christmas cookies

hayden loves to help bake, and grandma loves his help. so yesterday after school we headed to her house to help her out with some sugar cookies. hayden loves to help use the cookie cutters and decorate them with sprinkles. and lots of them. we're always telling him not to use to so much. at one point, i was decorating a snowflake cookie with white sprinkles. hayden looked down and it and say "JILL!!!! that's WAY to much white sprinkles!" he listens, he just doesn't obey.
he helped with almost all of them until about the last batch or so when he looked at mom and said "well, grandma, you can finish the rest because there aren't too many more. i'm just so tired." and off he went to play. not before he ate a cookie or two, of course.

fun in the snow....for hayden at least

today was the first snow day of the year. saturday evening and sunday morning we got about 6 inches of snow. most all school districts in the area cancelled school last nite for today's classes. after a busy weekend i was thankful to be able to sleep in a little longer than usual. and then i realized, i'm probably going to have to take him outside for a bit to play in the snow, aren't i?!
i really hate the snow. even more now as a parent than before without kids. snow makes things so much more difficult with kids. so much more messy. the house constantly has bits of salt on the rugs, and is always wet from snowy shoes and boots. getting kids dressed just to go outside to the car is a major pain. and when your kid starts walking and constantly decides to take the snowiest path possible, there's another pain.
anyway. this his hayden's blog, not mine.
hayden loves snow. he was so excited to hear that we could go outside to play in it for a bit while talan was taking his nap. once i put talan down we started the long process of getting dressed up. i realized the the snowpants i had for hayden which he never wore last year, were a size 3t, not a 4t like i was counting on them being. they fit ok so it was no big deal. mittens or gloves are another issue. the are always falling off or the sleeve of his jacket is riding up. but again, i'm complaining.
we got all dressed up and headed outside. i gave hayden a new red shovel so he immediately started digging in the snow and throwing it over his shoulder.
i decided to be a good mom and help him make a snowman, unfortunately, the snow was not packing snow at all. later though, hayden found some chunks of ice that he stacked on top of each other to make a mini snowman. we even had baby carrots that we were able to use. the prefect size for this miniature snowman.
i also tried digging a little fort, but that didn't work very well either. after putting his gloves back on about 20 times i decided it was time to head in. we had been out there for close to an hour i'd say.
here are some pictures from our "fun" time:


it's not so much the digging part he loves:
as it is the throwing part:
"it's getting deeper!":
hayden's first snow angel:
making his very own mini snowman:
the finished product:

we had to relocated and fix it a bit as he built it right where cars like to park:
i think this is a penguin snowman:

hayden and a microphone

this morning was the morning that the monkey and elephant rooms at oak pointe church were to sing in front of the whole congregation for both services. they had two songs they were going to sing but hayden only ever sang one of them for us at home.
we had a busy weekend with dave's work christmas party on friday and then our howard/skiver christmas celebration with my bff and her family on saturday. we made sure to not stay too late as we had to be up bright and early this morning for the singing sensation.
but when we left fenton last nite it was snowing. and i then heard that they were expecting between 6-8 inches by 7pm sunday evening. will the moment hayden has been waiting for be cancelled?!
i woke up this morning to find that we had somewhere between 4-6 inches on the ground and the wind was blowing like crazy. there were church closings scrolling throughout the news cast but nothing for oak pointe. so we all got ready, dave shoveled the driveway and started the car and we headed out hoping the doors wouldn't be locked. even though we left at about 8am and dave stopped to help some lady that was stuck, we still got there around 8:30. i love my explorer. now, i know a lot of the world is all concerned about the environment, but so many of those people live in california. i live in michigan. so i'll keep my explorer and i won't feel bad about it, thank you very much.
the service was pretty much empty other than the families of all the kids singing holding their cameras and video cameras. so at least i wasn't the only crazy parent making my family drive in a blizzard to get my kid up on stage.
for the first service hayden was on top of the world. waving to us all and jumping up and down the ENTIRE TIME. he didn't sing the first song at all. he just jumped. he sang some parts of the second song, but mostly because some of the motions actually called for jumping.
and then it happened. the infamous "booty dance." long ago dave taught him to put his hands on his butt, bend over a bit and shake it. it's always been funny and he's known it. so i guess he waited for just the right time to stop jumping and start doing the booty dance at church. awesome.
i was pretty impressed that he actually got off the stage with no real tantrum. i don't think there were any microphones right there on stage which definitely helped the cause. on the ride in he said "oh no! i forgot my microphone!" so i fully expected him to grab a mic and turn it into the hayden show.
after first service we (dave, me, mom, dad, jessica and talan) waited for the second service to start to see round two. maybe he would actually do a little bit of singing this time.
the teachers start guiding them up on stage and right away i knew something was wrong. my bipolar child had flipped his switch. as soon as he saw me he just covered his face and continued to act as if he was having the worst day of his life. this went on for quite awhile, until he saw himself up on the big screen. then he wouldn't take his eyes off of it.
by the time the second song rolled around he was ok enough to still get the jumping motions in, but that was about it. i started wondering if it was because he wasn't first in line this time. he has a few issues with that sort of thing.
dave picked him up from his class when it was all done and was carrying him down the stairs. as soon as he saw me he got down, jumped into my arms and just started crying. all i got out of him was that he wanted me to pick him up from his class. i think he was a little confused when dave didn't pick him up after first service and thought we weren't coming back for him or something. who knows with that kid.
either way, we got some good video and pictures.


lining up to sing in the first service:
one of the only shots that hayden wasn't jumping in:
he was either pointing to us or actually doing some of the motions, i'm thinking he was pointing at us:

the booty dance begins:
looking right at us as if to say "aren't you guys so proud?!":
just about done:
talan waiting for second service to see for himself:
the bipolar switch has been switched:

and switched again once he noticed himself on the big screen:

oh good. more jumping:

oh, the things he says

last nite the family went out to grab some dinner and then run over to ikea and home depot to buy a new sink. we are installing a new counter top today and we needed to make sure we had everything before the installation starts.
hayden likes to be a backseat driver and tell me what lane to get in, how i should be passing cars and to drive faster. yeah, like i need any encouragement with that one. so i've been trying to explain to him that we can't go too fast or a policeman will pull us over and give us a ticket. well, in his mind, tickets are good things. you get a ticket to ride on a train, you get bonus tickets in video games, you get tickets at carnivals. so i've then had to explain how a ticket from a policeman is different than all of those kinds of tickets. we can get in trouble for driving too fast and we don't want a ticket from policemen.
so last nite, dave and i are talking and he starts driving down some weird road. kinda residential but not really. i'm not paying any attention as i have absolutely no idea where we even are. suddenly i hear dave say "oh crap" and i look out my mirror and see a cop is pulling us over. i then see a speed limit sign right in front of us saying 25 mph. great. so he pulls over and we start waiting. suddenly hayden sees the lights and mentions them. i explain to him that a policeman has just pulled us over. when the cop gets to the car he shines the lights in all the windows and sees hayden sitting back there. he asks dave if he knows why he's been pulled over. in the backseat hayden says in an excited voice "we didn't do anything bad. we did something good. we're getting a ticket!" apparently, even the cop laughed at that one.
when he went back to his car i tried telling hayden that we were in trouble and that we would probably get a ticket for going too fast. he put his window down and said "i want to ask the policeman something" right as the cop was coming back to the car. so we were like, "no, don't ask the policeman anything. just put your window up." the cop heard that hayden wanted to ask him something so he asked him what was up. and hayden says "don't give us a ticket." and i'm laughing but trying to tell him no and not make it seem like we put him up to that. then hayden rolls his window up. the cop starts knocking at his window telling him to roll it down and i look at him and tell him it's ok, to roll it down, the policeman wants to tell him something. so he rolls it down and the cop says "well, i won't give him a ticket for going too fast but we need to tell him to slow down, ok? so make sure you tell him to slow down!" and the cop hands dave a ticket for not stopping at a stop sign and a warning to "slow down." quite an expensive ticket right at the worst possible time. so he really didn't do us any favors.
we drive off and when we get to ikea i was trying to remember just what hayden said. so i ask dave, "did he say 'don't give us a ticket'?" and dave is like..."i think so" and from the backseat i hear a "yup, that's what i told him, mom."

preschool halloween party

hayden's class halloween party was yesterday and i volunteered to help out. i was put in charge of the "mummy race" which was a kid wrapping another kid in toilet paper, jumping to a red line and then the wrapped kid wrapping the unwrapped kid in toilet paper and then jumping to the finish line. they all got a little frustrated at the fact that the toilet paper kept ripping off the roles, but none got as frustrated as hayden. shocking. they decorated cookies and played musical chairs and made pumpkin men out of egg cartons and hayden and had a very healthy snack of cookies and cupcakes and candy. they also went on a parade through the school to show off their costumes. my battery ran out of juice at the end and i missed the class photo op and the parade, but another mother told me she would email me a class photo.
most of the girls in his class were princesses. shocking. there was one superwoman. that was pretty rad. most of the boys were some kind of super power guy. teenage mutant ninja turtle, flash, darth vader. hayden was jack sparrow. one of the girls in his class came up to me and said "i know who hayden is. he's johnny depp. i LOVE johnny depp." that was probably the funniest moment of the day.
hayden didn't have a very good morning. there were lots of tears and not wanting to do things he was supposed to do. it proved to me even more that i made the right decision in not volunteering every week. i was told by his teacher that he never usually acts this way. what can i say, i bring out the best in him.

hayden's class in circle time:

the mummy race:

hayden was in tears over having to make his pumpkin man. after being threatened that he wouldn't be able to participate in the parade he finally did it:
hayden passing out his treats to the rest of the class:
the cheese and crackers were just an appetizer before the cupcakes came out:

part of my heart was taken away on bus #12

i put hayden in school just weeks after he turned 3. they offered busing but no way was i going to take them up on that offer. just sending him to school was heartbreak enough. last year i drove him to school every morning on my way to work and mom picked him up every afternoon. when i had talan, i continued to drive him and pick him up. it worked out perfectly. talan slept the entire time in his car seat. then this year came. and i still refused the bus. but just weeks after school started, i started realizing it wasn't fair to talan. i had to wake talan up once, if not twice in order to drop hayden off and pick him up. so that made for a crabby talan many days.
last week i decided to simply call and ask about busing, making no commitments. the person i needed to talk to was in a meeting and i was told they would call me back. nobody ever called. all of a sudden, friday at about 4pm i got a phone call. i answer to hear the person say "ok, so we have hayden scheduled to start riding the bus starting on monday morning. is that correct?" my heart sank. uh, really? that soon? so the weekend was filled with anxiety and me waking up in the middle of the nite sick to my stomach at the thought of watching him get on a bus.
it's not that big of a deal. he's already in school. but it's just another little thing that shows me he's getting older and he doesn't need me all the time. it was an awful decision i had to make. i would have much rathered him gone on the bus next year for kindergarten. at this point, next year will be a piece of cake. he'll have been in school for 2 1/2 years already and he will have taken the bus for a full year. so i guess this is almost like me sending him off to kindergarten.
yesterday morning we got all ready and waited outside with camera in hand. the bus was supposed to be there around 8:17am. 8:25 came and went. still no bus. finally, at 8:30am, the time school actually starts, i realized a bus was not coming. so i go inside, pack talan up and we all load up in the car. turns out there were a bunch of bus drivers out yesterday. so between that and hayden being brand new, he just got missed. great. i was all ready to rip that bandaid off and now i have to go through it again another day!
so this morning, once again, we head outside with camera in hand to wait for the bus. we waited and waited. i was beginning to think he got left behind again. but suddenly, bus number 12 appeared. hayden was so excited when he actually saw it turn the corner. it stopped in front of our house and hayden turned back to me to give me a hug and a kiss. then he headed up the stairs. the bus driver was super sweet and actually told him to stop at the top of the stairs and look at me so i could get a good picture of him. of course he wasn't actually looking at the camera, but it was good enough. and so bus #12 took off with a piece of my heart.
thank goodness for cameras. i really hardly thought about the whole "my baby is getting on a bus" thing because i was so focused on getting a few good shots. so no tears were shed and hopefully the anxiety will now be over and i can just enjoy not having to drop him off and pick him up every day. especially come the winter time.
when the bus came back to drop him off, he jumped off and when i asked how the bus ride was he simply said "the bus is AWESOME!" and then while heading into the house he looked at me and said "aren't you glad to have me back home?" yes, hayden. i am glad to have you back home. at least for that moment.

waiting patiently for the bus:
looking for the bus:
listening for the bus:
this is when he sat on the neighbors tree stump and said "i'm giving up" he's so dramatic:
here it finally comes a day late:
right after hayden saw the bus rounding the corner:





and just like that, he was gone. stupid tinted windows didn't let me take pictures of him sitting in his seat:
just getting home:

"the bus is awesome!":

his obsession

hayden has this weird obsession with shoving stuffed animals inside his clothes, mostly when he's supposed to be taking a nap. i have gone in his room before to wake him up and he's had about 5 animals shoved up his pant legs. no explanation, they are just there. so a few weeks ago i walk in his room and find this:



then, not too many days later, i come upstairs to find talan like this: