Hayley and Kate Minter

The Tuesday before Christmas, I decided to take Hayley to see the movie The Chronicles of Narnia. I was a bit apprehensive about whether she would be able to sit the 2+ hours and watch it. I overestimated the time it took to get to the cinema, so we had about 10 or 15 minutes to wait before we could go in. I took Hayley to the restroom, walked her around the lobby, then bought her some candy and a soda to “share” with me. She was anxious to go in, so we went into the theater and sat down, even though we had about 10 minutes more to wait before the start of the movie, which is of course preceded by 15 minutes of previews. Hayley was pretty restless during the entire movie, but she remained interested in it. She just doesn’t tend to sit still for long periods of time, so she would sit in her own chair for a few minutes, then sit in my lap, then stand up, then sit far back in her seat so that her legs would rise up and she would push the seat back down, repeating the process until I told her to stop. She also likes to ask a lot of questions, so I had to constantly remind her to whisper because there were other people trying to watch the movie, too (though, granted, there were probably only five or six other people in there with us). I think Hayley liked the movie, and since then every time she sees a commercial about Narnia she shouts, “I watched that on the screen!” I have a feeling, though, that she is still a bit too young to really be able to appreciate the movie theater experience. But I suppose we have plenty of time in the future to take her to the movies. We shouldn’t try to rush her to grow up too fast.

Hayley has said several cute things in the last few days. First, we were walking quite a bit through a park and Hayley was getting tired. My back was hurting, so I tried to get her to walk without me having to carry her. She said, “But you have to carry me. My legs are broken!”
Then tonight I was teasing her. I started out by giving her a big smile, then I began talking to her without moving my mouth. She said, “Mama, say words.” I said, still smiling and not moving my lips, “I am.” She responded, “Get your teeth out of the way first.”
Finally, just before bedtime tonight, I took off her socks and she reached down and touched her ankle bones. She said, “I have bones.” I said, “I know.” She said, “I have bones because I dog bit me and opened up my foot and put bones in it.” I don’t know where she comes up with these things.

We had Ashley down for a visit from Thursday until Saturday morning. Hayley really enjoyed having her here. She constantly wanted Ashley’s attention and Ashley was a dutiful cousin, playing with Hayley as much as she could. Of course, when we went to the playground, Hayley wanted to go on the bigger equipment just like Ashley. Hayley tried to confiscate Ashley’s stuffed tiger; Ashley sweetly let Hayley play with it and even nap with it. The kids from next door came out to play soccer with Hayley and Ashley Friday evening in the unusually warm late-December weather. I think Ashley had fun here, and I know Hayley enjoyed her visit and would love to have her stay again.

Christmas 2005 Flickr Photoset

Hope everyone had a fun and relaxing Christmas.

Of particular note - we found out while looking at pictures that apparently Hayley was a little sick of posing, and decided to let us know with a choice hand gesture:

No, she didn’t know what she was doing, which makes it funnier.

What? A new video? Yes, we finally got a new camcorder (and got it back from being serviced immediately after it arrived). So I tested it out this morning by taking some video of Hayley singing some Christmas carols.

Enjoy!

Christmas Carol Video

Today, Hayley went and got two flyswatters and a whiffle golf ball. She came up to me and said “Daddy, let’s play the hockey game!”

We went into the kitchen and had a fun time hitting the ball with the flyswatters. Every time one of us hit the ball through a door frame, we’d throw our hands up and say “Goal! We win!”

After a while, Hayley said “Daddy, put your hockey stick (flyswatter) down. The hockey game is hard. Let’s play something else.”

Hayley had been asking since Thanksgiving, so we finally took her to Cary Town Center mall to see Santa on Monday.

There wasn’t much of a line when we got there, which was nice. What there was, however, was a Middle School band directly beside the Santa setup. And they were tuning up. So you got the usual cacaphony of everyone playing their instruments randomly to check them out. Fortunately, this didn’t freak Hayley out as much as it did us.

There was one person in front of us - a mother with what had to be a one or two month old child. And she was taking her time, let me tell you. The kid was being very good, but this woman was fussing around like Ansel Adams was taking the picture. Adjust a little bit, run back to the camera area, look at the picture, adjust a little more, take another picture, etc. Lady, the kid has no idea what’s going on - just be glad it’s not screaming and get your picture.

It was finally Hayley’s turn. While we were waiting, she was excitedly chatting about how she was going to see Santa, and “I’m going to tell him ‘I want BC Builders and Doll Dora’, and he’ll say ‘Ok, Hayley,’ and I’ll say ‘Oh, thank you Santa!’” But when she got on his lap, she froze a bit. She didn’t cry or try to get away, she just kind of sat there looking straight ahead, with her shoulders somewhat up. The band was kicking up its music right about then, so I couldn’t hear what she was telling him. I went over to see her, and she was whispering to him. I don’t think Santa understood her, so I helped out.

After the picture was done, Santa gave her a little coloring book, Hayley gave him a big hug, and we were off for home. She was such a sweet girl during the trip, I’m sure Santa will bring her what she asked for.

I came downstairs this morning and went into the dining room. There sat my daughter at the table eating a “Little Debbie” snack cake for breakfast, with her mother sitting across from her like nothing was happening,

Mom is great! Give us the chocolate cake!

Last Wednesday night, Hayley and I had chicken for dinner. I thought Hayley was done, so I began to clean up. She protested when I took her plate, saying that she wanted to keep her chicken. I assumed she wanted to eat it.

But a few minutes later, I saw her playing with the small pieces of chicken. I listened furtively as she made up a dialogue for her little chicken characters, Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Man and Lion (she’s really been into “The Wizard of Oz” lately).

“Wait!” Scarecrow said. “I want to go with you.”

“No, Scarecrow,” said Dorothy. “I have to go by myself.”

She continued the dialogue as she moved the pieces of chicken around the table as if they were walking. This little scene went on for about five minutes.

Hayley’s imagination never ceases to amaze and amuse me.

Sometimes, Hayley really surprises us with how quickly she’s growing up. This weekend was one of those times.

It started off yesterday. To preface, one of my projects this summer was to get Hayley to ride the little tricycle that Aunt Beth had given her. She wasn’t really interested in using the pedals - she’d rather have me push the back of the bike and didn’t want to try to pedal. I tried to convince her by saying that she could ride in the road like the kids next door if she used her pedals, but she still wasn’t interested. Her feet couldn’t really reach well, either.

Yesterday, the weather was reasonably nice, so we went outside to play. On a whim, I asked her “Hayley, do you want to ride your bike?” Surprisingly, she said “Yes!” I went to the shed and got it, took it out to the driveway, and she got on. I told her “Ok, you’ve got to push the pedals.” She put her feet on them, pushed, and started moving forward! She was riding her bike! By herself! We made a couple of laps up and down the driveway, then I kept my promise by letting her ride her bike on the downhill part of the road in our subdivision. She did really well, except that she didn’t quite have the grasp of “steering.”

Grandpa and Lele came down today to visit us, so we decided to show off her bike riding for them. Today, she was actually steering pretty well by herself, moving in something that approximated a straight line and correcting her course. Her legs still aren’t quite long enough, so sometimes the pedals end up in a position where it’s hard for her to push, and we give her a little nudge to get started. But after that, it’s all her.

We had another first today. We were playing upstairs after dinner, when I had to go do some stuff, leaving Hayley in her room by herself. After I was done, I came downstairs to Holly and Hayley. Holly asked me “Did you help her with her pants?” I had no idea what she was talking about. After further discussion, it turns out that while I was occupied, Hayley went into the bathroom, took her pants and underwear off, hauled herself onto the toilet without the aid of her stool, and peed in the potty by herself, calling to Holly to come get her when she was done.

What a big girl!

Somehow, in the midst of all our going and doing, we didn’t manage to get a single post on the BabyBlog in November. Rest assured, though, that Hayley hasn’t been sitting still. What’s new in the world of Hayley?:

* The BabyBlog, like all other blogs on the site, has gotten a revamp. It’s using the Typo blogging engine now, with a new theme.

* Hayley has developed this amusing linkage of being dressed up nicely and marriage. For example, we got dressed up for Christmas card pictures tonight, and she was walking around the house in her dress saying “Look, Mama, I’m married! I want to leave my dress on so I can stay married!”

* Also on the verbiage front, she’s picked up some coloquial expressions, which has led to her running up to me several times and saying “Daddy! Chill out now!”

* She spent a lot of quality time with the grandparents, especially the week we were in Europe. She was pretty sad the first few times we called home from overseas, but was doing much better by the end. Ever since then, though, she’s looked at us suspiciously when we’ve gone up there, and even asked “Are you staying here with me?”

* She’s doing much better on playground equipment by herself. It used to be that if she went into a fast-food playland, she would refuse to go on the equipment unless we were there with her, or she’d go up the ladder a few steps and then panic. We went out to the Chik-Fil-A playland recently, though, and she was tearing around the equipment with reckless abandon. Even falling on her face and getting a small cut on her lip only stopped her momentarily.

* As she’s almost three, she’s much more into Christmas this year. She helped us decorate the tree, and has been watching Frosty and Rudolph on DVD. She’s looking forward to seeing Santa, and she’s the cutest ever when she walks around singing the Frosty song.

So that pretty much catches you up. Look for more frequent postings now that we’ve settled down and, if our new camcorder will start working, maybe even some video after Christmas.