Rockin' and Rollin'

We finally caught our little rock-n-roller on camera! Usually when I try to get him on tape rolling across the entire living room it never happens, but the other day when I was at work Matt, aka Daddy, got a great video. No, the little stinker still will not crawl, but he sure is good at getting to where he wants to be via the roll! He rocks quite well also! The funniest thing is how he looks at you when he is rocking back and forth. He makes you think he is going to take off and crawl, but then you see that silly little smile and know he is just teasing you! It's like he's thinking why crawl when I can roll?!? He always starts off in the sitting position playing with all of his toys, but it's not long before he has thrown every single one of them out of his reach and he must take off rolling to capture them all! Here he rolls...

Fun times at Gymboree

Loving Gymboree!

We started a Gymboree Play and Learn class a few weeks ago and we are having so much fun. It is very age appropriate and Hayden is having a great time. It is fun to watch all of the little ones interact. We sing songs(aka baby boogies!), dance, play, do group activities, do learning exercises, socialize with our friends, have bubble time, have parachute time and spend time with Gymbo and Baby Gymbo! The main activities only change every two weeks, but each time we go to class we do something a little different. There are always different group activities, songs, etc. at each class that goes along with the main activity. So far we have had three different main activities, foam central, riding central, and social central. Foam central consisted of all different huge foam pieces that we climbed on, played in and even rode on. Riding central had lots of different types of slides, a horsey, a boat, chariots and many other things for us to ride on. Social central had tire swings, a peek-a-boo box, slides, a rock wall and lots of balls for us to throw. We have enjoyed each and every one of them! Both Hayden and I have met some new friends and we really look forward to going to class two days a week. Matt has been able to come with us a few times and Gigi even got to go with us once, so I have a few pictures and even a video of us playing baby soccer!

Making his way through Foam Central...

Baby Soccer: READY...

Baby Soccer: SET...

Baby Soccer: KICK!

Loving the curved slide!

Playing on the foam with his friend Graham!

Sled ride... so cute!

Climbing foam mountain!

Ride that Horsey!

Bubble time... and yes we pop every single one!!

One of our favorite group activities, the log ride!

Playing Peek-a-Boo with our friend
on the Peek-a-Boo slide!

Saying "Hey" while riding on his chariot!

Get that spider Hayden!

Row, row, row Hayden's boat...

Happy Birthday Sydney!

The Birthday Girl!

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy 5th Birthday to Sydney, Happy Birthday to you!!! Can you believe Sydney is 36 years old today in human years?!? She's older than us! Crazy huh?!? Hopefully I have as much energy as she does when I am 36!! This year has been quite different for Sydney becoming a big sister and all, but she has done great. She is so good with Hayden... even when he "accidentally" pulls her hair out! Hayden really loves helping us throw Sydney her toys during play time. They are great friends. We all love her so much. We celebrated her birthday yesterday and she had a great time. She loved her cake, but loved her presents even more! We sang Happy Birthday for her, watched her open her gifts, and then all celebrated with her by eating desserts!!:) As always, she LOVED opening her presents... it is so much fun to watch! I must admit one of her gifts this year was as much for us as it was for her! We got her a new "house"! It is a crate that also serves as an end table. We have always let her stay in the kitchen when we were at work, running errands, shopping, eating out, etc., but now she has a little "house" of her own. Before we moved to our house she always had a crate to stay in when we were gone, and she seemed to like it much better. I simply could never find one I liked for the house until now. It is so comfy, and not too ugly to look at like some of them, plus it gives us another end table! She seems to really like it, and I am so excited to get the gates out of the kitchen! Although we would have chosen this gift as the favorite, her choice for favorite gift was definitely her bully sticks. They are a type of rawhide that she goes crazy for. We hardly ever get them for her because they are so expensive, but on special occasions they are always waiting for her. Maybe that is why she likes opening the gifts... she knows she'll find them in there! She never really gets that into eating her cake, but she will destroy a bully stick! Here are some pics and even a little slide show from her party!!

The self timer on the camera actually works!

Hayden was having a little more fun than Sydney!

We had to have our picture with the birthday girl!

Happy Birthday Sydney! We love you!

Family Reunion

We all made it!!

This past weekend we had a Waters family reunion in Waycross... yes you read that right, WAYCROSS!! In case you were wondering, that is in south Georgia and it is DEAD. There is absolutely nothing to do, so you better hope if you are invited that way it is for a reunion of some sort. This was for my Mom's side of the family and there were about 60 people there. I somehow failed to get a picture of all 60 of us, but the one above is of the immediate fam. It was pretty cool for all of us to be together. I actually can't even believe all of our immediate family was able to make it to something that didn't revolve around a holiday gathering!! We had a great time getting to talk with everyone... even meeting some people we didn't know we were related to!! Haha! Thank goodness for name tags!!! We had great food, great laughs, took some great pictures, played some poker and even played coke pong(aka beer pong) with a 12 year old! It was quite the weekend!! The reunion was at my Grandaddy's house, and he has TONS of great backdrops for pictures so you know what I did right?!? Took plenty of pictures... enjoy!

A view from the front of the house... yes he named it Camp Lottabull!

Sweating, but smiling:)

Balls...

We took these pictures in a chair that Grandaddy decided to attach a set of balls to. He thinks these kinds of things are SUPER funny. Turns out, everyone else thought it was funny too... everyone had to have their picture taken with the balls. I even made poor little Hayden sit up there!!

Sisters...

The sun was a little too bright...

As you can see, we had a good time taking pictures with the bull!

Learning to drive early!!

Hayden loves his Grandparents!!

and Great Grandparents!!!

This one's for you Mom...jumping out of the bushes was a good idea!!!

Our special friends...

Say cheese...

These aren't exactly poker faces...

Waving to Grandaddy/Pawpaw

Hayden's best playmates!!!

Driving Miss Sydney!!

Lunch time!!!

We even made him ride the flamingo!!!

We still line up shortest to tallest...

Rolling around with Auntie Tiz!

Group shot

Sweet girl

One big happy family!!

9 Months In, 9 Months Out

Happy 9 Months Hayden! Can you believe he has been out of my belly for as long as he was in there?!? It feels like just yesterday I had that big belly carrying him around!

This is what he looked like in my belly...

And this is what he looks like now!!

It is still crazy to me that he actually looks like the sonogram picture... chubby cheeks and all! He is changing everyday and we are having so much fun watching! Right now he is getting in his two top middle teeth. He never had much of a problem when the two bottom middle teeth came in, but these top ones are bothering him a little bit more. We have been giving him Tylenol and/or Motrin and it seems to be helping out! He is also starting to show a little more interest in crawling, but still hasn't taken off... he does do quite well walking when we are "helping" him though! So cute! I think one of my favorite things right now is the fact that he has officially become a side sleeper. It is so cute to go in and check on him and see him all curled up in a little ball sleeping on his side! He doesn't seem to have a preference as to which side it is, but 9 out of 10 times when we go in to check on him he is on one of them! We had his 9 month check up today and everything looked great. As a matter of fact, Dr. Papciak said he was very smart!! He weighed in at 18 pounds 12 and 3/4 ounces and was 27 and 1/4 inches tall! He was a little below the 25% for his weight and in the 50% for his height. As always, here are his new likes and dislikes!

What Hayden likes:
- Giving out high fives - He will give almost anyone a high five and it is so cute! The way he pounds his legs on the ground you would think he would kill your hand when he gave you a high five, but he barely touches you... so sweet!

He was thinking about if he wanted to give me a high five or not!!!

- Brushing his teeth - He opens his mouth as soon as he sees the toothbrush(it is actually a finger brush!). I guess he really likes getting those teeth brushed! I think it really helps with the new teeth he has coming in. I am sure it feels great on his gums. I just hope he always likes to brush his teeth this much... then we won't have to beg him to do it!!!:)
- Arms up - This game is pretty new for us, but he really loves playing it! Everytime I say "Arms up" he throws those arms up as fast as he can! He does it with the biggest smile on his face you have ever seen... he is doing something great you know?!?:)

Arms Up!!

- Movies - The child LOVES his movies. I took a pictures of him watching one of them and you can see just how into it he gets. Almost as much as me watching reality TV!!!

I told you he got into it!!

- Throwing his toys - As you saw from the previous post, he loves throwing his toys. He will even try to throw the ones that are way too big for him to pick up!
- Playing with his feet - He loves to lay on his back and play with his feet. He does this when we are changing him, just playing on the floor and even grabs them while riding in the car! I think this is pretty crazy because I just don't see how he can get those feet up high enough to grab them when his is strapped in his car seat... but don't you worry, he CAN!
- Picking out his book for story time - I just recently started letting him stand up where his books are stored and choose his own book for story time and he thinks it is the greatest thing ever. I seriously think he is thinking about which one he wants because sometimes it takes him much longer than others to pick out his story! It is so cute... I love it!

He can't make up his mind!

- Helping Mommy - No matter what the task, he is right there to "help" me. As long as I give him something equivalent to what I am doing we are happy campers! I am hoping this is something that continues forever... I love a good helper!
- His big boy car seat - We finally transferred him to his big boy car seat and he is really enjoying it. It is still reclined and rear facing, but he has more room and I think he is much more comfortable. I sure hope so anyways because it is HUGE... it takes up so much more space than the carrier! He definitely likes being able to look out the window... he never knew there was stuff out there!!

I'm not sure which one shows that he loves it more!!

- Waving "Hey" and "Bye, bye" - Loves doing this to strangers in the grocery store, but usually will not wave either to someone we know. Silly little boy! The best part is he usually is waving backwards... I guess he likes to see what his hand looks like when he is waving it!!

The Backward Wave...

The Forward Wave...

- Talking - Still my big talker. Not many new words, but saying his normal ones ALL THE TIME!
- The tickle game -He is most ticklish right at his ribs and loves it when we play this game! He will laugh as soon as he seems my tickle fingers coming!
- Spewing his food all over us - He used to spew his food and I don't really think he knew what he was doing, but now he is oh so aware and loves to get us dirty! I always tell him "no, no" when he does it and the other day he let me know he definitely understands. I gave him a bite, he spewed it everywhere, and then he started shaking his head no and saying "no, no"! Smarty pants!!
- Bath time - As always!

Happy boy!

We even have fun after the bath!

- Diaper changing time - I think he thinks this is now a game. Lets see how long Hayden can make it take Momma to change my diaper. He is always trying to roll over during the change and ALWAYS tries to take the diaper off faster than I can get it on! Makes for an interesting diaper change I guess!!
- The playground - We just introduced Hayden to the playground a couple of weeks ago, and it was a big hit! He got to swing, slide and we even climbed a little wall to get to the top of the slide. I am sure this will be something we do more and more of... he loved it!

Playground fun...

What Hayden dislikes:
- Being told "No, no" - Out comes the pout!!! He is fully aware of what this means and really does not like it when he gets told no. He doesn't mind telling you no, but when he is told not to do something it is quite a different story. I have a feeling we might have a bit of a problem when the tantrums set in!!

Here comes the pout...

- Peas - Still doesn't like them... maybe never will?!? I STILL don't like tomatoes!
- Shots - This will probably never get any better... cries as soon as he sees the needle!!
- Long car rides - He really doesn't like being in the car any longer than an hour unless it is during his nap time, and then when he wakes up he wants out immediately!
- Staying up late - A lot like his Momma! He gets extremely fussy and hard to deal with if you keep him up past his bed time(currently 8-8:30). Needless to say, we try to get him to bed around that time... gotta have a happy baby!

What Hayden is not sure about:
- Oatmeal/Rice cereal - He started out liking these, but now he gags every time we give it to him. He acts like it is so bad he is going to throw up!
- Nap time - I think he really, really, really wants to take naps, but if it is not on his terms we run into a bit of a problem. Sometimes he will just lay right down and off he goes, but other times we get quite a hissy fit! He's just not sure if he wants a nap or not!!! The key here is to catch him right when he is ready... if you can accomplish that you've got 2 or 3 hours to get some stuff done!!:)

Of course I have some cute 9 month pictures, but even better than that I made two little slide shows so that you could see just how many different faces Hayden has! I am sure you would never believe just how many pictures you have to take to get that one you actually wanted!!

And my favorites were...

Giving Mommy his biggest smile...

The famous pout!

Cutest Smile!!

I just love it...

If you actually made it to the end of this oh so long post you are probably better than me... it probably would have taken me a few days to get through all of this!! Sorry it was so long, I just had a lot to share! What can I say... we LOVE our little boy!!