Home Sweet Home

We are home from our holiday in London, and we had the most fabulous time!  Hayden was just a dream child on the plane on the way over - it was like traveling with another fun adult.  We did manage to get him his own seat, and they even had extra meals that they gave him.  So he sat like a little adult all strapped in, and ate his grown-up airplane meal, played a little bit, ran the aisles for awhile, then fell asleep stretched out between mom and I for about 6 hours!  We didn't sleep much because we were worried he'd roll of the seat, and we had legs and arms pushing on us, but the important thing was that he got sound sleep, and he woke up in time to have breakfast and look out the windows at landing.  Unfortunately the ride home wasn't so smooth.....but I'll just leave it at that!

London suited Hayden - let me tell you.  The sights, the sounds, the bright lights, the traffic, the taxis, trains, buses and boats - everything seemed to be custom made for his viewing pleasure :)  I cannot tell you how many oohs and ahhs were uttered by this child before we even got to our lodging!  He was in toddler Heaven!  He adjusted very well to the time difference, and managed to get good naps and night sleeps the whole trip, which was a huge blessing, and made the experience more fun for him.  We did so much that first weekend there.  Jeff rented a car for all of us and we cruised out of London for a day of sightseeing in Kent and along the southern coast of England along the English Channel.  Our first stop was Leeds Castle, which was beautiful and had really pretty grounds to wander through (and ducks for Hayden!), then we pushed on to do some hiking at Seven Sisters Country Park on the coast, which showcased spectacular chalk cliffs, rough seas, and a pebble beach.  We finished out the day with dinner in Brighton, a sort of famous English seaside resort town, and a walk out onto the pier.

On Sunday, Jeff and Rebecca took us via double decker bus to Camden Market which was really crazy and fun.  They had vendors selling everything you could imagine, and tons of yummy, ethnic street food.  The most enjoyable part was probably the people watching; just people from all walks of life speaking every language you can imagine.  It was a cool experience, especially for Hayden who was pretty mesmerized.  We rode a canal boat home through some of the more posh parts of London, and got to see some pretty ridiculous city homes - even Madonna's house in Regent's Park.  Hayden loved the boat, although not quite as much as the bus!

The rest of the week was filled with me working, and grammy taking Hayden on double decker bus tours of the city :)  He liked the bus so much that it was really easy for her to fill their time that way.  They would ride it down to my office and meet me for lunch, and hop on and off at the various sights around town.  Then at night we'd meet up with Jeff and Rebecca for dinner at various restaurants around town.  London is not very baby friendly when it comes to dining, so our choices were limited, but Hayden did get to experience Indian food and Asian food, as well as a night at the Rainforest Cafe in Picadilly Circus, which was probably his favorite (scary but fun).  Jeff also was able to take a day off of work and they explored the Tate Modern museum, walked the south embankment along the Thames and saw Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, the London Eye, and all those famous landmarks.

All in all it was a wonderful trip!  

It's A Boy!

Yep - my intuition was all wrong, and Hayden will have a baby brother come April :)  We had our ultrasound on Tuesday and there was absolutely no mistaking our baby for a boy.  In fact, I said it before the ultrasound technician even could.  We managed to obtain a standard "boy parts" photo like we have for Hayden and we'll post it below.  Talk about embarrassing our kids before they are even born!  Nate and I are thrilled to be welcoming another adorable little boy to the family and I just know Hayden and our new little one will be best of friends.  In addition to being a boy, the baby looked totally healthy and he was wiggling all around for our viewing pleasure.  From the snapshots we got it looks like he might be long and lanky like Nate and Hayden, but of course it's hard to tell at this stage.  Yay - a house full of cute boys!  Lucky me :)

The other exciting news is that Hayden, myself and my mom are London bound this evening.  His first overseas trip!  The passport was a HUGE ordeal but luckily it is finally in my possession.  They did not finish it on time to mail it (despite many urgent phone calls and admittedly some tears), so my dad was super generous and drove down to Houston with me to try to get it in person from the Houston Passport Agency.  So we drove about 4 1/2 hours each way yesterday and got extremely lucky because they had JUST completed his passport about 10 minutes before we arrived and they were able to hand it right over.  Talk about relief.  So it was a long day, but worth it to be able to depart on time with no worries.  We depart tonight at 7:30 and it looks like the plane is pretty empty so hopefully we can stretch out to sleep.  We'll arrive tomorrow morning and have the whole weekend to spend with my brother and his girlfriend Rebecca.  They've rented a car for Saturday so we can explore outside of London a bit, and Leed's Castle and the Cliffs of Dover are on the itinerary.  Then on Sunday we intend to do the standard London sights like a Thames River cruise, the London Eye and Westminster Abbey.  I will be working then next week and grammy will be on her own with the little dude, so they should have fun exploring.

I'll leave you with some photos of baby boy #2, as well as some photos of a family hike we took up in Oklahoma this past weekend.  It was gorgeous and so surprising to have a great hiking destination only an hour from our doorstep.  There were trees, topography, and water for the dogs, so we were happy :)





  

  

Haircut!

  

Well Hayden got his 3rd haircut on Wednesday afternoon!  It was much needed - his long hair seemed to be a magnet for cottage cheese and mandarin orange chunks, and it seemed like there were always tufts sticking out here and there, especially around his ears.  It was just time for a change!  He was a little more nervous during this haircut compared to the others, but luckily his grammy was there to hold his hand, so it all went fine.  The result I think was well worth it - he looks so grown up!

Yesterday was also a big day because he lost his red leg finally!  Woo hoo.  We got to the doctor and immediately they took the cast off.  They used this kind of hand saw that looks like a pizza cutter sort of, but the blade vibrates instead of rotating so apparently it can't do harm to skin.  I had my doubts, and apparently so did Hayden because he cried through the whole experience.  But it came off with ease and he was off and running almost immediately, with no limp or hesitation.  They took x-rays then and decided it was right on target with healing, but they are taking precautions and he has to wear a little black boot called the "wee walker" for the next two weeks.  It's removable though so he can take baths and sleep without it, and it doesn't come up as high so he has full use of his knee again.  He seems so happy, and it was just wonderful to be able to plop him in a warm bath.  He loved it!

The only stressful news of the week is that Hayden's passport has not yet arrived and we leave in 6 days for London :(  I submitted his paperwork about 3 1/2 weeks ago and the passport person at the post office advised me not to bother paying the extra money to expedite since it was taking two weeks tops to process passports currently.  Well I unfortunately listened to her, and now we are completely down to the wire and there is no passport.  I've been calling for updates all week, and yesterday they told me I might want to head down to Houston to pick it up in person.  Apparently they didn't realize that Houston is a 4 1/2 hour drive or a $250 flight.  I paid the money yesterday to have it expedited and fedexed overnight, so we'll see.  I'm mad at myself for not just heeding the official passport processing times, and listening to someone with no real authority on the matter.  But I'm keeping my fingers crossed and if worst comes to worst I will be making a trip to Houston next week....

Cousins!

Edit  Delete  Move Up  Move Down  Insert Paragraph      Well today is an historic day and Hayden and I have been watching the news all morning to see the reaction to the election.  Even Hayden seems drawn to Obama - the only other thing on TV that keeps him that interested is football!  I'm just so pleased with the ways things went yesterday and with the overwhelming feeling in our nation that things need to change, and change for the better.  I was inspired by Obama's acceptance speech last night and am so excited for the direction our nation will take, and I'm filled with hope for the future! I'm also filled with excitement for several less momentous occasions that are coming up for our family during the next week.  Tomorrow we take Hayden to see the orthopedic doctor and we are keeping our fingers crossed that they will remove his cast.  We are expecting them to x-ray him again to determine whether he is ready to shed his red leg, and are hoping at the very least his plaster cast will be replaced with a more user-friendly soft cast that he can take on and off for bath-time.  We've all desperately missed bath-time!  We are also gearing up for our ultrasound on Tuesday morning.  We will hopefully find out the gender of the baby, and I'm also anxious to make sure that the baby is healthy and growing.  I feel him / her kick all the time lately, and I'm growing HUGE (I posted a new belly photo - click the link above), so I think everything is going smoothly, but ultrasounds are also very reassuring.  And admittedly, I'm just dying to get out and buy our little one his or her first outfit (pink or blue??), and get going on our plans for the nursery.  We have some big decisions to make about whether our Hayden will share his room with the new baby, or whether we will convert our guest room / spare room into a nursery.  In other news, Hayden and I spent the weekend in Denver and we had SO much fun with that side of the family.  We finally got to meet Hayden's new cousins; Brylin who is 3 1/2 months and Liam who is 2 months.  They are both adorable (honestly our family has cute kids), and already getting so big.  I'm really glad we didn't have to wait until Christmas to see them.  Brylin is so curious and alert and wants to be part of the group at ALL times.  She just looks at you with these huge eyes like she is trying to absorb everything she experiences.  She is a beautiful baby and her mom Britt is totally smitten you can tell :)  Naturally!  Liam is still just a little peanut but for being born 4 weeks early he is really growing and has these endearingly chubby cheeks that you just want to kiss all the time!  In fact, Hayden did kiss them a few times - ha!  He is also very mellow like Brylin and was happy to hang out in any of our arms.  Katie is doing a wonderful job as a mama and you can just tell she is having so much fun.  Hayden also got to hang out on Halloween night with his older cousin Cameron who is 14 - and he just followed him around like he was a superstar all night long - too cute!  After the kids went to bed (miraculously easily for them all being out of their element), we got to sit down together, with my mother-in-law Debbie, and have a total girls night.  It was so much fun to talk and laugh about all the trials and joys of being a new mom.  Honestly my cheeks hurt from laughing so much.  It was just a much needed reunion, and now I'm really looking forward to spending a whole week in Denver for Christmas. Miss Brylin and her mama Britt    Katie and her little man Liam    Mammaw with her grandbabies       Some group shots And some of my cutie Hayden (of course!)