I got no strings to tie me down!

It's not like it should be a surprise. I mean after all, Brian and I knew that the product of our procreation would be anything but laid back. It's just not in the genes and we were pretty aware of this fact. We thought we were ready, but I don't think anything could have truly prepared us for the demands of our Hurricane.

We'll be making a family trip out to Colorado in about a week. Mommy and Hayley will be flying out a few days ahead of Daddy and therefore Mommy is busy preparing for a three hour plane ride where she'll be forced to contain Hayley on her lap. Did I mention that it is a three hour plane ride? Not only does Mommy have to survive the plane ride, she first has to make it through the airport. The stress created by just merely thinking about the feat that lay ahead prompted me to purchase this. Yep, I'm "hoping" to be one of "those" parents. When I was younger (read: childless and knew EVERYTHING), I used to see parents who would attach a leash to their children in public places. I'd shake my head and think "what type of parent puts a leash on their child?" Well, now I know. The parents of a Hurricane, that's who!

I couldn't wait to get home and introduce Hayley to her new "Beary" special friend. After all I thought, Bear will give Hayley a bit of the independence that she demands, while allowing Mommy to manage the airport without having a heart attack. But alas, our daughter is no dummy and Hayley was not at all happy to meet Bear. She now screams if I even place him near her. She obviously has no interest in just the illusion of freedom. She wants it all.


So today was all about the pumpkin here at The Roberts' home. We traveled down to a local, FREE (I learned a lesson after last year's pumpkin fiasco) pumpkin patch. Hayley could have cared less about the pumpkins and found it to be LOTS more fun to just run through the maze of hay bales. Never one to sit still, it should be no surprise that she also wasn't interested in taking pictures with the pumpkins.

After some lunch and an afternoon nap, Hayley spent approximately one minute helping Mommy and Daddy clean the pumpkin so Daddy could carve it. At first she wasn't too fond of the pumpkin goop, but warmed up to it fairly quickly and decided to see what it tasted like. Our "laid-back" daughter was not at all pleased when we tried to keep her from eating the insides of the pumpkin.

"I'd rather be running!"


"Ahh, much better!"


"What is this stuff?"


"Guess I'll see what it tastes like."


"But I WANT to eat it Mommy!!"

Our Daughter Is A Genius

Although I may be a bit biased. Several months ago I bought Hayley an activity table with wooden block shapes. She's spent a lot of time playing with this table and we would regularly sit and I would show her how each block fit in a specific slot. In the beginning, she looked at me like I'd lost my mind, but as the months went on she began trying to put the shapes through a slot. I heard lots of frustrated yells. Not only does this "puzzle" take mental acumen to know which block goes in which slot, but then positioning the block just the right way so it will fit through it's respective slot. You can imagine the pride that filled Brian and I tonight when our little "genius" identified that the square block goes in the square slot and succeeded in passing the block through to the other side. Next we're aiming for the red circle, followed by the blue triangle, and then after that, onto Harvard.

Sayonara, good riddance, be gone, adios!

First things first. GOOOOOO Colorado Rockies!!!

Dare I say that normalcy (whatever that is) is beginning to slowly return to the Roberts' household. I've had three days in a row of almost being nausea free which means I've been able to actually do something around the house other than curl up in the fetal position on the couch and fantasize about throwing up. For example, on Monday I was able to mop our tile floors, a feat I hadn't dreamed of attempting for the past 12 weeks. So yes, our tile floors were filthy and I'm beginning to wonder if the mere sight of the filth isn't what was making me sick. Anyhow, I'm cautiously optimistic that I'm rounding the corner and saying a happy sayonara to nausea and exhaustion.

Brian checks on Hayley every night before he goes to bed. Over the past few weeks we've noticed that she's really begun to snuggle with her bed buds. Here's a picture from the weekend that we took. She's got Pooh (as in Winnie, just to be clear) under one arm, Giggles the laughing doll under the other, and Froggie is underneath Giggles. We've had a discussion about removing Giggles from the crib. Giggles does just that... giggle, and it's beginning to creep me out to be awakened by the sound of a crazy sounding laugh over the baby monitor in the middle of the night.

We took Hayley down to Main Street a few nights ago for a little ice cream treat. I tried my best to take pictures of her (like I do everyday) and this is what I come up with. If I didn't know better I'd think it was a snapshot of her running a marathon... she just needs to be throwing down a cup of water. I'm surprised there aren't flames coming off the back of her. She's a fast little thing!

Here's a few more recent pics!

Queen of her throne!

Hayley and Papa!

I don't know who spilled all the balls, Mommy! I was just trying to pick them up and put them away!"

The Graduate

After six weeks of making the daily commute for a 10 minute swim lesson, Hayley is now an official Infant Swimming Resource (ISR) graduate! It definitely hasn't been an easy road, but we do feel confident that Hayley could survive if she ever fell into a body of water. Unfortunately at this point, Hayley was not able to learn to do a good swim. The culprit... her size. She doesn't have the size and therefore strength to be able to consistently roll from a swim to a float and back to a swim at this point and so Miss Amy, our instructor, felt it best to focus on a solid float. Apparently Miss Amy has 12 month olds that are bigger then our little peanut. We will go back to see Miss Amy next March for a few refresher classes and hopefully Hayley will have "grown in" to being able to truly swim.

Here's a little video from Hayley's last lesson!