What a Summer

The end of this summer has been crazy. Well, what little of summer we had. Definately the rainiest, coldest, lack of sunshiniest summer ever. (You like that last word?) But such a summer of milestones. Previously I may have mentioned that Hailey began crawling at 6 1/2 months while we were visiting family in Oregon. Within 3 weeks she started pulling herself up on furniture. By 8 months she was full on cruising around holding onto stuff. She is days away from standing on her own and will be walking in no time.

REEEAACH!

August was such a busy month. We went to Justin's good friends' (and now mine too) wedding in Wasilla the weekend before my birthday. It was to be a great time; we had been looking forward to it for months. Well, needless to say, the day of the wedding Hailey came down with a fever. She was totally ill, not wanting to mingle, and would not let me get near the dancefloor of the live band. I was soooo bummed out. So we sat in our room right off the lawn of the outdoor wedding, listening to all the fun everyone was having, patiently waiting until 3 in the morning when Dad came in for the night. The party was a blast from what I heard, but I couldn't help being disappointed that I couldn't join in the festivities. Ah, the responsibilities of parenthood.

The groom John, Hailey, and groomsman Justin

Hailey's illness lasted the whole following week. By my birthday she was starting to feel better, and we had a lovely get together with some of our closer friends. Unfortunately by the next week, the worst of it got to my poor baby. She came down with her first ear infection. I was dreading this since I was so prone to them as a child. She was absolutely miserable. Thankfully she never fought with me to take her antibiotics and she pulled through like a trooper.

September rolled around and not 10 days after she finished her medicine, we had just got to Anchorage for Justin's follow-up appointment and low and behold, she screamed through the night our first night into town. So as Justin did his bloodwork and scans, we went up to the pediatricians office, and sure enough, ear infection #2. They gave her some stonger meds and she seems to be doing good now. Justin's appointment went great. The docs are pleased with his results and so far he is completely in the clear - thank God!

During this time, our darling daughter has continued to amaze us in her developmental progression. Within 3 weeks time, she has learned to wave hi and bye-bye on cue, clap her hands, click her tongue, sign "more", and dunk her face in the water when we go swimming.

Well, that should get us through for the time being. There is a couple of other fun events that probably deserve their own posts, so I'll save them for later. I'll try and do better at keeping up, there just hasn't been a whole lot of down time. So stay tuned.

The best bed head ever!