Pumpkins

 Thursday night we decided to carve our pumpkin from the pumpkin patch.  You will notice that Hayden will not look at the camera in any of these pictures because she is too interested in the goo. 

 Hayden (still staring at the goo) and Dad

 Hayden and I now going for the insides of the pumpkin.  She really did not know what to think of it all.

Hayden enjoyed playing with the stringy stuff

 And even tried to eat a pumpkin seed, but did not enjoy it like she thought we would!

Paul always wanted to do the spider stencil but never did as a child so we took on the challenge and I think it turned out great!

Getting in the Halloween Spirit

One of Hayden's favorite activities is story time at the library, so I thought we would start off the Halloween festivities with the Halloween program at the library.  They asked that the kids come in their costumes.  It's so hard to get pictures of Hayden these days, she never sits still.  This is her going after the camera in her kitty-cat costume.

Hayden and I at the program.  She was studying everything very carefully! We had to take her hood off because the room was very warm and her head was dripping with sweat.

Some of the librarians putting on the program.  We had a fun time and Paul got to see why Hayden loves going to story time.

Car washes and Tornadoes

I thought I was leaving behind the glorious world of tornadoes in Cheyenne, but apparently they happen out here in Indiana too!  This morning the sky was completely black and the clouds were doing all kinds of crazy things.  I got that eerie feeling that I had seen skies like this before.  So I turned on the news only to find we were under a tornado warning.  The weather man said to expect 40 mph wind and rain in 30 seconds and 30 seconds later it sounded like our apartment was being shot by automatic machine guns!!!  I think watching the news just made me more worried. In Cheyenne I was usually at work during the warnings so we would go down to the basement and chat during the storm.  But this time I had to listen to the weather man tell us over and over again to get to a basement, how refreshing to know that I was on the 3rd floor of our apartment building and the only place I had to go to was the tub!

The rain hitting the windows and the sound of the howling wind kind of freaked Hayden out but I think only because yesterday I decided she would enjoy going through the automatic car wash.  She recently started enjoying the vacuum cleaner again, so I thought she would love the car wash.  Needless to say she was terrified of the car wash and the tornado weather definitely mirrored the car wash experience for poor Hayden.  She cried out during her afternoon nap today a couple of times so I'm sure she was having nightmares!!!  We are safe and sound, but it was a crazy morning.

Hayden's new skill

This is one of the birthday gifts we got Hayden thinking she would not really get into it for awhile, but ever since she opened it she has been working away and has gotten really good. She does seem to favor her left hand so maybe my mom will get a lefty for a grandchild since none of her children are!

Giggly Girl

Most mornings I try to workout in the morning before Hayden wakes up.  Usually I can hear her giggling but I can never tell if she is awake or asleep.  Well this morning I decided to go in and investigate and this is what I found!  She giggles in her sleep and even funnier, she sleeps with her "security blanket" over her head!  You will notice that her little fingers are clutched around the tassles like always.  She seems to be getting more attached to it sadly.  Now in the morning she wants to take it out of the crib with her.  Oh well, it makes her happy! 

Pumpkin Patch

Neither Paul or I had ever picked pumpkins from a real pumpkin patch, so we decided it would be a fun outing to take Hayden on.  We started at the transportation museum and took a train to the pumpkin patch.  Here is what our train looked like:

We sat on the train for a long time before it actually took off because one of the engines died.  Eventually they had something pushing us so we could get to the pumpkin patch.  

 Hayden started to get a little antsy just sitting there so we kept her entertained with our train tickets envelope!

Hayden looked out the window for part of the train ride, but seemed much more interested on what was going on inside the train.  I love this picture of her looking out the window.

 The pumpkin patch was grown by the FFA of Indianapolis and they had a bunch of other things set up for kids to do.  The first matter of business was getting Hayden a balloon because it was clear that she would not look at anything else until she had a balloon in her hand.  This is a picture of Hayden walking through a hay maze.

 Playing in the sand

 One of the highlights for Hayden was the little petting zoo.  Hayden has been really into farm animals lately so she was pretty excited to see them in real life.  This poor cow was so shy and really did not want anything to do with the kids. 

 Hayden was most excited about this big pig.  I had to keep grabbing her hands because she was not afraid to stick them right in by the pigs mouth! On the flip side, she was terrified of a little white bunny (but to her credit it had really red eyes).

Hayden's first pumpkin! 

 The whole family on our hay ride

 Hayden and dad on a tractor

 I added this picture to show Hayden's favorite way to stand.  She loves spreading out her legs and leaning back on anyone she is near, too funny.  She really knows how to relax!

The train arrived a little late to pick us up and then we were back at the transportation museum.  It was a fun outing and a tradition I'd like to keep up.  So much more fun to pick a pumpkin this way rather than at a grocery store!

Where is your nose?

Hayden is 13 months old today!  She is walking all over now and hardly ever crawls and can now stand up without pulling herself up on an object. She is also starting to discover her body parts and when you ask her where her nose is she points to it!  She loves reading books so much and when I decide to read to her, I better be ready to read for about 15-20 minutes because she wants to read every book we own!  She will go to the books, pick one out and bring it to me to read.  Then when she is done she sets it aside and picks out another one.  It's crazy to think that she has favorite books.  We go to story time at the library ever week and she has grown quite attached to the librarian.  Last week she walked up to her and lifted her arms up to be picked up.  She rested her head on the librarians chest and gave her the best hug.  Hayden is definitely her favorite little student. She says, "bless you" when I sneeze, and "ah oh" every time she drops something.  She definitely knows I'm "ma, ma" and dad is "da da" now which is also fun.  I still nurse her twice a day and she drinks milk from a sippy cup for lunch and dinner.  I do not know how much longer I will keep it up, but for now I am enjoying just nursing in the morning and at night.  It's insane how fast she is becoming her own little person.

p.s. Sunday October 17th both of Hayden's eye teeth came in (totaling 8 now) and her runny nose stopped so hopefully we get a break for awhile!

Louisville Kentucky

Last Friday we drove 2 hours to Louisville Kentucky to visit one of my college friends Muncie McNamara and his wife Audrey Haydon.  They live right in the city so it was fun to see the city and catch up since it had been 6 years since we have seen each other!  We got in late Friday night and just stayed until Saturday night.  Hayden is not the best sleeper when we are in new places.  I wish I knew how to change this.  I thought of some things I am going to try next time.  But lets just say Friday night was awful!  To her credit she got all congested again!  I don't know if it's a repeat cold or teething or what, but we have had enough. I should also mention that while I packed our camera, I forgot to take it with us the morning we went out.  So here are pictures from Paul's phone again...

Saturday morning they took us to Lynn's Paradise Cafe and I have to say it was amazing!  Bobby Flay did a "Throw Down" so I think that is enough said!  This was another family friendly restaurant, it was super loud, toys on the table for kids to play with and crazy things all over the walls to look at.

Hayden, Paul and I saying hello.

After brunch they took us the the Louisville Slugger Museum and it was a lot different that I expected.  They take you on a tour of how bats are actually made, hand out your own little bat, and then you tour the museum.  This is Paul with Mickey Mantle's bat, Paul thought that this was pretty neat. He even had to wear special gloves before touching the bat.

Hayden again enjoyed walking around looking at all that the museum had to offer.

 Me in front of the uniforms when women played professional baseball, who doesn't love A League of Their Own????

 In front of the museum.  We were told that they did not build this huge bat in pieces so getting it into place was quite the ordeal and cost them thousands of dollars and several shut down streets. 

After the museum we headed towards their downtown area and walked to the river front.  The downtown was really neat to see, they have kept all the original outer structures so it gives the whole city a nice "old" feel.  

At this point it was about 3pm and Hayden had only slept about 4 hours the night before so she was one tired girl!  She only took about a 2 hour nap and then we ordered some of  Muncie and Audrey's favorite pizza in the city and ate at their house since Hayden was not feeling too well.  

We had a great time visiting with Muncie and Audrey and seeing Louisville for the first time.  Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of us all together.  Maybe next time! 

Bubs

Paul and I went out to Bubs Burgers in Carmel last week with a friend I went to Occidental College with, Liz.  We tried to go two other times on the weekend and it was always a 2 hour wait.  So we finally went on a Thursday night and only had a wait about 15 minutes, although it was still packed. I guess "Man vs. Food" did an episode at Bubs so it has become quite popular. 

 Paul decided he wanted to take the "Big Ugly Burger" Challenge and eat this! I believe it was 22 oz.

 He also had to eat everything else that was on the plate in order to get his picture taken to go on the wall.

As you can see Paul finished his whole plate quite easily and was very proud of himself!  I didn't have our camera with us so these pictures are just from Paul's phone.  Bubs was definitely a kid friendly restaurant which was extremely nice.

Stuckey Farm

I am so happy to be blogging again!  Unfortunately our monitor died over a week ago.  I took it to a repair shop, but it would cost more to fix than it was worth.  It's been an expensive month: new computer monitor, new car seat, reordered my allergy serum ($250), and $500 registration fee for our car (thanks a lot Wyoming!!!)

Enough of my complaining, we have done some fun things the past few weeks.  On October 6th, Rachel (woman from church who brought me pie after we first moved in) invited Hayden and I to go with her to Stuckey Farms to pick apples and look at pumpkins. We took a tractor ride to the pumpkin patch.  Here is Rachel with her pumpkin. 

Hayden loved the tractor and on the way back I let her out of the bjorn to hold on by herself.  I know you can barely see her face in this picture, but I love it because I can hear the funny sound she is making with her lips.  

All Hayden wants to do when we go places is show off her walking.  It's okay at a place like this, but Target it has become quite a problem!  She was pretty curious about all the pumpkins out on display.

This is the best picture I could get of Hayden eating her apple.  She was moving all around and would not look at me.  

Hayden decided she wanted to drive the tractor for awhile.  

I brought home Fuji apples to eat and McIntosh to bake!  This is a Bavarian Apple Torte and it was delicious.  It made our house smell absolutely wonderful.  

It was a fun morning despite Hayden's constant protests to get down and walk.  The farm is only about 15 minutes from our house so I'm sure we'll go back with Paul in the near future.  I also bought some delicious jam and apple cider from their little store.  Great little place!

Children's Museum

I had planned on taking Hayden to get her vaccinations today.  But after driving 20 miles to get there and filling out the paperwork, I was informed that they would call me to come back another day when they had entered her information in the system.  So since we were already out I decided to go to the Children's Museum.  We bought a membership so now I can go whenever we want and I don't feel like we have to stay there for hours to get our moneys worth.

I took her on her birthday about 2 1/2 weeks ago and it is crazy to see how much more she could do now that she is walking! It is crazy how quickly children learn and develop.  She just seemed like a completely different little girl there today.  She loved the water like last time and splashed her arms so hard that she had water all over her face.  All the other kids were trying to move away from her so as not to get wet! 

We also rode the carousel since members can go for free!

I am so glad we can go through the winter and have fun, just the two of us. 

12 Month Check-Up

We are a little late getting Hayden's 12 month check-up because I had to wait to get our insurance cards and then once I got some recommendations on pediatricians out here they all had long waits!  But I am happy with the office we have chosen.  Also we don't have to pay co-pays for prevention appointments so that is nice.  Still getting used to "normal" insurance.  They have walk-in hours on Saturday and Sunday if Hayden gets sick and it was a nice environment.  The only annoying part is that with our insurance I have to go to a separate place to get her immunizations.  So mumps and polio will have to wait for a few more days!

The doctor said Hayden is meeting all developmental milestones and that we have nothing to be worried about at this point.  That is always nice to hear.  She reassured my worries about her accepting new foods only to reject them later and temper tantrums, all normal apparently. They also tested her blood for lead exposure and anemia and both came out fine. 

Here are her stats for October 4, 2010:

Weight: 21.5 lbs   54%
Length:  30 inches 71%
Head:    47 cm       91%

Anyone who knows Paul knows how concerned he is about his daughters inheriting his large head.  He was pretty distraught about this percentile.  The doctor wasn't worried and my mom informed me that my siblings and I were high on the charts as well due to our head shape.  My mom loves all of her children's head shapes and Hayden got it as well.  I never thought much more about it until the doctor today said what a great head shape she had for a baby and talked about the different types and why hers is a good one.  Too funny.  I had to include that because I knew my mom would love to hear that!  I don't know how much you can really read into the percentiles but the doctor said, "it looks like she'll be tall" so Paul was happy about that at least!

Mini-me????

At least that's what a woman said to Hayden and I today.  She said, "oh look, she is your little mini-me, you must get that all the time."  It took me a couple of seconds to register what she was saying.  She thinks Hayden looks just like me?  When I finally figured out what she was saying I told her that most people think she looks just like her daddy.  She was shocked and had a couple other ladies confirm what she believed.  Hayden definitely still looks a lot like Paul most of the time, but maybe she is starting to look like me :)  It made me happy to hear the woman say that today.

Hayden and I went to the "Whale of a Sale."  It's a consignment sale that they do at a church twice yearly.  There was some pretty neat stuff there, I definitely had to contain myself since I just used some gymbucks yesterday. We made it out of there with a pair of Robeez and cute long sleeve shirt.  They also had a lot of booths set up with new items. They have the cutest little knitted beanies for winter, but didn't have the color I wanted for her size.  Anyway, it was a fun outing this morning.  Hayden wanted to play with all the toys and show everyone how she can walk and was not happy when we left. I took her to the park after to reward her for being a trooper and shopping all morning!