Bribes work both ways April 26, 2010

We’ve talked before I’m sure about bribing Hayden to do things like go potty, get his hair washed, change his diaper etc.  Bribing kids tends to be pretty successful and part of modern parenting these days.

Well I guess Hayden has caught on to this.  He was eating his breakfast (his third or fourth breakfast of the day!  this boy is a food monster!) and I had my laptop up at the table.   I had already asked him if I could have a grape or anything out of his fruit bowl and he can given me a clear “No” and a then shown a protective motion to cover his food.   However whenever I’m on my laptop he knows there is a chance he can watch Ambulances (firetrucks, police cars, sail boats, etc) on YouTube.  So he was asking if he could have an Ambulance.  Now I asked him if I could have a grape, he instantly gave me one, but it didn’t stop there, he must have given me 4 or 5 and then asked if he could have an ambulance now?  I like the way the boys brain is working!!

There was a limit to the price he wanted to pay though.  He gave me only grapes, no raspberries, and after he’d given me the grapes he gave me a look and said “I want to eat the rest daddy!”

Just this morning he took this to a new level.  After he woke we were playing around and I was pretending to be this basketball learning game he has by imitating it’s sounds.  “Daddy you’re funny” he told me.  Couple of seconds later after he buttered me up he was asking me if he could watch Cars for about the 100th time.  I think I was duped!

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Kara… April 19, 2010

Hayden is fond of calling me by my first name all of the sudden.  He has this cute thing he does where he says, “Myyyyyyyy moooooommmmmmmmmy” with a little smile and sometimes gives me a hug.  He was doing that about a week ago except this time he would go, “Myyyyyyyy mooooommmmmmyyyyyy.  Kara!”  He called me Kara a few times that day and then I didn’t hear it again until this weekend, when he would randomly look at me with this cheeky little look, smile, and say, “Kara” and start laughing.

Easter April 13, 2010

We had a fun Easter!  Hayden helped me dye some eggs.  He really enjoyed putting the color tablets into the water, but apart from that he lost interest in the actual egg coloring and was more interested in all the stickers and other things that came in the egg coloring kit.

Saturday we went to Grandma and Grandpa’s and he got to play with his cousins Jesse and Robby.  He loves going there and playing with all the different toys.  We were able to coax him outside to play some soccer with the boys for a while, but as everything outside-related is with Hayden at the moment, it only lasted a short time until he was lured back in by the thought of all the toys that weren’t being played with.

Sunday when we woke up we saw the Easter bunny had been to our house while we slept, and he left Hayden candy and presents and hid the eggs we had colored!  He had a great time finding the eggs and was very excited about his presents.  He got a scooter, soccer goal (not sure if that was more for him or Daddy?), and a couple of little cars.  He really enjoyed his scooter and soccer goal that day, but it’s been difficult to get him outside again to play on them since.  (I’m shaking my head in disbelief as I type that.)

We also planted some seeds for Hayden’s Sesame Street garden.  He has three little Sesame Street kits to grow tomatoes, watermelon, and peppers.  They are actually doing really well so far in their starter kits!  We’ll see what happens once they are transplanted.

Later in the day we went to Grandpamans and Grandma G’s for Easter dinner.  We had a lovely time and great food there.  Toward the end of the visit Hayden tripped and banged his head on a low ledge.  It seemed a pretty hard hit and we all felt really badly for him (I think we were all ready for a bit of blood when it happened), and somehow he got away with only a small bruise.

Sleeping in Mexico

We didn’t really have a good plan for sleeping arrangements in Mexico.  Sleep – or lack thereof – can make such a difference in a person’s mood, particularly when that person is 2 years old.  So we were very pleasantly surprised that things worked out so well in that department.  First, we couldn’t decide if we should get a room with two double beds or one king.  We decided that it would be pretty cramped for John and I in a double bed with my rather large belly, so we went with the king.  Next decision – does Hayden sleep with us or do we try a roll away bed?  I was nervous about the roll away bed because it is the size of a twin/single (or maybe smaller), and obviously does not have any sides to it to keep him rolling off, whereas his bed at home is a double with little sides on it.  We decided to give it a try anyway, and he was brilliant with it!  We shoved the bed all the way against the wall and wedged one of the decorative pillows between the bed and the wall to keep him from falling that way, then put a duvet on the floor to protect him in case he rolled off that way.  I think he was so tired each night that he really didn’t move much once he was asleep.  He seemed to love having his own little bed, too, and when we were in the room he would spend a lot of time climbing up onto it.  Sometimes if John or I were on the bed with him he would tell us he wanted us to go to our own bed.  We brought his “owl blanket” (a blanket I made for him when he was a baby that he likes), curious George and Elmo stuffed animals, and as long as he could cuddle with those three things when it was time to sleep he was pretty happy.

We also didn’t know what to expect with naps.  At home he’s pretty good about napping (or was at the time of our vacation anyway – last week he was not napping well) but doesn’t always, but with the complete upset of routine that goes with vacationing I wondered if naps would be out the window.  Well, he actually ended up doing a great job of napping.  Most days we would go up to the room after a long morning at the pool and lunch, draw the curtains, he’d lay down in his bed and eventually drift off.  John and I would have to be sure to go to our beds and be still so he didn’t have anything distracting him, of course.

For me, the most interesting sleep-related thing to come out of the trip was that he eventually adapted to sleeping outside of a bed.  “The experts” say that the highest quality sleep is achieved in bed, in the quiet, in the dark, so we have always tried to give that to Hayden when it’s time to sleep and thus he has not had a lot of opportunities to sleep on-the-go.  However, he fell asleep on the plane, then during an evening “beach party” that was put on by the hotel after dinner one night, and he even fell asleep on the bus during our one excursion out of the resort, and continued sleeping as he was carried through the hotel and out onto a sun lounger in the shade where he slept for a long while laying on me.

I want to swim to the bar and get grape juice April 9, 2010

Our main pool in Cancun at swim up bars at both ends.  Both fully staffed and fully stocked.  Perfect for me to get Cancun tropical, pina colada, mojito, Miami vice, or whatever else the barmen would conduct for me.  But of course this blog isn’t about me.  I wasn’t the only one that was interested in swimming to the bars…

Hayden loved the swimming pool.  He probably spent about 3 to 4 hours a day in it!   Of course his idea of swimming is daddy carrying him around, but it’s only 2 so I’ll let that ride.  He loved doing jumps off the edge, playing with the “waterfall” (where one pool overlapped into the other), and of course swimming to the bar to get grape juice!  We’d be swimming and I’d ask him what he wants to do, and give him some choices.  He nearly always chose swim to the bar and get grape juice.  He even had his favorite bars based off the barmen and the quality (and quantity) of grape juice!

The swim up bars had these giant stools that had a brown, black and Grey pattern.  Hayden quick pointed out that they looked like giant cookies and he wanted to sit on the giant cookie!    There was nothing about the bar he didn’t like!  Also gave me chance to grab a quick drink while he was sipping his grape juice!  He got to know the barmen and they would get his grape juice ready for him the minute they saw him coming!

There is just one thing to think about if you ever go swimming at the Cancun Palace – Hayden drunk a lot of grape juice and everything that goes in, I guess has to come out?

Potty Update April 3, 2010

Pretty boring topic but thought I’d provide a quick update….  Hayden can pretty much pee on demand (of course he knows he gets a skittle for it!).   He loves hanging out on the potty as he gets to read his race car books which he is willing to do all day.

Often we are on the potty before bath so after a while I’ll want to get him in the bath and I’ll ask him if he’s been already.  He’ll normally tell me that Pee Pees are coming.  Once he’s done with his book I check if he’s been and if he hasn’t (which is normal) I’ll tell him that he needs need to do Pee Pees now.   Now he’ll stand up, bend over and look back between his legs and start peeing and proceed to give me commentary on what is happening.  Very funny, but a little bit too much like a girl!   I guess the alternative is I start teaching him to pee standing up and I clean up the mess!

Next step is to get him telling us every time he needs to go.  I’ll think we’ll need to up the bribes from a skittle to get there!

I want to play inside

I had to make this the next blog.  Hayden’s excitement of being outside didn’t last long.  We’ve had a fantastic week of weather.  It’s been sunny and ranging from the mid 60’s to the low 80’s which for Indy is pretty amazing for this time of year.  Which means that Kara and I have wanted to get outside as much as possible.  After about five minutes of being out Hayden will just tell us that he wants to play inside (I think he still is missing all his toys from vacation).

It’s killing me.  I get home from work, and just want to sit outside for a few minutes and soak up the nice weather.  Hayden wants to get inside and play cars!  I have to try everything to keep him outside (A bag of M&Ms bought me an hour the other day, I’ll get him into racing monster trucks, doing chalks, etc.. but the minute I let my guard down and stop giving him 120% attention.. “I want to play inside”!

Spring!

We had a little glimpse of spring in March and it was fantastic.  After being stuck in side for 4/5 months everyone was dying to be able to get outside and particularly Hayden.  It had been a long time since he’d been able to play with all his outside trucks and toys and he was loving it.  His confidence and mobility had progressed so far from last Summer.  Watching him run around and pedal his tricycle is a great benchmark of his development.  Think you can see the joy of him in these pics.

Yeah

Currently Hayden’s favourite answer to everything is “yeah”.  In fact at times it seems like his only response to a question.

It’s becoming very challenging to ask him the right question to get the answer you want.  I’ll give you an example.  He  was in the bath and pulled out a letter.  I ask him if he knew a word beginning with that letter.  He replies “yeah”.  I ask him to you give me a word beginning with that letter.  He responds “yeah”.   Can you tell me a word with that letter… “yeah”,  tell me a word….”yeah, say a word with that letter “yeah”….   you get the idea.  Normally we eventually get there, but it’s funny trying to elicit the right response from him.

My Cranberry Juice

There will be a bunch of holiday stories that will show on this blog as we try to catch up.  It’s been almost a month since I’ve blogged!  But I’m starting with this one..

Hayden has taken a liking to Cranberry Juice (well every type of juice really).  So I was sitting out on our balcony watching the sun set and just waiting for everyone to get ready and go to dinner.  I had a glass of red wine (I was on holiday you know!) to keep me hydrated.    Something caught my attention, and I turn around and Hayden is grabbing my wine glass, I hear “My Cranberry Juice” before he starts to put it to his mouth.  Luckily pretty quickly he realized it wasn’t cranberry juice, pulled a funny face, and “i don’t like it” came out his mouth together with his token scrapping of his tongue when he doesn’t like something.