10 Months

Goodness. Has it really been 10 months? What happened to the month of November? The end of the year always seems to be on fast-forward. And in my first full month as a stay-at-home-mom, rather than being bored or stir crazy, I've been wondering how I ever had time for a job!

So, off the top of my head, here are a few of Hayden's latest tricks at 10 months old:

-He's getting very mobile, inching all around the room and getting to where he wants to go. He loves standing up and is close to being able to pull himself up all by himself.

-He's been putting his pointer fingers to good use, pointing to objects in books and turning the pages rather adeptly. Pat the Bunny is a favorite and he knows just what to do on each page, whether it's patting the bunny, playing peek-a-boo with Paul, smelling the flowers, or feeling daddy's scratchy face. It's so fun to watch him interact with the book and (seeming to, at least) understand what you mean when you talk to him.

-He gleefully grabs fistfuls of pet fur as Mommy or Daddy says "gentle, now, be gentle" grinning and giggling the whole while.

Love you, little man!

A New Favorite Food

Self-feeding is slowly gaining popularity at mealtime. Oh, he's still more than happy to have you shovel some mushy mixture in his mouth, but he's realizing that some of the stuff he can use his fingers for isn't all that bad (as long as it's dry and crispy). Puffs, rice cakes, wheat toast, and graham crackers are acceptable. Beans (both green and pinto), peas, banana chunks, grated apple and pear are not.

Okay, to say that graham crackers are simply "acceptable" isn't quite the whole truth. As soon as he sees me pull the box out of the pantry he starts grunting, banging his tray, and kicking his feet like a zoo animal at feeding time. He'll take a piece in each hand then go straight for his mouth. He'll eat an entire sheet of them as an appetizer! Then he'll devour about 1/4 cup of mashed fruit and 1 full cup of yogurt, but that's a different story.

I bring you messy, glorious, grahams:

Notice the untouched peas. . . I do keep trying!

Playtime

Toys are everywhere! Hayden loved having his grandparents around last week. He's seen both sets quite a bit in the last 6 weeks and with Christmas and his birthday shortly after, I think he's in danger of being spoiled by them all! He's very fond of anyone with bottomless enthusiasm for stacking towers of cups and blocks that he can promptly knock down!

He's not crawling in the conventional sense (that is, with both knees and arms) but he does get around. His technique is somewhat like the mountain climber, with legs dangling over the cliff, clawing for dear life with his arms. He grabs a handful of carpet or blanket or whatever is on the floor and pulls himself forward, belly on the ground and legs dragging behind. Not super efficient or quick, but that's not all bad from my standpoint! Like a moth to the flame, though, everytime he's in the room playing he takes a timeout from the toys to wiggle over to the drawers on the coffee table. Shiny silver knobs are just too much to resist!

Uh oh! You caught me!

I love watching him have such a great time and I'm starting to not be so bothered with the mess of toys everywhere. So far, he's only at the "take things out" phase. With some gentle coaching from Mom, I'm hoping he'll find the clean-up game fun soon!

We were truly thankful

The feast was prepared. . .

The wine was uncorked. . .

we gave thanks. . .

and ate our fill. . .

. . . unbuttoning waistbands by the end of the meal!

Hope you had a wonderful day filled with good food, people you love, and a few special blessings!

Yummy Leftover Recipe

I am so impressed with my husband! He loves green chile stew and thought that our leftover turkey would be well suited for it. So, he searched the internet, found a few recipes, then developed his very own version! Not only did he come up with this whole idea himself, he cooked it himself, and we just enjoyed it for dinner. And to top it all off, he made it in the crockpot! I'm all for a great crockpot recipe, especially when you use one of these little gems making clean-up a breeze! So, if you still have a pile of turkey to use up, give this a try:

Rich's Green Chile Stew

1 T oil
1 large onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 lb cooked, cubed turkey (or chicken)
1/2 cup flour
2 cups baking potatoes, cubed
3 cups chicken broth or water
2 (15 oz) cans diced tomatoes, undrained
2 (4 oz) cans diced green chiles
1 (15 oz) can white beans (like Great Northern or Pinto)
1 T cilantro, chopped
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp oregano
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper

Heat oil in a skillet and sauted onion and garlic until translucent (~5 min). Add onions, garlic, turkey, flour, potatoes, broth/water, tomatoes, green chiles, beans, cilatro, cumin, oregano, salt, and pepper to slow cooker. Cook on LOW for 4-6 hours.

If you want to thicken the stew, about 30 minutes before you plan to eat, dissolve 2 Tbsp Corn Starch into 2 Tbsp water. Stir into the stew and continue to cook on LOW for 20-30 min.

Serve with sour cream and tortillas. Enjoy!

The Wave

Hayden has perfected his wave, just in time for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade! His grandpa coaxed it out of him at dinner the other night and now he proceeds to demonstrate his hand waving proficiency at every meal. We think he'd be perfect on one of those parade floats.

As we give thanks today for all the blessings in our life, the newest of which is this precious babe, we wish happiness and love to you all!

(Early) Birthday Present

My wish came true! Last weekend, I got a birthday present. . . it's just a few weeks early. The birthday fairy rang my doorbell bearing a wonderful present: a gently used Canon Rebel EOS XTi! Okay, it wasn't exactly the birthday fairy, but my friend Shelley. She decided to upgrade to a much fancier, pricier camera (can we say the Canon 5D) and thought I might be interested in buying her XTi for a great price. It made Rich's birthday shopping easy! And made me a very happy pre-birthday girl!

It came just in time for a Thanksgiving visit from Hayden's grandparents. So, this is the result of my very first photo shoot and my very first foray into Manual mode with this fine piece of photographic equipment! I have so much to learn, but love it already!

I must say, I'm keeping the point and shoot handy for a little while longer while I get through the initial growing pains of the XTi. Hopefully it won't be too long before some great photos start popping up here!

Upgrades

Hayden's gotten a few upgrades in the last week. First upgrade on the list was the carseat. This was the day we came home from the hospital:

And this was last Thursday:

He's still under the 20 lb. weight limit for the infant carseat, but he'd reached Mommy's capacity for carrying him around in that thing. I'm all for sneaking a little exercise into the day but I was starting to think I'd look like Arnold if we kept it up any longer. So, he's now riding in big guy style!

We also thought it was a good time to upgrade his other ride, the Chariot. Since he was one month old, we had the "infant sling" hooked up. It's kind of like a hammock. . . here he is at 5 weeks old:

Now, he's sitting in the actual seat of the rig, just like a big kid!

Our final upgrade of the week was the bathtub. Dad's been giving him his bath in the little infant tub--in the kitchen sink--since he was a few weeks old.

Since he was making quite a mess of the kitchen, joyously splashing water on just about everything within a 5 foot radius, we decided it was finally time for the big tub. He's enjoyed his other upgrades this week, but not the tub. The poor kid cried the entire bath.

Things are looking up a bit, though. We're now on night 5 of the "big tub" and he doesn't cry the entire time. Hopefully once he realizes that a bigger tub means room for more toys it will become one of his favorite activities again!

Two pair

Not so good for a poker hand, but this is how Hayden played last week courtesy of a new pair of shoes (compliments of Grandma--thank you!) and a pair of pearly whites adorning his adorable grin.

The new shoes went like this:

oh, take a look at these beauties.

if I work my fancy foot magic, I'm sure I can pop these right off (despite the velcro that Mom thought might deter me. . .)

that was too easy.

Even though he can practically slide them right off (when he's so inclined), they're just too cute not to wear! Guess I'll just have to do periodic foot checks when we're out and about to make sure we don't lose one (or both).

As for the teeth, I know I mentioned them already, but I haven't been able to get a picture until just this past week. It was 4 weeks ago that the first tooth finally broke the skin and exactly 1 week later its neighbor popped through. I'm still not used to seeing him with teeth. . . I had grown fond of the gummy look! For now, the count remains at two, but with his crabby outbursts and pools of drool of late I'm expecting a few more to emerge any day now.

So, what's in your hand? I bet it won't beat this pair! :-)

Extended Family Portrait

A few weeks ago my friend, Shelley, did a photo shoot of us for our Christmas cards. I don't want to spoil the surprise for those of you on our mailing list (and those of you reading this that aren't on our mailing list, well, stay tuned. . . you'll get a sneak peek here a little closer to the holidays!), but she did a great job!

Grandma and Grandpa were here for a visit, so we took the opportunity to get some nice pictures of all of us. I won't make you wait to see those! Without further ado. . .

And a final shot, minus the middle generation.

You can check out Little Bean Photography to see some of Shelley's other photo shoots and check your mailboxes in about a month for more of us!

Beep! Beep!

Watch out, Hayden's on wheels! Grandpa got him this little car when he was born. For the last 9 months, it has sat in front of our fireplace serving more as decoration than toy. Last week, I realized that he was probably big enough for it and would have fun rolling around the living room, so we took it for a spin. I can't believe how big he looks sitting on it!

After zipping around the house, the best part is playing with the colorful surprise inside! I suspect this multi-tasking cruiser will be topping the list of favorite toys for the next several months. Thanks, Grandpa!

Get Out the Vote!

The Halloween Costume Contest was tie, so Traci is holding a tie-breaker vote between Hayden and the other top vote getter.

Tie-breaker voting ends SUNDAY at 5:00 pm MST, so click here to log your vote for this little pumpkin!

Butternut

This is probably one of those posts that Hayden will be totally embarrassed about when he gets older, so I'll just apologize to him right now! It's just too darn funny and adorable not to share, though. . .

He's weighing in at just over 16 lbs, which is around the negative 5th percentile. It's not a lack of mass in his trunk, though, he's just got skinny arms and legs (taking after his father). And let me tell you, this boy can eat. I pureed some of the Chicken Barley Stew we had for dinner last week and Hayden ate an entire bowl. . . probably 8-10 ounces of soup. Then he had half a cup of yogurt with some pureed fruit. And he eats this much just about every night. Breakfast and lunch aren't much different. His portion sizes are almost as big as mine!

After his feasts we decided he looks like a butternut squash with the bulbous belly and skinny limbs. Some nights Rich even unbuttons Hayden's pants, kind of like you'd expect your crazy uncle to at Thanksgiving. I'll let you decide for yourselves. . . this was after his bath the other night (which is right after he eats dinner):

Thanks for all the votes for Hayden in the Halloween costume contest! As of now, he's in second place, but closing in on the leader. Voting ends Friday night at midnight. . . we'll keep you posted on the results!