A Trip to Marina Jack's

This morning Brian and I took Hayley to one of our favorite pre-Hayley places, Marina Jack's. It's a great park that jets out into Sarasota Bay with lots of grass, shade trees, and beautiful views of the bay. We used to love to just sit and read on a Sunday and watch the boats go by.

Now that we've entered our Hayley era, Marina Jack's is still one of our favorite places and I think it will probably be one of Hayley's, but for a different reason. After all, there are no lazy days, SITTING, and watching the boats go by anymore! (At least we can still enjoy the ocean view, right?) Not when there is a splash park and lots of room for a little Hayley to run around! I took a TON of pictures, but it is virtually impossible to get a non-action shot of Hayley at this point in her life.

Marina Jack's Splash Park

Hayley Boot Camp

Little did I know that when I gave birth to Hayley, I was giving birth to my own personal trainer. She gives me a good cardio workout all day long chasing after, and when I'm actually in the midst of a scheduled workout she's relentless. Hayley has always been fond of going for rides in her jogging stroller. She's made it quite clear that the faster I push her the better. For the past few months she's literally started yelling at me if I stop my run to take a walk break. I'm not quite sure exactly what she is yelling, but it doesn't sound very nice!

Since we're in the middle of a hot summer, I've started doing some workouts in the pool while Hayley is in there with me. I'll do pushups on the sun deck and count out loud. She thinks this is absolutely hilarious until I get to the end and she starts yelling at me to do more. I've tried to explain to her that they're hard and she should try some, but she won't take any excuses. After pushups, I stick Hayley in her swim boat and use it as a kickboard while I do laps in the pool. I know it doesn't sound hard, but believe me, it's harder then it looks (ask Brian) and really makes my legs burn. As I kick-push Hayley back and forth across the pool, she's now started yelling "kick, kick, kick" at me! "Yes Drill Sergeant Hayley!" Sheesh!

We've had a busy week as I've had clients in town and Hayley has spent time at Nana and Papa's. We did make it to PlayAway today. Hayley is starting to get a better feel for the flow of the class and is participating more in each of the activities. She absolutely loves bubbles right now. Despite being very active, Hayley is usually very sweet and gentle with the other children. Except for yesterday when that darn "Gregory" came over and started popping the bubbles that Hayley was going for. Gregory is about an inch taller than Hayley and he could reach the bubbles first. Of course Hayley didn't try to push or hit "Gregory," but if looks could kill... I'm afraid by the end of our class Hayley is going to let "Gregory" know not to mess with her!

Romper Room

This morning I added an extra scoop of protein powder to my usual morning smoothie, dressed Hayley in one of her sweeter, more innocent looking outfits, put a girly pink bow in her hair, and we headed out for another adventure at PlayAway. There were a lot more moms seeking toddler entertaining refuge from the summer heat this week, and our class was packed with about 20 babies. As we walked in the front door, Hayley took one look and nearly lept out of my arms. Unable to contain her, I set her down and "Flash" took off across the room, yelling. "Hurricane Hayley" likes to make an entrance you know, much to her introverted mother's dismay.

Luckily, Hayley seemed a little more interested this week in the group songs. However she was certain to embarass me with her new found desire to steal all things round and being enjoyed by another child. Yes, Hayley has developed a strong fondness of balls. She runs around our house playing soccer now and despite the fact that there must be over 50 different balls at PlayAway Hayley wasn't about to let any other children enjoy the balls. I was mortified as she kept walking off and taking balls out of the hands of the floor ridden crawlers. I chased after her, apologizing to the victims mother and I know they were thinking, "that woman needs to get her child under control." And believe me, I will, just as soon as I can catch her!!

Hayley ran up to two of the 18 month old boys who were playing with a ball. They were bigger than her, but definitely not faster. And intimidated she was not. She snatched the ball right out of Gregory's* hands. (*names have been changed to protect the innocent) He looked at her, yelled "mine," and promptly snatched the ball right back. Hayley stepped back stunned, gave him "the look," and attempted to take the ball back which led to a Hayley and Gregory tug-of-war match. By that time I had reached my little thief and directed her attention elsewhere. I'm pretty sure Hayley would have ended up with that ball had I let the tugging continue. She might be little, but boy is she tough.

All in all, we had a good hour of organized play and arrived home in time for lunch and a few rounds of "Chase Chloe with the biscuit" before naptime. Speaking of biscuits... I'm not sure who enjoys eating them more at this point, Chloe or Hayley... but that's a whole other story!

What am I in for?

Hayley is creating quite the reputation for herself and I'm not certain it's a good one! Today was the second time someone mentioned the term "hurricane" with my daughter's name behind it! Of course by this point I've realized that "Hurricane Hayley" is a little busy body, which was why we decided to try a class at Play Away today, a gym for the little ones just down the road from our house. It's a lot like Gymboree, but they offer a lot of fitness and dance classes to the preschool and elementary age as well. The facility is great because there are mats everywhere and tons of things for the kids to play on. Hayley obviously loved all the equipment, so much so that she pretty much refused to participate in the class! Oh she'd come to the circle and join us for a second or two (literally) before running off to find something new. I tried to make her sit in my lap and sing songs for a bit, but of course that only made her mad which was actually more embarassing then just letting her run wild around the room. And below are the answers to the standard question that every mother asks me upon observing Hayley for a few moments:
1.) Is she always this... energetic (wild is what they really want to say)? Yes
2.) Does she only have one speed? Yes, extra fast
3.) What age did she start walking? Hayley never walked, but she did start RUNNING at 10 months - Yes, it's been 5 months now that I've been trying to keep up with Speedy Gonzalez here. I'm considering getting myself a trainer because it's becoming obvious that I'm going to need more than a few protein shakes to keep me one step ahead of my little speed demon.

So in light of Hayley's adventurous attitude, lack of fear, and speed, we've determined it necessary to enroll Hayley in ISR classes. As we've mentioned before, Hayley loves the water and has no hesitation about jumping in our pool. Scary. Luckily, we have a great instructor close by that teaches these survival swimming lessons for 6 month to 6 year olds. It's amazing because this program really teaches babies to first survive and then swim. Basically, the babies learn to swim - back float - swim. It's a very big committment as we have to attend a lesson every weekday for 10 minutes for a period of 4-6 weeks, but the peace of mind will definitely be worth it. We start class at the end of August and are looking forward to the new skills Hayley will develop.

In an effort to help teach Hayley the sounds that each animal makes, I bought her the magentic Leap Frog Fridge Farm. Little did I realize that not only does this wonderful toy make animal sounds, but Farmer Tad also plays the banjo. The good news is that Hayley loves this toy so far. The bad news is that Hayley has decided that she isn't interested in the animals and would much rather hear Farmer Tad play the banjo all day. I'd like to personally thank the creator of this toy!!


Daddy and Hayley after the SOCOM Change of Command

Uh oh, Cheerios!

Our good friend, Army Rob, was in Florida last week and drove down to visit Hayley (and Mommy and Daddy) on Friday night. Hayley was quick to introduce Rob to life with Hayley and amazed him with the amount of food she can eat.

So this morning Hayley was finishing up her morning Cheerios and just babbling away all the while. I grabbed the video camera in hopes of getting some of her talking on video. The second I turned the camera on, she started dropping Cheerios from her high chair. This food dropping trick has been going on for quite sometime and we've been trying to let Hayley know that dropping food on the floor is a no-no. We're certain she knows that dropping food is a no-no, and this video proves it! We haven't used the term "uh oh" for much other than just trying to get her to make sounds, so were surprised that she related "uh oh" to something she knew she wasn't supposed to do!

Keeping Cool in the Pool

Of course we spent part of the weekend in the pool! Here's some video of Hayley's new found trick of jumping in the pool. This baby has no fear!