Today is Hayden's 17 month birthday. She is starting to get into the tantrum phase and the "Terrible Two's" (which is a misnomer since it actually starts at around a year and a half - they don't tell you of that in advance). Every now and then she'll want something and when we don't give it to her, she'll fall down and start crying. Fortunately, she typically only does this at home. When we are out she is so into people watching she doesn't thin of the tantrum (that there is known as a jinx).
When she is not throwing a tantrum, she is a joy. She loves to read, and play on her horse, and throw a ball around. She now understands most of what we say and can say about 15-20 words herself and she picks up more all the time. If you say something to her you can see her looking at you and she repeats it (or tries to) and says it over and over practicing her new word.
We had a great trip to Denver this past weekend. It was a family reunion, football fest, and food extravaganza all rolled in one. The Buffs and Broncos both won (amazingly) and lots of good times were had. It was great to see everyone but special thanks to Grandpa Bob for the amazing BBQ on Saturday (sponsored by the Forbidden Pig, have some next time you're in Laramie), Uncle Tim for the tailgate grub, and Grandpa Dave for the football, dinner, and just plain making the entire weekend happen.
In the pictures you will see Hayden pre-haircut, and post haircut as the pics span a few weeks. Looking back, her hair was craziness.
In other news, Hayden now says about 15 words (or semi words) including wa-wa (referring to water, not the Philadelphia convenience store), ball, more (of course, she's a Wolach after all), yeah, and no. It's getting nice because now we are starting to be able to understand what she wants which makes both our lives easier.
Also, due to the many ear infections she has had, she had tubes put in her ears on Friday. While it is technically surgery, it is very quick and easy. The ear tubes look like this and they let fluid drain out preventing infection. They fall out on their own after a year or so. They cleaned out a lot of gunk behind her ear drum and now the ear infections will be very rare and she'll be able to hear much better which will aide the growth of her vocabulary.
After some initial groggyness and whininess, we noticed an immediate difference as she was much happier and back to her old Hayden self.
1) She plays around and talks into a paper towel roll. Why we buy toys I have no idea.
2) She plays one of her favorite games: peek-a-boo. This time with the curtains.
3) She loves the Backyardigans, a cartoon. When they are done with the episode, she always says "Bye-bye" to the characters as they exit the screen. She then dances to the closing titles music.
4) Hayden passed her swimming survival class. This is one of her final exams. The instructor would literally drop her in the water from different angles and areas of the pool and the ledges.
The words of Five for Fighting may be talking about 15 years, but Hayden is 15 months old today so we'll apply them here. We just returned from a wonderful vacation in Rochester, NY with our friends from school and their kids: Vincent Lecce and Chadwick Carmody. It was wonderful to see everyone and to see the kids and how they've grown.
We went to Canada to see Niagara Falls which made Hayden an official international traveler. It was amazing to see the falls and even though it was hot and muggy, we had a great outing.
The adults also went on a wine tour to visit wineries up and down Seneca Lake in the Finger Lakes region. It was a fantastic day and a lot of good wine was had by all.
Unfortunately Hayden cut a molar midway through the trip which gave her a fever, a rash, and a nasty bout of screaming all night. She kept the whole house up as her tooth sliced into her mouth. The poor little girl was so sad and lethargic the second half of the trip but she seems to be over it now.
She did enjoy fun times like her first wagon ride and bike ride and her show "The Backyardigans" which had many viewings. She also enjoyed spending time with her lifelong friend, Vincent. They shared a chair together, a wagon, and a bath. All of which gave us great pictures which you can enjoy below.
It was a great July. The 4th was fun, Aunt Sheila came out to visit, and Grandma and Grandpa Wolach came to visit as well.
New developments include the fact that Hayden now knows what we are saying much of the time. When we tell her it's dinner time, she gets really excited and runs over to her high chair. If we ask her if she needs to be changed, she runs into her room where the changing table is. When we tell her, "Let's go play," she runs into her play room. It's a lot of fun seeing her understand and react to what we say.
Also, her swim lessons have gone great as she is in her last week. At this point, if she were to fall in a pool, she would be able to float for several minutes.
It was a great month. Hayden has been learning new things almost daily and it is fun to watch her grow. She now says words like "Hi" and "Ba-Bye" complete with waving. She also blows kisses, and even (as you will see from the video below) just starting giving us real kisses. The video below shows her on her first day of giving kisses, yesterday.
She has the open mouthed thing working - reminds me a bit of my teen years.
She is also in swim survival class and she is doing well. It will give us great peace of mind when she is completed with those in a few weeks. Enjoy the pics and the video.
Hayden had 2 birthday parties: one in Phoenix and one in Wyoming. Both were well attended and were a hit. Plus both involved her smashing cake all over herself.
For milestones, she now says "hi" and "uh-oh" regularly and she waves to everyone. She is also lauging a lot more now (see the video below). Thanks for the comments.
We had a fabulous Mother's Day Weekend with Great Grandpa Jerry and Great Grandma Mary. They met Hayden for the first time and enjoyed their visit to the desert.
For Mother's Day, Savannah was given a Heritage Makers book from Daddy and Hayden for the first time ever after gifting out dozens of Heritage Makers items. She was very happy to receive the book which highlights her first year of being a mom.
We had a fun and relaxing weekend and there were several hours spent outside in the pool.
Two videos below: one is the moment when Savannah receives her Mother's day book from Hayden; the other video below shows Hayden playing Peek-a-Boo, one of her favorites.
Today Hayden turned 11 months old (first one to name the movie that the title of this post comes from wins 10 points). It is weird to think that in 1 short month she will be 1.
She is now quite astute at this walking thing. She still trips every now and then but now she prefers to walk wherever she goes, as opposed to preferring to crawl and only walking when she wants to show off. She will typically make it to wherever she is going without falling, unless of course there is some object in her path. She ignores anything that might be in her way on the ground and continues on a straight line towards her destination. If there is a toy or something on the ground, she'll fall. If not, she gets there without incident. I didn't think that stepping over things was something we had to learn.
For other developments, she drinks out of her sippy cup regularly and she is eating most of the things that we eat. We ususally share what we have with her at dinner and at school they have a variety of offerings for her. She has gained another tooth, on the bottom of her right side (total of 3 now). But she still has nothing on the top row. Nonetheless, it doesn't seem to hinder her from chewing.
One thing she is doing recently is hissing. Yes, you read it correctly. Instead of laughing (she never has taken to giggling or laughing, only on rare occasions) she hisses. She makes this really cute face and squinches her eyes and hisses when she is happy. Daddy thought it was rather peculiar and unique, but then apparently she got it from her Mommy who did the same thing when she was Hayden's age according to Grandma Coleen.
Below is a video which shows her walking a bit more than the first video. This was taken last week and looking back at it, we find it hard to believe how much better she gets every day. Just like many of you have said, she'll be running soon, which is scary.
We're looking forward to her first birthday and thanks for all the great comments.
