Swim Lessons..

Haley started her swimming lessons on Monday. It's a Parent and me class from 9-9:30 on M-thurs for the next two weeks. It's been really fun so far. She absoutely loves them. The first day was kind of strange. We ended up with only Haley and another little 14 month old boy in the class. We were suppose to have like three other little girls who were 3 but their parents insisted that they were in the preschool class. Anyway, they are have been working reaching and pulling techiques by throwing a toy and reaching to get it in the water. That helps with the stroke of swimming. They do a lot of trying to float on their backs and tummy's. Everything is to nursery rhymes songs. Haley has been singing the new songs now for the last two days. Today they wore life jackets and practiced jumping into the pool just by holding my hands. Haley even jumped to the teacher a couple of times and let him help her float on her back. She was kind of scared of putting her head in the water on her back though. We are going to work on that. Over all, so far so good. Class hasn't been quite a half hour, but it's been okay for me. My arms have felt like jelly the first day from holding her up in the water so much. They were so sore on Tues and today they feel pretty good. We have one last lesson tomorrow and then next weeks. I'm hoping these will help her swim a little bit better.


P.S.) I thought everyone would appriecate this. (nothing to do with swim lessons) I went to pull my trash can and recycle can around on monday. Well there were all these spiders all over the place. I decided I couldn't do it. So, I am not paying my 13 year old neighbor for the next two weeks to pull them around and pull them back for me until Dave comes home. I told him I would give him $10 to do it. I think it's a very good $10 spent b/c I cannot deal with spiders!!!!

Finally..A BREAKTHOUGH!!!

It's a miracle..Haley has finally started to try new foods. Dave and I..especially me, have been so frustrated with her eating from the age of 1 till now. She wouldn't try any new food for dinner but Mac and cheese or meatsticks. No one knew our frustration with this process as much as we did. So, basically I had really had it. Every time we asked her to try different things for dinner she would refuse and cry at the table. On Saturday, I guess somehow she broke. I had made Ham and scallop potatoes and she was sitting with us at the table. I gave her very little and told her she had to take one bit of each. Well, that was a disaster. She cried and clamped her mouth and refused. Dave told her to go to room and stand on her carpet. It wasn't for the fact of not trying it but for her acting like she did. So, she stood on her carpet for about 3 minutes and then came back down on the ugly green chair and sat for about 30 minutes. I gave her a bath and then afterwards told her it was time to eat and try our dinner. So, she said okay. She took a bit of ham and started to chew and gagged. She did the same thing with the potatoes. I think it happened b/c it was a new food and new texture. Dave said he would do the same thing if he didn't like it. I said no, it was b/c it was new to her and she didn't know what to expect. So, the next night we had roast with egg noodles, corn on the cob and salad. I didn't make her eat the roast but put butter on the noodles and she ate those. I was so excited! She got two nice cookies for that. Then Monday and Tuesday night, she had spaghetti. She gagged once or twice, but said she liked it. She ate probably half of her bowl each night. I'm so overly excited about this. I can only say it's about time my daughter is FINALLY trying new foods. We have finally made a breakthrough!

Eighty's look

Haley put her headband in herself the other night. It totally reminded me of the 80's sweetband look. Which is so ironic I was watching E News last night ( I get to watch those fun shows when Dave's not home) and they were showing a tread of the young hollywood girls wearing their headbands like this. How crazy is that! My daughter is up with the new trends.

Zoo Hat

I put this silly hat on Haley the other day b/c she hasn't worn it yet. I got it from the zoo in may. I was thinking it was a good beach hat or pool hat. I guess I forgot she's almost 3 and won't wear something like that anymore. I will just save it for the new baby. It has really cute animals all over it.

Big Girl Funiture

Haley got her big girl funiture before we left for Ohio. So, it's been over a month since she's had it. I haven't gotten a chance to get good pictures of her in it. She loves her new bed and furiture. The furniture is really big. It takes up all of her room. That is the only negative about it. It's beautiful though in white. Her comforter came in about two week ago. So, everything is all set up now. Her panels on her dresser you can change the colors to white, pink, lavender or green. I choose to stick with pink and lavender. She looks like such a munchkin in her BIG bed. We got a bed rail from my mom that got it at a garage sale. I don't think she really needs it but we want to be safe then sorry.

Snuggling up

Haley is a big snuggler anymore. She laid with me on the couch the other night and sat with grandma for a while to. I think she was tired from our trip out to breakfast, to the beach and the pool just before noon that day (Tuesday). It was a crazy but fun morning. We went to the Oceanfront and had breakfast and mom wanted to go to that beach. I do like that beach, but you have to pay to park. That is what I really hate about it. It's just annoying finding a parking spot and then having to walk a mile with a 2 year old. My mom found a lot of pretty shells for my next project. She had made me a picture frame about 3 years ago out of shells. I'm going to try to make one to now. She collected a lot of shells for me so I'll probably do that sometime next week when Dave is gone. He's suppose to be leaving again on Monday or Tuesday. They are in for the weekend but that is it. I'm waiting to hear from him to go pick him up. I started to scrapbook again. I'm very excited about this. I loved doing it and it's something that I do for myself. It's just hard when I'm tired and want to lay down while Haley is napping so I have been doing it while she's up. Well, it's worked out okay so far. She wants to "help" me. So, I let her play with the letter stickers I have. I have actually gotten two pages done this morning and 1 page last night. I am now doing Haley when she in the hospital and first coming home. I hadn't done any of those pictures yet. I have done random ones and have a book for all of Haley's years so far. I'm so proud of them. I think I have done a really good job on them to. It's just so relaxing and fun to do.

15 weeks and 2 days pregnant

Mom took a few picture of me on monday night. I know they are flipped weird but I don't have that tool to flip them the right way. Brit is there anyway you can send me that program? Or flip them for me again. Thanks! I think I look bigger then I am I guess. I really thought I was bigger then what I'm showing, but maybe not. I'm feeling pretty good. I have now about 4 weeks till I know the sex. I call on Monday to make my appt for my ultrasound. I'm so excited! I just found out today that Lindsay is having a girl. Her mother in law is an ultrasound tech and she is allowed to scan her whenever she wants. So, she is barely 15 weeks and found out yesterday. I'm excited for her. I can't wait to see what this little one is.

Haley's new pool

While my mom was here, she bought Haley a new bigger pool to play in. She loves it! She just loves the water to. She insisted all her sand toys had to be in the pool with her. That didn't leave much room for her. I got in the pool with her a few times b/c it was so darn hot! I'm so glad I fit in this one. It nice to just sit there with her and she can play and I can cool off to.

More beach fun!

We went to the beach again over the weekend. The weather has started to get hot again so it was kind of getting miserable out. We had a good time. We only stayed about an hour. Haley loves to go walking with my mom. I get to relax a little while they do. I still get nervous with Haley out by the water though. Those waves were pretty wicked b/c of Hurricane Bereth that was out to sea forever. I think they are better now.

Workbooks

My mom bought Haley some workbooks that feature writing your letters upper and lower case, numbers and shapes. She really loves to do them. I have started just with practicing the writing of letters and also recongizing the lower case. I realized I never taught her the lower case yet. So, we have been working on that with her wipey board that have letters on it to. I wanna thank Brit for letting me know about those books to. I think they will be a huge help in her getting ready for preschool in about 1 year. We haven't decided if she's going 1 or 2 years yet. It depends on finances probably at the time.

The Bay

Tuesday we all headed down to the Bay. Dave got off early and was able to come with us. I had really wanted to go down there and heard there were alot of shells for my mom to look for. We went to a Landstown State Park beach. It was a lot different then the part of the bay I had been to before. This was more like wildlife part. It had crabs you could see, lots of sea weed, and shells to. We had a good time. The bay wave are so much calmer then the ocean waves. It was still a bit chopper then I have ever seen it. The hurricane is still making our ocean be a bit crazy. I want to go back when the water isn't so choppy. Haley go to brave as to sitting in the water and letting the waves splash up at her. She loved it. She's really becoming a beach girl!

Sunday Zoo Day

On Sunday we took a trip to the zoo. We are trying to do more activities while my mom is here. We normally don't do anything but go to the beach, so it was a really hot, but fun day. Haley love animals so she had a blast. She didn't want to ride them this time thank goodness! After touring some of the animals, we went let her play in the fountians this time. She was scared at first and then started having so much fun. I was having fun to. It was so hot that I liked getting wet to haha. She would stick her head in the water and run around. She wouldn't go through it though. She wasn't that brave. Dave stuck his head in to haha. I think my mom had a good time to. The only thing the tigers were closed at the zoo and the kangroos. We were dissappointed. The new train wasn't opened yet either. Other then that, it was a nice family fun day.

Beach Fun!

My mom arrrived last weds for a two week visit. We went down to the beach last week. It was so nice. The weather hasn't been 100 degree's like it was in June. 85 degree's is perfect for the beach. Haley loved every second we were there. She played in the sand and put her feet in the water. She went with walks with grandma while we relaxed. Dave loved the waves because of Hurricane Bertha that is now out to sea. I had to break out my maternity bathing suit I just bought. I put on my non maternity one and I looked like a fat person trying to fit into a size or two to small haha. So, I gave in and started to wear it. I like it though. I think it's pretty cute. :) I have now offically gotten my energy back to. I have energy to do things again. I still love my afternoon naps while Haley lays down. I don't need the whole time though anymore. I get to watch General Hospital again :)

The 4th of July weekend

Our Fourth of July weekend was a total relaxation weekend. I think we were all exhausted from the trip to Ohio. We love going to see everyone, but no one understands what a non vacation it is for us. We need like a week to recover. We watched movies and laid around the house all weekend. We watched Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoniex for the umm..6th time haha, HP and the Sorcrer Stone and HP and the Goblet of Fire for probably the hundreth time for both of them. We are VERY big HP fans. Haley loves watching the movies to. She liked watching them when she was 7 months old. Go figure! We were going to sit outside on the 4th and watch the fireworks, but our nieghbor decided to have a party and were letting them off in her backyard. They were so close to our house and we didn't want to even attempt to go out there. We were pretty upset and dissappointed. So, I just opened the blind up and turned off the lights in the house and let Haley watch them inside from across the lake. We still got to see some, but it wasn't the same as being outside. Haley didn't go to bed till 10 that night b/c of our neighbors party and fireworks.

On our way home...

On the Monday before we left, we got a new van! We traded in our 05 Dodge Grandcaravan and got a 08 Chyrsler Town and Country. So far, we love it! It's got all the perks. Duel DVD player, sirus radio, automatic doors, windows in the back go down, touch radio screen..etc. It's pretty neat. The bad thing is we had to have Jersey in the van on day two because of driving home to VA. I laid down all these beach towels and it seemed to work. What's really nice is the seats are leather this time and they don't acculmulate all the dog hair like the other ones did. My brother works for Greenwood in Cortland so he got us a super good deal. We are leasing for the first time. We have to just keep our miles down low, which me driving it around town isn't using many miles. Just us driving to Ohio does. We only make the trip three times a year, probably less now that I'm pregnant and Dave is going in and out to sea now. I'll try to remember to take a picture of it from the outside. THe last picture is of Haley listening to the headphones that come with the van. They are a bit big on her and she really didn't like using them. She's gotta grow into them haha.