Hayley and Kate Minter

Hayley had a fun time with Halloween this year. She was much more into the holiday this year compared to last year, when she wasn’t quite two. She picked out her own costume (Dora The Explorer) and knew what was set to happen tonight. Of course, she also went out a few times over the past couple of weeks on some pre-Halloween trips, so she was an old hand at the whole “look cute and get candy” deal.

We got ready after dinner tonight, as we were to meet the neighbor kids and go up and down our street with them. Our subdivision is tiny, so we usually get at most 3-4 groups of kids coming by on a given year. Which means we stock up on candy that we like because, would you look at that, we have a lot left over. Guess we’d better eat it. I always liked an active night of visitors, but that’s just not the case here. We just left a bowl of candy out on the front porch.

The neighbor kids were dressed up - Jenny was a dancer (a shocking change of pace for her, since she really is a dancer), and Brian was Darth Vader. They’d dressed their dog Max up as “Bark Vader” - cute costume, but Max was having none of it. We quickly dropped him back off at the house so he could get some non-costumed rest. Probably 1/3 of our subdivision was doing the candy thing. Hayley did a great job - she’d go up to the door with the other kids, do her tiny door-knock, and when someone came to the door, say a clear (and very cute) “Trick or Treat!” After the candy was doled out, she’d respond with “Thank you” and “Happy Halloween!”

It was a cool night (unlike last year when the night temperatures were in the 70s and she turned into a giant sweatball under her bee costume), so I think she was fine in her outfit. She had the Dora shorts on, but some tights underneath them, and the yarn-filled Dora wig kept her head warm. I wasn’t so fortunate with my bald head, so I had to run back to the house for a stocking cap. Holly and I have been so busy with the house that we didn’t even think about costumes for us, so we just threw on hockey jerseys and went like that.

After exhausting our neighborhood, we got in the car and went one subdivison over to the larger subdivision. Since it’s bigger, it has more kids, and tends to put more effort into the night than we do. We went up and down the main street. There’s a family there that has this weird pumpkin trailer, and we passed that along the way. It’s been cruising the area nearly every night for the past week - sometimes pulling kids, sometimes drunk adults. Odd.

As we were coming back up the street toward our car, Hayley said “I want to go home now. I have enough candy.”

We divvied up her spoils, taking out the things she can’t have, but she still has a large pile of candy that should last her at least through the morning tomorrow.

A great Halloween with our big girl!

Check out the pictures on Flickr

If you’ve noticed that the “Baby Videos” section hasn’t updated since March, that’s because our digital camcorder bit the dust shortly after that, and we had no way to get any video of the child. But I finally broke down and used some birthday gift certificates to get a new MiniDV digital camcorder, and it’s arrived at the house today. So I should hopefully get some new video of our big girl online in the next few days. She’s grown quite a bit in the last seven months!

Hayley’s ever-growing imagination has recently pushed her into new realms of play-acting. She now spends a nontrivial amount of time as “The Puppy.” The Puppy, as you might have guessed, runs around on all fours and barks a lot. She really gets into character as well, referring to herself as “The Puppy”, grabbing her foot and using it to scratch her head, and wanting to be patted on the head.

It’s fun to see her being able to step outside herself and imagine that she’s something else. Though we occasionally wish that “something else” didn’t have such a shrill bark, we’re amazed every day at how much she knows.

Hayley cried for the first time during a movie tonight. Yes, she truly is a girl.

But Hayley didn’t cry because someone was reunited with a long-lost love or because someone died from a terrible illness.

She was watching the Wizard of Oz, and she cried near the beginning of the film when mean old Miss Gulch took Toto away from Dorothy. She knew Toto was sad and that made her sad. We tried to reassure her that Toto would be fine, but it wasn’t until she saw for herself that Toto escaped and made it back to Dorothy that Hayley settled down.

Poor Hayley. She’s crazy about animals. We may have a future vet or zookeeper on our hands.

Another Hayleyism, presented for your enjoyment.

I walked into the bathroom the other day to find Hayley sitting on the pot, pooping and drinking a cup of water. When I asked her what was up, she informed me that she had crabs in her stomach, and she was drinking the water to get rid of them so they’d fall in the toilet where the seahorses would eat them.

…

I think that’s how mythologies get started. She knew that her tummy hurt, and she knew that crabs have big pincher claws that will hurt, so her stomach must hurt because of the crabs in there pinching her.

I have no idea of where the seahorses come into play, though.

Apparently Hayley was on her way to the potty this morning, and informed Holly “I don’t peepee out of my [belly] button like Daddy does.”

I’m not really sure how to respond to that.

The smells of deep-fried foods that were never meant to be fried and barnyard dung signal that it’s time for the North Carolina State Fair! I took off work yesterday afternoon so that Holly, Hayley, and I could all make the short trip to west Raleigh and the fairgrounds. Hayley didn’t really get much out of the fair last year, not even being two yet, so we were curious to see how she’d do this time.

We got there and paid our $6/adult admission fees, then made our way to the far edge of the fairground for the Andi-recommended duck races. We got there with about 20 minutes to spare, so we sat on the bleachers sharing Hayley’s cotton candy. Finally the duck racing (featuring the ducks from Deming, New Mexico) got underway. They picked people out of the audience to hold the ducks, and at the sound of the quack, let them go into their lanes. First duck down the lane across the finish line won.

It was cute to see the ducks race, and the final race before the championship was for little kids. Hayley got picked to be a duck racer! So she and I went in, got our duck, and prepared for the race. Hayley helped me hold the squirming, quacking animal. At the sound of the quack, we let our duck go, splashing water behind it in encouragement. However, our duck was either constipated, drunk, or stoned, because it was dead last in the race. Hayley got a sticker for her efforts, though. She was a little upset that she couldn’t do it again, but recovered pretty quickly.

After that, it was off to the nearby petting zoo. She got to see goats, a water buffalo, miniature horses, sheep, lemurs, a lazy kangaroo, and a camel. One note on the fair for this year - they had hand washing stations all over the place, in response to several kids getting sick from the petting zoo last year. We brought along our own hand sanitizer, too, just to be safe. Next to the petting zoo were rides on an elephant, camel, or pony. We stuck with the pony for Hayley’s sake. She enjoyed going around in the circle with her horse.

We went around the fairground to the site of the next “races” - pig races. Another prime spot on the bleachers, and more waiting. The pig announcer came out to warm up the crowd with his very odd Monster Truck Rally schtick. You can tell we’re in North Carolina, because these pig races had a NASCAR theme. The pigs themselves had NASCAR numbers and named like “Hoggy Jarrett” and “Piggy Martin.” Once again, our prime spot on the bleachers paid off, as Hayley was picked to be a “Pig Rooter” and cheer on one of the pigs (”Squealin’ Tony Stewart”) in the first race. Her animal was at least awake this time, but came in second, so no blue ribbon for her. There were five races featuring pigs, goats, “rookie pigs”, ducks, and potbellied pigs.

Now that our “event” viewing was done, it was time to experience the rides and games. We’d bought $15 worth of $0.75/each tickets. The “ticket” idea is pretty much a ripoff, since even in kiddieland, any ride cost four tickets. We only went on one that was less, and it was 3. So you think “Hey, 75 cents a ticket, that’s not bad,” until you realize you’re spending $3 a pop to spin your kid around in circles for three minutes.

Price aside, Hayley had a blast on the rides. We went on the giant slide and bumper boats, plus did one of those “Fish a plastic toy out of the nasty Tidy-Bowl-blue water and win a prize” games where she won a little Nemo knockoff. We were getting hungry, so we stopped by a BBQ booth and got some great Eastern NC style BBQ. Mmmm…quite good. I’m frightened of a lot of fair food (pretty much any unnatural food deep-fried is off the list), but some BBQ with the vinegar sauce is right up my alley.

After dinner, we hit a few more generic kiddie rides, with Hayley doing a great job on them. She rode on most rides without one of us beside her. On a couple of rides, she got paired up with another kid, and she had a good time talking to this new friend while she rode. It’s amazing what a difference a year makes with regards to Hayley’s fun and independence.

We also played a couple more games. My favorite fair game wasn’t on the midway this year (the one where you have to roll a bowling ball so that it stays in a valley between two hills on a track - I “pw3n” that game), but Holly won a doll for Hayley with the “pop the balloons with darts” game. Hayley did the fishing game again, as well as the ever-challenging “pick up a duck from a tub of water” game that also netted her a prize.

It was getting late, so our last stop was by a caricature booth, where we had a picture of Hayley drawn. It wasn’t bad, and did a pretty good job of capturing her mysterious, non-smiling look that we get a lot. We got some ice cream, ate it by Dorton Arena while Kenny Rogers was inside playing, then headed home. Hayley slept cuddling with her new animals, and they were in her arms when she came out of her room this morning.

We had a great time at the fair as a family. Hayley was a very good girl throughout the trip, too. I’ve got pictures from the fair up on my Flickr account, so feel free to check them out.

We’ve been so busy with the house, we’ve kind of neglected Hayley’s page. But there have been other things going on in our lives besides endless cleaning, repairing and painting.

Hayley had a chance to wear her Halloween costume a little early last week. We visited an assisted living home in Apex last Thursday with the MOMS Club of Holly Springs. The kids dressed up and the older folks passed out candy. I think the ladies really got a kick out of seeing these cute toddlers running around, even though I doubt they know much about Dora the Explorer. Hayley had wondered if she would get a lollipop there–she got two, so she was happy.

On Friday, as another MOMS event, we took a trip to Hillridge Farms in Youngsville. Not to say anything against the place, but I think it was created for people who grew up in the city and don’t have a real farm to compare it to. It cost $24 dollars for Hayley and I to enter, ride a little train, feed some very overfed catfish and goats, take a hayride (through a subdivision, because you see lots of those on farms) to the pumpkin patch (which isn’t a patch at all, just a big grassy area with a bunch of pre-picked pumpkins) where we each got a pumpkin (both of which Mommy had to carry back to the car). I think Hayley enjoyed it as much as a two-and-a-half-year-old could, but I think she enjoys feeding the turkeys and chickens at the Estes house more…and it’s free.

We have been intrigued by Hayley’s expanding imagination and verbal ability. She’s been talking intelligibly for quite a while now, but more and more she’s speaking in longer sentences and using words we didn’t even think she knew. And she uses these verbal skills to describe her imaginative play–from jumping over ocean waves in the living room to rolling around in mud puddles in the dining room to creating worlds with her dolls and stuffed animals, it’s fun to watch her play. And it makes you long for those days when you had no other worries than running and playing and watching morning cartoons. Even though they sometimes think they have a hard life, it really is great to be a kid.

Holly reports that Hayley said this the other day:

“When I get married, Daddy’s gonna walk with me, and Mommy will throw leaves.”

Please don’t give Daddy a heart attack, Hayley. You’re a little young to be thinking about your wedding.