You're a Mean One...

Haley loves Dr. Seuss's Grinch.  I mean she LOVES the Grinch.

When she is on her laptop she is either looking at steam engine videos, Schleich animals or Grinch merch.  She does more than that, but at any given moment you might see one of those things on the screen.  She multitasks, so she could also be watching a DVD at the same time.  

She has figured out that if she places her mouse just right a very tiny image of her chosen video will pop up so that she can surf the net and watch a movie at the same time.  

No one can every convince me that she isn't smart.

This summer Haley brought her iPod to me.  Usually when she does that she wants me to turn it on for her.  So I turned it on.  That was not what she wanted.  She got really agitated.  She wanted me to follow her.  I did.

She brought me to my desk (which she has taken over) and pointed at the screen.  She was on iTunes.  She had the soundtrack to "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" highlighted.  She was previewing the song "Your a Mean One Mr. Grinch."  She thrust her iPod at me.

"You want that song on your iPod?"  I asked.

"Yeah."  she said.

"Well, I can do that."  I told her.

It took me a few minutes because I had to open my iTunes account on my laptop to buy the song and then I took her iPod and connected it to my laptop.  When I had the song on her iPod I turned it on and handed it back to her.  

She was tickled pink.

It is the simple things in life that make it worthwhile, don't you think?

~ 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.

Oh Baby

During the 8th Grade Celebration the other day at Haley's school they had a DJ.  The DJ was "spinning" the latest hits.  My daughter was diggin' it. 

When the music started she immediately started heading for the dance area.  I was walking beside her and I heard her singing. 

I had my camera ready. 

Just look at what I got!

I found out a little later that Haley and her classmates frequently dance and sing to the latest hits in class on Fridays.

The funniest thing about this that I have found Haley looking up Justin Beiber on the Internet. 

Her Big Sis is not a fan.



We Will Rock You

I am so lucky. 

I love Rock-n-Roll and my kids seem to share my taste in music. 

The other day we were driving home with the radio tuned to my favorite station. 

Queen came on.  "We Will Rock You."

From the back seat I hear...

Stomp. Stomp. Clap.

Stomp. Stomp. Clap. 

I turn around to see Haley stomping and clapping to the music.  I turn back to the street and smile.

Next thing I hear is singing.

Haley and her Big Sis were both singing.

To one of my favorite songs.

I love those kids.

Haley's Hobby

Haley's hobby, of watching trains, that she shares with her Dad means something else to her Dad.  He likes to watch them go by, just as much as Haley does, but he also likes to take pictures of them.  He is not the only one.  There is a whole society of people that like to take pictures of trains going by.  Not only do they like to take these pictures but they like to share them with each other.

My husband belongs to several groups that post pictures of the trains that they take online.   They also like to get together occasionally and look at each others pictures.  A couple of years ago my husband got together with some friends and set their pictures to music and they made a night of it watching their shows, having dinner and drinks and just enjoying their mutual hobby.

My husband became the video guru.  People send their photo montages (set to music) to him and he makes sure that they will run smoothly.  Then at the appointed time he runs all of the shows for the group from his computer on a big screen.

The advantage to this is that Haley is left with a plethora of train pictures set to music.  She gets immense joy from watching these shows.  The people that make these shows know that they will be enjoyed by their friends for an evening.  I bet they have no idea how much joy they give to one little girl forevermore.

The weekend is coming up where everyone will get together and share their shows and so my husband has been previewing a lot of shows, making sure that they will be presented without a problem.  Haley has been enjoying them.  She also had gotten into looking at the shows that we still have from several years past.

The fun thing for me is that in general the music is good, so when Haley wants to watch the shows I enjoy the music.  This weekend Haley watched the shows over and over again.  She sang at the top of her lungs along with some of the songs.  She had a great time.

She was so in to it on Sunday evening that I could hear her from downstairs.  She had the show on pretty loud and she was going from the computer room to our bedroom and back singing along. 

Pretty soon I couldn't hear her singing anymore. 

I went upstairs to put her to bed and I found her sitting at the computer with her legs crossed on the table, her hand on the mouse and her head on the back of the chair.  She was nodding off, just about asleep.  I gently got her up and turned off her show and put her in bed. 

She was so happy to watch those shows and she really got in to the music.  I think she had worn herself out. 

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.