Monday, July 19, 2010

Christmas in July

Hayley had a great weekend, which included a girls' night and sleepover. Grandma took the opportunity to start teaching Hayley some Christmas songs (it's never too early, right?). Unexpectedly, she learned her own little part: the "ha ha ha" in Jingle Bells. I started practicing it with her today and took a quick video:



Sadly, the video was taken with my phone, so the quality is rather low. You'll have to turn it up to hear Hayley.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

The past month, in summary

So much has happened since the last post (sorry about that) that I'm not even sure where to begin- so I'll take it from the top.


It has been our routine for some time now to have lunch all together on Wednesday afternoons, somewhere in the general Stanford area, then Geoff and Hayley head to Grandma's house and hang out until I'm off work and then we have family dinner at the house. Every once in a while we eat on campus so I can show Hayley off to my co-workers- which is just what we did a few weeks ago. The big difference this time was that Hayley's walking so when we went to lunch we let her lead the way- while also trying to steer her out of the way of golf carts and students on bikes- and watched as she waved at everyone we passed. We, obviously, took some pictures and this one of her with Hoover Tower in the background is a favorite of mine. I can't quite pinpoint why Hoover Tower is so meaningful to me, but I do know that from miles around it's always the beacon I look for to orient myself and find my way. Being on this beautiful campus, the same campus I remember running around on as a kid, with my own daughter and seeing Hoover Tower in the distance kinda brings tears to my eyes. Stanford, meet a future member of the Class of 2031!


Another part of Hayley's routine has been Gymboree class once a week. It's taken some time to get used to this new environment, and Hayley still hates going through tunnels, but over time she's warmed up to it and it is great to see her interact with the other kids and learn her little body's physical ability at this stage. Hayley just recently moved up to level 4 and it's, again, taking her some time to adjust to this change but she's making progress.


Now that Hayley's walking, time spent at the Children's Discovery Museum is much more enjoyable all around. Lots of new play areas and activities, such as virtual snowboarding, have opened up to her due to this new-found mobility.


A favorite section of hers seems to be the little house section; she likes to set the table, have tea parties and throw the pretend food, plates and cups all over the place.


She also seems to enjoy taking a snack break on the park benches outside- she even shares with the pigeons!



I've been wanting to get Hayley a little play table for a while now and a few weeks ago a neat little LEGO/activity table was on sale so Geoff took Hayley to Toys R Us to pick it up. I know Geoff's been looking forward to playing LEGOs with his own child for ages now, so this was a big day for them. Hayley seems fairly interested in the table, though her favorite way to "play" with LEGOs seems to be bringing them to us one by one over and over again.


Hayley's friend, Maddy, turned 2 at the end of June and she had her birthday party at a bounce house party place. Hayley wasn't so sure at first, but she couldn't hide her smiles as she went down the huge inflatable slides or chased me around the bouncy.


When it was time for cake we were surprised to find that Hayley preferred her little box of raisins to the yummy birthday cake. I suppose we shouldn't have been too shocked- that girl would happily eat fruit exclusively if we'd let her.


A few Dum Dums were included in the party's goody bag, which led to Hayley having her first lollipop. She enjoyed it for a while- then asked for some fruit instead.


Earlier this month was Independence Day and we went down to Morgan Hill to spend the day with family at Danny and Patti's.


As usual, the food was delicious, the pool and weather perfect and a good time was had by all. I think Hayley especially enjoyed her dessert of berries and whipped cream.


This year we decided to stay for fireworks and Hayley stayed up well past her bed time with no melt-down at all. I was so proud! She didn't seem to be very scared of the fireworks, though she did retreat to Geoff's lap a few times for some of the louder blasts.


Truth be told, Hayley was less interested in the fireworks than she was the graham cracker and marshmallow she was munching on throughout.


A week or so ago Hayley's started building towers out of her alphabet blocks...


...for the sole purpose of knocking them down.


Hayley's interest in books has dramatically increased lately, causing Geoff and I to read the same 4 books over and over again. And then another few times for good measure. Grandpa David and Grandma Tina came for a visit this past weekend and got to see first hand how much Hayley loves her story time.


Another development, one which I must admit I'm THRILLED about, is Hayley wanting to play dress up. She hands us her pink tutu and bead necklaces to put on her pretty regularly these days. I should have known this was coming, considering her slight obsession with shoes. Here she shows off her new Disney Princess slippers:


We caught Hayley playing with her reflection in the mirror the other day and found it especially hysterical when she'd hug or kiss herself. Though, we can't really blame her- she IS pretty smooshable.