an interview with hayden.

I LOVE interviewing Hayden. This is the 7th interview we have done (the last one was back in June of 2011)(you can go here to see the prior interviews).

I really enjoy doing this. It is so neat to see what his mind is thinking.

So here is the interview in its entirety (note: this is the EXACT wording of both what I said and what he answered… although the items in parentheses are my thoughts/comments regarding his responses - not anything that was actually said). Enjoy!

What is your full name? Hayden Samuel Werner

How old are you? 4-years-old

When is your birthday? January 23rd

What is your favorite color? blue

What is your favorite thing to watch on the tv? Scooby Doo

What’s your favorite thing to eat? Popsicles

What is your favorite candy? chocolate

What is your favorite thing to do? play a lot, watch tv, and also I love eating.

What is your favorite toy? my race car

What is your favorite book? David Christmas because Christmas is my favorite day and I love David doing ChristmasWhat do you want to be when you grow up? police officer

What is your favorite sport? Baseball

Who is your favorite friend? Gabby. Gabby's not in my class, but I still like her. I still like her.

What is your dog’s name? Alfie

What is your favorite animal? Giraffe

What is your favorite number? 8

Why? Because it has 2 circles.

What is your favorite letter of the alphabet? H

What is your favorite shape? A square now because it looks like a square

How are you feeling? good

Where do you live? I live here on Washington Street

What city do you live in? Arkansas

Where does mommy live? here

Where does daddy live? here

Where does Harper live? here

Where does Alfie live? here

Who is your favorite person? Dave

What do you think about your sister? good.

Is there anything else you want to tell me? Nope. That's it.

Anything else? Nothing

Was this fun? Yes. It was.

thanksgiving.

This year we celebrated Thanksgiving three times.

First at my sister's with my mom's side of the family.Then at my grandma's with my dad's side of the family.And lastly at our home with my husband's side of the family.And it was good. We have lots to be thankful for.

six month check-up.

Harper had her 6-month check-up this morning. I am pleased to say that she passed inspection.She now weighs 19lb, 6.5 ounces and is almost 27" long. Her head circumference is 17.8". Percentage-wise that puts her at the 95th Percentile in both weight and head curcumference and at the 85th Percentile in height.

I didn't think her percentiles were still going to be so high - I was wrong. Oh well. We have a big girl - for now.

She is meeting or exceeding all her developmental milestones and is a very happy, healthy girl. Gotta love the Harper Grace.

attempting to crawl.

Harper is trying to crawl. So far she has been unsuccessful. Her attempts have not been effective. But she is getting there and I am sure in a few days/weeks, she will be a crawling machine!

Check her out -

a hot mess - but there are a few "bright sides"

So... in the past 12 hours we have experienced the following events in our abode:

• Black widow spider crawling on our bedroom ceiling - which Randy killed.
• Pipe busting in our basement which caused water from our hot water heater to spray onto the electric panel.
• Randy had to use buckets to drain the hot water heater so the water would stop spraying onto the electric panel (he did this task until 2am).
• Now we have no hot water.
• Randy discovered a "camel cricket" infestation in our basement.
• The plumber we can get through our home warranty won't come until at least Monday - so we aren't going to be using our home warranty - we want/need this problem fixed now. Which means we will have to pay out of pocket - I hope it isn't crazy expensive.
• I NEED to take a shower. Which won't be happening without hot water.
• Randy said that he hates our home - which I know he said out of frustration, but still - it makes me sad.

All this to say, I am feeling a "bit" frazzled - to say the least. I know things could be worse. I do. But I am frazzled nevertheless.

I have my sister's baby shower planned here for Sunday and the house is a mess. Someone was supposed to come and clean it tomorrow, but if we don't have hot water that's going to be tricky.

Boo to all this. I am a dirty mess!

ON THE BRIGHT SIDE - Our pest control person is already scheduled to come today so that will take care of the spider and camel cricket debacle. Also, the busted pipe was only discovered due to the spider. You see, Randy had to go get a ladder from the basement so he could reach and kill the spider. So if the spider hadn't existed, Randy never would have gone down to the basement and discovered the pipe mess. So I guess I am thankful for the spider - and the fact that I noticed the spider. Thank you spider.

And now I want a Coke Zero. The end.

six months.

Harper Grace is now 6-months-old (as of Saturday). She is currently weighing around 19 pounds (last month she weighed 18.5 pounds). Her weight gain seems to be slowing down and I think she is "evening out" to where she is genetically inclined to be.

Her 6-month check-up is scheduled for November 16th - at that appointment we will know where she is falling percentage-wise. I'm thinking she won't be at the 97th Percentile for weight anymore - I think it will be lower. I'm not sure where she will be for height. At her 4-month appointment she was in the 80th Percentile - I think she might be in the 75th Percentile now.

Currently, her favorite thing to do is to look at herself in the mirror. That always makes her smile.

She also enjoys sitting up and playing with her toys and spending time in the exersaucer (she prefers it over the jumperoo).

She can now roll over (both ways) - and has been doing so for about 3 weeks.

She really wants to walk and crawl and seems to be frustrated at her inability to accomplish those tasks. I think she will be much happier when she can move on her own and I think she will be able to do that soon. So pretty soon we will have a happy, mobile little girl.

In general, she takes two naps during the day. They are usually 1.5-hours long. She is sleeping through the night though - from around 7:30/8pm to around 6:30/7am.

During her "wake time" in which she eats, she usually eats 6-10oz. of formula at a time. Although in the evening during her longest wake period she might eat as much as 16oz (during that whole period -not all at once).

She has also been eating some baby food. Not a lot though. She has tried pears, squash, bananas, peas, apples, and sweet potatoes. She really hasn't liked anything. We generally give her "solids" once daily and she eats about 5-7 very small bites per eating session. There have only been two isolated instances in which she has appeared to enjoy the baby food - once with squash and another time with sweet potatoes. Those occassions have been rare though and unique. It's all about the practice though. We certainly aren't concerned about her lack of love for the solids. In time, I am sure she will come to enjoy and appreciate real food.

She now has three teeth. The two middle ones on the bottom that came in when she was about 4.5-months-old and now (as of Saturday) she has another bottom tooth. I can't see any other ones, but I think her upper two middle teeth and the bottom tooth on the other side of the two middle teeth should be making an appearance very shortly.
Of course she is our sweet little big girl and we still enjoy every minute of her. She is certainly a blessing. Our adorable, happy baby who we adore.

it is official - we no longer have two mortgages.

It is official. Our house is sold. YAY! We no longer have two mortgages!

We signed the "closing documents" this afternoon.

Goodbye old home. You provided great memories and we will miss you, Love The Werner Family.

our halloween.

Yesterday was Halloween. It was the first time I have been in a trick-or-treat neighborhood in over 15 years! I was excited. We had well over 400 trick-or-treaters. (I am not being dramatic - there really were that many people.)

Hayden's favorite part of the night - giving out candy. We did some trick-or-treating (we probably went to 5-10 homes), but really his favorite part was sitting on our porch and giving candy to all the people. He said that he liked all the people.

We had invited some friends and family to "do Halloween" with us (which was WONDERFUL). We had two energetic little boys and a somewhat cranky almost 6-month-old. It was a bit hectic. I didn't get ANY pictures. I am sad about this; however, that is what I thought was going to happen. Randy did get some video, so that's good.

Because I knew I probably wasn't going to be able to get any pictures on Halloween, we took some "staged Halloween pictures" Saturday evening before we went to a Halloween party. And they are adorable!

The photos feature Hayden as an astronaut and Harper as a pumpkin princess. (I made up the name for Harper's costume - I don't know what she was. But she sure did look adorable.)

First off we have my favorite picture. I am wearing Hayden's astronaut helmet. How cool am I? Don't be jealous.
Here is Hayden working with the helmet to make it perfect.
Me and Harper - I look kind of creepy.
the kids.Harper - both with and without the helmet (it was Hayden's idea to put the helmet in the pictures - I like the prop).