds it to her head and face and puts her hand over top of mine so it stays there. It's pretty cute.

A particularly sloppy "sloppy joe"!

Miles is into counting everything and Ahmad said he went to 100 the other day, but I haven't heard him go nearly that high. He insists that he's 4 and just as big as the kids in his class. He'll eat his veggies and then say, 'there, I ate my veggies, I'm 4 now!'. He also consolidates classrooms sometimes at school and ends up in the kindergarten class, so then he says that he's '5 now'. He can get pretty upset that he's not 4, but I keep explaining that after Santa comes, he'll have his birthday...January might be a long month! Along with his counting, he's trying the measure things. He'll count the length of something and just arbitrarily assign it numbers and lengths. So, when trying to determine how old he is for instance, he'll move his hand somewhat consistently up his body saying 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, until he's at his head and they say he's 7. His favorite number seems to be 20 because everything is 20. It's a big number to him and if he wants something, he'll say he wants 20 of them or he wants to do it 20 times.

Hailey is standing all the time now and so close to taking a step. She took a half a step the other day, but then went to her knees before moving her other foot. She'll stand and want to get somewhere and just kind of fall on her belly with her arms out instead of taking a step. I don't think it will be long! She loves to crawl over to me and pull up on my legs and bury her head between them. It's so stinkin' cute. She went to the doctor for her 9 month check up the other week and she's doing good! She's in the 20th percentiles for height and weight and in the 15th for head circumference. We weren't sure how Miles measure up to her, but I pulled out his stats and he was right there too! He was 25th percentile in weight, 20th in height, but 75th in head. Pretty close over all!



Hailey got another tooth, the right top and is very close to her left top. It should be in anytime. I thought she was really teething this last week as she's been fussy-for her anyways, but now I think she has an ear infection. I feel really bad that we missed that all week, but the doctor is first on the agenda tomorrow. She says "dada" all the time and seems to know that means Ahmad. But she calls everyone that too, so it's kind of hard to tell. She loves playing with doors and likes to open and close them and peek around to see who's on the other side.

Miles is a man after my own heart....he loves condiments! I love sauces and dips and relishes, and so does he. He's been into ketchup for a long time, which he puts on any meat (and also calls most meats 'chicken') much to Ahmad's dismay who only uses ketchup very sparingly. But now he's discovered steak sauce and loves it. He requests it to dip his carrots in and the other day, his pancakes. Then he wanted just steak sauce to slurp up plain. Steak sauce is good, but...!

It's been a busy few weeks, but very enjoyable. This weekend was nice-I didn't have anything to do! Ahmad took a grant writing class yesterday, so it was me and the kids and we went to a museum we've never been to-Eiteljorg. It's a Native American and Western museum and I saw some advertisements on their holiday train display. Since both kids were free, we went. It was fun and a nice museum, but definitely a bit old for the kids.


The Kleins came over for some pizza and to catch up a bit and today we're just hanging out. The kids have both power napped yesterday and today-Hailey slept for 3 hours yesterday afternoon and Miles for 4. Not they are both going on 4 hours today. We have some sleepy kids!

When Miles and Ahmad play Wii, Hailey likes to get in on the action!

We're excited about Thanksgiving and are heading to South Bend where we not only will see the Keyes family, but my brother's family as well! So excited! Lots of fun plans coming up and we're starting to realize the holidays are upon us. I cannot believe how fast this year has gone. It goes fast with one kid, but gosh, with 2, it just flies. Trying to hang on to every moment.....

#100!

This post is my 100th post! I can't believe it! When I first started this blog, I wondered how I'd be able to keep it up and if I'd keep it up...seems to be going ok! I really enjoy posting and keeping a diary of sorts on our life. Just looking back to when I started this, I was just pregnant with Hailey. Now she's almost 10 months old. Time flies...which is exactly why I'm doing it-so I can look back and try to savor those precious life moments....

Hailey went to work with me one day for part of the day...she's a good helper!

Hailey is such my little lady! She is such a smiley baby-always has a grin on her face. She's babbling away and seems to respond to us when we talk to her. She's full of "mama's" and "dada's". She also does "baba's". Miles says that she's trying to say "big brother"-which may be true! She enjoys walking behind her push toys and is standing more on her own. She started clapping and if you say "yay, Hailey", she'll often stop what she's doing and clap. :) She is also starting to clap to music and bob her little head and move to a beat. She has also just begun holding on to my hands and walking. She's so proud of herself, and she should be! What a big little girl. She melts my heart. And her snuggles...I love her snuggles. She snuggles right into my shoulder and under my chin, burying her head into my neck. I just want to keep her there forever. I love you Love Bug!



And then there's Miles. Miles is such a light in my life. He's such a wonderful big brother and son, he melts my heart. He often exclaims "Oh I love my baby so so so so so so so SO much!" And then he proceeds to give her hugs and kisses. If he's hard to wake in the morning, I just bring Hailey in and he perks right up and says how Hailey wants him. This morning, she was clamoring to get to him and gave him hugs and kisses until he woke up. Then he hugged her and hopped right out of bed. He's so smart and is doing so well in this new class. He's in the 4's room, a Pre-K room. He's writing his name really well now and counts forward and backwards all the time. He looks for things to learn about in daily life; for example, we'll point out and look for different shapes when we're waiting for something (i.e. at the doctor's office or in a restaurant). He knows the months almost in order (just skipping a few). He's figuring the world out and just can't seem to get enough! He's doing awesome in school and hasn't had any incidents in a long time. I'm so proud of him! And we're working on his drop offs in the morning as well. In the past, he's liked for me to carry him to his classroom and then has a meltdown-crying and grabbing my neck-sometimes hanging from my neck. I usually leave him in the teacher's arms crying. So, we're working on that. I'm not carrying him back anymore and he's giving me lots of hugs and kisses in the room. I'm taking my time with him and allowing him to have that. When he's ready (with me moving it along without rushing him), I leave. He's done so well and I can tell by the look on his face that he's proud of himself. And I'm proud of him too! Oh Smiles, I love you so much!

This past weekend, we went to visit my parents. My brother, Matt, and his 2 boys, Gavin and Emmett, were in town too. We had such a great visit! Dad seemed to be doing pretty well and so was mom. I was happy that we were able to do a little bit of work for them while we were there. I hope to be able to do more and more of that. I like being able to help them. We went bowling on Saturday morning and that was the first time for Gav and Em and the first time in about 2 years for Miles. Of course it was Hailey's first time too, but she didn't really bowl! :) It was a great time. It was also funny while we were there-Em and Miles got snacks and slushy drinks. Miles drank his drink really fast and ended up with brain freeze. While I felt bad for him, it was pretty funny! It was also a great treat that my very dear friend, Shauna, was able to join us! I haven't seen her in about a year and it was really nice to catch up. Even if we did get beat by all 3 boys!

Brain Freeze!

Friends since Kindergarten!

While I anticipated a very busy weekend, it was actually pretty restful! Miles, Gavin and Emmett played together nicely and didn't require too much direction. Ahmad was also wonderful and often kept watch over them and ensured they had lots of fun things to keep them busy. It was a wonderful visit and I hope to see everyone again real soon.


We also had a real nice visit today. Since I got off work early, I took the kids over to our old neighbor's to play and have dinner. It was a great visit and the kids really had a lot of fun. The dads got there after they were done with work and enjoyed dinner and some playtime before we had to leave. Miles was very sad to leave and told me on the way home that he wanted to take his bed to Evelyn's so he could stay there for a long long time. It was cute! On that note, Ahmad also has a new job. Today was his second day and I'm so proud of him. It seems like a good fit so far and I hope he enjoys it. I'd love for him to like his work.

I'm excited about this week and about everything that is coming up. I hope that we all find peace and happiness in God's time-which is sometimes different than our time!

Boo!

We had a marvelous Halloween! We went to Zoo Boo the weekend before Halloween with Amber, Jeff, Lauren, and Monica. We enjoyed the zoo, trick or treating, and seeing everyone dressed up. It was a good rehearsal for the big night!


We had fun getting ready for the big night too! Last year, Miles wouldn't touch the pumpkins and I had to carve them myself. This year, he was pretty into it! Hailey liked it too and had fun getting slimy. Miles decided he wanted his pumpkin to be be scary and Hailey's pumpkin to be sad. :)

Hailey turned 9 months old on Halloween!

Halloween night was a bit chilly, so Ahmad and Hailey were only with us for a short while. Then they headed back to the house to pass out candy. Miles did really well for the most part. He wanted to ride his bike and that worked out pretty well. He got upset once because he wanted to keep crossing the street back and forth and he got tired towards the end. He decided he wanted to come back and help hand out candy, so we skipped the rest of the houses and headed home. The candy bucket is still pretty full....