Sunday, March 28, 2010

Just walk already!

In the past couple of weeks, Hayley took more steps (hehe) toward physical freedom: she can now walk around on her knees. This is both encouraging and discouraging. It's nice to see her actually making some kind of progress. For a while it seemed like she would just crawl for the rest of her life. On the other hand, the general rule is that kids who figure out knee-walking tend to wait longer before walking on their feet.

It's not like we're really all that concerned. She is only 13 months; plenty of kids don't start to walk until 14 months and later. However, she's almost 27 pounds. My arms would like a break from carrying her weight (even if it means that walking to the car takes 10 minutes). Of course, it's tough to get frustrated when she is clearly enjoying herself so much:

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Baby teeth


It's no secret: I don't like the dentist. I don't like teeth, mine especially. I avoided the dentist for over 10 years at one point. It took quite a bit of self determination and support from Miranda to finally go back. I still don't really know how or why I developed this irrational fear. I continue to loathe every visit and I doubt that will ever change. As you might guess, this is not something I want to pass on to my daughter.

When Hayley got her first tooth, Miranda and I were both very excited; we celebrate each new tooth that successfully "erupts" (yes, that is the technical term). Right now, she's got two on the bottom and nearly four on the top. Her first tooth erupted over 4 months ago. Unfortunately, it's only recently that we've been brushing her teeth regularly. I'm not sure exactly why we dropped the ball on that, but it probably has something to do with my phobia/attitude toward dental hygiene.

Luckily, Hayley is responding very well to the whole thing. Maybe a little too well. We bought her a special pink baby toothbrush; the first time we used it, she giggled and happily let us brush her teeth. Since then, it's been all smiles (pun intended). The funniest part is that lately, she actually gets upset when it's done and we put away her toothbrush! I don't think I've ever heard of a kid who cried because she wanted to keep brushing her teeth. This gives me great hope about her dental future. All I can say is that she should probably go with mommy for her first visit to the dentist.

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Change is good

As promised, a new look for the blog! It's been a long time coming; our little family blog is almost 2 years old. We hope you like it. If not, let us know in the comments! In fact, if there's anything that any of you would like to see changed, or maybe you feel something is missing from the blog, please tell us.

In case you didn't notice, the biggest change we made is the addition of a header image. This is actually a very special image: based on a photograph I took at Hayley's first birthday party, our wonderful friend Daiva (of Diaper Monologues fame) designed and created it just for our little blog. Thank you so much Daiva!

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Spring is here

Sorry for the lack of updates lately. I only have myself to blame for that.



The past few weeks have been good. We are basking in the glow of having a 1 year old. Hayley's trend of seeming to get older and cuter every day continues. To commemorate the start of her second year of life, winter has begrudgingly given way to spring. This week especially, the weather is becoming very nice. As a result, we're all going outside more often. A number of trips to various parks have been very fruitful. Hayley can be reluctant about playing outdoors, but she's getting better.



Today, I realized that the nicely manicured areas of grass right in front of our apartment could provide a quick, easy way to get in some quality outdoor playtime. However, Hayley absolutely refused to move once I set her down. She sat there pulling out the grass and watching one of the neighbors' cats walk around. There's nothing necessarily wrong with just chilling on a beautiful California day, but since when do 1-year-olds just chill? She needs to explore her surroundings. Unfortunately it was about naptime, so we headed inside.





Later in the day, I brought her back out to the grass, but she still wouldn't crawl. I don't really understand why; she was perfectly willing to touch the ground, since she enjoyed pulling out the grass and playing with sticks. I decided the only way to get her moving was bribery. I crawled away from her and took out a toy that she typically cannot resist. Immediately, you could see a battle raging inside Hayley's mind: do I dare overcome my irrational fear in order to obtain the glorious prize? This inner battle quickly manifested as a slow, stuttering knee-walk toward me, accompanied by lots of whining and gesturing. She advanced about two feet over the course of at least two minutes of this, at which point I switched the camera to video mode to capture the silliness. Naturally, as soon as I hit record, she got down and crawled right to the toy!



Anyway, spring usually means it's time for some spring cleaning. In accordance, we'll be making a few small changes to the blog to spruce it up. So don't be surprised if things look a bit different in the coming weeks.

Bright Eyes and Piggy Tails

As beautiful as I think Hayley is on an hourly basis, I just wasn't ready for this whole new level of cuteness.