2nd Birthday!!

Hi everyone! Yesterday was Hailey's 2nd birthday! I can't believe how fast the past year went. I guess it flies by when you work full time and also pregnant for a 2nd, so many distractions and it keeps you busy!
In the past year we've had a blast with Hailey. She's really growing into a sweet and loving little girl. We've seen her learn to walk and run, we went on 3 vacations (home and Hawaii and home again), she's made some friends at daycare, and kept in touch with other little friends from before. She helps me do some chores, loves to play hide and seek (her favorite game at the moment) and LOVES ACDC haha. She will dance and "spin round and round" as we call it when their music comes on.
The one thing I really love about Hailey and am truly proud of is that she is such a easy going kid when it comes to other kids. She loves playing with just about anyone and makes new friends easily. She shares really well and is very social.
So for her birthday, I didn't have time to plan anything crazy and besides her family isn't here anyway. However, two of her little friends came over for some cake and so that she could play with some little ones around her age. She got a kitchen set from dad and grammie, a mini blow up ball pit from nana and papa, a charm for her bracelet from me (this is a tradition thing I started), and some books, stickers, farm little people, a princess doll, remote control car (which was a hit with the kiddos), and crayolo colorwonder paper and marker. Super cool gifts, and she loves all of those things!
She also had a Dora cake and made a gigantic mess out of it. Fair enough since last year on her 1st she had just gotten over roseola and didn't really have her appetite back, so it made up for last year haha. Plus she had dropped her spoon on the floor and I didn't notice :( So the poor child said ok well lets eat it with my hands! So it got everywhere! haha

Halloween

I know it's a little late but I thought I'd update the blog with a post on Halloween. Hailey was super cute this year in her little skunk outfit. I had the day off and just started my maternity leave so I was able to get her ready and bring her out a little bit until Rob got home. We then went to Cap mall where there was trick or treating and other activities although Hailey was more into just running around haha.
She did get to have a few treats that she really enjoyed including smarties. That's her new favorite!

21 months

Hailey turned 21 months on Aug 30. It's been a little while but felt I should update. So much has happened! For one she is a full time walker now which is awesome! She also seemed to have grown a bit. She went up a shoe size over night it seems and is wearing mostly 2-3T clothing. She understands so much now and surprises me everyday. She doesn't say too many words just yet but she says a lot that sometimes can be interpreted as certain words so I've identified those as well and count them as words. She also signs some things as she tries to say it. Like "all done" she says "da done" while waving her hand from side to side and she's working on the sign for "more".  She points a lot too and says "what's this?"
Her new game now is tag/hide and seek type game where she likes being chased and chasing back and she's all about jumping. She even tries to kick up her legs in the air while having her hands planted on the ground (visualize someone trying to learn a handstand). Crazy kid.
She loves books, rock music and cars. She could spend a good hour just going through her book shelf and she dances and bounces to rock music over any other kind. What makes me think she likes cars is because for one she knows our car and gets excited when we are heading to it saying "car car" and also  in a play area she preferred playing with the cars and tracks over the girl stuff like the pretend kitchen etc. Such a tom boy! This leads me to this: Hailey also fell and fractured her radial bone near the wrist. Yep. At 21 months old she has a cast. Poor thing. She is one tough cookie and it certainly didn't stop her from running around and jumping.
I just can't believe how fast time is going by. She's growing so fast!

I got my cast today :(

At least it's purple!

Being cute near Ambleside 

Park!

One muddy kid. For the record we didn't know it had rained and just decided to let her play anyway

woohoo love the park!

mmm what's this?

Trip to NB and NS

This is a bit of a late entry but we went home to visit family in August for a week and to attend Rob's uncle Danny's wedding.
Hailey had a great time this visit. It was short and very busy but she adjusted very well to the time change almost immediately. Her eating schedule was a little off all week but that's ok she did fine regardless.  She was very happy to play with everyone :)
First, we went to Bathurst for a very quick couple of days since our flight was delayed quite a bit. Here are a few pics:

Next, we went to Salisbury and Moncton. Again, another short visit but just as much fun! We had a little fire down by the river and Hailey got to swing on a big swing. She also enjoyed her first Maritime donair (no other can compare!) and enjoyed seeing more family :) We also were able to fit in a quick visit to the Magnetic Hill Zoo.

Last but not least, we went to Halifax. It was fun to check out the waterfront while we were there. We forgot her stroller in Salisbury which was kinda annoying but grampy took the challenge of carrying her around when she wouldn't walk lol.

She's walking!

I can't believe just a week ago I was so excited to witness Hailey stand up unassisted and now she is taking steps! She isn't fully walking and often resorts to crawling (on hands and feet) but I couldn't believe it when she walked towards me yesterday! She even walked about 5 feet from the couch to her play table! She couldn't be more proud too. She would smile, clap and get all excited when she would drop.
Today we went to the beach again and she had some fun playing with other kids and their toys..she took a few steps there too except it's a bit hard on sand so she wasn't very stable and new she could get around faster crawling.
Here are a few photos and a video from last night!

The moment that made me so proud!

As some of you may know, after many different doctor/specialist appointments Hailey was diagnosed with having low muscle tone causing delay in gross motor skills. At first professionals just said "she will get there, she's just content sitting there" etc. I just didn't think it was right and my gut instinct was telling me there was something bigger going on than just her being lazy about it. Finally, after a couple more months of saying the same things to doctors they had her seen by a specialist which then diagnosed her. Her muscles around her joints were just too flexible hence her ability to do splits so easily. Even to this day her knees, feet and toes hyper-extend, though she's strengthened them a lot with regular physio. Her ankles still slant inwards a bit which was preventing her from walking well on her own but is self correcting.
She loves her physio therapist, and is very excited when she comes to visit. This helps a lot because she co-operates and learns new exercises with enjoyment! Suddenly she became interested and determined, first figuring out how to crawl, then pulling up, climbing stairs and walking with walkers.
Having this delay is so heart breaking as any parent would know with any delay. I fully understand it could be way worse and I am very great-ful it isn't, however I had so many mixed emotions and always wondered why and is it my fault! It's very hard to see your child who wants to play with other toddlers her age but can't get around! Even crawling is great and even though is now at the speed of lightening, still isn't where she wants to be. She wants to be at eye level with the others so she can play and explore.
One of the hardest part of this whole thing as well is hearing people say " oh be happy she isn't walking". For one, because she isn't walking doesn't mean she can't get into EVERYTHING. I witnessed her climb up stairs at the park bypassing a little boy who COULD walk and sit at the slide to go down before I caught up to her. She climbs on top of furniture including our bed. She's just as fast! I think the reason people think this is because their child/children probably had the crawling phase earlier and not as long. Hailey only learned to crawl after her first birthday so cognitively she was at the same level as a walking 12 month old. Still wanting to explore and discover things maybe a walker would except she couldn't walk. So she learned to go fast and still can get up and grab stuff at the same level as a walker. So those comments only aggravated me and didn't really help at all. I'm not going to lie haha. I found myself just nodding my head yes when people asked if she was walking and talking. It was just much easier than explaining the whole thing haha.
Now that you know the whole story, you can just imagine how happy and shocked I was when she took two steps towards me at the park the day she turned 19 months! She has been recently walking on all fours (hands and feet that is) and standing unassisted more and more.
It is only a matter of time now until she is walking. Those first couple steps meant so so much to me! I know she is working hard and I am so very proud.

19 months

Hailey is a full on toddler at this point! She just turned 19 months on the 30th of June and she has changed so much! First she is reaching terrible two's I'm sure, she likes to take tantrums when she doesn't get what she wants! It's a huge learning curve for myself and Rob but we're trying our best to stick to a method and not give in. So far it works. She got in a habit of grabbing our faces when we picked her up, not in a bad way cause she was angry, but in a curious/wanting to see our reaction way. We decided to try telling her "Hailey, we want you to be gentle" while taking her hand and gently rubbing our faces. Like we would do for our cats. It worked..she barely grabs/hits anymore! So for now we will just do our best with caution not to give in to her.
She learned a whole new set of skills in the past couple of weeks:
      She eats pretty well with a spoon now and also a fork for certain foods.
      She colours with her crayons with a pencil grasp.
      She gives hi fives, and says/waves byebye, as well as understands a lot more commands.
      She started walking on all fours, climbs up on all sorts of things including up stairs at the park and            
      down the slides...herself.
      My most proud moment (which I'll cover in my next post) is she took her first step! This was such
      an amazing moment especially with her delay due to low muscle tone. She works so hard!

Here are some pics of her new crawl and also Canada day.