Thinking Outside (and On) The Box

Hayden has had a real fascination with boxes lately. It started with one of her birthday boxes, which she used to help her climb into a chair. Then, one recent rainy day, when I was watching Hayden and Noah together, we decided to play with a BIG box. They had a lot of fun going in and out and moving the flaps.


Two babies in a box!



And later that day, Hayden decided she needed to carry a shoe into the box. (notice that the door to the box has been enlarged -due to user error or enthusiasm...)

Lately Hayden has loved playing with the box that our Ergo came in. (highly recommend an Ergo!) These pictures were all taken within a short span of time.



First she climbed ONTO the box...

Then she LAY on the box...

Then she SNUGGLED with the box (who knew boxes were good to cuddle?!!)...

Then she PICKED UP the box (such a strong girl, she is!)...

Then she STEPPED ON the box (only one year old and ready for step aerobics!)...

Why is it that we buy her actual toys???





She's also recently been interested in bubbles. She always asks to carry the little bottles of bubbles around. (Little bottles of just about anything fascinate her). And after Marianne introduced her to the joy of bubbles (see the series of photos below), she just LOVES when we blow some for her.

What is this bubble? I have never seen such a thing before.

I will reach out and touch the bubble. It looks like fun!

Hey! Where did it go!?

HAHAHAHAHAHA! Bubbles make me giggle! (does that make me bubbly?!)

The One Year Update

So this is a little bit late timing, but I thought it would be good to post. I sent out a little picture card for Hayden's birthday to some friends/family and wrote up a little update to go along with it. I thought it might be nice to include on the blog, for those of you who didn't receive the card in the mail. And of course, had to include one picture, with Hayden showing off a huge toothy grin (She has 12 teeth now!).

So here's the update...
It’s hard to believe, but Hayden is now one year old! We celebrated her birthday on the big day (July 12th) in high fashion with a mini-foods party. We had mini everything it seemed like – mini turkey burgers on mini buns, mini hotdogs, mini bananas, mini goldfish, mini pretzels, mini Pringles (which are awesome if you’ve never had some!), and of course, mini-cupcakes. Hayden had a good time at the festivities (8 adults, 3 children), even as she was dealing with a molar coming in. Despite her tooth issues, she enjoyed eating the mini-cupcake –she’ll definitely be ready for a normal sized one soon!

When she’s not teething, Hayden is a good eater – we think she may even turn into a gourmand. She loves things with flavor: taco meat, pepperonis, and marinated chicken are just some of the things she has enjoyed. One day recently I was making pesto and she wanted a bite. I thought for sure she’d spit it out but she smacked her lips on it and then requested more! She loves any kind of fruit and will eat it with great gusto, stuffing as many blueberries or grape pieces in her mouth as she can get. She also loves meat and has loved the burgers and hotdogs that we’ve been grilling lately. She is not as interested in vegetables but we’re working on that.

Even though she’s a good eater, she’s certainly not packing on the pounds because when she’s not strapped in her high chair, she is on the move! Within the past couple weeks, her walking has completely taken off. She toddles all over the house now, picking herself up when she loses her balance, and delights in her new form of locomotion. She still prefers to hold onto our fingers in new places or on new surfaces (i.e. grass, sand, etc) but at home she now independently goes from room to room quite easily. It’s fun to see her cruising all around but now we have to take baby-proofing to the next level!

We are also amazed by her developing language abilities. We’ve been using baby signs with her and she really uses them to communicate – dog, airplane, baby, music, more, all done, cold, eat, and drink are just some of the signs she uses on a regular basis! Plus she’s sort of starting to talk too – she says dada in relation to Jason, and seems to say duck, hat and balloon in some capacity when she sees those objects. And she’s starting saying woof for dog and mimicking our silly elephant noises! She surprises us all the time with how smart she is. The other day she was done with eating, but still had a piece of pancake left. Jason made the offhanded comment, “if you’re done, just give it to Blizzard” never dreaming she’d take the piece and turn to the side where Blizzard was waiting patiently and hand it over! Blizzard was one happy dog. J And last night, she very intentionally, with no prompting from us, picked up Blizzard’s toys and put them into Blizzard’s toy box.

All in all, Hayden is a terrific little girl! She’s generally very happy and her smile just lights up her face. She loves making friends with people when we’re out and about and we often get incredulous comments of “is she always this happy?!” She’s even started being silly –like tickling my neck when we’re out for walks and I’m carrying her on my back and running over to Blizzard to give her a big hug. She’s so much fun to be around; we can’t wait to see what the next year brings!

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!

Hayden and Noah

So as many of you may know, the only way I managed to finish my dissertation this year is that my next-door neighbor Mandy and I arranged a complex schedule of baby-swapping. Usually a couple times a week (or more), I would watch Hayden and Noah; in return, Mandy would watch Noah and Hayden a similar amount of time. Due to this successful this set up, we BOTH will graduate this August as Doctor Mommies. :)

And while the Ph.D. degrees were the main goal of this arrangement, we also instigated a lovely little friendship between the two kids. Both light up when the other is spotted, whether by eyes or ears. While they are both still too young to really play together, they are interacting more and more, as the following pictures will demonstrate. Just the other day there was an adorable bit of hugging (while on the airplane of course) that was unfortunately not captured by camera. Luckily, there have been a few other special moments that have been caught on film...

One of their favorite activities is ransacking the kitchen. They started with the drawer that holds baking utensils, sometimes emptying it completely.

More recently, they have recently moved on to the pots cabinet. Noah usually does the heavy lifting while Hayden watches carefully.

Sometime in the middle of spring semester, probably when the weather was not cooperating, the two of them explored the concept of reflections.

It was through their joint love of the airplane that we discovered the extent of Hayden brute strength. Noah had hopped on, hoping for a ride but I was not within reach (probably trying to clean up the destroyed kitchen or something). Hayden pulls up behind him and all of a sudden I realized he's moving, because Hayden is pushing! Strong as an ox, she is! :)

Now that the weather is nice and warm, they both really enjoy heading up to the tot-lot park that's just up the street. Climbing on the equipment is super fun. Slides provide lots of entertainment simply as a place to hold on to and pile up mulch.

And when the weather does turn really summer, they have both spent time playing with water. Noah is a true water baby and LOVES to be wet. Hayden is still figuring out how she feels about it. She was less than enthusiastic when Noah squirted her in the face with the hose - luckily Blizzard likes to mediate any water disputes. :)

When both kids are with me, Noah usually gets his lunch first. This works okay, but sometimes Hayden gets impatient - and now that she's taller, she often tries to sample some! Here she tries to snag a pea, even though peas are not her favorite food!

And when Hayden gets the prime lunch spot, Noah just can't resist tickling her toes!

All in all, the two kids have formed a beautiful friendship that is fun to watch. Noah has started saying Hayden every once in a while (sounds like Hay-dee). Hayden hears the door open in the morning and crawls furiously to the gate at the stairs so she can pull herself up and bounce enthusiastically as Mandy and Noah come in the door. And both kids have a VERY firm grasp of the sign for dog thanks to Blizzard!

Cake and strawberries

Here Hayden and Mommy sit with our friends at Megan's birthday party. Mommy and Daddy had lots of fun having a homemade ham dinner and eating delicious birthday cake. Hayden had slightly less fun since she was in the middle of teething - her first molar on the bottom left side. She didn't want to try any ham, or mashed potatoes, or really anything except bunny crackers and a couple tiny bites of vanilla cake. But she was a trooper in her party dress and even posed for a family photo before we headed home for bedtime!



The day after the party was even more momentous - Hayden got to experience her first berry picking!!! Many thanks to Aunt Lori for documenting the occasion.

Hayden wasn't really sure how she felt since she was strapped to Mommy's (sweaty) back the whole time - but it was neat to see the farm. The highlight was when Hayden started doing her airplane sign - swooping her hand and making a vroom sound - (keep in mind, she mimics us doing this but we didn't think she knew what it was) - and when Mommy looked up, there was a hawk soaring around. Not quite a plane, but pretty close!!! Yay for baby signs!


Picking together was hard work but we still managed to get a good harvest!






And Hayden got to try fresh local strawberries the next morning for breakfast. She ate the one Mommy put in her mouth, picked one up on her own and ate it and then spit out all subsequent berries unless hidden in yogurt. Oh well. :)