Two And A Half Years

Today Hayden turned two and a half, so we had a doctor's appointment this morning. Overall, she's doing fine. The doctor dismissed concerns about her cheek (horrible red bump over Halloween that still isn't totally gone) and didn't seem to be worried that we haven't checked her eye yet (insurance mix up, happening soon). Other than those things, it was easy and fast and she didn't even have to have any shots. Stats are: Height is 38.5 inches, which is 98 percent for girls her age (about the same as before). Weight is 28 pounds, which is 43 percent for girls her age (which is also close to the same as before).

The pictures show one of Hayden's favorite things at the moment, which is cutting some food, putting it in one of her new pots, cooking it on the stove and then feeding it to one of her stuffed animals. (And then doing it all over again.)

Sea Life Aquarium

For almost the last year, I've been getting emails about local discounts from a site called Groupon. They had one for the Sea Life Aquarium at Legoland, so today we went. And other than the terrible experience of getting to/in/parked at Legoland, it was a fun outing. It was created with little kids in mind, so there are all kinds of low lookouts and bubbles to climb into. The coolest thing is a tube that goes through a fish/shark/sting ray tank. It had really wonderful view. Of course, it being a part of Legoland, there were large lego people in some of the tanks and Hayden seemed to really love that. She also liked touching the starfish.

One of the cutest things happened right when we went in, when it was just us and another family. We were trying to get Hayden to go up these stairs and down slide, and she was using her hands to crawl up the stairs. (That girl is SO cautious, she can get up without holding on to anything, but won't.) Another little girl, who was maybe six years old, who had a little sister there too, took Hayden's hand and helped her climb up and put Hayden on the slide (first!). That happened a couple of times and then she gave Hayden a hug! It was so sweet.

Merry Christmas 2010

Well, wow. What a Christmas we had. (Merry Christmas everyone!) I have to say, Hayden was so good about it. We've had presents under the tree for weeks and she just knew that she had to wait and never once tried to open anything.

We started the holiday off with leaving cookies out for Santa on Christmas Eve. I've been sorta torn about Santa. I don't want her to think that's the only reason for the season, but I have to admit that she's really excited about the whole idea and it's so much easier to grasp than the Christian Christmas story. I relented and allowed "Santa" to bring her one present (a panda backpack) and we left cookies out for him. She's having so much fun with it right now, I kinda couldn't help it.

Anyway, on Christmas Day, we waited until after Hayden's nap to open anything or have our semi-fancy dinner. Becky and Steve came over along with Steve's brother Craig and Sean's friend Pam. Hayden had a TON of presents, which she loved of course. I have to admit, I was ready to be done by the time the two hour mark rolled around (she is VERY slow). We put some of the stuff away for a bit, because she just has so much right now. I'm sure we'll be happy about new toys in a month or two.

More Christmas

We're lucky to have many Christmas events each year and this year, we had Christmas with my Mom last Sunday. (We were also happy to host my brother for the whole weekend.) It was a little rushed because both my brother and I had to leave for the airport, but still a great time and I think Hayden really enjoyed her gifts. Two of the highlights are pictured above.

One is the Hungry Hippos game that my brother gave her. She was a little scared at first I think, as it was pretty loud, but by the end, she was doing more than one hippo and putting the marbles out while saying "Go, go, go, go." The second was a little dollhouse for pre-schoolers, which Hayden took to immediately. The funny thing was that this toy comes with a white family or a black family, and my Mom accidently bought the black family. Well...although these toys are often crafted so that little girls can relate to the dolls who look like them, we had a semi-serious conversation about whether to keep it. In the end, we didn't come up with a good enough reason to return it, so we've nicknamed them Michelle and Obama. :) (Sean of course is thrilled as it reinforces his presidential aspirations for Hayden.)

Big Family

Today, even though it's not quite Christmas, we celebrated the holiday with my Mom's large family. Although it took awhile for her to warm up because there were so many people, Hayden did well, napped and loved her presents. (And with some prompting, she said thank you to everyone at least once.) The two pictured are a little wooden cookie set and a wooden doll that has magnetic clothes. As you can see, she played with that doll and my cousin Ashley for a long while. She was actually completely enamored with Ashley the whole time we were there and Ashley, bless her heart, was very patient and played with Hayden the whole time.

Making Christmas Cookies

For what we think is about the 10th year, Becky and I had our annual Christmas cookie making day last weekend. Of course, starting last year, we've had fun with Hayden helping us and I can only imagine that will continue until she's an awful teenage who refuses. :)

This year, Hayden did quite well with the sugar cookies. She helped us with the cookie cutters and cleaned up all the extra dough to get ready to roll it out again. We must have done it a lot though, because about halfway through cutting the cookies out, she got tired of it. Of course, stage two, with the frosting and sprinkles, presents more eating opportunities, so she did not get tired of that part. It was a fun day and those cookies make wonderful eating bribes!

Late Mention

This is a little late to mention, but Hayden has been using her special potty seat for weeks now and loves it. We're totally off the little green ones and thrilled about it. She now moves the stool over, climbs up, turns around and sits down all by herself. She needs a little help on the rest, but still, it's a huge step. Yay. (She still wears diapers for sleeping, which I don't see changing anytime soon.)

As a side note, she also seems to be back into singing and lately, has been asking me to sing songs AND singing with me! She can't carry a tune yet, obviously, and doesn't always know all the words to these songs, but she tries her very hardest to sing along with me. It's very heartwarming. I can't stand how much I love that girl sometimes.

Nighttime Ritual

We have a fairly new nighttime ritual these days, for the "winter." Hayden likes to watch her movie under a blanket to get "nice and warm." She's very into the PBS Cat in the Hat show these days, as it seems to be her current favorite. She was also introduced to hot chocolate a couple weeks ago and loves having it with her movie. I share it with her and we drink it together. She actually thinks half the fun is wiping her mouth and getting the drips on the cup with a paper towel.

Winter Nights At Balboa Park

Tonight Hayden and I went with Becky and Steve to a Christmas celebration in Balboa Park and had a wonderful time. We actually took a bus that left near their house, so Hayden loved that of course. Once we arrived, we looked at the Christmas trees, the lights, a nativity set-up, plastic reindeer and more. Hayden's favorite though, seemed to be the amphitheater featuring a variety of choirs. We were sort of just passing through the first time, but she wanted to sit down and watch awhile. Then later, we came back to watch some more while sharing cookies/cocoa. It was so cute, she wanted to clap when they were done and always asked if they were going to sing another one.

We also randomly ran into Santa, which (unsurprisingly) Hayden was scared of at first, but managed to say "hi" in the end. She declined to shake his hand however.

The event was during the evening and we didn't leave until 8:30pm, so it was pretty cold. I'm happy to report though that Hayden wore the hat we picked out together last night, and even wore the gloves for awhile. She didn't seem cold the entire time, so I guess that's the important part.

Random Updates

Not too much to report this week. Hayden is using her special potty seat wonderfully and consistently, which is so awesome. She is sorta learning to ride her trike, in that she is trying to petal, but she still doesn't love it. Hopefully she will in time. She is still loving the plastic food and especially likes picking things up with those tongs. Weird, huh?

We added a new mealtime routine, since Hayden was literally taking over an hour to eat each of her meals. It's an egg timer, so she can see how much time she has left. So far, it's working pretty well and we've got her down to something like 40 minutes!