Hayden is...

17 Months!
And Mia is late, I know, I know but things were very hectic with Halloween. But better late than never.

Hayden at 17 months more of a pleasure than I could have ever imagined. He definitely is independent, funny, he loves "telling jokes", starting up games with me, and he loves me! One of my favorite things about him being older is he shows me affection: he asks for kisses and hugs; put his arms around my neck; rub my cheek; he even will put his head against mine!



Milestones


Growth
Hayden has grown so much! He is 26lbs and 34 inches. He wears a size 18-24 months in clothing. Hayden's weight and height puts him just above 75% in weight and height for his age, but the charts for his weight for his height he is only 5 %

Gross Motor Skills
Hayden has good balance and is quite the quick and nimble fellow. Oh, boy, does this kid like to climb! He loves to find new and unexplored things to climb upon. His climbing abilities then allow him to climb in and out of my car and his high chair.

Fine Motor Skills
In the fine motor skill department, Hayden has done leaps and bounds. He can scribble instead of eating the crayons, eat well with a fork and spoon, and he knows how to use his thumb for certain things,such as turning on the vacuum and flipping the latch on the hubby's toolbox.
Something also new, Hayden seems to be a south paw. He throws, plays, eats, and scribbles with his left hand. I am kind of glad because I have heard lefties are smart, but kind of worried too as it's a right handed world.

Social and Language
Toddlers of 1yr aren't supposed to "play" with other children, they simply don't know how. Yup, When I read that that surprised me. Instead toddlers do something that is called "parallel play," which is playing along side another toddler or child. Of course, as with all things Hayden, Hayden wasn't told this tidbit of information as a tot because he LOVES playing with my best friend's daughter, Autumn. He knows her house, recognizes her name, and instantly becomes energetic and excited to see her. She is definitely his best friend.
Hayden has been on a roll with "words" he enjoys copying whatever is said, but he has been absorbing words like a mile a minute. My husband was in the bathroom about to put on his socks when my toddler strolls in and says "toes" plain as day, pointing to them. I was shocked: I never taught him what toes were nor had I said it recently. I last remember telling him toes about 1 month ago when he became obsessed with this Fisher Price learning Puppy that sang "head, shoulders, knees and toes."
Lately I have been lagging in teaching him to sign and he knows the sign for "baby." But overall has been sucking up words when I teach him the sign for it like "eat" he can say now because I tried teaching him the sign for it.

Here's a list of Hayden's fabulous Vocab

Eat
Tree
shoes
puppy
socks
Hi
toes
Kitty
feet
I
please
Mama
thanks
Dada
stop it
wow
no
whoa
this
what
that
it
me

And those are just the one's I can think of, he says a few more. Also, what I think is pretty nifty is he can say phases and string a few words together like "Oh my gosh" "I see Puppy" or "kitty" (the other day it was "I see tree, whoa! I see tree, oh my gosh!") "What's that" or "What's this"
Hayden can understand what is being said and follow directions (and can even put on an evil smirk and defy directions). If showed to do something he'll not only do it but remember it and do it again and again, if not save it for later and do it. This extends to things he knows he isn't supposed to touch, he will wait until I'm gone and do it.
As you can see, Hayden is growing up and up and up! (Sometimes I wish I could freeze time.) Everyday I look at him and he is doing something that makes me think "Wow, are you really my son?" and I have say I had him and remember every bit of it. And I have to shake my head because wow do I love him so much!
I can't believe that in two weeks he'll be a 1 yr and a half! Where, oh, where has my time gone?

Happpy, Happy Halloween

This Halloween I had so many plans for and was very excited about! I knew that Hayden would be more involved and have a little bit of fun, even though he had no idea what was going on (He didn't even know what candy was when it was offered to him). With Halloween slowly becoming the pass, I can say this has been the best Halloween of my life.

We started out the day by going to visit my husband's parents for a late lunch, following a failed attempt at baking - I didn't have all the ingredients and didn't feel like tackling the Holiday crowds in the store.




Before we ate he decided to play everyone a little bit of music



"I need some help here"



Before he decided to play a duet with his cousin



Following a messy spagetti lunch, we changed our little guy into his costume...



He's a little Motocross racer, of course!!



And the cutest one ever!











He even got onto Grandpa's real bike! Whoa, baby!



Then we went "trunk-a-treating" going from trunk to trunk at a local church getting candy, which was very fun but all Hayden wanted to do was dance...



And he was zonked out before we even hit the freeway home



And with two bowls filled with candy...







And a smile like these...



I think that Hayden feels like he had very good time too



Happy Halloween to everyone!!!

Good News...Bad News

So you guys want the good news or the bad news?

Okay, let's start out with the good stuff - who wants to be greeted first thing with bad news?

My order of Flip Cloth diapers will be arriving today, I am excited as in the following weeks, Hayden will be slowly be a full time cloth diapered baby! I love him with the fluff on his butt, he looks awesome! Yep, even though some HATED the Flip, I quickly fell in love. At first I was going to only do pockets when my sister was like why when I like the flip and I don't have to change the entire diaper all the time. I was like good thinking and I have decided to build a stash of Fuzzibunz (going to order a 6pk soon), BumGenius (On its way!), and Flip diapers. I am also going to try out the Softbums OMNI, it seems really cool and you can check out it's review at and Nicki's Best Bottom Diapers, which I have only been able to find at it's website .


Now the bad news: I can't take any pictures of my little man sporting these super cute diapers because I can't seem to remember what I did with my camera. I know, sad day in the Boyles household, I love taking pictures of Hayden. I have looked everywhere for that thing, even accused Hayden of hiding it, but still it has not been found nor seen since Monday. Our family trip to the pumpkin patch was postponed until today to find it and to no avail, no camera! ARRRH!!! I am pissed, I had pictures of Hayden at the Children's Museum of the Sierra on there that I really wanted to share with everyone. But I will keep looking. I will leave you guys with one picture though of Hayden at the pumpkin patch today, taken by the photographer there.




I know...cute, huh? (Sigh...) I am totally in love.

Play Dough

Earlier this week I finally got around to making homemade play dough. I took the recipe from Morgan @ Our Little Birds . At first I wasn't so sure about having Hayden "help" then I just thought who cares if he get messy I can clean him up and at the worst he would get my kitchen dirty.
This was our first real project together and he did surprisingly good.




He helped me pour all the ingredients in...



Without wasting too much of it...




He even helped stir



He actually did most of the stirring...



But when it was done, I realized that I did not know what to do with play dough



OOPS :;



So we invited over my sister to help



She got down to it with making some weird things geared for Halloween.



But Hayden, I think, liked the process of making it more than playing with it



Oh, well, more crafts for later. But this little project made me realize that I have a crafty little fellow growing and that it would be cool to let him join in on somethings. Which made me double back to The Peanut Blog to a large structure called The Learning Tower. I first see this thing there and thought wow that is cool and left it at that. But this week it popped up again on the same blog and I started looking at where I could get one. But The Learning Tower packs a hefty price selling at 200 dollars. I am debating big at whether or not to throw down the big ones for this. I mean, I definitely see the possibilities of this tower and it is set to last for a very long time. So my question to everyone who has one or who has had one, do you think the Learning Tower is worth it?

Oct. 15th

Today is Pregnancy and Infant loss awareness day and I can't help but think back to my best friend's first pregnancy that ended in a miscarriage, it was the first time I had been smacked with the fact that pregnancy is such a fragile thing. Then on the hills on my bf losing her pregnancy, my sister became pregnant and she too lost her child. I am not the mother of those babies, but I know I think of them all the time, I remember them as if they were here, so I can only imagine what the parents must feel.
But it also makes me realize how blessed I am to have a little guy to wake up to, to kiss, snuggle and hug. Even when he is being a brat, he just smiles his little smile - "The David smirk" - and I am all jelly.
I know I spoil Hayden and that I can be a major pushover - And I get major flack for it too - but I am all too well aware that Hayden will most likely be my only child. At 23 I already have fibroid, which is why it took FOREVER to conceive Hayden, so the idea of my fertility being off at such a young age the idea that I will even have any fertility later is small. Everyday I see him growing and growing doing something new or something different, it's becoming so rapid I just want to pause time, find a way to take it all in and still enjoy this part and that part.
Even so, I see my blessing. Today I will light a candle for all of those who have loved and loss, today is your day.

Wow...Just wow

After finally settling into a wonderful sleep routine with my lovely little boy, I decided it was time for Hayden not only to sleep in his own bed, but in his own bed all by himself not next to ours. And fall asleep in it... I know he is really big now and I should done that a LONG time ago, but I enjoyed co-sleeping. Well, until he got bigger and started taking over my bed. Anywho, I also didn't do it because I know how stubborn Hayden is and how he would take it. Today was my first time trying this, I knew he would protest, I knew he would not like it, I knew he'd get over it and fall asleep. But what I didn't know was that if he was going to not have his way, he would drag me down (or try) kicking and screaming.
Hayden screamed - Not cried, not whined - But full blown, my mommy is murdering me, screamed; he kicked; he thrashed; he slapped me in the face I don't know how many times; KICKED me full force in the nose; and God only remembers what for an hour before I relented to change his diaper. As soon I let him up, he was my sweet little boy again. I was so shocked at the change in him until he started whining again because of course HE WAS SLEEP DEPRIVED! So I told myself to gussy up and put him down, I'm the parent he is the child, and I needed to show him with patient and persistence how to fall asleep in his own bed. As soon as his head hit his pillow he started howling again. I was tired of hearing him scream and also wondering if HE would go to sleep, still I went on. An hour later, his eyes suddenly dipped closed -I mean abruptly, one second he was screaming, then he was falling asleep - and opened slightly and finally he was out.
He fell asleep, he is napping as I write this I'm just not sure I can do this for however long it takes for him to get used to this and/or however long it takes him to self sooth himself back to sleep in the night.

NOT so Wordless Wednesday

I am a avid reader. It is one of my biggest passions and even in pregnancy I wanted reading to be a big part of Hayden's life too. I read to him starting in December of 2008 while I was pregnant, the first story I ever read my unborn baby was local library copy of "The Grinch that stole Christmas." Laughing out loud, I seriously enjoyed that book and read it to him over and over. This too was his first book I read to him after he was born. I remember snuggling into my room with Hayden, reading to him softly when the nurse came in, shocked and overjoyed that I was starting to read to him so early.
This continued throughout infancy, coupled with lots of soft music and lullabies. Hayden will give me books he was read to him or go get a book off his new "HIS BOOKS ONLY" shelf, sitting to "read." Hayden is an energetic, smiley fireball, so the sight of him sitting to read to himself just takes me so another realm. Reading, playing with his toy cars, and a few other toys are the only thing he will do that for.
It is so overpowering when I think of how natural his love for reading is. I chalk it down as another thing he got from me, along with my curiosity and thirst for knowledge.













He is growing up so fast! *Sigh*