Beach Vacay!

At the beginning of May, the Meadors and the Jameses took a trip to Corpus Christi for a long weekend. We were so excited about this trip. We were determined to be as thrifty as possible. We rented a condo directly across the street from the beach and cooked all our meals except for one. We didn't do anything particularly exciting, other than hang out at the beach and watch Hayden and Anna discover the ocean. It was so much fun!

Driving down to Corpus was kind of a nightmare as we drove through some pretty severe storms. As you know, I am no fan of severe weather. Neither is Kassidy. I felt on edge during the entire drive. I wasted our entire data plan on the iPad, constantly reloading the radar on the Weather Channel app. We safely made it to New Braunfels, where we spent the night. Kass and Jason started about an hour behind us and got hung up in the weather in Waco. They stayed the night in Waco (Sic Em!) and met up with us the next morning. The weather didn't improve the next day as the Corpus area was experiencing some intense rainfall. After getting soaked at the grocery store, the sun came out and we took the kids to the beach. Hayden discovered he loves to "CHASE BIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIRDS!"

I was glad we went down to the beach the night before to give Hayden and Anna a chance to see what the beach was like before thrusting them into it the next day. It gave them the opportunity to be a little freaked out -- and then get totally over it!

Anna initially said, "no thanks ocean! Not interested." She quickly changed her tune...

Hayden was a real gentleman the next morning and let the cute girl test drive his beach chair first. And then it was on to building sand castles!

After the initial beach introduction, there was no stopping these two. They were ALL OVER THE PLACE. There is no lounging around on the beach with a toddler. We were constantly up and down and chasing them all around. For the first time ever I didn't read a single book while on vacation. I was 100% okay with it though, because watching those two have so much fun was definitely the highlight of the trip!

We enjoyed the condo so much -- we may make it a yearly thing (hopefully, maybe)!

Mother's Day

One of the best gifts in my life is being Hayden's mother. He is such an amazing, loving little boy and I'm always humbled by him. Sometimes I'm humbled when he's throwing tantrums and taking swings at me (happens more often that I would like). Most often, I'm humbled when he smiles at me, says, "night, night Momma," gives me kisses or hugs me. I always find myself looking at him and thinking, "I helped make you!"

This Mother's Day weekend I got to spend a lot quality time just Hayden and me while Daddy works ER shifts. On Saturday we met up with Hayden's friend from school, Everett, and his mom Allison. I'm so excited to get the know the kids (and their parents) in Hayden's class. They all live close by, so I'm looking forward to lots of play dates! Hayden and Everett rode together in the wagon and were the picture of good behavior. I was shocked. I was even more surprised when Hayden announced he wanted to "pet snake!" Um, okay!

What you can't see in this picture is the look of horror on my face. Hayden was so brave! I couldn't believe he wanted to do it. After a nap, we headed to Hayden's favorite place -- Barnes and Noble. We played with the trains and looked at a lot of books. Hayden even left the store without throwing a major temper tantrum. I was so proud (it's the little things, sometimes).

Next week, we head to the beach with our good friends, the James family. Hayden loves him some Anna James. We had to head to Target to load up on some beach essentials (and a few things to impress Anna).

For $1 you too can have this amazing Shark visor. I'm sure Anna is going to love this look. When I tried to take the visor off Hayden yelled, "Shark bite Mommy!" at the top of his lungs. Since today was such a beautiful day we tested out Hayden's water table.

In other news, I'm constantly in awe of Hayden's ever expanding vocabulary. It is so cool to watch him put phrases together and start to truly understand what's going on around him. We hear a lot of "Mommy! Come here!" or "Daddy sit down!" in our house. There's a lot of what he says that is jibberish, but more and more is making sense. I think there's at least 3 moments a day where Clark and I look at each other and say, "where did he learn that?!" I'm most proud of how interested he is in books. He's started "reading" books out loud. He reads Good Night Gorilla, Brown Bear, Brown Bear and Panda Bear Panda Bear. I know he's just associating what he's heard a thousand times with pictures, but I just LOVE it. I happened to catch him reading Brown Bear, Brown Bear on video this afternoon. If this is bragging, sue me, because right now I think Hayden is a child prodigy.

Finally Happy Mother's Day to my Mom. She is so wonderful. She's always willing to talk me me through a storm (whether figurative or literal) and gives the best parenting advice. Happy Mother's Day to my mother-in-law, Kathy. She raised and an amazing man who is now an amazing Dad!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter! This year, Hayden really understands the concept of the Easter Bunny. He understands "Easter eggs" and says they're filled with "candy, chocolate and stickers." He does not, however, understand the real meaning behind Easter. I think the concept of Jesus dying on the cross for our sins and rising from the dead so we can have eternal life is a little over his head. We'll work on that, though. This year, we've just had fun hunting up Easter eggs.

love the messy hair!

Last night we colored Easter eggs. Grammy told him the eggs had to take a "color bath." Hayden loved this idea and kept saying "eggs take bath!" over and over again. We also learned during this process that patience is not one of Hayden's virtues. He kept reaching in to grab the eggs, which resulted in a few pouts when I told him no. Then we decorated the eggs with stickers.

Hayden is also a little bit of what I lovingly refer to as a "motor mouth." The kid just won't quit talking. My parents allege that I was the same way. I told them I don't appreciate them slandering me in that way.

Hayden's Easter weekend was marked by lots of visitors. On Thursday, Nan came to visit bearing lots of gifts.

One cool gift was this awesome puppy pillow. Hayden loves to lounge on it while watching TV. Because Nan knows the way to Hayden's heart, she also gave him some cool Cars bath toys. Those were a big hit and they definitely make bath time much easier!

Grammy and Grandma made the trip on Friday. Not to be outdone, Grammy brought lots of Easter gifts too. Hayden especially loved his Toy Story cars. Combining two of his favorite things? Jackpot!

Unfortunately Daddy is working the night shift at Dallas Children's all weekend, so he barely managed to stay awake for Hayden's backyard Easter egg hunt.

The hunt begins!

Found some!

The green crocs with the button down shirt is a very chic look.

Jelly bean tasting....

Aunt Katy and Uncle Win also helped with the Easter egg hunt. Hayden had so much fun. He's currently fighting to stay awake over a plate of Mickey Mouse nuggets. Early nap time today, anyone?

Obsession

My life is dominated by these two guys right now. Got to love toddler obsessions. Hayden yells, "Watch Cars! Watch cars!" every morning. He was also tell you, "Kachow car, Tomatey, truck." For those of you lucky individuals who have not been forced to watch Cars more than once "Kachow" is Lightening McQueen's catch phrase. Since Hayden is no where near being able to say "Lightening McQueen" he sticks with Kachow. Towmatey is of course Lightening's sidekick, Tow-Mater. As annoyed as I can get at Cars, this is obviously much improved over Dora. Regardless, I don't want to watch Cars 3 time a day either...

We are also obsessed with

Again, much improved over Dora. The downfall? I can't watch Toy Story 3 without being reduced to a blubbering mess. Since hearing, "Momma sad? Momma sad?" is pitiful, we watch Toy Story 2 over and over and over again. With Hayden recovering from the flu last week both of these movies were in heavy rotation.

Now that the weather is finally nice, I'm hoping to pry my toddler away from the TV and get in some quality outside time. I think we only have approximately 3 weeks of spring before the temperatures reach boiling summer temperatures.

Birthday Pics

Hayden had such a blast at Little Gym for his birthday. These place is basically a toddler's dream come true. They can run around like crazy, play on the obstacles, play with bubbles, and of course, play with the giant parachute.

Could he look more excited? See all the bubbles in the background? They are made out of sugar so they were safe too eat. Clark caught one in his mouth and assured me they still tasted nasty.

Hayden loved hanging from the bar. He could have done this all day.

Waiting for the inflatable walkway to....well, inflate.

Bouncing!

Hayden also loved the hula hoops!

We invited Hayden's classmates to the party. I was very nervous about extending the invitation. Not because I was worried about the kids or their parents, but I was worried that they would think I was silly for inviting them. We don't know any of the parents in Hayden's class so I was worried how the invitation would be received. However, I was so pleased at the turn out. 5 or 6 of Hayden's classmates came and played. The parents were so sweet and we've gotten to know a few of them. I think Hayden's face in this picture pretty much sums up the entire day.

What party is complete without cupcakes?

We are so thankful to everyone who came celebrate Hayden's big day. We are truly blessed by all our friends and family and I'm always humbled by the outpouring of love shown to Hayden.

Birthday Sneak Peek

More to come!!!

2 years ago...

From this:

To this....

To today:

Hayden is such a joy and has truly blessed our lives in too many ways to count. He's hilarious and developing the best personality. For those of you who keep up with his stats, he's 28 lbs and 6 oz and 34 1/2" tall. Long and lean. Wonder where he gets that from?

He talks non stop. He doesn't really make sense all the time, but he's starting to put 2 words together to form phrases. Last night me he informed me that his shark towel bit him by saying "owie! shark bite!" when I wrapped the towel around him. He'll repeat anything you say as Pop learned when he said a crass sentence that ended in "Heidi's butt" and Hayden shouted "Heidi's butt!" about 10 times in the middle of the frozen yogurt store. He can identify the colors yellow, blue, green, red, black, white, brown, purple and orange. He can also point out circles, ovals and diamonds. We're working on squares and triangles. I'm telling you, Primrose is worth the investment b/c God knows I didn't teach that kid about ovals.

He's still a big "reader." His favorites include, "Brown bear, brown bear" "Polar bear, polar bear" "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" and Olivia books. He loves Handy Manny, good old Dora, Wonder Pets and Mickey Mouse. He also LOVES Toy Story and Cars.

I know this stage is going to pass quickly and I'm trying to treasure every moment. He loves to snuggle and hug and give kisses. I'm trying to commit each one of these moments to memory so when he's 13 and convinced I'm lame and he hates me I can remember these wonderful times.