Dr. visits, park and more!

We went to the ophthamologist a few weeks back. We are supposed to go every 3 months so he can monitor Hailey's eyes and look for changes. I was shocked to find we had not been back in a year! But then I remembered that I had scheduled appts, but kept cancelling them because of infections and things of that nature. The doctor was very understanding, as he always tells us to take care of the other stuff, her eye issue is just cosmetic at this point. I am still trying to get up the courage to take Hailey to the dentist- she has never been! But even her pediatrician had told us to wait and deal with the big stuff. I know now that it is time.

Hailey has been a little afraid of dogs in the past but now it is really bad! She screams and tries to climb up my body to get as far away as she can! Little dogs, big dogs, does not matter! She is starting to fear cats too! Don't know where this is coming from. She has been afraid of my mom's dog but she used to be okay around other dogs. hmmmmm...... Went to a party for a friend's daughter at the park. OOPS! It is also a dog park! Oh No! She was stuck to me like glue the whole time we were there! She did love the swings though! :-)

I went to a meeting at Hailey's school, to review her goals for the year, check her progress and make new goals if necessary. Hailey, my amazing girl, met or exceeded ALL 18 of her goals for this year! WOO HOO! We are so proud of her! We are starting with all new goals. It was a quick meeting and it was spent with a room full of teachers and therapists telling me how wonderful our daughter was and about how much progress she has made! Wonderful afternoon!

A day after the meeting, I was reminded of a concern I was having. There are a couple of kids in Hailey's class that she is really weary of. They are rough and loud and like to grab her and touch her. A big fear of Hailey's is a fear of losing her balance and she gets very upset if she feels someone around her could cause her to fall. Hailey greatly values her personal space and they invade that. That particualr day, Hailey was sitting in the double stroller with another child (they have so many kids and not enough adults that they put a couple in the stroller to walk down where the parents/ buses pick up) and he was trying to move her backpack that the teacher put as a barrier so he could get to Hailey. The look on her face broke my heart and I have seen that look before, when the children she fears come near. I called the school that day and talked to the psychologist. She put me off for a week after trying to talk me out of moving her. I had learned that the pm class was very different- the other kids were calmer, not in your face and quieter. I called the psychologist back and she once again tried to change my mind, but I held firm and she honored my request. Hailey started on Monday and here it is Wednesday night and I have NO regrets! Hailey is happy with her new classmates. Same teacher and therapists, so it wasn't a huge frightening transition. She made a friend on the first day and did not shed a tear when her new friend sat next to her and they played with dolls!

I had a fight on my hands with the insurance company as well. They refused to pay for a refill of Hailey's meds because they said I reached the quota for that med for the year! That is what is keeping her infection free!!! After 3 days with no meds, and phone calls to pharmacy, doctor and insurance co, they approved it. Next day Hailey started acting sick. Back to the doctor where they said it looked like infection. It could be infection, or it could be elevated bacteria because an infecton was on the horizon. We treated it and waited for the culture, which came back negative.

Hailey and I went to Irvine Regional Park last week. We took a stroll through the zoo and saw bald eagles, black bear, chickens, rabbits and more! We also fed the ducks some bread (used to do that with my dad as a kid! Fun Memories!) We spent quite a bit of time on the swings and Hailey loved the fact that Mommy could swing next to her! We ended our outing with a picnic lunch- I love the fact that I can make Hailey peanut butter and jelly sandwiches!

I have been preparing for Hailey's 4th birthday and have been doing things with pictures and I am just so amazed by all of her progress! My daughter is almost 36 lbs and is 38 and 3/4 inches tall! She has muscle and is trying to step up the curb without any assistance. She is trying to repeat EVERYTHING we ask her too! She can spell her name and my name with foam letters without any help. She can recongnize many letters and give them to you if you ask for them-h-a-i-l-e-y-s-c-o!

Hailey is such a joy!

Trying new things

Hailey is becoming Miss Adventurous! New places and activities are not as scary as they once were. I took Hailey miniature golfing a couple of months ago and she LOVED it! Hailey loves anything that has to do with a ball, so I was pretty sure she would like it. I showed her what to do once and she was sold. Most of the time, I was holding the club with her and helping her swing, but she did swing and hit the ball a few times on her own too!

We also went to our first Chuck E. Cheese party. I even took her on a trial run, so she could get an idea of what it was like. A weekday in the afternoon is certainly not the same as a Saturday, but it sure is loud in there even without a bunch of people! She played a couple of games, but many scared her off just by being noisy! She settled on skeeball and we played a few games of that. After ten minutes on our trial run, she signed "all done" So that was the end of that! The day of the real party, she went straight to skeeball and only stopped briefly to eat. We stayed and hour before she signed "all done!" No tears or meltdowns. I was so proud of her!

Over spring break, I took her to this wonderful place called Pretend City in Irvine. I highly recommend it to anyone with young kids. The name tells exactly what it is! Hailey had a blast, working as a cashier at Ralphs, picking apples and putting them in her basket, digging in the garden, rubbing sand between her hands at the beach (yes, my daughter touching sand and enjoying it!), sleeping in the grown up bed, answering emergency phone calls, crawling through a tunnel and more! We stayed for 2 1/2 hours! I could not believe she lasted that long! We brought her best buddy Claire from church along with us!

Hailey continues to amaze me every day. She is making such great strides! You cannot rush her into doing anything. She does things when she is ready. But when she is ready, watch out! She takes off with turbo speed!!!! We recently got a Winnie the Pooh play "computer" (very inexpensive at Target) and because we have been working so much on her name in the bathtub, Hailey can press all the letters in her name as we ask her for each letter without us showing her what they are! And in the bathtub, she finds the letters for her name amongst all the letters without help! If the bath tub is what we need in order to work with Hailey on speech and letters, let her stay in the bath all day long! :-)

Hailey has become much more open to new people and has realized that now that she can walk, she can go go go! We were visiting our friend Bev today at the Rehab hospital and she just kept walking out of the room and wandering down the hall with her mommy trailing behind her! She would peek into the other rooms and the best part was the people's faces lit up when they saw her! Some asked her to come in and say hi and she would smile and run away! That's Hailey for you, leaving smile on the faces of everyone she sees! She even let the nurse pick her up and was playing peek a boo with the nurses outside Bev's door.

We love Hailey so much and can't wait to see what she is going to do next! Til next time!