Singin’ and Addin’ April 30, 2013

Hayden loves to “put on a song” or “put on a CD”, which means he is going to start singing.  He’ll take a book and “sing” the story that he is seeing, with a lot of musical sounds in accompaniment (almost like “doo-doo-doo” but more of an unspellable sound).  Yesterday he had been looking at a train book, and he started singing a song that said “train” over and over with various humming/instrumental sounds in between.  It’s fun to see such a creative side coming out in him.

He also spends a lot of his energy on adding.  Specifically, he likes to think of things that add up to 12.  He could easily pass and hour or two asking, “Does 6 plus 6 equal 12?” “Does 9 plus 3 equal 12?” or “what does 7 plus 5 equal?” If I give the right answer, he’ll tell me Yes, good job!  But if I tease him and give him a different number he’ll laugh and tell me no.  I try to get him to branch out a bit since he clearly has 12 down really well and I’ll try with another number like 15, but he is not too receptive about other numbers. 

It’s also worth noting that he has mentioned several times lately that his favorite number is 7.  He had several favorite numbers before, but 7 seems to be holding the top spot currently.

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Ice Ice Baby June 20, 2012

It’s been a hot summer so far, with very little (FAR TOO little) rain.  Whenever we get a drink for us or the kids, it’s with ice.  Hayden and Layla would get excited about the ice at first, when we first started adding it and it was a novelty, and when they’d ask for ice John would start singing Ice, Ice Baby.  Now, whenever drinks are being served the subject of ice always comes up (usually by one of them), and they will start singing either, “Ice, Ice Baby,” or “Ice, Ice Big Boy,” which his Hayden’s variation and makes them both laugh.  I’m sorry if this post has put that song in your head, but now you can sympathize with what it might be like to have that song in your head pretty much all day for the whole of the summer so far!  I guess it’s only not in my head when the songs from Layla’s Elmo book have taken over (see previous post)!

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.

Songs for Layla May 26, 2011

I’ve had the pleasure recently of having more time with Layla at night time and this has given her the pleasure of hearing lots of my singing. I thought just for the records, I guess her records, I would list some of the songs I sing to her right now. It will be interesting to see if she really likes these songs when she is older or hates them!

Married with children -oasis
Twinkle twinkle
She’s electric – oasis
Park life – blur
Common people-pulp
Wonder wall- oasis
Cast no shadow- oasis
Champagne supernova- oasis
Animals went in two by two
Yellow submarine – Beatles

Let Me Entertain You February 18, 2011

Hayden is really into singing.  He is constantly either singing a real song (like Ba Ba Black Sheep or Yellow Submarine), making up a song with words, or “do-do-do”ing.  Often he will be doing a “music show” for us, which is him doing one of those things for a long time while he sort of wanders around us and asks us if we like his music show.  He likes for us to also “sing it,” which can be difficult when he is making up the song as he goes.  We have CDs in CD towers in our family room, and he loves to pick out a CD and put it in the CD player himself, and then he usually demands that we sing the song with generally no regard to whether we even know the song. 🙂  I can’t remember if I wrote this before, but the sound for the CD player comes from our surround sound, so to hear the music you have to turn that on in addition to the CD player.  It is low to the ground, so I usually touch the on button with my foot (since I’m usually holding Layla and it’s easier to do that than bend down).  Hayden now knows that the sound comes from the surround sound box and he, too, will try to turn it on with his foot!  It cracks me up to see him steadying himself on one foot to try to turn it on.

He also loves making Layla laugh.  He shakes his head back and forth and makes this loud noise to try to make her laugh.  It used to really get her giggling, but she seems relatively immune to it now, so he does that and asks why Layla’s not laughing.  He also likes to play peek-a-boo with her when they are in the car, and that will get her laughing.  This morning I was trying to put his shoes on him and he said, “Wait, I can’t see Layla, I want to make Layla laugh!”  He is often trying to come up with something new to get her laughing.  Usually as long as he is paying attention to her and laughing she will giggle.  She is very interested in where he is and loves getting attention from him.  It’s cute seeing them in the review mirror in the van, because lately they are having a lot of fun back there together.

Taking it all in February 21, 2010

A few nights back and Kara has gone out somewhere, when this happens Hayden and I like to turn the music up and dance around.  After buring off some energy it was time for dinner and the music was still playing.  Well I was “singing” along to the music and the lyrics went something like “You’re gonna have to leave home”, and Hayden immediately responds with “I don’t want to leave home!!”

Music February 3, 2010

Hayden has been VERY interested in music lately, and kind of all of the sudden. He frequently asks us to “put music on.” He’s not that picky about what is on, he just wants music. He’ll come home from day care and ask me to put it on, then he’ll grab my hands and say “I want to dance.” It’s so cute! We’ll dance around for a little while but he doesn’t really get down for too long.  He also goes from speaker to speaker, puts his ear up to it, and then tells me if he can hear “music in that peaker.”

He also loves the weather channel, because they play music a lot (see, he’s not picky). When he gets up in the morning, as soon as he gets downstairs he asks me to “put weather on.” Whenever they go to commercial and the music stops he asks me again to “put weather on” – he doesn’t really get the commercial thing yet.

He likes to hear his toys make music as well, but he does get a little demanding when they play music and wants me to sing the song the toy is playing.  “SING IT!”  Some of his toys play songs that either have no words or I’m not aware of the lyrics, so that always presents a bit of a challenge.  Humming along seems to keep him satisfied enough.

Since he is responding so positively to music, I made up a little song that spells his name.  He LOVES this song – he gets so excited when we get to the part that says “HAYDEN! HAYDEN! HAYDEN!”  He does sing the spelling part of the song, so I guess you could say he can spell his name now.  Although, I don’t know that he knows that’s what he’s doing, and it’s hard to get him to sing along with me when it’s not just the two of us (how convenient – you’ll just have to take my word for it.  He also does multiplication tables, but only when I’m around. 😉 ).  I tried to get him to sing it to his day care teacher this morning but he got shy so I got to sing it by myself.

Bedtime Routine December 19, 2009

We’ve always tried out best with to keep Hayden in as many routines as possible with things like nap time, bed time, eating etc. Of course we don’t like exciting things get in the way of those routines (this is a boy who’s already been to three or four NFL games and two NBA games already) but none the less the routines have served as well.

Well my point on this post is more focused on how Hayden has been developing and expanding his bed time routine!  The routine started pretty simple.  Bath, Get Dressed, Bed.  Then we introduced a book before bed time.  Hayden pretty quickly developed this into 2 books and then 3 and then …. I think we’ve curbed it now back at 2 books.  However his count of 2 books doesn’t always equal the same as mine!!

Once the books are read he now insists on a game we play the “Where is Grumpy Gorilla” (Copyright Goodwin 2009) game.  (basically I just ask him to find things in his room starting initially with Grumpy Gorilla).  Then it’s finally bed time which means song time.  For months just having Twinkle Twinke was fine.  Every couple of weeks we seemed to have developed a new song into the melody.  We now start with ABCs, move on to Twinkle Twinkle, followed by Row Row Boat and closed out with Baa Baa Black Sheep.  These have to be sung in exact order, and any pause between songs will result in Hayden prompting the first line of the next song.  He sings along and it’s really cute.  Last week somehow as I’m walking out Hayden is shouting at me to sing Wheels on the Bus.  So he got a chorus of Wheels on the Bus go round and round and he seemed content.  Next night we had to expand to Wheels on the Bus, Mummies on the Bus and Daddies on the Bus before I was allowed to leave.  This worked for another two nights until we then had to finish with the Driver on the Bus.  Last night, just as I thought we were settled Hayden added the Girl on the Bus!!    This rate by the end of the year we’ll have a full CD length melody of bedtime tunes!

As Kara said – I think he has me wrapped about his little finger!  At least he goes straight to bed after all these songs – typically don’t hear a peep so I don’t dare break the routine!

Hayden do it October 1, 2009

Keeping up with the expectations of what a two year old is supposed to do, Hayden is becoming an independent little guy.  One thing we hear often in this house is “Hayden do it.”  If you start to do something he wants to do, he will get fiesty and say “Hayden do it!”  He says it if you start to feed him and he wants to do it himself, if you start to sing something and he wants to sing it by himself, if you try to read to him but he wants to read, pretty much any scenario you can imagine.  Alternatively, there is “Mommy do it” or “Daddy do it,” which is used when Hayden is feeding himself and he has decided he’s done doing that, and so on.  The boy knows what he wants, there’s no doubt about that!  Because of this, I now try to make a point of letting him make some decisions throughout the day.  In the morning I hold up three choices of shirts and he chooses which one he wants to wear (this has magically resolved a problem we were sometimes having where he did not want to take off his pajamas), he chooses his plate at meal time, he usually chooses if we go in Mommy or Daddy’s car, etc.  He loves making decisions!

Singing

Hayden LOVES to sing!  He will first announce what he wants to sing (or less often, what he wants one of us to sing): “ABCD” (formerly “CDCD”), “Tinkle, Tinkle,” “Head Toes” (Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes), “Spider,” “Street” (Baa, baa black sheep).  Last weekend he kept saying something about “street” and I couldn’t figure out what it was.  It was always when he was wanting to sing but I couldn’t think of anything we normally sing that fit.  Finally after about the third different time he brought it up I was able to understand that he was saying “sheep,” so I asked if he wanted Baa, Baa Black Sheep and he smiled and said “yep.”  So we sang that but I was perplexed because that is not something we sing ever.  The next day I asked at daycare if they sang it and they said yes that was one of the kids’ favorites!

Another thing around music that he is doing now is bringing any toy that he finds that makes noise and naming a song that he wants to hear.  That works about 5% of the time, but the other 95% he wants the toy to play a song that it doesn’t play.  Of course, this upsets him and depending on his level of tiredness it can cause some tears when he can’t hear “Tinkle, Tinkle” or “ABCD.”  And it actually seems to make things worse if John or I try to sing it for him (hmm, that’s possibly slightly offensive! 😉 ).