Happy Birthday #2!

In keeping with my recent tradition of non-linear blogging, I will backtrack just a bit to write about Hayden's birthday. She turned 2 on July 12th with plenty of toddler friendly fanfare. There were balloons...
and presents....
and cupcakes.
I think she had a great time! Despite still preferring to fill in the blanks of the Happy Birthday song with Poppop, she did learn to fill in Hayden, after we had talked about her birthday. (for the record, she still likes to sing Happy Birthday Hayden randomly, even two weeks after her birthday!) Grammy, Granddad and Grandma were all in attendance for her party - a lovely treat to have so much family around. Our friends, Sarah and Brad, Brittany and Mandy, Scott and Noah, all came to her low-key afternoon grilling party. In honor of Hayden, we had hot dogs and corn on the cob, two of her favorite foods these days. There was also pasta salad, chips, fruit salad and plenty of beverages. Hayden and Noah both had a good time eating together at their special kid-sized table.

One of the big hits of the day was the new sandbox from Grammy and Granddad. We assembled it sometime late morning. Hayden was ready to go in right away, even before we were done pouring the sand in. She quickly adapted to the "shoes off" rule, telling anyone who came near the sandbox to take their shoes off. (and yes, she's in her pajamas - getting dressed in a real clothes was not a birthday necessity till party time.)

During the party, Hayden had a good time. She even managed to work in an "it's my party and I'll cry if I want to" moment when she didn't want to share her chalk with Noah. (actually there was an earlier one when she introduced Noah to her new sandbox. I think she would have preferred he stand on the edge and watch her enjoy it, rather than jumping in and using her toys. But she did manage to share... eventually, after some time spent in her happy place rubbing her belly and sucking her thumb.) I can't remember quite how the chalk incident went; I think Noah went after a color that Hayden considered off-limits. Luckily Noah is really good at appeasing Hayden and handed it back. He even followed up with a hug to help her feel better! (Notice her tears!)
But again, she still needed some happy place time, while carefully clutching the chalk. :)

Hayden had a blast opening all her presents. She even seemed excited about all her new clothes (and she got some really cute new clothes! Thanks everyone!). She would pull them out and lay them flat, in a pile, very neatly.
She also was quite tickled (literally?) by the "tickle me elmo" that Sarah and Brad got her. I'm not sure she quite knew what to make of him (Blizzard was a bit confused too!) but she laughed at him a lot.
After each present opening, we encouraged her to give the giver(s) a hug. Noah got a particularly big one. (yes, it's just SO cute when they hug, we have to document every single one!)
After presents, we did cupcakes with sprinkles as Hayden had requested. (When asked what kind of cake she wanted, all she would say was sprinkles - I threw on some mini-marshmallows too, because she likes those too!) We even did candles this year and Hayden did a good job blowing them out, although I'm not sure she understood our instructions of make a wish! She also really enjoyed (as did everyone else!) the homemade blueberry ice cream that Mandy brought along. And of course, she tried to mooch more from others - as usual Sarah was a target, and let her have a bite of her cupcake.

Once dessert was done, we let her open the present from us, a baby stroller and I'm proud to report that we knew what she would like! She wanted it out immediately and pushed it all around the patio at a rapid pace, laughing when she'd run into things or accidently (on purpose) make it fall over. First Elmo got a ride, and then when we went out front to say goodbye, baby doll got to take a turn. I think Noah really wanted to try it out, but Hayden wasn't ready to share quite yet.
But even if she wouldn't share the baby stroller, she did give him one more BIG hug to say good bye and thank you for coming. This time there were even kisses on cheeks!
What a great birthday!! A big thanks to everyone who helped us celebrate! Can you believe she's two already? Check out how much she's grown from about 2 months to 2 years!

Toddler Idiosyncracies

I still have a backlog of blogs to write about various activities and trips, but I am going to interrupt getting those out in order to write about how much Hayden makes me laugh these days. This is not "make me laugh" because she's intentionally being silly (which definitely is happening more and more!) - instead it's make me laugh, because being almost two is such a funny age. I know she's not being atypical developmentally in the least, but there are just so many times during the day when she cracks me up because things have to be a certain way, just because. I can't wait until she can actually tell me why things have to be a certain way. For now, I just make up reasons to myself and try to accommodate her preferences when I can.

For example, she is in love with oatmeal. I think she would eat it for any meal anytime (had leftovers for snack yesterday) but she pretty much always requests it for breakfast. We let her have oatmeal fairly often, but not always with varying success about getting her interested in cereal with milk, yogurt, muffins, etc as other options. While her preference for oatmeal is funny on its own (I don't even eat oatmeal, so she's not copying me), it's the oatmeal-raisin interaction that's funny. She sees Jason adding raisins to his cereal, and asks for some for herself. After getting "yelled at" in toddler terms for daring to add raisins to her cereal ourselves, we have learned to simply give some raisins to her in a bowl, or just on her tray. She then puts them into her oatmeal, and sometimes even mixes them around. BUT the idiosyncracy is that then she doesn't even eat them!!! She just picks around them. Which makes me laugh since she was so adamant about getting raisins. And it's not that she doesn't like raisins ever - she did eat the whole concoction when she had the leftover oatmeal, raisins and all. But it does make me laugh to watch her scoop a bite of oatmeal and then pick off the raisin she got inadvertently. Oh well.

Let's see other silly things... She likes to sleep with her polka-dot fleece pajamas. Not wearing them; it's too hot for fleece and since they are one-piece zip ups, they don't really fit anymore, but she likes to have them as a snuggle object. Along with her "soft" blanket. And she likes her animals and such in her crib to be down by her feet, not next to her head. And she likes to have a book in her crib, as she goes to bed. I haven't seen her read the book, especially at night time, but she does sometimes snuggle in on top of it.

She will tell Jason and me what we can and cannot wear. Jason had to change shirts this morning because she didn't like the one he first chose. I was told to wear certain flip flops the other day and she has told me to wear a specific shirt. For the record, we don't always give in to her. When she selected a shirt for me, I told her it didn't match and I'd wear it tomorrow. She found that an acceptable explanation.

She doesn't like new shoes. But if we force her to put on a pair and then distract her, she'll forget and then be perfectly fine with them. This also happens with clothes. She doesn't really like to pick out her clothes, but she does always request her ice cream shirt. (a tank top with ice cream cones on it.) She did tell me today, when she asked for it, that she couldn't wear it because it was dirty. Which is true, I've been telling her that since Sunday, when she did wear it - guess I need to do some laundry!

Okay, so I'm blanking on anything else especially funny, except for her obsession with ice. First, ice has joined the list of things you can't eat in front of her without getting a request to share. Which is unfortunate since one of my pregnancy things is eating ice cubes that have melted a certain amount. If she sees me crunching, she'll ask for a "baby ice" so she can have one too. But in general, we have somehow created an ice monster. Every drink has to have ice in it, milk included. It's gotten to the point where I think she simply checks to see if there is ice, even if she's not interested in drinking! During our bed time routine, she often takes a few drinks of water, and the cup we keep in her bedroom must have ice in it. The other day, before nap, she asked for her water, asked for ice (I had to tell her it was itty-bitty ice since there wasn't any and I didn't feel like getting up to get some), and after staring at the cup for a bit, she said okay, and gave it back to me without drinking. Our solution to this ice situation, besides ALWAYS putting ice in her cup before we give it to her, is to put in the plastic reusable ice cubes. Since she's not concerned about the drink actually being cold, she's satisfied if there's just something in her glass. It works out well for all!

Well, just so you don't think I've actually posted a blog without pictures, here are a couple cute ones. And I'll see if I can think of any more funny Hayden idiosyncracies. She does make us laugh every day. It's great!

Saying "CHEESE" yesterday morning. This face cracks me up everytime she does it.

Being silly outside on the front stoop on day recently. Such a goofball.

7-08-09

Seven-eight-nine. Such a cool date, I just had to write, even though I will be writing about something from over a month ago! Time sure flies in the summer. I think in honor of today, everyone should listen to the BNL's song "7-8-9"!

Anyway, like I said, I'm not even going to write about today, or yesterday, or even anything from June. Instead, I'm going to take you ALL the way back to the end of May, when we made a trip to Ohio for our 10 year college reunion and for my in-laws 40th wedding anniversary. This trip also coincided with the first time I had been away from Hayden overnight, so it was a pretty big occasion. I left Tues of that week to go to DC for a conference and arrived in Columbus on Friday morning via airplane. Jason had Hayden to himself Tues thru Thurs, then drove from State College to Columbus in the evening on Thursday. From what he's told me, he and Hayden made it thru the Mommy-free time just fine. While a small part of me wanted to hear that there was a little bit more chaos and distress without me around, I also recognize how awesome it is that we've set up a great routine with daycare and Jason does spend such a good amount of time with Hayden, that my time away went smoothly for them. I myself had a nice time in DC. I think the best part was having dinner outside one evening where the food was good but the service was terrible. Rather than getting angry about the poor service, and having my anxiety levels increase exponentially as each minute of being unattended passed, I was able to sit, relax, enjoy the company and the scenery and not worry about Hayden. It was great!

All that being said, it was great to reunite with Jason and Hayden on Friday in the airport, pick up Carrie and Adie and then head to Kenyon to check out our old stomping grounds. Unfortunately we forgot our camera in Columbus at Jason's parents' house, so I have no pictures to share of Hayden at Kenyon. (Carrie - you need to send me the ones you took!!). But even without picture-proof, we had a great time exploring the new buildings, especially the newly renovated Pierce Hall, walking around campus, and eating at the all years campus picnic for dinner.

After dinner, we headed back to Columbus to see Jason's parents and.... surprise! Jen and Aaron and Hayden's cousins, Lucy, Will and Liesl! They had flown in to surprise Grammy and Grandad for their 40th wedding anniversary! Hayden LOVED her cousins, especially Will, and had a blast playing with them.

On Saturday, Jason and I headed back up to Kenyon for more reunion, leaving Hayden to play with Grammy, Granddad, Aunt Jen, Uncle Aaron, Lucy, Will, Liesl and Blizzard. Despite being worried about leaving her again (we were staying at Kenyon overnight without her), I think she had plenty of fun people to play with. :) I won't bore you with too many details about the reunion; after all, it's Hayden's blog and she wasn't even there. But I will say that we had a great time. The weather was gorgeous which made walking around campus just wonderful. It had the perfect amount of nostalgia where I could remember back to fun times without feeling too sad that they were in the past. The new Kenyon Athletic Center was absolutely amazing; I can't even describe it. I got to swim in the new pool with Erin, Amelia and Adie and I wasn't too horrible slow for being the only pregnant lady! The dining hall was also quite cool and Jason and I had a great lunch trying out all the options (there is nothing like college tater tots...). We even managed to show up for our class picture. We didn't order a copy or anything, but we did pose for our own after the big group shot was done.
We also managed to have a birthday party for Adie in the dorm room (Kenyon opens up the dorms for great rates for the reunion) complete with cupcakes, Fritos and maragaritas. And we went to the "fancy" class dinner where we took another group shot.
Jason and I even managed to enjoy our first night away from Hayden. Well, as much as we could enjoy it seeing as how we were in a dorm room, complete with twin beds, while outside people getting drunk and being loud and running the "naked mile" late into the night (we went to bed around 1:30 am). We did manage to sleep in a little bit which was the main goal, and then we walked around campus taking pictures before meeting up with Amelia for brunch.

Us in front of Old Kenyon,
where Jason lived junior year and we spent the night at this reunion.

The signpost at the bottom of the hill, directing you to Kenyon

The Gates of Hell on Middle Path.
After brunch, we headed back to Columbus to see how Hayden had fared in our absence. For those of you concerned, she was just fine. Quite happy in fact! Cousins are GREAT! That afternoon, after lots of fun playing with cousins in water, there was another surprise - a party for Grammy and Granddad for their anniversary! All their nearest and dearest friends came by, and a good time was had by all eating pizza and cake and sharing adult beverages. The kids did just great with all the commotion, and had fun playing with even more cousins - Josh, Noah and Ethan - kids of Jen and Jason's cousin. I still didn't take all that many pictures for the festivities but again, that doesn't mean we didn't have a good time. Everyone was just too busy to capture on camera!

Hayden and Will work on scooping out the water, pre-party...

Hayden in her super cute party dress. I almost gave away the surprise, since Hayden was supposed to be changing out of wet clothes to go the park, and instead she came down in a dress. Since I almost never put in her a dress, Grammy kind of suspected something was weird but luckily guests started arriving before she could really think about it! Me and baby Liesl hanging out on the back patio, watching the kids play in the water. She can't wait to join in the crazy cousin fun!

The cousins posing together on the front porch, after the party.

Grammy, Granddad and the grandkids.
Almost everyone is looking at the camera!

Granddad and baby Liesl. For the record, almost all pictures of babies get identified by Hayden as baby Liesl these days, even ones of Hayden!
Once in the car on Monday head home, I think Hayden passed out within seconds of leaving the driveway.
It's tiring keeping up with all those West Coast cousins!

And one final picture. I just love this one. The smile definitely shows how much fun she had seeing family. Even though we can't get together all that frequently, Hayden is definitely able to identify family in pictures now and delights in doing so. And she can't wait to see Grammy and Granddad this weekend for her party!

Fourth of July 2009

Despite the backlog of blogs I want to write about, I will actually write something that is very current and up to date. We had a wonderful Fourth of July weekend and I tried to take some good pictures to share the fun with you. There's not too much story to the day, just the usual summertime holiday festivities at the Sanford-DeRousie household, so I'll just comment on the pictures. Consider it a photo essay, if you will. (like it's at that kind of creative level, oh well. maybe some day.)

We started off the day with blueberry pancakes, made with blueberries from our farm share and no whole wheat flour (to keep Jason happy). They were delicious and Hayden ate at least 2.

Blueberry pancake mouth! The first of many times her face would be stained with fruit on this day.

After breakfast, we were just kind of hanging around. Hayden ended up shirtless because of sticky syrup. She decided it might be time to try out her shades the right way. (as opposed to on her belly or on the back of her neck as she has done in the past!) Isn't she stylin'?!

After a walk around the block in beautiful sunny weather, Hayden and I did some baking to make dessert for our barbecue in the afternoon. Hayden wanted to put on her apron after she saw me in mine, and she had a GREAT time helping me make S'more Bars (ask me for the recipe if you want to try them!), especially when she got to eat all the extra mini-marshmallows. By the way, that's her "cheese!" face in the picture - not a very good smile, but she looks pretty cute doing it!

Late in the afternoon, everyone gathered at our place to hang out, grill, eat and just celebrate the fourth. After chowing down on her corn (notice the destruction of the cob in the photo), Hayden moved on to attacking the watermelon slice with a plastic knife. Not so good at cutting things yet, but she had fun.

Then, once she'd eaten her watermelon, she moved on to stealing fruit off Sarah's plate. She actually did a great job stabbing the fruit pieces with her fork. (Notice the third incident of fruit stained mouth - at lunch we ate cherries!)

Hayden was in a great mood, loving the attention and being silly. Here she climbed up behind me to look at the fountain in our newly refurbished pond and then started giving me hugs from behind.

After eating dinner, we decided to take a lawn game break before digging into dessert. Even pregnant ladies can play bocce!

Hayden wasn't quite sure what to make of the bocce game, but she settled quite nicely under the tree and hung out with whoever came to sit with her. First it was Amy (and Blizzard)....

Then Sarah.... (and Blizzard)

Then Amy and Brittany. I think Brad sat with her a little bit and I played with her too.

After lawn games and dessert, we headed into campus to go see the fireworks. Brad got a quick tutorial on the Ergo before we hiked up the hill to the track. Can you tell Hayden has done this before? She's sitting there so patiently!

On the way up, we passed by some of the animal fields. (gotta love a land grant institution). Hayden got to meet a VERY large pig! She was thrilled!

We set up our chairs inside the track, our favorite place to view the fireworks. Brittany, Amy and I walked up to see the graphic waterfall which was pretty cool. Eventually the sun went down (it was a beautiful sunset) and the show began. It's set to music and we were lucky enough to have one radio that worked, as long as it was able to transmit thru Brad's tush. :)

Hayden wasn't a big fan of the fireworks. I thought she might like them. After all, she fell asleep at them last year. And when we showed her some examples on youtube, she seemed interested. In fact, she talked about going to see the fireworks, boom boom, all day on the Fourth. But I guess when faced with the actual spectacle, it was too much for her. She did not freak out, which was good, but she spent the whole show in my lap, holding my finger, with her face hidden under her blanket. She might have been a little sleepy too, but she never fell completely asleep.

All in all, it was a great Fourth of July. Hayden had fun, we had fun, and Blizzard didn't have a heart attack or destroy the house while home alone listening to all the fireworks. We definitely recommend the State College fireworks show - it's amazing! Happy Summer!

Raising a Berry Fiend

As I mentioned in my last post, last weekend we got word, via Mandy, that my favorite strawberry farm was having an early season U-pick session for a few short hours. The weather had been warm enough to ripen some berries, but then it had been monsooning (essentially!) for a few days, and the farm was worried that the ripened berries would rot before they were ready to open up officially for the U-pick season. I, being an avowed berry fiend, jumped at the chance to pick the first fresh strawberries of the season. We managed to fit it into a busy Saturday morning (Friends school yard sale, Waffle Shop breakfast, music class, and then strawberry picking!) and boy was it worth it.

The berries were delicious and the field we got to pick on wasn't nearly as overgrown as their fields sometimes have been in the past. It was FINALLY sunny (after a good week of rain and gray) so it was wonderful to be outside. We brought Sarah and Brad with us and then met up with Mandy, Scott and Noah. Hayden had been berry picking last year - but it was a bit of fiasco, trying to wear her on my back. This year, we let her walk around and she started off strong. Sarah and I ended up sharing a bucket and Hayden went back and forth between us, grabbing the berries we had picked and putting them in the bucket. A great system, if you ask me, especially when both Sarah and I, with growing baby bellies, were content to find a fruitful spot and stay there seated for a while, trying to pick as many berries as we could within arms reach. But Hayden didn't want to be the berry deliverer for long, so she went off with Daddy to check things out in a different part of the field. Notice I haven't mentioned letting her EAT any yet; I thought that might set a bad precedent.

Hayden acting as berry deliverer with Sarah.

Posing with the first fruits of our picking efforts.

Sure enough, when she returned from her adventure with Daddy, I introduced her to actually tasting the berries, and she was hooked. She kept asking for more and more. She would occasionally still act as berry deliverer, but her services were getting sloppy. At one point, she wanted to put the berries I gave her (at this point, feeling much more hard earned from bending over a baby belly) in Mandy's container. Or she would look at me quizzically asking without words, 'do I have to put this berry in a container, or can I just eat it?'

Can I eat this one please?

Ahh, strawberry goodness...

Even with Hayden's "help" at eating the berries, we managed a pretty good haul and eventually we were able to tear ourselves away from the temptation of finding just one more berry and go pay for our loot. As noted in my last entry, Hayden and Noah held hands on the way out for a bit and then had a great time being wheeled around the new store at the farm in a car shopping cart.

I think we pulled in 8-9 lbs of berries, which seems like a pretty good accomplishment for the first round of picking this season. We just finished the last of them on cereal and yogurt this morning. I made a delicious strawberry-rhubarb pie (thanks again for the recipe Mandy!) that Jason just couldn't get enough of.

The pie (if you couldn't tell). So tasty!

I also made strawberry bread that was tasty (Hayden had a piece and a half for snack yesterday and would have eaten more). Plus we all ate plenty straight up, as fresh berries should be enjoyed.

don't those berries look yummy!

All in all, it was a good first picking. Hayden enjoyed the process of picking (I think!) and she definitely enjoyed eating the berries. She gets sort of picky with food at times these days (oatmeal is always her breakfast request, but we don't always indulge her). I would offer strawberries and she'd say no all whiney and rejecting. But if I put one in front of her, while fixing the rest of the meal, chances are she'd end up gobbling it right up and asking for more. I guess she really IS my daughter, even if she doesn't look all that much like me. :) We will probably head out to pick again tomorrow - we need to replenish our stash. It'll be interesting to see how it goes with just me and Hayden doing the picking. As long as we can get enough for jam, and maybe a smoothie, I'll be happy.

Family shot, posing with our haul.