It's hot! Eat a popsicle!

In honor of the ridiculous hot temperatures today, (currently 91 degrees says my favorite weather website), I'd like to show you the lovely May day when we introduced Eliza to popsicles. We made homemade popsicles with yogurt, lime juice and fresh local strawberries, and the bites I had were quite tasty. I think the girls liked them too, as you will see.

In order to let the girls enjoy the popsicles without being fussed over (since these weren't the brilliant idea 'slow-melt' popsicles you can find at the store), the girls were herded outside so we could eat them without fear of a huge mess on the floor and/or furniture. With the promise of popsicles for snack, they didn't mind heading outside.


Eliza's shirt was removed to help ease clean up. She didn't mind since she asks to be naked all the time. They were instructed to get shoes on so we could go outside. Here is Eliza's official popsicle-eating-outfit - she picked out the boots herself.
So far, so good, she didn't make too much of a mess. She was too busy eating and pointing at the camera.

But then she got down to the last little bit and she was faced with the eternal Popsicle dilemma - How do you get those last bites off of a popsicle? She went with the shove-the-whole-thing-in-your-mouth-gag-reflex-be-damned method.

And then she was done, and all was good, even if she does look like she got in a fight with the popsicle and lost.

And just to give you more context, it was perfect popsicle-eating weather (though not like today, can you imagine how quickly a popsicle would melt today?!!!), sunny and warm; Blizzard thought it was hot. The patio could use a good weeding.

And the azaleas on our back patio were finally in bloom, only a couple weeks past most normal azaleas. I guess you'd call them "late-bloomers." HA!

Finally, two more pictures just for fun.

We have Eliza running after bubbles.
"Bubbles!" "Pop!" she says delightedly when we get out the bubbles. We don't have a picture of the excited fast feet dance she does when it's time to go out side for bubbles, but she does that dance regularly.

And we have Hayden posing with her animals. Notice that the bear is dressed in one of her dresses and the monkey is wearing a vest. She's really into dressing things these days. It's cute until she pulls out the entire contents of her closet.

Hope you're staying cool! Eat a popsicle!!!

Happy Turkey Day!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

We got back on Sunday from our first road trip with two kids. We headed west to Columbus to spend Thanksgiving with Jason's parents. It was a good trip. Both Hayden and Eliza were excellent car travelers. The trip there was great; the trip back less great, but mainly because of traffic, not because of difficult kids. Not sure why we have to pay toll money to sit in traffic!

Anyway, took a few pictures along the way to document the weekend. Hayden had a great time with so much family around; she was a bit shy at first when everyone arrived for Thanksgiving, but quickly warmed up to Uncle Rich, Poppa and Ammi. She passed off brown chex (I no like) to Uncle Rich and had him reading her stories after dinner. Though I know she would have liked the turkey, Hayden stuck to starches for the big meal. Chex mix, a few bites of mashed potatoes and a roll made up her meal, followed up with ice cream for dessert.

She did crack me up, at least twice when we made our chocolate bourbon pecan pie on Wednesday before hitting the road. First, she was willing to try just about anything we put in the pie, including plain pecans. (she's showing off her mouthful in the first picture.) I think she probably would have eaen the corn syrup had I let her, or even tried the dash of vinegar that went in the crust. Then, when I let her smell the bourbon (we often smell ingredients), she busted out with a big grin and said "yummy!" For the record, I did NOT let her try it! :)

We got in to Columbus at a reasonable hour (8:30ish) and everyone went to bed smoothly. Next morning, I was ready for holiday mode. At her first diaper change in the daylight, Eliza was dressed for the occassion!
As per tradition, we turned on the big parade. Hayden made herself comfortable, for about 2 minutes, before jumping up to find something else to do. She made us pull the stool close enough to the chair so she could put her legs on it. And then she put the pillow behind her back. so funny!
Later in the morning, after a very impressive tantrum, we all managed to get dressed to go for a little walk with the rest of the neighborhood. Hayden was pretty tickled by the giant turkey we found nearby.
And she liked pushing her baby in the stroller, for about 5 minutes. This picture shows her showing the baby the leaves, just like I do for her when we go walking and Hayden is in the stroller.
Grammy and Granddad have a pretty good supply of leaves too. After the walk, Hayden and Granddad did some frolicking in the leaves.

When we got back from our walk, everyone got dressed for dinner (which was planned for early afternoon). We even managed a family picture! I was thinking we could use this for Christmas cards, then realized that Eliza has a thanksgiving bib on and that just wouldn't work. And to give you a little 'behind the scenes', right after we finished smiling, Eliza decided to have one of her projectile vomiting episodes and the thanksgiving bib was retired for the day. Amazingly neither her clothes, nor mine, were harmed!
We had quite the group for Thanksgiving dinner. Ammi, Poppa, Uncle Rich, Norma, and cousin Kim came down from Michigan and the Wesps joined us as well. We even got to talk to the West coast DeRousie contigent via Skype. Not the coolest photo but I love that this picture shows Ammi, Jason and Eliza skyping with Jen and family in Portland. Talk about intergenerational family connections!
Thanksgiving dinner was delicious. Grammy did a wonderful job with the preparations. We had turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, fresh cranberry sauce, gravy, stuffing, apple pie, pumpkin pie and ice cream. I contributed rolls and the chocolate bourbon pecan pie. YUM! As I said, Hayden stuck with the starches until dessert time when Grammy tried to introduce her to the glories of Thanksgiving pies. Hayden decided she preferred ice cream without the pie.

The annual DeRousie family Thanksgiving potrait.
Thanks to Mr. Wesp for his photography skills!

After the big meal, we just enjoyed our time in Columbus. There was some shopping done by Grammy and Daddy on black friday. There was lots of book reading, baby snuggling, and sport watching. Jason and I got to catch up with a couple old friends. Eliza really enjoyed "talking" to Grammy and Granddad, showing off her new skills of cooing and smiling. Hayden even got to try some of Grammy's eye makeup - can you see it?!

On Saturday evening, we headed over to the Columbus Zoo to catch out their lights. I'm not the best nighttime photographer (christmas list hint - photography class!), but you get the jist. The whole place was decked out in an amazing amount of lights. Hayden seemed to like it, especially eating snacks in the stroller. I think she would have liked to have seen more animals, since we told her we were going to the zoo, but most of them were sleeping.
We did get into a barn in the North American area and got to check out goats and sheep, and some honey bees.
Plus, there were various light animals around the zoo. I took a picture of the hippo in honor of Poppop.
Right before we left, we managed to catch the light show around the lake. The lights flashed on and off in time to 3 christmas songs. Hayden loved the lights and even danced to the music. Then it was time to head home cuz it was late and chilly. See how bundled up we are!
As I said, Sunday's drive home was not quite as smooth as the drive to Columbus, due to the traffic on the turnpike. But everyone hung in there, and we made it home safe and sound. I took pictures of happy kid faces to prove it!
And with our Thanksgiving roadtrip over - I think we just might be ready for our three prong Christmas trip (SC to Durham to Columbus to SC)!Happy Holidays!!!

Round and Round the Mulberry Bush

Given the horrible weather outside today (40s and rainy), it's hard to believe that Saturday was the nicest day we've had since last summer. High in the mid 70s, sunny, and just delightful. We tried to make the most of it by spending a good portion of the day outside. As an added bonus, we ended up being extra social as well! Yay for friends! Basically, we invited Brittany, Sarah and Brad over to grill for dinner, and then asked Mandy, Scott and Noah to join us. It was a truly wonderful evening of friends, food and fun. There was some hanging outside and playing while the grilling was going on, including the moving of some furniture by the wee ones.


After getting the chairs in just the right spot, they even managed to pose for a picture, complete with smiles!!
Once the grilling was done, we moved the party over to Mandy and Scott's lovely patio that Scott worked so hard on last summer. Since Mandy and Scott are moving soon to a bigger and better house, it was nice that we all got to enjoy the patio in nice weather. We had quite the feast and everyone dug in. Just to make your mouth water, we had... bison burgers, salmon, bratwursts (cheddar, stadium AND fresh brats with the fresh brats being deemed the 'good' brats), grilled asparagus and prosciutto, green salad, sweet potato fries, and fruit salad. YUM!!!

Check out the scene of food enjoyment....

Here are the Hanfords enjoying one of their last meals on the patio overlooking Lowes. :)


Everyone was in a good mood, feeling relaxed and happy. Even the kids were having a good time. Noah carefully picked out the pineapple and kiwi from the salad, leaving strawberries and grapes, while Hayden literally did the opposite. (Okay, so technically, Hayden did eat all the kinds of fruits, but the strawberries and grapes were the first to go. And then later on, she came back and ate a few of Noah's strawberries.) Noah even managed a few bites of bison burger, while Hayden tried some bratwurst. The adults enjoyed ALL the food and laughed a lot too. The kids could sense our good moods, and often laughed when the adults did even though I don't think they got the joke.

Can you tell Hayden is having a good time?!!

Of course, the adults wanted to linger at the table much longer than the kids, so we tried the experiment of just letting Hayden and Noah down and seeing if they would stay close, but otherwise entertain themselves. At the beginning, this worked fine. I think Hayden played with the buckles on her booster seat saying "seat buck, seat buck" over and over. Noah scooped up some loose gravel that was around and they both found small pieces of bricks to draw with in the sand. (perhaps not the safest items to play with, but it kept them occupied).

And then it happened. I don't really remember how. Hayden has been into running lately, and when Hayden and Noah meet up outside, often as everyone arrives home from work/school, they frequently take off around back together. But in this case, they stayed close and started to play chase around the set of cedar trees that separate our two yards. Somehow Sarah and Brad ended up at two posts on the loop - Sarah to tickle and delay Noah from catching Hayden too quickly (he has a nine month age advantage) and Brad to monitor the 3 stairs that the kids negotiated each time they went around the loop. And around the loop and around the loop and around the loop, etc. I wish we had counted because they probably ran around the trees AT LEAST 20 times, probably much more. I finally pulled out the camera to try and document. It was a game of chase, a test of endurance, and just plain toddler silliness (Noah ran into the wall one time because he didn't corner fast enough) all rolled into one. And the adults just watched and laughed and enjoyed the fun.

This first video shows you the "course" they were running. I apologize for the angle; I was enjoying being able to sit and watch too much to get up off my lazy bum and get a better view. But you can see Sarah's post with the tickling, and Brad by the stairs (sort of), and how they ran all the way around the trees. (just repeat ad nauseum to imagine how long this went on!) Note that Noah does catch up to Hayden (you can hear the parent voices in the background - just touch!) but neither one really care. Hayden just keeps on trucking and Noah runs to Sarah on purpose for more tickling.



This second video gives you a better view of the portion of the 'track' along the patio - plus, you can see how much fun the kids are having with Hayden's smile and Noah's giggling. They really kept this up for SO long. They did slow down a bit at the end, sort of huffing and puffing, but I think we had to step in to end it since it was time to wind down for bed time. I wonder how long they would have gone on if we hadn't stepped in?!!!



We had a truly wonderful evening. I don't think it could have been better - well, unless an ice cream truck had driven by giving out free ice cream for dessert. Oh, and maybe some awesome fireworks went off too. :) We are so lucky to have such great friends and neighbors. Hopefully we'll have more evenings like that over the summer, even if the Hanfords have to actually DRIVE to our house, instead of just walk out the door.

P.S. This little experience taught Hayden the word "fun." When we walked by the cedar trees the next day, I talked to her about how she and Noah had fun playing chase the night before. She agreed and reiterated in her own way what I said. And since then she has used the word fun several times, often when mentioning Noah, when talking to me. What a great way to learn the word FUN!

Being Silly

While having a one year old can be challenging and frustrating (like wrestling her during diaper changes or dealing with her newly discovered protest skills when she doesn't get Cheerios from the box she pulled out of the pantry), it can also be a WHOLE lot of fun. Hayden is getting sillier by the day -Jason and I are loving every minute of it! Here are a few examples...

Eating jello. Who knew Jello could be so much fun?! I love how the picture demonstrates her developing utensil skills. Emphasis on "developing" since she's holding the spoon but eating with her fingers! (She is making progress. She did actually request a spoon to eat baked beans the other day - and with my help for scooping, she did a pretty good job!) And how she got Jello in her dimple! Ha!


Peek-a-boo. Another silly development is Hayden now sometimes initiates peek-a-boo with us! She hides her face (sometime peeking out) and then spreads her hands wide and smiles as we say "Peek-a-boo!" My favorite is when she does this in the car - when I can only see her in the mirror! So silly!


Loving Blizzard. And of course, she's silly with Blizzard. Luckily, Blizzard tolerates her fairly well. Even when she climbs on her back and then smushes her to the ground. Make sure you imagine Blizz's errr-errr-errrr noises as you look at the pictures! Makes it a more authentic experience!

I love you Blizzard!

Silliness that remains uncaptured by camera - Hayden trying to jump, which consists of her bending her knees OR lifting one foot high off the ground in a big stomp; Hayden starting to enjoy games of "chase" and running around some circuit while screeching and giggling; Hayden learning the word "scream" and screaming when we say scream. Sometimes softly, but usually she likes screaming so much it quickly escalates into a LOUD scream. Hayden constantly asking for more music if we're listening to kids' music (Raffi is a big favorite these days, or her music class CD). Hayden grabbing a pillow off the couch, carrying it across the floor and then flopping on it. Hayden saying "WHEEEEE" on the slide, or on the swings. She's one silly little girl!

Are these two cute or what?!

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!