Uncle Mark & Aunt Kelsey

We have been so lucky to see so much family lately!  Mark attends Youngstown State University in Ohio and he was on his spring break.  So Kelsey and Mark decided to come visit us for a few days.  They got in late Wednesday night.  Thursday, Paul took them to Marietta Square to show them around and then to Marietta Diner where we each got a huge slice of cake.  We always take visitors here when they come, it is seriously amazing and we look forward to taking people each time :)

Friday we headed to the Georgia Aquarium where we saw all kinds of fish and the Dolphin Show which is always the highlight for Hayden.  I love watching her gasp as the dolphins fly through the water and air.

For lunch we took them to the Vortex which is a famous burger place downtown, but no children are allowed inside, so we got our order to go.  Mark and Kelsey got the Double Coronary Bypass! That night we met up with Kelsey's old softball teammate from Dixie who recently moved to Atlanta with her husband who also played baseball with Paul's brother Kyle (small world). They only live about 20 minutes from us, so we'll have to get to know them! We tried out a new BBQ restaurant called Big Shanty's which was pretty good.  They had all these pig figurines to which Hayden immediately said, "those pigs are dead."  Hayden has been traumatized ever since she went with Paul to a big roast and saw the dead pig.  She had nightmares for months until I heard of an idea to take a spray bottle and "spray away" the bad dreams. So that's what we do every night.  But clearly she still has issues if the piggy figures were "dead."


The next day Anne had an 8 hour layover in Atlanta on her way home from Mississippi, so we picked her up at the airport and went to Turner Field for a tour of the Braves Stadium.

In front of the Braves locker room

After the tour we went out for lunch to 6 Feet Under, a sea food place downtown.  Can you see a theme here...Way too much eating!  We were seriously stuffed the entire weekend.  Our last night together we made yet again more food:  cookies!

Hayden sure loves her Uncle Mark and Aunt Kelsey.  She had so much fun with them and almost refused to say goodbye to them.  She was really sad to see them go.  We're so glad they took their spring break to visit us in Atlanta!

Grandma Anne Visits Georgia

Anne came out the first week of March to help while I had the majority of my daily doctors appointments and work conference.  It was such a relief to know that Hayden was taken care of, and I got to give my dear friends all a break from watching her!  We did a few fun things during the free time we had.  On Monday we drove up to North Georgia to the Cabbage Patch Babyland General Hospital!  This is outside of the hospital as we entered.

Inside they had all kinds of fun things for Hayden to sit on

At the hospital they have several live births that you can attend each day.  We got there just in time to watch mother cabbage deliver a baby girl.  They start off by giving mother cabbage an ultrasound.  Our screen went pink which indicated she was expecting a girl.  Then the Dr instructed us to help mother cabbage breath while he checked to see how far she had dilated.  He then gave her some green medicine that helped the labor along and she was ready to push.  The Dr told us it was lucky the baby was coming head first, otherwise it would have been a "branch" delivery!  It was pretty funny, watching and listening to the lingo the "doctor" used.  Once the baby was born he let the audience name her and then took her back to the nursery to conduct her first exam.  They weighed, measured, checked her breathing, and did an xray of her heart!  He then let each of the children hold her.

Here is Hayden and Grandma Anne in front of mother cabbage after giving birth

Hayden got to wonder through the cabbage patch and decide which baby she wanted to adopt.  She tried out lots of different ones but decided on this one.

We went to a nurse who helped us with the adoption paperwork.  Hayden named her baby Emma Anne Pratt.  Grandma Anne also made sure to get her a high chair, bib, and diaper bag full of all the essentials.  Hayden has played with Emma non stop since adopting her.  She feeds her each morning, changes her diaper, and lately she has even had to start disciplining Emma for hitting and saying bad words.  Sometimes I'll be walking around the house and find Emma in a corner in time-out.

After the Cabbage Patch Hospital we headed to Helen, GA where there is a German Town.  We walked around, had some lunch and treats of course, and headed home.  We met Paul at our new favorite restaurant, Taqueria Tsunami and enjoyed a yummy dinner.  Then Paul and I headed to Home Depot to buy a new stove since ours broke :(

Throughout the week Grandma Anne took Hayden to the park, played dress up, made play dough, went shopping.  They just had a great time together.  It was "Grandma's turn" to help Hayden with anything she needed help with, she didn't want help from me one bit!  Grandma also introduced Hayden to the movie Hocus Pocus.  Hayden is now on a witch kick and loves witch movies.  So Grandma Anne found Hocus Pocus and this is Hayden dressed up as the cute witch Sarah.  How funny is she!

The Saturday before Anne flew to Mississippi we went to Marietta Square to shop and go to the farmer's market.  Anne loves little downtown areas so I hope she had fun!

When Grandma Anne got out of the car, Hayden went nuts and was screaming and yelling for "my Grandma."  She just kept saying that over and over as she cried, "she's my grandma, she's my grandma."  Clearly they had a great time together.  Anne really knows how to play and show love to her grandchildren.  I'm so grateful she sacrificed a whole week of her life to come out and help us!

Valentine's Day

Paul has been on a roll since Christmas.  He is really good at being a thoughtful gift giver.  Valentines was so much for fun with our little Hayden.  All the holidays are. We went out to eat during our YMCA date night earlier in the month (Hayden goes to the Y from 5:30-9:30 for $5 and does all kinds of themed activities) so on Valentine's Paul brought home Five Guys and we exchanged some small gifts.  Paul put together a little jar and spray painted different colors on sticks to indicate different types of dates:  dates you can do at home, cheap dates, more expensive dates, dates that take planning, etc.  Then on each stick he wrote date night ideas.  How cute is he!  He then put together a cute date night bag to take turns filling.  It has been so fun having our monthly YMCA date night, we got lazy doing this after Hayden was born.

Hayden also had a Valentine's Day play group where they exchanged Valentine's Day Cards.  I decided to try something different and made play dough to exchange! (I don't know why but my picture won't rotate!)

Our whole family is obsessed with Reese's Peanut Butter Hearts, so we also celebrated by eating plenty of them!  They are sooooo good!

Big Girl Underwear!

Early in February I registered Hayden for preschool this fall.  Of course, one of the requirements is that she is fully potty trained.  Well I put my deposit in and started to freak out that she would NEVER be ready to potty train and that we would lose our money and she would not get to go to preschool.  All my experienced mother friends told me to wait until she was ready which I definitely agree is important, but then I started to read a potty training book and it said that if you have a stubborn child, this characteristic is not going away and if they are stubborn about potty training, they will never be ready.  So I began to ponder on what I did to help Hayden adjust in the past to things she resisted.  I started with the basics: food!  Hayden was never one of those babies who wanted to eat what I was eating, she was completely content with baby food and in fact ate most of the baby food vegetables until she was almost 2 years old!  To get Hayden to try "real" food, we literally had to force it down her throat.  Paul would pry her mouth open and I would shove it in so she could at least taste it.  It was crazy.

So I decided potty training would be about the same way.  I believe it was February 11th, I forced her into underwear with her kicking and screaming and trying to pull them off.  I held her arms down and let her thrash around for quite awhile as she begged to take them off.  We then began to talk about how the diaper fairy would be coming in a few days to take her diapers to babies who needed them and would leave her money in place.  She was devastated and begged for "my diapers."  She told me how diapers make her so happy over and over again.  It was sad.  But that day she had one accident and then didn't have an accident for about 4 straight days!  Overall she had about 4-5 accidents since February, so she did awesome.  I really wasn't thinking clearly when I began the whole process.  I had an appointment every day that week, so she potty trained while at several different houses and stores.  She didn't even get that time at home to figure it out!  The diaper fairy brought her money and she picked out a toy at the store.  She likes to tell everyone about the diaper fairy, so needless to say I have gotten some weird looks from people.  

I just can't believe how stubborn my little Hayden can be.  I feel like I am really going to have to push her to do the things I know she can do.  Clearly, she was ready to potty train with such few accidents.  Boy she is sure teaching me a lot :)  

Hayden and Dad the first day she potty trained.  Dad was so proud!

Hayden showing her Grandmas her big girl underwear on Facetime, she was so excited to show everyone!

I'm so excited for her to be able to go to preschool this fall.  She always says, "I go potty all by myself, so I go to preschool!"  She is beyond excited to start school.  She'll go 3 days a week from 9-1.  What will I do with all this time?