So soft...

When we visited Grandma and Grandpa a while back Haley's Grandma gave me a top and a sweater.  She didn't specify why she didn't want them she just told me if I wanted them that was great and if I didn't she wouldn't be offended.

I took them home and tried them on.

They both fit, but they really weren't my style.

I had a feeling that they would be someone's style, however.  Haley's.

I put them in her room and waited.  Sure enough, a little while later she brought me the sweater.  She stood there holding it with a question on her face.  I told her that it was from her Grandma and she immediately wanted to put it on.  She rubbed the sleeve and declared that it was "So soft!"

I mentioned that it smelled nice, it still smelled like Grandma. 

That did it.

That sweater became the most important article of clothing that Haley owns.  That is saying a lot, because Haley loves clothes.  Haley also has a drawer full of t-shirts depticting her favorite trains and steam engines and yet this sweater is her favorite.

She wants to wear it all of the time.  Even when it is not appropriate.  I hate seeing her walking around in a sweater when it is 80 degrees, but she does it.

As soon as she comes home from school she gets the sweater and puts it on.  Then she walks around rubbing the sleeve up and down saying "So soft..." and "Smells good..." even though it has been washed numerous times and no longer smells like Grandma.

One day Haley's Big Sis asked me why I don't put the sweater on her to go to school.  I hadn't really thought about it, but I really didn't really have an answer for her.  So the next day I made sure that Haley's outfit would coordinate with the sweater and I put it on her.  I buttoned the top button and sent her to school.

She came home with the sweater still on, even though it was very warm.  I realized that I should write this post about the sweater (Grandma doesn't know yet how important it has become) and I wanted to take a picture of Haley in it.  Haley was not in the mood to get her picture taken, but I got one smile.

This is Haley rubbing the sleeve.

She wanted to wear it again the next day.  She picked out a shirt that went pretty well with it so I let her.  She wanted it buttoned all the way up.  When she came home it was really too warm to wear it and I tried to explain that to her.  She wouldn't take it off.

A little while later she came up to me and patted her stomach proudly.  I could not figure out what she was trying to tell me.  She wanted me to follow her.  I did.  She pointed to the sweater on the chair and patted her tummy again.  I realized that she was trying to show me that she had taken the sweater off.

"Oh, you took the sweater off?  Is that more comfortable?"

"Yeah, better." she said.

Luckily Haley wanted to wear something else this morning. 

The other top that we got from Grandma.

Ticket to Ride

On Sunday we went for a ride on the Holiday Express.  This years train was pulled by the 4449 Daylight, one of Haley's favorite steam engines.  The day was very rainy, but not cold. 

Haley loved the ride as evidenced by her brightly colored cheeks.

She loved that she could hear the Daylight's whistle from her seat in the plush festively decorated car.

She got very excited when Santa Claus came through the car with jingle bells ringing saying "Ho Ho Ho," but she was most excited to go shopping.

The Oregon Rail Heritage Foundation set up a tent so that people can wait in line for the train out of the elements and also so that they can peruse the items that they are selling to support the building of the new roundhouse that will some day house the SP 4449 Daylight, the SP&S 700 and the OR&N 197.  Haley gleefully took every written piece of information about her favorite engines which included the Newsletter that updated us on the state of the new roundhouse.  The newsletter is well done and it makes us really excited to see construction begin.

Haley loves shopping.  She kept talking about shopping for clothes, which she did, but shopping for anything with the Daylight, it's logo or the 700 and it's logo on it is her favorite kind of shopping.  Haley bought two t-shirts and a new jacket.  The first picture on this blog is one of the t-shirts she got.

This is the shirt that shows all three engines.

Here is her Daylight jacket.

I have been eyeing the jacket for awhile, I just really wanted to try it on her so this was the perfect opportunity.  Haley also got a DVD about the Holiday Express.

We would love to support the building of the new roundhouse even more if we could.  The only times that we can experience these engines is when they are out on excursions, the rest of the time they are locked up tight inside a building that is too dangerous to visit.  We look forward to the day that we can go to OMSI and buy a ticket and visit these big beautiful engines whenever we want to, but until that day comes we will continue to do our part to support the work of the ORHF by letting Haley shop.

Peace

Haley is all about peace.  The symbol that is. 

For some reason the peace symbol resonates with her.  She has had an affinity for it for many years.  When she is shopping she is drawn to it like a magnet.  At first I didn't realize how pervasive it has become until I was folding her clothes one day and I noticed that t-shirt after t-shirt had the peace symbol on it in some fashion.

It has become quite the running joke in our house.  Well, especially between Haley's Big Sis and I.  If we see something with a peace symbol on it we know it is just a matter of time before Haley will notice it.  When we get catalogs in the mail, or the circulars in the paper we know that Haley will point out the peace symbols.

We recently got the new catalog for Pottery Barn Teen which has many things in it covered in peace symbols.  They call the line Berkeley.  When I saw it I immediately thought of Haley.  Her birthday is coming up and I don't have a present for her yet.  She has been giving me clues that she might like some new luggage, this is something she frequently points out in newspaper ads.

I don't know why she wants new luggage.  She used to have a small pullman that came with a matching backpack, fanny pack and sleeping bag that Grandma C gave her.  It became too small for our use when her legs got so long.  I have to fold her pants many times to get them to fit.  If we are packing for more than two days it gets way too full.  I donated the whole set recently.  We have been packing her clothes in my suitcase when we travel.  I guess she has decided she doesn't want to share with me.

The PB Teen catalog has bedding in the Berkeley motif as well, so I am thinking that would also make a fun gift.  She got a hold of the catalog the other day and noticed all of the peace symbols immediately.

As I am typing this the catalog is sitting on the table, she just walked by and pointed to the backpack on the back of the catalog and said "Peace."

Peace, Baby.

Haley's iPod

Haley loves music.  She likes to listen to music and she likes to sing along.  Haley's favorite songs are from her favorite shows.  She has CD's of the soundtracks for The Road to El Dorado and Spirit Stallion of the Cimmaron as well as three Disney CD's that are compilations of songs from Disney shows way back to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and all the way up to The Lion King.

I think Haley likes these songs for two reasons.  First they are great songs and second they remind her of her favorite shows.  The soundtracks contain songs that happen underneath the action in her movies not just the songs that the characters sing.  She gets excited when those songs come on because she is remembering the action.

Haley likes to listen to her CD's in the car when we go on long trips. We live quite a ways away from both sides of our family so when we visit them we can have anywhere from a three hour trip to a trip that lasts two days.  My husband and I have also been able to slip in a couple of Elton John CD's on those long trips so we don't go crazy.  She is used to his voice.

We had a stereo system in the house and I was listening to a CD once when Haley got home from school.  She put two and two together and brought me her CD to listen to in the house.  She loved it.  She also had a CD of the sounds of they Daylight which I think she and her dad listened to really loud when I wasn't home.

I was turned on to the concept of the iPod a couple of years ago and I really love it.  I have two myself, one for walking and one that I can put on portable speakers.  We remodeled the first floor last year and I decided that we didn't need that great big stereo system because I could just listen to my iPod on the speakers, but that left Haley out.

So for Haley's birthday last year I decided that it would be fun for her to have her music on an iPod.  I thought it would be a way for her to have her music with her whenever she wanted instead of just when we were on long trips.  I got a shuffle for her and a little speaker that attaches to it because I didn't want to get her ear buds. 

She was so amazed when she opened that present. She didn't understand what I had given her until I turned it on.

We are still working on not holding up to her ear.  I keep it pretty quiet, but this was her first reaction.

Look at that face, she was ecstatic.

Should I be worried?

Since Haley was very small she has loved to watch videos.  I would love to be able to say "When she was three..." but I can't.  As I sit here I have remembrances of Haley but I couldn't tell you how old she was when she did things. 

I haven't been very good about documenting Haley's life up until now.  Her baby book is empty.  In my defense it isn't because I didn't want to fill it out, she didn't have all of the little milestones that parents can record in her first year.  Haley didn't roll over at four months like her sister.  She didn't crawl before she turned one.  She didn't actually walk until she was two and half, and that she did in therapy so I didn't even have a camera or camcorder with me to capture it.  My memories are scattered so I will do my best to guess, but that is all they are; guesses.

Anyway, for as long as I can remember Haley has loved to watch videos and it was at a very early age that I realized that Haley is partial to villains.  I remember watching Lion King with her for the first time.  I was a little worried because it can be kind of scary (like most Disney cartoons) and I wasn't sure how she would react.  Imagine my surprise at her reaction to Scar, she loved him.  She would laugh when he was on the screen, I would almost say cackle.  The first scene that we meet Scar he grabs the poor mouse and lifts him up to taunt him, she loves that scene.  Later on in the movie when he is doing the same thing to his brother before he throws him from a cliff she also cackles.

That is not her only favorite character.  Haley loves Cruella De Ville.  She loves her in the cartoon as well as in the live action versions.  I will admit that I think Glenn Close did a phenomenal job in that role, but I really think that she is one of Haley's favorite characters.  When I say favorite that is not an easy thing to qualify.  Haley doesn't really seem to get the concept of "favorite."  We have asked her to name her favorite food, color, toy, drink, cereal, train engine, you name it, she just gives us a blank look.  I am basing my assumption that these characters are her favorites by her reactions to them, also the fact that she will actively seek them out not only on her videos, but also on YouTube (which is a subject for another day.)

Some of her other favorites are; Tzekel-Kan in The Road to El Dorado, the Beast in Beauty and the Beast, the grasshopper in a bug's life, Hades in Hercules, the wicked queen in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and Maleficent in Sleeping Beauty.  Haley is a very gentle person.  She pets animals with care.  She likes to give her toys loves and kisses.  I don't know about this darker side.  Should I be worried?