What Haley does on the Computer

I have been asked "What does Haley do on the computer?

Well, she does a lot.  She goes on YouTube and she watches shows that she likes like The Lion King, How the Grinch Stole Christmas and The Road to El Dorado.  She also watches videos that other people make using those same movies and others.  Those are her top three though.

She searches for those same movies, somehow, I really don't know how she does it, but sometimes she is on eBay looking at Grinch merchandise and $400 Daylight models.

Sometimes she finds videos like Tarzan and she does this:

 

This was just a small portion of the time that spent giggling at this video.  She just kept hitting play again and again.  I think she was at it for at least an hour.

The other day I walked around the corner to find her doing this:

In this case she was watching a DVD of Back to the Future III.  I was so excited to see this.  She was playing.  She was mimicking, sort of, but there was a lot of imagination happening.

Of course I didn't have my camera.  

I had to run and get it and by the time I got back the movie had moved on and she wasn't doing it any more.  So I asked her if she would do it again.  Now I don't know why I thought she would because she has a track record of never performing for me.  I imagine that she would say "I am not a trick pony, Mom!"  

Well, this day was different.  

She was more than happy to oblige.  I reversed the video back to the part where Marty and Doc are riding their horses really fast and she put her dolls back on their horses and she did it again.  

That was new.

You may be wondering why the keyboard is red.  Well, that is another story entirely.  

The other thing that Haley does when she is on the computer is concentrate.  She concentrates so hard on what she is watching on the screen that she drools.  We learned the hard way that drool is not good for a laptop keyboard.  She shorted it out recently.  It seems that there was a puddle in the keyboard.  It sat that way over night.  

The next morning the keyboard did not work.  

Haley doesn't really use the keyboard.  She mainly uses the mouse and sometimes hits the space bar.  She didn't miss the keyboard that much.  The rest of us did, so we had to buy a new one for the laptop.  We put plastic wrap over the keyboard to prevent that from happening again.  My husband found a little plastic keyboard cover recently that he put over the new laptop keyboard.  It seems to be working pretty well.

So that is what Haley does on the computer.

Repetition

As I sit down to write today's post I realize that what I am about to tell you will seem very familiar.  After all it has been established that she has a One Track Mind.

Haley is anticipating a trip.  She wants to pack.  She is excited. 

As much as I have told her the actual day that we are going to leave she still wakes up every morning expecting today to be the day.  I tell her which day we are leaving and then we have a ten minute discussion about it. 

Her repeating her questions. 

Me repeating my answers.

She points at the calendar about twenty times a day.

This is my life.  It is the way it has been all summer.  All two weeks of it.  First Haley anticipated seeing the Daylight.  Then she saw it.  Then her birthday.  Then the fireworks.  Now Haley is anticipating our next trip.

When I think about the things that I could write in this blog I am sometimes at a loss.  I feel like I am just repeating myself.  Sometimes something happens that is just so precious or so maddening and I feel like I must share.  It is usually a desire on my part to share.  I like to share her funnies with her Dad and her Sister, but sometimes they are with me and so I must share with you.

But.  Sometimes nothing interesting happens.  Sometimes it is the same thing every day.  And by the same thing, I mean the SAME THING.

Haley wakes up before the rest of us.  She goes to the computer.  She looks at YouTube or the Daylight sight or the Disney site or the dolls site that she likes.  She takes a virtual walk through town, or through her Grandparents town.

I wake up and we eat breakfast.

She goes back to the computer or she wants to watch a show.  If she watches a show once you can bet she will watch it at least eight times in a day.

If I don't have something specific planned this is what she does.

If we are planning on going somewhere and she knows about it.  We have the discussions.  All day.  Every day.  Over and over and over.

Sometimes I just don't tell her.  Sometimes I spring it on her. 

She enjoys it just as much and I sure enjoy it more.

Going Around Town

It often amazes me the things that Haley can find on the Internet.  Lately she has been "walking" around town.

Occasionally I check out what she has on the computer screen.  Today she has been all over town on Google Maps.  I was not surprised to find her at the train station, I assume she found a link to it through one of the train sites that she frequents.  I was, however, surprised to find her at the airport.  I don't know how she did that.

My husband is responsible for her new hobby.

At some point he typed in his parents address on Google Maps and looked at an aerial view of their property.  Haley saw it and recognized it as Grandma and Grandpa's house.  The funny thing is that you can even see Heather in the picture.  That map is saved in Haley's favorites and she often visits it. 

She knows how to find aerial maps and then she looks at the street view, then she moves around.  She was in the center of a four lane road at one point today.  I said "Haley, what are you doing in the middle of the street?"  She just laughed.

She uses Google Maps to look around at the buildings, the cars and even the people (whose faces are blurred.)  She seems to be completely entertained.

It's kind of cool.  I don't want her out walking the streets by herself, but I don't mind if she does it in "virtual reality."

Isn't it amazing what you can do on the Internet?

Hamburger!

My weekend was better.  Big Sis had some medicine that finally put an end to the dizzy/headache and the sun was shining.  Haley and I and her Dad decided to go for a walk on Sunday.

We walked down by the river, which coincidentally is also by the railroad tracks, much to Haley's delight.  It was a beautiful day and there were a lot of other people that had the very same idea.  Haley got to see many dogs on our walk as well as boats and airplanes and trains.  She kept up with us very well too.

We walked past several restaurants on our walk.  Delicious smells were in the air.  Haley announced that she could smell a hamburger.  She decided she wanted a hamburger.  She tried to go in to the restaurant.  We told that we were on a walk, and that we would not be eating.  That didn't seem to deter her.  She tried to go into the next restaurant.

I told her that I was planning to make salmon burgers for dinner and that seemed to satisfy her for a while.

After our walk we stopped by the grocery store to get a few things.  She wanted to get a hamburger there.  I again explained to her that I would be cooking dinner tonight at home and that we would be having salmon burgers.

We got home and because I was not going to start cooking, even though she wanted me to (it was only 3:00) she decided to go upstairs and play on the computer.  After a while she wanted help with her computer game.  She was playing a Spirit Stallion of the Cimmaron game which is strategy game, you have to save a horse to move on to the next level.  Haley has played this game many times and her favorite part is toward the end of the game.  There are railroad tracks and a steam engine.  She likes to get to that point, but it takes time and skill and I usually have to help her get to there.  I told her that I didn't want to play her game and that I needed to get started on dinner.  She clapped her hands and said "Yay!  Hamburger!"

I went downstairs and started making my salmon burgers.  Pretty soon Haley came in to the kitchen and went to the refrigerator.  She got out the catsup, the mustard and the pickle relish and put them on the table.  I thought about explaining the difference between salmon burgers and hamburgers, but I didn't.  After she had done what she thought needed to be done she went back upstairs.

When dinner was ready I called her down.  The salmon burgers I make are delicious, and she liked them the last time I served them.  Sunday night Haley did want my salmon burgers.  I got quite a look when she sat down and took a look at her plate.  Haley doesn't like to pick up her food.   She is happier using a fork or a spoon, so I usually help her eat sandwiches and tacos and burgers.  I held up the burger so she could take a bite.  I got another look.  Then she said "Hamburger!" 

She was not happy with me.

A horse of a different...name

Yesterday I walked in to the kitchen and there were some horses on our bar table.  A little later on I came back in to the kitchen and there were more horses on our bar table.  I asked Haley if they were having a party.  I still don't really know why they kept showing up, but it gave me an idea.

One of Haley's favorite things to look at on YouTube is the Schleich horse montages.  It is amazing to me what you can find on YouTube.  I haven't really done a lot of searching, but my daughter can find the most interesting things.  Kids, young girls mostly, like to put videos on YouTube of their Schleich animals set to music.  Sometimes they are in natural settings.  Sometimes they are just sitting on the shelves in their rooms.  Usually they are identified by the names the girls have given them.  Haley loves to see the horses that she owns on the screen, she calls them by the names we have given them.

Haley doesn't really name animals or dolls, for that matter.  I usually name them.  This came from necessity.  If she gets a new horse and we don't name it for her it will be named Horse, which would be fine, except sometimes she is looking frantically around the house for one of her horses and if it didn't have a name we would be in trouble.  Haley often sleeps with her horses and if she needs a certain horse to fall asleep it is really helpful to know which one she is in need of.  Ten horses all named Horse would be a problem.

The first Schleich horse Haley got was a gift from our neighbor.  Haley used to ride horses as part of her physical therapy and our neighbor brought her daughter to ride with us.  Haley's favorite horse at the riding center was called Chelsea.  The Schleich horse looked just like her, so she came with the name.  Over the years Haley has carried that horse so much that the coloring has completely worn off in places.  She is lame, but we haven't had the heart to put her down.  She fell from a considerable height one day, the second floor of our home.  Many of Haley's horses are missing ears and the very ends of their tales, but Haley loves them anyway.

Seeing all of her horses lined up like that I couldn't help getting out the camera and asking Haley to tell me their names.  When I type what Haley says I hear it in my head exactly how she says it, but you my dear reader are probably hearing your own voice in your head.  Now you can hear Haley's voice.  Enjoy.

After we made this video Haley went up to her room and brought down a few more horses.  She insisted that we name them as well.