Horses in the Mail

I told you earlier about how Haley started a new chart so that she could buy Daylight merchandise when her money was All Gone.  Well, it didn't last long.

One day this summer Haley came to me all excited and wanted me to follow her.  I did.  She took me to the desk where her laptop resides and she showed me the horse that was on the screen.  She does that sometimes.  She shows me Schleich horses and I say things like "That is a pretty horse." or "That is a Palomino."  or "What color is that horse, Haley?"  

We talk about the horses.

This particular day something new happened.  Instead of being satisfied with our usual banter Haley reached out and tried to grab the horse that was on the screen.  I wish I had known that she was going to do it so that I could have captured it on video. (yeah, right)  

Anyway, I know that she didn't think that she could pick up that horse off of the screen.  She was making a point.  And, when people are trying to make a point they will often repeat themselves.  

Haley did that.  

She tried to "grab" the horse again.  Then she looked at me in a way that said "I want that horse right there and I want it now."  I saw all of that on her face.  She didn't say it, of course.  What she did was walk over to the refrigerator and point at the chart and say "Money."  

See I told you she was smart.

So, picking up her hint, I said "Let's see.  The horse that you want is $5.99 and you have $15.00 on your chart.  So, yes, you have enough money that you could buy that horse."

She got that.

So I said "Are you sure that you want that horse?"

"Yeah."  she said.

"OK, then I will order it for you."

Then I sat down in front of her laptop and I clicked the button to put it in the cart.  Immediately after I did that I realized that it was probably a bad idea.  I thought that if I showed her how to buy a horse online I might have trouble down the road.  So I changed gears and said "Just a minute, I am going to buy your horse on my computer."  I left the room and went to fire up my laptop.  I found the site that she was shopping on and I found the horse and then I put it in the cart.

Then Haley came and got me again.

She showed me another horse that she wanted on the the same site.  I said "OK, you can get two horses, but that is all you have money for."  

She said "Two.  Horses." 

I said "Yes, just two horses."

She pointed to another horse.

I said "You need to pick which horse you want."

She looked for a bit and then pointed at one of the horses.  I said "OK, that is the horse you want?"

"Yeah."

So I went back to my computer and I found the other horse and put it in the cart.  I entered all of the shipping and payment information and then I asked her to come and look at the cart.  

"These are the horses that you want, right?"

"Yeah."

"OK, I am ordering them now and you will get them in the mail in a few days."

"Yeah."

So everyday she was very interested in the mail.  We were very lucky, they came quickly.  She was so excited when her horses arrived in the mail.  We opened the package and gave them both names.  They were her favorite horses for a couple of weeks.  She took them everywhere.  They even got to go to Yoga with her. 

Instead of starting a new chart Haley wanted me to write words on the Magic Whiteboard.  We wrote words like Grandma and Grandpa and tractor ride and marshmallows.  A week or so went by and then one day I asked her to help me take out the recycling.  She got up and came in to the kitchen and pointed at the white board on the refrigerator door and said "Money?"  

I said "Yes, I will give you money if you take out the recycling."

"Horses."

"Yes, if you earn enough money you can buy more horses."

"Yeah."

I think I have created a monster.

~ Haley's Mom

I am participating in 31 for 21 Blog Challenge this month. The challenge I have accepted is to blog every day in October to raise awareness for Down Syndrome. Learn more about Down Syndrome at the National Association of Down Syndrome.

Day Two

The second day of our trip we headed for Disney California Adventure Park.  We had walked through part of this park the day before because we were staying at the resort so we could enter the parks through the Disney's Grand Californian Hotel and Spa.  

We stopped at Starbucks for breakfast and then we rode our first ride in this park, The Little Mermaid - Ariel's Undersea Adventure.  They did a really job with this ride and we all really enjoyed it.

We spent quite a while in the Paradise Pier portion of the park.  As we walked through we noticed a commotion off to the left.  It was Jessie from Toy Story 2 - Haley and her Big Sis stood in line for a picture.  When we felt that we had our fill of that area we headed to the place where I most wanted to be, and I had a good feeling that Haley would like as well - Cars Land!

Cars Land is wonderful.  Radiator Springs is exactly like it is in the movie.  You walk right down the middle of the street that Lightning McQueen fixed up so well.  Haley got her picture taken with Mater and then later on with Lightning McQueen himself.  We had lunch at Flo's V-8 Cafe and shopped in all of the shops.  We didn't ride any of the rides however because the lines were really long and it was really hot.  Well, hot to those of us that come from the Pacific Northwest.  The humidity was doing us in.  We decided that it was time for our afternoon break again.

This time when we got back to the hotel I convinced Haley to climb in to her bed for her nap.  I thought that would be more comfortable than the couch.  She was happy to do it. I had told everyone that I wanted to be back in the park by 4:00pm because there were several things that we didn't want to miss.

When we returned we went straight to "a bug's land."  This is another wonderful environment that felt like we were right in the middle of the movie.  We went to the 3D adventure "It's Tough to be a Bug!"  There were several interesting moments in this one.  We were supposed to wear "bug eyes" - 3D glasses, but I noticed that Haley kept taking hers off, so I don't know how much she got out of the show.  Also to make it more realistic we were sprayed with "acid" and "felt" bugs around us.  Haley didn't like it much, but I kept saying it was funny and fun and hoped for the best.

The next ride was Heimlich's Chew Chew Train, it was really geared toward little kids.  Most of us didn't really get it.  After that it was time to find our places for the Pixar Play Parade.  We found a really nice shady spot right in front of a waterfall.  I am so glad we got to see this parade, it was all of the Pixar characters that Haley loves so much and it was done really well.  The thing that I didn't know and Haley didn't appreciate was that every float that went by squirted us with water.  There were even bubbles coming from the light standards.  It was really fun, but Haley doesn't like to get wet when it isn't her idea and she was getting pretty upset.  It was a good thing it was warm enough that we were dry shortly after the parade was over.

After the parade we headed back in to "a bug's land" and rode a few more rides.  It was such a cute area, I really loved the details.  The next thing on the schedule was Disney's Aladdin - A Musical Spectacular.  The show began 6:20 pm and I thought we had just enough time to get there.  When we came out of "a bug's land" there was the Red Car Trolley right there.  I thought it would take us where we wanted to go, so we all got on.  

Little did I know that it only made two stops, where we got on and at the very end.  So we got to see where we wanted to go as we went by and we saw a few more things that would be fun, but we had to hurry to get back to the Hyperion Theater.  We rushed up to the gate and I told the Cast Member that we had special seating (thanks to staying in the resort hotel) and we were rushed right in.  After we found what I think were probably the best seats in the house we realized that everyone else had been waiting in line for a while.

My brother and my husband were concerned, neither one of them is a fan of musicals.  I just smiled and hoped that they would not be too uncomfortable, because Aladdin is one of Haley's very favorite movies.  The show was amazing.  From the beginning it was as exciting and fun as the movie.  The genie was not Robin Williams, but he did a great job of creating his own special character and his jokes were very current.  The production was very professional and magical and I think it was worth the price of admission all by itself.  Haley loved every minute of it.  She sang during the songs and laughed at all of the jokes.

After the show we found a hot dog spot in Hollywood Land.  When the adventurous half of our group finished eating they headed off to ride the Grizzly River Run.  Haley really wanted to shop at the store across the street.  After that we went back to "a bug's life" to ride some more rides.  Our family found us there and we headed back to Cars Land.

Cars Land is beautiful at night.  Everything is lit up with neon and it looks just like it does in the movie.  I really wanted to be able to ride one of the rides in Cars Land so we decided to stand in line for Mater's Junkyard Jamboree.  Mater's Junkyard is decorated with all of his adventures and Mater sings a different song for each ride.  We stood in line for at least twenty minutes and I never got tired of listening to Mater.  I was concerned that the ride looked a little like the teacups and I did not want to be spun around, but it wasn't.  You are pulled in a car behind a "baby tractor" and it is like a giant square dance.  It was so much fun.  Haley and I and her Big Sis rode together, we had Haley in the middle.  We learned a lesson on this ride though, Haley was holding three Schliech horses while we were in line and I forgot to have her put them in her purse.  When the ride was over they were gone.  We frantically looked around the car and found all three of them, but it was a close one.

After our ride we got our picture taken in the middle of the street and then headed back to Hollywood Land.  My brother and his wife told us that we did not want to miss Turtle Talk with Crush and they were right.  It is an interactive show, Crush from Finding Nemo talks with the audience, he talked with my brother and his son and it was so much fun.  

As we were exiting Turtle Talk with Crush we saw a sign for Sorcerer's Workshop.  It was a really fun interactive place where we learned what Disney character we were most like;  Haley is like Nala from The Lion King. We also got to record our voices over scenes from our favorite Disney movies, Haley had a ball singing "Hakuna Matata".  My brother and his family decided to head back to the hotel after that.  Disney California Adventure Park closes an hour before Disneyland Park so we headed back over there.

Haley's Dad and Big Sis were ready for more fun so they took off ahead of us.  My Mom and Haley were really dragging as we entered Disneyland Park and Haley saw the Disneyland Railroad train again, so we decided to go on another ride around the park.  We were lucky we did because as we came back to the station that we started at they announced that it was the last trip of the day.  The train was heading in to the stable for the night.  

Haley and my Mom were done so we left the park and headed for our hotel.  My Mom and I were a little apprehensive about which direction to go, but Haley just kept pointing us in the right direction. 

Haley got us back to our hotel safely and we called it a day.

Rain Went Away

After Haley got dressed this morning she started looking for Rain.  Rain is one of Haley's favorite Schleich horses.  She was looking around her bed.  Her room is fairly clean though, and it was obvious that Rain was not on the floor.

Haley started to get upset.  As she does when one of her many horses goes missing.  I did not want her to be upset right before she left for school so I assured her that I would help her look for Rain as soon as she was ready for school.  We still needed to fix her hair and brush her teeth.  She complained as we did that (meaning that she grunted and moaned the entire time.)

Then she followed me around as I looked for Rain.

I had just cleaned the house a couple of days ago and I remember carrying a lot of horses from downstairs upstairs, but I didn't specifically remember Rain among them. 

Rain was not with the horses that are lined up on the half wall at the top of the stairs.  She was not in the stable, which for some reason was in my bedroom.  She was not with the horses that were napping on my desk, so gently tucked under the table cloth.

I looked under the couches.  I looked under the pillows and blankets on the couches.  I was convinced that she was not downstairs, so I went back up to Haley's room.  Haley didn't follow me.  She sat down on the couch to watch Beauty and the Beast.

Haley seemed to think that Rain should have been around the bed.  I flipped the covers.  Then I pulled the mattress away from the wall and there she was.

I carried her downstairs and when I walked in to the room Haley looked up.  She smiled.  "There she is."  she said.  I handed the horse to her and headed to the kitchen. 

"I happy now."

*What?*

"You are?" I said.

"Yeah."     "Smiling."     "Laughing."

It was like she was saying.  Duh, Mom, this is what it is like when I am happy.  I am smiling and I am laughing.  She said other things too, but it was hard to hear her over the sound of the angels in my head singing the Hallelujah Chorus.

She said a full sentence.  A sentence that I had never heard her say before.  A full sentence.

I happy now.

Me too.

Quiet Play

My daughter spends a lot of time on the computer.  I don't mind, obviously, because I think she is learning things.  She is learning skills about the computer, but she is also listening, which I think is a useful skill.  I would like her to do something else every once in a while, however.

It would seem that she has found something else to do.

 

She took her new stable into our bedroom to play with.

She has been at it for a while now. 

We can hear her talking. 

It is a wonderful sound.

The Top of the Heap

Meet Chelsea and Sandy, Haley's newest additions to her stable of Schleich horses.  We caught Haley admiring her horses while we were doing the dishes the night of her birthday.

Right now they are the horses of choice.  If we are going somewhere in the car they are the ones that get to come along,  They are the ones that get the honor of sitting on the table during meals.  They are the ones that she was clutching, one in each hand, this morning when I went in to her bedroom to wake her up.

I don't know if they will remain the horses of choice or if they will get bumped by someone new.  They may get relegated back to number two position by one of the senior horses in her stable.  We will have to wait and see.

Break it Up Back There

The horses have been at odds lately.  It is rather distressing.  The sound is strange and I did not know what was happening at first, but it has become all too clear.

The other day from the back of the car I heard a ruckus.  I couldn't see what was happening because I driving.  I stopped at a light and looked back to see that two of Haley's Schleich horses were battling it out.  Imagine the sound of small plastic animals smacking together rapidly.  I asked Haley what was going on and she said "fighting" - no joke. 

"Your horses are fighting?"

"Yeah."

"They must be sisters."  I say. 

At this Haley busts out laughing.  Raucous riotous laughter.  I couldn't help but join her.

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.