Fall Fun

It's October and that means it's officially fall. We've been lucky enough over the past week or two to have some really beautiful fall weather, which is well timed with the changing of the leaves. I just love the bright fall colors up against a vivid blue sky. Ahhhhh! All together, it makes being outside quite delightful, and we've really tried to take advantage of the nice weather while it lasts. (It has snowed in October before!!!)

A week or so ago, my dad came up to State College for a conference. (how great is it that he has a conference in State College! What are the odds?!!!) It was wonderful to have him visit and see all of Hayden's new tricks - even though she wasn't running at 100% due to a nasty cold, at least at the beginning of his visit. On the last day of the conference, dad played hookie and we went out for a hike, heading up to walk Jackson Trail off Route 26. The trail was a bit rocky, but relatively level since it follows the mountain ridge - nice when carrying a 23 lb baby on your back! We went as far as David's Vista where we took a few pictures and let Hayden try to do some rock climbing.
We even managed to get all three of us in a picture together. Can you believe that everyone is actually looking at the camera?!!! Now if only Blizzard could stick her face up next to ours! Even though Blizzard missed out on the group shot, she still had a good time scrambling over the rocks, investigating smells and climbing on logs. Yep, that's right, our dog can climb trees. When we made it back to the car, the clouds had started to disperse and the sun was coming out. It wasn't completely clear, but we still had a pretty good view down into Happy Valley at Jo Hays Vista. After waking up from a little catnap on the return trip, Hayden was in good spirits and managed a cute little smile on the bench looking out over the valley. (but she wasn't very impressed with the view.)
She eagerly took some water when offered it (it's hard work riding on someone's back!) and was happy to help carry Blizzard's leash and her cup back to the car. Thanks for the great visit Poppop!
Our next fall adventure was last weekend when we decided to experience the Fall Festival at Way Fruit Farm for the first time. It was a very busy that day because the weather was absolutely gorgeous - 70s and bright sunshine! Even Sarah Palin stopped by in the morning, though I can't say that I was excited to hear the news. We brought Brittany along with us and bumped into Kathy and her kids, and our neighbors -Mandy, Scott and Noah! Such a popular Saturday destination!

First we went on a tractor ride to the pumpkin patch. Hayden thought the tractor was pretty cool, and enjoyed the ride.

At the pumpkin patch, we searched and searched for the best pumpkin to take home with us. Hayden (and Mommy) were a little bit overwhelmed by all the choices. They all looked great - so nice and round and orange...

...luckily Daddy stuck with it and picked out a great one. Brittany was drawn to a non-traditional pumpkin - one that was still green! We thought it was a good lesson for Hayden to learn that pumpkins come in all different shapes and colors. :)

Brittany was also nice enough to take a family photo. Aren't we cute?!!
Hayden had a great time sitting next to Brittany on the ride back from the patch. Once back at the farm, we let Hayden wander around the pumpkins set out for people who didn't feel the need for the pumpkin patch experience. She liked using the pumpkins as a drum and trying to pick them up to practice her weight-lifting.

Hayden discovered that the best thing about pumpkins was that they make perfect seats! She sat on all different pumpkins - finding a good one, turning around and backing up to it oh so carefully, then kind of wiggling/bouncing around to get comfortable. Who knew pumpkins are such good places to sit?

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?!

One Afternoon of Fun

A couple of weeks ago (yes, it's becoming apparent that I'm not a very timely blogger), it was a lovely afternoon when Hayden and I were home together. We decided to go outside to enjoy the day and explore the great outdoors. Since it was such a pretty day, I brought along the camera to document and ended up with some pretty cute pictures.

We started out on the back patio. Hayden spent some time climbing on her picnic table (thanks Aunt Brit and Aunt Megan!). She then moved onto climbing into and out of her child-size patio chair.

We very quickly moved off the patio and into the backyard. Hayden had fun squatting and looking for treasures in the dirt. I think she found some beat-up acorns and a couple rocks - she was quite pleased!
Even with dirt and child-sized furniture, the backyard just wasn't interesting enough, so we headed down the back path, heading towards the ponds to look for ducks. Going down the path (which has a slight slope to it) at speed is great fun to Hayden - not so much to me since I'm slightly terrified she's going to take a tumble and bash up her face. Oh the joy of Mommy worry!
Hayden seemed to have met her match at the top of the stairs - here she looks down at the great descent. But with a steadying hand from Mommy, she actually negotiated them quite well.
We lucked out - there were ducks in the first pond. I like this picture because it captures Hayden responding to my question "Where are the ducks?" She can't quite see them, so she throws her hands up in response "I don't know, where are they?"
Looking at ducks is only exciting for a little bit, especially when they aren't nearly as tame as the ones on Aunt Lori's old pond so they swim away to the other side of the pond. We decided to loop around the pond and see what we could see. Hayden found a lovely little plant that was producing berries. She worked on her pincer grasp while I walked the fine line between taking a neat picture and keeping her child from eating a poisonous substance...

We pointed out the different flowers that we saw - purple and yellow. And the bees and dragonflies, but I don't think you can see that in the picture! :)
Back up on the path, Hayden practiced the magical move all children can do (but very few adults) - squat very, very, very low to the ground. How do they do that?!
Exploring the great outdoors can make a little girl kind of tired - so on the way back, Hayden got some love from her belly and thumb. Ahh, the soothing powers of a self-belly rub.
We finally made it back home and headed around front. Hayden indulged in one of her favorite activities lately - sitting on the stoop. She often points for us to sit down next to her (I think that's why her right hand is pointing). As soon as we sit down, she's up and off to check out something else!
It was quite a lovely afternoon exploring the great outdoors. Feel free to come join us any time! (Though I recommend coming before the snow sets in...) After all, who wouldn't want to spend an afternoon with this smiling face?!

Yay for 90 year olds!

A couple weeks ago, before Hayden started at Daybridge and I started "working", Hayden and I made a trip down to North Carolina in honor of my Granma Jane's 90th birthday. Jason didn't come with us because he needed some time to get work done without any distractions. Why he thinks Hayden and I are distractions, I don't know! I don't find giggles, cuddling and singing silly songs to be all that distracting... hmmm, then again, maybe he's on to something. Maybe that's why it took me so long to finish my dissertation!

The plane ride down was blissfully uneventful. We even had an extra seat next to us on both legs! Hayden really enjoyed wandering around the Philadelphia airport. Climbing on the seats, looking out the window and watching the going-ons, signing airplane ALL THE TIME. Great fun.
After arriving on Thursday, we headed down to Southern Pines for the big event on Saturday. Hayden was all dressed up in her birthday party outfit - her pretty pink dress complete with an birthday cake embroideredon the front! Such a cutie!Granma Jane was quite tickled with her great-granddaughter and tried to give her the house tour. But a one year old has her own ideas about a tour and proceeded to give a self-guided tour of all the "no touch" objects in the house. Nothing was broken, but there was definitely a lot of rearranging as keepsakes got moved to higher vantage points.
After catching up, we all headed over to the dining hall for some grub and for the birthday girl to show off her visitors. Hayden did a great job sitting in the ancient high chair and being showered with attention - smiling and saying "hi" to most people who came over to visit. She especially loved turning around in the chair (there were no working straps) and pointing out the ducks in the print pattern.

And then we got to tour around the community areas while GJ and GR picked up their mail. Hayden loved the opportunity to wander and everybody there LOVED seeing Hayden walking around. Here Grandma provided the security finger for exploring.
During the exploration, Hayden found the Great Pumpkin. Supposedly it came from the chef's garden - it probably weighed more than she did! Maybe we should plan another trip so we can eat pumpkin pie!
All that walking can make a girl tired. And when a little girl is tired, she needs her thumb and her belly. When that little tired girl is wearing a dress, rubbing her belly makes for a very unladylike pose! Good thing she's so cute!

Finally we headed back in the direction of the Sanford villa. Now it's Poppop's turn to stretch his arm with Hayden.

On the way back, Hayden learned a little bit about the vegetation in Southern Pines. That's right, we introduced her to a PINE TREE! She thought it was pretty cool and was excited to learn that pine trees produce LOTS of needles and that you can use their bark like chalk to draw on the sidewalk.
Just before we headed out, we got in a quick four generation photo. Yay Sanford lineage!
Since we were down in Southern Pines, we bopped on over to Whispering Pines to show Hayden the lake where I spent much of my childhood. Hayden was a little more enthusiastic this time than when we dipped her toes in a year ago.
I think she would have gone swimming if I'd let her! You may not be able to tell (check out the ripple patterns) but she's splashing her hands in the water...
We also managed to visit Hayden's OTHER ninety-year old grandmother. (Does Hayden have good genes or what?!) We had a great lunch in their cafe - Hayden loved the fruit that was available but passed on the hamburger we ordered special for her.
Back in Durham, Hayden had a great time exploring her grandparents house. They have so much fun stuff to play with! Like an old school basset hound pull toy, a carpenter's bench, stairs, and a rocking chair.

Hayden did figure out to pull the dog behind her, but she kept turning around to check on him.
Who needs to pull the leash when you can just pick up the silly pooch?!!! Taking a dog for a walk can make you dog-tired! Time for a nap next her new friend.

Stairs, stairs and more stairs. If you turned your back for a minute, there was a good chance that Hayden had headed to the stairs to start to climb.

The child sized rocking chair was another good find at Grandma and Poppop's house. Hayden would go to it and say Raaahhhh to indicate that she wanted to rock!

Target may be selling new "classic" Fisher Price toys but Grandma and Poppop have the REAL thing! Hayden didn't do much hammering or screwing. She mainly liked to carry the tools around. Or she moved the whole bench from the fireplace, to the table, to a chair and back again.
One of the funniest things of the trip was Hayden's obssession with the David Hasseloff magnet on the fridge. She would point to it and say "daddy", over and over and over!
Look ma, no hands! Hayden shows off her fancy drinking technique to the grandparents.


We had a great time on our trip and got to see so many friends and family. Thanks to everyone for taking time out of your busy schedules to hang out with us! You are welcome in State College anytime!

Communication

I've been wanting to write a blog entry about language for a little while now. It has been just fascinating watching Hayden learn how to communicate with us. She has all sorts of methods of letting us know stuff - gestures, sign language, grunts, shrieks, words, etc. Her receptive language (how well she understands what we say, for those of you who aren't developmental dorks like me) has just taken off. We cannot say the word banana without actually being ready to give her a banana, or show her a picture, or she will run to where we keep the bananas and try to climb up to reach them. She can follow simple directions such as "take the cup to Mommy" or "put that in the garbage" quite well. If we say, let's go outside and go for a walk, she'll stop what she's doing, run to the gate and be ready to go. One of the funniest instances is when she wants to get a bite of something and we say, you have to sit down to eat and she plops right down on the floor and looks at us expectantly!

She's getting so good at identifying things, both in the real world and in books. We have a big picture book that has maybe 20 different first words with big pictures on one page - things like duck, crib, cup, flower, boat, etc - and when she's feeling focused, she can point to almost all of them in response to "where is the...." And she's getting pretty good at the body parts game, too -she can identify head, feet, toes, hair, belly and knees with regular accuracy.

Where's your head, Hayden?

As for Hayden telling us what she's thinking, it's really quite incredible what a 14 month old can communicate to you. She has quite the repetoire of baby signs, which she uses daily: dog, cat, duck, elephant, lion, more, cold, eat, drink, music, airplane, siren, swing, baby, hat, car/motorcycle. I think there could be a few others added soon if we keep working at it - book, shoes, hippo (thanks to a visit to the Sanford homestead!), hot, cheese. I think elephant and lion are my two favorite signs - they are usually done with noises too! Her roar is so cute!

Hayden signing elephant...

and lion! (rowwr!)

I'm also amazed that she's made the leap of using the sign "more" from food - we introduced it at meal time - to using it to ask for "more" of all sorts of different things. When we make a silly sound (like a vacuum) or sing a song (head, shoulders, knees and toes) or tickle her, she signs "more" very vigorously! She even signed it to Blizz when she was making her groaning growl noises today! When we were in North Carolina visiting my grandmother (Hayden's great grandmother!) for her 90th birthday, we ended up singing Happy Birthday twice because Hayden signed "more" after we finished it the first time (see below).

Not only does she sign, but she also is starting to "talk" as well. She can say Mama and Daddy, though she still doesn't do it regularly to refer to us. We have two great books called Mama, Mama and Papa, Papa and she has identified both of them by saying those words quite clearly. She says duck (and signs it) whenever we see a rubber duckie in a book. She says "dowww" for down and says up. (Often one right after the other, if we let her play the up/down game on the bed.) She's also started saying wa-wa for water. And during our trip to North Carolina, she started saying a version of dooley (sometimes it's just dee, sometimes it's doo-ee) for my parents' yellow lab, or really, any picture of a yellow lab. She also can woof/arf for a dog, such as the Doggies book by Sandra Boynton. And of course, she can say Uh-Oh with perfect clarity. She uses it both in the right context (something gets dropped) and sometimes just for fun - though usually then it's more of an uh-uh-oh. And she can say hi quite clearly, in a cute little voice, usually with a little wave, and often to perfect strangers who are caught by surprise and can't help but smile and respond!

Hayden checks out her favorite dog noises during her after-dinner book time.

Then of course, there's all the crazy shrieks and yells and grunts and babbles and giggles that she does that can't be captured by a camera. Her giggles and laughter are quite infectious - it's hard to be grumpy when Hayden finds something funny. Sometimes I think she screams just because she can - which usually makes me laugh, even if I don't want her to scream because we're out in public. And I'm not sure if "shhhhhh" is in her vocabulary yet! Luckily I'm not quite ready to shush her yet - we just love to hear her what she has to say!