Hayley and Kate Minter

We eased Hayley into Halloween tonight, and she was cute cute cute. We dressed her up as “Blue” from “Blue’s Clues” (see the new pictures above) with one of those infant costumes. We then met up with the Hegartys next door, and went up and down the street with Brian (Harry Potter), Jenny (a witch), dad Mark (Agent Smith) and mom Cheri.

Everyone thought Hayley was cute in her little outfit, especially us. And, as a bonus, Mommy and Daddy get some candy.

We took Hayley for her nine-month pictures this past Sunday. We went to Sears, in our quest to try out several different picture places. Hayley was a good girl - she was smiling at first, but then moved into her “There are strangers here, so I’m just going to stare at them with a concerned look on my face” mode.

Regardless, there are some nice shots. We get our photo package back in early November.

Hayley is nine months old today! To celebrate, she got to take a trip to the doctor for her checkup and shots!

The vital stats: Her height is 27″ (35th percentile), her weight is 17lbs, 12oz (35th percentile), and her head is 45.5cm (90th percentile). So she’s a midget with a huge babyhead, like former Carolina Hurricane Byron Ritchie. The doctors say that she’s proportioned properly, though, and there’s nothing to worry about - she’s just little.

She got two shots today, one for the flu and another of her scheduled Hepatitis shots. She’ll need to go back in a month for a flu booster. Holly said that, for the first time, she didn’t cry at all when she got her shots! She’s doing better than we do!

A busy day for our big girl!

I’ve got a new video online, taken tonight. In it, Hayley shows off her newfound walking skills, much to the chagrin of the cat.

Enjoy!

Hayley’s moved onto a new phase of food this week - meats. She’s started on the Gerber introductory meats, which to be quite honest, look and smell pretty nasty. I mean, a pureed paste of ham and apples? Ick. I come from the school of eating where “food doesn’t touch,” so just looking at the jar gives me the jibblies.

But Hayley’s enjoying it - she’ll chow down that jar and want seconds. We’ve moved her into “third foods” on fruits and vegetables, which means a chunkier texture for the veggies, and just bigger jars for the fruit. And you can’t forget the Cheerios. Holly said that after she went to the grocery store today, she was on the phone with her grandmother while the groceries were still in bags on the floor. Hayley went over to the bags and started exploring, and when she saw the familiar yellow box, she let out a squeal of delight and tried to get the box out of the bag.

I had a personal definition set for what I’d consider as Hayley “walking” - she’d have to be standing by herself, take two or more steps forward, and then stop and stand on her own again.

She hit that goal tonight - several times.

She’d been kinda proto-walking for the past few weeks. She was pretty steady when holding on to one or two of our hands, but didn’t really show any inclination toward doing it on her own.

I was visiting next door with the Hegartys, and showing off Hayley’s standing. She was standing in front of me, and I said “Come to Daddy!” She took about three steps toward me and stopped, standing up! Walking!

When we came back home, Hayley repeated the feat a couple of times for Mommy, who was impressed as well.

She’s not even nine months old - she can’t walk yet!

Hayley’s new trick is throwing things. She’ll pick up one of her toys, and toss it forward. Give the toy back, and she’ll toss it again.

It’s a lot of fun to play “catch” . . . except at mealtimes.

Hayley’s off-roading now. When she’s crawling along and comes to an obstacle in her path (like our legs), she’ll now crawl over us, instead of going around us.

She’s also doing well with her cruising. She can go from one end of the sofa to the other, then manage to reach out and grab the recliner, and cruise around that, too. She wants to walk on her own, but is still scared to let go of the furniture.

She had a rough night last night - she was up from around 1:30-2:30am, screaming and inconsolable. We fed, changed, and held her, but she was still just wailing. We have no idea what that was about.

We took a long weekend to head back up to Virginia for a full weekend of family visiting.

Friday: We got up to Kenbridge around noon, and stopped by to see Granddaddy Estes at work. We went on to the Estes house, and saw Grandma. Later that evening, we went into town to see Aunt Beth, Ashley, and Blake, who were all glad to see us. Hayley was entranced watching her older cousins run around the house. We stopped by to see Nana, but she wasn’t home, so we we went back to the Estes home for the night. Hayley slept well - going down around 8:30 and getting up around 6:30 the next morning.

Saturday: We went next door in the morning to see Holly’s neighbor Sue Cage, who celebrated her 96th birthday on the 4th. We continued on to Victoria to their “Autumn Day” celebration. The celebration was fun, and we ran into a few old friends and teachers, including local artist Eldridge Bagley. It was then up to Petersburg to Grandma Queen and Bill. Beth and the kids were up there, too, so we all had a good visit. Hayley didn’t sleep quite as well Saturday night (up at 11:30 and 3:30).

Sunday: We got up and had a nice breakfast, and Hayley bumped her head for the first of about 800 times today. We went to Dundas to visit with Grandpa Minter and LyLy. Grandpa had shoulder surgery on Monday, and is well on his way to making a successful recovery. Hayley started getting fussy after lunch, so we set out for North Carolina, getting back around 4pm.

So it was a busy weekend, but we’re glad we got to see so many people. They were all impressed with Hayley’s standing and “walking” abilities, as well as with how cute she is.

Hayley had her first play-date yesterday, as Holly’s former Nobex co-worker Monica brought her twins Larry and Joshua over. No, Larry does not have a brother named “Darryl,” nor does he have an “other brother” named “Darryl.”

The twins are about a month younger than Hayley, but they’re already quite a bit bigger than her - she’s just a little midget. I got to see all the babies for about a half-hour when I got home from work, and they’re cute, all right. They seemed to all enjoy being around each other, even if one of the twins started crying when I smiled at him.

Yes, I have a face that frightens small children.