28th Birthday

Since my birthday this year happened to fall on Labor Day weekend, most of our family and friends had other plans. I remember a year when I was younger and my birthday was on Labor Day weekend I had invited like 15 kids to my birthday party and only 2 could come. This year, we didn't even bother trying to invite anyone to celebrate. I thought it would be fine to celebrate with just our family: Me, Phil, and Hayden. I was wrong.

I arranged for Phil and Hayden to do a free preview class at The Little Gym in Issaquah at 9am so I could sleep in on my birthday, for once. At 8:40 I could hear them downstairs still eating breakfast. Not wanting Hayden to be late for his class, I went downstairs and helped get Hayden ready and out the door by 8:55am. Then I finished off some cold blueberry pancakes by myself. It was so quiet I barely knew what to do with myself. Oh, TV, that's right. So I got a couple chuckles out of The Soup episode.

Then my mom & clan called and serenaded me to a boisterous "Happy Birthday" song and then I chatted with them for a bit.

After that I watched some Jon Stewart and then Phil came home with Hayden. Hayden was so excited and full of energy when he came and gave me a huge hug. That boy lights up my life! I heard all about how much fun they had at The Little Gym. I knew he would love it because he has already learned to put his head down to do somersaults on command, and loves balls and I knew there would be plenty of opportunities for both there. Phil said he also did really well on a stair apparatus and scored a 9.6 on the parallel bars to beat China out for the gold. ;) Even though Hayden really enjoyed it, we looked over the pricing: a $40 annual "Membership fee" and then $370 for a semester (20 classes), and we decided $20 per class was too steep for our budget.

Phil wanted to finish his half-eaten breakfast so I played with Hayden and fed him a snack. Then Phil put him down for a nap. He had a tough time falling asleep probably because of the later morning snack but once he finally fell asleep, he slept for almost 3 hours. Yay!

During those 3 hours, I took a shower, watched some more tv, got a "Happy Birthday" call from Grandma, and a wonderfully unexpected call from a long-lost friend. Then Phil and I ate lunch and got Hayden's stuff all ready to go out for the rest of the afternoon/evening. It's quite a task to pack a diaper bag and think about the food and drinks he'll need for the rest of the day.

I opened Phil's gift to me. A beautiful necklace and matching earrings from Fireworks Gallery, that I had strongly hinted to him a couple weeks ago at the mall. I sure make it easy for him. He says I'm really hard to buy for, so I guess this helps me from being disappointed, but sometimes I wish he would just get me something he thinks I would like because he knows me so well, rather than basically pick it out myself and act surprised when I open it. I hear many husbands are like this, though, so at least he paid attention, and at least I didn't actually buy them and wrap them for myself, like some wives I know!

So after Hayden woke up, we headed down to Westfield Shopping mall where they have just opened a whole new wing of the mall. What were we thinking going to a mall on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend??!! The traffic backup off the exit was gridlocked. But I must have had some birthday magic on my side because we miraculously found a decent parking spot right away. The mall was packed with all the back-to-school shoppers. PACKED.

Phil hung out with Hayden on the kid's play area, which was very cool, but also packed. Nice of Phil to let me go have some baby-free shopping time. But shopping alone can also be kinda lame. Sometimes I don't mind, but on my birthday, it felt pretty lonely.

The new mall has a new 2-stroy H&M store. I had been to H&M in London and was excited to check it out, remembering the good styles and prices. It was more than a madhouse, but I managed to find 19 items to try on, waited in line for the fitting rooms for about 20 minutes, ended up with 7 "yes" shirts and then waited in line another 20 minutes to pay. Oh, and a super obnoxious couple was fighting behind me while we were in line and I wanted to turn around and smack the boyfriend for some of the things he was saying to his girlfriend or at least tell the girl "Dump that jerk! You deserve better, girlfriend!" But I kept my mouth shut and eyes forward. Waiting in lines alone on your birthday sucks.

After tracking down Phil and Hayden it was almost 5:15pm. We knew we needed to get to dinner fast. We thought Red Robin would be a good bet since it's not attached to the mall and maybe wouldn't be as crowded. Plus, Hayden LOVES the atmosphere of RR so we knew he'd be entertained during our meal. But as we walked toward the end of the mall where we parked, I remembered The Rainforest Cafe was in the mall, and knew that would be fun for Hayden. Astonishingly, there was no wait and we were seated right away! Hayden was captivated by the fish tanks and wanted nothing to do with his high chair. So maybe we'd made a mistake coming here! Phil and I took turns touring Hayden around the restaurant, and I ran back to the car to get Hayden's milk from the cooler. The service was quick, which was nice with a baby, but it was really mediocre food. This restaurant seems to put all their effort into ambiance and none into food quality. Phil couldn't even finish his burger because it was so dry and tasteless – like it went from freezer to microwave. My pasta wasn't much better.

Phil was complaining about his food and a stomach ache, and was off in the bathroom when the waitress brough over my birthday dessert. I insisted that she and the waiters who came with her not sing, since it was just me and Hayden at our table. A guy at a table next to us looked at me and made a sad/pity face, like "I'm sorry you are alone for your birthday dessert." Hayden was squirmy and anxious to go explore the restaurant some more, so I managed a few bites of dessert and then walked around with him until Phil came back from the bathroom. We ate some more over-priced giant chocolate brownie w/ice cream while taking turns entertaining Hayden and then Phil realized Hayden's diaper was soaked through his pants!

Phil took Hayden to change him (I had just changed him before we sat down to eat dinner, so I was shocked that his diaper would be that soaked!) and his clothes, while I stayed back at the table, alone again, to pay our bill, gather up all our stuff and clean up a bit and wait for them up front. At least Phil was nice enough to change Hayden out of his wet diaper and wet clothes.

We got Hayden home way later than his bedtime so I felt bad. While Phil was putting Hayden to bed I got Boggle out and turned on the TV to wait for him. Then he decided to take a shower and get ready for bed so I got sucked into a Sandra Bullock/Hugh Grant movie on TV. When Phil finally came downstairs he didn't notice (or pretended not to notice) Boggle and at this point, I didn't really care to play. I watched the stupid movie while Phil fell asleep on the couch and then I went to bed alone and left Phil on the couch.

Next year I hope my birthday doesn't fall on Labor Day weekend. Today seemed like any ordinary day. Maybe even a little worse. :( On the bright side, I can't wait to wear my new clothes and jewellery!

15 Months Old

Hayden turned 15 months old on Wednesday, August 20th. He had his Well-Baby Doctor visit today and here are his official stats:

Weight: 24 lbs, 10 oz. (50th percentile)
Height: 33 1/2 " (+97th percentile)
Head Circumference: 19" (75th percentile)

He is super healthy all around. Although he didn't enjoy the poking and prodding of the doctor and definitely didn't like the 2 shots he had to get. :(

Hayden's been doing well so far as we've been introducing dairy back into his diet. Yogurt, hard cheeses and goat's milk have all been ok as far as I can tell. The pediatrician advised sticking with the goat's milk if that's working for him until 18 months, and then try to transition him from goat's to cow's milk an ounce a week at a time.

Phil and I celebrated our 9th anniversary on the 14th by going to a movie and The Cheesecake Factory. Now that I can eat dairy, I totally indulged on some fettuccine alfredo and cheesecake. And gained 5 lbs already. Nice.

So I have yet to spend an overnight away from Hayden, but I'm ready, and it's just a matter of when and where. We decided not to go away for the weekend because Saturday was the Lott family reunion in Centralia. I barely got to visit with anyone because Hayden continues to have a tough time in large crowds and gets really clingy to me when a lot of relatives are around. It's strange because at Stroller Strides and at PEPS he is crawling all over the other moms, so maybe it's a male thing. We've also learned that the minute we arrive, we can't just hand him off to other relatives, not even Grandma. I have been assured by many experienced moms that this "Stranger Anxiety" phase is totally normal and healthy, and that he will grow out of it. But I feel a little bad that Hayden just wanted to be off cruising around all the cars in the driveway rather than be social.

The weather has been pretty crummy this week and I'm not ready for summer to be over already. Phil is going to take the week of Labor Day off work to hang out with us more and celebrate my birthday. He's also training for the Kirkland Triathlon.

Mr. Serious

I love my boy.

A Day at the Farm

Hayden and I visited my Grandpa Doug this week on his birthday. While my Aunt, Grandma and cousin were exploring the Oregon Coast, we decided Grandpa shouldn't celebrate his birthday alone. We went to visit him on my Aunt's farm in Black Diamond, WA where he was helping look after the animals. Hayden had a great experience watching Grandpa feed the horses some carrots. They are noisy eaters! Hayden was a little too timid to pet the horses, but was blowing raspberries at "What does the horsey say?" and was mesmerized by their every movement.

He was also saying a high-pitched "Maw!" when the barn cat, Oreo came around.



He really enjoyed getting to stick his hands in the chicken feed and hear them clucking around. Grandpa let him touch the eggs. There was a rooster on the farm next door that cock-a-doodled quite frequently, and Hayden also tried mimicking those noises. Adorable.