New Pictures

Hayden helping Mommy load the dishwasher
Getting ready for bed. . . can you see his excitement!?
Hayden playing in his room
Showing off his big smile and all those teeth!
Making a mess . . . Looks like he's ready for finger painting!

10 Months

Hayden is now 10 months old! Here are some pictures I took a few days ago. He constantly wants to be standing and pulling up on everything, especially anything on the hard tile floor!

I woke to the sound of . . .

This morning I woke up to a scraping sound. As I really awakened, I realized what this scraping was. . . Hayden attempting to take the finish off of his crib rail! You see, I love Hayden's furniture. The crib can be used as a full size head and foot board later, so we thought, wow, he can get many years out of this beautiful furniture. What were we thinking!? Kids are rough on everything, so it may not look so pretty in a few years. It still looks great from a distance!Also, I'm beginning to think getting teeth early isn't all that great. Hayden got 2 around 5 months, 4 more around 7 months, and another came in a month ago, for a grand total of 7! I guess he figured he would put them to good use! And this is what he accomplished just this morning! By the end of the week, he may have taken all the finish off! If any of you have tips or suggestions, please help! One Step Ahead makes a crib rail protector that I may order, but I don't know what to do in the meantime. Did anyone else have this issue with your kids? I'd love to know we're not alone! THE DAMAGE

Hayden Update

Hayden after his nap
A new favorite toy - Balloons!
Fun times in the laundry basket!

It been a few weeks since our last post, so we figured it was time for an update. Hayden has been sick again, this time possibly a sinus or ear infection. He was miserable on Saturday, but luckily, we found a doctor who still makes house calls (a.k.a. Grampa), and he came and checked Hayden out. He seems to feel much better now!

Hayden is crawling so quickly now, and he follows me everywhere. He started cruising around his Leap Frog table last week. What a great toy! It's the first thing he pulled up on and now he's learned to cruise around it! Although he's been pulling up for a while now, he just figured out he could pull up in his crib last week. The first picture is of him pulling up after naptime.

Oh, yeah. Hayden also loves balloons. We had balloons for my birthday a few weeks ago, and Hayden pulled on the strings, bounced them, and couldn't take his eyes off of them! (With constant supervision, of course!) When he felt so bad this weekend, the balloon was the only thing that would calm him!

Happy Valentine's Day

Hayden wanted to wish everyone a Happy Valentine's Day! We tried to get a few pictures of Hayden in his "Handsome" shirt, and he now has a new pose for the camera. Check out the last two pictures. As soon as he sees the flash, he now squints, smiles, and cocks his head back. What a pose! We tried 3 or 4 times to get his natural smile, but all he would do was this new squinty smile. What can I say, I think he's going to be a little ham! In the past few weeks, Hayden has traded the army crawl to crawl on all 4's. Here he is crawling for the camera! He's also been pulling up a lot lately and he loves standing and playing music on his Leap Frog music table.Say cheese!!!!

9 Months Old

Check out these pearly whites!
Hayden loves to stand at the back door and look outside!

Hayden's 9 month picture

Hayden turned nine months on Monday. He had his 9 month check-up and was lucky to have NO shots this time! But he will have to get a few at his next visit at 12 months. What a birthday present! Anyway, at his check-up, he weighed 17 lbs. 6 oz. and was almost 27 inches long. He's in about the 10 percentile for weight and height. Hopefully his being sick last month caused his weight gain to slow down. We're hoping he'll gain more this time!

Hayden's first snow

Today we had our first snow of 2007. It was also Hayden's first time to see real snow. As you can see he did not know what to think of it. We only had him out for a short time because it was bitterly cold and was real close to his bed time.

Our Scary Night

Last night, we had a scare with Hayden. He woke up around 10:30 coughing and having trouble breathing. He honestly sounded like a seal barking! After calling my dad, who could hear Hayden and said it sounded like croup, we headed to the ER. One breathing treatment, a steroid shot, an x-ray, and two hours later, we got to come home. And yes . . . he has croup. Luckily he didn't have any more episodes last night. We're hoping and praying that there won't be any more tonight, at least not as severe as last night. I hate it when little ones are sick!

The Remote

It seems the remote is one of Hayden's favorite toys these days. I guess he's going to be a button pusher like his daddy. Here are a few pictures Daddy took about a month ago of Hayden playing with the remote. In fact, when he started to scoot/crawl, he did it to get the remote. That's the typical guy for you!

Happy Birthday Gramma!

Last week we celebrated Gramma's birthday! Hayden helped make her birthday cake and tried to swipe some chocolate icing while we were singing "Happy Birthday!"

8 Months Old

Here are a few pictures from last Friday when Hayden turned 8 months. He is so much fun! He loves playing with all his new toys and even pulled up on his Leap Frog Learning Table the other day. Although he's not crawling on all fours, he has started his own hilarious way to crawl. He turns on his side, then uses the opposite foot to move himself forward. It's the funniest thing! We'll have to try to post a video. My parents said neither Eric nor I did much of the typical "hands and knees" crawling, so Hayden may do his own thing, too. He has also gotten FOUR top teeth in the past month, so he now has six teeth! It makes him look like a big boy!

Hayden's First Christmas

We spent Christmas day with my family. First, we woke up at our house to see all the goodies Santa left for Hayden. He must have been really good this year! Then we went to Gramma's and Grampa's house, where Santa left a few more packages for Hayden. After we opened presents, we got lunch ready and the whole family came over. Hayden got to see Gramma, Grampa, Uncle Eric, Grandma Jean, Grandpa Elwood, and lots of cousins and great aunts and uncles. After playing all afternoon (and thankfully getting a nap in), we went to Uncle Billy's and Aunt Margi's house for our traditional homemade pizza dinner before going to the movies. We saw "Night at the Museum" . . . Hayden's second movie. Luckily he slept through most of it :-)
Hayden looking like a big boy in his "Thomas the Tank Engine" chair
Checking out his new "Learning Home"
Hey guys - Do you like my new shoes!? I should grow into them soon!
Mommy's and Daddy's best Christmas gift ever . . . Hayden and his sweet smile!

Christmas in Vilonia

Hayden with Uncle Joey
We spent last weekend in Vilonia and celebrated Christmas with Michael's family on the 23rd. Hayden got to see Nanny and PawPaw, Uncle Joey, cousins Cody and Summer, Great-Granny Paul and Great-Granny Shumate, and several great aunts and uncles. Hayden had lots of fun opening presents and really enjoyed trying to eat the paper! We had a great weekend!
Hayden checking out his new toys
Great-Granny Paul and Hayden
Opening a present - The bag's bigger than he is!


More Christmas pictures to come . . .

Merry Christmas!

Here are just a few pictures we took of Hayden sitting by our Christmas tree. Of course, Cooper had to get in on the action. He misses getting his picture taken, so he likes to jump in whenever we snap a picture of Hayden. We hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

Last night, we went downtown to the Winter Wonderland. It is an amazing place filled with about 20 different Christmas scenes, full of lights, music, and characters. Our friend, Donna Chetister, worked on the Wonderland for years, adding a little more every year to bring smiles to all the kids' faces. She recently passed away, but her memory will live on in all of her works of art throughout northeast Arkansas, especially the Winter Wonderland. Hayden loved all of it, and he was especially captivated by the singing and dancing snowmen, the spinning penguins, and the train. There was so much to see and hear!
Hayden and Daddy watch the penguins spin and play!
Hayden wouldn't look at the camera . . . he was too into the lights and sounds!


We got to see Santa again. This time Hayden wasn't too sure about him.

Christmas Parade

Last Saturday, we took Hayden to Grubbs to watch the Christmas parade. Grubbs is a small town where my parents grew up. My grandpa, who still lives there, was the Grand Marshall for the parade, so he and my parents got to ride on the opening float. Hayden enjoyed watching Gramma, Grampa, and Great-Grandpa Elwood go by and wave at him!
Hayden's getting bundled up to go outside and watch the parade!
Santa's sleigh looked a lot like a big, red fire truck!

Santa!

Hayden hanging out with the Girls

Sunday night our church Life Group had a Christmas party. We even got a visit from Santa! All the kids were so excited and didn't want him to leave. It was Hayden's second time to see Santa. Here are some pics from the party. As you may notice, Hayden is surrounded by girls in our Life Group. There are two other boys and tons of girls. But, we also have 3 ladies expecting baby boys (one with twins!), so it won't be long until Hayden has some boys to play with.




Playing ball with Lauren

SANTA!!!!

Rubber Ducks . . . YUM!!