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!!

Happy New Year!

Wow! What a year! Its hard to believe that 2008 is over. As I sit here and contemplate the events of the past 12 months I can hardly wrap my head around the wonderful changes to our lives.

The year was really divided into two parts for us, before Hayden and after Hayden. The before Hayden part of 2008 was full of busy preparations! We didn't have long before Baby Hayden was going to make his debut into the West household. We had new jobs to start, the baby room to paint, furniture to put together and dog shows to attend!

In January Ray started his new career at Health Markets. It was a great opportunity for him professionally AND only about 15 minutes from the house - how great is that? He can still make it home for lunch to play with the dogs! We also started work on Hayden's room, we opted for an underwater theme and I have to say the room turned out beyond expectation.

In February and March we competed in our final dog shows before Hayden's birth. (By we, I mean Ray ran both pups, because I was roughly the size of a house and was not going to run ANYWHERE!)

In February, our friends Jenn and Peter had a wonderful get together with all of our dog show friends to celebrate the baby, it was so great to see all of our friends outside of a dog show (its always neat to see everyone cleaned up and in 'civilian' clothes!) Great food and great friends!

In March, my dear friend Pam threw us an amazing surprise shower. She did a wonderful job keeping things secret, including having The Moms; Muriel and Karen, both fly in and surprise me - and boy was I surprised! Pam had an entire underwater theme to go with the new baby room. It was so wonderful to see everyone and having the Moms here made it even more special - something I will never forget.

Then April.... the month we were all waiting for! On April 24th we welcomed our 'little' boy Hayden Lee West into the world. He came bouncing into our lives a little before 2p.m. - weighing in at 8# 12 ounces and 22" long! A big healthy boy.

We were lucky enough to have both Mom's here for the two weeks following Hayden's birth - I don't know how we would have done it without them, I threatened to never let them leave.... The only reason I did allow them to both go home though was that Hayden's Great Grandma Dorothy was coming in for the 2nd shift and stayed with us for 2 weeks. I don't know what I would have done without all that help! We are so lucky to have family who could come out and stay for an extended time.

Hayden's first few months flew by with lots of visitors, in addition to the mom's and great grandma, we had Great Grandma Rita, Great Papa Tom and cousin G all make visits. Hayden is one very lucky boy!

My original leave was for 12 weeks off, but as we approached July, I decided I just couldn't leave my precious little boy at daycare yet, so we decided to extend my leave an additional 3 months. I am unbelievably lucky to have a great boss who let me take the extra time off.

Hayden has grown by leaps and bounds over the summer and fall - seeming to develop new skills every day! From his first time sitting up, starting to crawl, pulling himself up on everything, cruising around, and his first teeth. It is hard to believe how fast they change!

Hayden's first Thanksgiving and first Christmas have been very memorable! We were lucky enough to have family here for both holidays. Christmas was fun, Hayden was much more into the gifts than I would have expected. He loved all of his new toys (of course that did include the boxes and wrapping paper!)

As we roll into 2009, we are so thankful for the loving family and friends who have in one way or another been part of this amazing year with us. We wish everyone a Happy New Year!!

With Love,

Shannon, Ray, Hayden and the four legged kids - Tawnie, Remi, Nemo and Taboo