Arriving May 2010...

We are so excited to announce that Hayden will become a big brother next spring! We are expecting baby May 27th. Hence the late thank you cards, no updates and going to bed at 7:30 (before Hayden!) I am finally starting to feel better (now 12 weeks along), yeah second trimester! Hopefully more to come now that I am not laying on the couch ALL the time...

The Zoo and Wild Animal Park

We have taken full advantage of our zoo passes with summer. I love taking Hayden to the zoo because a flood of new words comes with it. My favorite has been okapi. An okapi is a relative of a giraffe (in case you didn't know) and at swim lessons they have an okapi toy, this is Hayden's favorite. For the first few weeks, he clung to it while he adjusted to class and his instructors until he lost it to a newcomer who needed it much more. Two months later, we went to the zoo with two of my girlfriends from colllege. After we passed the tigers ("roaaaaar!" says Hayden) we came to the okapi and Hayden point and screams "kapi, kapi, opi!" I was shocked, we hadn't talked about the okapi since June and he just blurted it out when we saw them. I LOVE this kid!

Summer with the Brandows

It has been an amazing summer here... we have kept super busy doing anything but stay inside. We have gotten to take advantage of lots of beach days, an obscene 18 days in Maui and local attractions, Legoland, the Zoo and the Wild Animal park. We had all our friends with kiddos over to BBQ and check out jazz in the park down the street. The kids were so cute eating together at their picnic table. Labor day is almost here and I feel like summer has just flown by! Now we are rounding the summer out with a massive heat wave and we can't justify going outside for anything that doesn't involve water!

Here are some highlights from our summer...

"Hat"

Hayden has a new love for hats (a battle I was fighting for 19 months!) just in time for Naya's Madd Hatter bday party.  He can't get enough of hats, everyone should be wearing a hat, he has to try on every hat he sees and points out everyone who is wearing a hat!

no nap+ big mess x 2 kids = long monday disguised as tuesday

wow!  Looks like a bomb went off, actually, I think a bomb did go off!

Stop and Smell the Flowers

Hayden loves flowers... or I guess Hayden loves to smell flowers.  He will stop in the middle of a meal and start sniffing nonstop.  He is trying to smell the flowers in the middle of the table and doesn't stop until he actually gets to smell them.  He even tries to smell the flowers on my skirts and tops!  So sweet!  This particular day, Hayden was loving the trumpet vine that grows over our swing.  He was so precious standing on his tip toes to get a really good sniff.  Flowers are even more exciting now that he was discovered bees.  Now when we are walking, he can spot a bee from a mile away and lets everyone know, "Bee, Bee... BEE!"

It reminds me of the flower sermon (not to get all serious but I love this story).  The Buddha was about to give a much anticipated sermon and when he was about to walk on stage, he noticed a lotus flower at his feet.  He picked it and walked on stage.  He held up the flower and said nothing.  One man in the crowd smiled with pure joy.  This moment was Mahakasyapa's transcendence into Nirvana.  There are many interpretations of the Flower Sermon, spirituality comes from direct experience rather than scripture; all things come and go, transient like the flower; the concept of "suchness," things are just as they are; or an enlightened mind (ego-less mind) springs from the egotistic mind just as the lotus flower springs from the mud.  When I think of this story I am reminded that life is beautiful and amongst all the mud and muck, there is a lotus flower to be found.

Tractors (a.k.a. "Kaaaaaaa!")

Is there anything cooler than a tractor?  Definitely not, especially when you get to ride on the real thing!  Hayden loves the farm and every tractor on it.  He calls them cars (everything with wheels is a car) but a tractor has added enthusiasm.  When we went to visit over spring break, Hayden was beaming when he got to sit on a real tractor and "drive it" but as soon as Grandpa fired it up, he wanted to be as far away as possible.  Now that we are far away from real tractors (except for the flower fields) Hayden has his toy farm, tractor and trailer included and tractor books to keep the memory alive.