That one! April 27, 2009

Well, it has been a really long time since my last post.  We were in Florida last week, so once we get some pictures up I will give an update on that.  In short, we had a great time!

Hayden is really coming along with his speech now that he can hear properly.  He’s even moved onto two-letter words!  He says ‘that one’ about 100 times a day.  He points to things and says ‘that one,’ and he either wants to have whatever it is or know what it is (usually the former).  His favorite word is (still, if I haven’t mentioned before) ‘no.’  “Do you want dinner?” “No.”  “Do you want to talk to Grandma?” “No.” “Do you want to go outside?” “No.”  “Do you want ice cream?”  Silence.  See, he doesn’t say yes yet, this is the problem.  So usually if a question is asked – pretty much any question – he will say no.  Even if it is something he wants.  Occasionally he will say nothing and just look at you, like if you ask if he wants ice cream.  He knows he really shouldn’t say no, but he’s not gotten the yes thing down yet.  So he doesn’t say yes but he DOES say teacher.  (shaking head) Figure that out!

Day 3 – Rain, rain and more rain…. April 5, 2009

Hayden didn’t poop yesterday. That can only mean one thing…he will poop overnight and then once he’s awake there’s no going back to sleep – he will shout and shout until I come get him! So up at 6.15 this time…These munchkins are determined to stop me getting any sleep!!

Hayden wasn’t in the best mood this morning. I mix between teething (which can be solved with some pain relief) and getting seriously worried about where his mummy is. I could tell he wanted Kara this morning and wasn’t sure where she was. He will be so excited tomorrow morning!! We had to work through a couple of time outs (caused by sharing and refusing to stop shaking the gate) but he recovered from both well.

Good thing was the F1 was on early so we laid about on the beanbag and watched some of that before we headed out. He is loving that the F1 season has started (honest he is addicted to it :)) – but a monsoon came along and stopped the race so it was time for us to do something…

We have a new family tradition to go to Einsteins (bagels) on Sunday morning. I wasn’t sure if it was breaking tradition if I didn’t go, of if I went without Kara, but considering Kara is out having lots of fun snowshoeing (and etc) then I think we were justified in our choice to go!! So Hayden had his usual bagel and loved it (he had already had some cheerios so I wasn’t completely sure how he was going to get on) and behaved himself impeccably. It was weird being there with just him. Having conversation with someone that only knows 20 words is a little one way…. 😀

Afterwards I was in two minds too either head home and or go over to this park Kara had told me about. I knew he would need changing soon but it was a lovely sunny morning and we were close. We chose the park. I was a little worried when I got there as we were the only people there and it was a huge climbing area. I meant huge.. Must have had 20 swings and about 20 different slides and tunnels. The minute I got Hayden out of the car he just ran towards it. Left me for dust!

This park was great. The whole time we were there, about 45 minutes, we only saw a couple of joggers. Hayden loved it. He went down almost every slide (i even went down one really tall one with him but I picked up some much static on the way down off my fleece i thought i was going to electrocute myself!! ) climbed everything there was to climb and went on all the swings – all the time going “weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee”…Just as we were leaving four families turned up – perfect timing!

Just as he was getting ready for nap time – the rain came (and came, and came.. 7 hours later it’s still coming down) Also thunder and lightening – I was worried he wouldn’t sleep by he was knackered so it wasn’t a problem. He had already looked like he was going to pass out when we were on our way home from the playground.

After he woke up the weather somewhat put a damper in our plans. We decided to just chill around the house. We spent some time looking at photos and he was very excited each time we were looking at pictures of either me (and he point at the picture, say dad-da and then point at me, some of these pictures were old so I was very impressed) or Kara and obviously accompany it with a “mum-my’.

He said “nanny” for the first time, but unfortunately my mum didn’t hear it…(even though she was on the other end of the phone!!). The rest of the afternoon we just played with different toys, a game of football, “soccer”, hide and seek, stack the cd;s (his current favourite) and an hilarious game of if you’re happy and you know it (mainly because watching him try to jump is magic! Hayden was easy and in a pretty good mood – Lucy on the other hand was a nightmare! She is feeling so sorry for herself right now, her leg is still obviously hurting her, and she can’t go out without someone. The problem was it was pouring down all day, and I had Hayden so couldn’t really get her outside. She must haved wined permanently for 4 hours. It will driving me crazy…. it should have been a chilled afternoon with Hayden but it turned into a stress fess because of Lucy – she is still being odd even though I’ve taken her outside. Also I just found pee in the dining room…but I’m wondering if it’s actually MiMi because she seems to be scared to get wet and hasn’t peed in ages!! Oh well the fun of having animals!!

We finished the weekend the only way I knew how -with Cars the movie of course!!
Can’t wait for Kara to get back! Neither can Hayden, he was calling her name just before bedtime again!!

Day 2…..Abbey learns about Karma and Hayden has some confusion over a duck and a doll

Hayden decides 6am is a reasonable time to get up.  I’ll take it as a complement that he wants to make the most of the day with me – right? I have to look at this positively…  The problem is I have a double sick dog on my hands..she’s already having to wear a cone, now she has something up with her stomach.  So she kept me up til past 1.30am, so I know I’m going to suffer today….

Early morning pretty uneventful.  Just watching footy and playing cars.  The way to keep both Hayden and Daddy happy!!  Well actually as fan of My Name Is Earl, I’m all about Karma….well Abbey got some of that today!!!  This morning Hayden went just out of sight, I was just heading up to get him when I heard a cat in distress!  Hayden had Abbey by the tail and she was almost airborne!!! Poor girl!  I told Hayden off, but he just stared through me like he was daydreaming!  He does this when we tell him off – least he’s not timid!!  To make sure she really got the message that Hayden doesn’t share food… he locked her in the basement (in the storage cupboard!) for the day!  Hayden 2 – Abbey 0 today!!!

Next main event – off to the Children’s Museum and it was great!! I was playing a dangerous game though with Sophie’s birthday party at 1pm….  I’m not sure who was more excited to be going to the museum, but we both loved it!  I didn’t get to see some of the big kid stuff, I’m going to save that for next time!…  First up there was a full size race car so Hayden got to sit in it.  My camera played up a bit so I couldn’t get as good of pictures as I wanted – seeing him sat in that car two hands on the steering wheel was just priceless – Lewis Hamilton watch out!!

Next we headed up to the play area (via the ramps which were fun for him, tiring for me), and I’m not sure I’ve ever seen him more content.  From the minute I let him out of his stroller/push chair he just rain up to the area with all the sand toys and played there for 10 minutes, then went over to the water section and had a ball for like 15 minutes – I was worried he wouldn’t want to leave (especially after he had made out with the giant duck) but there was so much else to do he didn’t care.  He played with everything in there; trains, slides, giant magnets, tunnels, soft play, giant road with wooden cars, lawnmowers to push around.   He was in heaven!!

After that on to the lego section where he got to build a tower with the big blocks, quickly on to the dinosaur areas where he was very impressed and excited! he loves dinosaurs (what boy doesn’t!!).. and then lunch.   I think I was a good dad with prepared food so he didn’t have to eat all junk food (i try to do my part as Kara rocks by making him healthy).  Although he did get a couple of bites of my grilled chicken burger and loved it!  He definitely likes Chicken that’s for sure!!  After that I could sense I had a time bomb on my hands and we needed to make a move…

I was right – he was asleep within minutes of getting in the car.  In fact I stopped at a light and his juice went flying as he fell asleep with it in his hands.  This actually posed a bit of a problem – if Hayden takes a nap, any nap, anywhere, he thinks he is done with naps for the day.  I had other ideas (i wanted to try and get some sleep myself!!)  Anyway he woke up just before we got to Sophie’s birthday party!  He loved it at Sophie’s house.  He took over her toy room and played with everything, especially the kitchen set she had (third time he has got very interested in one of these! Gordon Ramsey watch out? he did know to put the chicken in the microwave, but he also try to put a huge ball in there – so I’m not so sure..  He also found her vibrating Elmo chair which gave him big kicks!

We stayed for about an hour and half, time for me to get more lunch and beer.  On the way out Sophie came over and gave me a hug.  I crouched down and told Hayden to give Sophie a cuddle (this means kiss to Hayden..).  He lent over and planted one on her – she was not impressed and run off to her mummy!!  What a charmer!

Obviously when we got home there as no nap.  I kind of knew it, but I did try and way but he jumped in crib for 30 minutes to poke fun at me.

So instead we make the most of the beautiful day and headed outside to play with his tractors.  We had lots of fun out there, but one time out was called because of lack of wanting to share his crackers.  I almost let him off, I knew how tired he was, but I’m sure he’s just testing me still so I stood my ground!   After his time out once he’d gotten over it we just chilled and read a book in the sun.  I had a beer, Hayden had some juice.  Sweet!

He must have said the word “mine” about 1000 times today.  I’m not kidding you.  I pull the milk container out of the fridge and “mine”, as i’m bringing his dinner “mine”, we see his stroller “mine”, even the dogs – “mine”.  Funny thing is, he didn’t do it at Sophie’s!!  He did claim the outside was his when we were leaving the children’s musuem.

Time we got to dinner he was down to business stuffing his dinner (fish fingers, peas, and fruit!) down his neck.  He wanted seconds again!!  I must be doing something right!!  Then up to bath time – he got so excited he was shouting “bubble” all the way up the stairs!!

Great day, but would have been even better if Kara had been here!  Just as I was getting him out of the bath and going back into his room he gave me a chorus of “mummy, mummy, mummy” – He’s not the only one missing her….

7pm and he is fast asleep! 😀  I just hope he doesn’t poop in the night and wake himself up.  Lie in please Hayden!

Day 1 without Kara.. April 4, 2009

(she is visiting Reena in Vancouver)..

Thought I would blog the adventures while Kara is gone, as much for Kara so she doesn’t feel like she is missing much, but also because we’re bound to get up to some trouble….  apologies if the blog in longer than my usual quick bursts….

We started the day in a great way.  As I was waking Hayden up he gave me some of the clearest “Dad-das” that I’ve heard from him.  He was pointing at me, very excited and speaking really clearly!  He almost forgot about El-mo for a few seconds…  I obviously dressed him like any good father would, in his Everton kit.  Within seconds he was pointing to the Everton badge with great excitement.   Good Boy!!!

Breakfast was pretty non eventful other than he sneezed and I said “Bless You” and I could have swore he said something very similar in reply to me – I’ll have to watch that one..

He showed one piece of real intelligence that blew me away this morning.  He has this piece off one of his cars.  It was a the back of a dumper truck.  I asked him where was the rest of the truck (the main body, and I knew it had been under the ottoman for about a week or two) he walk off laid down next to the ottoman and stuck his arm under it trying to hook it out!! I kid you not – I didn’t say a word to him.  Those cars are so precious for him!!

Next up we headed over to Costco for some shopping only to find it closed until 11 – this kind of threw our plans somewhat so we just headed to Borders to get Sophie a present for tomorrow’s big party and kill some time before soccer training.  Hayden went around the whole of Borders picking up every single Elmo book and explaining to me that his life would basically be over if we didn’t buy it…he won and got some new sesame street books for the car and then on to Soccer…

Soccer (look I know it’s football but when i say that here people have no idea what i’m on about) was great.  The minute I let him loose he just ran around kicking every ball he could for about 10/15 minutes before class proper started.   I was so impressed.  A few weeks back he didn’t want to kick any, and Kara wasn’t impressed with my competitive dad approach to getting him kicking (:D – what can you expect from a Brit?).  This week he was a natural, and his left foot is killer.  He definitely favors it, you can tell from his balance when he kicks it.  Also everyone loved his Everton shirt.  I had two people who asked where I got it, and the teacher was also very impressed.  Hayden showed some great sharing attributes throughout which was good, he got roughed up by one kid but I just let them work it out, he didn’t seem flustered (that Kid had a real competitive dad!!).  At the end they do parachute – it loved shaking it, and then loved sliding on it – only problem was he loved it tooo much and wouldn’t get off it and we get the first tears of the day….  didn’t last long as Carlos (teacher) had smiley face stamps which Hayden didn’t want to miss despite having to leave the parachute…

Lunch was up next.  I had put some music on (Definitely Maybe – Oasis) in the background and while Hayden was eating I was playing around trying to make him laugh banging my head and making noises…after a few attempts at this he suddenly starting rocking out!!  He was totally banging his head and accompanying with the “der der der der der der”  – If he keeps this up he’ll want to come to the concerts we’ve got lined up in the summer…

He smashed up almost a 2 1/2 hour nap and then we headed out back to Costco, hoping it would be open this time!!  Costco was big and obnoxious but full of free samples.  Hayden absolutely loved the Oranges they were giving out (he hasn’t realized you don’t eat the skin yet..), but we got into a bit of an argument over that when I took it away from him, and the waterworks started.. I bribed him with some crackers (we always have them on hand as they’ll snap him out of almost anything we just have to watch it because he just eats and eats and eats them….Hayden 0 – Daddy 1  That was working well until I asked if I could have a cracker – I get a very simple no and violent shake of the head.  I tell him he has to share and try to take one, at which point he raises the volume on his “No” and snatches it from my hand.  So we argue, the crackers go flying and waterworks..  This goes around a few times until we eventually agree that I’ll just go without crackers and he’ll continue to eat them.  Hayden 1 – Daddy 1.  I was real brave after that and took him to another store, but I knew this store had carts/trolleys with the Cars on the front so he could sit in there and we got through that unscathed.

Home at last, and we played down the basement for a while for a change. Things going well and I thought I would put some music on so I could enjoy a beer and put my feet up while Hayden played with his cars.  Well this was obviously the first Hayden realised that the music center in the basement works.  And if you press different buttons different things happen.  This quickly ruined my plan of trying to listen to music… so Hayden and I had words.  He didn’t like being told that he could no longer press the buttons.  Waterworks and meltdown.  I had this feeling he was testing me, so I just stood my ground and held the cabinet in front of the music center closed.  He tried to open it, banged it, shouted at it, looked at me like I was the devil, and then eventually backed down and wanted me to pick him up for cuddles!  Hayden 1 – Daddy 2.  I was proud of myself for not backing down in the face of adversity (maybe that’s an overstatement.)   Then we just played with putting shapes in the box, and he was showing me how’s he getting so much better at games like that.

Dinner was going to be a mix of some roasted chicken i mixed up (have to make sure he gets some meat!!) and veg and fruit….  well i cut up the chicken and put it on his plate…but his plate was up on the counter.  I made sure the dogs couldn’t get to it and helped Hayden tidy up his toys before dinner and bed time.  Time I got Hayden into his chair there was a mysteriously empty looking plate and very plump looking kitty!! Hayden 1 – Daddy 2 – Abbey 1…

When I asked him if I could have one of his strawberries he shook his head and put his hand over the whole plate in a blocking move!!  It was funny, but also not good behavior.  I just stole a strawberry anyway and he groaned but was too busy seeing how many he could get in his mouth at once to really care.  I think we still have some work to do on the sharing!!

Anyway he loved his dinner so much that once he finished his plate he told me “more more”.  I gave him a complete second plate and he smashed that up as well (no Ketchup and he even ate his peas!!)  I think the  dogs liked his dinner as well because when I came down after putting him to bed his bib had moved about 30 yards from where I had left it and it was very very clean!

Bath and bed time all normal, except for the first time ever he laughed when I washed his face!!  He normally hates that!  He took like 40 minutes to go to sleep after I put him down, which is unlike him, but I think he was just missing his mummy! (and busy winding up Elmo).

Time for beer and relax time…hang on I’ve just realised I haven’t showered today!! Gross!!!

Bubblebath April 2, 2009

For a while now I’ve been adding bubble bath into Hayden’s bath.  He loves it of course.

I try to hide his toys under the bubbles and then has to find them.  Also I cover him in bubbles and then tells him “you’ve got bubbles on our hand” for example, he gets very cute and turns his hands around and looks at, and then gives a big smile!

Today I realized there was a wand in the bubble bath container – he loved it when i started blowing bubbles – so much that out of nowhere he started shouting “bubble, bubble, bubble,” (then he merged all his b words together bubbleboobyebobubboo…..

He has definated skipped the single syllable words.

New Words

You’ve probably been following Hayden’s adventures and realized that he has been a little behind on his speech.  We think this was largely because of his ear issues.  Well now the tubes have settled in, and he’s a little older he has started coming up with some new words.  What is funny is that the words he decides to learn, and the words he just chooses to ignore despite us trying to get him to say them. Selected hearing/speaking I guess..

“Elmo” – Elmo is his favorite thing in the whole world right now.  He has to have Elmo in his bed or he goes crackers!  The other night I was putting him down for bed and Elmo was not in his crib – out of nowhere I get a chorus of “Elmo, Elmo, Elmo, Elmo”

“under” – He was dismantling my cd collection, and then he decided to take a CD out of the case and put it under the CD player (obviously he thought he was putting it into the player).  I asked him where it was, prompted him under, and he repeats it back to me.

“bye” – he actually says “bye boo” which is far funnier!  This is an obvious one, but what’s funny is if we ask him to say it, he’ll wave but won’t say it.  When if you say it naturally he’ll echo you for the next couple of minutes.  Today Kara’s mum was here and was on the phone, the minute she said “bye” , Hayden echoed her.   When she was leaving, nothing….