Today I had my regular two week OBGYN appointment.  Hailey always comes with me.  She brings one (or two, sometimes three) of her “stuffies” to show the receptionists, nurses and Dr. Tom.  We did the usual, sat in the waiting area and read books.  They have a plethera of children’s books there and it has become routine for us to read one or two before I’m called into the back.

When they call my name, the first thing I do is get weighed (yikes…each time is more and more scary) and pee in a cup.  Well, Hailey noticed immediately today that the cups were different.  As a matter of fact, as we were approaching the nurse who called for us, Hailey exclaimed, “Hey, that’s a different cup!”  These cups have orange lids, not like the usual cups with green lids.  I get a kick out of her attention to detail.

So, next we head into the exam room where there is usually a pen with a flower attached.  She loves to sit on the chair beside the desk and play with that pen.  Today, she took the liberty of attempting to write her name on a paper towel.

Not such a bad attempt for a three and a half year old.  The “Y” ended up juggling, as you can clearly see.

When she thinks that Dr. Tom is about to enter the room, she likes to “hide”.  Today, she wanted to climb up onto the exam table with me, so I let her.  We usually sit there and chat about nothing in particular.  It’s awfully nice to have company while I’m waiting to see the doctor.  There is a mirror on the opposite wall and whenever she sits there with me, she loves to look at “us” in the mirror.  Today was especially nice because she was facing me and gave me a ton of hugs.  She looked at me after letting go of one of her sweet little embraces and said, “Mommy, we’re expert huggers”.  Well, I couldn’t agree more.  She just wanted us to stare at each other in that mirror and hug.  She was comparing our faces, eyes, hair…freckles (or her lack thereof).  She also said to me, “Mommy, I want to be just like you when I’m bigger”.  It’s not the first time she has said this to me and to be honest, I don’t think I’ll ever get sick of hearing it.  My little girl has the biggest heart and I just can’t get enough of it or her.  She does wonders for my ego.

She also loves to talk about her baby sister.  I do my best to explain what it’s going to be like when her baby sister arrives but I really have no idea if she’s picking up what I’m talking about.  She tells me that she’s going to teach her baby sister how to crawl and how to say “H-H-H-Hailey”.  She’s all about sounding out words.  I tell her that I know she’ll be a wonderful big sister and I know she’s going to be a great help to mommy and daddy (hopefully she’s catching on to that “help” thing).

Anyway, I just couldn’t be more proud of how my baby girl is turning out.  She has her moments (don’t they all) but I couldn’t ask for a better kid.  We definitely are expert huggers.