Keeping in Teutsch

I just reopened my online monogramming boutique so I just wanted to use this post as a shameless self-promotion of Hayden & Jules. :)

Below are some of my favorite things that I offer. Most of them involve applique (using fabric to form letters or a design). I really enjoy making the applique names on various things because of how creative you can be. The customer gets to choose the fabric they want used, so it also allows them to be creative as well and to have a hand in custom-making what they are buying.

My website can be found at www.haydenandjules.com.

 John Hayden turned a year old today! Here's his monthly update:

--He weighs about the same as he did last month (23-24 lbs.). I'm not quite sure exactly how long he is, as it's hard to get him to stay still long enough to measure him.
--John Hayden is a rock star at eating, and I NEVER thought I'd be saying that when we was refusing baby food just a few short months ago! He's completely off the bottle, formula, and baby food. I've got him on soy milk to see if it helps with his congestion. He seems a little better, but I'm giving it a few weeks before I decide whether it will be a permanent thing or not. He loves to eat and has a great appetite!
--He's still in size 4 diapers, 12-18 month pajamas, and 12 and 18 month clothing.
--He's still a great sleeper and we've even got him napping in his crib! We really owe it to daycare, though, for making that happen. He was moved up to the one year old room last week and they don't have cribs. They take their naps on a mat on the floor (although someone has to sit beside him and pat him on the back/bottom until he goes to sleep). Anyway, because of that, it's been easier to get him to nap in his crib. My baby is growing up! (There are also no high chairs in his room. They feed them at a little table and he also does "art time" and we get a coloring sheet sent home every day with scribbles on it. All this growing up makes me sad!)
--John Hayden is officially walking now. He took his first step the day he turned 11 months and has gotten better and better over the past month. He's still wobbly and still falls, but he pretty much walks everywhere now. He also finally cut that 8th tooth and is now working on his one year molars (I saw at least one peeking through on top, not sure about the others.) John Hayden also mimics our words a lot, saying "no, no," "unh, unh," "stop," and "uh, oh." And he calls Juliette "jet" or "yet." He loves going outside and sliding, and I'd love to report that he has stopped trying to get into everything he shouldn't, but that's just wishful thinking!
--We celebrated his birthday tonight by taking him to Chuck E Cheese's for the first time. He loved the little toddler rides and wasn't scared of Chuck E (unlike his sister). We also got a cookie cake, so he got to have a tiny piece after he ate some pizza. We're having his birthday party this Saturday at my parents' house, so you can check back next week for pictures from it.

He crawled over into the toy box in the living room.

Trying to ride the school bus.

His first trip to the Pumpkin Patch. He LOVED the pumpkins and didn't want to leave.

His first Halloween. He didn't get to go trick-or-treating because it was raining too bad! :( He was R2D2 from Star Wars and Juliette was C3PO.

Cuddling with Lambchop while sleeping.

 John Hayden was 11 months old on Saturday (we were out of town and I'm just now finding the time to write this). Here's his monthly update:

--He weighs around 23-24 pounds. Maybe I've just gotten use to carrying him around, but he doesn't seem so heavy to me now and I really think he's starting to thin out.
--He's still eating his baby food good and still getting 24 oz. of formula a day, and he even eats some table food too, especially bread. I've started letting him have baby Goldfish as well and he loves those. I've got to admit, I'm not really looking forward to this next month...to transitioning him completely to a sippy cup (which he dislikes, by the way) as well as to table food. It stresses me some days...mostly because I don't ever feel like he is eating enough, but I somewhat remember the little bird-like appetite that Juliette had at this age and I know he'll survive! Tonight he ate what we had for dinner (plus almost half a banana) so I feel good about the transition, but tomorrow night will probably be a different story. Haha!
--He's still in size 4 diapers, and completely in 12-18 month pajamas now (he outgrew the 9-12 month ones). He's still in 12 and 18 month clothing as well...12 month pants and 18 month onesies and shirts. I guess that means he's short legged.
--He's still sleeping great at night, still hit and miss at daycare with his naps, and still napping at home in the swing. I HAVE to get him out of that swing this month! Not looking forward to that either!
--John Hayden is into EVERYthing! He will wear you out just keeping him out of stuff. He can stand alone in the middle of the floor really good now and can even get up to standing by himself (without pulling up on something). He is trying so hard to walk...even taking a few steps before falling. We were at my parents on Sunday and they said he took three little steps, but I wasn't in there to see it, so it doesn't count as his first steps! Haha! He won't practice walking to you...will just sit down if you try to get him to. Instead, you have to just watch him really closely while he's playing and then he'll start trying to do it or, if all else fails, bribe him with snacks. I'm almost certain he'll be walking by his first birthday! He can now clap and wave (although it's easier to get him to clap for you than to wave) and he says what sounds like "bye-bye" as well and sometimes it sounds like he says "sister." He likes to play a little rough and he thinks it's hilarious to knock stacked up things down. He also thinks pretty much anything Juliette does is funny.
He's still working on cutting that 8th tooth (he's got four on top and three on the bottom) and his favorite toys are the small balls that go with other toys and the Little People bus.

His new "Born on the Bayou" shirt. (He really was!)

His first Saints shirt.

Getting into the trash can and a picture that shows him standing up by himself in the middle of the floor.

Looking like a little man with his tie.

 John Hayden was 10 months old yesterday. (He wouldn't sit still for a picture unless I gave him the camera case, so this was the best picture I could get.) Here's his monthly update:

--He weighs around 23 lbs., so he hasn't really gained much recently.
--He's still eating his baby food good and still getting 24 oz. of formula a day. He likes his Cheerios and banana puffs, and will eat some table food, but eats his baby food better than it.
--His diaper and clothing sizes haven't changed: size 4 diapers, as well as 9-12 month pajamas (although I put him in 12-18 month ones as well even though they are a little big) and 12 and 18 month clothes, although his 18 month stuff fits a little better.
--He's still sleeping great and finally is taking some naps at daycare, but it's still a little hit and miss with that. Some days he'll take a good nap there and other days not. He naps great at home...in the swing (although we don't turn it on). He won't nap in his crib and considering he's not far from a year old, we need to work on getting him out of the swing for naps.
--John Hayden has gotten fast crawling on his knees, pulls up on everything, gets into everything, and can be quite destructive. He's cruising a lot and has even started letting go and standing alone for a few seconds. And in just the past few days he's gotten more control while he is standing alone and instead of falling down, he will squat down. He can also walk with his walking toy. He definitely says "ma-ma" now along with "da-da" and "ba-ba," but doesn't say it as much as he says "da-da." Oh, and he shakes his head no, but he's been doing that for a couple of months now. He has almost got the waving and clapping down, but not quite there yet. He's got 7 teeth now, and one more he is cutting. He's super happy and laughs a lot, and he's still great to take out to restaurants (which is shocking considering he won't sit still any where else...even in the bathtub).Oh, and the other day he was peeking underneath the bathroom door and banging on it, wanting Matt to come out. I thought it was pretty cute...and funny!

Walking behind his toy.

He loves mirrors. (We were in a shoe store.)

Since John Hayden gets monthly updates and Juliette never has (since I didn't start the blog until she was much older), I figured an update was in order. Now, reading through the Q and A with her and the Juliette-isms, you probably feel as if you know her pretty well, but I wanted to touch on some things that I'd like to have as a reminder--a snapshot, I suppose--of how she was at this age.

Juliette at age 7...

...dances like no one is watching. Everywhere. Anytime. Whenever music is playing. And she doesn't care if someone is watching. At least once a week she wants to show you a dance that she made up.


...reads at what is probably a 4th grade level. (She's in 2nd grade.) At the end of 1st grade, she was supposed to be reading at an H or I (they use a letter scale) and she was reading at an N.

Reading on vacation.

  ...is an amazing big sister. She's a huge help and loves to make John Hayden laugh. The other day after saying the blessing at dinner, she said, "Thank you, God, for making John Hayden chubby" and then told us his chubby cheeks were so cute.

...can do long addition and subtraction in her head up into the thousands, although she says she likes addition better. Now, the higher you get, it takes her a little longer (maybe a minute), but adding in the tens (such as 45 + 63) she can do fairly quickly. She just started asking us to call out "number sentences" last week, so I'm still in awe since I didn't realize she could do this.

...is a prayer warrior. And she knows the power of prayer (since she prayed on her own--without knowing we were wanting a baby--for God to put a baby in Mommy's tummy and a month later there was one). Ask her to pray for something or someone, and she will pray at every meal and bedtime every day until you tell her she doesn't have to anymore. It's not unusual for her to pray at her own prompting for a sick friend or teacher. When Matt and I comment that we are done having kids (which is usually said when I'm giving baby stuff away that John Hayden has outgrown), Juliette tells us that she's going to pray for another one, and I tell her that's okay...we're good!

...requests to listen to Radiohead and other bands like them all the time. When it comes to music, she's definitely "cooler" than I am.

...chews or sucks on the ends of her hair. Maybe it's a nervous habit...I don't know...but it drives me crazy!

...finally learned to ride her "big" bike (that she got from Christmas last year) a couple of weeks ago. She's been so afraid of falling off of it that she refused to learn. Matt tried to teach her, but has zero patience for those kind of things, so I taught her, running along beside her, feeding her compliments and motivating lines about how she can do it. The next day, Matt took her out riding and she took off way ahead of him and did an awesome job riding all over campus. The day after that, they went out again, and, of course, she fell and skinned her knee and has made excuses for not wanting to get back on it again. In teaching her to ride her bike, I can't help but think about our different parenting styles--me, running beside her, within arms reach to prevent falls, Matt, hanging back, letting her suffer the first fall, but both of us encouraging her to get back on again.

...dislikes the color yellow, a lot!

...talks like a teenager sometimes. She told Matt the other day that something was "cray, cray" (crazy).

...still curls up in my lap (with her legs hanging off) to cuddle.

...has a pretend class that she teaches in her room every day after school.

...likes her downtime and gets upset if she doesn't have time to play in her room every day.

...still can't tie her shoes. She's left handed and I'm convinced it's causing the problem.

...loves the Crayola aisle at Target and would hoard markers and crayons if I let her.

...doesn't like softball as much as we wish she did. In fact, she says she's probably not playing again this next year and that Matt could just coach other people's kids. When Matt told her he couldn't coach if she didn't play, she said, "Well, I might play if you go easy on me and hard on the other kids." Haha!

She might not like to play, but she sure looks cute doing it!

 ...says the funniest things and most of the time she doesn't realize she's being funny!

...is like a fish in water. She LOVES to swim and has gotten really good at it. So good, that I no longer feel the need to harp on Matt to stay so close to her in the water. (See parenting styles comment above. It would apply here as well. Haha!)

Getting ready to go swimming in Galveston on vacation.

 ...is a thrill seeker. She loves fast rides and would go on a roller coaster if we let her.

At the Boardwalk in Bossier.

 ...will leave us sweet little notes sometimes. I especially love this one that she gave to John Hayden (well, she technically didn't "give" it him, since he would have promptly eaten it, but you know what I mean):

...is detail-oriented, just like her momma! If Starbucks doesn't put the swirl of chocolate on the top of the whipped cream on her mocha frappuccino (yes, she drinks them in moderation), she notices and gets upset with them. The elevator button on the top floor of UL's library that is pointing up instead of down annoys her (just like it does me). And she can describe the clothes and hair of someone that she saw only briefly in great detail.

...is long legged, tans super easily, and has long eyelashes. I envy her! Haha!

...always wants to take a picture with the mannequins at Old Navy. Always! Matt has quite a few pictures of her with them through the last few years on his Facebook.

Juliette's 7th birthday was on Saturday and we celebrated all day long...mostly with food! Matt got donuts and kolaches that morning for breakfast; for lunch Juliette wanted Chick-fil-A; and then there was pizza and cupcakes at her party, followed by dinner at a local Cajun place (where they surprised her with a brownie and ice cream  for her birthday). Here are pictures of her birthday party. (I've got one more post about Juliette for this week that I didn't get posted this week, so check back in the next day or two for it.)

All the kids that were at her party, minus one little boy who was hiding in the back.

John Hayden got to play in the "under 5" area. He wasn't so sure about it.

One of Juliette's friends from 1st grade.

Matt got in to play with John Hayden.

Singing "Happy Birthday" to Juliette.

Blowing out the candles. (I forgot to bring the real camera so I had to take pictures on my phone which is why some are fuzzy.)

The "birthday throne" that the kids get to sit on to open their presents.

Juliette got quite a few little handwritten notes along with her presents that were so sweet.

This picture was taken at the restaurant after her party. When Juliette was visiting Matt's parents a few weeks ago before school started, she asked his dad to take her to Office Depot (she loves that place), so he did (and bought her a few "office supplies."). Anyway, he got her a gift card to Office Depot. She was thrilled!