Happy 1st Birthday, Hayden!

I don't have any really recent pictures of Ray's son Dan's little boy, Hayden, but here is one of him taken while they were visiting us in September. Today is his first birthday! They sent a video about a month ago of him, not just walking...but running around at 11 months old! We figured it wasn't going to take him too much longer, he was almost walking back in September already. He's such a little cutie-pie and we miss him very much. I wish he could be here for Christmas. Maybe next year.

I'm working on getting a birthday/Christmas package out to Dan, TerriAnna and Hayden in OR. I have Hayden's presents all ready to go, but have nothing in the box for his parents' Christmas present yet. Obviously, they will not receive this package in time for Christmas, but I'll get it sent out as soon as I can. I'm really bad about those things. I always intend to get them sent on time, but I always want to add "just one more thing", so it's coming...

While I'm at it, I should send a belated Happy Birthday to my sister, Connie (who's birthday was on Sunday), and a Happy Birthday to my brother Dan, who shares a birthday with Hayden today. Yes, I have a brother Dan, a step-son named Dan and now a step-son-in-law, also named Dan. It gets a bit confusing around here at times.

Cyber Shower Party Post For Sassyfrazz

Sassyfrazz is due to have baby number 4 soon. As a guest at her shower, I'm going to play some games here to see if I can win:

The First Choice of Prizes will go to: The sweetest picture
of Daddy's first picture with their new baby. This can be a picture right at
the hospital/in home birth, or just a few days/weeks old of the baby.

This is a picture of my oldest son, Jeremy and my oldest grandson, "AJ". It was taken almost 6 years ago. I can't believe how young my son looks here. He has this picture entitled "My first whole day as a dad" on his MySpace page. I think that's pretty sweet myself.

And just in case that one isn't sweet enough, (and to be fair to my step-son, Dan and his little guy, "HD" that was born just before Christmas last year), here's one of them too. This was obviously in the hospital after a very, very long night.

The Second Choice of Prizes will go to: The person who guesses the correct
birth weight of my second child, Caleb, who is now 3 1/2 years old. He was 3
days overdue, and I was induced with him. Those are the only clues I will give you.
:)

Hmmmm.... I think he was pretty big, but I don't remember the exact stats.
I'll guess 8 lbs 13 oz. Am I right?

The Third, Fourth, and Fifth Choice of Prizes will go to: The most creative creation of a baby and/or a pregnant Mom made out of play-doh. That's
right...time to get creative, regress to your childhood days, and have a blast making your masterpiece. Yes, you can ask your kids to help with this one. I am all about having fun with your kids!

I think I'll pass on this one, I don' t believe I even have any playdoh in the house. Congratulations, Sarah!

Hangin' With Hayden

Dan and Hayden arrived late Monday night. Dan stayed home on Tuesday with Hayden and me, but the last couple of days he and I have been hanging out alone, doing a little bonding while Dan is helping out his dad with a construction project. It didn't take Hayden long to start crying every time I got out of his sight. To me, that means that he has accepted me as one of his (temporary) primary caregivers. I also get a big smile from him when I come back into the room. We went through all of this with my grandson, (CJ), when we had him for extended periods of time too. When Mom is around, they generally prefer her to anyone else of course, but in the absence of Mom or Dad, Grandma, Grandpa, (or even Auntie Molly), will do. Here are 3 generations at the airport: Dan (oops, he blinked), holding Hayden, with Ray by his side. Can you tell Dan belongs to Ray? Actually, if you look at Grandpa Ray's baby pictures, there's a bit of a resemblance between him and Hayden too! Here are a few other snapshots I've taken of the boy since he's been here. We've been having a lot of fun with him. Here he is just being cute:

And here, as you can see, Auntie Molly actually got him to go to sleep!

I guess Grandma shoulda washed his little face before taking this one, but he's still pretty cute.

And here...still with a dirty face after supper...he's showing off his two front teeth. Actually he's got four of them already, and appears to be working on a few more at the moment. We're having a great time with him, and in case his mom is checking this blog from Italy, everyone says hi T!...and we'll give your little boy a hug and a kiss for you.

Guess Who's Coming To Visit?

Dan and Hayden! Dan is my step-son, who lives out in Oregon with his wife, Terianna and their son Hayden who will be 9 months old tomorrow. "T" is gone to Italy with her mother for a couple of weeks, so in the meantime Dan and his son will be visiting with us here in MN. Here is a pic of the two of them:

We'll be picking them up at the airport tonight at about 11 pm. Grandpa Ray couldn't be more excited. We haven't seen Dan since we went out to OR for their wedding last Summer, and we've only met Hayden once. He was here for a very brief visit with his mother in July. It should be fun to get to know him a little better this time. Dan is going to help Ray with a job he's doing while he's here, at least for a couple of days, which means I'll get to spend some quality time alone with Hayden. I'm sure we'll have a great time together while his dad and grandpa are busy working. It's been awhile since I've had a baby in the house, but I'm sure it's like riding a bike, it will all come back to me, right?

Playing Catch Up

We had a very busy weekend, with a house full of people. Both of Ray's daughters, Sarah and Ruth had come with their SO's, Brad and Dan, so we could all be there when his son Dan's wife Terianna and our newest grandson, Hayden arrived for a short visit from OR on Saturday.

Here is Grandpa Ray with his first (bio) grandson. Not that he doesn't treat my 2 like they are his own grandkids, but I think there is something special about holding your own son's son:

Hayden is a real sweetie pie, and was happy and smiling almost the whole time he was at our house. He didn't seem a bit scared of any of us "strangers", which I was a little concerned he might be. Here he is with Auntie Sarah. Uncle Brad is in the background:

Here's another one with "Auntie Molly":

Here's a couple taken by Molly while his mama was feeding him. I think Molly could have a promising career as a baby photographer. She seems to have a knack for it:

We had a great visit with Hayden and his mom, Terianna. His father, Dan was not able to come this time, but he will be coming for two weeks at the end of September and will be bringing Hayden back again. It will be fun to see how much he has grown and changed by then. Hopefully, he'll remember us all at least a little, by the time he comes back.

Another Busy Week Ahead...

On Saturday, we finally get to meet baby Hayden! Hayden is the son of my step-son, Dan and his wife, Terianna, or "T" as they call her for short. He is 6 mos. old, but we haven't met him yet because they live in OR. T and Hayden are coming to MN for her grandmother's birthday party this weekend. We were going to have to drive up to the casino where they will be staying for the weekend, but Ray talked to Dan last night, and now T and Hayden are going to be dropped off at our house for a few hours, so we can visit and then we'll drive them back up to the casino. Dan is not coming to MN with them for this visit. He will be coming back to visit with Hayden in September.

Here's the thing though...Ray's daughter, Sarah and her husband, Brad are coming down on Friday night, and his daughter, Ruth and her fiance, Dan are also coming to spend the night that night so that everyone will get a chance to see Hayden and T on Saturday. That means I have to find room for them all to sleep, which can be done...it just means making sure all the rooms are actually clean...including the 11teen year olds! I usually just close the door to that room and pretend it doesn't exist. I also have to rent or borrow a carpet shampooer to clean the living room floor. I have a carpet steamer, but it isn't working properly, so I haven't cleaned them in quite awhile. With Hayden at the sitting up/crawling stage, I don't want him crawling around on our disgusting looking carpets. So I have my work cut out for me this week.

Molly has a swim party to go to on Wed, at a local hotel. The birthday girl's mom asked if I would stay and help supervise. That's fine, but it pretty much shoots Wed afternoon for cleaning. Friday night is ladies night at church, so I have to have everything done before I go. And then will come the fun of trying to keep the house picked up on Saturday morning with 7 of us people and at least one dog in the house. I also need to run to St. Cloud and take care of some business one day this week. I'm thinking of doing that today, just to get it over and done with.

Happy 1/2 Birthday, Hayden!

I meant to post this yesterday, but I forgot. Our youngest (so far) grandchild turned 6 months old yesterday. We haven't had the opportunity to actually meet him in person yet, but we will very soon. He and his mother will be coming to town from Oregon in about 2 1/2 weeks. We can't wait to finally get to know him a little bit. He sure looks like a happy little guy. Last we heard, he was not yet crawling, (except backwards I think his dad said), but was sitting up really well.

We won't get to spend a lot of time with him this time, but then his Dad is going to bring him back for a longer visit in September. His grandpa is especially excited to meet the little guy who's going to carry on the family name. They're so much fun to play with at this age. I suspect he'll be a little scared of us at first, having never met us, but hopefully we'll all be getting along famously by the end of the visit.