Hayden's One-Liner

The things that come out of a childs mouth are amazing, crazy, weird, funny and much more. Hayden has been coming up with some doozies lately and I really need to start writing them down. So, with that in mind, this was the quote of the day:
I was putting on my makeup and H was right there with me watching the whole process. I caught him looking at me curiously. He then pointed to my eye and said, "Mommy, you have a crack on your eye!"

Seriously, stop!

It was just me and the kids tonight. Buddy has been working in Tuscon since the new year began and if they work late, he stays over. I had a late afternoon appointment, so my wonderful babysitter and her daughter came over for a couple hours. They left at eight and by then Maya was fast asleep, so it was just me and The Dude. Yes, when he's been a great kid or has done something simply Hayden, we call him, The Dude.

Hayden is not a napper anymore, but because he had gotten up a little earlier than normal and was worn out from fun at daycare, he fell asleep on the couch and slept for about an hour. This told me he was going to be up until at least 9 o'clock tonight. Oh, well, we'd just chill.

He was ready for bed at 8:3o. Teeth brushed, bathroom done, Pj's on. 9:15 or so he's getting tired and just wants to lay down by me. YEAH!!! Snuggle time! Before he does this though, he needs to go potty just one more time because I know he's going to fall asleep on me. Why do I know this? Because I have to put him to bed tonight and I want him to fall asleep on me! We head to the bathroom. He normally doesn't need help, but, when he's tired, things can go, well, not quite where they are supposed to.

As I help him pull his moose and raccoon Carter's pj bottoms on, I tell him, "Dude, you are getting too big, can you stop growing please?" He replies: "No, I want to get bigger. I have to get big like Daddy." A big hug and a big kiss from me and we proceed to the couch.

I place the pillow on my lap and he snuggles his head on top. I stroke his hair and rub his back. I tell him I love him and he says he loves me too. He falls asleep in about 7 minutes. I wait a couple minutes, carry him upstairs and snuggle him down into his bed.

Hayden is a blonde haired, blue eyed, handsome, forty pound 3 year, 5 month old little boy who wants to grow up to be big like his Daddy.

Time needs to stop, just for a little moment.

The Airplane Lady's Hat

I came across this hat today in Maya's "accessory" drawer. I put it on her after her diaper change and could not stop giggling. She just had this look on her face that was so dang cute, I tried to capture it again in a pic.

Anyway, the story on the hat! On the kids and my flight back to Arizona in October, a lady came up to us as we were starting to desend, handed me this hat and said, "this is for your baby." She had knitted this hat on a three hour plane ride for a baby girl she didn't even know. She sat probably 12 rows back from us.

Isn't it amazing how nice some people can be who don't know us, have never even met us and yet feel the need to give us a little something because we are sharing the same space for a short time? Sometimes even the people sitting in same row or right next to you don't even want to give you the time of day.

So, thank you, again, whoever you are, for the great hat for our little Maya. She looks so dang cute in it, I just wish she was able to wear it more than in the house for a photo op.

6 Months Old

My baby girl is 6 months old. I cannot believe I have had six months with this little wonder already. Time is flying simply way to fast. She rolls over, babbles constantly, sits on her own, sort of eats by a spoon, smiles, laughs, reaches, grabs, doesn't nap worth a crap, but sleeps through the night. When I go to get her in the morning, her eyes lock on me and a huge smile forms on that little mouth. She is so yummy, I do not want this babyhood to end.

Her well-baby check-up was today. She is 26 and a half inches tall and 16.15 pounds. Perfect, perfect, perfect.

Lady Maya and Sir Hayden

I've been playing around with Ms. Maya taking her picture. I've got a fun camera and she is now sitting up and being very playful. It's no professional camera by any means, but it's halfway there!
I thought of using my strand of pearls (very cheap pearls) and a "backdrop". I also put her in a dress which I wore at the same age. The things you can do to a baby and there is no complaining! The pics turned out pretty cute.
Then, a friend turned me on to this scrapping website and now I am addicted!!! Thanks Shannon!
Here's my second and third creation. You will probably be seeing lots of these little posts. I may be loosing a lot more sleep!

Here's Number Four: I couldn't not do a Hayden one!!

Keepsake of somekind?

The other day I was getting ready for the gym; putting on my staple attire, finishing off with the hoodie. Apparently I have not worn this particular one in quite some time. As I was putting it on, I noticed a little heaviness in the right side pocket. Generally I don't put anything in these pockets as they are high up and not practical. But, for some reason, something was there. My hand went into the pocket and extracted a light blue Nuk with an orange handle. Hayden's.
Hayden has been off these things for almost a year now. He wasn't allowed them in the car a couple months prior to completely ending, so, the Nuk has been in the pocket for close to a year.
Sigh...... I don't know why, but this discovery made feel a little sad. He hasn't been a baby for a mighty long time. He hasn't asked for a Nuk since a week after he quit. He thought it was Maya's.
The nipple on this thing seemed ginormous compared to the ones around the house now. This one was rubber, Maya's are silicone. It's blue, Maya's are pink, purple, green or white. Yet I was compelled to keep this darn thing. Why? It's old, will never be used again, it's been in my pocket for a year and my baby boy is now a big boy. Sigh....
To end the tale, I threw it in the garbage a couple minutes (yes, minutes) after its discovery. Tonight as I was gathering the garbage for Friday morning pick-up, I turned over the can containing the Nuk and various other trash into another for disposal, and the Nuk fell to the floor. Nothing else fell out. Just the light blue Nuk with the orange handle and rubber nipple.
It's sitting on my dresser in my closet now. ?

Maya and the Spoon

Maya is not taking to the spoon like I would have hoped. With Hayden, it took maybe two days and he was gobbling baby food up! He finished five number ones plus two bowls, full ones of rice cereal, every day until I moved up to the number twos and then it was still four of those. Maya is getting me frustrated. She'll take a couple bites of the veggie, one bite of the fruit and maybe two of rice. She just doesn't open her mouth. It's been three weeks of this. I literally have to hold the bowl up to her mouth just to get her to open up. I do fruit and rice for breakfast; veggie, fruit and rice for lunch and dinner.
The photo above, she hit the spoon and I ended up flinging it in her face. Poor thing, but she laughed. I think she's thinking it's more playtime or something....
So, I thought I would just try feeding her in her saucer to see if maybe she wasn't digging the high chair, but nope, same thing. I'm sad. I don't want her to grow up, I want her to keep just the bottle. But, I don't want to do the bottle all day long and need her to start chowing down on the real stuff!! She gets excited when she sees the food. The legs start kicking, the hands start grabbing and the face gets cheery, but after a couple bites, she's done.

Anyway, just needed a vent.

Underwear

Okay, Hayden said a funny thing today. I am trying to keep this more of a family type blog, but instead of starting a new blogsite, I am just going to go with it and post it. Not that it's anything gross or inappropriate, but it may just be a little too much info for some tastes. Oh well, I don't know who all the people are who may log in and check me out anyway, so here goes:

I was going to the bathroom and you know 3 year olds, they follow you. Hayden said to me "Mom, you wear too much underwear." What? "I said, you wear too much underwear, (pointing) that's too much!"

I was wearing a thong.

If that's too much, I don't want to know what the next step down is!

Laughed for a couple minutes at this little man. Where does this stuff come from!?

The Best Little Sound

The best sound is a baby's laughter, I think. I love it even more when it's because her older brother is making her laugh. This went on for over ten minutes while I was making lunch. Isn't it simply amazing what can make a baby laugh? :)

Outside in January

Okay, so I can't lie and say I don't like the weather in January in Arizona, but I do wish it was a bit colder. I'd like to at least wear a sweater once this year!

The kids and I took advantage of a nice Saturday afternoon since Daddy was working and headed to the park. Hayden loves showing off on the equipment and Maya just loves being outside. It was her first feel of grass.....

A Glimpse into the Future

Years flashed before my eyes today. I saw my son as he may look as a young man. I didn't like it!

He'll be gorgeous of course, I just didn't like the fact that my baby, my first born, my little boy is going to be a big boy, a young man and a man one day.

I took this picture to show his aunt, Chrissy, his shirt she gave him for Christmas and this was the outcome. Can you not see the man he's going to be someday?

He's only three, I know I have many years ahead, but I couldn't help but get a little choked up. My baby, my first born, my little boy is growing up.

Christmas.....

Christmas Eve consists of preparing the evening meal, being a bit lazy, going to church, then dinner and gifts. I truely love mass on Christmas. The music is always wonderful. Okay, so I am a little bias, my mom is songleader along with a great group of singers and musicians; violins, piano, clarinet, and keyboard. They play a few songs that genuinely bring tears to my eyes because I start reflecting back on past Christmases when I was a kid. I'm not really into the mass part, but I do listen. My mind just tends to wander and then I start just looking around the church at all the beautiful paintings, statues, marble, and people.

This year however, at Maya's first Christmas mass, she decides to fill her pants, so my reflecting gets interrupted. This happened before the first reading. I have a hard time walking out of church when people aren't standing or singing. I tried to wait so I could leave at an appropriate time. But, because I couldn't plug my nose, I walk out to go change her.

As I am approaching the door to go back into church, I hear Hayden start acting up to go by me. We sit very close to an exit, I opened the door and got him out. Now, I am in the church hall, with the two kids and it's not even halfway done. Luckily, a guy I went to high school with was there with his son, so the boys played cars and he and I caught up a little. His wife came out and said let's just go home. Her mom had forgotten to put their ham in the oven and since they weren't even in church, they may as well go home and put it in.

I was able to sneak back in just after the homily, which I really didn't want to sit through anyway. Sorry, but that's when my mind really wanders.

When we came back in, Hayden was the perfect 3 year old. He talked quietly, played cars, and sat a little. He was as good as I hoped for. I was shocked! He actually attempted to sing along. He knew zero of the words, but he was trying. Maya played and looked around and babbled a bit. We were actually able to participate as a family in church!

And then Hayden opened his mouth. Of course he had to say something, it was too quiet. We were kneeling, listening to the blessing. The church was fairy quiet, only Father was speaking, but at a break in the blessing Hayden proclaims "I Farted!" Could you hold back a laugh? I said you have to be quiet. "But, I Farted!" After again telling him to be quiet, I quickly sneaked a peak around. Nope, all older people, nobody heard! Well, my brother sitting next to me did, but that's okay.

Only later did I find out that the family of the couple whom I had been talking to on my little break in the hallway, who were sitting two rows back and on the other side of the pew, heard him.

Nothing like a joyous Christmas exclaimation!

A SNOW DAY!!

We traveled back to Minnesota for Christmas!! WE HAD SNOW!! It was the first time in many years, at least since Hayden has been around, that we have seen snow upon arrival. We flew in early, and I mean early Saturday morning, arriving at 4 am into my hometown. Fortunately, we beat a huge snow storm. The white stuff fell from the sky continually all day and blew into swirls and drifts all around town. Hayden would just stare out the window with a look a wonder outside. He was really excited to see snow again. He was not anxious to go out in it quite yet, but the curiousity grew and Monday was his day out!
Walking in snowpants and boots for the first time, the snow was past his knees, so about a foot and a half of the dust. He couldn't walk in it, but was to excited to not try. It was cold, I think about 4 degrees, but Hayden didn't mind. They tried to sled, but the snow was just to deep to get a good run. He stayed out for maybe a half hour before the cold became unbareable for this Arizona born boy. He had a blast, playing with his daddy and cousins though. Me, I stayed out for five minutes to take some pics and then headed in "to check on Maya sleeping...." :)

Maya's Baptism

A precious gift from heaven above will be welcomed into God's family with love.

The Baptism invitation Maya was baptized over our visit home to Minnesota for Christmas. We had Hayden baptized in Minnesota as well. I have a thing about doing this sacrement at my hometown church. My parents were married there, I was baptized, received first communion, confirmed and married in this church. It's has changed dramatically in recent years, with a full blown restoration, but it's still, my church.

St. Aloysius Catholic Church in Olivia, Minnesota. Gorgeous.

Anyway, Maya looked absolutely gorgeous in white. She let out a scream while water was being pored over her head, but was an angel for the rest of the ceremony. The baptism was held in the new Baptismal room.

With my brother, Andy, Maya's (and Hayden's) Godfather. Father Paul van de Crommert. Buddy's sister, Christine, Maya's (and Hayden's) Godmother.

Christmas w/ Maya

I know she's not going to remember Christmas this year, or next for that matter, but there is something about a baby at Christmas that I absolutely love! I don't know what it is, she can't open her own gifts, she can't help decorate the tree, to her it'll be just an ordinary day. I guess I really don't have a lengthy speech here, I just love babies and Christmas.