Celebrating with Daddy

Yesterday was Jason's birthday, hence the little Smilebox I posted after I had sent it to him at work. Hayden and I had a good time helping him celebrate. We met up with him after Hayden was done with school (second day went well!) and took him to lunch. Hayden really enjoyed eating pizza.
Then in the afternoon, we did all sorts of preparations for the 'party' in the evening. We wrapped presents (when do kids learn to use tape, because Hayden does not quite get the concept yet), we iced whoopie pies, we decorated his card and made a birthday sign for the door. And then when he got home, Hayden greeted him with a big hug and "happy birthday daddy!" (She's come a long way from only wishing 'happy poppop' to anyone with a birthday.)
We were going to have a picnic for dinner, but ended up just going to the park (which supposedly had bocce ball courts to try out his new set again - we never did find them) and then grabbing dinner to bring home. Hayden loved having daddy along on a park trip - usually it's just me. And I got to take pictures! She even went on a really big slide. You'll notice that one picture is from the bottom - trying to capture the slide action - but then the next is from the top. Hayden got a little scared and I climbed up to assist her. You'd think she was done, after being scared, but she was ready to go again! At least till she reached the top and then she tried to turn around again.

Then we announced it was time to go get dinner at Jason's place of choice but Hayden decided she wanted to sit on the bench for just a bit. Eventually we managed to convince her to go get dinner at "two guys" (her name for it) and she thought the peanuts in a shell were pretty cool.
Finally we made it home for dinner, presents and whoopie pies and all was good. Notice that in the picture showing Hayden helping open presents that Jason looks to be laughing hysterically. The reason is because he pointed to a package and said to Hayden, should we open this one? And she responds, it's a watch! She's going to need to work on her sneakiness if she keeps hanging out with me! I'm all about surprises!

(and that's not even the first time she told him we got him a watch. We were at the mall this weekend, and glanced at a display of watches and she says, daddy birthday watch, or something similar. I could have tried to play it off but I was laughing too hard at her both remembering and spilling the beans. And since Jason wants to know about presents immediately, he just kept asking her about anything else we had gotten for him! Fun times.)

Mmmmmm, don't those whoopie pies look delicious! (They were!) Jason requested them instead of a cake which seemed quite amazing to me. But he was happy and that's what's important on a birthday!

I think Hayden may be requesting whoopie pies on her birthday next year. She seemed to enjoy them!

Happy Birthday Jason/Daddy! I hope you had a great day! Next year there'll be two little munchkins around to steal cake from you...

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Make a Smilebox greeting

First day of school

Hayden started school today (hence the middle of the morning posting). She's going to a two-year-old class, that currently only has 6 kids in it, 3 mornings a week. Hopefully she'll really like having some time with kids her own age while I will get to spend some one-on-one time with the baby. A win-win for everyone!

This picture was of her heading into meet-your-teacher on Wednesday. The 'ponies' didn't last very long once she tried on some of the dress up clothes, but she looked super cute going in.
And then today, when it's a high of 56 and rainy, we focused more on bundling up than cuteness in the clothes selection, but at least she'll be comfy at school! (she looks so different with her hair down as opposed to pulled back, doesn't she?!)

Labor Day Fun

Even though I didn't go into labor on Labor Day weekend, we still had a productive and fun three-day weekend. Jason touched up the ceiling paint, we moved the furniture in (bed, dresser, etc), got Hayden set up in her new 'big-girl' bed, put up our tree on the wall, sorted and washed newborn clothes, and even managed to host one more social gathering before we retreat into family time to take care of a newborn. Quite the weekend! We didn't end up taking too many pictures, which is probably okay. I mean, how exciting is it to see a picture of us sorting and washing newborn clothes. But I do have a few to share of the mostly finished nursery, the party, and Hayden's big-girl bed.

First the nursery, which I'm sure you are eager to check out. We have transformed what was my study, painted green, into a lovely little nursery, painted tan. I was happy to see the green go - I picked it out in the beginning but never really liked it. It looks MUCH better in the neutral color. And the tree decal we found is awesome! It's hard to really capture a small room in pictures to show the colors and set up and all, so you'll just have to imagine it all together.

Hayden likes having the nursery set up because she has discovered a new room to open/close the door to (a rather annoying interest she's picked up lately) and she likes playing with the baby toys we gathered up.

I still don't know if Hayden really gets that there will be a new baby living with us soon. It could be quite the adjustment for her. She actually shows little interest in baby Logan, besides peering at him for a few moments. (though she did hold him again the other day, with plenty of spotting, and did great.) And lately, when Blizzard (the dog that we've had the WHOLE time she's been around) has crawled in Jason's lap while on the couch, Hayden has started protesting, 'my daddy, my daddy.' So a new baby might be tough to handle but I'm sure she'll survive.

After all, we were a bit concerned about moving her to a new bed and she has handled it splendidly. She has slept in it for a whole week now and has done great! So far no issues with getting up or anything. Sometimes it does seem to take her a while to fall asleep for nap or at night. We'll hear some thumping, or a book singing, or our favorite, 'cover me up! cover me up!' but she's done remarkable well. Of course, she still hasn't quite the hang of sleeping like a normal person. When we check on her, we often come away from the door laughing hysterically (though silently) at whatever position she's gotten herself into. I'm too scared to take a picture, but we've found her sleeping perpendicular to the bed, with her feet actually touching the floor, at the complete opposite end of the bed AND one time, underneath her pillow. But she sleeps and seems well rested so we don't complain or try to change her habits! Here's a picture of her new bed, with a very proud Hayden.

And finally, a few pics from our party. It was the usual grill out type gathering with our usual crowd so I won't bore you with details. The main deviation was that Hayden and I had given Jason an early birthday present - a snazzy new bocce set - and after we ate dinner, we all walked down to the park to play. It's a nice set if I may say so, solid heavy balls, and Jason even won his first match with them!
Hayden begging for the patonk (sp?) when we first got the set out. She wasn't a big fan at first, since she wasn't allowed to hold the balls, and so we walked over to another section of the park to go swing.
Measuring out who's closest. We used the offically sanctioned "foot" measurement system.
Noah was also uninterested in bocce, but he scaled to new heights in the meantime!
Eventually Hayden and Noah did stop to watch the game a little bit and had fun sitting together on the bench.
Towards the end of the game, Hayden found a spare ball that she was allowed to carry around. It's 'heavy' she said!
As the game finished up, Hayden requested to be spun by daddy. Noah thought it looked fun, so he asked his mom to do the same. I tried to get them in the same photo, but this was as close as I could get due to the necessary distance for safety. Notice Blizzard up and at 'em as the fun police - there was a lot of giggling going on!

Back at the ranch, we all enjoyed brownies for dessert. While they may seem a little strange when you know the secret ingredient, they are SO good. I've made them twice recently and I'm trying to come up with an excuse to make more! and everyone else must have liked them too because there was hardly any left in the dish.

So that was our Labor Day weekend. A fun, productive, and wonderful three days. Now we just continue counting down till Baby Deux arrives!

Summer Time Music

Even though summer is drawing to a close (the students have returned to campus - AHHH!), we managed to have one more wonderful summer evening last Sunday. After having good intentions that were never realized all summer, we finally made it out to the Sunday evening concert series at the South Hills pavilion. They have a free outdoor concert each weekend of local bands (think big bands, not rock bands) and you can sit outside, have a picnic and enjoy the music. We'd gone once before a couple years ago (pre-Hayden) but just hadn't made it back. But with Hayden's love of music (she was just asking about music class today!) and the outdoors, we thought she'd love it. And we were right!!!

We invited our friends, Sarah-Brad-Logan and Ali-Matt, to join us; and despite everyone being busy and tired from new babies and work, they all made it! We were able to set up a lovely little spot with blankets and camp chairs right near the dance floor, enjoyed a delicious picnic, and just had a great time. At first Hayden just liked being able to grab what she wanted for dinner (who knew a two-year-old would eat salt and vinegar chips?!), but as the music started up she thought it sounded pretty good. You can see the little bandstand behind her as she sneaks a chip. She also ate hummus, melon and as many 'snicker-noodles' as she could.
Brad was the first person she was able to drag out to the dance floor. (Daddy was too busy eating!) They had a pretty fun time, though I'm not sure they were doing any traditional moves.
Back on the blanket, even Logan was having a nice time listening to music and hanging out in the sunshine. When Hayden took a break, she came back to say hello to Logan.

But Hayden didn't want to stay at the blanket for long - not when there was music to dance to! There were other kids that kept running around on the dance floor too and Hayden thought that was great. But eventually she pretty much got it to herself and then she really busted some moves. Here's a video! (sorry it's sidewise, I don't know how you 'rotate' a video like you can rotate a photo. But I think you can still get a lot out of it - Hayden's many dance moves, the music, her interaction with another little girl, her smiles. I think you can even hear me giggling at her faintly!)


After all that dancing, it was time to take a break. And following the lead of the other little girl, Hayden plopped herself down on the dance floor to watch. Then she dragged Daddy over to sit with her (on the dance floor!) but she wouldn't look at me to take a picture. She was too interested in what some kids were doing over on the side.
At the very end, she did get a second wind and pulled out some more moves, including dancing on all fours. Yep that's right, she did yoga (downward facing dog) AND danced!
And when they were done playing, Hayden was happy to applaud the band. (She actually did a very good job of clapping after every song.) She had such a great time that we're hoping to go back again this weekend! Anybody want to join us?!

Art and Design, Toddler Style

In trying to provide fun activities for Hayden, one of the things we've come up with has been taping a large sheet of paper on the floor and letting her color it however she likes. Sometimes this keeps her attention for only a few moments, but within the past week, she actually got really into it.

This time around we had taped down some thicker brown paper (I think from the inside of a roll of cheap wrapping paper) and pulled out her little tote of art supplies (which includes markers, crayons, stickers, water colors, etc.). She really likes to use markers - we actually purchased washable ones special for her, rather than using my old ones, just in case of a coloring incident.

As she began to work, I was absolutely fascinated by her process - draw circles (which are actually more scribbles in a circle-type shape), usually identify them as big or little, and then put a sticker on each 'circle.' She did this very deliberately with all the elmo stickers on a sheet. Once she'd gone through the stickers on the sheet, we were done for a while.

The following day (so this is not just a one day project for her!), she pulled up all of the elmo stickers and put them in the trash. Hayden then went back and put down little dog stickers on each circle. She also added more circles (with accompanying dog stickers) to complete the art.

There was definitely a process of creation; she would carefully choose a color for each circle. Sometimes she'd get excited and pull off a sticker, only to realize that she hadn't drawn a circle for it so she would ask me to hold the sticker. She's also figured out that you need to 'pop' the cap back on the marker and does so by shoving it against her chest. Looks painful but she gets it to snap on! After many days of the artwork being on the floor, I pulled it up yesterday and put it on the wall in the hallway at her level. She stopped to examine it carefully. I can't wait to see what else she creates!

Art is fun!

The start of baby season

Many of you who read this blog may be wondering about our friends, Sarah and Brad, and the arrival of their new baby. I am happy to report that Logan Bradley Cox arrived last Monday (the 10th of August) as a happy, healthy and red-headed little baby boy of 6 lbs, 14 oz. Thus begins the start of what I'm going to call 'baby season' when all the babies from the 'preggo posse' (as Jason likes to refer to me, Sarah and Ali) will eventually be born. Sarah just had hers, I'm due the end of September, and Ali (who I know from playing soccer) is due the beginning of October. The three of us took a water aerobics class (that wasn't very exciting) together and then continued to walk together. It's been great talking with them about all sorts of baby-related stuff since I don't actually have that many friends who have children. We have also tried a couple of 'local' eateries together that have made for interesting meals. Hopefully we can continue to get together as our babies make their way into the world. Here's a pic of us after the more successful of our meals together (breakfast here), just two days before Logan's arrival!
We were able to visit them in the hospital (without Hayden who is under the visiting age limit of a non-relative) but haven't seem them, or Logan much over the ensuing week. (completely understandable I say!). But we were eagerly waiting the opportunity to introduce Hayden to Logan (the way she says baby Logan is just TOO cute), but didn't want to rush things at all. Well this past Sunday, Sarah and Brad were ready to venture out and came over to our house for a little while. Thus Hayden was finally officially introduced to "Baby Logan."

Hayden was really shy as Sarah and Brad brought Logan in and laid him on the floor. Isn't he adorable?!!
She needed to sit in my lap (no small feat these days) and we started off slow with just touching his toe.
As she grew more comfortable with the idea of the baby, we progressed to touching his hand, to see if he'd grab her fingers. (We had washed her hands carefully when he arrived!). Hayden may have been apprehensive but Logan just slept and made cute newborn faces.

Then Hayden got bored and needed to go 'shopping' while wearing sunglasses. I often have the same urge while taking care of Hayden during the day. :)
After visiting for a little while, I asked Sarah if it'd be okay if Hayden held Logan. She said that'd be fine, and with plenty of adult supervision, we settled Hayden on the couch, surrounded by pillows, to hold Logan. She had been instructed that we need to be 'gentle' with the baby and she did a great job.
Hayden sat with Logan for maybe a couple minutes and then out of the blue this look of complete panic came over her and she was ready to hand him over. I zoomed in on this last picture so you can sort of see the look. I'm not sure what happened since he didn't move or cry and we didn't say anything. I guess she was just done. But overall she did a fantastic job of holding him. I know she'll be great as a big sister!
After holding Logan, Hayden resorted back to her old tricks of getting Sarah to do things for her - this time reading a story. And Sarah, a mom only by one week, performed marvelously, managing to hold Logan AND read The Very Hungry Catepillar at the same time. I hope I can do that well in another month or so!
Then it was time for baby Logan to go and so ended the introduction of Hayden and Logan. I think it's the beginning of a beautiful friendship!

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A couple other pictures from the baby-related theme, Hayden is continuing to be pretty interested in our baby and my belly. She often tries to pull my shirt up to 'look' at the baby and frequently gives my belly kisses when she does that. Though I'm not a big fan of how enormous my belly is, Jason managed to capture a couple of cute moments that I'll share. Please focus on Hayden and how cute she is! :)


PS - one last recent moment: so Jason has been having lots of work done on his teeth. He came home from an appointment yesterday in pain, and proceeded to put ice on his jaw. Hayden, in true mimicking toddler form, also wanted ice and followed him around holding ice to her jaw. So funny!