Smell the Roses

Taking a walk with a 2-year-old can be a little like plucking each hair off of your arm as slowly and deliberately as possible but in no order whatsoever. As best I can gather, here are the top 10 requirements for any 2-year-old walking excursion:

1. Do not walk in a straight line
2. Do not walk at an even pace
3. Do not walk at a pace resembling anything faster than a small turtle
4. Do not pass by an interesting object without stopping to touch it
5. Do not pass by a flower without stopping to smell it
6. Do not pass by a grate without bending down to see where it leads
7. Do not pass by a grate without dropping a stone down to confirm where it leads
8. Do not pass by a strange dog without trying to pet it
9. Do not pass by a bug without inspecting and then being deathly frightened by it
10. Do not forget to say what color the sky is, what the weather is like, or what color you are wearing
11. (10.5) Do not forget to repeat the same phrase from step 10 over and over for the duration of the walk.
    

I would say that on a typical 2-year-old walk, you need to at least quadruple the time that it would take an average adult to walk the same distance. For example, going to the park near our house should be a 2 minute walk. It can take 15-20 minutes if Hailey walks the whole thing. I allow for extra time because we are still refusing to hold Mommy’s hand when crossing the street which happens to be one of Mommy’s only requirements. Plus, maintaining all of these requirements simultaneously during a walk is quite tasking on Mommy, although they are absolutely no problem for the 2-year-old.

Regardless of how excruciatingly slow the walking process can be, it can be really fun to see the world through Hailey’s eyes. I’m trying very hard to have less anxiety related to time, so walks with Hailey really test my ability to stop and smell the roses myself. It's a good exercise for all of us.

LA Looks

Our little world traveler just returned from LA where she was spending time with friends and watching her cousins play in the AVP Manhattan Beach tournament. She spent about 3 days at the beach, but I believe that her favorite part of the trip was shopping. Shockingly, the thing that her mother hates to do the most brings Hailey endless joy. These pics are just a few of the things that she had to try on during our short shopping trip one day. She was in heaven. I guess we need to invest in some dress up clothes soon!

The Balloon Saga

Two weekends ago Hailey received a red and a blue balloon at a birthday party that we attended. She loves balloons so she had a good time with them until they ran out of air. They proceeded to sit on the floor of my garage, half-deflated. On Tuesday (garbage day), I threw them into the big trash can without deflating them because, let’s face it, I’m lazy. As we are getting into the car to go to school, the trash man arrived and Hailey saw him take the balloons out of the trash can and put them in the truck. You would have thought that he had thrown her blankie in that truck. She was completely traumatized. For 20 minutes on the way into school, we had to listen to “Where my balloons go?” “Why balloons in truck?” “Why man take balloons?” “I want balloons.” Honestly, it was non-stop. There was no subject that could supersede the ever important balloon conversation. There was no song that could be sung to make the balloons go away. I was, at that moment, the worst Mommy in the world.

However, I would like to say that I redeemed myself in a big big way. That afternoon I stopped by this little shop in my building on my way out of work. They hang balloons outside of their door every day. I’ve often seen them deflating their balloons at the end of the day. I went in and asked the lady if I could have the balloons instead of her throwing them away. She was so happy to give them to me. But here’s the kicker…I had to carry those stupid balloons (a red and a blue one) 10 blocks downtown to get to Hailey’s school. What an idiot I must have looked like! Regardless, the balloons were safely delivered to our precious angel who talked about them the whole way home and then proceeded to forget about them after about 10 minutes in the house. Ah the joys of motherhood!

Green Beans and Broccoli

Like most parents, I think that I am the most fortunate Mommy in the world. Every day, I could think of a new reason why I’m the luckiest Mommy, but here’s my reason for today – my daughter eats green things. It’s true! The child loves green beans. She knows how to clean them and put them in the bowl. The other night we cleaned a huge batch of beans and cooked them up. She ate mostly beans for dinner. Poor Luke didn’t even get any! Same thing last night with broccoli. She would just keep eating vegetables if we didn’t insist that she eat other things. She’s some kind of bizzarro child.

Of course, I don’t take her vegetable-eating for granted (or even think that it will last forever). That’s why I’m writing to remember these fun times when we don’t have to fight at the dinner table because let’s face it, those days are probably not far off.

Tally from the Weekend

Friday - 2 accidents (one at school)
Saturday - 1 accident
Sunday - 2 accidents

When she has accidents, it's usually our fault for not stopping her activity and putting her on the potty. Potty training is 99% about training us right now!

It's a Big Day

Hailey is wearing big girl underwear today. She has had such outstanding potty reports from school the last 2 days that I decided to bite the bullet and make the change. Plus, it seemed like starting on a Friday would give us some good momentum to go into the weekend because she really is much better about going at school than at home. I guess it’s the positive effects of peer pressure. Anyway, I have the over/under on accidents at school today set at 3. I’m going to say under, but I think it could go either way.

Could it be?

When we first found out that we were pregnant, I felt immediately that it was a girl. I wouldn’t even consider the possibility that it was a boy even though Luke said that he believed it was. I was 100% girl all the way, and no, I couldn’t possibly believe my husband.

Then, I had the premonition (see August 8, 2008 entry). That was the first clue that I might have to consider the possibility that it could be a boy. Then, I started having night sickness instead of morning sickness as I had with Hailey. Could it be because there are different hormones from a boy? The final clue came on Tuesday when I went to the doctor. This was the first time that I was able to hear the heartbeat, and it was much slower than Hailey’s was. It was a very strong heartbeat, but not the speed racer heartbeat that I remember from Hailey.

So, I think I’m reversing my stance. I think that this baby is a boy. 7 weeks until we find out! Everyone should post your bets in the comments.