Happy Thanksgiving!

There is so much to be thankful this year!  Above all I am thankful for my family, our good health, and good fortune.  It is hard not to remember how blessed you are when every time you turn on the tv you see stories of families who are dealing with job loss or illness.  I have a beautiful healthy son who I get to stay home with every day, I have a happy healthy marriage, a cozy home, and a husband who is not fearing the possibility of job loss. 

Over the past few years the holidays have taken on a bittersweet feeling.  If you have never moved away from your family (aside from those college years) you will never know what it is like to miss the holidays.  For the past two years we have been invited to Milan’s friend’s house for Thanksgiving.  It is a wonderful time and we are so grateful for them to invite us.  But there is something to be said about being “home” for the holidays.  While I won’t complain about the mild Georgia weather (you all know I hate cold weather) I have to admit I do miss the windows in the house being steamed up on the inside from the heat of the oven and cool air outside.  I can smell the turkey cooking in the oven and I can feel the breeze in the house from cracking the window to cool off the   kitchen.  You can take a girl out of the north but you can’t take the north out of the girl. 

I really look forward to the day my little family grows and we start some of our own holiday traditions.  I can’t wait for Eli (and his future siblings) to request the food I make year after year.  Hopefully we will be able to host some of the holidays and everyone can come to visit us wherever we may be.  I hope that no matter where we are in the country we will be able to give our children some of the same memories we grew up with (hopefully with a little less snow than we were used to!). 

Here are a few pictures from this year’s Thanksgiving at Kevin & Shea’s house.  They had a house full of people and they still made room for us to squeeze in at their family table.  Thank you both for making us feel like we were “home.”

Eli had so much fun playing with Sam and the other kids.

When Kevin invited us he invited ALL of us! 

Luckily Caroline was there to help keep Eli out of “trouble.” 

Like pulling on Shea’s drapes for example!

 

“Who wants more turkey?”  “I do, I do!”

Time to go out and play!

 

Eli Hayden Presidential Candidate: 2044.

Presidential candidate in the making?……….

I’m talking about Eli not Milan for those of you who get to follow my husband’s political views on Facebook!  While sports has always been Milan’s #1 love I think politics are becoming his new passion.  If you think he carries on about his views on Facebook imagine what it’s like in our house!  :)

Anyway, back in the 2008 primaries Milan and I voted for Mike Huckabee.  We continue to be big fans of Huckabee and were so excited yesterday when we got to go to his book signing at the Borders Book Store in Athens.  While we were there we found out that Huckabee was going to be taping his talk show live at the Borders in Atlanta that afternoon.  Since we didn’t have any plans we decided why not go?!  The best part of this for me was his special guest of the day was Paula Deen!!  So off we go to Buckhead to see Huck’s show.  Since we had Eli with us we couldn’t actually be on the show so we just watched from the balcony at Borders.  Eli had so much fun in Borders.  Why haven’t I been visiting the bookstore more often? He was all over the children’s department.  Now that he is walking it is so much fun to go places and let him explore his environment.

Milan and I always joke around about which sport Eli is going to play when he “grows up.”  As of yesterday though we have decided that Eli might just grow up and choose to go into politics instead of sports.  If he wanted to run for president the first election he would able to run in would be in the year 2044.  If Eli is anything like Milan, which we already know they have identical personalities, then Eli will do just fine in politics.  He will be able to go many rounds arguing his point of view and not taking no for an answer.  While I am sometimes amazed at the way Milan carries on about his opinions I am proud of him for having an opinion.  I am proud of him for knowing what he believes in and standing up for it.  I am proud of him for not caring about what other people think and not walking on eggshells in order to be politically correct.  So having said that we may very well have a little politician in the making at our house.  Our country is headed down a long road for Eli’s generation and maybe just maybe Eli will become someone who makes a difference in the world. 

This was one of the most enjoyable days we have had out and about in quite a while.  Sometimes the best days are the impromptu ones! 

Milan and Eli waiting patiently for Governor Huckabee

 

Eli asking Huckabee if he will be running in 2012

Eli waiting for Huckabee to return to his bus.  Maybe Huckabee needs a little guy to help him promote his book.  Eli could be a “Huckababy”

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Hanging out in Borders waiting for Paula Deen to arrive so they could start the show.

A bird’s eye view of the show

Here she is Ms Paula Deen!  I was so excited to see her.  I love Paula.  You may recall that I got to meet her son Bobby last time we ate at The Lady & Sons in Savannah.  While Milan and I were browsing the books we ran into Paula’s husband Michael doing the same thing.  They are the cutest couple!  Captain Mike was just wandering around and no one was bothering him.  It was pretty cool.

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All this fun made us hungry so we ate at Maggianos (our favorite restaurant).  Eli’s too since he can’t get enough of the bread and oil.

Oh so tired

The perfect end to a perfect day

The fun has just begun!

The past month at the Hayden household has been full of laughs and also full of cries. Eli has learned to walk and in doing so he has taken lots of spills. He has had countless bruises on his cheeks and forehead along with cuts in his mouth and on his lip. I know it is part of the process but it just kills me when he hits the floor.

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This is one of Eli’s favorite toys, Bob the Lion. I have no idea why I started calling this thing Bob but that has come to be his name. Eli pushes him all over the house. I’m pretty sure we can give Bob a lot of credit for Eli’s learning to walk.

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Hmmm, what on earth did we do before Gymboree? I think I look forward to going just as much as he does. Eli loves Gymboree. He and Harrison have so much fun together. It’s a great place to practice walking. At least he has lots of mats to cushion the fall! We have started going to the class on Saturday morning so that Milan can participate in the fun. It is so cute seeing him play with Milan at a place where you usually just see Moms. Eli is one lucky little guy!

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This game here is another favorite toy around the house. This is the cutest thing! It keeps count of the baskets you make and plays music to countdown the seconds you have left to shoot the ball. It’s Eli’s first taste of playing basketball and I love it! It has been a blast teaching him how to throw the ball and slam dunk it. I try to play with him during the day but there is no denying that he loves playing with Milan after work much more!

I went grocery shopping one Sunday by myself and when I came home this is how Milan had Eli dressed. I about fell on the floor when I saw Eli wearing a Bears shirt. I was hoping it would bring the Bears some good luck but that has yet to happen!

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All I can say is this is what happens when I turn my back for one minute.

I just got Eli’s hair cut for the 5th time and yet there is still enough hair for Milan to make a little mohawk.

I don’t know why we spend our money on toys when all kids really want to play with is stuff you already have in the kitchen. He loves this wisk.

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I love this kid!

Look out world cause here I come!

11 months!

                1 month                                 2 months                               3 months

 

                 4 months                               5 months                               6 months

                                                 

                7 months                              8 months                                    9 months

 

              10 months                                11 months

Our Little Weeble Wobble

It’s official… Eli is walking!! Within just one short week Eli went from taking a couple of tiny little steps to full blown walking. Now don’t get me wrong, he looks like a drunken sailor most of the time. When he is in a hurry he swerves all over the place and other times he walks so carefully it’s almost as if he’s trying to prove he can walk without being a weeble wobble! There can’t be anything cuter than watching a diaper butt waddle around the house. Wait. Didn’t I say that when he started crawling? Oh well. Each stage seems so cute to me. :)

I have been trying endlessly to get some good video footage of Eli walking. This is the best I could do for now. Eat your hearts out Grandparents!

Chew Toy

Best friends share everything.  The same goes for a boy and his dog.  Especially when that little boy is teething. 

If you would have asked me a year ago if I would let Eli share his toys with Jack and vice versa I would have said NO!  I also would have said something else like “that is disgusting!”  Well here we are one year later.  Everything on the floor is fair game.  I have given up on trying to keep the dog toys separate from the baby toys.  This however is a first!  Eli is teething and apparently this rawhide made his mouth feel better. 

(Just for the record… this is one toy I do not let the boys share after this picture was taken!)

Happy Halloween!

Eli’s first Halloween!  Our little lion was not too sure about this Halloween stuff!  We went trick or treating with his friend the fireman (Anders) and his friend the spider (Caroline).  Anders and Caroline are walkers so they really enjoyed walking up to the doors with their candy baskets.  Since Eli had to be carried we would walk up to the door with him and he’d start crying the minute someone appeared.  I can’t imagine how overwhelming all the decorations, costumes, and strangers are to a 10 month old.  I’m sure next year will be a lot different!  I did get some sweet pictures to capture the memories!

Eli got to spend Halloween with his Grandpa!  That made it all the more memorable!  What a lucky little lion! :) We had a lot of fun while Grandpa was here. 

We all went out to dinner to a nice Italian restaurant in Athens.  Eli did a great job showing off his very good table manners.  He had a lot of fun playing with Grandpa.  Grandpa also had fun feeding Eli his pasta and bread. Yum! 

Eli & Grandpa hanging out in their jammies (Grandpa bought Eli some new ones that actually fit!  He is growing out of everything!)

  

Eli spent a lot of time crying on Halloween.  He is teething again and he did not like all of this Halloween business!

  

This is the pumpkin Eli picked out at the pumpkin patch.  Mama cleaned it but Eli was definitely interested in all the textures! 

 

Eli with his best friends Anders and Caroline.  We are so lucky to live in a neighborhood with such good friends.  The three Mamas walk together every morning while the babies take a nice long ride around the neighborhood! 

Happy Halloween!!