Rolling, New York, and Some Pictures

Well, this is a hodge podge of a blog, but oh well...

First of all, after trying so hard to get her to roll from tummy to back, we finally have success! So much that we can't seem to get her to even stay on her tummy at all! She loves it and laughs so hard after she rolls and we cheer for her! Here is the video I took of her rolling...please excuse the amateur video skills. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZnl5d3n5j4.
I find it so amusing that the squeaks in the floor are in sync with her rolls.

Next, we went up to upstate NY to visit John and Courtney and the boys and Steve and Sandy and their kids. We hadn't seen Steve & Sandy since our wedding, so we were really looking forward to that visit and John & Courtney since before Christmas. Ty was thrilled to see Dave and they rolled around on the floor Ty literally jumping on top of him and tackling him to the ground like a crazy wrestler. It was hilarious and adorable. Cooper is so big and cute and I wish I had taken some pictures of them, but for some reason I just forgot. I even took out my camera and took this picture of Hayley with Ty's ball. But that's the only picture I have of the whole weekend.

At about 4ish we headed over to Steve & Sandy's for dinner and to spend the night there. They were thrilled to meet Hayley and their daughter Katie couldn't get enough of her! It was great. We had a really nice visit there, too. We heard the weather called for snow and therefore headed out pretty early to beat the snow. We got caught in some rain, but that was about it. We drove both directions hoping to time it right with Hayley's naps, but she slept for about 20 minutes each way and then played the rest of the time. She was in a such a good mood and was a great traveler. Phew! Now we're back and can't wait to go up again for another visit. Sooner then later, I hope.

Now here are some more pics of Hayley. Just sittin' lookin' cute

Eating a bagel with cream cheese...mmmm...
Munchin on cheerios with Daddy
Holding one of my roses that I got for Valentine's Day. Unfortunately after this picture was taken she tried to eat the rose and broke it. Still such a cute picture!

Is Physical Therapy a Good Thing?

As most of you know, Hayley has been getting Physical Therapy (PT) since she was about 3 months old because she was diagnosed with Torticollis. This is basically that her neck tips to the left side. We like to call her tippy...just kidding. Anyway, so CT has this great program called Birth 2 Three (B23) that is virtually free that helps little babies with development issues, regardless of what they are. So they have been coming to see miss Hayley for a long time. She no longer tips, but her developing is slightly delayed, like she's not rolling yet. Stacey is her therapist and I have not met her until yesterday. She was going to daycare and then when she did come here she was with Dave while I was at work. So when she arrived, I was eager to meet her and get started, especially since she hasn't had therapy in about a month b/c she was sick and the b/c I forgot last week and went to New Hampshire (oops). Anyway, Stacey arrived at 3:00 on the nose and we were ready. I put her down on her tummy to begin working on her rolling and military crawl, and out bursts tears. Now Hayley cries, like all babies do, but not like this. She was in complete hysterics. Whatever we did, she cried and cried and cried. I was in shock. I couldn't believe she acted this way! She was so upset, nothing would soothe her except me holding her. I tried a cracker, nursing, toys, everything. Now Dave told me she was upset at the last 2 times she was at the house, but I had no idea it was like this! She said she doesn't act this way at daycare. After over 30 minutes of complete hysterics, we gave up. Happily she went on her way to playing with toys and babbling and singing, just not doing her PT. I was so shocked words could not even come out of my mouth. What a waste of an appointment.

I was able to proudly show Stacey Hayley's new fun thing to do - pulling herself up onto her toy box. So she happily did this and Stacey said, is this the way she always does it? I said yes. She then very nicely told me that it is not the correct way she should be doing it, and showed me the correct way. (I reread this sounding as if Stacey is not a nice person - she is VERY nice and patient and wonderful to Hayley) Ok, so she's not rolling and crawling, but she's doing all these other things, and she's just skipping around a bit. I am thrilled to have this service for her for free, but at the same time, I find it frustrating. I am so proud of my child for making these progressions, and feel discouraged by finding out this is not the "right" way to be developing. Who cares?! She will be just fine. She will walk and talk just like every other baby. Why do they have to spoil it for me? I will continue to work on trying to get her to roll and crawl, etc, but if she doesn't, that's ok...it really is.

Well, since she is no longer going to daycare we had to come up with a solution so she doesn't cry for the entire hour. So next week she's going to the Leone's and we'll see how this works. Hopefully she won't cry the whole hour again.

Sarah, Me, and Jillian Michaels - What a Team!

I nay have mentioned previously that I have begun working out to get ready for Marco, which is now only 2 short months away. Well, in hopes of getting rid of this baby tummy, I have been exercising everyday during Hayley's afternoon nap. We recently cancelled our Directv and got Comcast, which has On Demand, (I probably sound so dumb right now with so many people knowing about this amazing feature of digital cable) and they have something called Exercise TV. It is AMAZING! There are about 100 different FREE exercise routines on there from 10 minutes to 45 minutes. They have Abs, Cardio, Pilates, you name it! Every month they also feature special stuff, and this month is Jillian Michaels from the Biggest Loser. Holy cow, she kicks butt!!! I absolutely love her workouts. They are hard and I really feel like I'm getting a workout in the 20 minutes of her tape. I was so into this, I actually convinced Sarah and Angelo to dump their satellite and get Comcast - just for the On Demand! (ok, maybe it wasn't all me, but I was the last nail in that coffin) So now Sarah and I have been doing it together when we can, and if not, doing the tapes separately and then she'll call me or I'll call her and be like, I just did Jillian Michaels, and if the other one hasn't done it, then we have to do it. Talk about motivation! It is so nice having someone else to push me along and motivate me to exercise. I love it. I don't feel my body changing too much though, and I don't fit into any of my old bathing suits. So Dave and I went to Target and he picked out 2 new suits for me for Marco. I put them on and I know where I need to work at...I think I may be adding in an extra 10 minute workout in the morning...

Hayley's New Kicks

A couple weeks ago we saw Chelsea and Matt at Laura's house and she handed me a huge bag full of new sneaks for Hayley. She fits into the size 3's now, so I thought we'd try them out and here is the pictures capturing this moment.

Not sure what she thinks of them right now...

Look Mom, they help me stand up better at my toybox!

Check 'em out!!
Still hanging on!

Diggin' for some toys...

Mmmm...they taste yummy.

This is what they're really for! Eating!

Like everything else, Hayley enjoyed pulling them off and chewing on them. The good news is they stay on her pretty well and she has worn them a couple time since then so I think she'll get some good wear out of them. We'll see.

Happy Valentine's Day!

A couple more pics

Here are a few more pictures of Hayley. Here she is pulling herself up and holding on to the toybox. This is one of her new favorite games now, to pull all her toys out of the box then mommy puts them all back in. Repeat.

Loving the jumperoo!

Hayley Loves Food

Clearly my child loves food. Here are a few pictures caputring the moments of her delight.

Stay At Home Mom

Well, yes I know it has been a good two weeks since my last post, but guess what - it is very busy being a stay at home mother. I spend most of my day on the floor with toys surrounding my legs and a little child gabbing and babbling to me about the latest baby news. When she is napping, I manage to eat, clean up the kitchen, vacuum, whatever I can to fit in during this brief time of peace.

So here I am finally making a post, and no pictures to boot. I will soon remember to bring the camera down to the basement with me and upload some pics, too.

The schedule filled up pretty quickly once people discovered I was home now. I went to Christina's to visit her and Lena, who is so cute! And last week we took a day trip to Bedford, NH to visit Cara and Miles. This should have been a blog post in it's own, but of course, I forgot. We left about 8:30 in the morning, Sarah was with us, too, and got to NH at Sarah's sister, who lives in the same town, about 11:30. We all met for lunch and then parted ways. Lunch was a trip. Sarah, Cara, Carrie, and Carolyn all had lunch together in this lovely little cafe, and Hayley and Miles played so well in high chairs. Then I picked up H and there it was, an explosion. Oh lord, what a mess. So out to the car we went to change her entire outfit and it was just chaos. He poor naked bum hanging out of the car and it was freezing outside!!! So Cara says, just shut the trunk, so I pull down the hatch and finish changing her, and the latch got stuck. Cara's sitting in her car next to me all cozy waiting for me to finish as I'm banging on the window trying to get her attention. She finally looks over to see me crawling over the seats trying to get back into the car. I am hysterical and Hayley has this huge smile on her face- I guess she loved it as well. It was pretty funny. I wish I got a picture of that!!!

Anyway, we spent the rest of the afternoon at Cara's and Hayley was great. I put her in her jammies and went and picked up Sarah and home we went. She slept the entire ride home and woke up as I pulled into Sarah's driveway. I nursed her when we got to her room and off to sleep she went. It was a great trip, and we will definitely do it again sometime soon, as long as Cara will have us.

More play dates are ahead, as we are reconnecting with many baby friends. Yeah!

A great thing that has happened since i have been home is I have been able to get Hayley on a great sleeping schedule (finally) and she is sleeping through the night!!! Yeah!! It took a lot longer then I wanted to for this to happen, but it's good now. She has good naps during the day and sleeps from 7-7 about. This has only been the last 3 nights, so I hope I am not speaking too son here!!

Ok, off to scarf some lunch and do my workout. Dave and I realized this morning that our Marco trip is exactly 2 months from today. I hope I am beach body ready by then! Hopefully more pictures soon.