Three Tidbits

Since we haven't been on any big trips lately (got one coming up the end of the month though) and we haven't even had that many visitors (well, except for the festivities surrounding Brittany's defense), I just haven't been inspired to post another blog entry. But that doesn't mean funny and interesting things haven't been happening in our lives; it just means I haven't really been taking all that many pictures to document things. (which means I'm less likely to blog). But it's time to write something new, so I'll pick three little tidbits from our life over the past month or so. So in no particular order... (not even chronological)...

1) finger painting
For those of you who don't know, Tuesdays and Thursdays are what I refer to as "mommy days." Those are days when Hayden doesn't go to daycare, and I get to be a stay-at-home mom. Unfortunately, we often spend much of those days running errands (grocery store, retail returns and the like), but I also try to mix in Hayden activities like stopping at a park to play. We recently went to the library for the first time. (I don't know why it took us so long, she loves books.) And I also try to think of fun activities at home, besides doing chores! We sometimes bake, or go for walks, but we also recently tried finger painting. I stripped Hayden down to avoid messy clothes and let her go crazy. I think she had a good time.


look mom, green hands!

2) April heatwave
The last weekend in April, we got a crazy heatwave that pushed through. From the middle of the week when it was in the 40s with a chance of a wintry mix, we hit the weekend, with highs in the mid 80s! It was quite the temperature change. We were happy for the warmth, even if it was a little bit strange since only early bulbs were out and there were hardly any leaves on the trees. We celebrated the warm days by doing lots of outdoor things: washing the car, yard work, and eating popsicles. It was great!

here's her first try at a popsicle... I think she's a natural!

washing the cars with daddy. or at least dipping things in the soapy bucket...
Hayden liked the sponge used for washing the cars so much, she started to "wash" the ground with it.

Hayden started rewashing the Jetta on her own initiative, after we had finished and were letting it dry. Apparently, Hayden didn't get the memo that once you finish a car, and move on to the next one, you do NOT go back to the first car and randomly scrub at it.

trying to ride the cooler like a horse...
Popsicle day 2. Still a fan, even though these popsicles are from last summer... I should get some "fresh" ones, she'll be blown away!

3) ice cream disappointment
Hayden has learned the joy of ice cream. In a span of a couple weeks, we've gone to Meyer Dairy for ice cream a couple times, enough that when we drove past it, Hayden pointed it out and said "ice cream" even though we weren't stopping. When our friend Brittany turned in her dissertation to her committee, we took her out for ice cream to celebrate. Hayden and I shared a delicious bowl of cookies-n-cream while Brittany got her own cone. I think Hayden may have eaten more than half of our serving; it was hard to keep up with her once she got going! Obviously, we finished first at which point Hayden looks at Brittany and her unfinished cone and sticks her spoon out across the table. I tell Hayden, no that's Brittany's ice cream and Hayden goes into serious ice cream pout; I just had to pull out the camera to document.
She kept it up the face until Brittany was done even while Brittany and I were laughing and trying to make her smile.

With a new love of popsicles and ice cream, plus a fun new sunhat passed on from cousin Jay, I think Hayden is ready for summer! Bring on the warm weather!

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!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter Everybody!

I hope the Easter Bunny delivered lots of chocolate eggs and you were able to spend Easter with family on a sunshine and flower-filled day. We ended up having Easter in Richmond, Virginia in a hotel room with Poppop. One of my college friends (roommate, teammate, etc) had lost her father to cancer in March and her family scheduled a memorial service for him on the Saturday of Easter weekend. Though I didn't know him all that well (my main memory of him is a wonderfully touching father-daughter dance at her wedding, still brings tears to my eyes), I wanted to go to the service to support Amelia. Since Richmond is much closer than her current home of California (soon to be Oregon), and another college friend I hadn't seen in a couple years was also making the trip, we decided to make the drive down. As an added bonus, Richmond is south of State College, so we'd get to have some warmer weather, spring flowers and a visit from Poppop (Grandma had to work all day Saturday) for our Easter celebration.

We didn't end up taking all that many pictures for the weekend. Despite gathering with people we hadn't seen in a while, it just doesn't seem quite right to take pictures at a memorial service. Amelia did absolutely amazing with her organization of a wonderful slide show (set to music) of her dad's life and gave a heart-warming, tear-inducing speech. I gave her the biggest hug I could, but I know she's got a lot of healing ahead of her. Hayden didn't make it through much of the service (she did like the slide show, pointing out bikes and dogs) but luckily, the service was at the botanical gardens, so Jason had lots of space to let her wander around. And then during a reception afterwards, Hayden quickly warmed up to my college friends and spent most of the time running around, eating pretzels and strawberries, and giving out hugs and smiles. I think she was a well-needed distraction. She even managed to stay in decent spirits when we went back to Amelia's house for more food and socializing, despite it being right in the middle of naptime. She never did nap on Saturday, (5 minutes in the car on the way to dinner doesn't count), but somehow she survived and there was only a minor breakdown at bedtime. Admittedly it seemed bad at the time, but in retrospect, it wasn't all that bad.

Easter morning we enjoyed our second complimentary buffet breakfast at the hotel and then headed back upstairs to stage a 28 egg hunt in the living room portion of our hotel room. (we had a lovely 2 room suite - a great find!). Twenty-eight eggs is a lot for a 21 month old in a small space but she made it through finding most of them, while only getting a little bit distracted along the way. I've included a video to showcase part of the fun. Please note the distraction and redirection, the egg dancing/shaking (gotta test what's inside), and the request for a "bite" of candy towards the end.



We also took a few regular photos to document, but it really wasn't the most festive Easter. No pretty dresses. No siblings/cousins to compete against in the egg hunt. No gorging on Easter candy. No church. But I'm very glad we came to support Amelia and to get to see Poppop. Hayden really enjoyed spending time with him. And lest you think, she's only an "in the moment" child, when we saw Poppop, she gave him a big hug, then stepped back and stared at him quizzically and asked, "grandma?" knowing he was missing someone. Very cute.

Not even furniture can stop her...

I don't think I want to eat this. (it's a Peep.)

Look at that knee bend, complete with a steadying hand.

The post-hunt spaceout. Note the chocolatey mouth.

Hayden shares an egg with Poppop.

A day without a nap makes for a sleepy toddler when packing up.
How soon can I nap in the car?

The family on Easter morning.

And as one final Easter video bonus, here's Hayden trying a peanut butter egg.



She's still trying to figure out peanut butter. She doesn't completely dislike it, but she doesn't always want to eat it. I think Poppop gets lots of grandpa points for accepting her mushy chocolate "offering" without complaint!

One more thing

I almost forgot. One other fun thing about the visit was that Hayden got to show off her new shirt we had bought for her in Florida. Mom, Dad, Lacey, and JT had never seen it before and they were pretty excited by it. What do you think?!

It's gonna be a time of big changes, come the end of September!!!

Sometimes I do know what I'm doing...

So one of the highlights for me in Tville, besides the joy of spending time with family and the warm, sunny weather, was the fact that I had a moment of brilliance in parenting. Given my background in preschool teaching and child development, I always kind of feel like I'm supposed to know the answer. This "pressure" to know it all can really get to me at times, because one of the things I've learned since being a parent is that there are way too many times that I really have no clue what to do. (she's crying in her crib - should we get her? ride it out?; she doesn't like X for dinner - do we offer something else? let her go hungry?; she wants to keep playing outside, but it's freezing and I have to make dinner - do I piss her off? or let her keep exploring?) But in Tville, I really did have a moment of brilliance.

Pop-pop had gone outside to wash the cars, and we thought the kids might like being outside and having a little water play. However, once we tried that, Jay did play with the watering can but he kept shaking it, splashing water everywhere, which made Hayden fall back in retreat. And neither one of them was particularly interested in getting sprayed with the hose. I remembered how we use to let Hayden play in a tupperware of water last summer and asked Lacey about a big bucket. As I headed inside to ask, I saw her coolers and the light bulb went off! "Can we fill up the coolers with water?" Indeed we could! And we found another large tub to fill as well. Thus we ended up with two large containers of water and, in another flash of brilliance, one left empty. As soon as I put the empty one next to the full containers, the kids immediately started transferring water into the empty container - I didn't even have to model it!

The result - at least a half hour of concentrated water play where the toddlers were super happy and the adults got to relax. It was perfect! Check out the pictures and video clip below for the set up. Thanks goes to grandma for providing the orange measuring cups! Perfect for scooping!





I just love how the video shows how busy they were. Jay especially kept up the water transfer for a very long time. Hayden got a bit bored and went looking for other things to put in the water. She liked tossing in a soccer ball and having it splash everyone.

After water play was over and the kids had been dried off and cleaned up, we continued to hang outside and learned that coolers can be fun, even without being filled with water, or beverages.


These pictures don't even quite capture how funny it was. First, they both tried to get into the blue cooler, but Hayden got mad because Jay was sitting on her legs. Then Jay tried the little cooler, but he just didn't fit. And when he'd try to sit down in it, he'd get stuck and then get frustrated and almost tip it over trying to get out. The song (adapted of course) "fat guy in a little cooler"comes to mind. :)

So anyway, they just really had a great time with the coolers. I can only claim the water play as my idea, the kids figured out the part about sitting in the coolers. And just for the record, I don't really have all that many great ideas. My idea to make mini-burgers for the kids failed - neither one ate any of the meat. Oh well. I guess that's what parenting is all about - trial and error - especially with the first one! At least we all have fun with the trying!

Spring Break in Tville

Instead of going someplace during PSU's actual spring break, we decided to wait a week to head down to visit my sister in south Georgia, since flights were cheaper then. That meant we got to ring in spring in a wonderfully warm and sunny locale, rather than cool and often gloomy State College. We had a terrific trip, even with the 4 legs it took to get there (drive to Hburg, fly from Hburg to ATL, fly from ATL to Valdosta, drive from Valdosta to Tville). We traveled a good 12 hours but Hayden was a great traveler and we all arrived tired, but in good spirits.

This was the first time we had ever been to Tville so we got to see the town, see Lacey and JT's 'new' house, and just really enjoy time with family. It was the fourth month in a row that we'd gotten Hayden and Jay together - not sure if we'll continue that streak but it's been fun seeing them interact so much! And, as an extra bonus, Mom and Dad (Grandma and Poppop) drove down to join in the fun too. The only thing that was disappointing to Hayden was the fact that even though we were going on a plane, there was no "Sharaw-Bad" to join us. For those of you who haven't spent time with Hayden lately, "Sharaw-Bad" is our friends, Sarah and Brad, who traveled with us to Orlando. And I think they are permanently linked to airplanes in Hayden's mind. Just the other day, we saw an airplane flying "up in the sky" and after identifying the plane, she immediately shrieked, "Sharaw-Bad!" Alas, they were not on the plane, but it's hard to explain that to a 20 month old. :)

So of course we took lots of pictures during the course of our visit. We did get to do lots of fun things - see baby goats, try some fresh, local cheese, visit downtown Tville, see the Harrison grandparents and enjoy some special Texas barbecue, play croquet, introduce H and J to t-ball, go to an awesome playground, try fried pickles and local grass-fed beef, and simply enjoy the nice warm weather by being outside A LOT. I'll try to just include the highlights (with appropriate comments/labels) below.

Hayden posing for a picture in the Hburg airport. She's slowly getting the hang of posing, but I have NO clue why she put her hands out in front of her like that. So funny sometimes!

Goats! Lacey took us to a local goat farm and we got to pet the baby goats! Jay was pretty interested - notice he practically has his finger up the goat's nose. The picture with Hayden shows the closest she got to the goats, she preferred to watch them from a distance. After visiting the farm, we stopped by their market and got to sample some tasty cheeses!

For dinner Friday night, we went into Tville to explore a bit and eat at Lacey and JT's favorite local pizza place. Delicious food AND we got to sit outside (for dinner!). Sitting outside was a very good choice because the kids got into a screaming contest. All good natured, but VERY loud. I tried to capture Jay's performance on video, but of course he turned it off once I pulled out the camera. However, I think this photo captures the enthusiasm of his scream delivery!

We did spend A LOT of time outside, which was AWESOME. Lacey and JT have a fantastic backyard (Jason was VERY jealous). Here Hayden plays peek-a-boo on their slide.

As I mentioned, we introduced the kids to t-ball. Both did manage to connect bat to ball, but it was hard to predict which way the ball might fly off the tee. Hayden preferred fielding the balls but Jay might have a future if he can learn to connect with the ball on the forward swing.

The two munchkins pose with daddy/Uncle "T".

And here they are with Aunt Lacey. Don't you just love the sunshine glinting off their hair?! Such lovely weather we had!

The kids weren't the only ones "playing" outside. The adults all got to play croquet! We had a pretty good time, whacking the ball and enjoying adult beverages. Hayden and Jay were mildly interested, sometimes swooping in to steal a mallet or the ball (Babies were considered fair play!). This picture shows the two as hoodlums - Hayden had stolen a mallet and Jay had stolen Hayden's water cup. Maybe Hayden was going to use the mallet to ensure the return of her cup? I don't know. I don't remember any violence!

Here Hayden acts as a "hinder" for Pop-pop before he wins the game. (He won twice!)

Given Hayden's recent love of cornbread, we made some for our lunch of barbecue. Here Jay does his best interpretation of the cornbread chuckle!

Pop-Pop, Grandma and the grandkids! Smile!

Just one example of the silliness of the visit...
"what?! Do these shoes make my feet look big??"

Another fun time of the visit was the discovery of the air mattress in the living room that Lacey and JT were sleeping on after graciously giving up their bed. Hayden and Jay had a fantastic time bouncing around and giggling like crazy. Notice how Hayden has her hand ON Jay, like she's ready to wrestle! She better watch out, I think he's in another weight class from her!

One morning we walked up to this wonderful park. We first took the kids to the little kid play equipment, but Hayden was not interested. She headed off to the BIG playset!

At the playground, both kids pretty much did their own thing, in completely different areas. We did manage to gather them together for ONE time down the double slide.

Proof of how amazing the weather is in Tville in spring. Those are AZALEAS behind us! In mid-March! They were everywhere, in all colors, and were BEAUTIFUL!!!

"Carolina girls! The best in the world!" Hayden sports her outfit that does double-duty of cheering on the Tarheels AND being perfect for water play. There will be a blog entry just about the water play! Stay tuned!

The two kids, just before Jay headed off to school and Hayden started the trek back to State College.

Yay for cousins!

the teeney-weeney

Hello again! This entry is a bit belated, but it's been a busy month. We celebrated my birthday at the beginning (a wonderful weekend full of little special things - thanks everybody!) and then we moved right into Penn State's spring break. We didn't really have any plans to go anywhere (that was coming a week later) but we did enjoy how nice and quiet State College is without all the undergrads around! We didn't do anything too special either- there was still work, and school, and chores, and the daily grind, but we DID manage to get out for a fun lunch at a local restaurant that we had never been to before. A cute little place with the whole 50s diner theme - quite tasty. One of their signature items is the "teeny-weeny" - a miniature ice cream sundae. We just had to try them and when the waitress only brought two, I graciously let Hayden eat mine. :) (okay, I might have snuck the cherry, and I might have scooped out the couple bites of hot fudge, but she got the rest...)

Anyway, Hayden's introduction to a teeny-weeny was captured on camera (of course!). There's not much to it (toddler meets ice cream, they fall in love) but the pictures are really cute. Jason even took a video but it's just Hayden very carefully scooping ice cream into her mouth so I'll keep that one to ourselves. I hope you enjoy the pictures as much as Hayden enjoyed her teeny-weeny!

What a cool looking treat mom - is this how I dig in?
(turns out, the ice cream was pretty hard and she couldn't quite get a scoop...)

Sometimes you need a Daddy-hand to help get you started...

Okay, so mom stole the cherry, maybe I can try and taste it on my own.

Such concentration!!!
Now I'm getting the hang of it - this stuff is GOOD!

Do you think she has her mouth open wide enough?!!!!
When she was a baby, how wide her mouth was told how us much she liked a new food. I'm going to guess that she REALLY likes her teeny-weeny.

Working hard to scrap out the last little bits...
YUM!