It's my party and I'll cry if I want to

Hayden turned 1 on June 11th. We had a little get together on my side of the family on his birthday and then on Father's day we had a party with Andrew's side. Hayden was pretty spoiled and I'd love to say that he enjoyed his parties and had so much fun with his cake and presents, but that was not the case. . .

 Having barrels of fun!

A few days before his birthday he was being really grumpy and so my first instinct now is to check his mouth. Sure enough, more teeth! After these ones come through he'll have a mouth full of 12. He has been teething since he was 6 months and it has been non stop. So for his party he wasn't too excited and didn't have that much fun because he didn't feel too well. But we had fun preparing and being there at least.

His 1st sucker. Gnawing those teeth through.



As I'm doing this post I'm really realizing that his party was really for Andrew and I. It stared with his cakes. Andrew requested that I make a cake related to hunting. So this is what I came up with.

Yeah, not very age appropriate at all! But anytime that Andrew would draw a deer for his nephew, Easton, this is what he would draw and so that is where my idea came from. I used edible sugar paper and traced the deer and then kinda winged the cross hairs. I dyed the coconut green for grass and then mixed up a hunter orange for the writing. I was pretty excited it turned out. Again, not for Hayden's benefit, but my own. We're horrible parents!

For Hayden's cake, that he was supposed to dig right into, I made a target. I was thinking of him and made it with rainbow chip cake and frosting. And tons of it! I'm thinking that was what made him mad.

Maybe the 2 year old birthday we'll try it again.



Andrew and I got this for him. While testing it out he got stuck. Things weren't going his way. . .



My dad was not feeling very good, but still came. After looking at all these pictures it looked like everyone was sickly! Ha! We're a lively group.

Em and Trent gave Hayden this gerble that is kinda freaky I'm not going to lie, but Hayden loves him and when we say "go get Gerald" he goes over picks him up and gives him a kiss. He's now our new family pet.



Hayden has been changing so much lately and learning new things. Here are a few things that he's been doing. Some of which make us laugh a lot:

*He does a fish face when we ask him to
*When we ask him to close his eyes he looks up and rolls then in the back of his head and then kinda blinks. It's hilarious and it kinda looks like he's having some type of mini seizure
*When we sing the song where the alligator snaps the monkeys out of the tree he'll "snap" his hands down before we do
*Blows kisses
*Knows where his ears and eyes are
*Does several different waves that are hilarious
*Isn't talking unless you wanna count "Oooh" and "Yeah". He usually points while saying them
*Is still being a big chicken with walking. Has taken steps but would rather crawl. It was my personal goal to have him walking by at least a year, and when that didn't happen I decided he'll do it when he wants. Everyone says that the later they walk the better coordinated they are, well my take on that is they tell parents that because they want to make them feel good cuz their kid isn't walking. We'll see. But he can throw a ball really good. So maybe he'll be a little jock :)
*Is STILL taking 2 naps a day 2hr at a time and sleeping 12 hours at night! When I scheduled his year checkup I set it for the morning because I though he'd not be taking a morning nap by then but nope he's still going strong and I'm not complaining!
*Always goes on tip toes to give me a kiss before I get him out of his crib. I love it.
*Doesn't take a bottle anymore. We weren't able to even finish all of his formula. After we gave him real milk (or should I say a milk shake! That stuff is so thick!) in a cup the formula was history. We're really thankful that he has never been attached to anything. A binkie, blanket, bottle, stuffed animal, nothing. However, he is getting more picky to who he goes to which is kinda annoying.
*His favorite thing to eat is definitely strawberries and grapes. I'm not kidding he could eat a whole flat if I let him
At his check up he had to get the dreaded 1 year old shots and that is never fun. He did good and didn't get any rashes or crazy things from them. His stats were:

Weight: 21 pounds (17%) ish
Height: 29.5 inch (40 %) ish  --  I can't read their graphs they measure in kg and cm and the graph is by these dots and it's just stupid. What happened to the american pound and inch???

He was eating toast the other morning and a little piece stayed on his chin. It looked like a little goatee. Love him!

Still a small little guy but the doctor says that he's growing normal and that's all we can ask for. We're so glad we have our little man. We don't know what we did without him!

Things that matter most. . .

As soon as Hayden was sitting in his high chair I was teaching him to fold his arms during the prayer. I knew he had no clue or concept of what he was doing at the time. That started when he was 4 months. There were times that I thought: Gosh, this is pointless to keep having him fold his arms at every meal when he doesnt know what's going on. But when he did this for the first time on his own at 11 months. . . it made me cry.

I know I will teach him a lot of valuable things to come, but this is the thing I am most proud of so far. I know that if he learns to pray to our Heavenly Father at this age how blessed he'll be to be able to rely on him his whole life.
I am so blessed to have the gospel of Jesus Christ in my life. It is such a strength to be able to rely on it to teach my little family. I would be lost without it. I'm thankful that I can pray to a Heavenly Father that I know listens and hears me. I have such a testimony of prayer and the power of it. I hope I can always lead by example in showing my kids to pray.
I read this talk by Julie B. Beck and it's from the October 2007 General Conference. It's great but I love this part most. It was a great reminder to me, as a mother, of what really matters.

"Mothers who know are leaders. In equal partnership with their husbands, they lead a great and eternal organization. These mothers plan for the future of their organization. They plan for missions, temple marriages, and education. They plan for prayer, scripture study, and family home evening. Mothers who know build children into future leaders and are the primary examples of what leaders look like. They do not abandon their plan by succumbing to social pressure and worldly models of parenting. These wise mothers who know are selective about their own activities and involvement to conserve their limited strength in order to maximize their influence where it matters most.
Mothers who know are always teachers. Since they are not babysitters, they are never off duty. A well-taught friend told me that he did not learn anything at church that he had not already learned at home. His parents used family scripture study, prayer, family home evening, mealtimes, and other gatherings to teach. Think of the power of our future missionary force if mothers considered their homes as a pre–missionary training center. Then the doctrines of the gospel taught in the MTC would be a review and not a revelation. That is influence; that is power."  Julie B. Beck

Easter weekend and random "Funnys"

We had a good Easter and Easter weekend and really loved the nice weather outside. Kinz, Emily, my Mom, and I went down to Salt Lake to go shopping. While we were headed down Andrew went with his Dad to Logan and met up with his brother to go golfing. We both had a ton of fun and really appreciated Loretta for watching Hayden and spending time with him. She said they had a lot of fun together.

Todd, Andrew and Jarom loving golfing!

On Sunday we went to church and immediately after headed up to Andrew's Dad's house and had a little get together with his mom and dad. We missed the rest of the herd so we were the only ones there. It was nice visiting and eating.
Then we headed home and put ourselves and Hayden down for a nap. . . 3 hours later we all woke up and almost missed our annual Easter egg hunt with my mom's side of the family! To give ourselves a break we didn't get much sleep that weekend. Andrew worked all night Friday and then went straight to Logan on Saturday. He was working on being up 36 + hours. I don't know how he does. I didn't have an excuse other than staying up too late.
I didn't get any pictures of the egg hunt but it was fun. It was nice not being pregnant this year. I felt like I could run a little better. Andrew and I came out with $14. Not our best year. But it was because the newlyweds, Katie and Ryan, got the 3 grand prize eggs and like $15. Everyone always lets the newlyweds win. . .  not really but it just seems to happen that way. It was fun! Thanks to the aunts for supplying the prizes.

Hayden's 1st Easter

Now to the "Funnys". Hayden has cracked us up so much lately. His little personality is so hilarious! It's mostly his facial expressions too. He started doing this about a month ago and I never was able to get it on camera. One time when he was eating I finally got it because he was doing it the whole time he was eating. I was laughing so hard.

Starts out normal. . .

Gets a little squinty

Closes his eyes and peeks out to see if I still have the spoon!

Then if his eyes are closed the food automatically disappears and then he wont have to eat it. At least that's what he thinks.

We sure love this little guy and get a kick out of him. My mom and dad gave him this medium size bouncy ball  for Easter and its the best babysitter EVER! He'll spend hours picking it up throwing it and chasing it all through the house. Or he'll just hit it and then chase it like he's playing soccer on his hands and knees. He'll do that with any object, but the ball rolls best. It's funny!

The day Cade came over to play. Hayden was waiting for him and clearly excited.

I love this picture!

Cade's going to have to put up with this type of stuff a lot I'm afraid. Good thing he likes the kid :)

Andrew received Dad and Uncle of the year today.

Hayden loves to help load the dishwasher. Such a good helper.

Getting some education in. His daily reading :)

Hayden use to scream when he'd even see Grandpa Todd so this is a HUGE improvement. He doesn't have a problem with him anymore. So cute!

Hayden has spent a lot of time with Grandma and Grandpa Great. They watch him a lot when I work. They have helped us out SO much and he loves these two and is very comfortable with them.

We have been having fun and can't wait to get some pictures outside of the house. Mother Nature make up your mind and bring spring our way!

Why Hayden has never slept with us. . .

These are just a few of the poses that we actually caught. There were many!

This was a dead give away to never let him in our bed.

He already can't believe the night he's had!

As close as he's ever got :)

Gets progressively worse. . .

He usually has to have his head wedged somewhere.

That just doesn't look right!

I do however have a small idea of where Hayden gets it. . .  :)

The 9 month "tude"

This last week has not been tons of fun because Hayden has developed an attitude out of the blue. What the heck! He has been ultra (ultra = sensitive) and everything is the end of the world. At least in his world. He runs into something while he's crawling with his head down and you'd think we slammed his leg in the door or something. I thought boys weren't supposed to be like this. But to give him a slight break he's getting more teeth in on top. The last bout of them was NOT fun so I can't imagine what big ol molars are going to do to him.
Last weekend we decided to go to Utah just to hang out and go shopping. The whole trip was planned around Hayden going swimming. Andrew hadn't seen him in the pool so he really wanted to. We drove down Sunday afternoon and stayed in Layton. We jumped in our swimming suits and was so excited when we saw no one in the pool. We found out why. It was SO cold! Don't worry we still put Hayden in. He was going to have fun cold or not. Hayden started splashing but kinda slowed down a little later. Probably because he was having onset of hypothermia. . . we decided that it was too cold when his little chin started shivering. So what did we do? Put him in the hot tub. Talk about shock to the body. No we're not that bad of parents we just splashed water on him and then got out.
The next day we went shopping and hung out. One of our purchases was Hayden's front facing car seat. I'm more excited about it then Hayden I'm sure. I'm so tired of throwing my back out caring that big lug of a thing around. It was fun to just get away and hang out with my cute family.

Doggy paddling

Front stroke

Still happy but starting to slow down. I think Hayden's lips were starting to turn a faint shade of blue by now.

Getting his hair dipped or learning how to dive. Whichever comes first.

Dad getting his dipped as well.

Twiners

What Hayden's been doing at 9 months:


* Loves to give kisses. Mostly gives them to his mama though :)
* When we say do pat-a-cake he starts clapping his hands.
* Is crawling all over and pulling himself up on things. Not walking yet but starting to cruise a little bit.
* Loves being outside in the stroller and petting the dogs.
* If he gets hurt or is sad we bring him to a window and he immediately stops crying.
* Loves other babies or kids. Especially his buddy Cade. They light up when they see each other.
* Likes to get his teeth brushed and loves his fluoride. Hopefully continues to. . .
* Still feeds himself finger foods.
*Has discovered that he can spit things out if he doesn't want to eat it or blocks it/swats it with his hand. (That's where he starts with his "tude")
* Drinks out of a straw and prefers water over juice.
* Usually goes to sleep without crying. We'll just hear him in there singing.
* He knows what night-night means.
* Still taking two 1 1/2 -2 hr naps and sleeping 10-12 hrs a night. Everyone says that'll end soon. I really hope not!

His stats:

18 lbs 15%
28 inches 43%

Our Dr's office got a new program for this and so she said that it could be slightly off. How off could it really be though? But Hayden actually dropped in his weight percentage this time. She's not worried about it since he's been more mobile. But I told him if he keeps up his tude when eating then he's not going to make weight. Which means he wont be able to sit in his car seat. I'll let him make the choice :)

*Just a side note. I started this post a week or so ago and I never did pubish it till today so I do want to redeem Hayden a little bit. He is doing so much better and has dropped his attitude. At least for the time being :)