Hayley and Kate Minter

Hayley has always shown an aptitude for running around and kicking a ball, so when we got a postcard in the mail from The Factory in Wake Forest (home of her skating class and my hockey class) about their kids soccer program, “Lil’ Kickers,” we decided to go to the open house they were holding this morning.

It’s indoor soccer, so we went to the soccer field, which they had subdivided up into several sections. They start kids in this program as young as 18 months (WTF?!?!), so Hayley was right on the cusp of the Age 2-3 program and the Age 4-6 program. Since she’ll be 4 in January, we decided to let her run with the older kids. And, sure enough, she was one of the smallest ones out there.

There were 3-4 coaches, who looked like high school or early college age kids, and I dropped Hayley off with them and then went to the side. Another coach came by and answered questions for me. Meanwhile, Hayley was doing really well listening to the coaches, participating with the other 6-7 kids there at that time, and doing the skills. She didn’t seem overmatched in that area. I talked to the coaches afterward, and they said that she’d done “really well.”

Hayley had seemed to have a good time, so we decided to enroll her in the fall program, which runs this coming week through early November, Friday mornings. By enrolling her for the whole session (instead of per-class), we got a free uniform. So take a look at our little #4 and tell us it’s not the most adorable thing you’ve seen.

What a cutie!

When we were going through the process of selling our old house and moving to the new one, we promised Hayley a pet for being such a good sport through it all. Well, we made good on that promise and got her a cat…though apparently Hayley believed that she would be receiving both a cat AND a dog. So lately she has been asking when she will get her puppy. I told her that it will have to wait a little while because baby Kate is coming and I will have to take care of her. I won’t have time to potty-train a puppy too. Hayley said, “I can teach it!” I informed her that it isn’t as easy as it sounds.

Hayley has seen this Pedigree puppy food commercial on tv that has several different breeds of puppies doing cute puppy things all while “the voice” talks about how wonderful Pedigree food is for your puppy. When Hayley sees this commercial she says, “I want that puppy, and that puppy, and that puppy, and…” you get the idea. One day she even said, “I want all the puppies in the world!” I laughed and said, “Hayley, even if I COULD get you all the puppies in the world, they wouldn’t fit in our house.” She thought for a moment and said, “But what if I cleaned my room?” Aren’t kids adorable?

She also is learning about different breeds of dogs. We have this book we read to her about dogs and puppies and the different breeds (of course it doesn’t list EVERY breed, but it mentions about 35 or so). Yesterday, we began to sing the Scooby-Doo theme song but after just a few seconds, she said, “Wait, wait, Mama!” I asked her what was the matter. She said, “Scooby is a Great Dane.” Yes, he is. Then she said, “And Darwin is a chihuahua.” (Darwin is Aunt Jenny’s dog). Yes, that’s true too. After those two declarations, she was ready to sing again.

On an unrelated note, Hayley and I got our hair cut the other day. The stylist cut Hayley’s first, and Hayley was a very good girl the whole time. Thankfully, she doesn’t mind getting her hair cut, unlike a lot of other children. She’s a bit squirmy in the chair, so I think her cut might be slightly crooked, but you can’t really tell because her hair curls at the ends. So while the lady was trimming my hair, Hayley played nearby. She asked Hayley whether she was having a brother or sister. When Hayley said sister, she asked, “Do you think your little sister will have curly hair like you?” Hayley looked at her and said, “She won’t have any hair when she’s born.” Once again, Hayley, you’re probably right.

We went in for our, I think, 30-week appointment at the end of last week. Everything’s going fine, but Holly’s measuring a little larger than she should on the admittedly-unscientific tape measure scale (32cm vs. the expected 30). The result is that we’re scheduled for another ultrasound at our 32-week appointment.

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