Christmas Eve
'Twas the night before Christmas...
With the time off we had in December, we headed to Indiana! We spent Christmas night at my mom's house. Monday, we headed to Indianapolis to visit with Ahmad's brother's family. His parents also came down, so we got to see everyone! We stayed in Indy until Wednesday and had an awesome time visiting with everyone. The kids had a blast all being together; it was awesome seeing them play together.
The Keyes' Klan
Wednesday, we headed back to my mom's house where we stayed until Friday. We had such a wonderful time with mom and Uncle Michael! The kids also loved seeing them and playing!
Special moments!
Mom came in for the kids' birthdays and it was great to see her again. However, she was sick and wasn't up for much while she visited. But, we did celebrate Miles and Hailey's special days! For Miles' birthday, after church, we headed to Chuck-E-Cheese, one of his favorite spots! We had pizza as well, one of his favorite foods! When Ahmad got home from work, we had cake, ice cream and presents. Tons of fun!
Birthday hugs!
For Hailey's birthday, we had cake, ice cream and presents after school before taking Nana to the airport. She loved opening everything!
Sportin' Nana's new gift and reading her funny card!
Then on Friday, we enjoyed the kids' party at Monkey Joe's, which is a bouncy house type place. We invited kids from their school and ended up with about 16 kids there. They had a blast! It was so interesting to see Miles with his school friends-he's such a little leader! And we found out that Hailey has a little boy friend too! She would not take her eyes off him and would get very upset if she lost him. He was the same with her! Later on at their school Valentine's Day party, we found out he was the only boy in the class. While he and Hailey have had a special connection for a long time, there seems to be another friend too he spends a lot of time playing with. Too funny!!!
Holy Batman!
I know I wrote about things the kids were doing recently, but I always think of more! Hailey cracks me up all day long. She constantly talks about going "jumpy jumpy", "Chuck-E-Cheese", "painting", and "playdough". Those seem to be her favorite things! She asks daily to do them and when we can't, she asks if we can do it "after later". She has combined "later" with "after a while" or "after" anything we might say (after we get home, after lunch, etc). She always asks to do things "after later" and is actually quite satisfied with that answer!
This is Hailey's new favorite face to make!
Hailey also mixes up her pronouns all the time and it cracks me up! She repeats what I say, but in the exact same way. For example, she will say to me "I sit by you?" when she wants me to sit by her. Or she will say "I help me?" when she wants to help me with something. It's too cute. I love it. Speaking of helping, she helps with everything! She loves to help do anything we are doing and is right by my side as I do household chores. She will get her "table" and help put clothes into the washer, loves taking them out and putting them in the dryer; she helps me wash dishes in the sink and puts away basic dishes from the dishwasher; she tries to help me make the beds and fold the clothes. Anything, she is there. It is precious and I love it. I was telling mom about it and she said I was the same way when I was little... :)
We spend New Year's Eve with the Klein Family and had a blast!
Hailey also is still into this skin-to-skin thing. She loves finding my bare skin and pressing her face into it. She will press her face into my neck, reach her hands down my shirt, press her face on my bare belly, etc. She also loves pressing her cheeks next to mine, especially when laying in bed. Which, by the way, she hardly ever comes into bed with us anymore. The only time I bring her in is if it's almost time to wake up. And, I'm not sleeping on the floor by her crib anymore! yay! If she does wake, I go in and hold her for a second and then lay her down and she's gone again.
Hailey has started potty training too. I just decided that she could do it. I'm not sure why, but I got that idea in my head. One day, she was sitting naked on the floor (she LOVES to be naked!) and started to pee, but stopped herself and was very upset by the tiny spot she left. So, last week, I bought her some panties and we went full force on Saturday. She had a lot of accidents, but also went on the potty once. She seemed to be getting it-at least what she wasn't supposed to be doing! Throughout the week, she did wonderful! She was dry at school all week, except I think 2 accidents. Yesterday she went poopy on the potty and then again today! She stayed dry all day today!! I'm so proud of her! And speaking of being naked and diapers, she has also started taking off her diaper at night as she's supposed to be going to sleep. Luckily, she has told us so we can put it back on. I find it so funny that she is so into being naked because Miles never was. He never took off his diapers or ran off naked. Funny how they are different....Now I'm wondering when she will move out of her crib...not quite ready for her to be that big, but I have a feeling it's getting close.
Two monkeys...
Miles is also doing fantastic! He is such a big boy these days. He "gets" things so much more than he used to and is understanding full concepts. For example, the other day when wanting a snack, he asked for some pepperoni sticks. I told him we didn't have any. He looked sad and said "oh yeah. Because last time when we were at the store and you asked me if I wanted them and I said no? Now we don't have any?" Yup! That's it! He got it! He's also getting quick-witted, which is funny now, but we'll see later! He's got some snappy comments or good insights that he throws out there every now and then. He even stops Ahmad in his tracks!
Miles started baseball and is into his second week now. It's going really well and he's enjoying it. They do practice a lot, twice a week, but it's good. Unfortunately between work and being sick, I've only been to 1 practice though. We have 2 this weekend and many many more though! It seemed like a good bunch of kids and the parents seemed friendly too. I'm hoping we can make some new friends!
What's that in your pocket?
Miles is so into his video games these days too. He loves to play this Lego Indiana Jones game. I have to admit, I just don't get it! If we let him, he'd play for hours. I like that he enjoys it, but I almost hate that he does it so much! Now, we don't let him play all day every day, but he does get to play often. He especially loves it if Ahmad or I will play with him. I can't take it for much more than about 10-15 minutes, but Ahmad will play and help him figure out the boards. I do like that this is a bonding activity for them. However, he does still love to play with Hailey. The other day, as they were absolutely cracking each other up while playing who knows what, something they invented, I was watching them and thinking about how wonderful it was that they had each other. I can't imagine Miles as an only child now. He is such a wonderful big brother to Hailey, I think he was meant to be a big brother. I'm happy they have each other and happy they get along so great. I'm sure they will have rough times as they get older, but I'm hoping this good foundation will maintain things and they will always be good to each other.
Ahmad and I have been toying with the idea of finding a house in the near future. We would LOVE to, of course! But, we have to make sure it's the right decision for us. There are a ton of extremely inexpensive homes in some good areas that we've been looking at online. Nothing serious yet, but talking about and allowing ourselves to dream about it. The other day, Miles asked why we didn't have a garage and if we could get one when we moved. He didn't want to get wet when we brought in groceries. Then I asked him if he would like to move and live in a new house and he said yes. When I asked him why, he said because then he could get a cat! HA! Ummmm, I don't think that's in the cards! I would love to get Miles a cat, actually. I think he would love it. However, I'm not a cat fan and Ahmad is even less of a cat fan! I don't think so chipmunk!
I mentioned how grown Miles has been seeming lately. I feel like there is such a struggle for him and for us right now between him being a big independent 5 year old boy and a toddler still. One minute he's hitting us with deep insight and the next he's climbing on my lap and asking for me to help him get his jammies on. I'm trying to satisfy both, but sometimes it's hard. He sees me taking care of Hailey and doing things for her, and I think he sometimes gets jealous and needs that extra attention. But, I want to see his independence grow too and be able to do things on his own. And I know he can. He can take a shower, put on lotion, get on his jammies all by himself. He can get completely ready for school all by himself. When he wants to! I'm trying to make sure he knows he's always my boy and I'm here for him and love him without babying him. It's a constant dynamic.
All these wonderful things! I had no idea I would write this much once I found time to sit down and write! I love my family!
