Layla loves playing “music class”. We have a portable CD player she carries around (shaped like Lightning McQeen), and she puts in her CD which has the music from the music class she has at school. She talks to her “class”, pauses the music to set the class straight, hands out props, etc. It’s fun to watch her be the class instructor – you can see her teachers coming through in the things she says, like, “Ok, friends! Now we’re going to…” She uses the word “friends” a lot which must be something she hears at Primrose a lot. Luckily the things I hear when she is channeling her teachers are funny or sweet.
Lego Club
Hayden was selected to be in the Lego Club at school (so many kids want to do it they have to have a lottery system). He’s been loving that. It’s 5 weeks, and it’s once a week after school. He can make anything he wants along with the other kids, and he’s always so excited afterwards, describing what he made. They keep the constructions up in the library for a week so parents can come see what they made. He’s made some fun things – a “police trap” (yes, that’s a trap for the bad guys to catch the police), a helicopter (with no propellers), a “spooky entrance”, and a space ship. The last one is next week and I’ll be a parent volunteer for that one which will be fun.
Hayden also loves Lego Club days because he goes to ESE, which is the after school care where you stay at school instead of going to Primrose which is what he normally does. He seems to love ESE, which is probably because he’s only done it a few times and hasn’t had a chance to get bored of it yet. 🙂
Reading
Hayden has learned soooo much in Kindergarten, and I think the area which stands out the most is reading. Math has always come really naturally to Hayden – he hasn’t needed to be taught it as much as to talk it through so he can figure it out. Reading however has been something he has had to spend time learning, and it’s been incredible to watch him get better and better at it. It’s really exciting to read with him before bed and have him be the one reading. He’s enjoying it more as well. When he was first starting to learn to read he would protest a little about wanting to try it at bedtime. He’s definitely more open now about reading to us. They have a “100 book club” at school where the parents track the books which are read at home (either by or to the child), and after 10 books they get a little treat like wearing socks in the classroom, choosing their job, choosing who they sit by at lunch, etc. Hayden’s been really into that and it’s been a great incentive to keep him reading (although both kids always love bedtime books regardless).
Miss Independent December 6, 2012
Layla is such an independent little lady. She really wants to do things by herself, and it’s funny because I remember being like that when I was little, and I’ve always thought Hayden would get to that point but he never really has. He would have been quite happy to let us do everything for him all the time – feed him, dress him, bathe him, etc etc. Layla on the other hand, has got it covered. She has done absolutely brilliantly with her potty training, and now she even wants to do all that herself. If we go to a public restroom (and boy do we ever – she wants to see them all it seems), she will push me out of the stall and lock it. The first couple of times I was pretty nervous about this – mostly that she wouldn’t know how to unlock the door, but now I know she’s got it covered.
At home she is varying between using the little training potties which require dumping the pee-pees into the toilet after use and going in the big potty. Last weekend I was gone for a (very quick, unsuccessful, due to not being able to shake this darn cough) run and John was in the shower. When I came home I could hear John praising her because while he was showering she’d gone potty in her Minnie potty, dumped the pee-pees in the toilet, and was washing out the little bowl in the sink. What a star!
She also likes to bathe herself. We’ve been coaching Hayden for months now on how to bathe himself, and she follows along with our instructions and refuses to let us help her.
She also has been cracking me up because lately we’ll be reading and she’ll need to go do something, and she’ll hold her hand up to me and say, “I’ll be right back, don’t finish it yet.” Darn Layla, I was really looking forward to the end of this page turner where they show a picture of an object and put the word of the object underneath it. What could be next, an orange?! I did NOT see that coming!
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. 😉
My Eyes! November 15, 2011
Winter is closing in on us, which means it’s dark when the kids wake up, and it’s dark when they go to sleep. So when I go get Layla in the morning, she has the shock of going from pitch black (as she is always the first one up and there are no lights on in the house yet) to bright light as I turn on the lights. So to try to take away the shock I will get her from her crib before I turn on the light, and then cover her eyes before I turn them on. So over the last few weeks she started covering her own eyes when I would get to the switch, or if she still wasn’t fully adjusted to the light after I uncovered her eyes, she would cover them back up herself. It is very cute.
Speaking of light switches, she was pretty grumpy when I brought her home from day care today (combination of tired, hungry, and teething I presume), but when I took her over to the light switch and let her turn on and off the light she would laugh out loud. Very cute. However, it did create a little light switch monster, and once Mommy was all done with the light switch game she went right back to the mood she had been in. Oh well, it was nice to have 3 minutes of peace at least. 🙂
The Best Toy in Our House October 13, 2011
We have the GREATEST toy in our house, and it’s called “Whatever-Layla-Is-Playing-With-At-This-Exact-Moment!” Hayden has been breathing down Layla’s neck big time lately, and whatever she is playing with is the ONLY thing that he is interested in.
Hayden and Layla stayed at Grandma and Grandpa’s last weekend while John and I participated in an annual neighborhood party, and when she came back she had a little purse she likes to play with there that she wouldn’t let go of that Grandma let her keep for now. She has been carrying that thing around with her every waking moment since she came home, except when Hayden takes it. To be fair, he is really nice about playing with her toys. Unlike many his age, he tells me he wants to play with it instead of snatching it out of her hands. The trouble is he is just relentless. He sees her playing with the bag and he has to have it. It’s like mental gymnastics trying to keep everyone happy – showing Hayden that sharing goes two ways, and just like I expect him to share he also gets to share the things of Layla’s that he is interested in, but also wanting Layla to get time to spend with this toy that she treasures so much, and also making sure Hayden doesn’t think that just because he wants something doesn’t mean he can always have it, and reminding him that when he is in the middle of playing with something and Layla comes over to him I don’t let her take it away from him so I won’t let him do it to her…
Today I remembered I had made a bag with fabric that had construction vehicles all over it that was kid sized, so made a big presentation of it that it was a special purse just for him. He looked at it and said he wanted a little red one like Layla has. So much for that! He told me a number of times this morning that he wants a bunch of purses for Christmas. Incidentally, it’s funny to watch him play with the bag, compared to how Layla does it. She carries it on her shoulder like a woman does. Hayden was “playing” with it today but holding it by the strap and whipping it around. He did like putting his big airplane in the bag I gave him, too.
So, when Layla does have to give up the bag to share with Hayden there are a lot of tears, so I have been spending a lot of energy trying to find equally interesting things for her to play with while Hayden has her precious bag. The next part pretty much writes itself if you have any experience with any 4 year old ever (or read the first line of this blog), but as soon as she gets interested in any other toy suddenly Hayden wants to play with it. Usually he will drop the bag and tell me that Layla can now play with it, but even so she is usually not too thrilled to have the new toy that is interesting taken away so soon even if she does have the bag back.
Daddy Picks Up Hayden! November 6, 2010
It’s pretty rare for me to pick up Hayden from daycare/pre-school. Kara tries to get him as early as possible and it’s nearly always before I’m home from work. This week I was able to finish up a little early from a conference and Kara was working that day so hadn’t collected him yet. So I got to get him and he had no idea I was coming.
I entered the room and couldn’t find him at first. All these kids sat around the table reading books and Hayden was on his own over by the toys! That isn’t a big surprise, Hayden likes to just play by himself and LOVES toys. At some point he heard my voice, slowly turned his head as he wasn’t expecting me and then jumped up and shouted daddy. He came running over to me and gave me a huge hug and then shouted to all the other kids “this is my daddy, this is my daddy!” I felt like he was really proud. It was a very cool moment.
Trick or Treat November 4, 2010
Three is a fun age for Halloween. This was the first year I feel like Hayden was quite interested in trick-or-treating, even though he definitely lost interested long before the bigger kids. 🙂
Halloween was on Sunday this year, and Saturday my mom’s church had a “trunk or treat” event where you could take your kids to the parking lot and go car to car to “trick-or-treat.” I guess these things are getting more popular but I had never heard of it before. We took Hayden with Mom and Jim, and Hayden’s cousins Jesse and Robby came, too. It was really cute, and it gave Hayden a bit of a preview/reminder of what this trick-or-treating business is. The adults who were handing out the candy had gotten all dressed up – it was a really fun time!
Sunday was the real deal. We went to the neighborhood Halloween party, which goes for an hour before official trick-or-treat time starts. We had some chili, hotdogs, and snacks and Hayden did some coloring and playing with neighborhood kids. From there we started the trick-or-treating. John took Hayden around to start with while I took the car home and met up with them after a few minutes. He was really enjoying it. He wanted to go to every single house, and when there was the odd house we knew wasn’t giving candy he would protest, not understanding why he couldn’t go ring their bell.
After he’d done a fair amount of trick-or-treating, we went down to the cul-de-sac where our friends live. We decided to pass out our candy down there as our house always gets bypassed since we’re at the neighborhood entrance and off the main drag. Our friend Kris had made some mulled cider which the adults enjoyed while the kids all played around. It was a fun weekend!
Ice Cream Dress August 11, 2010
My friend Faith told me and our friend Stephanie about a “sew a long” where people sign up into an online community where over a specified period of time everyone made a dress from the same pattern. The two hosts posted hints and tips over the time to help, and members could ask questions of the community along the way if they got stuck. I decided it sounded like fun and joined. I hadn’t made a garment from a pattern before so what a great time to try for the first time, when I had the support of nearly 300 people! The pattern was for what was called the “ice cream dress” from Oliver + S. I made this for Layla in size 12 – 18 months, so she should be able to fit into it when it gets warm next year. I was hoping by then her growth will slow down some so she can fit into it for a longer period of time than she is fitting through her current clothes!
It was so fun making this dress, and I love the result. Layla was not impressed when I was trying to work on it with her in the swing or on a quilt on the floor, so I found the best way to sew it was while wearing her in her baby carrier. She falls asleep pretty quickly that way, and I could actually get a good stretch of sewing time without interruption (as Hayden was always napping, asleep for the night, or off somewhere with John). The pattern comes with two dress variations and one blouse version, so I will definitely be doing those at some point. At the moment I am working on this shirt for myself. I started it a couple of weeks ago and have not been able to carve out much time for it. It has buttonholes which is the first time I have done those, so I had to teach myself how to do that which took up some of the little time I have been able to devote to it. Now that Layla has started taking naps in her crib, though, maybe I will have more time (although Hayden is not taking a nap every day now so maybe not!).
Hayden and Layla's Place 