My friend has a red leg too!

Hayden's grandpa and grandma Roberts sent him the coolest gift from Colorado - a stuffed monkey with a giant red cast on his leg!  Now Hayden is not the only one with a cast :)  He loves the monkey and whenever I ask him where his "friend" is he runs over to the monkey and gives it a hug or a kiss.  Very cute.  And he is always pointing at the red leg or knocking on it like he knocks on his own.  Too funny.  I had to take some photos and here they are.


Here he is giving it a kiss


Well I just got home late last night from a business trip to Houston / Galveston, and now Hayden and I are off to Denver for the weekend this afternoon.  Hayden's mammaw missed him so she sent us a plane ticket to come out which was so thoughtful.  So we are busy trying to get re-packed and organized.  Hayden hasn't been on a plane since he started walking, so it should be an adventure.  I really hope he holds still!  I tried to time our flight so that he would be napping during it, but I fear that he will be too excited to nap and then he'll arrive in Denver totally cranky and tired.  We'll see how it works out!  But he is going to meet his cousins Liam and Brylin and I'm so excited!!

The new baby continues to shock me with how much he/she moves around!  I am constantly feeling kicks and rolls even though I'm only 17 1/2 weeks along.  I was only feeling very faint kicks with Hayden by this point, but they always say you feel more quickly with your second.  It is very reassuring though to know the baby is alive and well in there.  We find out if it's a boy or a girl in only 11 days!!  Up until now we have both been sort of leaning towards a girl, but last night we came up with a boy's name that we love, so now we are kind of leaning toward a baby brother for Hayden :)  We shall see soon enough!

Monster Mile!

We had our first trick-or-treating experience this weekend with Hayden and it was so much fun (well for us!).  Our neighborhood holds an event called The Monster Mile instead of traditional door-to-door trick-or-treat.  They have characters from various cartoons and movies handing out candy, and the main street is all decorated with fun Halloween stuff.  Each kid was cuter than the next!!  Hayden was pretty overwhelmed at first and wanted to stick very close to us, but eventually he warmed up and was running along with the other kids and cautiously approaching the different characters.  We had dressed him up as a spider and he looked adorable, although everyone felt sorry for his little red leg :(  He really is doing so well on it lately that I hardly even think about it.  He actually walks just as fast as he used to and he can climb and spin in circles and do all his usual tricks.  As it turns out, his orthopedic doctor had to reschedule and now he is being seen on November 6th instead, which is just over a week away - so we have our fingers crossed that he will get his cast off and his fracture will be healed!!


  

Adjusting to the cast

Hey everyone!  Well a week has passed since Hayden got his cast put on and he is doing great :)  He is adjusting so well.  Sleeping great, eating good, in a fabulous, playful mood, and he is getting around really well.  He's finally mastered the art of walking on his cast even though it looks more like a hobble than a real walk.  But it gets him where he needs to go without having to drag his "red leg" behind.  So luckily his lifestyle hasn't been compromised too much.  He'll get the cast off in only 3 weeks so it's going quickly.  Keep sending positive, get well vibes his way if you can spare any!

Despite his injury we had a really fun weekend with his great-grandparents visiting from Wisconsin.  The highlight was a trip on the Grapevine Vintage Railway.  We all boarded an old steam engine in Grapevine and the cars were actually open air which was perfect because it was a gorgeous fall day.  We rode the train for about an hour in a half all the way into Fort Worth to the stockyards.  Then we were able to spend a few hours wandering through the stockyards where we got to see some horses and longhorns up close, and we ate some good Texas BBQ.  Then it was back on the train for the ride home.  Hayden was just mesmerized by the whole experience and I can't wait to take him again.  I've included some photos of the trip below, and I've also posted some videos of him playing peek-abo and dancing.  They are so cute, but I warn you to turn the volume down because my voice is quite annoying in the background - ha!




  

Good news and Bad news

Well the good news is that I had my 3rd midwife appointment yesterday and the new baby looks healthy, and so do I.  My blood pressure is good, the baby's heartbeat is in the 150's, and I still haven't gained any weight, which is similar to how things went with Hayden (I didn't gain until the 20th week with him).  The best news is that we scheduled our big ultrasound for November 11th, which means we will find out the gender in less than 4 weeks (if the baby cooperates).  So that is really something Nate and I are looking forward to!

The bad news is that poor little Hayden broke his leg :(  He got the rubber sole of his shoe caught on the slide on Friday afternoon and his leg twisted up under him a bit.  He didn't seem that upset when it happened, but he refused to walk on it and part of his shin seemed very sensitive to touch and pressure.  We took him for x-rays that afternoon and our pediatrician didn't find any fractures.  Well when he still wasn't walking on Tuesday, we took him to the orthopedic doctor for a second opinion and sure enough, there was a small, non-displaced fracture on his tibia.  The treatment is a full leg cast for 4 to 5 weeks.  So our little man is currently wearing a giant red cast - which we call his red leg :)  He actually seems to like it - he will knock on it because it makes a funny hollow sound.  He is still adjusting to moving around in it.  He will crawl and just drag the casted leg behind him which is pretty pitiful.  The doctor said he would likely be able to start hobbling around before the week is over and he might even get quite proficient at it, so thankfully he can at least be mobile.  He slept great with it last night, and he seems to be in a great mood.  The only major drawback is that he cannot take a bath, which is his favorite activity!  Last night he cried through his whole sponge bath, so tonight we are going to try a sink bath instead I think.  Hopefully the month will go quickly and his active lifestyle won't be too compromised :)  Any positive thoughts for a quick recovery would be appreciated!  Here are some photos of the big red leg.
  

And here are just a few others from the past week and weekend trip to the airshow!

  





      

A Visit from Mammaw and Grandpa

Hi everyone!  Well we just finished off a really fun weekend with Hayden's mammaw and grandpa, who were visiting from Denver.  They hadn't seen him for a few months, so they weren't quite prepared for the new, grown-up Hayden :)  They agreed by the end of the weekend that he is all boy, and that we are going to have our hands full for the next few years with him.  Not only did he turn on all his charms for them, and showed them all his tricks, but he also showed his mischievous side.  Debbie got to see him defy me a few times, with a big grin on his face, and we all realized that he is reaching toddler-hood before he should be!  He's too young to be defiant!  Right??

In addition to showing his charms, he learned a few more tricks from mammaw.  If you have been reading my blog, you probably have already heard about his obsession with airplanes.  Now that our backyard is complete and we can sit out there, he will just stop whatever he is doing and stare at the sky when a plane flies overhead and he'll "ooh and aah" over it while pointing.  Mammaw started waving goodbye to the planes as they passed over, and Hayden immediately picked up on it.  Now he will wave goodbye to the planes!  It is so adorable.  I think he is really learning the connection between waving goodbye, and something actually going away.

The highlight of the visit was probably our trip to the Fort Worth Zoo.  Hayden had visited the zoo when he was about 8 months old, but this trip was much better because he has been learning about animals from reading books, and he seemed to notice much more than he did last time.  We saw the gorillas, giraffes, elephants, rhinos, some aquarium fish, and his very favorite thing was the aviary where he got to feed the birds (parakeets mainly I think).  We would hold out a popsicle stick with birdseed that the birds would land on.  Hayden would reach out to try to touch them and when they flew away the flapping wings first scared him, and then he thought it was absolute hilarious and he would laugh and laugh.  Very funny.  Here are some photos from the weekend.

At the Zoo






  



Hanging out

  

  

At Life's a Beach with his friend Scarlett

  

Kitty Love

  



I just had to post these photos of Hayden hugging our cat, Evi.  She must be the most tolerant cat on the planet because she actually lets him do this to her several times a day and she doesn't meow, or hiss, or scratch or even try to run away.  It's almost like she likes it!  They apparently are good friends :)

In other news, I'm feeling baby flutters!  It's just over 13 weeks along, so I'm surprised to feel it this early, but WOW, I am!  It feels like someone is gently tickling me on the inside.  It's surreal that I have another baby on the way, but feeling movement definitely makes it feel more real.  Now I'm incredibly anxious to find out the gender and begin planning for the baby's arrival.  My next OB appointment is on October 14th and we should schedule my "big" ultrasound that day.  Woohoo!