Hayden is a pretty smart kid. Of course I would say that but I honestly believe it. A recent example is we had run out of my normal cereal so I looked what else was in the cupboard and I saw some Rice Crispies that we bought for my mum when she was here back in May. As soon as I got the box out I get a “Nanny’s cereal” from Hayden. Kara and I looked at each other in shock. I didn’t even know they were hers until Kara told me!
Anyway that’s not my point but it just indicates he’s smart. Well despite that he thinks every single sport is Golf! We put on Footy/Soccer – it’s Golf. We put on Tennis, it’s Golf, American Football – Golf, Baseball – Golf! We even had his favorite Formula One on this morning, “Race Cars” and even during that at one point he just shouted out “Golf!”
I think this all started from the Harfst reunion when he met Greg for the first time. He was messing around going in and out of the different cottages and came across Greg sat on the couch watching Golf. He jumped and watched it for a while, and clearly it had a big impression on him!!
The only thing that is a little more messed up – when we actually put on Golf – “Tennis!!”
Hayden is up to four word sentences! He’s pretty bossy, and lately he will want to “play toys” and he will say “mommy (or daddy) sit right there.” As expected with his age, he is very particular about where he wants us to sit and what we are to play with. If we don’t follow the rules and we have anything else going against us (such as, if he is tired) then he will get upset. Luckily, this doesn’t happen EVERY time he orders us around and we don’t cater to him (he’s usually pretty easy going for a 2 year old).
Better late than never, I guess! We had a Harfst family reunion, oh, a month ago now up in Saugatuck, MI. It was a great time! We had really nice weather, the area was very cute, and we had 100% attendance! Even my cousin Greg was able to make it, and I haven’t seen him for about 18 years or something crazy like that. John obviously had never met him.
Hayden seems to be done with his naps at home. I really hope this is a temporary glitch. He is still napping at day care, but when he is home he sits up in his room and just chats loudly until we finally come and get him. It makes for a long day, and he seems to get bored as the day goes on when he hasn’t napped. That makes sense I suppose, since he isn’t getting any sort of break where he can come back and things seem new again. Sunday he had not napped since Wednesday at day care and he seemed kind of tired all morning. We tried to get him to nap and when John went in to check on him he had a dirty diaper that was likely the cause of him not sleeping. So that got changed and after a while John tried again to get him to nap, which failed again. There comes a time in the afternoon where it is too late to nap without impacting bedtime, and we had reached that point but by about 4:00 he was so tired that he was getting upset a lot so I just put him to bed to give him (and us) a break and he crashed out. We didn’t want him to sleep too long, so a little after 5 we got him up and boy did we pay for that for about 45 minutes. Nothing would make him happy; all he wanted to do was scream and cry. He didn’t know what he wanted – he’d cry because you picked him up and then he’d cry harder if you put him back down. Eventually I put him back in his crib to try to let him sort himself out either by going back to sleep for a little bit or by collecting himself, and that did seem to work mostly (although he was still touchy the rest of the evening). He naps fine at day care, so I really hope this was just a two-week thing and he will be napping again on Thurs! (fingers crossed)
Hayden is really into his counting! He will sit on the floor reading his books and start pointing and counting out things on the page. Or he will count as he walks with us up the stairs. He knows his numbers and can also read them, but in Hayden’s world right now the order goes: one, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. If you count with him and get the two in after the one he will usually get the order right, but even then sometimes he will jump straight to that six the first chance he gets. He seems to know the numbers about up to 20, though. Last night he was walking up the stairs with John and they were alternating their counting (John would say one, Hayden two, John three, Hayden four…) and got up to 20 or so. I am always impressed when I count with him going up the stairs and he gets passed ten.
Hayden and Layla's Place 