Hayden. Many things have been said and written about my first little munchkin over those five years but I thought it would be a good time to give a current picture of him.
Food – He is a turkey. Let’s start there. He doesn’t want to eat anything except peanut butter and jelly. If there is anything green near or on his food he won’t eat it. He freaks out if there are pips or seeds in his food. Pepper is about the only vegetable he will eat. If he eats something he doesn’t like he has a very inelegant way of just spitting it out and letting it dribble down his chin. On the other hand he loves desert! The words ‘ice cream’ and ‘dessert’ can transform the boy in seconds!
Toys – He has gone through a few phases in his time. Obviously his world was dominated by trains. But as he announced a few months back ‘l don’t love trains, I just like trains’. To be honest we didn’t really notice too much of a different at the time but he had backed off trains a little. Probably only plays trains ~3 days a week instead of everyday. He really started to get into Legos. He is so structured in the way he thinks Legos is the perfect toy for him. He follows instructions well and is actually incredibly focused when it comes to Legos. Focus is not generally one of his specialties that I am sure I will be to later. The other big thing for him right now is his love for Robots. Not quite sure where it seemed from but that is the new love. For his birthday he got A bunch of transformers and robot based toys so that seemed to keep him happy.
Friends – Hayden is picky on his friends and also gets a little overwhelmed if there are lots of kids and he will try to find one kid (often the bossy girl) and try to just play with them. His best friend without a doubt is Oliver but unfortunately Oliver has started at a different school so it will be harder for them to hang out as much now. Robby,his cousin, is his other big friend. When them two are around they are in separable and Hayden just wants to follow Robby everywhere and do everything he does.
Daddy’s Boy – he is still a huge daddy’s boy (I never thought I would have said that when he was 2!). However he has gotten past his period of being rude to him mum. He still always wants to know if it is a daddy work day and always has this heart breaking dejected look (“there are too many daddy work days”. “Daddy work days are too long” etc) when I tell him it is. he is very protective of my over Layla. If we are swimming for example if I play with Lay for like 10 seconds he will come and get himself in between us and challenge “why do you play with Layla more than me?” and poor Layla normally loses it because Hayden is so insistent.
Big Brother – Hayden is a caring big brother a lot of the time. He likes teaching Layla things and showing or telling her how to do things. As all siblings the always want the same toy at the same time and they will constantly fight for it, but nothing new there! He certainly cares for her, I feel he is often thinking or looking our for her, so hopefully theist continues in a few years when she starts bringing the boys home!
Sports – Hayden likes sports but he doesn’t really care for competitive or team sports. We tried him with football/soccer (ended up picking daisies and staring at the clouds) and basketball (had no idea what was going on and was generally just lucky if the ball didn’t land on his head) with little success. So we thought lets try a more individual sport like Taekwondo. He made it all the way to black stripe but I think they just felt sorry for him, bless him. He was supposed to build focus but we would always see him daydreaming or playing with his belt rather than listening or performing the exercises. However saying all this sometimes we will be playing outside and he will want to play football (soccer) and he is a pretty useful dribbler of the ball, and baseball and the boy can really swing a bat! He loves Race cars and monster trucks, and you could define that as a sport so maybe that will be his calling.
Personality – It is hard to sum his personality in a few sentences. He generally wakes up in a bad mood. He is just a slow waker up. Once we get him past his morning cartoon and breakfast he starts to get going. He is generally pretty serious about life. Despite his seriousness though he has he has a cheeky smile and grin that can light up any room. He has a happy dance which he does when he is playing with toys he loves. Often involving trains! Often he is a follower not a leader, but at the same time very stubborn once his mind is made up. He is very curious and often profound in some of the questions he asks (“when will the world end?” etc). He wants to learn, know how things work. Not the most independent kid, but sometimes I think a lot of that is just that he wants to me to hang out with him. He is the champion procrastinator too, again because I think he just likes us to hang out with him. Like I said a tough kid to sum up in a few sentences, but he is a keeper and I love every moment I get to spend with him.
absolutely the ring leader! Hayden’s personality is that he either wants to play by himself, or he will follow (usually girls) what others are up to. Layla just does what she wants!
Hayden has loved Legos for a longtime. He loved these big blocks we had, the Duplos and now normal Legos. It totally fits his personality so it’s not a big surprise, and he is excellent at doing the Legos. He can do large sets on his own that are well out of his age range and loves doing them. It’s good for us as it can keep him amused for hours. However, Hayden being Hayden there are a couple of quirks! Hayden has to very prescriptively follow the instructions. Any attempt to skip pages will end in a problem. If we can’t find the piece (and I mean the exact shape, color etc) then we have a problem! He also wants help. Even though he knows how to do it he will insist that either Kara or I sit next to him, and if we don’t he will make a poor effort to find a piece and then we have a problem…. Because of these “problems” the Legos spend more time on top of the fridge (where toys go when kids are bad)!
Layla has her own version of things not being fair. If we make her do something she doesn’t like for example wash her hair, go take a nap, etc. then first she will try to deflect and have Haddy go first, otherwise after she has complained she will then start getting start pointing and go “Haddy wash now, Haddy wash now” for example. If she has to do, then Hayden has to do it!
Hayden and Layla's Place 