Drew and I both had wonderful birthdays. We spend one week each year the same age and then lapse back into me being older again. For Drew's birthday we got takeout mexican food and made chocolate cupcakes. Nannie came to visit for the weekend, so Drew and I went out for dinner to Fleming's with our neighbors, Tara and Cole. Then on Sunday we had big fun at the Alamo Draft House where we had lunch and watched the Avatar movie in 3D. It was our first movie-theater experience together since before we had baby Hayden! The last movie we saw together in a theater was the weekend after Thanksgiving in 2006 in Albany when we saw this horrible Christmas movie called Deck the Halls with Danny DeVito and Matthew Broderick. I was a week past due with Hayden at that point. On my actual birthday on Monday, Drew kept the kids at home until 8:30 so I could go into work by myself and listen during the meeting instead of trying to keep my kids from wrecking the place. I had a great day at school, and then Drew came to pick up the kids at 2 so I could go to the spa! I know how spoiled I am, he is the best.
Hayden likes to talk about Disney World. I'm not exactly sure where he picked that up, but he'll be inside his Thomas tent and he'll say he's taking it to Disney World. He is really into playing pretend, and I swear he gets this from Drew. Drew has been accused (I think) of merely organizing his toys as a child, but he comes up with these crazy games that he plays with the kids. And watch out if you don't know the "rules" when you are playing, because the kids go berserk if you do it wrong. Drew pretends to be Bruce the Shark from Nemo during bathtime, and because of this (haha), I have been banned from bathtime altogether. Fine by me. I am not a good Bruce, and I am ok with that.
Hadley is sort of entering into the terrible twos. We're not convinced that Hayden is OUT of the terrible twos, but Hadley has all but declared herself to be in them. If she doesn't get her way, she lies down on the ground and writhes and screeches, Hadley-style. She repeats absolutely everything that we say. Hadley loves to play by herself in Hayden's room. She likes to climb into his bed and root around or play in his Thomas tent. She runs back to his room and slams the door in my face and laughs, then gets to playing. It is kind of great when the kids will play quietly and separately. She usually does this when Hayden is setting up his train set in the living room. It is good timing because he cannot stand it when she wrecks up his trains.
Hayden and Hadley are almost inseparable. Hayden will say "I want to kiss BB" or "I want to hug BB". They are still rough with each other at times, and we did have a big biting incident a couple of days ago. It goes both ways though, they are both biter and bitee.
Drew and I are going to Venice Beach, FL, in February to visit his parents who are staying down there for a few months this winter. We are practically counting down the hours! 4 weeks and counting!
We took H&H to see the Princess and the Frog during Christmas break. Hayden had been to see Toy Story back in December, and I have taken both kids to the summer free movies before (where we only lasted a maximum of 20 minutes or so). For the Princess and the Frog, they both seemed to like to sit in their booster seats and eat popcorn non-stop. We made it almost all the way to the end, which is a major accomplishment. We had even brought two cars so that I could take Hadley home if she needed to go. Hayden was actually the one who said that he had had enough and was ready to go. It is a really cute movie and my good friend Jaime told me the ending so I wasn't left wondering what ever happened to the frogs.
We are still on the dual potty-training train. They are both doing well, sort of holding steady. Hayden wore underwear one day, and that was a big deal since he actually wore them and only peed in them after about an hour. No big deal, really, but simultaneously Hadley peed on the kitchen floor (she likes to have me chase her around while I diaper her) and Abby the cat barfed in the dining room!
I am behind on blogging, but we had a full December with Hayden's birthday party and visits from family for Christmas. Hayden's Nemo party was a great time; all of his little friends and our friends and neighbors came over for pizza and Nemo cake. The next day we went to his friend Alex's birthday party at My Gym. I told Hayden we were going to My Gym and he said "Your Gym?" and then "Mommy's Gym?". He ran around with the other boys at the party like a wild animal--they all had a ball.
The weekend before Christmas we had Nana and Pop to visit from Oxford, NC. We had a wonderful Christmas here with them and the kids are still talking about Nana and Pop and the airplane they came in on. Nana and Pop gave us a webcam for Christmas so we have been skype-ing with them this past week. The kids love it and also love to see Nana's kitty, Ladybug, on the computer.
Christmas weekend we had Nannie, Gegah, Aunt Ashley, and Uncle Larry to visit. We did Christmas with them, and Hayden and Hadley again had a big time showing off for everyone, building forts, playing with toys, etc. Hadley is into doing everything by herself--her favorite phrase is "I do this, I do THIS" which gets louder and louder until she is allowed to do whatever it is by herself, including brushing her teeth and taking off her own diaper before she goes peepee. Both kids are doing great with going in the potty, but when I asked Hayden if he would like to switch to pullups or underwear he said an emphatic "NO, I want to wear my diapers." Not sure about how that is going to play out. Hayden loves to sing Jingle Bells and count backwards lately, which he learned from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse I believe. Lots of rocketships to count down for on that show. Hayden likes to act out the episodes of Mickey in their entirety. He makes Minniestrone Soup for Goofy and then takes it to Goofy in his tent. He even acts out the part where Goofy is sneezing and making the tent blow up and down. Playing pretend is Hayden's favorite. Hadley usually goes along with all of it, but she prefers to play with her Tinkerbell, her baby, and her Baby Sheep. She puts them in the play highchair and feeds them with her "fork", which are play measuring spoons.
Today Drew and I took them to Goin Bananas, which we usually do at this time of year it seems. We both can tolerate the place for about an hour. Chasing H&H in there is exhausting! They both loved the huge slide. Then we went to Chilis for lunch (courtesy of one of my student's moms who gave us a giftcard--the moms were SO generous and I have many, many giftcards!), and then we came home and all crashed. It is so nice to have Drew home from work this week, we are very fortunate.
We had a wonderful Thanksgiving at Nee's house in Houston. Aunt Ashley, Gegah, Maw Maw, Aunt Paula, Uncle Larry, and Bailey-dog all were in town. Hayden and Hadley loved being with everyone, especially poor Bailey-dog. We came back to Austin in time to celebrate Hayden's 3rd birthday on Sunday! We had a great day, went to church, had lunch out at Galaxy, and had presents in the afternoon. Hayden loved his book and movies from Nana and Pop and his tricycle from Nee. He also loved his UT helmet and jersey that Drew got Mack Brown to sign for him. Hayden was really funny saying "I'll be 3! I'm giving my binkies to Santa Claus for the babies so I can get presents!". Of course this did not actually happen but was a nice thought. We've decided to wait a bit and take away both kids' binkies at the same time--sort of like the group potty training. If we're all going to suffer we may as well just do it all at once!
Hadley is saying all sorts of funny phrases. She likes to pick up the foam finger from the UT game and say "Hook em horns". She is obsessed with Baby Sheep. Baby Sheep is a Christmas ornament that my mom got in Ireland before Hayden was born. Now Hayden and Hadley just fight over it and Hadley cries "Baby Sheep! Baby Sheep!" nonstop. Hayden gets to sleep with Baby Sheep so Hadley is sleeping with Tiny Bear and we are desperately searching stores for another sheep so we don't have to argue over him anymore.
Hadley was so funny at school yesterday. She's the only kid in her class without a hood on her coat, so they wrapped her head in a blanket and she looked like the Virgin Mary (or Audrey Hepburn) during their walk on the Bye Bye buggy. We had a fire drill at school yesterday also, which is always interesting. The 2 year olds in my class hold hands and walk out of the building, but Hadley's age group all get tossed into an evacuation crib, and the teachers push them out in that. So I saw little Hadley fly by me with 7 of her baby friends in an evac crib. Hayden and his little friends did a good job filing out holding onto the line rope.
This weekend is Hayden's birthday party. He is having a Nemo party with a Nemo cake!
Hadley was 18 months old yesterday! Of course we had to honor the day with her getting a fever at school. Luckily Drew had just flown in from DC and was able to come and pick her up so I could finish at school for the day and also let Hayden finish his nap in his class. Hadley and I went to her checkup after school let out. They didn't give her the shots since she had a fever but we found out she was in the 75% for height and the 25% for weight. She can get her shots week after next when we have Hayden's 3 year checkup. Hadley's doctor laughed when Hadley said "gobble gobble gobble" and did her little flapping wings at our visit.
Since Daddy was out of town this past weekend we decided to go to Houston and visit Nannie. We had a big time at her mall where we rode the Christmas train ride, the carousel, and the little bus-car-thing. We also watched the man with the remote controlled helicopter and that was big stuff.
Hayden is really into getting up early but saying "I sleep til it's light outside, Daddy will be so happy". It is very cute, even during the 5 oclock hour. Today he got very angry with me for changing his diaper (not unusual) but was apparently so upset that he dug the dirty diaper out of the trash and tried to put it back on his body. Boys will be boys. My boy LOVES to wear a dirty diaper. Today when Drew left for work Hadley said "Daddy. Work. Get the snake. Ssssssssss." And she made our little snake hand motion. The snake is very famous at our house.
