Hailey...Age 2

Wow...two years already.  I can't believe how fast these two years have gone and how much quicker they will go.  Wasn't it just yesterday that Hailey was born????

Here are some milestones for Hailey and what she has been up to:

Hailey is talking like crazy.  She talks in short sentences and asks questions. In fact, she basically talks non-stop. For the most part, you can understand everything she is saying and she is making sense.

Hailey knows all her basic colors: red, blue, green, yellow, orange, pink, purple, white, and black.  Her favorite color is yellow.

Hailey can count to 8.  When she gets to 8 she just starts back over at 1.

Favorite things: horses, Elmo, trains, boats, drawing, swimming, the park, licorice, her Nana's, her Papa's, Brooke,and Emmett.

She loves to lay make-believe.  For the longest time we played tea party.... for hours, but I've put that away and we are on to new things.  She is playing with her kitchen more and makes breakfast for her babies.

Babies, babies, babies.  They go everywhere with us.  She has many of them, but her favorite is Clark.  Clark is Kevin's old cabbage patch kid.  Most often you will see Hailey dragging him around.  He even eats most meals with us.

Hailey loves to sing.  Here are a few of her favorites: Twinkle/Twinkle, Rock-a-bye-Baby, The Choo Choo Train song, The Emmett Song, Pick up (a song we made to clean up toys), Patty Cake, and Mary Had a Little Lamb.  She does pretty well and singing all/most of the words.

Prayers:  Hailey asks to pray at dinner and loves to say Amen.  At bed time we say our prayers...Now I lay Me Down to Sleep.  Following that she asks God to watch over:  just about everyone she can think of.  She rambles down the list of family and friends.  She does however, always start with Daddy.

Her coordination has really grown.  She runs very well, but sometimes catches a toe and takes a fall.  She'll be doing more running now that Brooke is chasing after her.  She loves to jump and bounce around the house.  We have gymnastics to thank for that. She loves to jump off of stuff: stairs, the couch.  She walks up and down the stairs with no support or rails (scary).  Most often she is carrying a baby, snack, or her cup.  Her hand-eye coordination amazes us.

Hailey has been sleeping in her big-girl bed since May.  So, she has been in it for a little over 3 months.  Until recently she had never gotten out.  But, we have taken her paci away and now bed time is a bit of struggle.  She has a hard time going down and wants one of us in the room.  Speaking of paci....it has been gone for three weeks.  She has only asked for it once.  She is doing so much better than I thought she would be doing.  The only thing taking it away has affected is her sleep.  We went from 3 hour naps down to about 1.5 hour naps.  Oh well, I guess I should be thankful they were so good for so long.

Hailey's personality has always shown.  She usually has a smile that fills her whole face.  She loves to laugh and the best is when she laughs so hard she can't stop.  She is kind of a neat freak.  She doesn't like her hands and feet dirty and she'll pick the smallest piece of grass off her foot or out of the pool.  She even picks small crumbs up off the floor and puts them in the garbage.  She is a true cuddle bug.  She loves to give hugs and kisses and snuggle (which of course we love).

She is a monkey through and through.  She imitates and copies things people do and say all the time.  When watching Sesame Street (her favorite), she copies and repeats their movements and what they are saying.  At least she is paying attention....right.

I'm sure my list can go on and on, but these are some of the BIG ones.  We are looking forward to the upcoming year and all the fun things Hailey will be doing and saying.  Not to mention the fact that she is going to be a BIG SISTER....of what fun that will bring.  Her own real baby to take care of!