Grandma Lela and Grandpa George's visit part II

With the destruction that has taken over our home during the past week and half I have lagged at posting many updates... the most important one was the 2nd half of our wonder vacation at home with Greg's parents who live in Georgia. Grandma wrote this our just after she got home for me to post... I am so sorry for my tardyness and especially for the fact that the bathroom was not done before you got here, but rather the weekend after you left :( Pictures will be to come...

"I have been home now about 39 hrs. and taking a breather and thinking about the past two weeks.

Hailey you amazed me while visiting. Mommy has told me how smart you are but guess I needed to see it myself. You are barely 2 years old and recognize letters--not sure how far you can really count as sometimes you would get confused--recognized shapes and many colors. Also, you know sign language and even taught me a few. I would read stories to you and you cracked me up--it was actually a game--I would start a sentence and you would actually finish the sentence on the pages of the book and I mean PAGES. You obviously have been read to ALOT and I'm sure that has contributed to your knowledge.


It was funny to watch you test your mom and mom would get so mad at you. You're definitely a redhead--lol. Mommy got smart with the car seat. Every time we went somewhere in the car it was a nightmare to get you in that car seat. You of course want to do everything yourself and you'd take your sweet time doing it and if mommy tried speeding you up then oh oh then a fit would come. I think it was either 2 days before I left or the day before I left that mommy came up with giving you a gummy bear or candy if you got in the car seat nicely and guess what--guess you really want that candy a you did get in it nicely and got the award of candy. Wonder if it is still working.

I told your mom that I can visualize you as a woman and I don't really know why I can because I've never felt that way with any other child. Maybe it's because I don't see you very much.

It was fun spending so much time with you. I enjoyed our 3 days at Suquamish, watching you in the pool, watching you at gymnastics and also getting to see you at the Jump Planet.

Don't forget us Hailey Makena as Grandma Lela and Grandpa George love you loads and always can't wait to see you again. Call us on skype when you have a minute.

By the way how is Mickey and Minnie and Baby Cinderella doing?"

Love,

Grandma Lela and Grandpa George

Hailey:
"Gamma Lela, Mickey and Minnie are doing great! Thank you so much, they are my bestest friends along with Monkey, Baby Alla, Cinderella Baby, Lion, Leopard, and the rest of the entourage. Eveyone gets along so good. The bed is super cozy and we make sure that there is water and books for everyone. They sleep with me every night and go for lots of car rides. I have to make sure that they are well taken care of and Minnie even took real good care of me by holding my arm for me when we were at the hospitol getting it fixed. She made it all better and made sure I wasn't scared" (future blog, but we are just fine!)

Love you to pieces and we will see each other again real soon. I can't wait for Hawaii and Mommy says that as soon as we get home to our own beds and our new bathroom this weekend we will dial you up on skyp so you can read to me.

Grandma Lela's first post of their visit

George and I arrived Wednesday and I saw my beautiful Grand-daughter. I am completely amazed with her. She talks so clearly for just being a little over 2. I have no trouble understanding her at all. A year ago the only time I could spend any time with her alone was if Mommy wasn't around--not the case at all this time. She is a character let me tell you and my camcorder is going to be very busy on this trip.


I now have been here just a few hours short of a week and very impressed with my Grand-daughter and not just saying that because she is my Grand-daughter. She is one smart cookie. Her vocabulary is advanced to me. I’m used to boys as I never had girls and of course my other grandchild is a boy. As I said Hailey speaks very clearly and knows many words. Educational speaking I’m impressed too. She knows sign language and is even teaching me. I have learned plane, more, stop, --other ones but old grandma can’t remember—lol. She absolutely LOVES books and I didn’t know that she loved them as much as she did. She’s definitely a girl and it’s fun to watch her as she pretends to be a mommy—so busy taking care of babies—cooking and putting them to sleep etc.


She is at the age where she wants to be independent but yet wants to be loved and cuddled like a baby. It’s fun for me being a grandparent watching her want to dress herself and I’m amazed at how well she actually does. I’ve seen her put pants on, shoes on and her coat on. She has such a large imagination and that shows in her play.


Her father for a period of about 6 months had tantrums pretty bad and looks like my Grand-daughter has inherited this lovely trait. I remember them and they were so easy to handle at home but not so easy in public places. I’ve seen her really test her mother. I need to get it on video where Mommy tells her no and Hailey looks and her like no way you’re not going to let me have my way and she does it again and again and then she’s in trouble and off to time out which she is not very pleased with and then the screaming kicking etc. Not very pretty but again it’s a very different perspective seeing it from being a grandma vs. a mother. I think as you get older you have more patience.


Physically she is where I thought she would be as I see pictures of her all the time but intellectually she is much more advanced than I thought she was.

It’s hard being on the other side of the country and not seeing her much but I hope to keep our faces in her mind by doing skype over the computer etc. We haven’t done it and now if we do it enough hopefully she will remember Grandma Lela and Grandpa George.

Of course Grandma and Grandpa brought presents for her when she came and one of them was a Cinderella baby that we bought from our November visit to Disney World. I think that is the toy that she has played with the most. I brought also a purse and a little bag with hearts on it and I really haven’t seen her into it much BUT yesterday we went to Alderwood Mall and Mommy wanted to walk by the Disney store and Grandma just stood there—walk by the Disney store and not go in there? Geez Mom. Well, Hailey and Grandma got THEIR way and in we went. Grandma wants to buy Hailey a princess outfit as the girls in Disney World were so sweet walking around Disney World in their princess outfits. Well, Mom is not into it. Hailey and I walked around the Disney store and Hailey stopped at Mickey Mouse and I said “Hailey, do you want a Mickey Mouse” and she snuggled up to Mommy like she does and said “Mommy” in her special way that she does when she wants something and I knew she wanted it and then Shaundy saw the sign that said “buy one get one”. Whooaaa—Hailey do you want Mickey AND Minnie. I could tell she was in heaven so off we went to pay and I must tell you it warmed my heart soooooo much her carrying those two around Alderwood and the way she walked—she was sooooooo proud and HAPPY. Everyone that we passed as we walked through the mall looked at her and smiled and made comments about how cute she was with Mickey and Minnie as she HAD to carry them out. I really hadn’t seen that look before so I know Grandma did very well yesterday and she has played with them since getting home ALOT. Its hard coming up with gifts being so far away and usually I give Shaundy money and tell her to go buy her something as I don’t know want she has or wants but we did well yesterday didn’t we Hailey.

She is definitely a treasure. Love you loads Hailey Makena.

Call me a slave driver....

Hailey loves to help out with household chores and I feel that it is very important for her to understand how we all need to do our part to have a happy household. Since I work full time and keeping up with the house is another full time job, it is hard to get it all done and have the fun time I want with her. To accomplish EVERYTHING I have been able to teach Hailey all about helping out around the house and how fun it can be when you do it together.

I found a great chore chart at Target a few months ago and she has taken to it quite very well. It has all the days of the week and spaces to write in chores with magnets to put on each day/chore she completes. We use it for all 3 of us to track what needs to get done each day and it is funny when she says that Daddy or Mommy had to do their chore to get a magnet She gets very excited to put her magnets on her spaces and even knows when she gets a bonus magnet (a different star)

Some of the chores that she helps is with are:

• Feeding the cats all by herself. She will take scoops of cat food and dump them in their bowl, pick up any little pieces that fall on the floor and then put the scoop back in the bucket, put the lid back on, push the bucket back to the garage and then run over to the cats and tells them to "go eat your food kitties"

• 

• Making the bed. She will jump in the bed, jump on the blankets, hide under the blankets, and do TIMBER! She will also help by putting the pillows on the bed and pull the sheets straight.
• Helps with watering the plants. She will go around the house and find all the plants and tell me where they are.
• Helps with laundry. She will put the clothes that I hand her from the washer in the dryer and then puts the dryer sheet in and closes the door. She will then take each hamper (there are 4) and put them each back in the spot in the bedrooms.
• Helps with dishes. She will take the dishes out of the dishwasher and hand them to me to put away.
• Picks up toys before bed. Picks up her toys before bed and puts them away with Mommy.

And the greatest part of this is that she LOVES to help. I am just keeping my fingers crossed that she will contine to be a very helpful little girl :)

Gamma Liela and Geampa George are on their way!

Hailey's grandparent's (Greg's Mom and Dad) just boarded the plane to head to Seattle.

We are so very excited for them to come and visit. Hailey has not seen them since last January and I swear she still remembers who they are. She has a darling picture book documenting our last visit and she points to them and says thier names when we read it. We also just got hooked up on Skype and look forward to doing a much better job at staying connected through the webcam.

We had a countdown chart that she put sitckers on each night to show how many days until they came and last night was the most exciting one of all as it was the last one! She got really excited and had a HUGE smile on her face. "My Gamma Liela coming tomorrow?"

All week she has been talking about how Gamma Liela and Geampa George are coming to visit.

• "My Gamma Liela coming to see me".
• "Gamma Liela and Geampa George are getting on a plane to come to our house" She then holds up her hand and signs airplane.
• "I youb my Gamma Liela"
• "When Gamma Liela and Geampa George come we can....." go to the pool, go to nastics, go shopping, do crafts, go see shine, go to Geampa's house on the water, go to the zoo, etc.
• And just a few minutes ago she had a full on conversation with my mom about the visit and she said that Gamma Liela is her "other Gamma, and I have two Gamma's! Now - How many 2 year olds grasp the concept of "other" :)
• And if you could only hear how cute it is when she Geampa George - await a video of that one!

We can't wait to see you Gamma Liela and Geampa George! Love you and happy travels!

I am also going to use my friends Jamie's idea and have Gamma Liela write her very own blog posts about thier visit.

She is Crafty!

I realized that I have not posted anything lately about Hailey's craft skills.

For her birthday Gramma Linda and Grampa George gave her an art desk that stores all of her craft supplies and converts from a desk into an easel. (this was the second type as the first one had a chalk board that you couldn't use and she was not a fan of just standing). I have to say that this is the BEST art desk/easel out there and Hailey just loves it. She does crafts often throughout the week and it is set up in a way that she is very capable of being able to initate it all by herself which is her most favorite part of anything.

Her most favorite craft projects are stickering in her books, drawing, water colors, and glueing "cuts" (sheets of construction paper that I cut up for her in all stores of colors) to a sheet of paper.

On Wednesday she drew her first circle and made sure I knew it. Here is a picture of her circle, there are many others but I made sure to draw an arrow to the "first" one. She was so excited that she started jumping and clapping and said "mommy, I drew a circle, YEAH!"

This morning we painted with water colors and glued "cuts".

About a year ago I got her a notebook that she could color and do crafts in that would show the progression of her art, it is so fun to see how it has come along in a year from her first skills to her current skills. It tends to be alot of stickering but she is very particular about where these stickers are placed.

Hailey's first picture in her book (12/08)

Hailey recent stickering activity (11/09)

Family Fun Day - Tubing at Snoqualmie

This weekend we went up to Snoqualmie Pass with the gang to go tubing. Even though the snow did not cooperate, we still had a blast. Hailey did really well, except that she wouldn't let anyone but me hold her, ride with her, look at her, etc. She also wanted to ride up the mountain on the tow rope instead of letting mommy get in some exercise by walking up it and pulling her in the tube behind me. Have you ever tried to walk up a snow covered mountain pulling a tube with 30 lbs of a jumping, bouncing and whinning toddler behind you? I gave it two tries, NOT WORTH IT!

Riding up the mountain on the tow rope has changed since I was a kid though, now they have a hook that attaches to your tube so you don't have to hold on and pull your arms out of the sockets. It was actually almost more fun then riding down. Hailey loved the tow rope the best but could have done with out the super long line to wait for it.

She had a really fun time, but I think we will have to do the early morning session next year, she was a bit impatient and ended up getting SUPER tired. She would not let me me put her down by the end not let anyone else hold her. Trying to hold a little one in a snow suit with a helmet, walking through very wet/icy snow, and quite layered myself proved to be quite exhausting. I think I would have been better off in shorts and t-shirt - I was roasting!

Yes, I AM THAT Mom that makes my child wear a helmet. This goes back 25+ years when I witnessed a horrific accident at the very same spot. Greg says it happens everyday, well, we were NOT going to be today's. Lucky for us, Hailey loves her bike helmet and wouldn't let me take it off even after we were done. I had to bribe her to take it off so she could get into her car seat. I have to say that I am AMAZED at how many kids DID NOT have a helmet on and there were alot of kids that were just a bit older then Hailey.

Hailey and Mommy waiting for Daddy to bring us our tickets.

Hailey and Madeleine trying to make snow(icy)balls

No one in particular in this shot - just a shot of all the runs.

She was trying to say cheese and find me with the camera from under her helmet.

Here is a little bit of her "do it myself" attitude :) She HAD to pull the tube by herself and she was able to do it too. You can see the momentum in the second picture of her efforts. She really was moving it!

Here is "Gamma and Geampa Decter" Don't you love my mom's darling red hat! It was a great hat to find her by .... haha

I am going to get shot for posting this one, but I just couldn't resist, she has no idea that he is coming down right behind her. (no, he did not run her over) I just hope that she realizes that she should find a new hat!

Kristina, Ry and Arcani - Please note that Arcani is 6 months old - what troopers! No, he did not go down the slopes but he cheered us all on!

By the end of the session on our last wait in line for the tow rope, she started to melt down. She had a great time but I think the last time down had done it for her. When we got the top, she said "put the tube away mommy" in the cutest little crying, exhausted, stuttering, - I am done voice.

Stick a fork in her... she is DONE!

Our Weekend In Leavenworth at the Ice Fest

Last weekend we took a trip over to the Ice Fest in Leavenworth, WA. We had a great time even though there wasn't much snow to play in it. The picture of her in the sled above is at Steven's Pass, and no, she is not on top of a cliff, just a snow pile in the parking lot that was on a slight incline.

I made Greg leave at 6:30 am on Saturday so we could get over there early to enjoy the day. I think it worked out really well but I wasn't the one who had to drive over the pass after waking up at 5 am. We were able to go out for breakfast at the Waffle haus and then take the sled down the short hill. Hailey wasn't too sure about it at first but by the afternoon when we did it again, she kept asking to "go again mommy"

We did run into a slight obstacle on the way over though...

Luckily no one was hurt in this incident but it did cause us to take a 30 min detour through a town called Plain. It was a pretty detour at least. I wish we could have seen this rock that was the size of a bus, but they blocked the road. This was a picture that we found on the local news webpage.

The Ice Fest is something new that Leavenworth is putting on, they have a variety of snow type activies for adults and kids, we let Hailey do the kid activities and she had a great time. Here she is doing the ice cube scramble, picking up colored ice cubes with little trinkets in them. It took her a few min to realize that she was supposed to pick them up and put them in the bag but once we started singing the "clean up" song she started picking them up.

She then did the snowball toss. There wasn't any snow to actually make the snowballs so they had wiffle balls instead. It does look like a snowball though doesn't it?

Here she is enjoying a snack of a yummy homemade peanut butter and butterscotch cookie.

Hailey and "Ma" waiting for us to make up our mind as to what to do next.

Stephanie and Madeleine enjoying a dog sled ride. This was fun to watch, the dogs were amazing and gorgeous.

That evening we went out with the entire group to a very cool bowling ally/pizza restaurant. I unfortunally didn't get any good pictures, the lighting was not working and all the pics for some reason turned out really dark. But I had to show a picture of the first time that Hailey bowled with Daddy. She loved it, she would swing her arms with the ball, wait for it to go all the way down the ally, once it knocked over some pins she would put her arms up in the air and shoot "hooray! I did it" it was pretty cute.

Hailey and I walked to Starbucks the next morning as it was just down the road from our hotel, she is enjoying her "chocat milk" Everytime we drive by or see a Starbucks, she says "mommy's coffee" she has even been known to say "are you happy now" once I have one. WOW - I don't even have words...

I was told I had to take this picture, Hailey was ready to go home as she kept pulling my hand and walking me to the car so she is not very happy with me in that I made her stand under this sign on a bench to take this picture of her at the "Munchen Haus" Next time we will get a cute one - there was also people right behind me that wouldn't move so I couldn't get far enough away.