I'm sorry if this sounds like I'm bragging, but I am one proud Mom. Hayden is such a joy to be around and I am so in awe at some of the ways he is developing and experiencing life. It is so much fun to have a 21-month old son! And since this blog is basically Hayden's Baby Book, this is where I get to document all the wonderful things about him. Also, a lot of our friends and relatives haven't seen him for a while, so here are some of the latest developments:
Language - Hayden is talking a lot more than even just a month or so ago. He is starting to put words together like "Bye Bye Daddy" and "Blue Car". He still has his own way of speaking (that Phil and I have learned to decode for the most-part), so not all his words are completely perfect. He often picks up on the last sound of the word and puts it first. Like "orange" is "Jorn", and "green" is "neen", "juice" and "ice" are both "SSS", "on" is "non", and "again" is "Naah". He also has cute ways of saying "Dog"="GoDGoDGo", "Truck"="TruTru", "Car"="Dar", and "Gears"="JiaJeer".
Letters - he recognizes and says over half the letters of the alphabet, whether on a book, piece of mail, sign, menu, poster, refrigerator magnets, or anything written. He especially loves the letter B. Other letters he says and points to are: A, D, E, F, G, H, I, N, O, P, S, T, U, and Y. So far just the capital letterform (unless of course the lowercase is the same, like O, S, and U.) He is even showing signs that he understand that these letters combine to form words. We were at Red Robin and there was a movie poster for TOMBSTONE next to our table. He pointed and said almost every letter, from left to right. Or if Phil or I wear a shirt with a word, he loves to point and spell out the letters. I think his love of letters is because he loves books! He will sit still and listen to several books before nap and bedtime, and throughout the day also. He mostly loves books about trucks and tractors, but also likes a lot of the Dr. Suess books, Sandra Boynton books, and books with animals and numbers.
Numbers - He also likes to point to numbers and either say them or attempt to form his fingers into the number (he usually gets 5 and 4). For some reason, he LOVES 8 and 9 when he sees those numbers. He even points to the numbers on his digital clock in his room and usually says them correctly.
Shapes - He has a shape sorter cube with a variety of shapes - square, circle, triangle, star, moon, etc. He rotates the cube to the correct side and puts the block in the right hole. He only has difficulty distinguishing the half-circle shape from the crescent moon shape.
He also enjoys putting together wood puzzles. He has one that has a bunch of different cars and trucks and he can put the shapes in their proper place almost as fast as I can.
Colors - He can point to and name blue, green, red, yellow, orange, and purple.
Stacking - He understands size relationships and stacks smaller things on top of bigger things. He is good at balancing objects on top of each other and we think he has a future in the circus. ;)
Eating - He has pretty much mastered a spoon, eating a whole bowl of oatmeal with just a little bit of dribbles down his chin. He is also great at using a fork and doesn't eat with his hands very often. He can drink out of a regular cup without spilling, but we usually still give him a straw in his cup to make it easier.
Singing - He loves to sing "Ee-I-Ee-I-O" for Old Macdonald, and actually sings sort of in pitch. Also there are some Beatles songs he sings to. "LaLaLa" for "Oh-bla-di...", the "Leeees" in "...won't you pleease, pleeease help me..." I've got to try to get this on video sometime.
Memory - The other day we were at Fred Meyer and as I was putting Hayden in the shopping cart, he noticed a fire truck parked in the back of the parking lot and made the fire truck siren noise. Just then, 3 firefighters walked in and heard him make that noise, and thought it was really cute. One nice fireman gave Hayden a little postcard photo of the firetruck and a sticker of a Jr. Firefighter badge. Hours later, when I asked Hayden to tell Daddy what we saw at Fred Meyer earlier that day, he made the fire truck siren noise. That's just one example, but I think it's pretty remarkable that he can remember things that happen earlier in the day and make associations like that.
Another example of that is he loves to go get the mail with me, but our neighbor has a big dog that barks when we walk past his house, so every time I say to Hayden, "Let's go get the mail" he says "Mailman!" and then immediately, "DoDgoDgoDgo" in a whimpery voice. I have to reassure him that the dog is inside that house. He has a love/hate relationship with dogs. He doesn't mind seeing them, and LOVES his little stuffed doggie, but he is terrified of the "Bark" even if I do it, even in a friendly, "ruff-ruff" way.
Some other cute and amazing things he is doing now - mimicking my "stroller strides" exercises when he pushes around his baby stroller doing squats! Brushing his teeth, throwing garbage away, getting into his booster seat at the dinner table by himself and buckling himself in (still hasn't figured out the unbuckling part, thankfully), going up and downstairs just lightly holding the wall, and going down a slide.
I can't wait for the weather to get better and we can play outside more. But we stay pretty busy during the week with Stroller Strides on Mon-Wed-Fri mornings, PEPS on Thursdays. He goes to Annie's house on Tuesday mornings while I get some work done and Grandma Doris comes over on Wed after Stroller Strides to watch him also while I work. On Mondays after Stroller Strides we usually stay at the Community Center and play at their Toddler Time area, and on Fridays we often go to KidsQuest Museum. He naps from about 1:30 - 4:30 so it's basically just the mornings that we can get out and do stuff. And as you can see, we pack it pretty full.
So that's my life with Hayden right now. I am enjoying every minute of it and it seems like Hayden is a pretty happy little kid, too.
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