Pumpkin October 22, 2008

We’ll be in England next week for Paul’s wedding so Hayden will miss out the very American tradition that is Halloween. I probably talked about it last year, but Haloween is a big deal here and decorations have been up in our neighborhood all week.

This weekend we went to the Pumpkin Patch!! Hayden and I were both very excited as we hadn’t been there before. We got their early to beat the rush but there were already lots of people around. Hayden got to play in the haystack and walk around the pumpkins and sit on some!! I have no idea what went through his mind being in a field of big Orange balls, but he was pretty cool about it all. He also got to use his new favourite word ‘Tractor’ as we went for a ride on one!! Again I’m not sure who was the most excited about all of this!!

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Lumpy Lump-a-lot October 21, 2008

Hayden had a rough evening!  Poor little guy was only home for about an hour before he went to bed tonight, and he hit his little head twice!  He was outside walking around, tripped, and gave his head a good knock on the concrete.  😦  He was so tired from day care that it seemed to be impacting his balance.  Then about 1/2 hour later he got out of the bath and saw me sorting laundry in the hall outside of the bathroom.  Before John or I could get to him to stop him he started walking toward me with wet feet on the linoleum, slipped and knocked his head again.  The first time (outside) he hit his forehead and a lump came up pretty much right away; the second time (bathroom) he hit the back of his head so we didn’t see a lump but I won’t be surprised if we can feel one tomorrow.  I told John I am completely expecting him to wake up at some point tonight due to a headache, but so far he’s slept right through.  I’m sure the fact that he only took a 40 min nap at day care today has factored in there.  Anyway, he’s such a trooper when he hurts himself.  He cries for a short time but he’s always pretty tough.

Yesterday he started saying ‘tractor,’ which was really cute!  He started saying it at home while he was holding a little picture of a tractor.  It sounds like, ‘dudolr,’ which looks like it would sound nothing like tractor but it sounded a lot like it to me!  Then we went to the pumpkin patch and saw a few tractors and he said it once then, too.  It’s cute because I have been saying it to him all the time hoping he will say it in front of John or just start to say it more, and he concentrates really hard on listening to the word but he usually doesn’t get as far as saying it again.  He is jabbering all the time and working on different sounds.  Lately he is sticking his tongue out a lot while he jabbers, which I imagine is him getting closer to his Ls and THs.  I’m sure Reena can help me navigate through where he is with his speech and where he is going – that’s what’s great about having a speech and language pathologist on hand! 🙂

Also, he does not seem to be getting a break on his teething!  He has had a bib on pretty much whenever he is awake for a good two to three months now because he has so much drool.  He finally has all four of his first molars in, and John noticed yesterday that the first of his incisors has broken through.  I had thought there would be a longer break before more came through.  At least he is getting it all over with sooner rather than it dragging out for a long time I guess.

Are you mocking me?? October 14, 2008

I was giving Hayden a bath today and was playing with these bath toys that resemble cars, in particular a police car.  So I was driving it around making siren sounds, as you do.., and then when i went quiet i realised he had started mocking me.  ‘wooo wooo wooo wooo’ was all I could hear!  Even Kara heard it downstairs.  We all thought it was hilarious!  Cheeky Monkey!

Zombie…

As Kara said,  Hayden has been walking a lot in the last couple of weeks.  He is still pretty unbalanced so he liked to put his hands out in front off him and looks like he is auditioning for a Zombie movie.  It’s very funny.  If you get down at his level you get a free hug because he arms are in the perfect position.

Everyone now and then he gets a little fancy and starts walking while drinking or reading one of his books.

This particular picture cracks me up.  Somehow he looks a little “WT”….

He Walks the Line

Hayden is walking the place up!  That’s a thing, right?  He’s been taking steps for a while now, but he is using walking more and more as his mode of transport.  He gets pretty excited with himself (probably because we always make a big fuss whenever he does it) which is so cute.

I think maybe I never really mentioned to people that I work part-time.  It has come up quite a few times lately with very good friends of mine who didn’t realize I only work 3 days per week.  So, my work schedule has not changed but I thought I would just mention it now since apparently this is something I have been quiet about for some reason.  I work Mon, Tues, and Wed from home and have Thurs and Fri with Hayden.  The days I work he goes to day care even though I work from home, so it’s a real treat to get those extra couple of days with him.

Last winter Hayden and I had swimming on Fridays as our ‘thing.’  Over the summer I didn’t sign us up for any classes because it was so busy, there didn’t seem to be a consistent free day that would work for something like that.  But a couple of weeks ago we started Gymboree classes which are really fun.  I’m fascinated watching him interact with other toddlers and babies.  Of course he goes to day care so gets lots of interaction with peers, but I can’t see what he is like with them because I am not there.  The first time we went to Gymboree was particularly interesting, since it was all new for him.  I discovered that he is not shy.  He seems to be a pretty independent little guy.  He was all over the place, discovering all the different apparatuses and playthings.  He wasn’t bothered if there were already toddlers where he wanted to go or not – he did not seem to prefer whether others were around or not.  He also didn’t really care if I was near or not.  I stayed around him (it’s not as though I knew anyone, either!), but a couple of times he had crawled off and I stayed where I was to see what he would do.  He would eventually look around for me but didn’t panic if he couldn’t find me right away.  I was glad about that, because when we are in most other situations he gets upset if I leave the room (mostly when he is tired, but other times too).  Another time we were all under this parachute and the other babies were staying near their moms.  He crawled right out to the middle, then he was looking around for me after a few minutes and could NOT find me.  He looked from face to face and would almost find me then do a 180 and start over on the other side.  It took a while but he finally found me, and he smiled and crawled over to me.  Again, he wasn’t upset or panicking which was great!

Vacation October 9, 2008

I realized recently that I had loads of vacation to use up by the end of the year.  I still get the same amount of vacation being a part-time employee as I did at full time, and when I take a week off it only uses 3 days up instead of 5.  So I decided to take this week off.  I booked it off about three weeks ago, and last week we found out John had to spend this week out of town!  He wouldn’t have been able to take any time off, but it figures that he would be away when I’ve got time off.

Hayden and I have had a nice vacation, though.  Monday Faith and Avery came to visit in the morning.  They have moved from Florida to Chicago and Jeremy had to come to Indy for work so they came with him.  It was so good to see them!  It’s funny to see where Avery is developmentally because she is 10 months older than Hayden so I get a sneak peak of what things will be like in less than a year.  They visited at the end of November last year and Avery was the same age then that Hayden is now, and I remember she was just starting to walk and was jabbering but couldn’t be understood.  Now she understands everything we say and has a lot to say herself – usually repeating whatever has just been said.  Faith is pregnant and she asked Avery if she wanted a brother or sister.  She said ‘Sister.’  Then Faith asked if she wanted a sister or brother.  She said ‘Brother.’  Faith said she says whatever the last word is – ha!

After we saw them Hayden and I went to lunch with a couple of neighbors.  There are two families down the street we like to hang out with, and between our three families we have six boys under seven years old (no girls).  All the boys older than Hayden were in school or preschool, so we just had Hayden and Quin with us (Quin is 4 months younger than Hayden – we predict they will be best friends when they get old enough to play together).  It was really fun!

Tuesday we met my friend from school Jennifer and her son Connor at the zoo.  Connor is about 6 weeks younger than Hayden.  We had a good time seeing all the animals and getting caught up.  It was very interesting being around Connor since he and Hayden are so close in age.  Hayden has 12 teeth now and Connor only has 4; Connor knows where his ears, eyes, and even eyelashes are, but Hayden has not grasped the pointing to body parts thing yet.

Wednesday we went to an organic dairy farm with Grandma.  When we got there we were greeted by the sweetest black kitten who looked just like Jude when he was about a year old.  He had the exact same length and texture of fur, and he was very purry like Jude.  Hayden and I nearly stole him. 🙂  We petted lots of friendly cats and saw many calves and chickens.  We walked around for a while and then had lunch in the restaurant, which was fantastic.  Rounded things off with a fresh chocolate milkshake and we were off (after stopping in the farm’s store for some cheese and ice cream to take home).

Today is our regular Gymboree day, so we just ran some errands and went to Gymboree.  Since Hayden needs his naps we have to work around those, so even though when I woke up it felt like I would have the whole day to run errands and such we are still homebound a good portion of the day so he can sleep.  Today was strange because he was acting tired in the morning so I put him down before we were going to go out but he wouldn’t sleep.  So we went a couple of places and came home so he could sleep before Gymboree since he was acting sleepy while we were out.  Again he wouldn’t sleep.  So no nap before Gymboree.  Came home after Gymboree and it took ages to get him to sleep!  He was crying and crying, which is really unusual for him.  I gave him a little tylenol in case his teeth were bothering him, and eventually gave him some milk.  I think he was overtired in addition to whatever else was upsetting him.  It was strange though because he usually goes down so well – even if he doesn’t fall asleep he will just chat for a while, not cry.  It was like he was 5 months old again!