Party and lack of sleep- no, not the good 'ol college days!

**actually written Mon, March 6
Hayden is a very good sleeper at night. Bedtime consists of books and songs. He has been trying to drag it out more and more each night, but doesn't protest too much when I finally tell him no more, night night. It is my favorite time with him. He is so sweet reading and singing. Often, Logan joins us for this ritual, and Hayden seems to prefer his brother there, giving him a book to hold as well. Last night I finally got him singing on tape. He will belt out Itsy Bitsy Spider, but doesn't really know the words. So cute. He does pretty well w/ ABC's improvising the parts he doesn't know. Naptime has been more challenging. This weekend's score was Hayden 2, Mommy 0. On Saturday, I spent 4 1/2 hours trying to get him to nap. He came out for a little while, was such a pill, so I sent him back to his room. He stayed in there pretty quietly, giving me the opportunity to do what needed to be done. Logan napped very well that day, so it was a productive day. I just felt bad for not seeing him all afternoon.
Logan is a good napper, but still wakes once or twice at night. I am quite frustrated by this, but unwilling to ignore him and let him cry. I keep hoping he will make the adjustment himself since I know he doesn't need to eat at night and I keep rewarding him. Maybe next weekend I can convince dh to go to him to soothe him, without the reward of nursing.
Our weekend was dominated by preparing/throwing Hayden's birthday party. Hayden was very cute Sat. As I was vacuuming, he was mimicking me with his toy vacuum, very seriously into housework. He insisted on putting the real vacuum away himself, and did a darn good job fitting it into the closet. He frequently takes out the broom/mop/swiffer to clean the floors. Hopefully this tendency will last!
His party was nice and most everyone (except the feuding relatives) had a nice time. Hayden certainly did, which is what really matters. I love seeing that, and it is such a gratifying feeling to work so hard and he enjoys his party. He loved having snacks out that he could just take, and I found him on the patio stuffing his face w/ strawberries that were out. We served hamburgers, hotdogs, broccoli ramen salad, potato salad, and green salad. Yummy and easy. I totally forgot to prepare the hamburger fixin's so was scrambing, but had help, and everything worked out.

My aunt brought a little plastic slide set that my cousin has outgrown. The kids were like bees on a hive, all over it before it was completely assembled. Very cute! They also enjoyed the sidewalk chalk even though I forgot to put it out until later. No worries about 14 kids being bored. They all had fun. Hayden's face lit up when we sang Happy Birthday, and it was priceless. Hopefully, someone got a good pic of that. I forgot to bring out the video camera until the end. I shot while we opened presents. Hayden was uninterested in presents, so I got video of him on the slide. He did take interest in certain things later throughout the afternoon, which was cute. By the end of the party, he was exhausted, so we tried to put him down for a nap...and failed. He was a bit difficult last night, but not too awful. He was happy to play with new things and eat pizza while I watched the Oscars and demonstrated those toys.

Hayden is quite a chatterbox, listing names of people in his life, commenting on everything, and even using new phrases like "oh $h!t!" My current strategy is to ignore it and hope he loses interest, but in a couple days may have to be more proactive. I find it funny, even though I don't want it to continue. Another inappropriate Hayden-ism is "I want E E R!" Short for BEER which he heard us spell once, and has repeated ever since. We are NOT liquoring him up, I swear!
Logan is a little sweetheart. His personality is really coming out and it is adorable. He will interrupt nursing to give me an impish grin and a raspberry, then quickly latch back on like Gotcha! ;D He is so snuggly, and laps up attention. Fortunately, he also plays independently now, reaching for everything he can get. I love this age!