The end of tax season and other things

Happy May! On April 15th my bosses (Jenn and Marc), friend and coworker Terri, Shawn, Hagen and I (and Jenn's daughters) all went to Mi Cocina after work to celebrate the end of tax season. Mandy is Jenn's oldest daughter (she's almost 4) and Emma is Hagen's age (born the day after Hagen). Here are some pictures from the evening. At one point Mandy wanted to sit in my lap. Hagen sort of frowned and said "my mommy". He didn't get upset but you could tell he wasn't very happy about it. After a minute or so he went over and sat in Terri's lap. I seriously think he did it to make me jealous.


Jenn and Mandy

Jenn, Mandy and Hagen

Marc, Mandy, Terri and Emma





Mandy and Hagen








Terri and Emma

Shawn and I went to the Bon Jovi concert on April 14th - Marc and Jenn bought us tickets! Jenn had joked awhile back that I wasn't allowed to go because it was the night before our biggest deadline. Later she told me she bought the tickets that same day. :-) It was AWESOME!!

Here are some more pictures of Hagen playing hockey (you know I have to have lots of good pictures to give ESPN when he's in the NHL). Shawn's been showing him how to hold the stick correctly. He always uses the purple stick and gives me the green one. But I'm not allowed to actually play - he's the only one who's allowed to hit the ball.

My baby is growing up

Yesterday Shawn converted Hagen's crib to a daybed. We were thinking about doing it sometime soon but I wasn't quite ready...I mean, Hagen hadn't been giving us any indication that he was ready to move out of his crib but Shawn had quite a few friends whose children were already in "big kid" beds by now so he wanted to try it. So yesterday afternoon Shawn converted the crib. We brought Hagen in after it was done and he climbed into the bed and played around for a little bit and pretended to lie down. He seemed to like it! He has a little stepstool by his crib so he climbed up on that and there's a little bit of space between the side of the crib and the bed rail so he can get in and out by himself. When I put him to bed last night we went through the same routine and I let him climb into bed and it was like nothing changed - he slept just fine, didn't get up during the night (at least, not that I know of...) and slept until I came to get him this morning. And when he woke up he just climbed out of bed like he'd been doing it forever. Then he sat on the stepstool and just smiled. I told him I was SO proud of him. He's so adaptable! We're so lucky.

Easter and other stuff

Well, it didn't snow the day before Easter like it did last year. Our friend Joe from Maryland was visiting that weekend so he joined us for the Easter festivities in Glen Rose/Granbury. I didn't realize how much fun Hagen would have hunting Easter eggs - he would get very excited when he found one. He's still playing with them, too. We're using them for counting - we'll ask how many yellow (or pink, or orange, etc...) eggs there are and he'll count them (it's not much more than three or four right now).

Mom's Easter centerpiece and Hagen's Easter basket - beautiful!

These pictures were taken at Mom and Dad's on Easter in Glen Rose. The boys (Opa, Daddy, Granddad and Hagen) went for a little walk by the pond.

Here are a few pictures of Hagen in his St. Patrick's day shirt - "Mom's Lucky Charm". As in many pictures, Mocha is just nearby enough to be sort of involved but out of arm's reach.

Some pictures hanging out with "Uncle Joe".

My friend Carrie (the Blue-Eyed Bookworm) was visiting from Albuquerque and we went with her and her sister Donna (Mocha's savior!) to The Magic Time Machine in Addison. Donna and Hagen bonded as they walked around and checked out all the cool decor at the restaurant. She had Hagen's caricature done and it was really cute - he was Super Hagen!

This is one of my new favorite videos. Hagen's newest phrase is "right there!" when he's trying to show us something. This started when he wanted a blue cup to drink from one night and Shawn opened the cupboard in which there are MANY Hagen-sized blue cups of different sizes. Shawn was asking which blue cup he wanted and he kept pointing and saying "right THERE!" like Daddy was supposed to know EXACTLY which blue cup he wanted! Now we think it's very amusing when he does it. That is a play hockey stick he's carrying around...we're getting him ready for the NHL. Part of the reason we chose his name is because we thought "Hagen Vorndran" would sound REALLY cool being announced over a loudspeaker as he's skating onto the ice...and winning MVP... :-)

Snow and McDonald's

Here are a few pictures from the second snow day the other week. It was snowing pretty heavily when Hagen and I got home that afternoon. It was really pretty! Hagen was fascinated just watching it come down (he was standing in the garage observing) but he didn't want to touch it or be out in it. The next day he touched some of the snow that was still lingering in the flowerbeds. Who knows, maybe it will snow the day before Easter again this year! The loud noise and "uh-oh" in the video is Hagen dropping his cookie from school onto the garage floor.

These are some shots I took when we were at McDonald's for lunch last Saturday. I was going to get a highchair and Shawn suggested we just let him sit in the booth since he sits on a regular chair at the kitchen table at home (on his knees). I guess Mommy wasn't ready for that because I honestly hadn't even thought of that. So we let him sit on his own (next to Daddy) and I had to take pictures because he looked SO grown-up. Plus he was using the apple juice box and not his sippy cup which added to the grown-upness. Shawn told Hagen "I think Mommy might cry".

February

This blog is basically just a bunch of random pictures from February. Enjoy!

This is a chair we built out of Mega Blocks for Hagen to sit on.

Shawn brought out his German hat when we went to the Bavarian Grill one night with friends. He and Hagen were dancing around the living room to "oompah" music.

Some sweet moments with Opa and Daddy.

Chasing Opa on the John Deere tractor.


Happy boy!!

I'm not sure what this means, but a lot of times lately Hagen would rather arrange his crayons than color with them. Mom said it means he's going to be an architect. :-)

January 2008

This is the Hagen-sized John Deere tractor that Opa and Oma bought Hagen for Christmas. That's me in the background of the second picture in the North Texas sweatshirt with my hands pulled up inside the sleeves. Of course I'm very careful about bundling Hagen up but not quite smart enough to put a jacket on myself...

Lately Hagen wants to sit at the grown-up table. He'll sit on his knees so he's higher up. Part of me is still terrified he's going to fall but I need to realize he knows what he's doing now and is perfectly capable of sitting at the table.

On January 21st my Uncle Rod and Aunt Chris from Ohio had a layover at DFW Airport on their way to Las Vegas. Hagen and I joined Mom in meeting them at the Hyatt at the airport. We had a great time!

I took this picture after Hagen ran down the hall (it was a long hall!) and gave Uncle Rod a huge hug.