Dog Show!!

We had another dog show this past weekend, luckily the weather was a bit better than our last outing. Still a bit cold on Sat, but overall MUCH better! Plus no body was sick this time! We were finally good parents and brought the camera to take some pictures, but after about 5 pictures on Friday night, the battery died and we didn't bring the charger... oh well, next time we will get it right!

Here is Hayden already working out how to open the door:

He loves the fact that everything in the travel trailer is within his walking distance - here he is helping me feed the dogs.

Now he's tormenting Nemo with his Frisbee.

OK, and this one isn't dog show related, its just a cool picture!

10 Month Walk-About

Well, its official - we have our first solo steps! Hayden decided to try his hand at bi-pedal locomotion and has gone from one tentative step to around five over the course of the weekend. Unfortunately we couldn't get any video of him walking because the camera is WAY too exciting, so he has to get down on all fours to get to it faster. While I'm excited about the prospect of him walking, I'm also terrified at the prospect of him walking... For example, he wasn't paying attention and fell and hit his chin on the coffee table, biting his tongue, we had blood and everything... After Ray calmed both Hayden and me down, we lamented about this being the first of many to come!

Since I don't have any pictures of him walking I thought I would add a random cute picture. This is the way Hayden plays with his Bumbo seat, he picks it up and flings it around. Silly boy!

Hayden's First V-Day

OK, I'm a little delinquent on getting our blog updated this week, but as they say, all good things are worth waiting for!!

Last weekend was of course Hayden's first Valentine's day. Grandma Karen sent Hayden a cute card and $5 for his piggy bank, as you can see he was enjoying both the card and the money!

Hayden also "made" his first card (OK, I'm no expert, but I think his daycare teachers may have helped a little, but its the thought that counts!)

And my darling Husband had a special surprise for me, he had Hayden's teachers help him 'sign' his first card to Mommy! How cool is that???

Here are some random pictures of Hayden feeding himself this week, he's getting to the point where he wants to do it by himself - every night we need to hose him off... Thank goodness for the dogs who clean up the floor!

Latest and Greatest in West Land

OK, first things first, before I talk about the latest and greatest, I have a general update on Hayden. We had his 9 month well baby check up Friday 1/23 and he is now 30.5" tall and 26# 15 ounces - officially he is the size of an 18 month old... His pediatrician just shakes her head and says he's going to be really tall ;-) But he checked out healthy as a horse.

We had a dog show the weekend of 1/23 - 1/25, which also marked our first outing in the travel trailer with Baby Hayden in tow. He is such a trooper, he had a great time!! We competed Friday night and Saturday, but had to bail out on Sunday due to me being sick (some cold/flu like thing). We were bad parents and didn't get any pictures - next one we will.

Hayden took to life on the road like the true super baby he is, thinking it was all new fun and games just for him! The weather was much less well behaved than Hayden was, it was warm and humid on Friday, soring into the low 80's and by 8pm we were down to 50 and the temp just kept dropping. By Saturday morning it was windy and cold (down in the 30's - have I mentioned yet that Texas weather SUCKS?) So Hayden got completely bundled up and enjoyed walking courses and smiling at all of the competitors. In fact, several people commented on the fact he must be sweating under all the layers (blanket sleeper, hat, coat and blanket - in the baby sling under Mommy's coat). I must say its the warmest I've been at a cool weather dog show. The BCs both did well and were so glad to be out doing agility again.

We of course had to watch the Super Bowl - Hayden's first - and he enjoyed the festivities - as you can tell from these pictures.

Ok, we of really did not let Hayden drink beer, but the last two pictures sure would make you wonder! hahahaha

This past week Hayden learned another new trick, he discovered the joys of sticking out his tongue -here is proof:

Aren't kids fun??

Doing the Wave

We are just having so much fun with Hayden! He is growing by leaps and bounds and it is just amazing at the new discoveries every day! Over the last week he has started experimenting with communication using his hands (luckily he hasn't yet figured out the rude gestures that are very popular in our family). Its just too cute, he's started waving - here is a short video.

In addition to communicating, he's also discovering how to multi-task. Here he is playing with the big red ball and holding another toy in his mouth so he didn't have to put it down. He's just too funny!

WARNING - shameless posting of a picture here - just because its got some serious AAWWWW factor :-)

Block Party

Thought I would send out a cute little video of Hayden playing with some of his new blocks. He learned a cool new game, and obviously really loves it!

Christmas Aftermath!

People always say that kids change everything, - we thought we were fully prepared for that and BAM, more changes!

After a wonderful Christmas holiday with loads of new toys for Hayden, our house was quickly transformed from a semi-adult inhabitable dwelling, to a dwelling only suitable for someone under the age of three.

We wanted to try to reclaim at least some of our former living space. Ray and I met, planned and "strategized" our next move.... We decided that we must offer up a sacrifice to the Gods of Chaos in order for our plan to work. After much deliberation we decided the sacrifice would be the formal dining room.

So in a flurry of moving furniture and toys and other stuff, we converted the formal dining room into the office/baby/chaos room. Our dinning room is now the former breakfast area. The really cool part about it though is since the new dinning room is smaller we HAD to buy a new table - bummer (NOT!) Here are some pictures of the areas. We still have some major decorating to do, but we at least have been successful in gaining back our living room (well, mostly anyway!)

And here is the office/baby/homage to chaos room:

We made another trip to 6-Flags for Holiday in the Park, courtesy of Ray's work. Hayden really enjoyed this trip, he rode the Merry-Go-Round for the first time and REALLY liked that.

He was also able to sample his first amusement park food in the form of a giant soft pretzel.

We rode the train and were treated to an 'antique' car ride by Great Papa (he's a CRAZY driver!)

But unfortunately, the holidays are now over and its back to the real world and having to work for a living!!