Food Appreciation 101

I don't know if I mentioned or not, but Hailey is back to eating in a big way!! We had a little hiatus when she wasn't eating too well, but that has long since passed -- the current trend however is refusing to eat pretty much anything that is fed to her, say from a spoon or fork. She is little Miss Independent, and therefore wants only to feed herself! There are two exceptions to this rule, yogurt and applesauce. And as for pre-made finger foods like Gerber Ravioli pick ups and other simple meals, she's not such a big fan of them either. So it is up to me to get creative and make yummy, nutritious Hailey approved finger foods. In this quest there have been successes and failures. Some favorites include grilled cheese, toast and cream cheese, toast and mashed banana and dilatini pasta and sauce. Failures are far too many to count, so I won't even bother -- Molly and Jersey would be able to recall them for you since anything not Hailey approved is thrown to the floor and the dogs get to gobble it down. So the other day I decided to branch out and try to bake some finger friendly foods. To my surprise my first attempt was an instant success!! Broccoli and cheese nuggets . . .

And I'm happy to report they were so simple to make! Just microwave some frozen broccoli pieces, blend them up in a food processor, mix them with bread crumbs, Cheddar cheese and an egg and shape them into little nuggets. Then cook them for 30 minutes at 375 turning flipping them over half way through! Delicious!
And here are some photos from today's snack time. Although she doesn't like Gerber prepared meals, she LOVES their snacks! Her favorites being crunchies, puffs and yogurt bites. Here she is eating and playing on her snack try while Jersey sits by very patiently waiting for an ok from either me or Karl to move in and be the clean up crew, Molly maid is surprisingly no where to be seen!

Girlie enough for you Nonni?

So my mother is always complaining that I don't dress Hailey like a little girl. I beg to differ, in fact I don't think she could possibly own any more pink! But since Nonni wants to see her in dresses and skirts here are some pictures to prove, I do on occasion dress her up like a little girl!

Now, in my defense, have you tried to crawl around on your hands and knees in a skirt & tights? So Nonni I promise, as the walking progresses and becomes more of a permanent mode of transportation I will begin putting Hailey in dresses and skirts more often!

On an aside -- I happened to come across these pictures that I accidentally pulled off of Nonni's camera when she was visiting -- at least I dress my child from this century, can you do something about your crazy husband please??

Just kidding Papa -- I couldn't be more excited for Hailey to have such a fun loving and interesting Papa!! Between "Papa the Pirate" and Boompa's monkeys from Jambowanga Hailey will no doubt have an fun and interesting childhood ;)

I WIN!!!

So Karl and I had a bet as to what age Hailey would start walking, I bet it would happen before she turned 10 months old and he bet it would occur after . . . and I WIN!
Here she is making mama proud just a week shy of turning 10 months old :) That's my girl!!

Now comes the task of decided what I want for my victory!?

So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Good Bye

She hates to leave and miss this joyful sight!!
( I mean really, who wouldn't want to wake up to this face!!)


The time has come for Nonni to say goodbye! After two weeks & LOTS of Hailey time it is time for Nonni to go home to Papa (he misses her . . . and Abbey, tons!) But we couldn't have done the past two weeks without her. Thanks to Nonni I have been able to do most of my orientation to work and Hailey has had a fairly smooth transition to my new work schedule. In fact it's me that has a hard time being away from her all day -- the hard part for her is being away from my boob all day :) Seriously though, here is a brief description of what happened when I came home on Monday after my first 12 hour day. I come in the door, and see Hailey in the living room, our eyes lock and I go "HI BABY!" She squeals, claps her hands, and crawls at full speed across the living room and jumps up and down at the ottoman for me to pick her up! I happily go over and do so, only to be greeted by her tuggin and pulling on the neck of my shirt and hitting my chest -- eye contact, nah, they were glued to one place only!! Glad to know she missed me so much!! :)

Anyhow, enough story telling, everyone comes to see the pictures after all!! So here are a some of the fun times Hail's had with her Nonni this past week.

Whether playing house or running away up the stairs, Nonni was always right there . . .



In the absence of mommy, Nonni always supplied a milkie bottle . . . and of course there is always bath time fun!!



And although we'll miss Nonni TONS, I think it is Jersey who will miss her daily facials from Lilly the most!!!

Ornamental Bug

Hailey has decided that she is going to be the decoration adorning the bottom shelf of the book case --- I must say she is much prettier than the basket full of toys that normally resides there!

Caughtcha!!!

Finally, proof -- we are progressing from two chompers to four!!

Birthday Party part Duex!!

Today we attend Hailey's second birthday party of the week!! This time it was a dual party for Greyson and Leo from playgroup, who both turned the big O-N-E this week! The birthday boys had a good time, got lots of nice presents and even got to enjoy giant cupcakes together!!



Hailey too enjoyed herself -- from the cupcakes to the balloons it was a fun time! Thanks for a good time boys!

Time Flies, When You're Havin Fun!!! . . .

Let me begin by saying sorry for the lack of blogs this week! I know many of you (Boompa's, Nana's, Papa's and Nonni's especially) look forward to their daily glimpses of Hailey's life. But this past week has been a little nuts. I started back at work on Tuesday and had training all week, thank goodness Nonni was in town to watch over the little bug! (Nanny Jada has family of her own in town and was therefore a little busy herself!) So Nonni and Hailey have been spending LOTS of quality time together :) And of course where Nonni goes Abbey and Lily are not far behind, licking Hailey all the way! And Nonni even brought Hailey her very own play tent!!!

On Wednesday the sun made a rare apperance & Hailey got to spend some time outside with Nonni and the pups. It turned out to be a bit too exciting for everyone when Hailey wouldn't keep her sun hat on, Jersey escaped out the side gate, Abbey quickly followed and Nonni had to chase them all around the neighborhood, on a broken foot . . . oops!

The remainder of the week was a little less "exciting" (thankfully!) And Nonni and Hailey were able to just relax while I was working. On Friday Aunt Lisa flew in and the Pagano girls were complete :) We went to Chili's for dinner (and more importatnly dessert!!) Hailey even got to sit in a booster seat since the table we were at wouldn't accomodate a high chair, how grown up is she???

After dinner Nonni took Hail's to Build A Bear and she got to pick out a toy. We tried to cox her into the pony, but she had her little heart set on the soft flopsy rabbit!! She was very involved in the whole process, from the picking out of the toy, to the stuffing, she picked out her own little heart for flopsy and even got her a St.Patrick's Day outfit, Thanks Nonni!!!! What a fun and exciting week.

Birthday's, ChuckECheese, Nanny's AND Nonni's!!

"Riding along in my automobile . . . my chuckE beside me at the wheel . . . "

Today was a BUSY and super exciting day for both Hailey and myself.

First, I started my new job today!! Well not really work, it was just orientation, but still . . . I was up tossing and turning all night! Normally when I start a new job I can't sleep the night before because of excitement, but this time it was different. This time all I could think about was "am I really doing the right thing . . . do I really want to risk loosing any precious time with my Hailey Bug?!!" Morning came all too soon and Hail's and I were spending our early morning hours together just chilling and watching the Today Show. Before I knew it 8am rolled around and Nanny Jada was here to spend the day with Hailey. Hail's had a little break down when I left which led me to have a mini breakdown of my own while driving into work. But I called to check on her once I got to the parking lot, and go figure, she was fine . . . hanging out and playing like nothing had happened. Little sucker, made me feel guilty for nothing!!! Orientation went really well and I feel confident that once I am setteled in and only working a day or two a week I'll absolutely love it!!!
Meanwhile Nonni was in route from Florida to come and spend some quality time with us! So after my first day of work I returned home to find Hailey and Nonni hanging out together :)

Then it was time for Hailey's first birthday party!! What a popular little lady, I swear she has a busier social schedule than I do!! I'll have trouble keeping up with all of her engagements & a job!! We packed up Nonni and headed over to Xander's 3rd birthday party at Chuck E Cheese. The party was great, Hailey had a blast showing Nonni and Daddy all the fun things at CEC!!

And apparently Xander took the song "It's my party and I'll cry if I want to" literally!! He had a little bit of a break down when we were all singing to him! (quite frankly I'd cry too Xander -- after all they had me lead the singing, have you heard me sing?!)


He recovered however and was off to play in no time!!

Now it's time for me to go pass out, part two of orientation will be tomorrow and then I'll have nursing orientation Thurs and Fri!!! Aunt Lisa arrives Friday, and Hail's has ANOTHER birthday party on Saturday . . . it's exhausting just blogging about it, I have no idea how we'll get it all done!!!

Will You Be My Valentine?!

Finally we were able to catch a little footage of Hailey taking unassisted steps. I wish we had the camera just a few minutes earlier because she took a lot more (with better control), but I guess a little something is better than nothing :)

Aside from all the walking practice, we had a quiet Valentine's Day. We had planned a hike to Dunbar Caves, it was a little nippy though, so we opted for a lazy day in. Karl got up nice and early with Hailey bug and allowed me to sleep in. When they did come to wake me at 8am they brought a gift basket with them (love prezies!) It had bones for Jersey and Molly, a moo cow toy for Hailey (I'm sure that was bought with some thought to my love of cows! ) and for me a copy of Mama Mia and a box of assorted chocolates. Now, this may not seem like the most romantic of presents, but I assure you it is! Mama Mia, well only someone who REALLY loves me would buy that! Karl knows very well that by buying it he will have to listen to ABBA endlessly, and even worse he'll have to listen to ABBA as performed by Susan endlessly . . . (Wawawa waterloo . . . ) that's love!!! And as for the chocolates, I told him a few months back that I loved assorted chocolates and hadn't had them in years . . . the only complaint I have is that they came with no "road map" so there are several half bitten pieces in the box because I have to sample each to see if I like them :) He's good about eating those that I don't care for though ;)
So what did I get for him you may ask? Well food of course! I got up and cooked a yummy egg breakfast . . . and for dinner I made his favorite, fondue. We only had the cheese, but it was delicious. And tomorrow night I think we'll have the chocolate fondue, I had all the stuff to do it tonight, we were just lacking room in our bellies!!



Hope everyone had a great day, whether you were celebrating or not :) We heart you all!!!

Hailey Lost Her Appetite . . .

And apparently found a horses!!!

So for the past week Hailey hasn't been eating too great, but with the ear infection, cold and new teeth I haven't been too worried. She must be feeling better though because when I took her to Jersey Mike's and got her a turkey and cheese sub she DEVOURED it. Later that same evening we had pizza and she had no problems inhaling a few slices . . . guess I wasn't feeding her the good stuff before?!

Go Speed Racer . . .

Hailey's new favorite past time is to bolt out of whatever room I put her in, be it the kitchen or my bedroom, and head straight for the . . .

STAIRS!!!

Grumble, Grumble, Grumble

GRRRRRRRRRR . . . so of course with the good weather has to come some bad, because nothing can just be good, right?! So, the bad, a lovely wind storm that decided to rip pieces off my house!!

No problem, I have insurance!! 15 minutes on the phone with USAA and I am forced to face an awful truth, go figure, there's a deductible!! $2000 flippin dollars to be exact! Grrr, please tell me again WHY I have insurance?! Seriously, I finally realized how these people make money, NOTHING EVER COSTS THAT MUCH...well ok, not nothing, if my house was blown away (please God, don't blow my house away to make a point) ... like I was saying, rarely is damage that expensive, so they make money off of all of the good people who get the insurance only to find out it doesn't cover the small stuff, doesn't anyone care about the small stuff anymore?! --Sigh-- There goes my shopping trip with tax refunds :(

Ohwell, moving on to the the happier portion of my day . . . Chuck E Cheese for playgroup. I was nominated, partially by myself & partially by Mariah, to bring cupcakes for the monthly birthday celebration. So I happily did so (poor suckers have no idea I CANNOT bake!) Hailey of course had a blast running (actually crawling) around, watching all the big kids play games and even going head first down the slide -- FYI that didn't occur on my watch, I was racing cars with someone else's child while they were "watching" mine ;) -- hehe! She was totally fine though!! And more importantly my cupcakes didn't make anyone sick :) So atleast my morning was pleasant!

Blood Wings and Tender Tushies

First off, Congratulations to Karl!! He graduated Air Assault School today, also known as the "hardest 10 days in the army" (I'd beg to differ, he wasn't that black and blue!!) We're proud of him all the same though! Hailey and I gladly attended his graduation, well sort of. We were told to be there no later than 1045, so in true Susan fashion . . . we arrived at 1057. Graduation began at 11, so we walked around a little, visited with some of Karl's soldiers and next thing I knew it was over?! Apparently the ceremony was going on inside, whoops!! I just assumed since so many people were gathered outside that it was going to take place there. Ohwell!!! When Karl made it over to us I noticed a little bit of red on his uniform, trust boys to torture one another by initiating blood wings ---

Following graduation we went out for a delicious German lunch at EdelWeiss Cafe with Jay and Pete. We all enjoyed JagerSchnitzel, even Hailey was a fan!!

After lunch the bug and I came home. My plan was to start baking cupcakes for tomorrow's monthly birthday playdate, but Hailey had a different idea. Any time I even considered leaving the play area (ie stood up) she would begin screaming!! Come to find out when I changed her diaper she has her first ever case of diaper rash!!!! Talk about being handed a raw deal -- fevers, ear infections, teeth coming in (they're still trying to break through) and now her antibiotics have given her a little case of diaper rash!! So to relieve her pain a little I gave her some fresh air treatment . . .

Guess it worked, because she was one happy, pantsless little bug pushing around her walker!!!

Let's hope we are PAST all of the ouchies for the time being!!! I don't think I can handle anymore, so I can't imagine how Hailey is coping so well.

Walkin on the Wild Side

So we decided to take advantage of the unseasonably warm weather (it got close to 70 today!!!) and ventured out the the Nashville Zoo.
Hailey has been feeling much more chipper since she started her antibiotics, and both her and I were desperate for a day out of the house!!!
Our first stop was Africa, where Hailey fell in love with the African wild pigs -- I think she thought they were Jersey, you can see the obvious resemblance -- tan body, black snout, nose pinned to the ground in search of food!! She tried to offer them her cheerios, but they were a little busy. . .



Next we moved on to the elephants and giraffes . . . at first she wasn't too interestedd in them, to be quite honest I don't think she could see them, but once they started moving and came closer to the fence she was mesmerized!!


We then moved on to the Meerkat nation where they had the coolest thing . . . a glass enclosure built into the ground so that you could go in and be in the midst of all the Meerkats!! Karl only took video of us in there, and to be perfectly honest they're a little long and boring so I won't upload, but here is the hole I had to crawl through, with Hailey in hand, to get into the center of the action!!!


Several animal encounters later we came across the petting zoo -- so we took Hailey in to see the animals. They had donkeys, ducks, birds and of course goats!!

Last but not least was the amphibian / fish house. Hailey LOVED the underwater animals. There was a giant funny looking turtle that she visited for atleast 10 minutes, she was talking to him, pointing at him and wondering why she couldn't get to him!!

Then while visiting another tank she became quite the fish expert, look at her telling her daddy all about the fish . .

.

By the end of the day our little feet were sore, bellies were full (of cheerios and puffs), and we had seen our fill of animals, in fact Hail's had even began to resemble one!

She's still cute though, so we took her home with us anyway!!!