Hayden

It's been a long time since I posted anything about Hayden.  She has changed so much lately.  She is losing all her baby fat and everyone keeps telling me how lean she is getting.  She has such a long and lean torso!  She is talking so much more now and rarely does her "gdagdagda" before saying a real word.  Although she still resorts to baby talk and laughs hysterically around other people because they think it's funny and she gets rewarded for it.

Some of our favorite expressions are the following:

Whenever she doesn't want something she'll either say, "no thanks" or our favorite, "no banana tonight!!!"  Whatever it is she doesn't want to do she'll say, "no_________tonight."

She was dancing around to her favorite songs with Daddy and she said, "daddy, take a break, your sweaty."

We got a book case for her room finally and put all her books in it and she has LOVED it.  I was a little worried about her being destructive with the paper pages, but she has done great.  Every morning I can hear her wake up and pull out books.  She then reads them to herself until I go in and get her.  Some of her favorites right now are, "The Spooky Old Tree," "The Tickle Monster Book," "The Interrupting Chicken," and any of her counting books.  She just started to really enjoy counting things.  She also discovered two of those Eye Spy books and she loves to look at all the little details on each page.

She is totally obsessed with princesses right now and always comments on the color of their dresses and how pretty they are when she sees their movies, or pictures of them in stores.  Her favorites right now are Rapunzel, Cinderella, Belle, and Sleeping Beauty.  She is hilarious to watch Sleeping Beauty with.  She is so worried about her when she is about to touch the spinning wheel.  she runs around the living room yelling, "don't touch it Sleeping Beauty, don't touch it!!!" Over and over again.  If she is in another room playing and she hears the music come on indicating that she is about to touch the spinning wheel, she abandons whatever it is she is doing to go support Sleeping Beauty.

She also loves to reenact a scene from Beauty and The Beast where the Beasts arm is hurt and Belle is nursing him back to health.  She gets some kind of cloth and will say, "Now hold still, this is going to hurt" and she proceeds to nurse us back to health.

Hayden also loves to serve tea and loves to ask how many "sugars" we would like.  If we don't respond she'll say, "ok, 2, 2 sugars."  Sometimes I'm not very careful with my tea and if I tip the glass at all she take it away from me and say, "hey, don't spill it."

Hayden is really good at remembering the names of everyone we meet and become friends with.  We went to a play group at the park last week and all the moms were impressed that she would say, "hi" to everyone who came and call them and their mother by name.

I love to watch her play with her toys and her imagination.  This is the scene I walked upon today:

Every time I called her name she'd say, "mom, we're eating!"  I even put everything away and when she woke up placed her dogs and food in the exact same spot.

She also loves to wrap up her baby dolls and put them down for naps.  She has come up with a lot of creative beds for them recently.


Terrible Twos:

So while there is a whole lot of fun about Hayden right now, there is a whole lot of drama too!  She is such a stubborn little girl and once she has something made up in her mind she does not let it go.  When we go to the store she will see some toy she wants and say over and over "it's mine, buy it, buy it" until she totally melts down and we have to leave the store.  I have tried telling her what I expect of her before entering the store, I have tried showing her a potential award that she can have if she asks like a big girl, I leave the store when she starts screaming and yelling.  Seriously, nothing seems to be getting through to her, all she knows is that's a cool toy and I want it and I am going to let you know I want it.  It is getting really old and I am hoping this phase becomes more controllable soon.

She went to the potty all day one day and was doing great, I started rewarding her each time and even printed up a sticker chart which she thought was great.  I thought, "this is awesome, she's potty trained" and the next day she flat out refused to put on underwear and begged for a diaper.  I didn't give her one and so she peed her underwear all morning until I caved.  She obviously isn't ready to give up her diapers!  All summer she has refused to go down the water slide at the pool and this week she said, "mom, go down the slide?"  so I took her up and we went down and she loved it.  We went over and over again, but she refused to do it until it was her idea and she was ready for it.  I think that's how potty training is going to have to be.

It's crazy how you can love your child so much and be so completely frustrated with them at the same time.  I hear 3 is worse and I am just hoping I have the patience to make it through!