I decided on Monday that I deserved a little misery, so I took Hayden for a professional haircut. The quick and dirty chop job I gave him a few weeks ago was passable but growing out kind of crazy. I picked him up from school while my mom watched Hadley and we went and had poor Travis the Barber take a shot at Hayden's hair. We had to sit in the waiting area for about 5 minutes and during that time Hayden was staring with big eyes at the other men having their hair buzzed with the hair buzzers. He wouldn't let me touch him and he was shaking like a leaf--I have never seen him like that. He was clinging to his baggies of Oreo balls and Cheezits--the bribes. But he walked to the chair and sat in my lap and let Travis put the capes on us, and then, wonder of wonders, he let Travis cut his hair without screaming! He wasn't very happy during the process, but he was quiet and he let Travis give him a full haircut, which was a first.
We have this ball popper that shoots plastic balls up in the air. I'm not sure what makes the thing work (most likely the 4 D batteries I put in it and what sounds like a hairdryer motor inside) but it doesn't just shoot plastic balls. Hayden likes to put everything in it--binkies, trains, and most recently Cheerios. Which shoot all over the house since they are so light. He loads the popper up with Cheerios and then pushes the go button and happy ice cream truck music plays and the Cheerios start flying straight up in the air. It is sort of like a pinata because then Hayden and Hadley scavenge the Cheerios off the floor and eat them.
Yesterday:
Me: Hayden, do you have poop in your pants?
HJH: NNNYOOOWW. ("No", said with a very confused and serious face as if to say "have I ever had poop in my pants")
Me: Ok. Must be Hadley, I'll go change her pants, I smell a stinker.
HJH: NNNYOOOOWW!! NNNYOOOWW!!
Me: No you don't want me to change her pants either? No, she doesn't have poop in her pants? Somebody stinks, I'm changing pants.
Hysteria ensues. I change her pants anyway, and she indeed was the culprit, not Hayden.
I wrote a long post but my computer didn't save it, so here is the abbreviated version: Hadley is officially walking now! She can take up to 5 steps at a time. Life will get even crazier I suppose. And I guess I should buy her some shoes finally! She is not feeling great, but I shouldn't complain because in all of her 9 months she has never actually been sick if you can believe that. She has a runny nose but she is mostly her usual self. No ear infection yet.
Hayden has been a pill lately, the terrible twos are seemingly endless. He is such a loving little boy though. I will spare the long story of Hayden's and my adventure on Saturday morning, but the gist of it is that 2 year olds and 2 hour lectures on CPR don't mix.
We are trying to prepare for our week in North Carolina--we leave next Friday! Hopefully by then the weather will warm up there so we won't have any trouble flying in. We talk with Hayden every day about flying in the "pane" to see Nana and Pop!
Little Hadley is a tough little girl. She had her 9 month checkup today and was the happiest little thing, smiling at everyone and carrying on. I thought she might change her tune when we went in for the anemia test where they prick the finger and squeeeze the blood out into a vial for what seems like eternity. Hadley didn't even flinch or cry or even give notice when the lady pricked her finger or began to squeeze the life out of her tiny finger. I should have known. When we brought her home from the hospital after she was born she was jaundiced and we had to take her every single day for 8 days to the doctor to be weighed and get a heel stick to test her blood for the jaundice level. She got so used to that routine and the heel stick that she didn't even cry about that. Tough like daddy is what I told her, since poor daddy sticks his finger umpteen times a day to check his bloodsugar. Anyway, Hadley had a great checkup. The doctor was pleased that Hadley had taken some steps over the weekend--although she only took one step 3 separate times, that seemed good for a not-yet-nine-month-old.
Hayden had a haircut this weekend finally! Although it was the home haircut variety, so it looks a little jacked up. I bribed him with "oreo balls" and cut his hair with the blunt safety scissors. Hayden has a cute bedtime routine, but it is a little exhausting at the same time. Once he is finally in bed and we have each given him three kisses, we tell him bye bye and he says bye bye and then we say i love you and then he says love.
Since Hadley eats Cheerios, we seem to have Cheerios all over the house. Hayden now wants to eat them, Abby eats them, they're everywhere. Wherever I walk I crunch Cheerios. They are probably ground down into my carpet with I don't even want to think about what else.
We bought a new personal DVD player today, our old one is dead. I wanted to get it well in advance of our spring break trip to North Carolina so that Hayden could get used to watching Thomas the Train on it with headphones for the airplane. At first he wouldn't let me touch him with the headphones, then I plugged in both pairs and put some on my head and then he decided it was ok to try them out. I let Hadley come up next to him for a minute or two and she was transfixed with Thomas. She doesn't get to watch TV yet so she was mesmerized. I hope for the sake of our fellow spring break travelers that the DVD player will be some sort of miracle.
Hadley does a new funny thing in her highchair. She huffs, and I don't mean hairspray or paint. When she wants a bite of her babyfood, she makes this indignant noise and flexes her arms and legs as if to say "i want my bite now or else". Hayden thinks it is funny so he imitates her noises and then we all start laughing and Hadley blows bananas all over herself.
Hayden has an interesting sense of direction. When we are in the car, he seems to know exactly where we are and where we are going--turn by turn--he is like my own personal OnStar system. When I turn onto Mopac (our only "big" road here in west Austin) he starts yelling "Target" and then he says "there it is, there it is" until we get to Target. When we go home from the HEB to get the mail, he tells me where he would like me to turn to get the mail, as there is more than one street we can take to get to the mailboxes. Then he says "mail" and "there it is, there it is" until we arrive at the boxes. Same goes for driving to his school or Nannie's house or the library (bee-berry says Hayden).
Hayden and Hadley continue to be little magnets to each other. They are all over each other while they play on the floor. Hadley steals Hayden's Nillas and milk incessantly. Hayden steals her toys and won't let her play with anything. If Hayden builds a block tower, she knocks it over and he goes bonkers and pitches a fit. If he builds something with Bristle Blocks, she wrecks it and he starts screaming. Then he wants her to crawl back to his room, only she doesn't seem to care what he wants her to do. But eventually she crawls after him and we go and fight over toys in each of their rooms for awhile. It is like an all day wrestling match on the floor and my job is to referee and pull them apart...only they stay apart for maybe 4 seconds and then they are back together in the middle fighting it out over half of a plastic Easter egg that was in a Halloween bucket that seems very important to both of them.
Hayden sings Skip to My Lou, Row Row Row Your Boat, The Ants go Marching, and ABC these days. They are his favorites. They both like Head Shoulders Knees and Toes. Today is Hayden's school Valentines party, but I'm not going till the end after the debacle of the Christmas party in December. He wanted to leave the party immediately when I arrived, so I won't be making that mistake again by showing up. Hadley and I will go to the gym today, she is doing great there in the nursery. Hayden is still a no-go at the gym, but we are still working on that.
