She’s settled in at her preschool now and seems to really like it. Above is a picture they sent us during “soccer week” – we’re pretty impressed with her form on that kick. We’re less impressed with her swimming skills, or lack thereof. She seems to like going to swim class, playing with the water toys and singing the songs, but only if she can cling desperately to me the whole time and not do any of the actual swimming-related things in the water. The second we try to get her to do kicks, floats or anything, she starts pulling at my hair, swimsuit, ear, or whatever she can grab, and wraps her legs around me and chokes me with her arms.

She talks sometimes about her friends at school, especially a little boy named Willem. She used to give him hugs and kisses until she caught on to Dave’s nervous reaction to those stories. Apparently, he mentioned to her that she might want to be more selective about who she gives kisses to. When I asked her how her day was yesterday she said “it was good, I played with Willem, but I didn’t give him any hugs or kisses because daddy said not to.” Hmmmm.

Dave has earned the coveted status of Maddy’s “best friend,” which she tells him frequently. When I asked what that makes me, she matter-of-factly said “you’re Meagan” in a “why-would-you-ask-such-a-ridiculous-question” sort of way. But she still gives me lots of affection anyway. Whenever I go into my home office to work, she gives me hugs and blows me kisses and says “Have fun working, mommy! Be good! I love you! I’ll be out here! Don’t worry!” She loves to mimic me saying goodbye or putting her to bed – to me or to her dolls or to Hayden.

She’s also testing us a LOT. She has many very whiny moments, especially during dinner-time when I’m exhausted from a long day of work and have very little patience. I’m trying the “1-2-3 Magic” technique to get this behavior in check, but the whole “don’t over-explain things to your kids” part is totally against my nature. She’s still not so interested in moving back to the big girl bed, so her crib is getting lots of use. The good news is that she’s a pro on the potty now, finally for ALL the kinds of potty needs

I’ve had a busy fun year and I’m so excited to celebrate my first birthday today. Thanks to all of you for being part of my life.

Now enjoy just a few (okay, more than a few) photos and videos that capture the highlights and milestones of my first year:

Love,
Hayden

P.S. Mom will post stats and stuff next week after my doctor’s appointment.

On Monday morning, after daddy left for his first day at work, mommy drove me to this other school (definitely not the one across the street). I was pretty excited, especially when I got there and saw ALL THE TOYS! But then all these other kids started showing up wanting to share the toys with me. And then mom started talking about leaving. Hmmmm, I was not happy about that.

But, I was brave and decided not to worry about it and just focus on taking in all the interesting stuff going on around me. When mom left I whimpered a little, but held it together. However, when she came and picked me up after lunch, she asked if I had fun and I said “yes” and then she asked if I wanted to go back the next day and I was honest with her: “no.” I told her that I didn’t like it there because it was yucky and there were too many people (that’s me in the middle of all those yuckies below – even though I seem happy, don’t be fooled). However, I did tell her that Tennis – yes tennis, just like daddy! – was my favorite part of the day.

She still made me go back anyway! I know dad understands how germ infested those places are, but mom didn’t seem to care. I cried and cried when she left, but eventually recovered when the face painting started and managed to survive the day because I had an awesome butterfly painted on my face. Despite the cool songs I learned (”Do your ears hang low?” and “Where is thumper?”), I still told mom that I wasn’t interested in going back.

On Thursday, we went back AGAIN and I was okay at first, but then when mom tried to leave I yelled out “I don’t like these people!” and she STILL made me stay. Geez, doesn’t anyone listen to me anymore? I’m actually glad I stayed though, because we got to go outside and play in the water, and when my nanny Angie picked me up after lunch I told her that I wanted to go back again.

I’m still not really sure how I feel about all the other kids in my class (mostly boys), but at least next week is Basketball week – yay!

Oh, and I had SO MUCH fun at my new Kindergym class yesterday, and next week swim classes start, too. I have such a busy life.

- Maddy

…and now it’s the middle of June so the title of the post is no longer appropriate but I feel a need to leave it just so I can laugh at how long it’s taken me to get this up. Here are some highlights and media galore from our past 6 weeks that I haven’t had a chance to capture for the blog yet.

The first weekend in May, we had a wonderful visit from cousin Addi, Aunt Crystal, and Grandpa Busath, who flew up to Portland from Utah for my nephew’s blessing. We got to host them at our new house and test out the “guest quarters” in our basement, which worked out nicely. Maddy loved having Addi around for 3 whole days, and has missed her a lot ever since she left.

Below are a couple photos from that awesome weekend.

Since then, we’ve also had lots of other playdates with the rest of the cousins, which we always enjoy thoroughly despite the intensity of the chaos that ensues every time that many toddlers and babies converge (hence my lack of photos of said playdates). If it weren’t for naps and distance, we’d get together with them every day.

In addition to our fun cousin time, Maddy has been lucky enough to go on a couple other cool outings of her own when weather permits. I took her out for coffee with a friend at the cutest little coffee shop and Maddy got a kick out of playing with their dominoes and chess set while drinking a very grown up milk next to my cup of coffee. I also took her to the Rose Festival, which is a fun waterfront fair they have in downtown Portland. She loved the fire truck ride we went on, but was a little scared by the hot air balloon ride. Dave also took her back for the Dragon Boat races on a different day, which amazed and thrilled her – she seemed especially smitten with the drums they have on the boats.

Today she went to her first gymnastics class, which we hope gives her a safer place to practice the “routines” she’s been performing for us lately (basically rotating through a few yoga poses and then running around in circles). Next week Maddy starts preschool/summer camp three mornings a week! We’re very excited for her to meet some new friends up here, because she definitely misses and talks about her Cali buddies all the time, especially Sydney, Sierra, Lily and Chloe.

Oh and here’s the only video we’ve been able to get so far of Hayden’s little steps, a fun one of her giggling, as well as great videos of Maddy reading a story to her “babies” and then taking them to the “dentist,” Maddy “performing” with Uncle Gavin, Maddy “dancing” to New Kids on the Block, and Maddy at gymnastics class:

I don’t even know where to start. Maddy has evolved and entertained us so much over the past month+ that it’s very hard to capture in a blog post. But I’ll try.

She has become SO precocious and SO imaginative and SO expressive. A few examples…

- Of precociousness:
We’ve had lots of strangers around for the past several weeks (realtors, prospective homebuyers, inspectors, appliance delivery people, blinds salespeople, office designers, etc.), and she has tried to make best friends with each and every one of them. Anyone who comes into the house is immediately accosted by her, and then she follows them around / gets in their way until they’re done with whatever they came over to do.

My favorite was when our realtor came by and Maddy, meeting him for the first time, walked right up and said “Hi! I’m wearing underwear! Want to see?”

- Of imaginativeness: Maddy loves to make up little stories, games or songs. The best one lately was at the dinner table when she was just finishing up her sweet potato fries. I was feeding Hayden and noticed that Maddy was mumbling to herself so I started listening and I heard her engaging in a fascinating conversation with her last 2 fries. They said to her in one voice: “Maddy, where is our family? We miss our mommy and daddy!” and she said back in another voice: “Don’t worry. They’re in my mouth, do you want to go find them? You can come inside.” And then she ate them.

- Of expressiveness:

The other morning Maddy was being apprehensive about having Aunt/Nanny Lorna and cousin Jude come over to the house, so I asked her why she didn’t want to play with them. She clearly explained to me “because I don’t want you and daddy to work, I want you to not work and play with me instead.” It was nice but sad to hear her finally express this so clearly – with our old nanny she would complain about having her come over but was never able to explain why.

On a more positive note, when we got to our new house, Maddy ran around excitedly with a frightening amount of energy and then after 2 minutes started singing/shouting: “if you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands!”

Maddy is thrilled that Hayden is able to “play” more now and has to be reminded constantly that just because Hayden can do lots of stuff, doesn’t mean that she can handle a major hug or defend herself in a toddler sharing battle. She also loves her cousins, except when they have a toy she wants, and then the real toddler battles ensue.

Our little Maddy is pretty much potty-trained, and that makes her seem even more grown up. She’s been using the potty consistently for about a month now, except during naps and nighttime when we still put her in diapers. She had such little interest in it for the past 6 months that I was shocked when one day Dave said “I’ve had enough, I know she can do it” – and then she did. She’s only had 1 accident since then (if you don’t count the times she peed in her pullups because we were lazy or out of clean underwear to put her in).

On the less pleasing side, Maddy started having nightmares earlier this week and now bedtimes are quite painful. She’s genuinely scared to be left alone in her room and insists that the closet and hallway light are left on with the doors wide open. That said, she is usually enjoying sleeping in a “big girl bed,” which she’s been doing mostly successfully since we moved. When she wakes up in the morning, she surprisingly resists the urge to come and wake us up, instead she gets a book and quietly sits down in the hallway directly outside our master bedroom door (even when it’s open) and reads to herself until one of us gets up.

Also, she still has this vomiting issue. It happens about once or twice a month, in the middle of dinner, for no apparent reason other than she’s had a lot to eat. It’s not like we’re force feeding her, she just keeps eating until she throws up, and it’s so sad. I do think we’ve identified yogurt/milk as a consistent contributing factor, though, so we’re trying to cut back on those things and hopefully that will help.

If you read this far, I’m impressed – that’s enough for now.

She continues to talk up a storm at home (not so much in public), and lately she’s been especially obsessed with a few things:

- People’s facial expressions, especially the characters in her books. I need to get some photos of her imitating these facial expressions – it’s hilarious. We talk a lot about why so-and-so is “making her face like that?” She loves to cock her eyebrows to demonstrate consternation, even when asking a question that she already knows the answer to (which is most of the time). She also likes to shift her jaw when she’s puzzled (or pretending to be) about something.

- How other people are feeling. This morning my back was hurting and Dave was helping me stretch it. Maddy asked “why does mommy’s back hurt?” and Dave kindly said “Because she’s getting old.” Maddy promptly replied, “It’s okay mommy, I’ll take care of you if you’re old!” Then when I told her my back was feeling better, she said “Mommy you’re young! We’re all young together!” I asked her how young we are exactly, and she explained: “Hayden’s 1, I’m 2, Daddy’s 5 and you’re 6.”

- Daddy buying her a dollhouse for her birthday (in 6 months)

- Kids/animals who’ve lost their mommy and daddy (thanks to Annie, The American Tale, and The Lion King)

- Planting a Mango tree in our backyard

We’ve been watching lots of basketball at my house lately, which sometimes I love.

But other times, I tell my daddy “I don’t want to watch basketball! I want to watch Sesame!” or “I want to watch neighbors!”

Neighbors is what I call all the home improvement and home buying shows that I love, like Flip this House and House Hunters.

Anyway, mommy says I have to get ready for lots of basketball because it’s March Madness time and Syracuse has a #1 seed this year, so we’re hoping they’ll be in the tourney for a looooong time. As you can see in this video, I’m SO ready!

It’s been a busy couple of weeks in PhamsterWorld. I think the girls would sum them up as funfunfun, and Dave and I would sum them up as simply exhausting. Before getting into our recap, let’s pause for a moment to celebrate Hayden’s latest milestone. Yes, the little bubba is now a movin’ and groovin’ 8-month-old who says “dadada,” but not much else yet.

With all her locomoting, she hasn’t been gaining as much weight as we’d like – she’s now at just over 15 lbs, which keeps her in the 5th percentile for her age. She’s crawling/ trying to climb all over the place and gets very antsy if we leave her in the exersaucer or high chair for too long. Her favorite places to crawl to are under our coffee table and behind the recliner.

In other news, Maddy had her first real experience in the snow 2 weeks ago when we met up with my old college roommates (Amy and Joanne) and their families at Lake Tahoe. Pictures here. She loved building a snowman with Dave, and gave sledding a try but got tired of that after 2 runs down the hill in our backyard. Most of all, she loved making friends with Amy’s boys Nathan and Chase.

After that, my dad came for a brief visit and Maddy and Hayden got some good grandpa time in. Last weekend, we also had one of our super-fun playdates with Syd and Sierra and Lily at Burton Park in San Carlos.

This weekend Maddy and I have already had some fun playing around the house with Hayden and at our little neighborhood park.

Hence, I feel a need to “work” on this blog post and capture all the random Maddyisms that I’ve been posting to Facebook lately, for those of you non-Facebookers (Maren)…

This video is of Maddy hanging out in what she calls her “jail.” Seems to me she likes it too much for it to really qualify as jail time.

Maddy was sitting in the kitchen chair next to our high chair and when I put Hayden in to start feeding her, Maddy got down and said “Mommy, I get down so it can be your turn in da chair.”

Maddy watch watching Dave cook dinner and spontaneously broke out into applause. When Dave didn’t turn around, she said “Daddy, I’m clapping for you!”

Maddy wanted to share some of my yogurt with me, and I said “no, sorry because I don’t want you to get my germs and get sick.” She promptly replied with “but I’m already sick because Hayden got her germs all over me but I don’t need to go to the doctor.” (mainly funny because she wasn’t at all sick at the time)

After asking Maddy if she enjoyed her visit to Yahoo! the other day, she said “Yes! I had fun playing with Sheila! Tomorrow I go to Sydney’s house and play with Sydney, okay?”

Maddy hugged Hayden and said “sisters forever” (Dave taught her that).

When I came home from work, Maddy said “mommy I’m so glad you come home.”

Maddy loaded up my backpack one day and said: “Mommy, I’m going to my work-job now, bye!”

Maddy’s favorite word: “actually.” You’d be surprised in how many contexts she can use it.

Whenever I turned on the garbage disposal, Maddy used to run into the other room. Now, she instead runs over to Hayden and wraps her in her arms to protect her

Maddy: “I’m just going to read my pumpkin book because I love it it’s my favorite one.” (that’s the Halloween book Leigh gave her)

Maddy as I was running up the stairs to answer my phone: “Mommy, be careful!”

Maddy’s becoming very expressive of her emotions. Some common statements from her these days include:

- I don’t like you!
- I need attention.
- I’m lonely.
- Carry me!
- I need to be alone.
- Go upstairs and work so I can play with Boi (our nanny).

She also says many happier and endearing things, like “Mommy, let’s eat together!” or “Mommy, let’s sit on the couch with Hayden.”

She also loves to play doctor ever since she saw her big cousin Sage playing doctor over Skype. The other night when we were Skyping with my mom, she explained in detail that she was a doctor helping take care of Hayden because Hayden was sick because she fell off the chair and bumped her head. Not at all true, by the way.

She still loves to read books and has started “reading” them alone more often, which I love. Her favorite this week is a book about going to the aquarium, which her Auntie Leigh gave her after we all went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium together. The book lists the names of many many kinds of fish, and I noticed last night that Maddy had memorized a bunch of them – like the Lookdown fish, Parrotfish and Jawfish. Every time we read it, she is sure to inform me that she doesn’t like the crab, but her favorite is the seahorse.

Still not much progress on the potty, but she tries often and has success occasionally.