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!

Trip to NC

I think this is going to be the last of the "catch-up" blog entries. I mean, it's August 17th and it's at least 85 degrees in State College. If I haven't caught up on spring/summer activities, then I should probably just move on. Right? Anyway, the last one is about our trip to North Carolina on Father's Day in June. I considered it my last chance to get home with only one baby in tow, as well as one more chance to see my grandparents again. It turned out to be a well-timed visit because my granpa went into the hospital just a few days before we arrived. I was still able to visit him and say hello, show him my big baby belly. Then, the day we drove back north, he passed away. It was sad, as it always is when a loved one passes away, but also sort of a relief for my dad and grandmother since he was 91 years old, was in his own little world in the hospital, and had lived a full life! I was able to fly back down for the funeral the next weekend and get to see more family, but it definitely made for a different memory of our trip to NC. I'm just glad we (me, Jason and Hayden) had gone down when we did, because we'd been debating weekends for a while. Sorry for the somber bit of news, but I just can't write about the visit without writing about my granpa. (and getting a tiny bit teary too.)

So anyway, expect for the whole side story with my granpa, the trip was fairly uneventful. Both the drive down and the drive back up were on the terrible side, mainly because they were excruciatingly long. We left after work on the way down, thinking to avoid DC traffic and managed to still somehow, at 10 o'clock at night, end up sitting in 1.5 hours of construction traffic south of DC. We didn't get in till 3:00 am and that wiped me out for the next day! Luckily Hayden slept most of the way and wasn't nearly as exhausted as me and Jason. On the way back, we hit stopped traffic we assumed was for a bad accident (seeing a helicopter fly in, and cop cars sneak by on the sides) so we tried an alternate route that probably added an hour to our trip. (who knows how long traffic was stopped?!) The weather in NC was record-breakingly hot which made for a bit of a "weather-lag" (like jet-lag!) for us, since it was a high in the low 60s the day before we left, and then highs around 100 in NC!

Some highlights - we learned that Hayden is a mosquito magnet and that her bites pop up really big and pink fairly quickly. We introduced Hayden to playing in a creek, and she had a great time dipping in her toes and tossing in rocks. We ate copious amounts of frozen treats, much of it free!, in honor of Father's Day. Blizzard and Dooley continued their doggie friendship - playing noisily and swapping the bean bag back and forth. And Hayden also had her first bite of hush puppies when we had an absolutely delicious lunch here - and she liked my chicken a lot! Plus we also learned that Hayden is a big fan of soup - specifically pasta fagioli (pronouced fah-jool at my grandparents retirement home!), though she only wanted the broth and pasta, not the beans (which are what makes it fagioli!). All in all, a pretty good visit. I'll stop rambling now and just post some pictures below.

Eating pasta fagioli down in Southern Pines. We didn't actually order her any, but then she ate two cups worth!

Great Granma Jane (for Hayden) and Pop-pop enjoying lunch. They're probably smiling so big because they can't believe Hayden eats soup!

This is not a soup cup - this is the ice cream glass. Let's just say Hayden had a GOOD lunch in the dining room. :)
Playing the piano and singing with Pop-pop. This happened many times during our visit.

Looking REALLY sleepy as she colors on the Father's Day card for Daddy. It was her choice to get up so early - but I did suggest the activity. I don't think the sleepiness affected her art productivity. The dogs in their element - nature and water - when we went for a short hike in Duke Forest.Hayden throwing rocks into the creek. So fun!

Look! She got her feet wet!Hayden and Mommy wading in the (muddy) creek water. It looks sort of gross, but felt really good on a hot day. I was surprised Hayden liked it as much as she did. Maybe she'll be a nature girl like Mommy!
Hayden snuggling in a towel in the backpack before we head back up the trail. Not sure why felt the need to bundle up since it was HOT but she liked it!

The "dads" enjoying free frozen yogurt on Father's Day.
Hayden trying to show off her blue mouth while eating her 'rainbow dream' selection of frozen yogurt. For the record, the blue color dyed not only her mouth, but all the way through... just so you know!
Helping Pop-pop wash the cars. This is a regular activity when we come visit (so much dirt we accumulate in PA!) and Hayden loves to help!

Enjoying MORE free ice cream for Dad's on Father's Day.
(Yes it was our second dessert of the day, but how can you turn down FREE ice cream?!)This is a Chex Mix smile! We love Chex Mix in the Sanford household and Hayden is clearly following the tradition.
At the pool, enjoying the sun and heat.
Apparently Hayden wanted to get her belly tan. :)

Riding on the bouncing horse that dates WAY back. At least to my childhood, if not earlier! It's vintage and yet, still fun!Catching a wheelbarrow ride with Pop-pop.
Chillin' in the car on the way home. I think this was just north of Altoona. We all had that expression on our face, though not all of us had our thumbs in our mouths. We were ready to be home!
One last picture to say "Thanks for the great visit Grandma and Pop-pop!"

Black and blue blueberries

So you've probably gathered that I'm a big fan of berries of all kinds, especially ones that I can pick myself. And now that Hayden's old enough to walk around and such, I'm training her to be a berry fiend. She passed her tests admirably with strawberry picking. Now that it's later on in the summer, we've moved on to blueberries and blackberries.

When my mom visited over Hayden's birthday, we went up to pick blueberries at this farm about 20 minutes from us that we have visited in previous summers. They have the BEST berries, huge and delicious. We have to pick in the evening so we hurried out there as soon as we were allowed. Hayden did a great job. I showed her which ones to pick - blue, not green, berries. And we brought her own bucket for carrying them.


She started out strong, picking them and putting them in her bucket. But once she got about 20-30 berries, she lost interest. She proceeded to eat all the berries out of her bucket and then started eating them straight from the bush. Then she wandered around the bushes asking to be picked up; even at 7 months pregnant, I still managed to have her on my back for a little while so she could get some mommy time. She also played in the dirt, played with a cat that wandered through, and played peekaboo through the bushes.

All in all, she managed to occupy herself pretty well so that we got a pretty good haul but I can't say that she contributed much to our blueberry picking. But I think she had a good time and she REALLY liked eating all the blueberries!

Yesterday, I decided it was late enough in the summer to go on a wild blackberry hunt. There's a spot in our neighborhood that has a lot of bushes so I thought we'd go check it out. Turns out blackberry picking isn't really all that toddler-friendly. The path under power lines was overgrown, buggy and blackberry bushes are prickly! But Hayden did a great job of just watching while I hunted down some berries for her. As long as I gave her a berry to eat every once in a while, she was really very patient. Towards the end, as she saw my little tupperware filling up, she got more adament about asking for more "black blueberries" to the point that she just kind of grunted at me and resorted to vigorously signing "more." After about 10 minutes, we had about a cup or two of berries, so we headed back to the stroller and proceeded on our walk around the block. Hayden really enjoyed the berries she got to snack on - you can see her berry mouth!