Hailee's First Day of School

 

This is what the first day of school looked like at our house. Hailee was so excited for school to start. We did her hair in curlers, laid out her clothes that she wanted to wear and then when the time finally came she had a fever of 101.3 degrees. School rules say nothing over 100.5 for 24 hours. She was so miserable she didn't even put up a fight when I told her that she couldn't go to school. I quickly called the doctor and took her in on Friday.

We had just been to the doctor on Wednesday (the day before school started) to make sure Hailee and James were getting over their coughs, they both had had a cold for a few weeks but no fever. The doctor said that Hailee sounded great and she should be ready for school on Thursday. Now with a fever I was worried it was something new. By Friday he fever was much lower and by that afternoon it was gone. The doctor gave me some asthma medicine to help clear out her lungs. All weekend long she felt great and was looking forward to school on Monday.

Sunday night we again put her hair in curlers, laid out her clothes, and got all ready for bed on time. Two hours later she woke up with a temperature of 102.5 degrees. I took her right in to the doctor Monday morning and she was diagnosed with walking pneumonia. The doctor gave us a prescription for antibiotics. By Tuesday her fever was totally gone and she was ready for school. Wednesday (almost a week late) she finally got to have her "First Day" of school.

 

 

 

When I picked up her that day she told me, "Mom, Kindergarten rocks! But it's just like preschool, I don't learn anything." Hopefully that will change and she'll be learning as well as enjoying school.

A visit from DJ

We had a great visit from Uncle DJ. Hailee was thrilled that he came to visit. (She really believes that when family comes to town they are coming just to play with her.) Unfortunately for DJ we spent quite a bit of time in the doctors office, Todd had to fly to the bay area for work and life was a little crazy at our house. We did get a little bit of play time in.

Todd and DJ went to a Portland Timbers game which I hear was a lot of fun. The Timbers are a soccer club just below the  MLS, starting next year they will be a MLS club. They have a quite a following and their fans really get into the game. We're looking forward to going to a few more games.

We also got down to the beach. This time we went to Cannon Beach. It was so much fun. We love the beach. It doesn't matter if it's rainy, sunny, foggy, cold or hot it's always a good time. (It's rarely sunny and hot.)

Todd, DJ, Hailee and James by Haystack rock. If you've seen the Goonies it's the final scene when they come out of the caves.

James finally got to meet his Uncle DJ. DJ has been growing out his hair since he was on break if he had not been you could have really seen the family resemblance. As it was neither one had very much hair.

DJ with the kids. He is so great with them. Hailee loves playing with him so much.

 

Hailee drawing hearts in the sand.

Hailee having a sand fight with her dad.

We finally found a great place for clam chowder and it looks right out to the water. It was so great. Hailee however wanted a cheeseburger and James just wanted to eat everything. He is so ready to grow up and eat what we're eating, it causes lots of problems at meal times.

Labor Day Date

To get Hailee ready for the school we decided to start a chore chart. It lists all the things she needs to do during the day as well as weekly chores. We told her if she did everything she could choose a surprise. It took her 2 seconds to decide what she wanted... "a date with dad!" She worked hard all week check off things as she went. She didn't complain one time when I asked her to help with the laundry or unloading the dishwasher. The whole week she was amazing. Every day she would think of something else she wanted to do with her dad. Before Monday rolled around this list stood at 8 things she wanted to do on her date.... 1-Go minature golfing 2-Eat a hotdog,  3-Movie, 4-Go to the beach, 5-Go fishing 6-Get a Frosty from Wendy's 7-Go-carts and 8-Bumper boats.

They ended up just doing three...minature golfing, getting a hotdog and enjoying a frosty at Wendy's. Before they left I gave Hailee the camera and told her to take lots of pictures. This is what I got back.

Lots of pictures in the car on the way there.

Cute ones of them at the miniature golf place.

 

And lots of silly ones while they were eating their hot dogs.

 

 

Funny faces in the car ride home while playing with the color settings on my camera.

They had so much fun and now when Hailee refers to something that happened that day she says "You know when dad and I were dating..." 

James was happy to see his sister when they got home. It was so cute he jumped out of my lap to give her a big hug.

We are so proud of our little girl. She is growing up to be the best little girl.

I know just how that pillow feels...

5 years and 5 months

Our family has officially gotten into two new phases. The first and biggest is Hailee is now ready for school. We had a doctors appointment last week to get the last of her shots. She was so brave and didn't even cry. Last time we had to do shots I had them do it in her leg. This time she had four shots to get and they did it in her arm. Her poor little arm was so swollen, next month when we have to do flu shots I think I'll have them do it in her leg again. Her favorite thing to do is get a Jamba Juice before she gets shots. That way she can drink her "Jamba," as she likes to call it, while getting her shot and therefore not notice it as much. At least that is the idea. When the nurse was coming to give her the shot she asked Hailee not to drink her juice, to which Hailee responded "Why not." The nurse said she didn't want her to get surprised and choke. Hailee quickly responded "I won't." The nurse just started laughing and let her drink her "Jamba."

She also had her five year old wellness check and had such a good time with the doctor and nurse. They checked her eyesight and hearing and both were great. I was a little surprised at the hearing. We were thinking about getting it checked because she tends to like to talk loud and will often say "huh" when I'm talking to her. Todd was convinced that she had hearing problems (and that is saying something from the guy who is going deaf in his right ear). But we discovered that her hearing is in fact quite good, she just must like to talk loudly. We are quite proud of our little girl. She is ready for kindergarten, I'm just not sure her teachers will be ready for her.


The second phase our family has entered is...."I can roll and get into things" phase. James has been able to roll for a little while but hasn't quite put together that this means he can get things that are out of his reach. Last Friday we had friends over and Hailee and their little girl had a great time playing with her doll house and her kitchen. There was play food and dolls stuff all around. Just the perfect opportunity for James to discover this new found talent. He now thinks he needs to discover everything and put it in his mouth. He is growing up to fast. Most days I wish I could just stop time right now and enjoy this forever. They are both just so fun.

Changes

There have been a lot of changes on my side of the family in the last year. My mom and I were talking and realized the following:

• 5 people got new jobs or promoted: Deneille, Ernie, Kristen, Patt and Todd
• 4 people Graduated from college: Deneille, Kristen, Patt and Todd
• 3 families bought a house: Kristen, Stacie & Ernie, Todd & Nicole
• 3 people had surgery: Emily, Mom, and Todd
• 3 people bought new Cars: Dad, Kristen, and Stacie & Ernie
  
• 2 new babies: James and Rhett

It's been a busy year with a lot of things happening. To finish the crazy year off Deneille decided to start a family Fantasy Football league. If anyone has played games with us in the past you would understand why this might be a crazy idea. To say we're competitive is a little bit of an understatement. As long as no one leaves crying or angry I think my mom might let us keep playing and the game won't be banned like Phase 10 was a few years ago. There are just some games that shouldn't be played at our house, hopefully fantasy football isn't one of those. We just had our draft and so far I think we're off to a good start.

Maid to Order

A few years ago my mom got a doll house for when her grandkids were around. Hailee absolutely loved it. It was quite entertaining to see how she played with it. She was about two and a half and at one point she had the mom in the kitchen running around like crazy making dinner and the dad was in the chair reading. I had to laugh because since Todd had just started MBA school he was spending a lot of time doing school work and I guess I was spending a lot of time in the kitchen.

Recently she was playing with her doll house and I found the little girl sitting on the counter just like she does when she is helping me cook.

This week I was babysitting my friends little boys and they started playing house. It was adorable. When it was time to wash the dishes, the "dad" wanted to wash the dishes. Hailee informed him that she wanted to do the dishes because her mom always did the dishes and she was the "mom."

And just this evening she was reading her Cinderella book and she related in dismay how the step-sisters were making Cinderella do all the work. Hailee's response: "That's not right! That's the mom's job!"

What are we teaching our child?