November 29, 2006

Ok, now that we’ve got Hayes a helmet that he refuses to take off for $15 on craigslist, anyone have any idea how to find him a pair of skis/bindings/boots that don’t cost us more than a new TV? Anyone? Please, help now.

October 24, 2006

Hayes wants to poop. He says: “Poop with elmo! Poop with elmo! Mama, up!”

Mama picks him up and brings him to the bathroom. She removes his diaper and sits him on his elmo toilet seat, positioned to Hayes’ spec, on top of a the real toilet seat.

Hayes wants to read. He says: “Want to read, mama.”

He shrugs off all the usual go-to books. Hayes narrows it down to The New Yorker and a Flor catalogue.

Hayes pees. This is nothing new, Hayes has self-taught himself to pee on command so he can play with the toilet paper when he’s done.

Now he wants to read with dad.

“Read with dada! Mama, read with dada.”

Jen calls me into the bathroom and tells me Hayes wants to read with me. She leaves. Hayes has narrowed down his selection to the Flor catalogue, so he hands me The New Yorker. Nice pick, I haven’t read it yet.

“Dada, read!” Hayes insists.

I read. Hayes reads. Mama chuckles silently outside the door. This goes on for a few more minutes. Hayes is now done with reading and the potty. “All done,” he announces.

Jen returns and lifts him off the toilet. We peer in expecting nothing. Poop! Tons and tons of poop! The kind both of us were glad we didn’t have to change.

Hayes pooped while sitting on his potty!

Yes, a big Saturday in the Sagalyn household.

October 16, 2006

This weekend Hayes discovered one of the many joys of living in New England: apple picking.

We took a Saturday trip to Echo Hill Orchard near my parent’s house. No one was sure what Hayes would think of picking apples, but from doing it pre-Hayes I knew there was a tractor involved, so I figured at least we’d have that.

Turns out, he knew exactly what an apple was, despite the fact that he has yet to have one, and really, really wanted to eat one.

As you may know, we’ve been keeping Hayes away from fruit due to an unfortunate rash he develops… around… the… uhm, diaper area. But, what the heck, it was apple picking, so why not make an exception (or, better still find out for sure if apples are a cause).

Guess what? He loved em. And now problems. At first he ran around the orchard yelling “Apple!” Then, after the novelty of it all wore off, he contentedly ran around chewing his apple and pointing to other apples in hopes that my sister might hoist him up so he could get a better look.

Yes, it was good times. Tomorrow, I’ll give you a lowdown on the tractor part.

September 22, 2006

Now that Hayes has learned to say “Pee and Poop” in the same protracted 20-month-old-type sentence, he’s become obsessed with going to the bathroom. Even when he doesn’t have to. On Wednesday, he told me he needed to “pee.” I asked if he really needed to pee. “Uh-hu,” was his reply

I took him to the bathroom, where he asked us to put his potty (an aside: keeping the potty in the bathroom has stopped Hayes’ other potty-based behavior: putting the potty on his head). I took of his diapers, he sat on hi spotty for about 30 seconds. Asked what his penis was (for the millionth time, no lie) and then pointed to the real toilet and said “Dada, pee!” I didn’t have to, but he was clearly more interested in me peeing then him. Despite this obvious fact, Hayes’ was none-too-pleased for me to put his diaper back on.

Yesterday he told Jen when she got home that he needed to “Pee and poop.” With the nanny still there, she took him to the bathroom. He sat for thirty seconds, then got up and wanted Jen to pee. Unlike me, however, Jen neglected to the put the diaper back on when he got up. Hayes reiterated his need to pee then proceeded to be on the floor and laugh. “Better than on me, I guess,” Jen said upon telling me the story. True.

Still, this potty training thing has come on fast and furious and Hayes seems to be leading the way. Wonder when he’ll think going to the bathroom is more interesting than playing with the associated bathroom accompaniments. Though, truth be toold, peeing on the floor would be kind of fun, as long as you didn’d need to clean it up. You know, in that “i broke the law type of way.” It would be. Really. You’re just jealous.

August 28, 2006

Technically the year and a half mark is a month behind us, but on Friday, we finally had Hayes’ 18 month check up. I guess I could draw a parrallel between this and our propensity to get late oil changes, but I’m really not sure how that would go… so… anyway… on to the stats/

Hayes is in the 80th percentile in height and weight (28.5lbs) — in other words, he’s slowing down his growth. His head is still big, but not as big, at 90%. According to our doctor, he’s talking at a 2 year old level. As such, it has been recommended that we start socializing him more with 2 year-old-types.

Which, bring us to our weekend. It was another great twin weekend, this time at our home, not in Maine. As usual, it went really well. It’s great to have friends that share lots of our same interests with children around the same age as Hayes. It’s been hard for us to keep in touch with our friends without kids or with older kids, because, when it comes down to it, if Hayes ain’t entertained, we may as well be hanging out with no one.

With the twins, however, Hayes is very entertained. Fact is, not only does he seem to have a good time, he also seems to be content letting the twins do the yelling and screaming, banging and throwing, as he sits back with a “my work here is done attitude.” As an extra added bonus, Hayes always seems to pick up some new words from the twins — this time lot of new words. Among them “mine” and “my turn.” Yup, he’s got that pronoun thing working now.

July 31, 2006

Hayes inadvertently became a latch key kid for what seemed like 15 minutes, but was probably closer to 5, when we locked him in the house and us out yesterday. Yes, by the wonders of technology, we were able to lock ourselves out of the house, while keeping Hayes locked in. And boy was it fun!

What followed seemed like a bad movie. We could see the keys in the mudroom, right above Hayes’ head and a relatively easy spot for Hayes. On. Any. Other. Day. Yesterday, however, he forgot what up was, what keys were, what pants were and what bring is. If he could have understood a couple of those, we probably could have gotten him to get us the keys through the mail slot.

Instead, it went something like this:

“Hayes! Get the keys!”
“ouh?”
“Hayes, look up!”
“Go outside?”
“Hayes, yes, go outside. Turn the knob”
He wiggles the knob.
“Go outside?”
“Hayes, turn around and look up.”
“ouh?”
“Hayes get the keys”
“TC?” Hayes attacks the cat (TC) who proceeds to bite him. Hayes laughs.
“Hayes, get moma’s pants!” Jen’s pants also have keys in them and are on the mudroom floor.
“Ou?”
And on. And on.
This continued for what seemed like 17 hours until Hayes got bored and left. Jen tried to coax him back, but a quick decision had to be made. As they say with toddlers, “Out of site, into trouble.” Actually, I just made that saying up, but they should say it. Thats when the hammer came out and the glass on the door went “bye-bye.” I reached through the hole in the glass, opened the door and sprinted to find Hayes. Not in the kitchen. I run into the family room and there’s Hayes playing with legos.
“Go outside?” Yah, maybe later.