Dear Grandma and Poppop,

I just wanted to let you know that I'm working very hard getting ready for your visit next weekend. Mommy says that you are going to be so impressed with all my new tricks!

For instance, we've been working on my letters. I know you might think that's kind of harsh, since I'm only 16 and a half months, BUT it's really not so bad. We do it to music. The only letter I've really gotten is Y. But I'm really good at it! One day recently we were listening to music, and the letter song finally came on. Mommy and Daddy were talking and didn't notice, but I did. I started dancing without them, and telling them the letter Y. I really like to dance. When they finally did hear the song, they helped me do the rest of the letters : Y - M-C -A. Mommy says I'm going to be a big hit at weddings and that Grandma will love singing this song with me!

I also made Mommy laugh today because I was practicing my animals. I have a cool little water bottle that has all these animals on it - and since I'd finished scarfing up my clementine for snack, I decided to see if I could name them all. Lion and elephant are easy - I've been doing those signs/sounds for months! Then I pointed to one animal that's big and round, colored purple on my bottle though Mommy says that isn't the real color. I tried to do the sign like Mommy and Poppop taught me. And I sort of said the first syllable, sort of. "Hih" Can you guess what animal it was? That's right, a hippo! When Mommy realized how smart I was, she made the same "naw, naw, naw" silly sound that Poppop made at me when I visited him in September. I did it back to her and kept doing it really loud. She almost fell out of her chair laughing at me. She told me I should tell Poppop to be sure to bring his hippo shirt to visit because then I can tell him about hippos all day long!

The other thing I've been working on is a Vosburgh family tradition. Mommy says she's not doing it quite right, because we've been using a book and the book is about a bear, not a lion. But we do lots of "exploring" in the book, going through rivers and mud and forests. And my favorite part is at the end when Mommy pretends we're running really fast away from the bear. She's SO silly. But she tells me that Grandma is the BEST at going on a lion/bear hunt, so we have to do one while you're here. I bet Jay would like going on a lion hunt too!

So that's what I've been working on. I can't wait for you to come visit and to bring Dooley with you so I can get lots of licks. I'll probably remember how to say Dooley too. Right now, I just sort of say Dee when we look at pictures. But I say "doggie" for Blizzard and other dogs now, and I like to howl when I hear Blizzard howling. I love making sounds like her!

Have a happy Thanksgiving and I'll see you in a week!

Love,

Hayden

PS. Mommy says to ask, did you really think she could do a post with out a picture in it? Not a chance, she says! Here I am smiling and showing off my dimples!

Aunts are bad influences.

In my last post about our trip to Columbus, I mentioned not having pictures of Aunt Jen. Well maybe that's because she was an official bad influence over the weekend. That's right, Aunt Jen, the older sister aunt, the responsible one, who has three kids of her own - not Aunt Katie, the youngest aunt, who helps us see different parts of the country as she moves from place to place. :)

The crime you may ask? Well, after our big Thanksgiving-like dinner, Aunt Jen introduced Hayden to Coolwhip. Now you may be thinking, coolwhip? is that really so bad? What's wrong with a taste? Well, I think the pictures speak louder than words in this instance. They show the culprit caught in the act AND the horrific aftermath...

Now all Hayden wants is Coolwhip!! She begs for anything resembling coolwhip - sour cream, mayonaise, ranch dressing. She's on a downward spiral that's going to result in her only eating white foods. It's a calamity!!!

(Just kidding! We love you Aunt Jen!)

Meeting Cousin Liesl

This past weekend we headed to Columbus, Ohio to visit Jason's family. His sister and family was coming to visit from Portland and it was the first chance we had to meet the newest member of the DeRousie family - Liesl Rose Monnig - our new niece and Hayden's new cousin! She was beautiful! Hayden absolutely loved her. She said "baby" over and over and over again, signing it sometimes too. Even on Sunday morning, after Liesl was gone, she said baby and went to look for her in the cradle. She loved to go up to Liesl and look at her and touch her. Hayden was just fascinated! We did have to remind her to touch gently and not to poke her eyes!Liesl was the star of the weekend since every one, even the kids, just wanted a chance to kiss her and be close. Lucy and Will were very loving with her and Hayden didn't do too bad a job either. The picture below shows a time when Liesl was getting some floor time and all the kids descended on her to give kisses!We had a great trip, in so many different ways. We left Thurs evening hoping that Hayden would just sleep the whole trip - and she did! She didn't get sick and didn't even have a cold so she slept really well. We got to meet Liesl and see tons of family (see below). Plus we had great weather on Friday - warm, sunnyish - great for some outdoor playing. Lucy and Will really enjoyed the leaf pile Granddad had put together. Hayden didn't want to play in the leaves but she liked scooting along the sidewalk.All the cousins played really well together. Lucy was so interested in Hayden and followed her around everywhere, trying to engage her. Hayden sometimes appreciated the attention, and sometimes wanted some space. Anybody know the baby sign for "give me a moment!"? Generally though, the three kids did great together and had a lot of fun. The picture below was when we introduced Lucy and Will to one of Hayden's favorite games - run down the hallway shrieking.
Here Hayden listens closely to what Lucy is telling her. I love how tuned in Hayden is to Lucy.On Saturday morning, the kids had a great time playing with telephones.Aren't they the cutest?!!! Kid pajamas rock!Besides meeting baby Liesl, we got to see tons of other DeRousie family members. On Friday night we went over to Jason's cousin's house to see her, her husband and their three boys -plus Jason's aunt and uncle who also live in Columbus. They have a great house with LOTS of fun kid stuff. Lucy was especially taken with the trampoline; Noah (Lucy's cousin, in the middle) was especially taken with Lucy! (and for the record, three on the trampoline goes against house rules... it didn't last long.) Here's the attempt to take a group photo in the ball pit. Yes we did manage to corral everyone but Liesl into the same small area of the house. No we did not manage to have everyone facing the same direction. We're still working on group photos. :) Maybe when the kids are a little bit older... (yes, Hayden is in the photo. sort of. look in the bottom left hand corner for the top of her head...)

On Saturday, we had an early Thanksgiving Dinner when Ammi and Poppa, and Uncle Rich and Norma came to visit. Since Ammi's birthday is this month, and her favorite meal is Thanksgiving, it worked out perfectly to enjoy a delicious turkey, mashed potatoes, and pies together. It felt so much like Thanksgiving that I'm ready to put up Christmas decorations now!

Here Ammi and Poppa pose with their four great-grandchildren.

Hayden actually napped during the big dinner but afterwards, we even got her to pose for a special shot with Ammi and Poppa. How amazing is it that everyone is looking at the camera, eyes open AND smiling!!! This one is going in the scrapbook for sure.
Of course, we didn't do a very good job taking pictures of everyone for the weekend. We didn't really get a good shot of Aunt Jen, or Uncle Aaron, or even Grammy and Granddad. I think it was because we were all too busy having fun together. We'll have to do better at Christmas because Hayden loves looking at photo albums and she's starting to really put names with faces.

But we did get a few good pictures of Liesl and she's the main reason we headed to Ohio in the first place. Welcome to the family! It was good to meet you!

Happy Halloween!

Finally a timely blog entry! Halloween was only last night, so while I'm still on a sugar high, I'll show you some fun pictures from the big day. We didn't get nearly as many trick-or-treaters as we were expecting, so we had a little bit of leftover candy. Luckily we decided to use it up by playing a candy-eating game (think drinking games with candy...). Or wait, that's not right, we actually just ate the candy AND played games. And life on Halloween night was good.

Anyway, the Halloween festivities started the night before with the pumpkin carving session. Even though it was warm enough to be outside, it was too dark, so we set up newspapers in the kitchen and got to work. First, Hayden tried out our pumpkin as a seat one more time. (and yes, she has a bit of a runny nose these days. That's something they don't warn you about when you have kids - the amount of mucus one little kid can produce...)

We soon got down to the business of digging the guts out of the pumpkin. Hayden was excited to help. She kept grabbing my spoon, which made it hard for me to scoop the innards - eventually we just got one out for her to use. I thought it was funny that basically Hayden put her whole arm into the pumpkin, and she still couldn't reach the bottom of it. That didn't stop her from trying! I'm not sure she ever really touched the pumpkin guts - though she did get seeds stuck to random body parts.


Even Blizzard joined in the fun by eating a pumpkin seed and then trying to lick the pumpkin guts off my hand. (notice the tongue!) I guess dogs don't discriminate between jack-o-latern pumpkins and pie pumpkins. They all taste good!


Finally, right before bed, our work was complete. We put a candle inside and showed Hayden the finished product. We also did the obligatory child and pumpkin pose. I just love those pumpkin-n-kid pictures!

The next day was Halloween and Hayden's daycare did a little parade around the Penn Stater. Hayden got to dress up as a Nittany Lion, thanks to the donation of one of Jason's co-workers. Needless to say, she was adorable and the costume was a big hit with the crowd. Hayden rode in the stroller, while other friends in the class got to ride in the big daycare wagon. Even some of the adults gathered to watch the parade got dressed up - Hayden's favorite was the person in the big banana costume!

Back at school, the class tried to do a group photo. I'm not sure one year olds really get costumes yet, or Halloween, or group photos. Many of them are not happy (including Hayden) - but the costumes are cute!



After a long day, we made it back home and set things up to receive trick-or-treaters: turned on the porch light, replaced the doorbell battery, put candy in our pumpkin pail. Around 5:30 pm, our friends - Brittany, Sarah and Brad - came over. We hung outside for a bit and Hayden had a great time wandering around. She's started this new thing of running in place when she gets really excited and happy - she might be dancing, or just being silly. Whatever it is, it's super cute and she's usually got a huge grin on her face. Amazingly, she even did this silly running-in-place dance next to the jack-o-latern! Notice the knee up as she moves her feet super fast. I don't know who's got the bigger grin!

Once back inside, we had to put the Nittany Lion costume back on. A kid has to wear a costume on Halloween night - plus everybody wanted to see it in person. Hayden tolerated it quite well as we bribed her with goldfish.

All in all, we had a great Halloween. Hayden didn't mind dressing up (though we didn't go trick-or-treating). Blizzard didn't completely lose her mind as small children in strange outfits rang the doorbell over and over. (plus we didn't make Blizz wear her Darth Vader costume!) Brad and Sarah managed to make a game out of refilling the pumpkin pail with candy - basically chucking candy at whoever was holding the bucket. (Hayden thought they were hilarious!) As an added bonus, once the trick-or-treaters had disappeared into the night, and Hayden was tucked into bed, there was still plenty of candy left to fuel a game of Sorry AND a game of Canasta.

The scariest part of the whole day wasn't even when we watched someone eat a rattlesnake on TV. It was probably when I donned a costume in the afternoon since Hayden sure looked at me a little funny when we picked her up from school. Oh wait, that's right, it wasn't a costume - I just got a haircut! Let's hope it's not too scary when I wash it and let it curl! :)

Happy Halloween!!!

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?