First Day of School

Today was Haley's big first day of school! I think Matt and I were more worried then she was. We had both taken the morning off so we could see her off for the first day. Lucky for everyone Haley woke up really happy this morning. The big day started with the car ride to school. I had to (of course!) take some pictures at home which she was giving BIG smiles. Then when it was time to get in the car to "go to school" I had to chase her down the drive way. She was laughing and I'm thinking she thought she got to ride the bus like the other kids that walk in front of our house to the bus stop. We finally all got in the car and she wanted to sing songs the entire way to school, which mom and dad were happy to do. When we got there she was super excited. I tried to take some more pictures but Haley was more interested in running, yes running, into the school. When I was signing her into class she turned to Matt and said, "come on Dada". We got into the class and Haley started playing right away with another little girl and the puzzle on the table. So Matt and I got her things all situated, talked to the teacher a minute and just left. We felt bad for not saying goodbye but didn't want to cause a scene. We stood outside the door for a few minutes and heard her ask the teacher "where's Mama and Dada"? The teacher said, they'll be back soon and off Haley went playing. So much for missing us!

After 5 long hours, it was time to go get our little munchkin. She was happy to see us and the report from the teacher was she did great. She did cry a little in the morning once she realized we were gone but got over it pretty fast. They skipped music today since it was the first day but they did go outside to play later in the day. In true Haley fashion, she pushed her baby doll around the playground in a stroller the entire time. She ate most of her lunch and even went down for a nap on the cot, which I didn't think she would nap. They even did their first art class in coloring an apple, although the teacher couldn't find Haley's when we got there? Oh well. On Wednesday Grandma is going to take her so hopefully she will do just as good!

I did notice she learned a few things in school already, ok...truth be told she didn't pick these up from school. We've been working on numbers and counting lately. Today she actually counted to 10 all by herself! I had heard a rumor that she did it once at Grandma's but Uncle Nathan was the only one that heard and when she got home it was 1,2,6,3,10 so I had my doubts. But today, she really did it several times by herself. I guess signing 10 little monkeys over and over again really helps.

And the last funny story, tonight at dinner out of nowhere she said some pretty funny stuff. I noticed she started to call out Matt's privates the other night after bath and we would reply with, "yes, that is Daddy's pito" and then change the subject. Well today she announced at the dinner table out of nowhere, "Daddy's Big Pito". My response, "What? Daddy has a pito?" And Haley replied again, "No, Daddy BIG Pito". Matt and I died laughing, which we know is the wrong thing to do but it was too funny. Hopefully she doesn't go announcing this anywhere in public or people might be wondering what we teach our child.

Here are some pictures from the big morning. Enjoy.

About to get in the car at home

Big smile!

Daddy and Haley at school getting ready to walk in

Haley turning around long enough for me to take a picture

And we're off running into school

One last picture with Mom

In the classroom

Home stretch

I decided to start off this post with some news about the baby! I sometimes feel bad that we aren't more prepared for the little one but it just hasn't worked out that way this time. Not only is it a surprise, which we are super excited about but makes it hard to buy things, but we are now officially in the process of moving so we have no room to decorate yet anyways. We'll make up for it once the baby arrives and we have our new house, which will also be a surprise since we don't have one yet :) On the baby front, I'm officially in the 3rd trimester now, 13 more weeks to go. We saw the specialist again this past week and everything still looks great. She can't see any problems with either the baby or me so what is classified as a "high risk pregnancy" has been very normal, minus all the dr. appts. I go see my normal dr. this week to get cleared to fly to El Paso for Labor Day weekend. We're going to visit the grandparents, which I know they are excited to see Ms. Haley.

Haley will be starting "school" on Monday. I can't believe our girl is getting so big. She is going to a two day a week program at the Methodist Church from 9 - 2:30. It's more of a Mother's Day out, or in her case Grandma's Day out, but it should be fun. We met the teacher on Thursday and some of the kids in her class. They seem to have a busy schedule, going to music class, then gym, followed by "art", lunch and a nap. At her age the room is more of a play room then true classroom but I think being around other kids will be good for her. Matt and I are going to take her and pick her up the first day, which will be harder on us then her but I know she is in good hands.

Other then that, it was a pretty normal week :) We didn't take too many pictures this week, shame on me, but we'll have some of the first day of school on Monday and our trip to El Paso starting on Friday.

Haley taking her first nap in our bed at home. I have always put Haley down in her own bed but we made an exception this once for nap time. She was sleeping with Grandma in San Antonio so when she came back home she thought she could do the same in our bed. While we think it is so cute, I've heard over and over from friends to never start that habit. We decided she can take a nap in our bed on weekends only but no spending the entire night! Luckily, she went right back to sleep on her own in her bed that night...whew!

Working at the computer in my shoes.

Our fish

This weekend proved yet again that Haley is a fish at heart. I would have thought swimming everyday at Grandma's would be enough, but no, we spent all weekend in the water too. We went to Market Street Friday night to try out the new pizza place. Haley loves pizza and she didn't disappoint us. After checking it out we went to the fountains where she played and then rolled around the grass some. She has a new gesture that you'll have to check out in the picture below. We're getting her ready for Football season!
Saturday we were busy with Little Gym then we went to check out a petting zoo. While the place has tons of potential, it's in need of a major clean up so not sure we'll be back anytime soon. Haley didn't seem to mind and enjoyed petting the goats even though it was 100+ outside. Guess next time we'll take her to the real zoo. Later in the afternoon we took her swimming and bought some new swim toys. They were a hit as you can see from the dorky mom and dad pictures :) The stuff you do for your kids!
Today Haley left for San Antonio with Grandma. They have already hit up the pool and lazy river at the hotel. I've been told Grandma has been replaced by Sarah and Abby, my cousin's 7 year old twins. Haley has been following them around and is enjoying playing with them, and I think they love Haley too! Tomorrow they are going to Sea World. We've been practicing the Shamu wave at home getting Haley excited. We miss her but I know she is having fun with Grandma.

I posted extra pictures since I won't get too many this week...

Chilling at home

Watering the flowers at Market Street

Eating more pizza...too busy to look at the camera

Gig 'Em!!! Getting ready for football

Checking out my new goggles...Daddy has to wear them too

And now Mama's turn

Look at me swim all by myself

Help! The alligator is getting me

One little monkey jumping on the bed

I love Mac N Cheese too...can you tell?

All clean

Our Trip to Boston

We survived our first airplane trip with Haley in over a year! She actually did AWESOME. Matt and I were very impressed with our little girl. We were delayed in Houston about an hour and a half sitting on the plane due to weather but Haley didn't seem to mind. Just sat on Matt's lap and colored or played with her dolls. The only traumatic experience on the way there was when she saw the luggage taken away and her baby had to be screened. That brought a few tears but those didn't last long.
We enjoyed our time with the family. We went up there to celebrate Matt's cousin Chris's wedding reception. They got married in February but had a reception in August. The reception was at the bride's house with horses, a bouncy house, pool and dogs, what else could Haley ask for? She loved checking out the horses and even managed a swim in the pool, though the water was much colder then it is here. We also had the opportunity to take a drive to Newport, Rhode Island. It was overcast that day but we still had fun. It's so strange growing up in Texas where the next state is 100s of miles away. In MA we drove 30 minutes and we were in Rhode Island.
The last night in Boston we stayed in the city since we had a very early flight out. We did a duck tour which is a historic tour of Boston that goes in the water too! It was a blast and I loved learning all the history.
Finally, our last morning there was interesting to say the least! At the rental car return a lady was hit by a car!! Luckily we didn't see the hit but we did see her on the ground and all the commotion. Haley was a little scared since everyone was panicked but we managed to keep her occupied and get on another bus and head back to Houston. The woman was ok, probably just broke her leg. Needless to say, we've learned a valuable lesson on how accidents can happen so quickly. Luckily everything turned out ok.
On baby#2 front, I had to see the Dr. to get cleared to fly before we left. She said everything looked good so far but doesn't think I'll make the full 40 weeks! In fact she said she would be surprised if I made 37 weeks this time. The baby is hanging out pretty low. Guess we'll be meeting baby #2 around early Nov instead of Thanksgiving? Time will tell :)

Here's some highlights from our trip

Haley ready for a swim at Great Aunt Rosalie and Great Unlce Rick's house. It was too cold for her.

Pretty girl

Trying to give the horse a kiss...the horse had other ideas

There's the groom! Not sure where the bride is?

Yes, that IS just a fork full of katchup

At a park in Newport

Great Uncle Rick and Haley in Newport

Cousin Mike chasing down Haley. She decided to run free in the grass (the fog is rolling in...)

Great Aunt Rosalie showing Haley how to feed the fish

The Duck Tour (our vehicle was gray)

Haley on the Duck Tour

Weekend fun

I can't believe the weekend is coming to a close. Where does the time go these days? On Friday night Matt went out with the guys so Haley and I had a girls night. I decided to try my luck with her at Kobe's. I love that place but wasn't sure how she would do waiting on food too long. Turns out she loved the show. The fire was a little scary but if I held her hand she was fine. She ate all the rice, which is my favorite too! Next time I'll know to order extra rice for her. I was getting tired of lugging her diaper bag around everywhere and found the cutest backpack for her at Walmart. Hey for $5 if she didn't like it then no biggie. Needless to say, it has been a hit! She wouldn't take it off at Grandma's for 2 hours on Friday. When we got out of the car at Kobe's she had her backpack on and we parked next to the day care school bus. She was so excited yelling "Bus!". I think she might be ready for school....what do you think?

On Saturday we checked out the bike's at Toys R Us. We didn't find what we were looking for but Haley really liked this one, even picking out the helmet. It makes her look so big!!

It's a little hard to see out of the helmet when all the packaging is still on it!

We had to bribe her to look at dolls to get out of the bike section...big mistake. Haley loves "babies". We let her pick one out and she was so cute. She picked one that came with a car seat that she carried around the entire store. She even picked up an outfit for the doll but mom and dad said no to that. I think I know what to get her for her birthday now. We went to dinner on Saturday and we had to take Baby with us. She even held Baby (car seat and all) in her lap in her car seat on the way home. She is so cute taking her on walks around the house in the stroller and feeding her. Apparently Haley thinks Baby likes salsa. She gets Buster in on the action too, of course, trying to get Buster to drink out of Baby's bottle. She has such an imagination.

Today we headed off to the pool to beat the heat, not to mention all Haley wants to do these days is go swimming. She wore her new bathing suit (everything is on sale at Toys R Us) and Daddy did her hair while I had to do some work this morning. I must say he did a very good job complete with 3 bows that didn't match, but Haley picked them out.

And last but not least, I forgot to update on the new baby! We saw the specialist a few weeks ago again and she can't see anything wrong with the baby. She thinks it is healthy and now just sees me every 6 weeks to monitor for any other potential problems. That was the best news Matt and I could have hoped for. We can finally breathe a little easier and enjoy this pregnancy. The baby was actually measuring a week ahead, which is something Haley never did. Who knows, it might be an early Nov baby instead of late Nov. Haley was 2.5 weeks early and the dr. said usually your first pregnancy is your longest. The specialist had the due date of Nov 15 but my dr. still has Nov 23. There is such a range of sizes the baby can be that she will not adjust my due date unless it is 2 weeks off. So still 23 weeks pregnant...17 more to go until we meet Vara Baby #2.

Have a great week! We're off to Boston on Friday so I'll try to post some more before then. If not we'll fill up the blog with pictures from our trip up north.

Talking Haley

We have been working on some new words. Every morning when we stop at a light I say "Red light stop" and "Green light go". So yesterday morning Haley started saying something out of the blue at a stop light and I couldn't figure it out. Then it hit me...

I guess that is language only a mom can decipher at this stage. Soon enough we'll get there.

Updated pictures

I can't fall back asleep so what better to do then update Haley's blog! We had a great 4th of July complete with a Veteran's parade of WWII vets. Haley liked all the candy she got, especialy the suckers. She was a little freaked out by fireworks this year. There was a show on July 3rd that we could see from Grandma's backyard and as soon as they started she said "inside, inside". So we watched them from inside the house and she did much better. She must have sensed what was going on the next night as she cried and cried until Matt took her back inside the house shortly before the fireworks again. Oh well, maybe next year. Other then that, not much else is new. Just busy with Ms. Haley having lots of fun. She's starting to repeat everything you are saying...fun age :) This morning I was trying to put on her shoes and I said "can I have you foot please honey". She said back "foot pease huny". She tries hard, good thing we can half way understand her. Tonight she was saying goodbye before Matt took her to bed. She said bye to Mommy, Bubber (Buster), Fishy and Light and waved. Not sure why she said goodbye to the light but it was funny.
Well, since it's 4:30am guess I better try to go back to sleep. I have an ultrasound in a few hours with the specialist again and then off to work. Hopefully the news will be great at the specialist and I won't have to see her much longer. I know I'll be paying for this early morning tonight!!!

Enjoy some pics from July 4th...

Late night swim on July 4th Weekend (finally using her floaties which makes mom feel much better when she dives off the steps!)

Posing for Mom

Yep - I look just like my daddy, even up close

Doing my best to wave the flag

My loot from the parade