Hayley and Kate Minter

Hayley is staying at her Grandma and Granddaddy Estes’ house for a few days. When I talked to my mom this morning, I asked how Hayley slept last night. I was left open-mouthed at what I heard.

After Hayley’s bath, she was sitting with the grandparents watching tv. Around ten minutes to nine, she said, “Grandma, I need to go to bed.” She was asleep within minutes, and she slept through the night until 7:30 a.m.

What?!?! She has NEVER told US that she needed to go to bed! And why can’t she sleep until 7:30 at home? We’re lucky if she stays asleep until 6:30!

Well, Wade and I can’t complain too much today and tomorrow because we actually get to sleep in a little…we’ll enjoy it while we can.

My parents have been wanting to take Hayley to the Virginia State Fair since they went last year and decided that she would enjoy it. It turns out they were right.

We had planned on going Thursday night, but this week’s weather forecast called for rain that night, so we changed to Wednesday. It was a good change because the weather was perfect.

Fortunately for Hayley, she was just the right height (36″) to ride all the kiddie rides–we saw quite a few shorter toddlers get turned away from certain rides. They had a lot of rides for smaller kids, so Hayley rode most of them. Mommy rode with her on every ride but two; she rode a boat ride and a car ride by herself. Hayley did really well when she was by herself. Hayley aslo rode a real pony, which she enjoyed so much she didn’t want to get off (I would have let her ride again, but that one cost extra). We also saw tents full of rabbits, chickens and other fowl, and a barn full of baby pigs, baby ducks, baby chickens, sheep, goats, cows, etc. Hayley nearly strangled the baby duck when the lady held it out for her to pet, but Hayley doesn’t have much experience handling baby animals. Hayley also immensely enjoyed the pig race. She stood on the bleachers, bouncing up and down and clapping her hands as the pigs dashed around the track. Hayley ate pizza, cotton candy and an ice cream cone with sprinkles.

We didn’t leave until almost 11 p.m., so Hayley was beginning to get grumpy because she was tired. She fell asleep in the car and Mommy put her in bed when we got back to the Estes house.

I hope she’ll have as good a time at our North Carolina State Fair in a few weeks.

Hayley knows more than we think.

The other day she was talking about being born. She said she was in my belly and the doctors cut her out.

I don’t remember telling her this…perhaps I said it at some point, but I can’t recall. Someone must have told her, but I’m amazed that she remembered something like that. She’s a little scary sometimes.

At any point in the day, if you ask Hayley what time it is, she’ll respond that it’s “Eight Twenty Oh Oh Four.”

I’m still trying to figure that one out.

We took Hayley to the Caniac Carnival on Sunday to celebrate the start of the NHL season. She wasn’t even a year old the last time we went to one of these, so I figured she’d have a better time now.

And she did alright - it was fairly hot out, but she wanted to go on the inflatable rides. I took her to the bigger-kid section the first time. That was too big - the first thing was an inflated quasi-ladder that she had to go over. She couldn’t even reach the top of it, much less go over. So we headed over to the toddler section.

There was a very open bouncy ride with a small castle that she did well in. Then there was a smaller version of the obstacle course. She made it through the first little section by herself, then she kind of freaked out and wouldn’t move any further. She was calling for me to help her, but I couldn’t reach. Finally another little kid came over and helped her to an area where I could get her.

Then she went on the moonbounce and got a busted lip from the leg of a bigger kid. Poor Hayley.

By this time it was nearing the 3pm gametime and she hadn’t had her nap. She made it through the first period alright, but when Holly took her to the bathroom at first intermission, she kind of broke down and started crying to go home. That’s why we took two cars, after all.

I think that it’s hard for me to realize sometimes that she’s only a little toddler - I tend to think that she’s bigger than she is. Between her early walking, her intelligence, and the fact that she’s never looked like the “typical baby” with the vacant, drooling expressions, I tend to expect more from her than she’s able to do at this age. So I need to stop and remind myself sometimes that she’s only two, and there’s plenty of time for her to do the “big kid” stuff later.

After all, she won’t be Daddy’s Little Girl forever. She’ll be Daddy’s Big Girl before I know it, so I should enjoy this time while I can.

Hayley’s become a lot more vocal about her affection recently. She’ll come up on her own quite often and say “Daddy, I love you.” What a sweetheart.

Of course, she’s also picking up our scolding more as she gets older, which lead to an amusing exchange the other day where she walked up to me, put her hand on me, and said “Daddy, I love you. But you’ve got to listen to me.”

The other day, Hayley and I were in the mall. She kept asking to ride the “alligator.” I was looking around for one of those coin rides shaped like an alligator, but I didn’t see anything like that. Finally, I realized that she wanted to ride the “escalator,” but was calling it an “alligator.” She’s too cute for her own good some times.

Tonight, we were all in the living room after dinner when Hayley suddenly cried out, “Oh, no!” She sounded very distressed, so we quickly asked what was wrong. She replied, “I don’t know!” Either Hayley has a terrible short-term memory, or there really wasn’t anything to worry about.

For Daddy’s birthday, he wanted a lemon meringue pie instead of a cake. So, the day before, Hayley and I went to get some lemons from the grocery store. I told Hayley that the lemons were for Daddy’s birthday pie. So, as soon as we arrived back home, Hayley ran inside the house and up to Wade, saying, “Daddy, we got you lemons!” Good thing I wasn’t trying to keep it a secret.