Christmas and 2012 ...

So, I've been a pretty terrible blogger. I admit it. Things have been so busy around here and I have been a terrible picture taker. Hopefully the new year will bring more pics and more blogging.

This is the first year Hayden has "gotten" Christmas. We talked a lot about the "nice list" and the "naughty list." He definitely knew which one he didn't want to end up on. He also had a very specific list for Santa: an easel, a cowboy hat, Handy Manny tools, Yo Gabba Gabba jammies and Chuggington books. Of course, Grammy, Pop, Auntie Katy and Nan all went above and beyond and Hayden had a GREAT Christmas.

With each toy he opened Hayden yelled, "Oh no...Handy Manny tools!"

Maybe the camera flash is a little bright...

Thanks to Pop for pulling out the eBay stops to locate a pair of 3T jammies that H had to have.

Ready to go to Grammy's to see if Santa left his easel there (spoiler alert: He did). The other big gift Hayden received was a trampoline from Nan. He loves it, and demands to jump on it every day, regardless of the weather or the time of day.

On a developmental front, we are just amazed at how much Hayden talks and his level of comprehension. Hayden talks in (mostly) complete sentences. He carries on conversations with us and tells us if he's hurt, hungry, mad or sad. He loves to draw and "read" books. I will find him in his room, intently looking over a book and telling himself a story. He counts to 14 with consistency, but kind of derails after that ("13, 14, 17, 19 ... yay!"). His imagination is taking off. He plays pretend with toys. He'll push his fire truck around and yell, "Firemans, to the rescue!" We're still struggling with potty training (as in, Hayden has little to no interest in it). Any tips would be appreciated.

The most exciting part of 2012 will be the addition of Harper Katherine, scheduled to make her debut on January 17 (via scheduled c-section) at 12:30. We're SO excited to meet her. Hayden is too. He loves to point out that he is the big boy and Harper is the baby. He also says he wants to share his toys with her (so long as she isn't interested in anything that is red that belongs to him. He can't part with anything red). He told me last night that Harper will cry a lot, but that she would like a pink fire truck. The first two weeks of this month will be full of last minute preparations as we prepare to become a family of 4.

2011 was a pretty great year for us. We are one step closer to finishing residency (yay!), the Rangers were in the World Series (again), Baylor won 10 football games, RG3 won the Heisman trophy and our men's basketball team is ranked in the top 10, and the women's basketball team is ranked #1. We're so excited to see what 2012 brings us!

Long time, no Blog

Truly, we have not dropped off the face of the Earth. We've just been a little busy. For everyone who still reads this blog and has been living under a rock... Hayden is going to have a little SISTER! We are so excited about the new addition. Her name is Harper Katherine and she will be arriving, via C-Section on January 17. This pregnancy has just been so different than last time. However, I can't complain too much. After the nausea passed around 14 or 15 weeks, I've been feeling okay. I haven't been able to breathe through my nose. Apparently this is fairly common, but it's annoying. Also annoying, my raging addiction to Afrin. I'm sure an intervention will be scheduled after Harper's arrival.

The fall has been full of football games, the fair, and trips!

At the Baylor/TCU game I got a chance to hang out with my good friends, Baylor Basketball players, Perry Jones III and Quincy Miller. I'm sure they'll remember me when they're huge NBA stars. Oh, and go Bears on the big win over the Horned Frogs. We're pumped that TCU is joining the Big XII and looking forward to a fun rivalry!

The Texas Rangers made another spectacular run to the World Series (my blood pressure still hasn't recovered from Game 6). Clark and I attended Game 5. Hayden and Daddy had a lot of fun discussing baseball during the play offs. Hayden still proclaims that David Murphy is his favorite player...but he also loves to chant, "Nap Oh Lee!"

When we weren't attending games...we were watching games at home, with our sweet friends, Maggie and Hudson!

I also had a chance to take a girls' trip to San Francisco at the end of September. Hayley has relocated to this beautiful city. I had such a blast hanging out with my oldest friends. Lots of laughter and shopping on this trip. Can't wait for our next girls' trip to a city with two names (Santa Fe). And next time, Momma will be able to drink!

Next up? The Texas State Fair. This was only my second time to attend -- Hayden's first. We decided to throw good parenting out the window and allowed Hayden to ride a number of questionable rides...

Motorcycle...only held in by a shady carny rope? Sure!

A car...which looked safer...somewhat.

And a faux Dumbo ride with Daddy. Mommy was excluded from all rides as an expectant mother (oh, dang!).

For Halloween, Hayden chose to be a wolf. We went to Grammy and Pop's to trick or treat...

In full wolf regalia.

Hayden much preferred passing OUT candy. Best part of the night. Hayden standing on the porch yelling, "Hey! We have M&Ms!" Quite the sales pitch.

Next up is Baylor Homecoming, but that will have to wait for another blog post. I promise it won't take 4 months to post the pics!

Big Announcement!

We will soon be a family of 4! We are so excited to be expecting a new baby. Due date is January 24, 2012. I'm 12 weeks pregnant and we heard the heartbeat for the first time today (definitely a wonderful sound)! The first 12 weeks have been full of fatigue and nausea, but I'm beginning to feel a little bit more like myself.

I can't say that Hayden is excited to be a big brother. If you ask him if he wants to be a big brother he will tell you, "No!" I don't think he understands the concept and hopefully he'll warm up to his sibling before he or she arrives!

A Weekend of Firsts

Our weekend started off big with Hayden's first ever movie experience! Hayden, as I've mentioned before, LOVES Cars. So of course we had to go see Cars 2, immediately! I was nervous about how Hayden would handle sitting still during a 90+ minute movie...not to mention wearing the 3D glass (why, why WHY must everything be 3D now? So stupid!).

We chose the Movie Tavern because we figured we could bribe him with food.

This tactic worked for the first 1/2 of the movie. The middle was punctuated with Hayden screaming, "I need to pee pee Mommy!" and "I pooped Mommy!" This required a 20 minute potty break (our first foray into public restrooms...ew ew ew). After this small intermission, Hayden settled down and watched the last bit of the movie with no problem. Needless to say, next time we won't show up early and we will continue to bribe him with popcorn.

Of course, this segues nicely to other first this weekend. Potty training. Yikes. It has been quite the endeavor. Two weeks ago we moved out of diapers into pull-ups. Hayden would pee on the potty if I put him on there, but really wasn't telling us he needed to go on his own. I finally bit the bullet on Sunday, figuring he would never learn in pull ups and put him in underwear. Sunday was the constant up and down of "do you need to potty?" We went to the bathroom no less than 30 times in the first two hours he was awake. We had 2 accidents before lunch...one poop accident and one pee accident. To Hayden's credit, he only peed when he was running to the bathroom and couldn't make it on time. I know all this potty talk is gross, but truly, Hayden going to the bathroom in the potty is probably the crowning achievement of my lifetime. Today at school he wore underwear and only had one (poop) accident. And tonight... (drum roll please)... Hayden pooped in the potty. Honestly, seeing him do that was better than graduating from law school, passing the bar, getting my first job...all rolled into one! It's ridiculous, but I was so proud. Don't worry, I won't post any potty or underwear pictures. I would like for Hayden to speak to me when he's middle school. :)

We're really taking advantage of having Pop living in the metroplex. We can't wait for Grammy to join him as soon as their house sells. This weekend, while Clark was on call, Pop, Auntie Katy and I took Hayden to the Grapevine Mills Mall in the hopes of heading to LeggoLand. Uh, easier said than done. The line was an hour and a half long! So instead, we hit up the Disney store.

Look at this nugget. He looks so pleased with himself. He now sleeps with Lightening McQueen every night.

To end the day we thought the Rain Forest Cafe would be a good idea. I thought Hayden would hate the noise and moving animals, but he ended up enjoying it.

Here's hoping the potty training keeps going well. I'm hoping we'll be in underwear full time in a week or so. That's probably aiming too high, but I'm really hopeful!

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?