Crazy Cousins

The first weekend in December, we had a little family holiday gathering here in State College for my family. My parents, and my middle sister, plus her husband and son (my nephew) all came to visit. It was great! The weather was nice and chilly for their visit which made it seem extra "Christmas-y" since they were all coming from the South (NC and GA). We took lots of pictures of course, but mostly of the kids, because after all, kids are always cute in pictures - grownups, not so much. And since I should probably be packing for our trip to Portland (tomorrow!) rather than blogging, I'll try to keep it on the shorter side and focus on the cousins - Hayden and Jay.

The crew arrived late at night, the car-driving NC crew having picked up the plane-flying GA crew in Harrisburg, so the cousins didn't meet till the morning. They immediately went for the same toy - the airplane - which proved to be a VERY popular toy for the weekend. I hear Santa might even be bringing Jay his very own airplane for Christmas! (shhhh - don't tell him!) Luckily, the kids managed to take turns quite civilly with Hayden pushing Jay (notice his grin and her effort) and Jay pushing Hayden.

When we could finally pull the kids away from the plane, we tried to take in some of the State College highlights. We went here for lunch, one of our favorite places, and managed a nice with lunch with only a couple kid breakdowns. Then after naptime and playtime, we packed everyone into the car(s) and headed to campus. We sampled the deliciousness that is the Creamery, and then went to watch the Penn State women play in the first round of the NCAA Volleyball Tournament.

Hayden and Jay REALLY liked sitting next to Poppop in the Creamery because he was very good about sharing his ice cream with them. It was hard for him to get a bite since every time he picked up the spoon, two little mouths opened and four little eyes gazed at him expectedly.

Hayden and Jay weren't much into the volleyball game. Hayden really liked wandering around the arena while Jay liked hanging with dad and munching on snacks. (Needless to say, Hayden was not interested in (or even awake) for the final two tournament games this past weekend but her mommy and daddy watched intently and cheered loudly when the PSU women repeated as National Champions! We are - PENN STATE!)

Saturday morning was especially fun because the whole crew came to music class. We took tons of pictures but they were mostly wacky action shots. And since you can't add sound effects that really capture the harmonious caucauphony that is music class, I'll just share one picture of Hayden and Jay checking out the big drums. But both kids (and even all the adults!) had a great time playing instruments, running under the parachute, chasing after balls, rocking teddy bears and trying to play a guitar. Music class rocks! (literally!)


The rest of the weekend was filled with other fun shenanigans. There was tickling in a laundry basket, rolling a ball back and forth, book-reading, and even a super fun bath time.

Bathtime was definitely necessary due to the way these two eat. Not only did the kids get dirty by themselves (check out Jay's mac and cheese face below!) but since high-fives were a big hit this weekend, they liked to pass the grunge back and forth too.

The final excitement of the weekend was that, as promised, it did indeed snow so the Thomasville, GA folks could experience a little winter. Sure they had to borrow some clothes, or do with what they had, but they had a great time, knowing they were headed back to warm south Georgia and didn't have months of cold and snow ahead of them! (I'm only a little jealous...) They were able to get a cute family snow picture...

Plus we took one of the cousins as snow bunnies (check out Hayden's new snowsuit - thanks Grandma and Poppop!).....

And of course, since it was my sister visiting, there was the obligatory babies and sisters shot. We've got lots more layers on this time around!

Okay, enough with the editing, no more pictures. It's time to pack! Happy Holidays!

Thanksgiving Weekend

Our Thanksgiving started out pretty quiet. I'd done my baking the day before - Parkerhouse rolls and a chocolate bourbon pecan pie - so I didn't have too much to do in the morning. We had a low-key breakfast, walked the dog and then turned on the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade for Hayden to watch. She watched it some, especially when there was singing and dancing. (Did anyone else think the performances were awfully short this year?) I liked that she talked about the things she recognized - like pointing out an apple at the top of a float and saying doggie over and over when the Beethoven balloon appeared! But the parade didn't keep her attention too long - she kept shifting seats!


And no, we were not feeding her la choy rice noodles! (that was last night at dinner - ha!) That's just a cleaned out can that we use to keep treasures in. Makes a great instrument too!

Once Hayden went down for a nap, it was time to get down to the business of cooking our Thanksgiving day meal. We did a brined turkey breast since it was only going to be the three of us plus our friends, Amy and Marshall. And while you might think we went low-key, with only have four adults and one toddler, we actually put together an amazing spread of food! Turkey breast, gravy, stuffing, lavendar mashed potatoes (color, not flavor), sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, rolls, and Norweigen leftse (spelling?) - plus chocolate bourbon pecan pie and pumpkin pie bars with homemade whipped cream and cool whip. Everything was delicious! Here's the spread.

Of note: The pecan pie was one of the best I've made (Jason pointed this out) and even the crust looked pretty. Hayden loved the sweet potato casserole; that, and a roll, was pretty much all she ate. Amy tried stuffing for the first time and even had seconds! And we all ate so much that we couldn't think straight - we were going to play Canasta but ended up playing Uno because that was as much brain function as we had left. It's now a week later and all leftovers are gone - I just enjoyed the last bit of pumpkin pie bar last night. Yum! Thanks so much for coming over Amy and Marshall - you can come to Thanksgiving anytime!

Hayden enjoying Marshall's sweet potato casserole. Notice how well she uses the spoon!


Hayden shows us where half the casserole went. :) It really wouldn't be a Thanksgiving post without someone showing their belly!


Besides Thanksgiving, we also started setting up stuff for Christmas. I'm not normally an advocate of that, I like to wait till it's at least December 1st. But since we had some time and my family was coming the next weekend, we decided to go ahead and get a tree and put up lights. We got our tree on Saturday morning. Even though I'm trying to embrace local foods/products and such, due to reading this book, we decided give Lowe's our Christmas tree business with the reasoning that when we buy from Lowes - we just walk down the hill, using no gas and no car. Just good old manpower! Can you imagine it - me and Jason lugging a Christmas tree up the hill, with Hayden strapped to my back - quite a sight I'm sure! And really not that bad, we've done it before so we come prepared with work gloves and such.

Anyway... it's probably for the best that we didn't go out to a tree farm, because as soon as I took Hayden off my back and put her down - she took off, AWAY from the trees.

And she didn't really stop running, which made it hard to get any sort of good picture of her in the greenery. But I did like this one, except for her eyes in mid-blink.


We tried to engage her in looking at the trees - "doesn't the tree smell good?" "look at how green it is" "feel how prickly it is" - but she wasn't interested. The only tree she pointed at was the one on the BOX of a tree stand. She did like this small candy cane that she found. We decided to let her keep it...

...Because then she got to be our little Christmas elf!



She had a great time poking around with it while Jason and I puttered around outside after we brought the tree up. (can you see the tree in the background? doesn't it look nice!?!) She even managed to spill the water of the toy wheelbarrow on her toes - oh well - she didn't mind.

The crowning achievement of the weekend for me and Jason, besides roasting turkey for the very first time, was putting up our Christmas lights. We lucked into a decent day (actually made it into the 40s!) and even snow on the roof didn't slow us down. If you ask me, they look great!

Despite the excitement of a big meal and setting up for Christmas, Hayden's big excitement of the weekend was Bella, Brittany's kitten we were taking care of. She was SO enamored by this cat! Every 15 minutes it seemed, she'd sign cat and meow. We'd say, do you want to go downstairs and find Bella? And Hayden would nod emphatically and say very clearly, yes! So we'd head downstairs to find Bella. At the beginning she was usually under the bed, but sometimes she was in the plant...

and eventually she was just sleeping on top of the guest bed. Hayden would shriek and run to pet her and give her a hug if possible. She'd ask us to hold her (by pointing at Bella and then at our lap) and sometimes try to pick her up if we didn't cooperate fast enough and Bella hadn't run away yet. Bella was a little bit freaked out at first (by both Hayden and Blizzard) but by the end of her time with us, she tolerated them quite well. Even now, a week later, she still asks about the cat!

This is the kind of excitement Hayden exhibited EVERY time we went to find Bella. She just LOVED her!


And this is what she was so excited about - Bella playing...

Can you find Bella in this picture? I had to distract them from pestering Bella by pointing out a (nonexistent) squirrel outside.

"Where are you Bella? I want to play!"

Here is Hayden hugging/petting/shrieking at Bella when we brought Bella upstairs to say hi when we were making Thanksgiving dinner. I think Hayden may have a kitten on her Christmas wish list.

Dear Grandma and Poppop,

I just wanted to let you know that I'm working very hard getting ready for your visit next weekend. Mommy says that you are going to be so impressed with all my new tricks!

For instance, we've been working on my letters. I know you might think that's kind of harsh, since I'm only 16 and a half months, BUT it's really not so bad. We do it to music. The only letter I've really gotten is Y. But I'm really good at it! One day recently we were listening to music, and the letter song finally came on. Mommy and Daddy were talking and didn't notice, but I did. I started dancing without them, and telling them the letter Y. I really like to dance. When they finally did hear the song, they helped me do the rest of the letters : Y - M-C -A. Mommy says I'm going to be a big hit at weddings and that Grandma will love singing this song with me!

I also made Mommy laugh today because I was practicing my animals. I have a cool little water bottle that has all these animals on it - and since I'd finished scarfing up my clementine for snack, I decided to see if I could name them all. Lion and elephant are easy - I've been doing those signs/sounds for months! Then I pointed to one animal that's big and round, colored purple on my bottle though Mommy says that isn't the real color. I tried to do the sign like Mommy and Poppop taught me. And I sort of said the first syllable, sort of. "Hih" Can you guess what animal it was? That's right, a hippo! When Mommy realized how smart I was, she made the same "naw, naw, naw" silly sound that Poppop made at me when I visited him in September. I did it back to her and kept doing it really loud. She almost fell out of her chair laughing at me. She told me I should tell Poppop to be sure to bring his hippo shirt to visit because then I can tell him about hippos all day long!

The other thing I've been working on is a Vosburgh family tradition. Mommy says she's not doing it quite right, because we've been using a book and the book is about a bear, not a lion. But we do lots of "exploring" in the book, going through rivers and mud and forests. And my favorite part is at the end when Mommy pretends we're running really fast away from the bear. She's SO silly. But she tells me that Grandma is the BEST at going on a lion/bear hunt, so we have to do one while you're here. I bet Jay would like going on a lion hunt too!

So that's what I've been working on. I can't wait for you to come visit and to bring Dooley with you so I can get lots of licks. I'll probably remember how to say Dooley too. Right now, I just sort of say Dee when we look at pictures. But I say "doggie" for Blizzard and other dogs now, and I like to howl when I hear Blizzard howling. I love making sounds like her!

Have a happy Thanksgiving and I'll see you in a week!

Love,

Hayden

PS. Mommy says to ask, did you really think she could do a post with out a picture in it? Not a chance, she says! Here I am smiling and showing off my dimples!

Aunts are bad influences.

In my last post about our trip to Columbus, I mentioned not having pictures of Aunt Jen. Well maybe that's because she was an official bad influence over the weekend. That's right, Aunt Jen, the older sister aunt, the responsible one, who has three kids of her own - not Aunt Katie, the youngest aunt, who helps us see different parts of the country as she moves from place to place. :)

The crime you may ask? Well, after our big Thanksgiving-like dinner, Aunt Jen introduced Hayden to Coolwhip. Now you may be thinking, coolwhip? is that really so bad? What's wrong with a taste? Well, I think the pictures speak louder than words in this instance. They show the culprit caught in the act AND the horrific aftermath...

Now all Hayden wants is Coolwhip!! She begs for anything resembling coolwhip - sour cream, mayonaise, ranch dressing. She's on a downward spiral that's going to result in her only eating white foods. It's a calamity!!!

(Just kidding! We love you Aunt Jen!)

Meeting Cousin Liesl

This past weekend we headed to Columbus, Ohio to visit Jason's family. His sister and family was coming to visit from Portland and it was the first chance we had to meet the newest member of the DeRousie family - Liesl Rose Monnig - our new niece and Hayden's new cousin! She was beautiful! Hayden absolutely loved her. She said "baby" over and over and over again, signing it sometimes too. Even on Sunday morning, after Liesl was gone, she said baby and went to look for her in the cradle. She loved to go up to Liesl and look at her and touch her. Hayden was just fascinated! We did have to remind her to touch gently and not to poke her eyes!Liesl was the star of the weekend since every one, even the kids, just wanted a chance to kiss her and be close. Lucy and Will were very loving with her and Hayden didn't do too bad a job either. The picture below shows a time when Liesl was getting some floor time and all the kids descended on her to give kisses!We had a great trip, in so many different ways. We left Thurs evening hoping that Hayden would just sleep the whole trip - and she did! She didn't get sick and didn't even have a cold so she slept really well. We got to meet Liesl and see tons of family (see below). Plus we had great weather on Friday - warm, sunnyish - great for some outdoor playing. Lucy and Will really enjoyed the leaf pile Granddad had put together. Hayden didn't want to play in the leaves but she liked scooting along the sidewalk.All the cousins played really well together. Lucy was so interested in Hayden and followed her around everywhere, trying to engage her. Hayden sometimes appreciated the attention, and sometimes wanted some space. Anybody know the baby sign for "give me a moment!"? Generally though, the three kids did great together and had a lot of fun. The picture below was when we introduced Lucy and Will to one of Hayden's favorite games - run down the hallway shrieking.
Here Hayden listens closely to what Lucy is telling her. I love how tuned in Hayden is to Lucy.On Saturday morning, the kids had a great time playing with telephones.Aren't they the cutest?!!! Kid pajamas rock!Besides meeting baby Liesl, we got to see tons of other DeRousie family members. On Friday night we went over to Jason's cousin's house to see her, her husband and their three boys -plus Jason's aunt and uncle who also live in Columbus. They have a great house with LOTS of fun kid stuff. Lucy was especially taken with the trampoline; Noah (Lucy's cousin, in the middle) was especially taken with Lucy! (and for the record, three on the trampoline goes against house rules... it didn't last long.) Here's the attempt to take a group photo in the ball pit. Yes we did manage to corral everyone but Liesl into the same small area of the house. No we did not manage to have everyone facing the same direction. We're still working on group photos. :) Maybe when the kids are a little bit older... (yes, Hayden is in the photo. sort of. look in the bottom left hand corner for the top of her head...)

On Saturday, we had an early Thanksgiving Dinner when Ammi and Poppa, and Uncle Rich and Norma came to visit. Since Ammi's birthday is this month, and her favorite meal is Thanksgiving, it worked out perfectly to enjoy a delicious turkey, mashed potatoes, and pies together. It felt so much like Thanksgiving that I'm ready to put up Christmas decorations now!

Here Ammi and Poppa pose with their four great-grandchildren.

Hayden actually napped during the big dinner but afterwards, we even got her to pose for a special shot with Ammi and Poppa. How amazing is it that everyone is looking at the camera, eyes open AND smiling!!! This one is going in the scrapbook for sure.
Of course, we didn't do a very good job taking pictures of everyone for the weekend. We didn't really get a good shot of Aunt Jen, or Uncle Aaron, or even Grammy and Granddad. I think it was because we were all too busy having fun together. We'll have to do better at Christmas because Hayden loves looking at photo albums and she's starting to really put names with faces.

But we did get a few good pictures of Liesl and she's the main reason we headed to Ohio in the first place. Welcome to the family! It was good to meet you!