The Rite of Passage

Tis the Season, friends. The Season of love and the Season of giving. It's a season of warmth when it's cold and cinnamon spices tickling your nose and tongue. It's the sights of ever greens laced with candlelight while the angels sing in the distance. It's a reminder of hope and compassion that fills the heart with joy. It's also a season of completely horrifying your child with a large bearded man wearing deep red crushed velvet.

Hayden was a little..."unsure" this year. We took him to Bass Pro shops Santa's Wonderland, the same place he saw Santa last year. It wasn't the breakdown-scream-crying-fit I hoped for (please don't think I'm a bad mom...it's a rite of passage!!!) but I saw the face of concern slowly emerge as we approached Santa. The one that says, "Hey, Mom. Put me in that man's lap and I will scream. You will regret this." Only moments before he had been distracted by the toy train circling in and out of the miniature sized mountain hauling it's load of winter logs and coal to little plastic cabins. That sight was all good and dandy because Hayden loves the outdoors and things that move. He's such a boy. It was quite a visual playground. I'm pretty sure Hayden wanted to be the conductor. But after the family in front of us had their turn with Santa, we began to move away from the train and towards to "Big Man". Hayden's eyes instantly widened. The grip he had on my shirt was one I had never felt before. Of course, as we approached Santa, Adam and I instantly bust into voices that were 3 octaves higher than our normal range. If we had a recording I can't imagine how annoying we must have sounded.

"Look Hayden!!! It's SAN-TAAA!!!"

"Hayden, are you EXCITED???"

"HI SANTA!! YAY!!"

Nothing from this kid. Just a look of terror. I wasn't sure how I was going to declaw him from my shirt. So we walked up and chit chatted with Santa for a bit. Santa did his Ho Ho Ho and Hayden looked at me like "Really Mom, you're crazy." But, in Hayden fashion, he eventually caved. From the side of Santa's chair, the "Big Man" reached in and pulled out of his over sized stocking something crinkly. Oh Candy Cane. Sweet sweet Candy Cane. Not even my kid can resist you. Hayden slowly reached for the peace treaty from Santa and that's when the swift exchange from Mommy to Santa occurred.

After this was a blurry 10 seconds in which an elf jingled sleigh bells, Mom and Dad jumped up and down saying "Over here Hayden!!", and the flash of a bulb went off blinding all of us instantly. Luckily, the results weren't half bad other than the look of concern on Hayden's face. But, we have a Santa picture.

Why do we submit our children to this? I don't know, but I'lll continue to do it EVERY year.

After all, tis the Season.

A Filler Post

I would like to consider this a filler post. What's a filler post you ask? It's the yummy goodness that sits in between substance. Because while I normally like to write about what is the core of my experience of mommyhood and soak up every morsel of the goodness that binds it all together, every once in a while I need a filler. Life gets busy. Everything is piled. The laundry. The dishes. The paper work. The Thank you cards. And poor little bloggy poo gets overlooked. So a filler post in needed while the rest of life keeps moving.

But let me assure you, this small child continues to entertain me. Everyday. So I'll continue to overlook the piles of other stuff for now. And don't worry, the substance is coming soon...But for now I'll leave you with the filling because it's oh so sweet.

Behold, baby Chewbaca.

Haircut!

Oh boy. We did it. The mullet baby is no more.

. We braved the "what if he looks like a rat??" fears to get this little rockstar a haircut. After all, it's a rite of passage. We braced ourselves for the elephant tears of a one year old about to lose his baby hairs. We charged camera batteries to the "fancy camera" like the embarrassing parents we are becoming only to discover upon arrival that we forgot the memory card. Thank you bottomless purse for randomly possessing a snap shot camera. We survived our 20 minute wait for a chair and only had one mouse bottle casualty. Thankfully the shampoo products were several shelves higher. But you see that little bottle on the bottom right of the shelf? It's missing it's spray nozzle. Opps.

But never fear, we got a chair and the hair products were reprieved from Hayzilla. Of coure, not two seconds after we sat down, Hayden decided in one year old fashion that it was time to be on the move again. Luckly, our wide eyed panicked stylists busts out with "Can he have a sucker?". I think I accidentally yelled at her when the word "YES!!" left my lips.

So, Hayden enjoyed a sucker.

And the sheers didn't even matter. There was an occasional glance to see what the buzzing sensation was around his neck, but never a tear. After all, there was sugar coated pink yummy deliciousness in the hands of mommy. I am the keeper of the lollipops.

Yes mom, more please.

And the whole experience came complete with a freshly trimmed little man wearing a tiny sports clip cape. No one rocks a tiny cape quiet like this little rocker. No one.

Here's looking at you stud. You owned the haircut and mommy and daddy are so proud.

So the only way to end a rockstar haircut experience is with a fo-hawk because let's face it...Rockstars love fo-hawks.

So, rock on little baby. After all, you rock our whole world.

These boots are made for walking...

Hayden and I went shoe shopping last night. He is trying to walk now, so by all accounts, the kid needs shoes.

It is, however, a much different experience than the shoe shopping of my former life. Before, I would sit and browse the shoes thinking of each one. I could envision which outfit I would wear it with and whether I could wear it with more than one. Even if I couldn't find a corresponding outfit, it still didn't matter. If the shoe is great, buy it. Guess that explains why I have 4 pairs of unworn shoes in my closet. I will find an outfit for them someday...

But this shoe shopping extravaganza was a bit different. This time, I had the kamikaze toddler trying to leap out of the shopping cart. As I perused the shoes for the "perfect" pair with one hand, I also had the one handed seat belt attempts going on with the other. Because let me tell you, the child safety belts in carts only do so much. I knew deep in my heart that if he fell out of the cart, Babies R Us might very well frown upon on me in the form of CPS. But in the middle of my train of thought regarding "Oh-theres-size-4" and "For-the-love-little-guy-puh-lease-SIT-DOWN", I saw the hand dodge out of the cart. It took with it 6 pairs of socks off the rack. One came straight out of the plastic packaging. Great, guess now we are going home with little girls ruffle socks. And he will wear them....

So we grabbed 4 pairs of shoes and took off the the toy aisle. It was only there, after a brightly colored rattle was being investigated and squawked over, that we tried on our shoes. I determined 2 pairs would make the cut and journey home with us, along with ruffle socks, a rattle, and oh....I guess we are also going home with elmo since he was just drooled on. And never mind that one pair of shoes is bright blue. They fit and we are DONE shoe shopping. He's 13 months, he doesn't really need to match.

By the way, I hate shoe shopping.

But hey, we have shoes. And he likes them.

Anyways, we are on a roll with our walking attempts. Although I'm not sure the kid will ever get the courage to really "let go" of the walking aids, I'm so proud of him taking those first strides of independence. And while he may never own a pair of shoes again for the rest of his life, he may wear the heck out of his bright blue ones for now.

A new season

Fall is in the air...

Yay....

I am so in love. Cool weather has swept onto our heat cracked ground and brought with it the promise of mercy. I can see it everywhere. The corners of craft stores are covered in rich warm golden and maroon hues. Coffee shops and bakeries tingle senses with pumpkin spices and cinnamon apples. Fuzzy hooded jackets and soft cozy accessories from the depths of the closet slowly begin to make their journey to the front. Welcome, sweet Autumn. You've been long anticipated.

We greeted this season with a trip to the apple orchard to see the fall harvest in motion. We needed to be outdoors to truly soak in what the weather has to offer. I've never seen a child love the great outdoor as much as Hayden does. He has been this way since he was born. He becomes bright eyed when he crosses the thresh hold of our house into the great beyond. The apple orchard provided a whole playground of activity for the senses. I caught him on several occasions sitting in the sunny cool breeze feeling the fuzzy strands of his hair blow all around him. Just smiling. There's a way to steal a momma's heart. He's my little fall sponge soaking it all in. And while we didn't actually pick any apples, we did enjoy the cool air and good company of other mommies and the comforts of a new season.

And let me tell you, this kid loves an apple. We didn't part from our apple for a long while.

Autumn shall be a pleasant time for us as we prepare for travel. The next few weeks of our life shall be wild as we brace outselves for a wedding, a baby shower, another wedding, and a trip. All of life's joyous celebrations. In 4 short weeks. Fortunately for us, fall showed her comforting presence just in time. So we are ready to adventure into it, and pack along all the warm cheer it brings.

It's easy to do, when you have a traveling companion like this one.

Bring it on, October. We're ready.

I am not often good at following through with what I set out to do. My ambitious daily list of "to-do's" starts out with more than I can bite off for one day. But every morning, with the helpful companion of my moose coffee mug filled to it's brim with false promises of caffeination, I list them out in my head:

Today,

I am going to go work out

I am going to cook a good meal

I am going to pay this bill and "inquire" about the sudden increase in that one

I am going to get out of the house

I am going to attend play group

I am going to organize my cabinets and clean out the clutter

I am going to make and/or return four day old voice mails and text messages

I am going to update my blog

I am going to run these errands

I am going to... I am going to... I am going to.... And I'll go do it here soon.

Just as soon as the coffee wakes me up...

I tend to feel disappointed at the end of the day when I realize that the coffee never actually did do it's job and out of the list of 20, I accomplished....none. But it shouldn't come as much of a surprise to me. After all, I still have 4 boxes yet to be unpacked in the corner of our bedroom from our move...back in April.

Truth be told, I'm not really sure that my to-do list ideas actually matter. After all, the Lean Cuisine chicken enchilada suiza I had for dinner was surprisingly delicious. And I ran a mile and a half running around after Hayden all day. And I did leave the house today when I walked out into the backyard to water the browning leaves on the ivy plant I've neglected for a week. And well, they haven't shut off the electricity just yet... Quiet honestly, I am super woman.

All this is to say, when I forget to blog for a month, it's pretty much because my life is going no stop. But it's all with good reasoning...

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Reasons like...

Family time

With two of the greatest guys in the world....

And family travel...to Houston via College Station. With a little history lesson in the form of presidential libraries.

And teaching life lessons with our birthday money...

And going to "big boy" doctor visits...Now that we are one and all.

And well, just loving on each other. Alot. Because that's how we roll.

So take that productivity. I didn't need you anyway.

Promise!!

I promise promise promise promise....there will be an update by Thursday. Just you wait Haybaby fans. There's a lot of picture loving from this little guy...