baptism

This past weekend was a very special one for our sweet boy! He was baptized on Sunday at our local church. We had family and friends join us for the special occasion and my parents threw a lovely party for Mr. H. My sister, Emily and my cousin (Nick's BFF) Brendan were the godparents. Unfortunately, our little man wasn't feeling well that day,  so he kept the smiles to a minimum. We did manage to snag a few on this sweet day:

a pretty drive

Ever since Hayden's birth last August, Nick's job has gotten pretty busy and he's been traveling for work more frequently during the week. Weekends have become sacred family time for us to recharge and hang out together. A lot of times we do this at home, in the midst of errands and chores. Other times, we take a long drive- windows down, sun roof open, and Pandora on. We load Baby in the car for a nice long nap, explore a new area of the Bay Area and we finally have time to just talk.  One drive that we took recently was to the Marin Headlands, on the North side of the Golden Gate Bridge. This pretty drive, with it's gorgeous views reminded us just how lucky we are to live here.  Have a beautiful weekend, friends! 

a little water play

It has been H-O-T the last couple days here in the Bay Area- definitely feels like summer already. But oh wait, it's only April! I think we're in for a hot one this year. Anyway, after work yesterday, I decided to set up a little water play station for Hayden as a change of pace, and also something fun to do in the heat.  We plan on getting a little baby pool later this summer, but for now I filled my biggest pyrex dish with water. I brought out a set of measuring cups, measuring spoons, a colander, a set of tongs, and 3 wine corks (because they float in the water and gave Hayden something to practice reaching for).  Oh yes - these pictures were taken post-snack (strawberries) so that explains the red face/shirt.

We set up camp on a towel in the backyard and played in the water for a good 30 minutes or so (a long time for a baby attention span). Hayden loved pulling everything out of the water and dropping it back in. He liked pouring water from the different sized cups and spoons. He also enjoyed just putting his hands in the water and splashing it around. We both ended up a little wet-  which felt nice in the heat.  When he was finished, we gave some of our thirstier flowers a nice drink of play water and headed inside to dry off. 

 We are all about finding exploratory play experiences for Hayden that aren't complicated or over stimulating. We've found that he enjoys simple activities with real-life objects even more than a pile of toys! 

my mother's daughter

It all started with this quilt: 

I got this quilt over Christmas break at Anthropologie. It was on super clearance with a sale on top of that. Plus I had several gift cards. So it ended up being 2 cents out of pocket. No, really... Only 2 cents.  So, I brought it home and began pondering what direction I could take our very neutral (read: boring) bedroom, with this exciting new addition. 

We already had our navy striped euro shams, which tied in nicely with the navy on the quilt. But, there were so many other possibilities in the quilt... green, yellow, light blue, lavender, pink, red. Basically I could go any direction I wanted with the colors. So, I thought about this for a good long, long, long time. 

And then I surprised myself and ended up going with red as an accent color. You see, I've never been a huge fan of red. My mom, however, has pretty much always had red somewhere in her house. She once had a red kitchen, a red dining room. Her car is red... But I've never been drawn to the color. I don't quite know how it happened but I'd pick up something and think that it would look good with the quilt and the item would just happen to be red. 

I'm planning on recovering the bench at the end of our bed with this red ikat fabric:

 I found these reddish/orange shams at World Market this past weekend, and the lumbar pillow from Target:

I even recovered my lampshades and trimmed them with red ikat ribbon:

The room has a long, long way to go, but I'm excited about the direction it's taking and how bright and cheerful it is slowly becoming. My next plans include: finding some matching nightstands, recovering the sconce lampshades on our head board, painting the walls (probably bright white), finding or making curtains,  and hanging some art. We'll get there some day! 

life lately

Life keeps "getting in the way" of documenting our lives via this little blog. It seems like the weeks of this year keep flying by. I looked at my baby app on my phone today and it told me that my sweet little boy is 37 (!!) weeks old which is not to far off from 52 weeks... Yikes! Anyway, even without having time to take "real" pictures or write thoughtful posts, I've been doing my best to snap quick pictures of what we've been up to on my phone..

(Finally broke out my Christmas gift and am slowly learning to sew)

(Dinner outside now that the weather is warm)

(lovely spring flowers from Nick)

(my dinner prep is filled with lively music and laughter)

(Somebody is working hard on standing... we're in trouble!)

(Our bedroom is a hot mess right now as I am am being super indecisive about a plan for it)

(Getting extra healthy for the Spring to lose those last few pounds of baby weight before summertime)

(Thanks to a friend's recommendation, I'm totally obsessed with this book and read it cover to cover in one weekend.)

8 months

Wow! I can't believe we are already at the 8 month mark, with Hayden's first birthday not that far away! This little boy has grown so much this last month. He is trying so hard to crawl (as evidenced by this picture) though he hasn't quite got the hang of it. A day before his 8 month birthday, he started saying "Mama" and holding his hands up to me. Melts my heart every. single. time. (As a side note he's been saying Dada for a few months now and recently started specifying it toward Nick.) Hayden's main mode of transportation is rolling and scooting around. He doesn't stay in one place for long! He is such a curious little guy; always picking things up, examining them and turning them over and over in his hands. He likes to play independently especially with his blocks and cars. He loves to "sing" and especially loves it if you answer him back. This kid looooves  to give big open mouth kisses, all over my face after I get home from work and loves to cuddle. He's been teething hard-core this month, but no chomps to show for it...yet. Maybe next month? He is very ticklish, which Mommy and Daddy adore. He continues to love eating at the table with us and has become quite the big eater (either that or he's slipping Lucy food under the table...) Hayden continues to sleep through the night - I'm not sure what to do with myself; suddenly I have the energy to stay up past 9 pm?! 

baby book shelves

This little mister (who happens to be 8 months old today!) loves books. He likes to spend his time opening and shutting them, eating them, turning pages, and occasionally sitting still long enough to listen to a whole story. Books seem to be a popular gift item and in these past eight months Hayden has accumulated quite a collection. We have two baskets of books in his room and another basket downstairs as well. I decided that what Mr. H really needed for his collection were a few shelves. I've seen several sources online where people use picture ledges as a display for books. 

So on Monday, Hayden, his buddy Brayden, Brayden's mama and I went to Ikea and I picked up 3 short picture ledges for $10 a piece.  Nick, very sweetly, hung them up straight after work.  The shelves are very secure on the wall, so in a few months when Hayden decides they might be a good place to pull himself up, they won't be going anywhere! I couldn't wait to start filling them with books. Even though we didn't fit all his books into these shelves, we downsized from three book baskets to just one. It's nice to still have the one basket so we can take it with us to other rooms in the house. 

 I like how the books add some pops of color in an otherwise fairly neutral room. Plus, it's nice to get the books up off the ground.  

Hayden definitely approves of the new shelves (and books in general)! 

a little more hawaii for your tuesday

Today is the first day back to work and daycare for Hayden and me since our lovely tropical vacation. I shared a quick recap and family picture from the trip, but now I wanted to share the rest of the pictures from our wonderful vacation. We had such a great, relaxing time- the pictures really speak for themselves. Here’s hoping that Nick’s job continues to make these little jaunts to Hawaii an every 3-month occurrence…

 (our condo wall opened up completely and looked straight out onto the beach...)

(Oh yes... Hayden tried cantaloupe for the first time on vacation. He was a fan.)