Hayden's Birthday - #1!

On Saturday, Hayden turned one! In honor of this momentous occasion, we threw a small party for her, with a theme of "mini-foods that Hayden likes". Here Hayden helps Daddy put the liners in the mini-cupcake pans. She's standing on the new picnic table Brittany and Megan gave her. I bet they didn't know it could double as a climbing toy!
During her party, Hayden was not in the best of moods - and not just because we made her try on a silly party hat! She has a big ol' molar coming in up top and has been out of sorts for a few days. She (mostly) rallied for the party and did have a good time.

We started the party in the front yard, chilling in the shade and chatting. Hayden liked sitting in Mommy or Daddy's lap watching the action.
There were regular lawn games for adults (ladder ball, bocci) and bubbles for the kiddies! Gabe, Noah and Nat chased bubbles blown by Mike (Gabe and Nat's dad).

For grub time, we moved to the back yard. Hayden watched quite contently as everyone got things set up for eating.

Hayden got set up at the "head" of the kids table where she mostly watched as Nat and Gabe chowed down. She wasn't too interested in the mini-turkey burgers or mini-hotdogs (cuz of the molar probably - usually she scarfs burgers and hotdogs) but she did point excitedly at the mini-bananas and then eat one enthusiastically.

Then Noah got corraled next to Hayden but they soon had to be separated because they are doing too much interacting and too little eating. :)

And then it was time for the cake, made out of homemade chocolate mini-cupcakes iced with buttercream frosting (and lovingly decorated!). Betcha can't eat just one!

Behold the cake montage....

What is this mini-cupcake thing? Does it taste good? Hmm, must shove in.

Where did it go?

After cake, Hayden was in a pretty good mood. She enjoyed sitting at her new table. And walking around it, laughing at Aunt Lori making vacuum noises.

It was a great party! Happy Birthday Hayden!

Hayden's First Fourth of July Weekend

So Hayden's first Fourth of July Weekend started with a pre-party "long foods" barbecue with Mandy, Scott and Noah on Thurs evening. (MSN were headed out of town the next day - very few people eat grilled meats for breakfast!). Hayden and Noah enjoyed turkey hotdogs and homemade popsicles (banana-mango!) while the grownups had grilled corn and brats. Hayden also did some power-lifting, complete with grunting!

The next day, there was some photo op-ing with a cute flag onesie. Yay America!

Even Blizzard got in on the fun, as Hayden practiced her "where is...?" expression.

And then, strangely, after the photo op, Hayden decided the grass felt weird to sit on, so she kept one leg lifted for a LONG time until finally the strain knocked her over. :)
For the evening festivities, we headed over to Lori's to eat pizza and sundaes. At the appointed hour, we headed up the hill to take our front row seats on the track for the 40 min, set to music, fireworks show that State College does every year. (it's awesome, you should come check it out!).

Hayden was awake at the beginning, tucked into the wrap on Momma's front, but after the first few minutes, she decided sleep was better. That's right, she FELL ASLEEP while watching fireworks. Silly girl!

Then on Saturday morning we headed to Columbus for some family time with Grammy and Granddad.

They threw a wonderful early birthday party for Hayden complete with presents and cake!

Hayden says, "I LOVE CAKE!!!"

We even managed to have a nice family photo taken out on the front porch on Monday before we headed home. Happy July Fourth everyone!

Walking!

We have big news. Hayden is walking!!! Yes she's taken a couple steps here and there. Yes she can stand, without support, and squat down, and stand back up, still without support. But she still hadn't done much walking.

However, after a weekend of walking around with Grammy's fingers, she must have finally built up enough courage and strength to take it to the next level - take the next step if you will!

After dinner, when she was in a super good mood, Jason and I decided to see if she'd walk between us. Sure enough, she did!! At least 4 feet, multiple steps, with her arms held up high for balance and with a BIG grin on her face as she toddled from one to the other.

It was AWESOME!!! She especially enjoyed diving, hands first, into our laps when she made it across. Below is a series to show her progression - not the best quality but you get the idea.

She still hasn't decided that walking is better than crawling, especially since she's been dealing with a new molar coming in up top, but she did walk and we are so proud!!! Here comes trouble!