Did I mention Hayden LOVES shoes?

Hayden just barely hit the 25 pound mark. Sounds pretty good, until you realize he was 20 pounds at 6 months. He's gotten a lot taller since then, but still measures in the average range. So where have all the peanut butter, avacodos, and millions of raisins been going? His head size is in the 95% (as opposed to his 20% weight). I thought it was all in his head. Until he grew out of his size 5 church shoes.

Dress shoes for little boys, that aren't mini patent leather tux shoes, seem to be really hard to come by down here. I searched everwhere, and finally found some cute, dressy, leather sandals. I figure, it's summer time, he can wear them. I put them on him and they hardly fit! I bought the next size bigger- a 6... oh well, maybe they run small. I made him wear them anyway. This was a couple weeks ago. Sunday, we put them on him, with his big toe hanging a little over the edge. He was walking through the hallway in church and started walking funny and complained, "shoe... owiee". So I took them off and let him go barefoot the rest of the day.

This week, I've looked in every store, again, for some decent dress shoes. How difficult is it to make semi casual dress shoes for a little boy that don't cost $50?? Am I asking for too much? The only shoes he currently has to choose from for church attire are: 1. batman Crocs 2. lion rain boots or 3. beach/water shoes........ I'm just picturing him next week all dressed up from head to knee... with his bright yellow and black Crocs on his feet!

We went to Penny's today to pick up a few things for Dirk, and found some little boy shoes that are not as semi-casual as I'd like, but they're not patent leather, either. I chose a size 7 (after all, it's only been 4 weeks since he grew out of the size 5). I couldn't even get the size 7 on. I tried a size 8. After much squirming and pushing, I got the 8's on, but they definitely were way too small.

Could this kid seriously have a size 9 foot??? He's not even 2 yrs old yet?! I asked the lady to bring us the toddler foot measuring device, which Hayden thought was quite funny. He measured a perfect 8. Phew... the shoes just run small. Still, he needed some that fit, so I bought the 9's.

Somehow in about 4 weeks, this kid completely skipped sizes 6 and 7. He is a size 8. I have no idea where he get's his huge feet. Afterall, mine are a petite size 10. Sheesh... now I know where all the peanut butter is going!

Did I mention Hayden loves shoes?! He was like a kid in a candy store..."shoe! shoe! shoe! shoe!" It was quite exciting. He couldn't wait to try them all on.

When Life Gives You Lemons

Yesterday, Dirk went back to work for the first time in 2 weeks. Our vacation is over, yet we're still completely in vacation mode. You know how I can tell? This is what was for dinner- homemade Lemon Squares! Yum!

Good Morning Sally Hansen

I am not a morning person. My son follows in my footsteps and usually sleeps in. Sundays are different. Church starts at 9am on Sundays. I also spend about 150% more time on getting ready on Sundays, so I have to wake up at 7:30. Do the math, and you'll find I don't spend any time getting ready on other mornings (that is if I did the math right). Dirk, who wakes up around 5am every morning laughs at me for this.

I hate morning showers. Morning showers are so invasive. They disrupt my calm sleepiness. They require me to shed my cozy pj's. They wash away my eye boogers that help me stay sleepy. I hate morning showers.

Yesterday was a little different. Not with the hating it part. Oh, I still hated it. But I just bought a super cute new skirt, and I was excited to wear it this morning. I splurged. I went shopping at the outlet malls, and Julie made me do it. I'm blaming it on Julie. I spent $35 on a skirt at Banana Republic- my coveted store. I never (ahem... rarely) spend that much on a single item of clothing. This was the only thing I bought for myself that shopping trip- that and a new toaster.

My skirt was perfect. I couldn't wait to wear it. I also had a new necklace to wear, which I bought from a little surf shop last week. I couldn't wait. I was sure to be the cute, trendy, Relief Society lady that day.

I woke up with a pinched nerve in my back. I kept going. Happens all the time. Pop an 800 mg ibuprofen. No problem.

I couldn't open my eyes. I slept with my contacts in. Those eye boogers I love so much had completely taken over my eyes. I looked like a creature out of one of Dirk's sci-fi channel specials. At least I think that's what I looked like. I couldn't really see. I stumbled my way into the invasive early morning shower. I hate Sunday mornings.

After my shower I put on my perfectly planned out new attire. The skirt looks amazing with my new $4 tee from Walmart. It is a white cotton skirt with pretty detail and it accentuates my new tan oh so nicely. I check out my newly shaven legs, and then I look down and see my terrible toe nails. I don't do pedicures. They're a waste of money for me. I wear flip flops almost year round. You'd think this constitutes the need for a pedicure, but not me. I spend way to much time getting my toes dirty. I clean them and paint them myself. In the summer months (which is now), I tend to need to take steel wool to my toes while in the shower, in order to get the dirt out. I forgot the steel wool this morning. I scrub them a little with a wash cloth, and figure a fresh coat of paint on top will do the trick. I pull out my hot pink Sally Hansen friend and apply.

Crap! I got a little on my thumb. (You thought I was going to get nail polish on my skirt, didn't you?)....

I opened the bottle of nail polish remover and proceeded to poor it all over me. It seeped through my skirt and found it's way into girl parts, you really wouldn't want nail polish remover to find it's way into. Wow, did it burn! I was more upset about the skirt. I had Dirk help me get it off- my hot pink polish was still wet- As I carefully stepped out of my new skirt, which now reeked of Sally Hansen's best polish remover, I cursed Sunday mornings! I hopped back into the shower (with my hair already blow dried and my make up already applied) to rid my body of the smelly chemical, before it could make me infertile.

I decided this wasn't going to ruin my morning. Gosh darn it, I was going to church (we've been sort of bad about that lately), and I was going to look cute! I cleaned up my skirt- thank goodness for oxy clean stain spray- and threw it in the dryer. I found my shirt I had discarded, and discovered lovely deodorant marks on my bran new chocolate brown shirt. Maybe they were still fresh and I could save it?? I tried. I think it worked. I never really looked back at it again, so for all I know, I was walking around yesterday with deodorant on my boob. Oh well, I'm sure my necklace covered it.

I went to eat breakfast. I burnt my toast. I went to put my contacts back in. I hoped they had sat long enough to clean out all the guey-ness. I looked in the mirror and my eyes were bright red and blood shot. How did I not notice this before? I pulled my skirt out of the dryer, put it on without even smelling it. I started to reminisce about a day in high school when I broke my Clinique Happy perfume all over my new trench coat and went to school with it anyway- only to find that everyone was gagging near me. Oh well. I looked fabulous. I'd just blame the weird smell on Hayden.

We went to church. Came home. Walked in the door, and our house was fragrant of Sally Hansen's best. Did I mention I hate Sundays?

San An Drivers

I was sitting at a very busy intersection on my way home from Walmart, watching cars drive by me going 45-50 mph. I needed to turn right, but like any sane person, decided to wait until there was a clearing safe enough for me to pull out and not be impaled by one of these cars. Then I start hearing some aggressive honking - you know the type. I realized it was coming from the driver in the car behind me, who was waving her hands in a very upset fashion. I just sat there and waited.

I could see when my chance to turn right was. It was coming, coming, almost here, and.... sirens. I hear sirens and look to my right and see a huge fire truck trying to gigsaw it's way through the intersection packed with cars. Okay, no problem, I'll wait. My light turns green. I'm sit still and wait for the fire truck to pass. Meanwhile, the lady behind me is wearing out her car horn.

The firetruck has to pull into the lane I am planning on turning into. The angry lady still hasn't given up on her horn and starts pulling into the left turn only lane to pull in front of me and turn right. I honk a little and point, hoping she'll see the fire truck. She shows me her favorite finger. Angry lady just couldn't wait a few more seconds.

I don't know if you've ever heard a fire truck honk it's horn while the sirens and lights are on, but it's deafening loud and obnoxious sounding, when it's right in front of you. Angry lady doesn't notice. She pulls around me and turns right. I brace myself, expecting to witness a terrible head-on collision involving the fire truck and angry lady. The fire truck swerves and barely misses her. Angry lady swerves and runs into some orange construction cones.

Okay, okay, I try and give her the benefit of the doubt... maybe she was in a crisis? Maybe someone was on the phone with her telling her of a family emergency? Maybe she desperately had to pee? No, she just pulled right into the next parking lot to go to Good Will... I guess Good Will couldn't wait.

Port Aransas, TX

Every year, we try and make a trip to the beach. We are about 2 hrs. away from Corpus Christi. We've stayed in multiple hotels there, and even gone camping on the beach. It's always fun, but never spectacular. A couple years ago, G&G Pooley came to visit. They headed down to the coast to visit a friend who had a condo down in Port Aransas/Aransas Pass area... sorry, I can't remember the deatails. What I do remember is that my lovely grandparents suggested we try that place out next time we made a beach trip, as the beaches were much nicer there. I kept that in mind, and now I have to say a big 'THANK YOU' to my grandparents. We drove down to Port Aransas on Sunday afternoon and stayed there through Wednesday. We absolutely loved it!

To get to Port Aransas, you have to put your car on a ferry and float accross. Our little ice ninja (the subaru) had never been on a ferry before... so of course we were excited about this. It wasn't exciting at all... yet, of course I still loved it. I'm kind of a nerd like that! When we got off the ferry we were in this tiny little island town. It had a great feel to it. The buildings were all weathered from the salty winds blowing. There were small town beach/surf shops everywhere. The people were so friendly, not like over in Corpus, where they seemed to be annoyed by tourists... these people loved us. I love tiny little towns. They remind me of home, even if they don't have anything in common. This place didn't have anything in common with my hometown, except it was tiny and had lots of funny, bright colored houses... only these people re0ally had an excuse to have the teal green or purple houses! Beach houses are so fun. They range from the size of my son's bedroom, about 100 sq. feet, to huge mansions. The tiny ones are my favorite. They're so eclectic and fun, and painted great colors, that you could only get away with if you're near the ocean. Anyway- the town was great. It made me happy just driving around.


We stayed in a big, huge condo building. The condo's are privately owned and partial year occupied, but mangaged and rented out like hotel rooms the rest of the year. We found the Sandcastle Condos online, and looked up some reviews, and found nothing but very happy customers, so we decided to give it a shot. We loved the place so much, we've already decided that so long as we're visiting in the off-season, when it costs less, we'll plan on staying here. The rooms at the Sandcastle are all decorated and designed to whatever the owners wanted, but through their website, you can look at pictures of each individual room. We chose one that was newly remodeled. It had a brand-new kitchenette with granite counters, and a gorgeous tile backsplash. The bed was new, and had a nice bed-spread...not one of those funky colored/designs you find in most mid range hotels. The walls weren't pink or turquoise - the whole place was put together like a very classy, nicely done home. It felt nice to be in a hotel room that we actually enjoyed as much as the activities outside. Anyway, I'm sure you don't care about the room- but it really was great! We had a balcony with a pool and beach view.







The condo was just steps away from the beach. It had it's own private boardwalk, so getting to the beach was no problem at all. It was a great place to stay with a little kid. The location made it so easy to walk back and forth to the beach, multiple times a day. We didn't have to worry about packing all kinds of gear and diapers and food. When we got tired of the salt and sand, we had a lovely pool and jacuzzi to play in. There were also beautiful grounds both manicured and natural, that we could wander when we needed a change. There were beautiful flowers and birds and turtles all over the place. It truely was a relaxing week.

"Up!.... Mom!..... Beach!"

Hayden loved the beach. He loved the birds, the sand, the water, and finding treasures hidden in the seaweed. Our first day there, we went for a walk down to the water while we were waiting to check into our room. We weren't sure if Hayden would like it or not. Last summer we went to Santa Monica beach, and he was pretty scared - but he was younger, and there were LOTS of people there, which makes him nervous. As we walked toward the water, Hayden refused to hold my hand, and just ran right in. He just wanted to walk farther and farther into the deep water. It was up to his chest before he decided it was time to turn around and yell, "Daddy!" and go running back to Dirk. Then he did it again, and again. Each time going as far out as he could. We did this for about an hour.



I taught him the word, "beach" before we went. When we got there, I saw it click in his mind. He seemed to know exactly what the word meant. He picked up "swimming" on his own. For the next 4 days, everytime we were in the room or in the car, he would beg, "beach! beach! swimming!" Our first night was almost impossible to get him to sleep. Probably a combination of not being in his own bed, and all the excitement. He finally fell asleep, but woke up as the first tiny bits of sunlight were streaming in the window. His pack n' play was next to my side of the bed. I heard him waking so I opened my eyes. He saw me, stood up and yelled in a very commanding voice, "Up! Mom! Beach!" I couldn't help but laugh. So we got up, ate some breakfast, and went for an early morning walk down to the water to watch the sun rise.

Sand Art

We got to our beach condo, in Port Aransas, but had to wait an hour to check in. So we went for a little stroll on the VERY crowded beach (not even close to as crowded as Santa Monica last year). We found out there were so many people, because a sand sculpture weekend contest was just finishing up. There were some amazing sculptures there, so I thought I'd share.

Sea World

Dirk, Hayden, and I went to Sea World on Friday with Julie and Kelsey and her son, Michael. I LOVE Sea World. I'm a super - dork - kid when it comes to animals/zoos/aquariums, etc. I was practically jumping up and down just anticipating the trip. The fact that we get in for free (another one of those lovely military benefits), and only have to pay parking and lunch, definitely adds to the excitement! Also, this year, I was especially excited, because I had some girl friends to go on the roller-coasters with me, while Dirk and Hayden and Michael stayed behind!

I wasn't sure how long Hayden's attention span would last with the shows. He absolutely LOVED every second of them! He would hardly take his eyes off of Shamu, but only to move to a different position for a better view! He clapped when he was supposed to, held his arms up high, begging Shamu to splash us when he was supposed to, and waved back to Shamu when he (I think it was a he) waved to us. I thought I was in love with Sea World for the amazing animals and rollercoasters that I finally got to ride. But the best part, by far, was seeing the look of amazement in my son's eyes all day. It was the best!

Now I'm just going to dump a whole bunch of pictures on you in no particular order or labeling.. enjoy :)







What a terrible job ;)

Hayden was in serious need of a diaper change - hense Dirk's face - but Hayden never noticed!

Me, Julie, Dirk, Hayden

All the scratches and injuries - sad

Hayden waving back to Shamu

Wow that was a lot of pictures! It was hard to narrow it down- I took almost 600! Sheesh! No wonder my batteries died right as we were walking out of the park!