Haley Dawn

January 31, 2011

Haley just turned one this month, and since we had her this weekend, I thought I'd post about Haley for a change... I think I'm always looking for similarities between Kirsten & Haley, and they are there, but Haley is very much her own person!

Haley had no problem being left here. She waved very sweetly when Matthew & Kirsten left, and then a few times during dinner, she looked at the door and waved again. She hadn't forgotten, but obviously trusts them to come back through that door and get her at some time.

She does NOT like sleepers. She can't crawl as well in them, and maybe that should have been a clue. When we put a very tired girl to bed, she fussed. That's normal, and I listened for real signs of distress, but tried to put up with the fussing... I'm a grandma now and that is hard!! I'm sure I picked her up at least once to rock her, and in the end, Einar got her to sleep. Still she woke up a few times fussing. But eventually we also went to bed. At 3:30 she woke us up with her cries, and I just picked her up and took her to our bed. She was very restless for about an hour, so I decided to change her diaper so she'd be more comfortable. That's when I saw that she had somehow wiggled both legs into one leg of her sleeper!! Talk about swaddled! It wasn't painful, but very restricting!! She slept well after the diaper change.

I am making sock monkeys these days, and Haley seems to think they are all for her. That's alright since she has no problem sharing. For a while I was hand-sewing while she sat in the chair next to me and played with books, and then her socks. Pulling them off and having us put them back on was a game to her. But if I'd put down the sock monkeys for too long, she'd make sure to get them and hand them back to me. She knew what my job was!!

She loved the attention from Einar. Much of the day he relaxed on the floor and she crawled all over him. She decided this was the day she'd give kisses, something she hasn't done for a long time. Unfortunately, with her runny nose, they weren't as welcome as they usually are. But somehow the two of them made a game of it. Whenever she could get one of us to walk her around the house, she was quite happy. She loves to walk, holding our hands, and doesn't tire easily. We went to the mall to get a few errands done. Haley loves the mall because there's so much to see, and so many people. But she was happiest there when I let her walk and push the stroller. The stroller we have is not made for this, so it wasn't easy, but she doesn't give up easily.

She was so cheerful all afternoon that we debated whether she needed a nap or not. We didn't want to put her down while she played so nicely, but in the late afternoon, when I left the room for a bit and she cried and cried and wouldn't be consoled - even though she was with Einar at the time - Einar picked her up, gave her the soother and her stuffie that she takes to bed, and she was asleep in his arms almost immediately.

Haley is not a difficult child. She will eat most anything, is happy and content most of the time. But she knows what she likes and what she doesn't like. And she will let you know. She'll reach out her hands to come to you, or push you away if that's not what she wants. She's not talking yet, but understands everything, and will copy most any noise you make... or at least try. Besides MaMaMa and NoNo, I did notice other sounds that resembled words, but they aren't clear enough yet to know if she knows what she's saying. She uses signs for food and drink, and those are very clear.

Saturday night she slept from about 9:30 to 7ish - a very good long sleep. We had to pick her up from her morning nap to take her to church. She was so good in church - either snuggling with us, or watching the little boy behind us, or just sitting and eating her cheerios and dried cranberries. We stayed at church for lunch, and she was so loud during lunch. To us it was quite funny because she's not normally loud. But when she was done eating and starting to fuss, I took her out of the high chair and she willingly lay down in my arms and fell asleep. Must have been very tired.