I can't believe he is TWO! How did that happen?!? He is such a little man now and my baby boy is long gone these days. He's talking, jumping, and running circles around me on a regular basis.

We weren't going to make a big deal out of his party this year, but it happened to work out that we were going to have a family reunion around that time, so we combined the two. People flew in from all over. My Dad and Kathie were in from NY, Cameron's parents were here from Maui, our nephew, Steve, was in from Texas, and our nephew, Chad and his fiance, Mary, and Mike & Kim and their two boys were all in from Eastern WA. Everyone else was from this area.

We had a great time hanging out together. This is the first time that this many people from the family were all together in one place. Hayden felt a little overwhlemed I think. He was in rare form, acting out and doing one naughty thing after another. He hit me, he screamed at people who were trying to help him open his gifts, he freaked out when anyone got near his presents, and he shot down any one who tried to give him a kiss and a hug. We were SO proud...ugh. I think there was just too much attention focused on him and he was feeding off of that. Even though we didn't do a cake (it really wasn't supposed to be JUST a party for his birthday), we did do presents. He received WAY too much stuff, so now we need to weed through his existing toys and rotate things out. He is getting to the age when the boy toys start getting fun. The Legos, the trucks/cars, dinosaurs, trains. Even Cameron and I have fun playing with them!

Hayden has made so many strides with his language lately. He is talking up a storm these days and he has started the infamous "What's that?", just as of yesterday. He hasn't started saying "Why?" yet, but I am sure that isn't far behind. He is like a little running commentary of what he and everyone else are up to. "Poppy outside", "Hayden go outside too". "Hayden eat bunny cracker", "Puppy eat bunny cracker too". He has lots of sidekicks. He has Clifford, Sydney/Cooper dog, bunny, Grover, and his plethora of froggies and duckies and his newly acquired "worm". It is fun to listen to him talk and you can actually have somewhat of a conversation with him now. He keeps adding new words. We can't even keep up or understand everything he is saying.

His eating habits have changed. He would much rather play than stop to eat. So getting him into his seat is challenging sometimes. Dinner is the hardest. Mostly because I think he is tired anyway, since it is getting towards the end of the day at that point. I have started waiting for him to tell me he is hungry before trying to coax him to eat. Unless it gets close to 6pm, then I try and encourage him to eat his dinner. He still eats a variety of things, and tends to like unusual foods still. He tried garbanzo beans for the first time yesterday and seemed to like them. He also tried a wild blackberry on a hike with Grandma. YUM!

As far as sleeping goes (and I shutter to even mention it here), he is doing well. He is over his "nightmare" issues for right now at least and he is starting to sleep in longer in the mornings too. There for a while, even though he was over waking up at night, he was getting up VERY early. Like 5am or so and then we would have to go into his room and lay him back down and say it was still night night time. For the past few days he has been sleeping until after 7am, and yesterday he even slept until 8:15am! Now, I am not saying this is going to last by any means, but I am thankful for the break until a new "phase" begins.

It's a fun time for us right now. Hayden is surrounded by two sets of Grandparents and we have some fun trips planned for the near future. We are headed to Wenatchee next week and then planning for my birthmother, Sandy, and her husband, Greg's, arrival on Sept 6th.

I can't believe my "baby" is headed from two to three now. What an exciting ride this coming year will be!

Check out the photos from his birthday party/family reunion here: http://flickr.com/photos/cjm/sets/72157594237517140/ -- mam