Sweet Taste of Victory

Movin' On

I know I just posted yesterday, but I forgot a few things and also have an update. Update first. We had our tour of the Montessori school scheduled for this morning. They had offered to have the kids come too to see how they interacted, but we weren't planning on it. At about 8:45 am, Ahmad got a call to come pick up Miles. He had hit another kid and then kicked the teacher. Ahmad picked him up and didn't say anything. Miles came home and sat in timeout until it was time for the tour (10am). Ahmad just told him to get ready to go, but didn't tell him where they were going. So, he had no idea what was going on. We did the tour and they worked with Miles on a few things and Miles was so excited. We were feeling pretty good about the school and thought it might be a good fit for Miles. At the end of the tour, he asked the lady if he could go back in the room. She suggested he stay the rest of the day! He said he wanted to, so after a quick bite, Ahmad took him back to stay the rest of the day. When Ahmad picked him up, he asked Miles how it went. Miles said "I had a good day at my new school today dad. The teachers helped me have a good day. I should go there all the time." What could we say?! And we never talked to him about changing schools or anything. To make the rest of the story short, he's starting tomorrow! We just couldn't send him back to where he was after that. It's just not fair. Daycare is frustrated, we are frustrated and it's not fair to Miles to keep him in that situation. We've simply outgrown them; our needs have changed and it's time to move on. And Hailey will start on Monday. :) We are so excited for him and to see what he does there and how it goes!

Ok, now for the things I forgot I wanted to write about. I love when Hailey wraps her little arms around my neck and hugs me so tight that she shakes. We have gotten reports that at school, Hailey doesn't like others in her space. Hmmm, I wonder why?! (Miles is always in her space!) She also is so cute when it's time for bed. I'll tell her to go say goodnight to daddy and she'll walk over and lean in to him for him to kiss her cheek or head. She does the same with Miles. The other thing is not so sweet, but comes with the territory! She's begun throwing tantrums. She'll scream or throw something, or bat at something/someone if she gets upset. And she'll scoot around on her bottom to get by herself. Luckily, it's pretty short term and soon she's ready to be picked up and cuddled, but she's definitely learning some independence!

Hoppy Easter!

We had an incredibly wonderful Easter! It was just a very nice day. We went to super early Mass, (7:15am), then home to do baskets, play, nap, cook, play some more. It was a long day and we didn't feel rushed at all. Very enjoyable! Miles and I had been reading an Easter book and it seemed he was getting it. He learned about Jesus dying on the cross and rising again. He's brought it up a few times, so I think it's sinking in. Tonight before bed, he said he loved mommy, daddy, Hailey, his cousins, his family and God. It was very sweet. He's also brought up that an Angel will come to him when he's dead. I know he doesn't fully grasp death and we haven't gotten into it very much at all, but we did talk about it with the Easter story and an angel appearing to Jesus' friends when he rose. It's coming together in that little head of his!

Coloring eggs

Miles dictated a letter to the Easter Bunny

He was so excited to see his basket in the morning!

In Hailey's Easter basket, she got a little plastic purse with a candy necklace in it. In the middle, is a candy heart. Miles was playing with the necklace and candy and said that no one could eat the heart because it was his heart and his love for mommy, daddy and Hailey. He's brought that up several times in the last day and I think it's so sweet. He's been talking about his heart and his love a lot and it warms my heart. We're doing something right with that boy!

All ready for Mass

Hailey also warms my heart. She is something else. I love the way she reaches up to take my hand to lead me somewhere or for assistance with a particularly tricky step. Even if it's just to take me down the hallway, she's so trusting and sure of herself when she's holding my hand. It's the sweetest thing. I love hearing her little voice come to life. She's full of "uh-oh's" these days and it's so cute. She also tries to say many other things and today said "more mommy"! She tries to say "book", but really only says "boo".

It's tradition in my family that we have an egg cracking contest on Easter morning. You choose your winning egg and go head to head with someone else, trying to crack their egg with just one quick hit. If you survive, you go on to the next person. I can't recall for sure if Miles or Ahmad won, but Miles definitely thought he did!

The winning egg!

Hailey did not mind eating the loosing eggs!

Hailey loves books these days! She loves to look at books and will bring one to me and crawl up into my lap to be read to. She flips quickly through the pages of some books and spends minutes looking at other pages. I'm glad to see this new development because she hasn't shown too much interest previously. We read and she liked some books, but it was pretty inconsistent. We read mostly at night before bed and for a long time, she wouldn't want to read-batting a book out of my hand-because she wanted to nurse and go to sleep. But now, she's reading 2-3 books before bed and also at other times during the day. I'm glad!

I love these jammies! I call Hailey "love", so they are very fitting. And here she is upside down!

I stopped nursing Hailey on Friday night. Her last nursing was Thursday in the middle of the night sometime or other. She did pretty well Friday night. She was up a lot, almost every hour, but she didn't fuss too much when I told her "all done milk". Saturday night she was a bit more upset about it, but made it through. It seems that if she can still put her hand down my shirt, she is comforted even if she can't nurse! Last night, she did wonderfully and slept through the night! I know she did that once or twice a long time ago, maybe a year ago, but not since. I slept so good!

Easter egg hunt in the front yard

I love that Miles wore his Spiderman costume all day on Easter! And here's a nice shot of my first time pedicured toes!

Another funny thing Hailey does is that she loves to be upside down. She loves hanging over the edge of something or my lap or us holding her upside down. It's pretty funny. She also is a climber. She climbs anything she can and loves to have me help her jump down. She's trying to get on our chairs around the table lately and wants to sit with us!

Now that's a face of a kid enjoying some ice cream!

Miles has been back in trouble at school the last 2 weeks or so. He's been hitting his friends and having trouble keeping his hands to himself. We just don't get it. We know he can get carried away when he's excited or playing, but to just hit someone for no reason, it doesn't make sense. The more we talk about it, the more we think that this daycare may not be the right fit anymore. We aren't sure they are handling him the best he could be and their only answer is to move him to a new room. And we think he's bored. He is so smart and does wonderfully on anything with learning. The sight word tests have stopped the last 2 weeks...that's when his behaviors started up again...not sure, but perhaps they are related? We know we have a part in this too, and believe me, we are disciplining him at home. But at home, he does so well listening. We've seen such huge improvements in him lately. So, we are looking around at new preschools. I'm still looking. But we do have a tour at a Montessori school tomorrow. We want to see what it's all about. Maybe something will be a better fit.

Sporting their new sunglasses from Nana and Grampie

These two kiddos, they are so dear to me. They are so sweet. I just love them so much.

Random Bits of Happiness

Cuter Than A Cupcake

Race for a Cure with Miles and Hailey

Playing Superheros

Making funny faces

Hailey's not too sure about these two!

Hailey did NOT like the Easter bunny, but Miles did for the first time ever!

He said he liked the Easter Bunny because he was 4 now

Hailey was practicing her runway walk while Miles got fitted for his tux for cousin Carrie's wedding

And pose!

Groovin'!

Smooshy Face

Hailey's first corn on the cob-she loved it!

Hailey loves to swing!

Fun the sand-Spring is here!

Goal!...Well, Almost!

So Miles started soccer last Saturday! He has been so excited and did a great job. It's a team of 8 kids (but only 6 were there the first week) and they spend about half an hour warming up and doing drills and then about half an hour scrimmaging against each other, so it's 4 on 4. Miles did awesome! He was right there by the ball and tried so hard to make a goal. He was very close several times, but didn't quite get it in there this time. He was very disappointed in that and thought he didn't do well because he didn't make a goal. We tried hard to convince him otherwise, but he just kept saying he wanted to be on the blue team because they were very good!

Daaaannngg!

Spring Blooms

I'm not sure why, but it's getting harder and harder for me to post my weekly updates! Hopefully I'll get back in gear here soon. These two kiddos, they sure do make my day. I can't even explain it, but I hope you know what I'm talking about. If you do, then you are blessed just like I am! Let's see...Hailey is getting into everything and trying so hard to talk all the time. She does have some words, probably about 7 or 8, but she doesn't use them consistently. She's close to saying "Miles" now too which is cute. Whenever she's trying to say something, Miles will say "Mom! She said XYZ!" Which sometimes may be accurate and sometimes way off. Sometimes it's like the old Lassie show where Timmy always knew what Lassie was saying, like "Woof!" would mean that the farmer down the street had fallen off his horse and broke his leg and was laying in a puddle and the horse had ran off into the woods." :)

Hailey loves her animated toys-not sure if it's Easter or Christmas around here!

Hailey is also into organizing and sorting. I think she's really just imitating me, but it's too cute. She LOVES to get into a drawer of any kind, or cabinet, and pull out anything and everything she can. She may carefully and very selectively bring you one item at a time to hold onto, or she may take out heaps (of clothes) and find somewhere to put them (usually a box or a laundry basket). She also loves to help me put clothes in the washer and dryer. It's cute, when she's "done" with a self imposed task, she claps her hands together as if to say, "there, that's done!"!

Poor Hailey was knocked out!

Hailey is also our official taste tester. Don't think you can eat something and not give her any. She will pop up from wherever she is or whatever she may be doing and come find out what you have. And will likely want to try it. If she doesn't, she'll swat your hand away if you try to give it to her. Sometimes she only takes a taste after careful consideration and studying... And I can't remember if I talked about this before, but she nods yes and no, very furiously sometimes! It's too cute. She'll stop and ponder for a moment and then shake her head one way or the other.

Racing at the Speedway!

Miles is just such my little boy. He just seems so much older these days. And he's outgrowing his clothes-so glad that spring is coming so he can wear new things! He's becoming fairly independent, but at the exact moment he realizes it, he will often revert back to whining or wanting to be picked up. That's his thing lately, wanting me to carry him. I love him to pieces, but, um, no. I will carry him down the hall and that's about it! You can just see him learning and growing though, it's amazing. And his math skills are so sharp! No, he's not doing arithmetic per se, but he will do math and Ahmad and I will look at each other like, wow! For instance, the other day he was talking about soccer on Saturday and how excited he was to start. This was on Tuesday. And he said "I have soccer on Saturday, right mom?" and I said "yes!" and he said "That's after 3 more schools, right?" "yup!". He does things like that all the time now, it's amazing. I'm trying to think of how to hone in on that and may be talking to my mother-in-law again soon about that one.

Miles playing "cousins" with his cars

Hailey has been sick off and on lately. She was sick all week the other week, with a temp one day and fine the next. We couldn't decide if it was teeth or her ears. We put off the doc because she was doing so well. Then Saturday, she spiked a temp and Sunday she was out sleeping all day and running very high temps (like 102-105). We almost ran to the ER on that one, but some Tylenol brought it down pretty quickly. Of course that threw off all my weaning efforts. She wasn't eating or drinking, but wanted to nurse, so I let her. And she did. A lot. (Now I've been back to getting her down and tonight I didn't let her before bed again. She didn't do quite as well tonight, but did settle down and drink some milk and she also used her paci for a bit, which she never ever uses.) She stayed home for 2 days, which worked out fine because my very best Bubba and Carol were in town visiting! I had already planned to take 2 days off work while they were in, but we'd planned on doing more exciting things than watch Hailey be sick. We did make it to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and kissed the bricks, which was very cool. Miles and Ahmad went with us that day too. Bubba and Carol were really in town for the Woman's Final Four tournament and I believe they had a very good time at the games. It was so good to see them and have some extra time together. But it did make me realize that I'm not too exciting now that I have kids! :)

Bubba and Carol

Kissing the bricks with Hailey

Last weekend, after rain most of Saturday, we headed out to a local farm that has Therapeutic Riding. The Kleins knew someone who went there and they were hosting a fundraiser. So we went and looked at the animals, got arm painted, took a hayride, and roasted some hot dogs. Fun was had by all!

Roasting hot dogs

Another funny thing that Hailey does all the time is play in the bathroom. If you're a mom, you know you don't ever get to pee alone after you have a child. I think besides going at work, it's been about 4 years for me! lol! At any rate, we have a toilet paper holder in our main bathroom that's a cylinder with a lid. It holds 3 rolls of spare tissue. Hailey loves to take off the lid, put it either on the toilet seat (if no one is on the toilet) or on the counter by the sink. Then she will pull a roll out and take off a square. She used to try to put it into the tub, but now she waits until I'm finished and will put it in the potty, help me close the lid, and help me flush. It's pretty funny. If she wanders down the hall, that just may be where she ends up!

Horse racing!

Another funny thing about Miles and to back up my earlier note of him getting so much older is his vocab. No, not bad words this time, but just, well, more little boy words. He's into saying "Daaaaannnnnggggg!" now. I guess some kids at school say it and he does too. And to point out that I might be loosing my cool status in his eyes, he took it upon himself the other day to explain to me that "Dang" means "cool" or "that's really cool". I had to laugh!

Cutie pies on the farm!

My only other note right now is that I made Lifetime status at Weight Watchers last weekend! Lifetime is once you've reached your goal weight and maintained it within 2 pounds for 6 weeks. Then you get a Lifetime award and you don't have to pay anymore! You have to weigh in at least once a month and stay within that 2 pounds and you can go to the meetings for free. If you don't, I think you have to pay for that month. I figured it up and it cost me $480 to lose 62 pounds. That's $7.74 a pound. Wow! I have to remember that if I start to slip!

Proud Godfather

Zoom Zoom!

Miles has been insisting on trying to ride his bike without training wheels...so we gave it a shot! Needless to say, he's not quite ready yet and they went back on. :)




Then Ahmad gave it a shot...he wasn't much better! Lol!

Bubble Bubble

It feels like it's been a while since I've posted, gosh it's been busy lately! But, everything is good, I can't complain. Looking back, I'm not sure why it's been so busy though! I've even been too busy to run it seems. Yesterday was the first time I'd gotten out in about 10 days. I was worried about how I'd do, but luckily, it was fine. I was tired and could tell it'd been a little while by the time I got to end of my workout, but in general, I didn't loose too much. I've only got 5 weeks left before the mini! Yikes! I think I'm on track and hope to be able to run the whole way. I've decided that I'm going to try to run some type of race every month. I looked around and there are just tons and tons to pick from! But I figure having a race that often will keep me running and give me a goal. I think I will do better that way and stay on track. It doesn't have to be a long race, but even 5k or 10k will be nice.

Hailey LOVES bubbles!

Ahmad is on a new career path. He's at his first session right now for Phlebotomy. Yup, sticking people with needles and labs and such. It's a 4 Saturday course and then he'll have his certificate. And then hopefully he'll find a steady job! He's eager to do this and thinks it will be a good fit for him, so I'm hopeful as well. While he was gone this morning, I took the kids to the Children's Museum to see Spiderman! He was making a special appearance and we got the free tickets earlier this week. Miles was so excited! After our visit, of course we tooled around and saw what we could see. Hailey wasn't having it really and only wanted me to hold her the whole time. I think she's not feeling too well. A trip to the doc might be in order. She's been up and down all week-teething (4 new teeth in the last few weeks, including molars!), a cold, fever one day fine the next. We've been keeping an eye on her, and we'll see over the weekend, but I'm fearful she has an ear infection. She's been napping now for about 2 hours, so I guess she was tired too! I've been working on weaning her and was just down to right before bed and then at night when she wakes up. I was going to stop the before bed earlier this week, but then she was sick and I just couldn't do it. I decided last night I was going to try. She wanted to nurse from the time she got home from school and I didn't know how it would go. But...she did very well! We read our books, I gave her some breastmilk in a sippy and she went to sleep. And she slept the best she had slept in a long time. She only woke up once! It was very bittersweet. I cried just a little last night. With Miles, he was done and I was ok with that. I was ready to move on. But I'm no so sure I'm ready as much with Hailey. With her I feel more like it's just time. And since she's doing well with it, it probably is. And I really think that once I stop, she'll start sleeping through the night, which will be good for both of us!

Hailey's first ride on a carousel-she loved it once it started going

I took the kids to Costco last night after school and work to pick up a few things. I saw pickles and realized that we needed more of them-both kids love them! So, I grabbed them and went on. Later, I saw a different kind, little bitty pickles. I asked Miles which ones we should get. He thought the little ones because Hailey could eat them better. :) Later on he was whiney and kinda upset complaining that he wanted big pickles and white donuts. I'm not sure where the donuts came from, but that's ok. I told him we could either get the big pickles or the littles, but we weren't getting them both. He thought about it a minute and said "We'll just get the little ones for Hailey. She will like them." :)


My very very good friends, Bubba (aka Shannon) and Carol are coming into town today because they have tickets to the woman's final four here in town. We decided to kick Miles out of his room and let them have it since they were going to be in town for several days. I wasn't sure how Miles would react to that, but hoped he would think it would be fun to sleep in Hailey's room. When I finally told him, he thought for a minute and then said "Then I can keep Hailey safe. And if she cries, I can give her a toy or a book." :) He is such a sweetie pie and an awesome big brother!

Can't you just see them in 10 years?! Yes, those are old cell phones.

And Miles is reading reading along! He's doing awesome. We've taken a bit of a break from the books he reads at night and I've just been reading to him. I'm fine with that, I don't want it to become a chore or upsetting for him to have to read (yet!). But they've been working on reading a lot at school and he's doing awesome. They make these little paper books and he's so eager to read them to me, Hailey, and daddy when he comes home. He even reads them to the administrators at school. He knows all 19 of his sight words they've been learning the last several weeks and gets 100% on his tests every Friday. His teacher told me he's probably one of the youngest in the class and he's one of the best readers. We are so proud of him!




I've got one more week of my maintenance program at Weight Watchers before I can become a Lifetime member. I'm excited and anxious. I hope I don't blow it this week! You know, this whole weight loss thing is interesting. I feel great and have lots of energy and all that. I know I've lost weight and look physically different. But, I'm still learning that. I still hear commercials on TV or the radio about a fad diet or magic pill or drink and I think to myself, "gosh, I should try that!". Then I remember that I don't need to loose weight! I mean, sure, I could. I could loose about 20 more pounds and be at the bottom range for my height according to WW. But I don't have to. For the first time in my life, I'm at a healthy weight and I don't need to loose any. It's very strange. And then different comments in different situations about my size or appearance, they take me by surprise! And shopping! I have been shopping a lot...:) Guiltily! And every time, even when I go to get dressed some mornings, I think, "there's no way this is going to fit me!". But it does. It's pretty neat!




Miles hasn't been watching quite as much TV lately, but still has a few shows he likes. Lately he's been into Tom and Jerry. It's fun to watch him watch the cartoons we were into as a kid! We've been playing outside at every chance we can get. It's been 70 degrees one day and snowing the next, so it's been very hit or miss. But we love it and can't wait for spring! Hailey especially loves it. She stands at the door and just looks outside and keeps pointing and asking me to go out. It's cute and sad! Lol! Hopefully now that it's April, spring will finally come and stay. We can't wait to spend our days outside exploring!