Changes

I've just signed into to this blog for the first time since October. It's amazing how 8 months can go by in the blink of an eye. I often hear people tell me that as I get older the years will go by faster. I can say hands down now, they do. I found this fact staring me point blank in the face when I signed in and realized I've titled this blog the Adventures of Haybaby. BABY?? Really?? The true reality is, Hayden is no longer my little baby. Granted he will *always* be my baby, but he's definitely not little anymore and would most certainly object to me telling him that he is. After all, my little BIG guy just completed a whole year of "school", is wearing big boy underwear 90% of the day, talks non stop, runs faster than I can, and is really finding out who he as a little person. (Ok, so I can't quit using the word little...I'll work on it) It's so wonderfully amazing to watch and so terribly heartbreaking at the same time. Those baby years went by so fast, but watching him become a little man is an incredible thing to witness as a parent. I'm so glad this little one is mine. (Little, little, schmittle, rittle, bittle...I lied. I won't work on it.)

I guess I can begin to let go of his baby stages though as we prepare for the arrival of Hayden's little brother Parker. As a family we are so excited to extend our love.... frightened as well, but mainly overwhelmed with excitement. I have no idea how to share the pieces of my heart that I have devoted to Hayden, but I've heard it comes naturally. Watching him grow has been such a joy, I can only imagine how it will be watching two of them. Just a few more weeks....

In the mean time, I will be enjoying every moment with my little guy as we wrap up our time as a family of 3. Since we have reached the summer and Hayden's Tuesday/Thursday school program is not in session, we decided to expose him to his first round of sports to keep little hands and feet moving and growing. We signed him up for a program called Tots Sports, which will involve 6 weeks of soccer, basketball, and baseball.  Today was our second week of soccer and pint sized Beckham owned the whole hour. Of course though, this is mini Adam, so we are not too surprised.

We started with stretching...

Then kicking goals....

Controlling the ball

Jumping...

And running the obstacle course! Hayden's favorite part!

All with a grand finale of a parachute ride!!!!

My favorite moment? When he waved and yelled "HI MOM" from the parachute. Glad he still needs his mommy praises, even if he's growing up.....

Way too fast.....

Hayden, I love you kid. Can't wait to watch you and your little brother this next year. Don't forget to keep the kisses and hugs coming. I love those the best and am so glad you give them so freely. Little secret from me to you? I'm going to continue to need them even when you don't want to give them anymore. We'll address this when you are a pre-teen....

Love, 

The woman who never thought she'd be a soccer mom

Apple Juice

We've had a bit of an explosion at the Davenport house. While that can mean so many things with a 2 year old (many of them horrifying...) it currently means something a little bit fun, a little bit amazing, and a whole lot of awesome.

We've had a word explosion. Like full on, non stop, trying everything he can, word explosion.

Don't get me wrong. He's been saying individual words for a while. But this new found freedom to try every word and connect them together to express himself is brand spanking new. I am completely amazed at how one day someone turned on the faucet and he decided today was the day. Today, he was going to talk. And never shut up again.

A little over a week ago about mid day, I stood in the kitchen mindlessly glancing over lunch time options when I felt a pint sized presence at my feet. One tug of the pant leg, I glanced down at his fuzzy red hair to hear a soft voice. "Momma. Mow appa ju peeeeas."

I blinked.

"Mooooooow ju."

I paused again.

"Momma?"

I squatted down to pint sized level and asked him if he wanted apple juice. A very proud and accomplish toothy grin followed. "Yesh Momma. Mow appa ju."

"Please?"

"Peeeeas!"

Needless to say, the kid got about 2 more sippy cups of apple juice, a few dozen kisses, and well...a cookie. And Mom has had her whole world flipped upside down.

Keep in mind, there is definitely a learning curve to 2 year old talk. We've had our fair share of miscommunications that have lead to full on melt down, high pitched screaming repetition of the word, and finally tears. However, we also have a very wonderful mommy baby bond that has allowed me to figure out jumbled sentences. Some of my top favorites include:

Candy Corn "Candee Cuuuurn"

Pumpkin Patch "Punkin Patccchhh"

Orange juice "Oranchchch ju" (note the various ch's added to the end)

Hayden's house "Hay-hen Haaaaaus"

Aggie (No mispronunciation here! Proud of him!)

And my current favorite word, enchilada.

"En-chiashlawawdas-da"

Look at my kid. He's bilingual.

All this is to say, we've been busy being 2 and learning. I get to share my everyday life adventures with the coolest little explorer. Beat that, reality television. Nothing is more real than this.

Happy Fall Y'all. And Gig'em.

Why hello there. It's been a while.

Before I go on with apologies about my lack of attention to my writing as I feel compelled to do, I have to admit my blogging drought was needed. Spring was a hard season. For those of you who do not know, in May I lost my Dad. Illness took him rather quickly and unexpectedly and I am still dealing with those emotions. They are real and present in my thoughts every single day. I sat down to write on several occasions over the past few months about my joy of parenting, but words were silent and thoughts were dry. While parenting is what has fueled me during this time of grief, it has also been harder to express knowing one of my parents is missing from that equation. I truly miss my Dad. But as a dear friend of mine says, this is a season in my life. A period of adjustment. After all, seasons change. Ebb and flow, peak and trough. Summer is all about getting back the joys that have been missing since April. And while I will deal with this loss for days, months, and years to come, warm July has been more promising than I could have imagined.

I consider myself to be a fall person. I love cold grey days, hot coffee in warm mugs, foods with cinnamon and sugar, and autumn colors. But this year, Summer is healing. I am loving the glow of it's presence. Warm sun on my shoulder, golden glow of tan lines, running outside with a sweaty squealing toddler, cool ice cream treats on a park bench, sticky post treat pudgy hands, bubbles sticking to the sidewalk, cool sprinklers spraying hot skin, and tiny outfit coordinating flip flops are where my joy is. I am finding happiness that was missing through the month of April, May and June. Summertime with a toddler is magical.

And while this first post back post blogging drought isn't long, I can share with you those joys that are helping put that sun back in my life in pint size form.

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Things like ice cream treats from the frozen yogurt machine after mexican food for lunch with good friends.

And evenings at the park feeding "quack quacks"

And pool side dates with the coolest "Little People Marina" that is sadly no longer made. I guess the 80s toys are now vintage. How sad. Thanks Linda, for letting us play

Discovering the ice cream truck...

See it pulling away in the back corner of the pictures? He tried to run after it. One ice cream treat wasn't enough

Enough said...

And finding fun new places to run around, complete with magical colored horses and fountains. I think we landed on the yellow brick road on this adventure... We love Vintage Park.

And just plain ole being outdoors.

For the record, this was an unfortunate park "time out" for throwing rocks on the slide, hearing Mom say NO, then throwing about four more handfuls.

Hello terrible twos...

And while we have a lot more to share while I find my footing back in my writing, I currently have a blue eyed red headed baby prancing at my feet, pulling my shorts, begging for another outdoor adventure. I simply can't resist. More to come as we find those joys and enjoy the season of Summer.

Late last night, Adam and I were standing in the kitchen. Our long and full day of meal preps, park play, baby passing, and general "to-dos" had come to an end. I shuffled forks and knives into the dish washer while my mind was darting down a list of night time chores. On that list was scrubbing the dark streaks of orange and blue crayola marker off the window sill in the kitchen. I never got around to it but that's not the point. Luckily, we had already bathed and soothed our energizer bunny to bed so the window had at least a 10 hour reprieve. It was quiet in the house except for the low humming of the TV and the buzzing of the washing machine.

Peace....and quiet....

Adam walked over to the baby monitor and clicked on the screen. Silence echoed back at him.

"I just want to go wake him up."

My eye widened and panic struck across my face as I gave him a look of "Why on earth?!?". Scenes of Lego destruction and flying building blocks began to race through my mind. While I knew he wouldn't actually go wake Hayzilla, I continued to give him a look of udder confusion.

He didn't even skip a beat as he continued to gaze at the screen.

"I just want to play with him. He's so much fun."

You know that feeling when you get warm fuzzies in your stomach and your heart suddenly turns into heaping pile of goop? Yea, I had that. I just stood there speechless.

.....I really love that man. Hayden is one lucky kid. His dad has so much heart it hurts. And he loves that kid. Like really loves that kid. I'm so glad he's Hayden's daddy and I'm so glad he's mine.

And I'm so glad he's home.

A quick little update about our Friday. Because let's face it. Momma is tired.

Hayden and I had a play date today at the Children's Museum with several mommies from my Mom group. The Museum has an indoor area with a hospital, grocery store, train station, the worlds largest Lite Brite (remember those??), and of course a dinosaur exhibit. There is also an outdoor area that has a small water park with sinks to splash in and steer small plastic boats through. Oh and let's not forget the dinosaur dig pit. A small child's delight.

Two hours commenced of children running around in a play room of exploration and discovery while chatty moms talked through their week, only briefly pausing to prevent a little from injury or entertain a voice of demand. (Mommy, watch this!!) Being that it was a beautiful day, the babies eventually gravitated to the outdoors and we spent the last half hour soaking up sun while little ones soaked themselves in water. My sun kissed winter shoulders are feeling happy. Let me say, there's something wonderful about spending time with your good mommy friends. I am thankful for them everyday. We are accountable to each other and each others children without over stepping parenting boundaries. We are all Moms and we understand that at the end of the day, our children are little and we are responsible for their well being and safety. However, we also understand that we are equally responsible for their emotional self and esteem, which at this age is a matter of paramount importance. Yin and Yang my friends. Balance. What a joy to have other women I can entrust that to with Hayden. It's been a huge blessing in my life to have found these women. I am so thankful for them. Spending the day with them just reminds me of how important it is to have other Moms around me.

But the Museum eventually closed and that sent us all on our way looking for dinner. This is where a previous conversation about breakfast foods had us thinking of waffles. And where else does one get waffles but at the Waffle House? So off we ventured, loosing a few along the way to napping children and one family to Chipotle. But I can't blame them. Who wouldn't stop for a burrito when it temps you? That left us with 2. But there is power in 2. So off we went.

Quick Question. What is it about babies in little paper hats at run of the mill restaurants that make the whole experience suddenly seem magical? Waffle House had never seemed grand before. Don't get me wrong. I love a waffle. But combine three small kiddos, two mommies, a few waffles, chocolate milk, laughing babies, and some paper waffle house hats and you get something that's worth the memories...

My friend and I left there agreeing on the fact that things like this should be done more often. Because your babies are only small for a short amount of time and squeezing all the precious moments out of them are worth the impromptu waffle house dinner. We polished off our waffles, posed for a few paper hat pictures and departed to get our little ones home.

One thing is for certain, after being out of the house all day it's always nice to return home. Book reading, snuggling, and bath time bubbles before wasting away to dreamland can cap off any day of the week so beautifully. So we did just that. We are missing Adam as always. It's hard not to miss the amount of love he brings into our home every night. But days like today help in the passing of time between rotations.

We loved our Friday. Hope you loved yours.

I need to start this entry off with a little letter to my blog. Excuse us while we have a candid moment:

Dear Little Blog, I have a confession. I've been a bad blogger. I've neglected you for oh say.... 37 days, 8 hours, and 42 minutes. But who is counting...However, I do I love you little blog and I'm sorry. Life gets busy, but that's no excuse. I must make time in my life for the blogs that I love. I will no longer let "busy", "tired" and "hyperactive hysterical baby" get in the way of our relationship. I promise. Love always, Me.

Ok, that apology out of the way, let's move on. We have a baby here to talk about.

And oh boy has Hayden been up to quite a bit.

Quite a bit #1: Expanding his vocabulary

Hayden is at an age where he learns a new word every week. This weeks word: Truck. Now, being a Texan and a girl who drives a truck, I happen to like this word. The only problem with my son is that now everything that has wheels and moves is indeed, a truck. Even that in itself really isn't too much of a problem considering if you ask him to find a bike, he can point it out. Still, he will call it a "truck". The issue with his new found vocabulary came one day last week when we went to the park. Hayden became mesmerized by a shiny fire red sport car parked on the side of the playground, away from the mommy mini vans and fuel efficient compact cars. It wasn't enough that I was already nervous that he was "hovering" in the general area of the car, they built the park awfully close to the parking lot. We had two hissy fits and a distraction sippy cup to lure him back to the swings. It was then that my child of budding eloquent speech decides to bust out with his fancy new word yelling "TRUCK! TRUCK!!", all the while his arm was straight out repeatedly pointing at the car. The owner of said shiny fire red sports car looked at me horrified. His eyes read, "Lady, your child did not just call my $60,000 luxury sports car a truck..."

But oh, he just did.

I cracked a joke about being from the country and when the man didn't flinch, I scooped up my child and shuffled off to prevent further humiliation.

Maybe next weeks word will be "Get-over-yourself". Hey, a girl can dream....

Quite a bit #2: Learning to use a spoon

Hayden is also learning to use his mealtime utensils, which is a process that includes a cute little spoon shaped like broccoli and a fork shaped like a carrot.

Why Hello, Broccoli. And Good Day to you, Carrot.

It also is a process that requires a lot of patience. I spend over an hour cooking a meal that takes all of twenty seconds to end up being used as shampoo rather than consumed as dinner. It gets messy fast. I have however learned that tomato sauce can make ones hair very shiny and tomato-y smooth. Seriously, quit buying your expensive hair products. Tomato sauce is so 2011….

But we cheer when food gets on the fork and pull out the confetti when it actually makes the commute to his mouth. Occasionally Hayden swells up in pride and claps for himself, big toothy grin and all. I really am proud of him.

Quite a bit #3: Identifying objects

We are having so much fun with picture books right now. He can identify about 75% of the pictures in each of his books when he is asked to find them. He can even tell you on select words what the picture is. Let me tell you, it's amazing. I am floating on a cloud of mommy pride. He can recognize all sorts of foods, animals, and automobiles. If we are outside and a plane passes by, he stops in his tracks to find it in the sky, stretched out on tippy toes, pointing as high as his little baby legs will propel him. Go Go Haybaby legs. I've even caught him "flying" his Fisher Price airplane around the living room making plane noises. He also makes several animal noises. His current favorite is a cow, which he has appropriately added a B sound on the front of.

Bbbmmmoooo. Bbbmmoooo.

So, we took a trip to the zoo and one to Cabellas to see all of God's animal creations, both alive and well....taxidermied. He spent the whole time at both locations pointing out animals and making the corresponding animal noise. I could take him to the zoo everyday and never get tired of it. Ever.

Oh yes, that's a monkey butt....

Dad teaching Hayden about the Cabella's animals.

I love this stage in his development. He is soaking up life like a sponge and painting every inch of his life canvas with the most vibrant of colors. Simply put, he is a piece of art to treasure. It is a pleasure as a parent to watch.

So needless to say through all this, my little boy is being...well, a little boy. He's your regular dirt collecting, rock digging, park playing, free spirited little 18 month old. He reminds me every single day to take a step back from my frustrations and just be. At the end of the day if there's a stain on my shirt and a crooked pony tail hair-do, it's a "badge of achievement" rather than a something to stress over.

I love love love this kid. And I love being his mommy. Happy Monday. Bbbmmooo.