Ankge You June 26, 2010

I think I’ve touched on this before, but it’s real important to me that Hayden has good basic manners… i.e. to say thank you and please etc.

Of late he has really started to say please and thank you without being prompted.  Particular thank you.  Sometimes I’ll just realize he probably needs a drink, fill up his cup and hand it to him, and he’ll always say “ankge you” to me (his pronunciation has some work!).  In the mornings he always eats my cereal, and now he’s started to say thank you once he’s all done.  He’s also real good with please, although sometimes he over does it with the please!!!!  If he says it loud enough and enough times he gets what he wants – right?

One of my favorites though has to be the last two times I’ve got in from cutting the grass and he turns to me and says, unprompted “thanks for cutting the grass daddy!”

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Cluster feeding June 20, 2010

A week ago Layla started cluster feeding in the evenings.  Starting around 4 or 5 pm she will wake up (having been asleep most of the day) and feed continuously throughout the evening, taking only about 20 minute breaks where she is not eating.  When John holds her she will be content for a few minutes before she starts trying to nurse on his arm or neck, then she’ll get fussy when she can’t get any good stuff.  This feeding frenzy goes on throughout the evening until we go upstairs for bed.  John and I joke while this is going on, “Oh Layla, you poor thing, has it been 10 minutes since you last ate?!”  The major upside is that she seems to get herself all filled up and sleeps beautifully overnight.  The combination of being awake all evening and eating nearly the whole time seems to make her tired and content when it counts.  We’ve had 2 or 3 nights this week where she has only gotten up once; the other nights it’s only twice.  She wakes up only enough to let me know she needs to eat, then sleeps through her feeding and falls straight asleep when she’s put back in her basinett.

I love Elmo! June 18, 2010

Hayden was cracking me up today.  He has rediscovered his Elmo truck, and now he thinks it’s the cat’s meow.  After his napping attempt today (fail), he came downstairs and was all excited playing with his Elmo truck (picking up where he had left off early this morning).  He has told me a couple of times today that he loves Elmo.  The Elmo truck plays the Elmo song, which says, “Elmo loves his goldfish, his crayons too….”  He kept pressing the button to play that song, and he suddenly came up to me and said, “I want some goldfish, Mommy!”  meaning goldfish crackers.  I said, “where did that come from?” and he said, “Elmo loves goldfish, too!”  Then he went to his art table and got a crayon and said he was going to give it to Elmo.  He took the crayon and put it next to the small plastic Elmo on the truck.  He ended up giving several crayons to Elmo.  Then he would leave the room and come back with various things and tell me they were for Elmo.  “Mommy, this car is for Elmo, okkkaaay?”  “I’m going to take Elmo to a Colts game.”  “Mommy, this book is for Elmo, okkaaay?”  “Elmo’s my best, Mommy.  I love Elmo.”  It’s funny how he’s had this Elmo car since he was about 10 months old and all of the sudden he is super interested in it.  It’s never been put away, but the last couple of weeks I have moved it out of the family room and into the living room.  It’s still on the same floor, still accessible, still viewable every day, but I guess it has been far away from the main toys for him to feel as though he has been missing it or something.

Things to be done with Layla June 17, 2010

Here is a list of different things Hayden has asked to be done with Layla.

• “I want Layla to go back to the hospital” (I think this is where he thinks we got her)
• “I want Mommy put Layla in the bed”
• “I want Mommy put Layla inside” (when we are playing outside)
• “I want to hold Layla” (aww! This is said at least one a day.  I let him hold her while he is sitting down, and it lasts for a good 5 seconds before he says “I all done.”)
• “I want Mommy put Layla on the ground” (my response to this one: “I would not be a very good Mommy if I put the baby on the tile floor!”)

Essentially, like any decent almost-three-year-old, Hayden has a bit of jealousy toward this new person who has come into our lives.  Most of the time he is very good with her, he is gentle when he is around her and when he comes across a baby toy in his toy chest he says he wants Layla to play with the baby toy and he gets enjoyment in giving the toy to her.  He also says at various times that he wants to play with her, such as when we were at the pool yesterday and he wanted Mommy and Layla to come in the baby pool with him and play.  But he also frequently wants us to put her down when we are holding her, or for him to “go first” when they are both in need of something and she logically has to go first (i.e. when being put in the car or when they both need to be fed).

The thunder is getting me June 12, 2010

It’s that stormy time of the year where we seem to get storms every other day and they always seem to come at night.  Couple of nights back we get a really loud storm at some point in the early hours of the morning.  Enough to wake Kara and myself (to be fair Kara was probably already up feeding Layla!).  Then suddenly we heard Hayden.  First he was just talking or squeaking, but then he started crying after a really loud thunder bang.  This was the first time he had done thi, normally he just sleeps through.

I went in to check on him and he just turned to me, all sad and said “the thunder is getting me daddy!”.   Poor little guy.  I explained to him that the noise was just the clouds banging together and that they were just having a party at an unsociable hour (something he will understanding in a few years time).  Then he just told me that the “clouds were silly”  and laid down and went to asleep even though it was flashing and banging away outside!

Squeaker! June 5, 2010

Layla is a really beautiful little girl.  She smiles a lot (often in her sleep so hopefully she’s having happy dreams about milk and princesses), sleeps a lot, eats a lot.  She hardly ever seems to cry, but when she does it’s more a little squeak.  It is really cute, so I’ve taken to calling her squeaker as my nickname for her.  My squeaker is so precious – if you’re local and haven’t popped in to say hello yet make sure you do so soon!! If you’re  a bit further afield then web cams where created for a reason!!

I appreciate as her lungs develop some strength this will probably all change!!  So I better make the most of it!!

Bonding with Hayden

In the weeks leading up to the birth Hayden had started to become some what a daddy’s boy.  Just little things, but in the morning if he knew I was close by he would insist that I was the one that came in and changed him. and often would have a meltdown if Kara tried to do it.   He started getting really excited whenever he saw me, and would run and give me cuddles and hugs, and just generally just want to be with me, if I was home.  Sometimes I would just get random cuddles or hugs.  He would always want to know where I was, and if i was going upstairs or outside, or anywhere, he would want to come with me.

This wasn’t the worse timing, as it allowed Kara some freedom and room to get to spend time with Layla (which is pretty important considering she is the food source!  and all Layla does is eat!) without Hayden freaking out.  With Layla’s birth I took the chance to take a couple of days off work.  To get to spend some time with Kara and Layla and to make sure I could keep Hayden out of trouble and help with the transition for him having Layla home, sharing the attention and also not going to day care for a while.

I felt like we bonded a lot during these few days.  Hayden likes to look to you for confirmation, whether it’s confirmation of if he should do something, or confirmation whether what just happened was really cool or not!  Sometimes he’ll look with this huge smile on his face, and if you smile back then he gets really excited.  We had a lot of these moments during the week which was great.  We had chance to go to Carb day at the track (“The Race Car Show” as Hayden calls it) and every time race cars when past he would give me this look with a huge grin.

Twice we went to the spray parks that are close by and he just seemed really excited to be doing stuff with Daddy.  He would stay close to me, always want to know what i was doing, and generally want me to carry him everywhere!   He is a little shy of the water so I ended up getting more wet than him, but both times I think he still had lots of fun. 

We also went to the swimming as the pool opened a few days early and he made some great progress.  I had brought both his armbands and a Spiderman inflatable ring.  The minute he saw the ring he wanted it.  To the point where he was running around the baby pool with it around his ankles.  It couldn’t have been comfortable but he didn’t care he thought it was great!  I talked him into going into the big pool but he would only do it if he could walk over there without taking the ring off!!   We managed it eventually!  Typically he wants me to hold him, or hold his hands when he’s swimming but I convinced him that he would be ok if I let go.  It took him a while but he got used to it.  Then I came up with a little piece of genius.. I had a swigchy ball with me, so I would throw it slight out of his reach and then let go of him and told him to get the ball.   He would kick and flap his arms around until he could reach it.  Then he would be so proud of himself when he got there.  He loved this game, and took it into his own hands (ie. I wasn’t allowed to throw the ball anymore, he would swim, throw, etc).  I didn’t have to hold him at all, and he was learning to swim!!  He did fantastic!

I think Hayden and I have been real close for a long time, but I felt this week we got even closer as we spent nearly every minute of his waking day together.  He could be playing toys and he would ask me to play with him and want to share toys with me, typically he wants to just play on his own.

He was playing up a little the other day and I told him that this was the last time I would get to play with him so he should make the most of it as I’m going back to work.  He freaked out and started crying and hugging my leg.  I was worried he wasn’t going to adapt well when I went back, but he did fine.  In fact when I asked him for a hug on the first day back, he turned to me and said “not today daddy!”   And I felt he has quickly turned back into a mummy’s boy!!

The Name Game June 3, 2010

My Aunt Marilyn had asked how we came up with Layla’s name.  Well, I’m not sure there is much of a story there, but anyone who knows me knows I will do my best to turn anything into a story. 🙂  John and I had boy and girl names picked out for Hayden before we knew he was a boy (we had already had the name Hayden picked out for a boy for years).  Layla was the girl name we both loved and agreed to for Hayden, but of course we didn’t use it for him.  We never really looked back once we chose Layla, and we didn’t even talk about other girl names with this pregnancy.  We did have a few discussions about middle names.  Joely came about just as a suggestion that we both agreed on (after many, “what about so-and-so” “yuck, no” conversations).  I think I suggested it initially – we had a little girl who lived across the street from us in England named Joely and I liked her name.  She was a sweetie, too, so she didn’t do anything to ruin the name for me.  I think maybe it’s a more common name in England, as my mom reminded me that there is the actress Joely Richardson who is British.  And finally, I really liked how the name Layla Joely went together with Hayden Jonah.  They have a similar ring to them.