We had a great 4th of July weekend.  We spent most of the day Friday relaxing at home.  Friday evening we headed out to the 4th of July celebration that our church puts on.  It’s a pretty huge party that has had between 15,000 and 20,000 people attending each year.  And it is always tons of fun.

And shockingly, I have pictures to share with you.

There is a stage that has different presentations and singing going on all of the time.  So, we set up our spot before we went to get some fabulous food.  Hailey could see all of the bouncy things they had set up for the kids, so she wasn’t all that thrilled about eating her dinner first.  After bribing Hailey to eat with promises of going to play on the bouncy toys we were off to check out what they had for toddlers.

Hailey having fun bouncing

Hailey loved the bouncy things and had fun collecting all of the balls.

After we finished playing on the bouncy toys Hailey went to get a tattoo.  She picked out the flag to get on her arm.

Hailey stared at the girl who drew her tattoo the entire time.  After she was done getting her tattoo she was very proud of her flag.  I think she was afraid it might come off because if Rich or I tried to touch it she had an absolute fit.  She loved her tattoo so much that we went back later to get another one on her other arm.

While Rich and I watched some of the presentations and enjoyed the singing Hailey danced by her stroller.  She was so good and had so much fun.  We enjoyed too many unhealthy snacks and bought some cotton candy for Hailey.  She had never had it before and she did not like it.

Hailey watching the singing.

As it got closer to the time for the fireworks we headed back to our car.  A couple of years ago the traffic leaving was so bad that it took us 2 hours to get out of the parking lot.  So, last year we watched the fireworks at our car so that we could get out quicker and it worked out great.  We decided to do the same thing this year.  We went back to our car and I got Hailey into her pajamas in case she fell asleep in the car on the way home.

Hailey sitting on the hood of the car waiting for the fireworks to start.

 Pointing out the fireworks to me and telling me that they are pretty.

The excitement of the day proved to be a bit too much.  About 5 minutes into the fireworks show Hailey was sound asleep.  She stayed asleep when I put her into her car seat and when we got home she stayed asleep while I moved her to her bed.  Normally if I walk by her bed room and hit a squeaky floor board she is wide awake, so I know she was tired!

Saturday and Sunday were both great days too.  We had perfect weather all weekend and spent most of our time outside enjoying it.  I hope everyone else had a wonderful 4th of July too!

Hailey is 21 months old today, but I am going to do have that post up tomorrow.  She has her 21 month well visit to the doctor this afternoon so I figured I’d wait so I could add the information from her appointment.

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Last week we had planned to leave on Wednesday to stay with my parents for a few days. Then we planned to be off to a wedding over the weekend followed by another day spent at my parents house before heading home. So, of course last Monday Hailey came down with a cough followed by a fever and runny nose on Tuesday. Wednesday she wasn’t feeling well at all so we decided to wait until Thursday to leave. She acted much better on Thursday, although still not quite herself, and we headed off to my parents house. Her cold seemed to have cleared up but her cough remained. Hailey had been pretty sick back in December after a cold that had a cough that wouldn’t go away and ended up having some bad wheezing, so I was very worried that the same thing would happen.

Anyhoo, I have to share a few pictures of some of the weekend fun. Some of these are pictures from my dad’s camera, but since he hasn’t updated his blog since July of 2007 (gasp… can you imagine?) I don’t think he’ll mind if I post them.

 Hailey and my dad relaxing by the pool.

On Friday night we went to a nearby park with my parents, brothers, sister-in-law and aunt to have a picnic to celebrate my dad’s birthday. They have a great toddler playground there which Hailey loved.

On Saturday and Sunday we went out of town to go to my cousins wedding. Saturday was a really long day for Hailey but she did great. By Sunday morning Hailey’s cough was worse, so we had to start giving her breathing treatments. I hate it so much when she has an awful cough like this, it’s just so scary. We still had a wonderful time and I’m going to post pictures from that in a separate post since I have several that I want to share.

On Sunday night when we got back from the wedding we went to pick up Dottie (our dog) and Murray (my parent’s dog). The dogs get to be spoiled rotten at a farm that we take them to, owned by a friend of my moms, whenever we go away. Since it is a farm they stay at Hailey got to see some horses when we went to pick up the dogs.

Hailey wasn’t exactly sure what to think of the horses at first. We’ve looked at plenty of pictures of horses and looked at horses on DVD’s, but to see one in real life is a little different.

She warmed up to the horses after a few minutes and even had a few smiles for the horses. Although she kept calling them cows

On Monday Hailey enjoyed a nice swim. I could not get a picture of her smiling. Every time I put the camera away she would smile, but she would not smile for the camera at all.

We had a wonderful time! I always love spending time with family and appreciate all of the time we get to spend with them. I’ll be posting pictures from my cousins wedding too, so be sure to check back for those.

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Now I think that a tomato is technically a fruit which would make ketchup a fruit, but that just doesn’t sound right. Vegetable sounds much better.

Anyhoo.

Hailey is such a picky eater that I am really hoping that ketchup counts as a vegetable since that’s about all she will eat. And she doesn’t like fruit either. About the only fruit she will eat is jelly. Is that even a fruit?

When I give her almost any food she will usually try it. Then take it out of her mouth, hand it to me and say, “Gucky!” (yucky) We go back and forth with this throughout every meal.

“Hailey, try your food.”

“Gucky!”

“If you try it you might like it. Just try it.”

Hailey puts her food in her mouth, takes it out and hands it to me and says “GUCKY!”

“It’s not yucky. You liked broccoli last week so I bought some more. Now please eat it.”

“GUCKY Mommy, GUCKY!”

“How about you eat some of your chicken then? You like chicken.”

“COOKIE! COOKIE!”

I do not give her a cookie and I have never given in and given her one no matter how much she demands and screams and cries for it. “We’re eating dinner. We don’t have cookies for dinner.”

“Yo-Ye-O. Peeaazzz! Yo-Ye-O.” (Oreo. Please! Oreo.)

“After you eat your dinner you can have an Oreo.”

“All done. Me yook ousssside. All done.”  (Me look outside)

And that is how most of our meals go.

**This is my sticky post for Wednesday, June 25th. Newer entries may be posted underneath this one.**

Dottie has a whole lot of patience. I’m not sure why but Hailey is always putting stuff on top of her. If Dottie tries to get up and walk away Hailey says “No! No! No! Night, Night!” And Dottie lays back down.

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