Concentration

I bought Hagen some Sesame Street workbooks for 3 year-olds awhile back and we started one the other night. The one we started was about matching, circling groups of things that had the same number of objects, the difference between big and small, and the difference between more and less. Hagen did a really good job and really listened to the directions. It still seems like he's so small for things like this, but he picked up on it quickly and had a lot of fun doing it. I took a few pictures because he had that adorable tongue-sticking-out thing that kids do when they're concentrating hard. I love it. :-)

Here are pictures of the pages he did the first night. I dated them on the bottom so I wouldn't forget when he did them. It was really fun to see how he did this and to see him think things through. I love how, in the last picture, he didn't always draw a straight line from one thing to the other; he would get there in a roundabout way.

New 'do

Over the weekend, we had decided it was time for Hagen to get another haircut. Hagen's buddy Sam had gotten a buzz cut so we asked if he would let Daddy do that, and he agreed! Shawn shaved his head in the shower and Hagen never fussed once. He did a GREAT job. Hagen seems to like his new haircut and we let him pick out a new puzzle at Toys R Us the next day for doing such a good job and for being such a big boy.

Before...

...and after!

Our neighbors came over on Sunday to play and have dinner. I took these pictures of Liisa and Hagen because they were screaming with laughter over the ball popper. They were having SO much fun. The adults were in the kitchen talking and more than once we wondered if something bad had happened because the laughter was so insane. It was funny.

Last summer, ringworm; this summer, staph...argh!!!

About a week and a half ago, I noticed what looked like a bite on Hagen's lower back. It was sort of oval shaped and had two marks in the middle, like possibly a spider bite. I thought maybe he got bitten at school. He seemed fine so I wasn't worried - I think at least half a day or so had passed before I noticed it, and he hadn't been acting differently, nor did he have a fever or anything. A few days later I was taking off his clothes to give him a bath and noticed he had a huge rash around the mark. Plus he had what looked like two more bites on his bum and one on his neck. I was worried it might be staph, so I took him to the pediatrician the next morning. Sure enough, it was staph. UGH. She said it had probably spread and the marks on his neck and bum were related to it - not bug bites. I felt terrible. Luckily he had not had any symptoms of a worse infection - he had no loss of appetite, sleeping problems, fever, etc. She put him on antibiotics and a strong ointment and now it's almost gone. This picture was taken the day we went to the doctor. He's almost back to normal now, thank goodness. I made the mistake of reading about staph...it could have been a LOT worse.








Chris, Emily and Sam came over on Father's Day to hang out with us and Sam and Hagen played outside for a little bit with the Better Batter.

Hagen now wears his REAL hockey helmet and gloves! Shawn got a new helmet a couple of weeks ago and apparently he was trying it on and Hagen said he wanted one. Shawn told him he DOES have a real one, so he put it on and now he loves it! Shawn also taped Hagen's stick like his at Hagen's request. I think we'll try ice skating again sometime soon; I asked him if he wanted to try it again and he said yes. Baby steps....

We went to Granbury to Opa and Oma's for the 4th. This is Mom's Star-Spangled cupcake tier. So festive! Sitting behind it is Bob, Oma's niece's husband (got that??).

Granddad and Hagen playing baseball. When we play baseball we sing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" at the beginning of each "game". Hagen is pretty good at hitting a ball that is thrown to him - not bad for 3, I think!

Shawn made Hagen a do-rag to wear under his helmet, just like Shawn wears for hockey. I love this picture of my dad and Hagen. :-)

The one time a year I will dress us in the same clothes...

This is how Hagen puts his stick and gloves down when he's done or taking a break. It's kind of hard for him sometimes to get the stick in his hands when the gloves are on, so he lays the gloves and stick down together gently. Then he can just slip his hands in the gloves and PRESTO! he's ready to go again. Pretty ingenious, I think!

Hagen is talking to Opa in this picture. It was the first real, somewhat lengthy conversation he's had on the phone and it was SO cute. At one point he asked Opa, "where's Miata?" (Miata is one of Opa's cats).

Hagen and Daddy playing Guitar Hero. Again, something that Hagen must do sans pants...