Capitol Visit

Hayden made himself at home in the chair up front next to the media. That's what they get when they give a 2 year old a pass that lets him come and go on the floor as he pleases. At least they weren't in session.

Hayden enjoyed walking up and down the aisle chatting with the legislatures.

The coolest library ever!

Yes this is a real working card catalog and yes I sniffed it. :) My cousin's assistant did also, so I didn't look so strange.

Here are some pics from our "field trip" to the capitol.

Ice sculptures, pool, boy bags, undies, etc....

Making ice sculptures with daddy.

Trying on his new Thomas undies.

Wearing his "boy bag" he prefers to call it his purse.

His snowman he made at PDO

His new "leatherman" he got from Aunt Ingrid

It takes a real boy to look tough in his mom's powder blue hat and a robot shirt. :)

Swimming at the hotel with the Bellows and Shroyer families.

We have had a busy and fun past week. Last weekend we met the Shroyer and Bellows families in CF. The Shroyers got a hotel and the kids had a blast swimming. Hayden spent most of the time jumping to Joey and actually putting his head under water. He had a blast. After cleaning up we all went out to eat at the OP. We had a great time. It is always nice to get together, and we hope to do it more often this year.

Sunday we hung out at Joey's parents. Hayden had a blast playing with Grandma and Grandpa. Joey's sister and family surprised everyone and came for the big game. Hayden had fun playing with his cousins. We had a ton of food and fun.

Tuesday Hayden and I went to Des Moines to tour the Capitol and see my cousin who was just elected to the Iowa House of Representatives. We got to go on the house floor and walk around. We even got to see the library at the capitol. It was a great time. Hayden had fun seeing all of the people and talking to other reps on the floor. Hayden and I then drove around Des Moines and hit a few stores. We spent the night at my Aunt's house. We had a nice time chatting, eating, and Hayden had fun playing with all of the new toys. We also found out that Hayden is a big fan of radishes and vinaigrette dressing. Who knew? Wednesday we got up and went to the mall and headed home. It was a fun time.

Hayden got some underwear from his cousin Quinn. He loved trying it on and actually put it on and sat on the potty naked. He usually refuses to sit on the potty with his bare bum. I thought we turned a new leaf, but he still refuses to sit on the potty with is pants off. We haven't even really tried potty training, but may give it a go this summer.

Tomorrow we are watching Hayden's friend Theo for a few hours in the evening. We are going to start swapping a weekend with our friends so we can each have one date night a month. Looking forward to it.

We are also looking forward to the warmer weather for the weekend. We have some things we want to do outside, and Hayden is looking forward to getting out of the house and running around.

Gearing up for the weekend.

This week has been business as usual.

We have been running errands, cleaning, playing, and cooking.

I attempted making cookies Monday. They turned out yummy, and I wonder why it has been years since I have made chocolate chip cookies. Probably because I could polish them off in a couple of days. :)

Yesterday I came across a bargain at Goodwill, and we are now the proud owners of 2 dressers and 2 nightstands. They are broyhill and in great condition. I can't believe that I stumbled across them and that someone gave this great stuff to goodwill. We are so grateful for all of the drawers and storage space.

Today we took a meal to our friends. They just had a baby. Henry. This is Hayden's first friend that has become a big brother. It is exciting.

Tomorrw is PDO and Friday we are getting packed up for our weekend in Waterloo/CF. We are meeting the Bellows family and the Shroyer family in CF. The Shroyer's are getting a hotel and we are going to hang out and let the kids swim. We are looking forward to a fun weekend with "old" friends.

Hayden has been a blast lately. We have been busy playing trucks, tractors, "guys", reading, crafting, snuggling, and laughing. He still loves trucks and tractors and making a mess. We rarely use a sippy cup anymore and he prefers to eat with big utensils and plates. He is consistently flexing his independence and is getting better at entertaining himself. He still loves the wiggles, but is now into Blues Clues. We canceled cable, dusted the vcr off and found some videos of blues clues.
He is quite the singer and loves to sing in public. He finally will sit in a cart which makes shopping more enjoyable.
He is also getting a lot better at following direction. 9 times out of 10 he will go to his room for time out when he is told to and stays there until he is told to come out.
He is doing great at sleeping in his room. He still likes the door open and never comes out. He lays in bed and reads books.
He is still naping. He naps usually from 1:30 - 4. He loves his naps.
We now hear "yes" more often, but "no" is still used more frequently.
We have attempted the potty. He sits on it all of the time in clothes, and does the whole rutine, but if I take his diaper off he refuses to sit on it stating that it is "too scary". Hopefully he will get over that soon.
Words that make me smile, "thank you mommy", "bless you", "I love you", "let's snuggle", "Hayden sleep in mommys bed", "what's wrong", "kiss", "ohhh Bud Saul (while givving bud saul a hug", "bye, kiss (when he gets done on the phone)", "have a good day", and the sound of him screaming "yay" and runung through the house.

Shoot

Soooo....
I have been shown more in the past 2 years that I am NOT in control of my life, and everything that I thought was going to happen or planned to happen, has not or not happened to my plan. Make sense? I guess what I am getting at is that I always seem to have things figured out and God shows me how he has it figured out. Which 9 times out of 10 is way different that I thought it should be.
I have also learned that every assumption I had of parenting or every thing I said I would not do or would not say, I have ended up doing or saying.
Which all leads me to this situation yesterday.

Hayden: "Shit"
Me: "We don't say shit, we shay shoot"
Hayden: "I don't say shoot, I say shit"

Ummm yeah.

He didn't say it in a defiant way like "listen here sister, I say s***", it was more a matter of fact thing, like he prefers to say s*** over shoot.

A) I would of never thought my child would talk this way
B) Before children I would of thought "those parents need to get their kid under control"
C) I wondered all day yesterday if it is going downhill from here
D) Is he going to come home from PDO tomorrow smoking a cigarette, tattooed, and flipping me off?

So far I have not heard him repeat the S word.

Scary Lobsters

Tonight Hayden informed me that he couldn't sleep in his room because it was scary. He was insisting that he sleeps in Mommy's bed. I asked him why it was scary and he said that the lobsters come out and punch. Not pinch, punch.

Hmmmm...... Ok

So I told him it was ok and that we could leave the light on and the door open and it wouldn't be scary. He said ok and laid down.
I wonder if he is dreaming about lobsters?

Speaking of sleeping issues, I should document what has been happening around here at bedtime. I realized that I need to post more about the logistics of our day, because as my sister has been asking me questions and I am not remembering what Hayden was doing at a certain age.

So.... Hayden was sleeping with us for about month. In between traveling for the holidays etc. he seemed to end up in our bed more than his own. While we all love sharing a bed, we realized a month straight is too long and Hayden is getting to big. Age wise and size wise. (Plus it will give our pediatrician one less thing to tease Joey about. Since Joey is the softie , our pediatrician tells us that he usually has to have the talks he does with Joey with moms, not too many dads).

Hayden used to sleep in his room with a night light, his sound machine, and his door closed.
The first night we put him back in he wanted his lamp on and the door open. I was convinced he would run out, but gave him a chance. He didn't run out. He got up and read some books in bed (which he always does) and then fell asleep. Since then he has only been out of his room at bedtime once and seemed to understand my warning that the door would be closed if he came out again.

We also did some rearranging. We moved his train table up to his room. He has done great during naps and night time. Sometimes I can hear him playing with it for a little bit, but he has always ended up back in his bed and sound asleep.

Every night he does says he wants to sleep in mommy's bed and climbs in, but doesn't protest too much when we take him into his room.

Inauguration

Avery and Barack


Today is a great day in American History. I have been up since 7 watching the festivities. I got chills last night when they reminded people that Obama will be living in a house built by slaves and giving his speech on land where slaves were once sold.

I have always been fascinated with government and it's procedures.

Perceptive boy

So we all know how Hayden LOVES baby Jesus. I think he has missed him because Christmas is over and the constant visual is gone.
Yesterday we were snuggling in bed. He comes in every morning and we snuggle. Even if I am already up, back to bed I must go to snuggle. I must admit I like it.

I digress....

So he looked at the nightstand and saw my book The Shack and said "baby Jesus, read it mommy, the bible, baby Jesus.
Ummmm what did you just say??? It was strange. After I really looked at the cover of the book I thought maybe he was thinking the shack was the manger? Now I am wondering if that was what the author was going for, and it took a 2 year old to point it out to me. Strange.

Then we were upstairs cleaning he came to me with a basket and said "Baby Moses, baby Moses goes in there". Ummmm ok.

I won't get into the third one where he pointed to a picture of Barack Obama and said Jesus, then I held the newspaper down to his level to make sure I saw correctly what he was pointing at. It turns out it was a picture of some missiles above Obama's that looked like the northern star. Whewwww. We would of had an issue there.

Yes I will be watching the Inauguration Kari. Thanks for the shout on facebook in front of a million people. :)

New paint and baseboards

Before Color

After color. A lot less shiny and yellow. It may not look that way in the picture.

After color, and new baseboards. Oh and Hayden's new camera from Grandma and Grandpa P.


I need to take some pictures of the kitchen. We are still working on the trim under the cabinets, and Joey and Hayden are putting all of the outlet covers back on. Our goal for the year is to get new counters and take a stab at tiling a backsplash.
My goal this weekend is to empty out every cupboard and reorganize.