Hayley and Kate Minter

Today Hayley had her 18-month checkup, and it was the first checkup since she was born where she didn’t receive any immunizations–a relief for both Mommy and baby. Her stats are:
Weight: 23 pounds, 5 ounces (50th percentile)
Height: 32 1/4 inches (75th percentile)
Head: 49 cm (97th percentile)
Once again, Hayley’s head measures large, but since she’s always had a big head (even though it doesn’t LOOK big), there’s no cause for concern. There really isn’t much else to report from this visit. Hayley checked out fine, and her next visit is at 2 years.

Today is Hayley’s 18-month birthday - she’s officially 1.5 years old, halfway through her second year, six months from the terrible twos.

However you want to describe it, she’s getting to be a big girl!

So as not to traumatize Hayley forever, we removed the batteries from both her potties so they are now silent and not glowing red. It took her a day or two to warm up to them, but now she seems very interested in sitting on them. Several times today she wanted to go into the downstairs bathroom and play with the potty. Her “potty buddy” (as I like to call it) is a small stuffed dachshund with a string tied around it’s neck like a leash. Before she would sit on the potty, she would put the puppy in the “bowl” and say “pee pee.” I guess she figured if the puppy survived sitting on the potty, she could too.

This afternoon, Hayley claimed she had to “poo poo,” and wanted to go into the bathroom. Puppy in tow, we headed for the facility. Hayley wanted me to sit on the big toilet while she and the puppy alternated sitting on the little potty. Hayley still had her diaper on at this point, but she did, in fact, poop while we were in the bathroom. When she was done, I brought her back into the living room to change her. As soon as her diaper was off and her butt was clean, she wanted to go back in the bathroom to “pee pee.” I obliged her, even though I didn’t think she was going to do anything. Again, she stuffed the puppy into the bowl and tried to sit on top of it. I suggested that she may not want to pee on the puppy. So, she sat down a few times on the potty, but I didn’t hear tinkling, so I didn’t think she had done anything. But, when she turned, I saw a little pee pee running down her leg. I looked in the potty, and sure enough, there was a little puddle!!! I couldn’t believe it. I think I almost frightened her with my praise. I saved it so Wade could see for himself when he got home, which he thought was a little gross, but hey, this was a monumental event.

Later tonight, she sat on the upstairs potty claiming she had to pee again, but didn’t. But, we are just proud that she has made such wonderful progress so quickly, though I’m sure we have a long road ahead before she’s close to being completely potty trained.

Hayley is so funny in her Toddle Time class. The teacher hands out a different “prop” for each song–items ranging from hand puppets to hula hoops–and Hayley is always one of the first to sprint over for the new prop. She could have wandered across the room a few moments before, but with her eagle eyes and keen hearing, she knows when the next prop is being distributed, and she will run the entire length of the room to be the first in line. She holds up her little hand and waits patiently; even when the teacher doesn’t see her at first, she will walk around the teacher until she notices Hayley. Hayley is especially excited when the time comes for the fish song–we sing one song about fish, and the kids get to eat Goldfish crackers. I will also note, though, that Hayley is very good about bringing her prop back to the teacher, or giving it to me to put away. She never cries or protests, perhaps because she knows she will be getting something else to take its place.

It’s been a fairly busy weekend.

To start off, Holly went out on Friday night, so it was just me and the baby bee. We had dinner and played, then I decided to take her out for ice cream. We hopped in the van, put some “Wiggles” on, and headed to Cary for a bit of Goodberry’s Custard. Of course, when we got there and got the cup of custard, Hayley didn’t want any. I ate it, and we came back.

Hayley’s been having a “thing” recently with her sleeping. She doesn’t want to go down to sleep, to the point of kicking and fighting when we try to put her into her crib. She’s also been waking up around 5am every morning. I think we’ve gotten into a bad habit of trying to hold and pat her until she falls asleep, instead of letting her put herself back to sleep. We’re going to try to go back to that routine.

The weekend was pretty fun - we did a lot of playing. We also decided that since she’s been acting pretty interested in the “big people” potty that we’d get her one of her own. We picked up two (one for downstairs, one for upstairs) of the musical kind. Y’know, the kind with the motion sensor that detects, er, “stuff” passing in front of the sensor and plays happyfun music to congratulate the proud tot.

At least, that’s how it works in theory. In practice, Hayley saw the pot, saw the glowing red sensor eye, and immediately cowered behind our legs. She did not want to have anything to do with that potty. I guess she thought it was the Eye of Sauron or something inside. Even when we took the batteries out she wouldn’t go near it. But, we’ll keep them around and let her get used to them at her own pace. It’s probably like the ball-popper toy. Once she’s comfortable around it, she’ll be fine.

Hayley has a tendency to draw on things other than paper with her crayons, so I thought I would try the (relatively) new “Color Wonder” markers from Crayola. These markers are only supposed to color on the special “Color Wonder” paper. They do, in fact, only show up on the special paper, yet a note on the package warns against coloring on wood, fabric, etc., because even though the ink will be clear, it could cause the item to become discolored. Hmmm. Let’s just say, Hayley and I sat on the kitchen floor while she did her coloring.

Hayley’s fourteenth tooth came in yesterday. Only six more to go before her second birthday!

Yes, that really is Holly blogging about the baby. I knew she’d crack eventually.

Look for her to bring the Mommy perspective, hopefully frequently.

Wade has finally convinced me that I should start blogging on Hayley’s site since I’m home with her all day and see most of her milestones firsthand. So, bear with me folks, as I am currently unfamiliar with this process…

It is really impossible at this point in Hayley’s development to record every little thing that happens, regardless of how much we wish we could, because Hayley’s every breath, every smile, and every laugh are precious to us. I would love it if we could have the camcorder running constantly to capture all the new words Hayley says, all the gestures she masters, facial expressions with which she experiments, and activities she loves. But, for my part, I will try to relate as much of her daily accomplishments as I can, as often as I can.

Today, Hayley started her second Toddle Time class. The last time she took the class (back in March), Wade and I agreed that she was probably a bit too young to really get the most out of it. She wasn’t talking much yet, not really able to mimic all the gestures, etc. It’s amazing how much difference three months can make (and watching borderline-unhealthy amounts of The Wiggles). Today she was doing everything but singing along to the songs, which she probably would have done had her vocabulary been more extensive. She was familiar with a few of the songs because we have been singing them on our own from time to time since we learned them during the last class. She danced and ran around and seemed to really enjoy herself. She gets along well with other children, even though at this age, most kids still don’t play “together.” In a way, I wish the classes were twice a week instead of just once, but I think Hayley will enjoy this session more than the last one.

Hayley smiled “on command” for the first time yesterday. We were next door at the Hegartys’ and Jenny asked Hayley to smile and she made a sort of grimace. Tonight when Wade asked the same question, Hayley’s smile looked more like a real smile. Just another thing she has to practice to get right.

Much to Daddy’s chagrin, I painted Hayley’s toenails this afternoon. I am not what you might call a “girlie girl,” so my fingernails and toenails are rarely adorned with polish. However, I painted my toenails recently, and at first Hayley thought I was injured, pointing to my toes and saying, “Ow?” The past few days, however, she’s been touching my toenails with increasing interest, so I asked her, “Do you want Mommy to paint your toenails, too?” She, of course, said yes. She’s really sweet about sitting still and letting me clip her nails, and she was the same way when I painted them. Her nails are so small, I put barely more than a dot on each one, but now they are the same color as Mommy’s.

Hayley is taking more interest in the “potty” these days. She will say she has to poo-poo or pee-pee and want to sit on the big potty. Of course, she hasn’t actually performed either action to date, but it’s good to know she understands what she’s supposed to do. Wade and I are planning to buy her her own little potty this weekend (she seems a mite uncomfortable trying to balance on the big potty with Mommy’s hands supporting under her armpits).

Also to Daddy’s chagrin is Hayley’s love of ice cream, a.k.a., “num num.” Every day she points to the freezer and shouts, “Num num!” I am getting better at not giving in to her demand for it every single day, although our freezer remains well-stocked with ice cream sandwiches.

As a general note, Hayley makes progress every single day with language. She says words out of the blue that I had no idea she knew, and other times she has to repeat herself a few times before I can figure out what she’s trying to say. For example, “music,” “milk,” and “moo” all sound like “mooh,” so you have to take them in context. If she points to the computer or the stereo and says, “Mooh,” you know she means “music.” And, she’s pretty good about mimicking most words we say…which means we have to be extra careful not to let those expletives slip out when our impressionable daughter is within earshot.

Sometimes it comes as a big surprise as to what little details of our daily life Hayley has picked up on. We saw another one Saturday morning.

A little back story - since I got my cat Lucy in 1997, the way I’ve called her is by making a clicking noise with my mouth. I don’t know why, but the cat responded to that, so whenever I’m trying to get her to come to me, it’s “clk-clk-clk.”

Saturday, we got Hayley out of her crib and were all in our bed for a while. At some point, the cat came in. Hayley crawled over to the edge of the bed and started going “clk-clk-clk-clk…” It took me a minute to get it, but she was trying to call the cat over, just like we do!

She’s sharp as a tack, I tell you.

We took the new minivan up to Henrico, NC, and my Aunt Martha’s lake house on the 4th. For the second year in a row, all the cousins were there with their babies, and this time, all the babies were mobile.

It was amazing to see how everyone had grown. Last year, the twins weren’t very mobile, and Jacob and Lily were still twitchy newborns. This year, everyone except Jacob was walking, and Jacob was crawling around at 88mph. That kid can zoom around with the crawling.

Everyone had a good time - the babies aren’t quite to the point where they can “play together,” but they played around each other very well. There was some interaction - a little more than I would have expected, actually. Everyone shared well, with a little encouragement. Nobody got hurt. There wasn’t much crying.

It’s going to be a lot of fun in the years to come having five kids all within eight months in age of each other. I just wish we lived closer, so Hayley could see her cousins more than once a year.