Yes, we are still painfully watching Hayden try to crawl. Both Matt and I have tried demonstrating how easy it is to get on all fours and crawl around a room, but Hayden just hasn't quite figured it out. We show him how to coordinate his arm and leg movements, we encourage him when he makes 1 centimeter of forward progress, and we pick him up when he has had ENOUGH. Yet still, after weeks and weeks of trying, there is still no crawling in a forward manner-lots of backward progress, but nothing forward. Now I know I should be thankful. Most of my mommy friends with crawling babies look exhausted from chasing their babies all over the place. But the truth is that you want your baby to be advanced (as we say in the Grob family)-you want your baby to crawl at 4 months, so that you can nonchalantly say to your mommy friends, "Oh, my baby started crawling at 4 months, is that early?" It's not that you want to brag or anything, it's just that by having superior offspring, you appear to be a superior parent. And I WANT to be a superior parent. Of course, all of you reading this will say, "Oh you are a superior parent, Amy," but that isn't fair because most of you are my family and you have to say that even if you think I am doing a sucky job.
Regardless of how long it is going to take Hayden to learn to crawl, we practice every day, everywhere. Hayen takes any opportunity he can to flip over onto his tummy and make an attempt. Doesn't matter if he is on the changing table, in his swing, or drinking a bottle in your lap, when he is ready to give it a go, he goes for it. As parents, Matt and I do everything we can think of to get Hayden to crawl to us, but truthfully, he is only interested in Sage, Aston and Alba. As soon as he sees any of them, his eyes light up, he goes into hysterical fits of laughter and tries so hard to crawl over to them (usually resulting in backwards movements). Poor animals-they have no idea what is in store for them in the next few weeks!

16 pounds 5 ounces

As promised, here is the report from the pediatrician visit:

Weight: 16lbs 5oz-30th percenile! (up from 25th)

Length: 27 inches-80th percentile

Head circumference-70th percentile

These numbers equate to a tall and skinny baby with a big head! Thankfully, he looks more proportional in person compared to what he looks like on paper.

Overall, the Doctor was very happy with Hayden's progress physically and developmentally.

Now our job is to work him up to three meals a day by 9 months! Sounds like a fun, messy process. Good thing that Sage is around to clean up Hayden's crumbs.

I thought I would post a video of Hayden's preliminary crawling so you guys can watch his progress. We keep thinking he is going to take off any minute!

Six months and running (almost)

Last week we "celebrated" Hayden's six month birthday. By celebrated, I mean we sang happy birthday to you about 100 times and had an extra serving of apples for breakfast. It was a grand day!

Besides having Hayden's 6 month birthday, there has been a lot of excitement on Willow Lane, starting with the blizzard of '010 (as Matt calls it). We had 12+ inches of snow in 24 hours and let me tell you, that kind of precipitation does not fly in Dallas. Now I understand why there are no live oaks in Colorado-they do not fare well in snowy conditions. You could actually hear the branches snapping in the middle of the night, which was quite eerie when you are trying to sleep in a house with no electricity. The only one that got a good night's sleep Thursday night was Hayden, who didn't notice anything was different except that he was really cold when he woke up Friday morning. We were without power for 3 days, but happily returned home Sunday evening after a vacation at Nana and Poppy's house.

As you can see by the pictures, Hayden is trying to crawl. He is a very determined little crawler and will try to move forward over and over until he is in tears. Typically, he goes backward, but he is beginning to make some forward progress-mostly lunging forward onto his belly. Babies are supposed to sit up first before crawling, but Hayden has NO interest in sitting still. He can sit up on his own, but has little patience once in position. I give him 2 more weeks before he is totally mobile-Whew, we are not ready for that!

Lastly, Hayden has his first tooth and it is a sharp little sucker! He is constantly drooling, sticking his fingers in his mouth and chewing on everything (including my fingers when he can get to them). I can't wait until it gets a little bigger so we can see his toothy little smile.

We are off to the doctor today to get Hayden's 6 month check up! We will see how much he weighs and get a slew of vaccines. I will report back soon!

Blah, blah, blah

Sorry it's been a while since my last post. We have been busy over the past couple of weeks with all sorts of things (none of which I can remember right now) and it is amazing how easily time has slipped away from me.

Hayden has suddenly become very chatty! He has been "talking" for some time now, but over the last 2 weeks, he has really been testing out his vocal capabilities. This sometimes manifests as laughing, yelling, cooing or blahing-today has been a yelling day. For those of you who have spent any time at our house, you realize that this creates a problem because our dog, Sage, does not appreciate Hayden's vocalizations. Competition ensues. Hayden yelling and Sage whining and barking. It's enough to drive you insane. Strangely, our cat, Aston, often "yells" which sounds eerily similar to Hayden's chatter. In fact, a long time ago, (in our previous life) we had a party and had to lock Aston in the guest room so he wouldn't escape. This resulted in loud cat-yelling and one of our guests asked me if we had a baby crying in the other room! The only animal who is quiet around here is Alba and that is only because she hates everything and everyone. Because of this, she follows the rule "If you don't have anything nice to
say, don't say anything at all".

So now that we can hear the beginning of language development, another competition has begun. This time it is between Matt and me. When I leave the room, I can hear Matt saying "Dada dada dada..." and I am constantly pointing to myself and telling Hayden "Mama mama mama..." when Matt is away. You may think that I have the competitive advantage since I am with Hayden all day long, but everyone knows that "d" is easier to say than "m", so I actually have to work longer and harder. I think we both have a long way to go!

This video is not really exciting to watch, but it highlights some of Hayden's newest chatter-so turn up the volume! He only performs when he can't see the camera.