Thanksgiving and Hayden's Hair

This Thanksgiving was to be our very first (and last) in our own home.  Paul and I had planned the whole meal out: what we were having, what dishes or pans we would bake them in, where we would buy them, even how much they would cost.  i talked to my mom, Paul's mom, and Paul's grandma to ask them how they cooked their turkeys.  Seriously, we were ready.  Paul even got a turkey from his work for a Thanksgiving present!  It was on.  We were excited to try this meal on our own for the first time. 


Then Grandma Sutton called.  Ha ha, I love this woman for her generous nature--she's always giving and trying to take care of you.  Grandma knows what's best!  Ha ha.  So 3 days before Thanksgiving, we were invited to Thanksgiving at Grandma's house.  Paul and I set our plans aside and decided to go to grandma's.  I was assigned the rolls, green bean casserole, pumpkin pie, and vegetable tray.  (don't worry, they were awesome.  I made butt roles and they were SOOOO good.)


When I got to grandma's, I expected to see a turkey, some mashed potatoes and gravy, and some sweet potatoes.  Oh my goodness, there was sooo much more!  This woman likes to cook!  In addition to the aforementioned, there was a ham, jello salad (grandma is famous for it), stuffing, apple pie, lemon pie (all of which were made with homemade crusts), and I'm sure I'm forgetting something.


ANYWAYS...my reason for writing about this was to explain why we finally got to cooking our turkey last night.  Did I mention that?  Yeah, yesterday we decided to cook it.  For one, we went to grandma's for dinner, and two, the turkey took FOREVER to defrost.  I put it in the fridge the sunday before Thanksgiving and by Thursday morning, I could tell it was still frozen.  Awesome.  Ha ha.  

These pictures were taken the first time we took the turkey out .  Yeah, it wasn' done.  You can still see the pinkness under the skin.  You can also see the thyme that we stuffed under the skin.  SOOOO yummy.

So we cooked it.  We melted butter and put it and some thyme between the skin and the breast.  I poured chicken broth over it and layered numerous pats of butter on the turkey.  I put the turkey in and after 3.5 hours took it out.  I cut it open and, although the skin was gorgeous, the bird was STILL not done!  (My advice...don't pay to much attention to the time when you cook a turkey.  Just watch the little turkey timer in it's breast).  The bird went back in, and, after another 1.5 hours, were took it out.  Paul was sure it was dry as bone.  I was soooo sad.  We cut into it though and it was amazing---it was so juicy and tender!  The thyme and chicken broth had given it an amazing flavor.  SUCCESS.


Ok.  The turkey.  There you go.


On to Hayden's hair.  I have trimmed on Hayden's hair since he was born; it has never scared me.  When I noticed that it was really starting to get long, I kept trimming the sides, but I was a little nervous to give him the big chop!  Two nights ago I decided that it was finally time.  I hope with everything that it wouldn't turn out horribly unblended, but it's not like I have been trained to cut hair!  I sat Hayden on my lap and gave him something to play with as I cut almost an inch off of his head.  

Sorry the lighting is kind of bad...I took the picture this morning while it was still dark.  There's no  substitute for good natural light!

Oh my goodness I was so nervous.  But then I realized I was done....and it looked AWESOME.  yessssss.   The sides are short and it tapers up to a longer top.  His hair is even blended so that you can't see any cut marks (for the most part.  I mean...he's only 9 months and didn't exactly hold still).  Somehow with my trusty scissors, however I pulled it off.  Now he looks like such a big boy!

da-da

 Tommy:  You can't just go in and out; you've gotta 
finnesse'em a little bit.


Richard: Hey, by finesse, do you mean sputtering out 
sentence fragments and lighting things on fire?

Tommy Boy--

I don't know why that particular quote came to me as I sat down to write this little update on Hayden. I guess it's the whole "sputtering out sentence fragments" that reminded me of where Hayden is in the developmental world. Lately, Hayden has been trying really hard 

to communicate with us. Instead of his normal screeching, Hayden has been making the funniest consonant sounds!

It all started on November 5th--Paul's 25th birthday. We were sitting on the couch and I 

was probably on my lap top. I could tell that Hayden was making noises but I wasn't really 

paying attention. Paul turned to me and said, Did you hear that?!? Hayden's saying 

something! I started paying attention and realized that Hayden was making his first 

consonant noises! Besides being adorable, the sounds mean that Hayden is starting to understand tone and the emotional word around him.

ANYWAYS, the first sound he made was kind of a do do do do intermixed with giggles. Ha ha--whenever he's proud of something, he'll just giggle at himself! After a while, Hayden's do do do's turned into da da da's. I caught some of his da da's on film, so enjoy :) (turn 

your speakers up...he's kind of quiet (it's at about 32 seconds in).

New Foods and Stats.

DISCLAIMER:  So I realize this post will be a little boring---one of those that probably only grandparents will read.  Sorry!  

Hayden has been trying all sorts of new foods lately.  He eats squash, peas, yams, and pears.  We added two new foods the other day.  When we were in Colorado, we went out to eat lunch and Hayden was eyeing my salad big time.  I let him try avocado off of my pate and it was a huge success!  Then he tried tomato and it was the same thing---he LOVED it.  When we got home, I went and bought some avocados for Hayden to eat.  Paul fed some to him yesterday.

Yup.  An adorable boy feeding his adorable son.  OH!  I also have a video.  Just in case the picture wasn't enough, ha ha.  

And now for Hayden's stats.  We went to the doctor yesterday for Hayden's nine month checkup.  I expected that he would be getting shots (since I don't think he got any last check up).  I gave him tylenol and hoped for the best.  Then the nurse said since Hayden was all caught up on his shots, he didn't need any unless I wanted to request a flu shot.  I opted out of it and Hayden was shot free this appointment!  The doctor did mention that Hayden's gums were swollen....grrreaaaaat.....a teether.  It certainly explains his moods lately:  whining, new growling screams, reluctancy to go to bed.....yeah.  I guess at nine months it's about time he gets a tooth.


Anyway, I was shocked to see Hayden's stats!  Here they are:

• Weight:  18lb 15oz 23%ile (just shy of 19 pounds!  At his 6 month appointment, he was in the 39%ile which is what he was at when he was born.)
• Height:   28.5in 60%ile (He only grew 1/2 an inch since he was 6 months!)
• Head :  17.3in  13%ile (When he was born, he was in the 19%ile.  Yikes.)  
• BMI:  16.3 (At 6 months he was at 15.1 and when he was born, he was at 11.8...just to give you a frame of reference.)

So my little 9month old is...growing...kind of.  The doctor said he wasn't worried about Hayden's growth (especially with a SUPER skinny father....).  Yeah, now you know why I've been feeding him avocados--they are rich in healthy fat.  Hopefully it helps little Hayden gain weight in places other than just his cheeks!  

A Very Harry Potter Halloween!

Halloween marks the 1st anniversary of Paul and I owning our own home!  I now love this time of year.  I loe decorating, getting bags of candy ready for tricker treaters (last year we only had 4 and this year we have yet to have any ....and it's 9:40pm....), and watching HARRY POTTER!  I think this will be our new tradition.  We are calling it A Very Harry Potter Halloween.  Ok....so I made that up and Paul laughed at me.  A Harry Potter Marathon is perfect for Halloween though.  And even though we're only on the first movie and Paul has to go to bed by 10:30, we're having fun.  


Anywhoooooo...


Hayden has had a hard day today.  Poor fellah.  He wouldn't take a nap---he just screamed.  Very out of character for my little man.  I'm guessing he's teething and possibly has an ear infection.  We go to the doctor tomorrow for his NINE MONTH check up, so I'll have the doctor check everything out.  Because Hayden's been in a bad mood (and because all of our neighbors disappeared at about 6PM), we did not get to take him Trick or Treating tonight.  It just wouldn't have been fun for us or him.  I did, however, take a few pictures of him today.  

I was at the table doing some Halloween crafting and Hayden was crawling around on the floor.  All of a sudden I couldn't hear him anymore.  I looked all around the house for him and FINALLY found him...right under the table!  He had some how crawled under and inside of a chair and was chewing on a cord.  Of course.  

Under the table with his cord.

Yeah, it was fun trying to figure out how to get him out from under the chair.  He was so proud of himself though!

Did you catch what he's holding in his hand....?

My little duckie!  This was Maleeya's costume from last year.  It's a size NEWBORN.  And it fits.  

Look at his cute little duck bum!  It has a little tail!  So cute.

Fun with Grandma Kirby!  She got to hold Hayden for quite a while---even when he wasn't feeling good because his gums were bugging him.  She helped me calm him (the trick is a cocktail of baby Orajel, Tylenol, and something cold to chew on.  Does wonders.).  

Paul carvin' his pumpkin.

LOOK!  I actually got him to smile :)

I was really concentrating on drawing my design on my pumpkin here....yeah....

This isn't the greatest picture because we took it at night, but  my pumpkin is devouring a man's leg!  There is even fake blood all over the leg if you squint.

Paul's pumpkin was a WIFI signal.  HA HA....crack up.

I had to take a picture of my "Halloween Wall" of which I am immensely proud, ha ha.  All I can say is I want to thank all the little people at Cricut...they made this wall possible :)

Crawling, Cords, and Colorado

Yesterday, Mandy asked me if Hayden had started crawling yet.  He's been army crawling for a while now, but didn't really get up on his hands and knees.  I realized that I had never blogged this momentous occasion (or even posted it to facebook).  Soooooo...I found some pictures on my camera (big surprise...) from September showing Hayden beginning to crawl.

Gaining some courage to get up on all fours.

Hayden's muscles were really getting strong.  When He did this, I knew he was ready for crawling.  

He looked back at me as if to say Ummmmm...I'm not too sure about this mom.  Are you sure I'm old enough to do this?

Annnnnd here's the little drooler crawling.  He looks proud!

Ok, so once Hayden learned to crawl, he started pulling himself up on objects.  When he got to the 2nd shelf on our bookcase, he started giggling!  I looked over to see this:

Hayden looks like such a big boy, doesn't he?!?  He was just so proud.   

Ok, next topic.  Hayden now LOVES cords.  Electrical cords, rope, window blind cords.....loves them.  The cords on our windows are extremely long and need to be cut, but Hayden had never paid attention to them before.  That day, he wouldn't leave them alone!

I caught him in the act. 

Moving on.....we spent the past few days in Colorado with our friends Jake, Rachel, and little Mary Beckstead.  Other than the horribly nauseating and painful migraine that I got, we had a great time.  I got to see Paul's old house in Parker (where Hayden is named after), visit Jake's parent's house, do some AMAZING shopping, and of course experience the pie at Village Inn.  (I recommend the cheesecake).  Anyways, I brought my camera with me but ended up not taking any pictures until the very last day we were with Jake and Rachel, so here are the few that I actually took.  

Obviously I need to make Hayden socialize with other babies more often.  Just being near Mary, he started crying.  If Mary made any sort of noise, Hayden cried.  Ridiculous! 

Still crying.

Hayden finally started to calm down once Mary decided to leave.

Here's a closeup of Miss Mary.  

Aaaaaaand a closeup of Mr. Hayden.  Ha ha...I think he was trying to eat my camera.

Mary took off.  She's a pretty good crawler and even pulls herself up on furniture.   Smart girl!

I LOVE his big eyes and button nose!

Hayden and Mary started to interact.  It was ok until Mary touched my knee and Hayden, again, lost it.  

Chocolate Malt Milkshakes

Alright y'all....I have NO idea what "malt" is, but I LOVE it!  Last night for dessert night, we made homemade chocolate malt milkshakes.  They were so easy and so yummy.  Serious.  Four ingredients make up this dessert.  The only thing that Paul will ever get at Dairy Queen is their chocolate malt, and I swear this recipe tasted just like it!  Here's how we made them:

Classic Chocolate Malt Milkshakes  

• 3/4 Cup Milk (The thicker, the better.  We used skim and they still turned out great.)
• 2 Cups Ice cream (We used vanilla, but you can get creative here and use whatever you have.)
• 1/4 Cup Chocolate syrup (We used Hershey's.  Add more or less depending on how you like it.  You could also try caramel or strawberry syrups for different varieties.)
• 3 TBL Malted Milk Powder (You can find this in any grocery store.  Usually it's in the aisle where you would find powdered milk and hot chocolate.  We like it quite malty, so we used 6 TBL of Malt.)

Ok, I didn't take this picture.  I didn't take any pictures last night so this is just a Google image...BUT you get the idea.

Pour everything into a blender and blend.  This recipe is quite versatile, so you can make it how you like it.  That's it!

Old Pictures I forgot to Post....

So, every once in a while I forget to put my memory stick in my camera.  I take pictures and they get saved onto my camera's internal memory.  I didn't know how to transfer pictures from my camera's memory....so the pictures just stayed where they were.  Ha ha....I'm so embarrassed to admit this.  ANYWAYS....Paul showed me how to transfer things so that I am now camera literate.  Here are the pictures that never made it to the blog:

So for our first Christmas, we didn't get a tree until like....THE DAY before  Christmas.  Until we got it, I put our presents under our lamp.  It was kind of sad looking, but it honestly looked better than our actual tree!  That thing was so scrawny and ugly!  It actually fell over from the weight of the 5 ornaments we put on it.  So sad.  Ha ha, I can just see us telling our kids someday about our first Christmas.  I'm sure they'll make fun of us!

Hayden was probably (judging from his lack of hair and HUGE smile)  about 3 months old.  HOW CUTE IS HIS SMILE?!? ha ha ha.  Now Hayden has a ton of hair, but back then it was very sparse.  He kept the hair he was born with until he was about 5 months.  Now he has a TON of hair that needs to be cut.  

I love that you can see Hayden's foot through his sleep gown.  He loved stretching it out as much as he could.  I like to think that's exactly what he was doing when I was pregnant with him.

More toes.

He also used to clasp his hands together like he was praying and then just start chewing on them.  Ha ha...I don't know why....

Doesn't this look like Paul?!?

He's so peaceful when he sleeps.  I love that he was sleeping with his hands behind his head.  Also, he's  wrapped up in my old baby blanket.  I used to love that thing.  I can vividly remember sleeping with it during naps when I was 5 in my old nursery, and I always had it with me when I got sick.  For some reason it made me feel better.

Look at his little tie onezie!  Ha ha, I made those for him to wear to church with cute khakies.  I'm not much of a baby suit fan.

This is what happens when you forget that you put potatoes in your bottom cupboard that you NEVER open.  You get tentacles.

Hayden and his friend Cambria.  We went to Paul's summer work party at Melaleuca Fields and watched a baseball game.  It was fun!  Mostly, it was fun because I got to "people watch" all of the crazy people that Paul works with...and their crazy girlfriends!  And of course we got to hang with Heber, Angela, and their hilarious kids.  Ha ha ha, it was a good night.  

I tried to get they to kiss or hug or something.  Hayden barely acknowledged Cambria's existence.  I guess he doesn't  like girls, yet!

This picture was from just a few days ago.  We were trying to get Hayden to sit up.  He sat up for a second and then folded in half like a taco!  I think his head was a little too heavy to hold up.

See?  Taco.