Haddy! January 26, 2012

Firstly, note to self: take some pictures!  We haven’t had any new pictures for about a month, and it’s a struggle to find ones to go with blogging posts at this point.

But the real news is that Layla finally has a “name” for Hayden!  A couple of days ago at day care I picked her up from her classroom and had to go back out to the van to get something before we got Hayden from his classroom, and she started saying, “Aa-ddy, Aa-ddy.”  I started to realize that she was trying to say Hayden, and she was letting me know I was forgetting him!  “Hayden” has proven to be a difficult word for a toddler to say, and we’ve tried to think of other things she can call him like Haydy or Den or Denden, but she really hasn’t been calling him anything until now.  I guess the real question is how long has she been calling him Addy and we’ve not understood or I’ve thought she was saying Daddy.  Now that I’ve caught on I get her to say it a lot.  I’m starting to hear more of an H in the beginning now, so it’s more like ha-DDY.

Her language is getting better all the time, as it does with this age.  She had ear tubes put in this month because of recurring ear infections, and that is also helping I’m sure.  She even repeated “butterfly” pretty clearly last night.  But apart from her speech, she understands so much.  I have to be careful now what I say.  Today I told Hayden he could have some candy if he would go to the bathroom (which he CLEARLY needed to do – when will he start listening to his body and responding on his own?!), and Layla got all excited and went up to the candy jar (even though she hardly ever has candy).  It happens all the time, that I will say something to someone else and she will respond in a way that I realize she knows most of what I am saying.  Pretty cool! 🙂

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What Hayden Used to Do January 23, 2012

John and I both like to talk to Hayden about what he was like when he was younger, to reminisce and also to show him how much he’s grown and to try to connect a little more to Layla (“Hayden, when you were Layla’s age you would always…”).  It’s become apparent that he really enjoys hearing about what he was like when he was younger, because recently he’s started saying things like, “I used to love stripes…” (as I’m putting his striped pajama’s on him) or “I always used to eat that when I was younger…”

Layla at 19 (oops, 20!) Months January 19, 2012

I thought I would just take a step back and catalog some of the funny things Layla is doing at 19 20 months.  We haven’t had loads of time to blog lately, so I know John did something similar recently but I don’t think there will be too much overlap.

The kids are usually with me as I am getting ready in the morning.  Hayden will sit on the bed and watch cartoons, and Layla will watch cartoons for about 1 minute and then get down to see what needs to be done with her babies.  When it comes time to brush my teeth, lately she will look at me, point to her mouth (well, really she actually puts her finger in her mouth), and walk off down the hall.  If I don’t make the connection of what she is trying to tell me, she will walk back into my bathroom and make some sort of annoyed noise, turn around and walk down the hall.  She goes into her bathroom and waits by the sink for me to hand her her toothbrush.  Then she “brushes” her teeth for quite a while (while tending to her babies).

The girl knows what she wants, and she definitely knows what she doesn’t want.  She has been doing this “no” head shake thing when she says no, and she is really getting her head going back and forth and whipping that hair all around.  Recently I was at Grandma’s trying to get her to lay down with me for a nap, and every time I said, “Layla, lay down and close your eyes” she would just shake her head and get that hair swinging.  I think after a while she actually forgets she is saying no and she is just enjoying watching what her hair is doing.

She really likes juice, and she’s getting good at saying “orange juice.”  It kind of sounds like, “ajjjjjjjce,” but it’s clear as a bell to us what she wants.  Her favorite word has to be apple, though.  She can’t walk into the kitchen without saying apple, and without doing her darnedest to get her hands on one.  I never thought I would tell my kids they couldn’t have any more apples for the day, but she would always have one on the go if I would let her. Toddler hands have to be clean and dry at least some of the day!

As I’ve already alluded to, the girl loves her babies.  Before bed we are always searching around the house for wherever her babies might have ended up last, because she can’t go to sleep with fewer than two babies, and a blanket.  She loves to push her babies in her little stroller that she keeps upstairs (she will also load that sucker up with anything she can find from our bathroom drawers, and seems to have equally as much fun moving it back from the stroller to the drawers, thankfully).  She also loves to put her babies to sleep, and what I find so funny is she will put them to sleep face down, and then pat their backs.  She likes to sleep on her belly (with her legs pulled up under her usually), so she must just think that’s how everyone does it.  That’s fine, but to the untrained eye it looks a little like she’s trying to suffocate them.  😉

Christmas January 5, 2012

What a wonderful Christmas!  Hayden was at the best age for the holiday.  He was so excited all month long about everything to do with Christmas – the lights, Santa, presents, Christmas songs, “candy train” (our advent calendar), Christmas cartoons…  It was really a blast to go through the Christmas season with a 4 year old – it made it feel magical, the way it did when I was little.

We tried to make the most of Christmas time by taking advantage of all the special events.  We went on the “Polar Express,” which was a train ride from the neighboring town of Fishers up to “the north pole” (Noblesville, one town up) to pick up Santa.  We did our annual neighborhood Cookies with Santa, and Hayden got to tell Santa what he wanted for Christmas (trains, trains, and more trains, because he “really loves trains” – as the month went on we were able to convince him to ask for some other things since he already has a truckload of trains).  Meanwhile, Layla got to show that she is at the exact right age to want to have nothing to do with the big, strangely dressed man, even if he does wield candy canes.  We went to a big Christmas model train exhibit at the Eiteljorg museum in Indy which was really remarkable, and right up Hayden’s alley since it encompassed his two very favorite things – Christmas and trains.  We went to the Children’s Museum “Jolly Days” Christmas experience.  One night a couple of days before Christmas we did what I hope is becoming a tradition since we also did it last year – ordered pizza and ate it on the couch while we watched the movie Elf.  Yes, a 4 year old eating pizza on the couch, I am a wild woman!  I couldn’t bring myself to let Layla loose with pizza sauce and furniture, so she was in her high chair, but I moved it so it was aaaaaalmost in the family room.  🙂

Hayden would have a lot of fun listening to Christmas songs in the car.  He would always ask for Christmas music if it wasn’t already on.  He liked to sing jingle bells or Rudolph – my mom was babysitting for us and I got a text that she was enjoying listening to his sweet voice singing Rudolph and jingle bells over the monitor while he was supposed to be sleeping.  Even Layla started doing her own singing along to jingle bells after a while (her version of singing is mostly singing “eh eh eh” to the tune, and every once in a while throwing in a word that sounds about right).

We spent Christmas Eve with Grandma and Grandpa and Dusty and Andy and their respective families.  Christmas morning we spent at our house unwrapping presents and eating cinnamon rolls.  Hayden was really quite good with it all considering the amount of waiting for other people to open and not really being able to play with everything right away.  I remember last year it really became too much for him after a while.  Then in the afternoon after Layla’s nap we went to Grandpaman’s and did some visiting with Grandma G’s family.

The whole Christmas thing was really great.  John and I also had nearly 2 weeks off work, and it was such a joy to just spend tons of time together as a family.  It was really hard to go back to the routine this week.  But, I guess if we could do that all the time it wouldn’t feel as special.