1st day of school

hayden has been going to preschool since he was just 3 years old. he qualified in through the school district for having a speech delay so he has gone to a "early childhood special education" school for it. his speech has improved so much that this year he didn't qualify for the program anymore. they ended up qualifying him for the michigan school readiness program which meets in the same school as before and he will still be getting some speech as well. each program includes busing which i just haven't been able to do. it was hard enough sending him to preschool just weeks after he turned 3. no way was i watching my baby get on a bus. this year was a little more tempting as he's been doing it for so long and i have talan to cart around with me, but i still don't think i'll do it. the school is a mile down the road and besides, it makes me get up, get ready and then i'm able to run errands with only one kid instead of two. i'll have to take the bus pictures next year for kindergarten, i don't really want to rush it.
his new program starts later then most, so today was just his first day of school. yesterday was a class orientation for an hour where he and i went to his class and had a little sample of what school was going to be like. as i watched him with the other kids, it finally hit me. i don't know why i never realized it before. hayden plans on trying out for last comic standing as soon as he's old enough. seriously. half the time he's getting himself in trouble because he's doing everything in his power to make all the other kids around him laugh. he loves younger kids the most cuz they'll laugh at almost anything. but i realized that we ended up with the class clown. i realize that i will be getting phone calls from his teacher on a regular basis. it's a mystery where this kid got his sense of humor though. seriously.
so today was the first real day and he did great. the whole way to school we talk about how he has to sit on the bench, don't touch other kids, listen to the teacher, don't play around in the bathroom, come inside from the playground when you are told, don't run away, no tantrums. the list went on. he told me that he was a good boy and the teacher didn't say otherwise. she seemed quite impressed that after he wrote his name in all uppercase letters, she then showed him to write it with an uppercase H and the rest lowercase one time and he did it. i guess that's impressive. i mean, i take for granted how smart he is sometimes. i saw a girl in his class yesterday not able to find her own name tag. hayden's known how to spell his name since he was 2. just the other day i taught him his phone number. i told him about 3 times and he knew it. i forgot to ask him the next day, so 2 days later i asked and he still remembered it. good thing he didn't get my memory.
so yes. school was a success and i can only hope it continues this way. of course, i'm not planning on it, but i'll just hope for more good days than bad.


i just looked at these pictures to upload them to this page and i couldn't believe how big he looks. with his new bigger backpack and everything:
here's that class clown i was talking about:

you leave the room for 2 seconds....

and this happens:


hayden was supposed to be getting ready for bed the other nite when i heard the water running for quite a long time. that's not that abnormal. but when i walked in, he had the sink completely full with water and soap suds. not to mention the counter, floor, mirrors and himself. i asked him what he was doing and he just said "my hands fell in the water." the pictures don't do it justice. he keeps things lively. that's for sure.

sprinkler park

in yet another attempt to cram summer into these last few weeks before school starts, today we took a trip to the sprinkler park in plymouth. we met up with jenne, trey and marissa villanueva and jenny, emily and stephen crager. it was a little on the cool side, especially first thing in the morning, but that didn't stop trey and hayden from jumping in the second we got there. they actually came out several times to warm up, but eventually went right back in. it was a good day with no time outs and no screaming. at the end of the day i did have to pack everything, including myself, into the car and pretend to leave before hayden would actually get in. but in my book, that's a near perfect day.

about 10:30am and maybe 73 degrees:

trey and hayden play great together, and if i could, i'd let the 2 of them hang out and entertain each other every day:

talan came too. again, here's what he did. actually, he did quite a bit of rolling over, especially down the hill:
jenne and marissa, just 6 weeks old. she'll catch up to talan in no time:
we took a break from the sprinkler park to play on the play structure and sand box. hayden mostly just wanted to throw sand and watch his shadow while doing so:

cookies? or sleep?

yesterday we took a little trip to fenton to visit my bff melanie and her children ashton and lorelei. we're trying to fit in all of the activities we can before school starts, which we just found out starts on the 18th. after leaving her house we stopped off at the grocery store near her house since they had a sale one something i really wanted. i told hayden that if he was good i'd get him a snack to eat in the car. after a day with about 3 time outs he was shockingly good in the store and he chose the oreo cookie 100 calorie snack packs. we got into the car and once we were on the road i gave him a pack of cookies. as we were nearing home, i realized i hadn't heard him in a while and figured after eating the cookies he'd fallen asleep. i look behind me and he was out. we ended up in a traffic jam and while at a dead stop i took a closer look at him. he had a streak of chocolate from his mouth down his chin which made him look like a vampire. and he also still had his hand in the bag of cookies. i guess while going in for another cookie, he realized he just couldn't stay awake any longer and he passed out. i had the camera and took some pictures. a few minutes later i heard the bag and figured he woke up. i turned around to see him rubbing his face with the bad on his hand still, and he continued sleeping. it was a funny sight and i'm glad we can share it with you.

the dude

one of dave's fellow co-workers is leaving ledco and yesterday was his last day. so last nite, after work, they headed to a bowling alley to say goodbye. i took hayden and talan up there and figured we'd let hayden try it out. we played about 4 games and by the last game he had gotten quite good. of course we didn't allow him to use bumpers, because honestly, if he got a strike with bumpers would it really have counted?! the answer is no. he ended up scoring a 72 on his last game, and only 10 pins didn't actually count since bobby flowers helped him out a little. but he ended up getting 2 totally legit strikes during the evening all on his own. he started the evening with a 6 pound ball, and by the end, he was using my 8 pounder.
i am now looking into the fall bowling leagues that are starting up in september and figure we'll sign him up. this morning when he woke up he came into our room and said "after you get done taking your nap, can we go bowling again?"
i don't mean to brag and take the spotlight off of hayden, but i did bowl a 117, 134 and 139. i'm just saying.

i didn't end up getting video of his strikes, but here's a little bit of the action:






the 16 pound ball was quite tempting to him, but he stuck with the 6, 7 and 8 pounder:
what form:
it looks like a strike, but it most likely turned at the last minute:

dave taught him this fun trick at the end of the nite:
talan was there too. with bobby flowers:

when he was two

these are some old videos we had downloaded from when hayden was just over 2. see how cute he was?! that's why he's not dead yet.
the first is hayden singing the alphabet while naked. it was the only time i got him doing it on camera...so, he's naked. whatever. i apologize for the fact that it is sideways. i was using the camera and turned it thinking i was getting a vertical shot as if you were taking a picture. but instead, you see a naked sideways hayden.
the second is hayden reading chicka chicka boom boom. if you know the story, you'll hear his "chicka chicka boom boom" and the "whee!" that's about all i can decipher.
the third is just hayden playing. but he's so stinkin' cute, i had to put it on. speaking of stinking...that's what all of the off camera complaining was about....hayden stunk. i hardly remember him being that little.

*i just found out that youtube removed the first video due to inappropriate content. guess they don't like the baby butt there at youtube. so if you want to see the video, you'll just have to come over to our house and watch it.

farmington founder's festival

the horrible humidity finally left and just in time for the annual farmington founders festival. i decided to call mom and dad and see if they'd like to walk around with us just to get out of the house for bit. the agreed and we decided to meet up in a parking lot. as i was getting ready to leave i packed up the stroller, the baby bjorn, the snacks for hayden, the bottles and formula for talan, a change of clothes, diapers, a blanket...you know, all the essentials you would need for a 2 hour outing. i looked at my camera and thought....should i bring this? should i take pictures of our stroll in farmington today? i haven't blogged in awhile. we haven't done anything blog worthy enough. but then i decided not to take it. i mean, just because i'm getting out of the house and that's exciting to me doesn't mean the rest of america wants to see pictures of the walk i took and the snowcone i ate (i didn't even get a snowcone i'll have you know. they weren't open when we were in that area, and then when we were leaving i didn't feel like stopping for one and having to wait while hayden ate one and then yelled that he didn't want to go home again).
well, we got there and farmington had decided to kick the founder's festival up a few notches this year. so there were rides and such. blogging worthy attractions. i have to realize that i'm a blogger now. and being a blogger means i must carry my camera with me at all times. it's just my responsibility now. lucky for me, grandma was there with her camera.
so basically, we took a nice stroll, enjoyed the 70ish degree weather with no humidity, didn't eat snowcones and watched hayden ride rides for half the day.
photo copyrights go to susan kellogg. thanks for the help mom! the pictures are great, and america thanks you. seriously, what would my fine readers do if they couldn't see photos of hayden on more rides?!

on the roller coaster which later i was told was his favorite ride of the day:
again with the roller coaster:
after the fifth time or so he started putting his hands up going up the hill but would put them down once they started going down the hill. by the last time he went, he had his hands up for the entire ride. that's my boy:
the huge slide that he first referred to as the "big slide" only to correct himself and say "no, no. the fun slide. that's what the sign says at the top." yes my 4 year old hayden, that's what the sign said:
on the carousel:
i was a little afraid to put him on the swings as i thought once they got too high he might freak out and want to come down. mom was scared that he'd fall out. none of the above happened and he went again and again: