The Hayes Home

In an attempt to shorten Chris's commute we put our house on the market. Of course, its an awful market for sellers. On the flip side, its a great market for buyers. Or so they say. Well, after 5 weeks on the market, it sold. Woo hoo! Five weeks of keeping the house in show condition, not to mention having to take Ryan and Mazie out for said showings, was enough! Closing is in 2 weeks. Its certainly bittersweet. This was our first home together. Where we came home the day after we married. Where we brought Ryan home from the hospital. On the sweet side, we'll be in a more desirable location, 30 miles closer to Chris's office, and in our neighborhood we're fortunate to have sold at all.

As for our new address...its less than ideal. Let me explain. We couldn't find a house. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't for lack of trying. I looked at many, many, many houses. We actually fell in love with one. Put in an offer. Lost. As for the other homes, well, there were no sparks. So, with our impeding closing date we chose to rent a house for the time being. Its comparable to our current home, in an ideal location.

We're as packed as we can be with 2 weeks til the move. We signed a year lease, with a clause allowing for termination of the lease with a 60 day notice. While I don't want to move right after moving, we'll keep an eye on the market.

Sweetest Birthday Boy Ever

We celebrated at home...

In New York...

And at playgroup...

Seriously, he's the sweetest, most loved, birthday boy ever!

Fourth of July - 2011

One year after Ryan's due date, our little family of three went swimming at Pocahontas State Park. It was Ryan's first water adventure. He loved the water, the kids, and the commotion...all one hour of it!

All things RYAN: 1 year

At 10:39pm on June 27th, 2011, my sweet baby turned ONE. Bittersweet for sure. On one hand he's growing into a wonderful, loving child and on the other he's no longer my little baby. He weighs 22 lbs, 4 oz and is 31 in tall. That's a lifetime weight gain of 16 lbs, 5 oz and a 12.5 inch increase in length.

~ He actually respects the word 'no'. How many people can say that about their 1-year-olds? I'm fully aware this is liable to change at any given minute.

~ Because he recently hit the 30 inch mark, he just transitioned from his infant carseat to his big boy carseat.

~ Ryan still gives open mouth kisses to things/those he loves...people, feet, and animals in his books. But my favorite of his affections is the head nod. It's kinda his signature hug. Sometimes, when someone asks for a kiss, and he doesn't want to kiss them, he simply leans his forehead forward for the said someone to kiss. Even better, he bumps foreheads at random when he wants to show affection. It's so adorable.

~ His blond hair is getting longer and I just love how the curls around the bottom fly out. His cowlicks are going to be lifelong trouble.

~ He continues to give our feet undo attention. He will kiss them repeatedly!

~ He's a great sleeper so long as he's in his bed, sound machine on rain, aquarium nearby, and glowworm in hand. He takes still takes 2 naps and he 'rests quietly' in bed once too. He goes to bed around 6:30pm and sleeps til around 5, 5:30am. It doesn't matter when he goes to bed, he gets up at the same time every morning.

~ He has awesome blue eyes!

~ He is truly a mellow child. Sure, he's active and into everything, but he's actually quite calm. And he's such a good baby.

~ He had his first mall-water-fun experience. He seemed to think it was only so-so.

~ Trying to put shoes on Ryan is like trying to wrangle an alligator.

~ He's a very regimented little boy.

~ He's a great eater. Sure, some days he likes carrots and some days he doesn't.

~ I'm pretty certain he loves the tuperware that houses his blocks more than the actual blocks. Best of all, we play 'smooch face' with the lid. We all do it. Sometimes we kiss each others smooch face.

~ Recently he started playing with pillows. He gets on his knees, holds the pillow up, and then falls down with the pillow. You might need to see it to understand but it's so cute and can entertain him for a good 10 minutes.

~ He still digs a good game of peek-a-boo. Variety keeps it current.

~ He loves practicing walking with his super cool car!

~ He is the most loved baby ever!

1 Year & 1 Day

On June 28th 2011, just 1 day after turning 1, Ryan took his first steps! His actual first steps caught me by surprise and weren't caught on camera. But, of course, his next ones were!

Year One: Part One

- 1 month -

- 2 month -

- 3 month -

- 4 month -

- 5 month -

- 6 month -

- 7 month -

- 8 month -

- 9 month -

- 10 month -

- 11 month -

- 12 month -

Catch Up

It's been crazy around here lately. We sold our house (more info pending). Our computer crashed. I taught a mini-mester for the local community college. So, Hayes Days got the backburner, but I'm back! I'm going to post according to the actual dates things happened, so take a sec and look back starting with his 11 month post.