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!

road trip!

We have our new appointments with the urologist. I guess it didn't work out to have them on the same day.:( Two long drives and 2 missed school days. But we have to do whatever it takes. Hailey will have her renal isotope scan on January 18 and a appointment with the urologist on January 26th. We will see what happens! Hailey's hair vs Car seat-car seat won!

In other news, Hailey and I took a road trip last week. I think it was Tuesday morning that I made the decision that I wanted to go and we left Friday. I had know for a while that my cousin Allison would be visiting my Aunt and Uncle and grandma in Arizona and I wanted to see her. I think it has been over 10 years since I have seen her! So, Hailey, my sister Dani and I headed out on Friday after Dani was done babysitting. We left at 12:40. At around 4 pm we had come to a stop and there were signs that there was an accident up ahead. After an hour and a half of stop and crawl traffic, we were guided off the freeway at the CA/AZ border. The 10 was shut done and we were led on an hour and a half detour in the middle of pitch black Arizona. Kinda nerve wracking, but it was so wonderful when we finally saw a gas station and the 10 again! It was 9:30 when we finally got there!

Hailey loved Allison from the start!

We stayed with my Grandma and visited my Aunt and Uncle both days. We also saw other family- Hank, Donnas, Karen and Kayla. Hailey had such a great time. It was as if no time had passed since she had seen my grandma or Aunt Marlene. And she went straight to Allison and gave her a hug the first time she saw her. Hailey was a little sleep deprived, but she was just having such a wonderful time with Aunt Marlene and Allison that it was hard to leave and go back to Grandma's.

Best Pals!!!

Hailey did great in the car, and I think it was mostly due to the fact that Dani was with us. We came home Monday and has a nice uneventful drive home.Greg couldn't come because he had to take a class on Saturday, plus he had to work. It was nice to get away for a little bit.

The New Home for my Blog!

I have had a blog on myspace for sometime, but since I am rarely on there and many friends are not on myspace, I decided this would be easier!

We are still waiting to hear back from Hailey's urologist on when her next test will be. I think I am going to have to make a call and speed it up a litle bit. I started Hailey on probiotics last week. The antibiotics, not only kill the bad bacteria, but the good bacteria naturally in the body. The probiotics will give her back the good bacteria needed to help fight off infection that the antibiotics takes away.

Hailey is becoming much more independent. She is trying new foods even without her feeding therapist present. Her sensitivity to things like music and noise are not such a huge deal, depending on the situation. We went to a Christmas program on Friday and she was not bothered by the music or the large amount of people. She wasn't very fond of Santa, so we kept our distance. On Thursday I am taking her to a play at church, put on by the kids! We'll see how it goes!

Hailey working on her craft a the Christmas program

Hailey's feeding therapist has also been asking Hailey to play with the kids he is working with while I clean. She is having a blast! Hailey is making new friends and becoming more and more comfortable interacting with kids her own age. That has always been difficult for Hailey. Bye for now!