Confirmation

This afternoon there was a family gathering to celebrate the confirmation of two of my cousins.

This marked the beginning of a winter of choices regarding what Hailey should and should not attend. While we will not be under the complete house arrest of last winter for the most part we plan to keep her almost as isolated. She will be leaving the house to go to my parents, which she did not do last winter, but for the most part that will be it. Everything else will be on a case by case basis with a leaning towards not going.

Today we compromised. We did not go to the confirmation itself, but did go to the family gathering. We had a good time, but Hailey was a little overwhelmed at first by 22 people to interact with. My cousin Jena was the first to get Hailey to smile and my aunt Laura really broke the ice with the "Little People" airplane.

Still, there was crying on and off throughout the afternoon so she seemed happy to be home.

One Year Ago - Nichole

Watching Snow Fall

Grandpa Bruce was released from the hospital this afternoon.

This morning I held Hailey up to look out her bedroom window. She smiled and started to wave. I tried to figure out what she was waving at. The cars seemed too far away. The rain dripping off the roof? Then it hit me. Hailey's grandmother often holds her up to the window when I come to pick her up. She has been teaching Hailey to smile and wave. I'm guessing Hailey now thinks that is what you are supposed to do every time you are held up to a window.

This afternoon it snowed for a few hours and the flakes were quite large. Hailey and I watched the snow fall for quite awhile sitting in the living room chair. When she seemed bored I took her to the kitchen to eat but she continued to be distracted with renewed interest in the snow visible out the kitchen window. (By the end of the afternoon the snow had changed back to rain and the earlier accumulation melted away.)

One Year Ago - Megan

Grandpa Bruce's Aneurysm Surgery

Christine's day started at 4am, to have time to pump, etc. My day started a little later than that. Hailey was able to sleep in until 8am at Grandma and Grandpa's.

Grandpa Bruce's surgery was a success and by 4:30pm we were headed back to our little girl. This marked the longest I have ever been away from her, over 21 hours. Christine and Hailey were separated longer when Hailey was born and transferred right away to Children's while Christine had to stay at St. John's.

Grandpa Bruce will be staying the night at the hospital, as planned, but will likely be released tomorrow.

One Year Ago - Charity

Early Childhood Session #28

The floating duck toy is on loan from Hailey's occupational therapist.

Tomorrow Grandpa Bruce is having surgery to repair an abdominal aortic aneurysm. With the early start time for the procedure Hailey is going to spend the night at Grandma Rachel and Grandpa Ken's house so she can sleep in while we get up early to head to Edina.

One Year Ago - No Oxygen

Standing at Gate

Hailey pulled herself up into a standing position at her bedroom gate tonight.

Hailey has reached a very uncooperative stage when being changed. Unless she is extremely tired she does not like to stay on her back. More than once I have moved her to the bathroom floor, afraid for her safety up on the changing table.

One Year Ago - Eye Exam #7

Warmer Day

With warmer weather this afternoon Hailey enjoyed some time outside including time on her slide.

One Year Ago - 44ml

Velcro

A third straight day of attempting the sippy cup was again less than successful.

One of Hailey's favorite things is crawling into her closet to play with her shoes. Most of the time the door is closed but whenever she sees it open she drops everything and crawls right over.

At one point today I thought I was going to be able to write that Hailey has given up the army crawl as she spent much of the day crawling on her hands rather than her forearms. However, this evening she was back doing the army crawl almost exclusively. Crawling on her hands has been a growing percentage of her crawling for the last week or so but I guess the switchover is not complete yet.

Hailey spent a long time today sitting in one spot opening and closing her bib. She pushed the Velcro ends together and pulled them apart again and again. About once a minute she would push them together so tightly she struggled to get the ends apart. This resulted in whimpering or even outright crying until she got the bib apart. Then, as soon as she got the ends apart she would repeat the process again.

One Year Ago - Crying