Merry Christmas to Mommy!

I haven't posted anything in a really long time, but just had to today.  Haley gave me the best Christmas present I could have ever asked for...
After a hectic day of opening gifts, playing, not napping and enjoying Christmas at Gramma and Grampa Ehman's house, Haley got to bed really late.  When I tucked her in and cuddled her before she went to sleep, she looked up at me with those beautiful blue eyes and said "you're the cutest mom I ever did see", then said "I love you mom!".  Melted my heart.  What an amazing end to a lovely Christmas Day. 

My growing girl

Haley has been growing, changing and learning like crazy. By about 18 months, she was able to say 32 words/sayings:
Hello, Mama, Dada, Daddy, Dog, Bye, Apple, Up, Please, Baby, Kitty, Puppy, Baba (bottle), No (& oh no), Ya, Coco, Nose, Ear, Eye, Wow, Cheese, Ball, Mmmmm yummy, Go, Happy, Banana (nana), Again, Hot, Thank You, Melon, Water (wawa), "Here you go".
Now there are even more words and she's trying to put multiple ones together. Her latest thing is saying "Yes I do!", whenever you ask her if she wants to do something. Yesterday it was "Haley, do you want to watch Tinker Bell?" (her favorite movie), she responded "yes I do!". Now we just have to work on "yes please". She'll say please, just not following the word yes :)
Haley is still a tiny little girl, which I love. I measured her the other day, she's about 31 inches, and this morning she was 20lbs 14 1/2oz. She still fits into 12-18 month clothing, and she'll be 2 in about 2 months!
We've been struggling with feeding her lately. Before I went back to work (when she was 1), she would eat anything you gave her. Now she's super picky and doesn't seem to have much of an appetite. Her favorite meal is fries and chicken nuggets, only cause she gets to dip them into ketchup (keka as she calls it) and BBQ sauce. Our last resort is always yogurt and fruit, these she'll always eat. Guess it could be worse. She has got pretty good with a spoon, and can use it really well with both hands. It'll be interesting to see which hand she favors as she gets older.

Merry Christmas!

It was a wonderful Christmas! Haley actually opened most of her presents, with only a little bit of assistance from mom & dad. She peeled off each piece of paper, and handed them over to Daddy. As usual, she was more interested in the wrapping than the actual gifts, but she did eventually start to enjoy everything she received. At first the opening of the gifts didn't make much sense to her, since for the weeks leading up to Christmas, she wasn't allowed to touch the tree or the gifts. Now we're asking her to not only touch the gifts, but rip all of the paper off of them. Unfortunately this also led her to believe she was allowed to now touch the tree too (smart little monkey). Haley still only points and barely touches the ornaments, she hasn't tried pulling anything off the tree, I'm quite impressed.
Haley has sure got the hang of walking now. Her walk quickly turned into a run, and crawling has become a thing of the past. I can't believe how fast it all happens! A month before Christmas she was a very shaky walker, and now she walks everywhere! We went to the mall for a little boxing week shopping, she was quite happy to walk down the mall like a big girl. Of course she's still so tiny, it looks pretty strange to see someone so small walking so well.

She's walking!

It's been quite the month!

On November 2, 2010, Haley took her first steps. Only 2 or 3 at a time, but she did it! She was so proud of herself, it was adorable! She kept going from the coffee table to me, over and over again.
On November 16, 2010, Haley started to take several steps at one time. She was walking back and forth between Charlie and me. You could see the feeling of accomplishment on her face, what a happy little camper.
Now Haley is all over the place. She'll walk around for a bit, then crawl, then find something to prop herself up with and start walking again. Such a fun stage, but she's all over the place.
Her favorite thing to do (aside from walking) is climbing the stairs, specially when she's ready for a nap. She will grab her blanky, then head up the stairs to bed. What a fun age. I love my little monkey!

It's been a busy month...
On Sept 24/10, Haley started to furniture walk. She get's up so easily now, then just shuffles along. If you're sitting on the couch, she'll often pull herself up to standing, then rest her cheek on the couch cushion. She does it for the response, because when I'm sitting there I say "awe" when she does it. As soon as she hears me say that, she'll start doing it over and over. Sometimes she'll even copy me and go "awe" too, it's very cute!
The same week Haley got tooth number 3, she also got number 4 and 5, then a week later she got tooth number 6. Not a single complaint with any of them, we're so lucky. It's amazing how much it changes her look too. My little girl is growing up!
We went to Haley's friend Paige's 1st birthday at the beginning of this month. Paige's mom Candace liked Haley's skirt from her birthday so much, that she ordered one for Paige. So a couple of days after the birthday, we decided to take some photos of the girls in their pettiskirts, priceless :) It's so cute to watch the girls interact. Paige kept handing Haley her hair bow, it's a game she plays with Candace, where they just keep handing it back and forth. Of course Haley doesn't get the whole handing it back thing, so she would just keep it and Paige would get upset. Finally poor Paige would get her little bow back, but rather than just being happy and keeping it, she'd hand it right back to Haley and it would start all over again. Poor little Paige.

Her 3rd tooth

Finally after a month and a half, Haley has tooth number 3. I think it came through on Friday night, since she had about a 5 minute cry before bed (which isn't usual for her), although I didn't notice the tooth until tonight. It's another one on top, so now she has 3 on top, and none on the bottom, lol. The front 2 on the bottom are on their way though, I think one of them might actually break through by tomorrow, or at least in the next couple of days.
Looks like our summer is officially over. I had to dress Haley in a fleece one piece outfit to take her for a walk yesterday evening. Although it was sad to say goodbye to summer, Haley sure looked cute! We went to the park and she went on the swing for about 10 minutes, but then I was worried she was getting too cold, so we headed back home. Poor thing, her nose was all red by the time we got back.

New faces

Haley has been quite the little character lately. She's started making new sounds and faces. Her latest one is what I call "duck face", but Charlie likes to call it her "stink face". She scrunches up her nose, does a modified version of fish lips (while showing her 2 front teeth) and goes "new new new new new". It's so cute! I tried to get a photo of it today, sort of managed to :) Maybe one of these days I'll be able to catch it on video, but you know kids....they don't do anything on command!