A Walker!

Hi everyone!  Well I lied when I said our traveling was over.  We decided to take advantage of a free ticket to fly to Ohio to visit Hayden's grandparents since Nate is still out of town in Iowa.  I was starting to get stir-crazy here alone, and as it turned out Hayden had a really rough time cutting his eye tooth and having a grandma's touch was MUCH needed for both of us.  Luckily his tooth finally came through on Monday and that makes 6 teeth total!  I can tell he is working on another one on the bottom but I hope it waits awhile because it sure makes him miserable.  We are home now though and he is doing great and is his usual happy self.

And now for the good news - he is a officially a walker - even if he looks like a "drunken soldier" as my mom would say - ha!  He will toddle for about 20 steps now and he is just so proud of himself.  I can't wait to catch this on video because it's just wild to me that my little baby is walking!  Wow how time flies.  He has also mastered the art of waving (although he mostly waves to himself - see the video below) and the high-five (thank you to Katie Olson for practicing this with him in Yellowstone!).  We are now working on "so-big" and blowing kisses, but as usual he just reverts to clapping whenever learning something new :)  He is also currently obsessed with flowers.  If there are flowers anywhere in his line of sight he will point to them and say "look" which usually comes out as "gook" or even "ook" followed quickly by a long and loud "ooooohhhhhhh".  And at that point it becomes necessary to take him over to touch the flowers or else you risk invoking a temper tantrum.  Which brings me to his next trick - throwing tantrums.  I didn't realize a 10 month old could do this!  But he sure does and I'm going to have to consult some parenting guides to figure out how to stop it.  So far telling him NO just causes laughter and ignoring him seems to work best.

Happy Father's Day

Hi everyone!  Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there :)  Unfortunately Nate did not get to celebrate his first Father's Day with his son because he is in Iowa trying to help them out after the flooding.  So instead Hayden helped me fix a sprinkler head and sat in his swing on the front porch while I finished planting flowers and spreading new mulch (in the 100 degree heat no less!).  It was a fun day, but it certainly wasn't the same without his daddy.  He painted his first artwork for his daddy and we framed it and he'll get it when he gets home.

Yellowstone

Return from Yellowstone

Hey everyone! We are back from Yellowstone and thus ends our neverending month of travel. It feels so good to be home, but our vacation was just amazing - it beat even my high expectations. The weather made it feel like a winter vacation instead of a summer one, but despite the cold and snow, we were able to see all the sights of Yellowstone. Hayden got to experience Old Faithful, several different smaller geysers and hot springs, and the Upper and Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River. In addition to exploring the park, we got to spend some really great quality time with our family. There were several wild games of Catch Phrase and some really great home cooked meals, and the cabin we stayed at was beautiful, with a great view of the valley and surrounding mountains. One night the clouds cleared out and we were able to catch a colorful sunset.

While we were on vacation, all of Hayden's aunts and uncles were helping him learn how to walk, and guess what?!? Our little guy took about 8 steps today on his own! Nate and I were so excited. Here is a video below of him and his amazing feat :) Also, check out the slideshow above of Hayden's adventures in Yellowstone.

10 months old

Hi everyone. Well Hayden is celebrating turning 10 months old today :) Since our last update he has grown another tooth on the top, and he has learned to clap. He claps for everything! First thing in the morning when he sees us, when he eats something delicious, when an airplane goes overhead, when he meets someone new and exciting, you get the picture. It is his new trick and he is fond of practicing. Now we are moving on to things like waving and "so big" and high fives. So far he just claps whenever we try to get him to do any other hand gesture....but we'll get there.

Still no walking, but he continues to stand on his own (usually standing and clapping), and he will take up to 3 steps before falling to the floor to crawl. I suspect it will awhile before he walks simply because he has become so good and quick at crawling. He now does the triangle crawl - on his hands and feet (instead of knees) whenever he is on an unfamiliar surface like concrete or grass.

Lots of interesting things have happened since I last updated. First off, he visited with his good friend Henry from Wisconsin, who is the 16 month old son of my friend Nicole. They were good buddies and we went to the aquarium and swam often at our neighborhood pool. Henry introduced Hayden to many exciting foods like PB&J sandwiches, cheetos and apple juice :) Then after Henry left we got on a plane bound for Ohio so I could drop Hayden off at his grandparents while I traveled to London and Copenhagen for work. It was quite a traumatic parting (for me, not for him!), but he did great. I had partially transitioned him to formula, so that was an easy switch for him, and he could explore all of grammy's house and he became quite proficient at climbing the stairs and getting into the tupperware drawers in her kitchen :) They loved having him and it was hard to say goodbye when we came back to Dallas on Saturday. But his dad was VERY glad to see us after 10 days alone. It's good to be back together as a family.

We leave on Friday for a 5 day trip to Yellowstone with Nate's family and we can't wait to do some hiking with Hayden in his backpack, and to see Old Faithful and spend some time together as an extended family. I'll post some photos from our trip when we get home. Good bye for now and I'll leave you with photos of Hayden and his buddy Henry.