Happy Thanksgiving! November 27, 2007

Boy did I have a wonderful Thanksgiving!  I actually got four Thanksgivings.  That’s not bad for my first time!  The Sunday before Thanksgiving one of Mommy and Daddy’s friends, Hollie, had some friends over for a Thanksgiving meal while watching the Colts game.  (Speaking of which, what is going on with Adam Viniteri?  When did he become such a lame-o kicker?)  Then on Tuesday my day care had a Thanksgiving lunch and parents could come have lunch with their kids.  Mommy and Daddy came to the lunch and they sat in the infant room with me and ate their meal.  It was funny because they had to sit in these little kid chairs at a little kid table.  So silly!  Then Thursday was real Thanksgiving and we went to Grandpaman’s and Grandma G’s.  Mommy’s cousin Mandy came to celebrate Thanksgiving with us.  I love when she comes to visit because she has these fun nursery rhymes that she sings to me.  She brought all these photos of Mommy’s and her grandparents when they were young adults.  They had a great time looking through them all with Grandpaman and hearing stories about what my great grandparents were like.  It turns out my mommy looks a lot like my great grandma!  Mandy gave Mommy a beautiful picture of Great Grandma Harfst that she is going to scan in and put on this site soon so you can be the judge.  Daddy thinks Great Grandma Harfst was a hottie!

So back to all my Thanksgivings… Friday we went to Grandma and Grandpa Hammond’s for my final Thanksgiving.  I got to see my cousins Jesse and Robby and my aunts and uncles.  I had a lot of fun.  It won’t be long before I am causing all kinds of trouble with my big cousins!

Mommy’s friend Emily is in town from San Francisco, so last Monday she and Daddy went out to dinner with her, Reena, Sunil, Tom, and Tracy.  I stayed home and Grandpaman and Grandma G came over.  Mommy put me to sleep before she left, and I stayed asleep for about 45 minutes.  Then I woke up and it was time to PARTY!  Oh, they tried everything to get me to go back to sleep, but I laughed at their feeble attempts.  They thought I was going to sleep when I had my grandparents over?!  That is far to exciting for sleep!  We hung out; I made sure they didn’t steal anything.  It was the best!

This weekend we put up the Christmas tree and decorations.  I love looking at the twinkly lights on the Christmas tree.  Mommy says I have to be really good so Santa brings me lots of presents.  I said to her, ‘Mommy, haven’t you been paying attention?  I’ve been the best baby for nearly 4 months now!’  Sheesh — what is she like! 😛

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John in San Francisco November 18, 2007

John was away in San Francisco for a conference last week, from Sun – Fri. I don’t know why I do it to myself, but for some reason when he’s gone I watch this show Criminal Minds which is a drama about FBI profilers who work on these murder cases. John doesn’t really like the show so I save them to watch when he is not around. And then I turn off the TV and the episodes creep into my consciousness and make me paranoid. You would think I would learn to watch nice things like Sesame Street. You always feel good after watching Sesame Street.

We got on ok while John was gone, but of course the week was not without drama. On Tuesday when I went to Hayden’s daycare to feed him he started screaming at the top of his lungs for quite a while and didn’t really eat much. I figured he must not have been well because that is not like him, especially when it is me holding him. They called me in the afternoon and said he had a little temperature, so I picked him up early and talked to a nurse at his dr who thought he might have had an ear ache. He had a good night that night and was well enough (although not completely back to normal) the next day to go back to day care. He has been fine since.

Lucy threw up two different times while John was gone. She would be off doing her own thing elsewhere in the house, then run into the family room where I was and throw up three times. Thing is, she had alllllll this tile she could have thrown up on her way to the family room, but she had to get into the carpeted area where I was so I could 1) be there to witness the act and 2) get to clean it up off of the carpet instead of the easy tile. She is so thoughtful! 😉

Today was Emily’s baby shower. She is in town for Thanksgiving. It was a lovely day! I cannot believe she is already 30 weeks and due in two short months. She told me she was pregnant the day of my baby shower, and she was only 8 weeks then! Where does the time go? I took Hayden and everyone thought he looked just like me. Yessss! In your face, John! 😛

Random: Have you seen The Illusionist?  It’s a movie that is out on dvd now.  We watched it last weekend and it is fantastic.  See it.  Do it.

Bathtime! November 10, 2007

We have got Hayden into a routine now.  He gets a bath around 6.15 each night, he eats and is then rocked to sleep around 7pm.  He then wants feeding around 11pm, 4am, 7am and then up at 9am.  We are very happy with his new routine!  Bathtime is my piece – Kara tends to take care of the rest!

Bathtime is the best.  Hayden likes to splash around lots with both his arms and legs.  He loves bathtime.  He smiles all the time and we have lots of fun and I normally end up as wet as he does!  Until I get him out of the bath – then he cries and I hand him to his mum!! 🙂

Mandy November 9, 2007

My cousin Mandy came to visit last weekend.  It was the first time she had seen Hayden.  She is by far the busiest person I know.  She teaches middle school Spanish full time, is getting her masters, works part time at a hotel, and is doing an internship.  I need a nap just thinking about it all.  So it was very nice of her to come from the Chicago area to visit with us.  It was a really nice weekend.  Because she is so busy she didn’t mind just hanging out, catching up, and playing with Hayden.  We went on a nice walk in the afternoon and had a lovely meal out at a place we hadn’t been to before.

We started Hayden on a bedtime routine this week.  We tried this a few weeks ago but he wasn’t really ready for it then.  He’s taken to it pretty well so far!  We started on Monday.  He gets a bath, then baby massage, then feeding, then if he is still awake he gets a story.  But he has only gotten a story one night so far as he keeps falling asleep during his feeding.  Fine with us!  Daddy is in charge of the bath and baby massage.  He loves his bath but cries his head off when he gets out because he’s cold/tired/hungry.  So baby massage might get phased out since he doesn’t really seem to enjoy it – he just wants his pajamas on and to be fed!  Anyway, he’s done brilliantly so far.  For the last three nights he wakes up about 20 minutes after he’s put down and needs to be rocked back to sleep, but then he stays asleep until he needs to eat again.

I don’t have anything more to write about Halloween, but I just had to get a picture on here with Lucy in her outfit.  She just makes me laugh!  Too bad Abbey wouldn’t stay in her outfit long enough to get a pic of them both dressed up together.  They are two peas in a pod anymore.  The sleep in Lucy’s dog bed together.  It’s hilarious.

Trick or treat! November 7, 2007

Hayden went trick or treating last week.  He managed to come back with one bag of crisps, two chocolate bars.  He is very talented.  He slept through most of it though!!

Halloween is very different here.  Hundreds of kids running around the neighbourhood all reasonably content with just chocolate.  In England kids want money and they are prepared to do some serious tricks if you don’t cough up.  Here they even have a trick or threat curfew of 8pm!!!  Kids here have huge sacks and then they fill it up with chocolate and sweets!  I think it’s going to be a fun tradition as Hayden grows up.  One of our neighbours houses had this haunted garage set up, holograms projected on to the house, flashing lights, skeletons, a creepy looking front door, ghosts, straw-men, everything -crazy Americans 🙂

Back to work November 2, 2007

As I mentioned in a previous post, I went back to work this week.  It was not AS bad as I had feared, but I still much prefer being home with Hayden!  Tues was the most difficult day for Hayden; Wed was pretty good.  I have decided that unless I have a meeting before he naturally gets up in the morning, I will just wait for him to wake up before I take him to day care.  So Tues he woke up about 8:30 and Wed it was about 9:30.  I had been working since about 7:30, so it was an hour or two into my work day before he left home which was nice.  He’s not eating particularly well at day care and really not sleeping either, so I hope those things will straighten themselves out.  Tues I guess he only ate about an ounce at both feedings.  He ate well when I fed him at lunchtime and fell asleep, but he must not have stayed asleep as he really only got about 10 minutes the whole day they said.  The worse thing about Tues though was when I went to get him he was in a bouncy chair crying and no one seemed to be doing anything.  When I walked in they said he had only just started crying, so hopefully that was true.  He didn’t seem all worked up or anything so I’m sure it was.  But Wed he didn’t go in until about 10, after I had gotten him changed and fed and played with him a little.  Then I had meetings until 1 so I called afterwards to see if he’d eaten ok or if I needed to come feed him, and he had taken a couple of ounces and was ok so I didn’t go at lunch that day because I was going to pick him up early for Halloween so wanted to work through lunch if possible.  And I guess at his last feeding he’d had about 3 1/2 oz, which was by far the most he’d had there all week.  Doubtless there are to be some adjustments to day care life for him, so I’m sure his eating and sleeping will get better.

Halloween was fun.  Hayden was a tiger.  His costume had a little tail and everything.  Very cute!  Even Lucy and Abbey got in on the fun.  Lucy was snow white, and might I say the prettiest snow white I have ever seen!  And Abbey was a rooster for a very short time.  John took Hayden around during trick or treating with our neighbor Brian.  Our house sits at the entrance of the neighborhood, and there is only one other house besides ours which sits outside a neighborhood intersection that makes up the southern boundary of most of the trick or treating routes, apparently.  We got very few trick or treaters, in fact almost all of them were families that we are friends with who made a point to come by.  So Lucy and I went over to Macy’s and sat on the porch with Paula and Macy and handed out our candy there.  We got to see a lot more people that way.  But Paula said it was really dead this year compared to other years.  That’s strange because there are loads of kids in our neighborhood and it was fairly warm for the time of year.  We had fun anyway.