Uniquely Hayden

It seems like there are fewer milestones as children get older. Hayden’s now over 2 years old, so it makes little sense to celebrate each “monthiversary” anymore. (Woot, 27 months!)

At the same time, when I look at my little boy, I’m always surprised at how much he’s grown up—he’s a little tiny person!

Soon after we found out that we were expecting this baby (29 weeks!), one night I turned to Ryan and said, “We’re going to have to start all over again.” And while I’ve dreaded having to start all over again with sleep training, nursing, weaning, eating, teething and all the other stuff that’s not so fun, I didn’t mean that. I meant that we were going to have to start all over again getting to know another little person. It’s amazing how much Hayden’s personality comes out and is developed more every day.

Here are a few of the things that are uniquely Hayden to me:

He’s a very meticulous guy—he likes for things to be in their place, and if they’re not, this is a good enough reason to throw a fit. He wants the book to be closed and stay closed; he wants the toy box lid to go all the way down or all the way up and stay that way. If there’s a piece missing to a toy, he needs it (NOW!).

He remembers all kinds of things—I let him watch Nora the piano playing cat a couple months ago, and he came up to me at the computer earlier this week, asking for “Tiddy pia’o?” Three days ago, we watched a video of funny cats, and now every time he sees the fan on, he tells me about a kitty in the video that was flung around by a fan.

He picks up mannerisms from television shows—he wails “MAAAAAAIW!” (mail) from Blue’s Clues, he “sink, sink, si-i-inks” with Blue’s Clues, he’ll look at something and ask “Hm…. meesing?” (missing), after Mark Mothersbaugh’s drawing segments on Yo Gabba Gabba.

He ‘knows’ that there’s a baby in mama’s tummy. He ‘knows’ it’s his sister. He ‘knows’ her name will be “Bebecca” or “Bebetta,” depending on the day. He’ll still be in for a pretty big shock, of course.

He builds “Towers” and “Tastles,” with his blocks; he loves to play with his “tain” (train).

It’s hard to remember a time when he couldn’t go throw something away or ask for things (with or without whining) (though he does seem to have a tough time articulating exactly what he wants). It’s hard to imagine a cooler kid (but we’ll give the new baby a fair shot 😉 ).