Galveston

We're just back from Galveston Island and a nice four-day respite from life here at home. Thanks to Grammie D for organizing the trip! We had a blast.

Though we didn't plan on it, all three sets of families (Deona and Monica, Grampy and Grammie, and Jordan, Dondi and I) left at about the same time. We met up about 11:30 a.m. at Sam's Restaurant in Fairfield, Texas, for lunch. It was delicious. Picture Cracker Barrel with a buffet and whole loaves of bread.

We arrived in Galveston about 3 p.m. and settled into the condos. Grammie, Grampy, Deona and Monica headed to Randall's supermarket to stock up on breakfast and lunch supplies, and Dondi and I attempted to get Jordan to take a nap. Attempted being the key word. He was wired, and was not happy after spending 6 hours in his car seat.

That evening, we headed to a local restaurant for shrimp and catfish. It was delicious. We traveled down to the west end of the island near our condos and walked along the beach. It was too dark to get out and splash and play, though.

Sunday morning Dondi and I headed to Wal-Mart. While driving to Galveston, I hit a pothole or some road debris and tore a hole in the side of the front right tire. So, since I couldn't find a Discount Tire Store or NTB on the island itself, I had to go to Wal-Mart to purchase two tires (supposedly, it was a better deal than just one tire). Dondi had also forgotten her swimsuit, so she had to buy one while we were there.

Sunday afternoon, we headed down to the condo complex pool where we swam some. Jordan got a little cranky, so Dondi and I swam for about an hour while Grammie took him to their condo for a nap.

We ate at Casey's Seafood Cafe, which shares its kitchen with the more famous Gaido's Restaurant (Casey's is a little cheaper and lot less formal than Gaido's), where we ate yet more shrimp and catfish. Jordan tried some cole slaw, some shrimp and some catfish and seemed to like it all.









Jordan really liked the dessert at Casey's. :-)


After dinner, Jordan had his first trip to the beach across the street from the restaurant. He had a blast. I wish I could post the QuickTime video of him playing that first time, but alas, Blogger doesn't offer that feature, so you'll have to settle for jpegs.










The three of us on the beach, just before we put Jordan down in the surf.










Jordan splashing in the surf.









Jordan still having so much fun.

Monday morning, we rose bright and early (for us, at least) to hit the beach a little after 8 a.m.
Jordan tired pretty quickly, so he took a nap on Grampy while the rest of us jumped in the surf, built a sandcastle or whatever else hit our fancy. About 9:30 or so, Jordan woke up and played for an hour in the surf. After that, it was back to the condo to clean up and eat lunch.

Monday night we ate dinner at Fisherman's Wharf on the north end of the island. We went for a run through the historic Strand shopping area then, too. A run, you ask? Why yes, we were swarmed with thousands of mosquitoes. At last count, I had about 20 bites on my legs. Jordan escaped with about 3 bites. Dondi has about 15 or 20, too. So, if you're heading to Galveston soon, our advice is to pack a lot of Off!

Tuesday was much the same, we ate dinner at a local sports bar called The Spot, which was OK. It was a lot like Fuddruckers, which isn't all bad.

We left Wednesday and had an uneventful drive home to the Metroplex.

Here are some more pics from our Galveston trip:

Jordan Starts Swimming Lessons

Jordan had a lot of fun with Grammie's pool (as you can see below), which is good because his swimming lessons started this evening at the YMCA. He had a blast, splashing in the pool. He wasn't too sure about blowing bubbles or kicking, just yet, but he'll get there by the end of next week.

We have a disposable 35 mm waterproof camera we're using, so once we use up the roll of film, we'll get the pictures developed and post some of the best ones (film, it's so 20th century)....

Jordan's First Trip to the Pool

Jordan had his first trip to Grammie D's pool. He wasn't too sure what to do initially, but he ended up having a blast!

Happy Belated Birthday Mom!

Dondi turned thirty-something-or-another on Monday, and we celebrated by eating lots and lots of cake. The cake -- from Cold Stone Creamery -- was a yellow cake with chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream. It was very good. Grampy, Grammie D, Aunt Deona and Monica, Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Cristina all stopped by to say "Happy Birthday."

Here's Dondi and Jordan with the cake

Here's Jordan with his first taste of chocolate-chip cookie dough

Happy First Mother's Day, Mom! (Happy Graduation, Too!)

Sunday was a big day for Dondi, as she graduated from The University of Texas at Arlington with her Master's of Professional Accounting.

We started the morning with some yardwork. (Yes, we know we should have gone to church, but Jordan was going to have a busy day, and there's only so much we can drag him to without really paying for it). Dondi had been working on getting leaves off our backyard (yep, we still had leaves) all week. She finished up a big batch Sunday (we had 28 bags for our trash men this morning). I mowed the front and backyard, and almost had enough grass to bail hay in the backyard.

We got cleaned up after the yardwork (it looks great) and headed up to The Sanford House, a local bed and breakfast to have a Mother's Day/Graduation brunch. It was delicious! The food included made-to-order omelettes, turkey, ham, Greek salad, pasta salad, caesar salad, salmon, wild rice, chicken, veggies, fruit (delicious pineapple), peach cobbler, cookies, bread pudding and more. Grammie D, Grampy, Aunt Deona and Monica, Aunt Cristina, Grandma and Grandpa all came to the brunch. Some pics from after we ate...




























After brunch, we headed home to rest for a couple of hours. At 5:30, Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Cristina came over. Grandma and Grandpa were watching Jordan. Cristina and I were going to watch Dondi graduate.

From the car ride over...















That's a self-portrait from inside the car at about I-20 and Bowen Road.

Grammie D, Grampy, Aunt Deona and Monica joined Cristina and me at Texas Hall to watch Dondi graduate. Graduation at UTA is disorganized chaos, but the degree was conferred nontheless, so now it's official: the student loans are due next year. :-)

Some pics...

Jordan's first church picnic

We had our first church picnic with Jordan this afternoon. He was pretty good, and he enjoyed seeing Grandma and Grandpa, plus the Access Bible Fellowship Class.

The picnic is usually in a local park, but because of all the rain we've had this week, the city would not let us do the picnic there, so we moved it to our church parking lot. (I hope we have it there again next year (or on our new church property), because it was a lot better locale than the city park!)

We arrived about 4:30 p.m., just as it was getting kicked off, and almost immediately, Mom and Grandma headed into the church to get the free-for-moms massage. Dad and Grandpa took Jordan over to the petting zoo area so he could watch the goats, piglets, chickens and rabbits. He wasn't too impressed with any of it.

We ate dinner (your choice of hamburger or hot dog) and fed Jordan and visited with some friends. Then, about 6:30, we decided Jordan needed to come home and get a bath.

Here are a couple of pictures from our day today.

Birthday for Dad

This morning Jordan, Mom, Dad, Aunt Cristina, Grandma and Grandpa all caravaned out to The Cheesecake Factory and its new location in Southlake to celebrate Dad's 30th birthday. For those of you who live in Dallas/Fort Worth, and have never made it up to Southlake Town Square, you are really missing out on a shopping treat. It's a new old-style downtown full of great shops (including a brand-new Apple store,with a line stretching down the block this morning) and restaurants, The Cheesecake Factory among them.

Jordan was a prefect angel throughout our 45-minute wait, and handled the restaurant really well (if you excuse him throwing up on Mom once). Mom had chicken and biscuits, Dad the chicken and avacado club sandwich, Grandma and Grandpa each had a pulled-pork sandwich and Aunt Cristina had a fettucine chicken dish. If the serving sizes weren't big enough, we had dessert. Mom had the lemon raspberry cheesecake, Dad the "boring" (per our waiter) original cheesecake, Grandma had a strawberry cheesecake, Grandpa the German Chocolate cheesecake, and Aunt Cristina broke the chain by ordering a strawberry shortcake dish that was enormous! This was the first Cheesecake Factory trip for Aunt Cristina, Grandma and Grandpa. Mom and Dad are old hats at this, hitting the NorthPark-area one several times over the years.

Afterwards, Mom had to go home to change, and we headed over to Grandma and Grandpa's to open gifts. Dad got a new battery for his digital camera, some cash and new shirts to match work's soon-to-be-revised dress code.

All and all, today was a lot of fun.

Belated Happy Birthday Grandma! Belated Happy Birthday Aunt Deona! Early Happy Birthday Aunt Cristina!

What have we been up to? Well, quite a bit, actually. How 'bout some highlights:

* Friday, March 31, Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Cristina came over to celebrate Grandma's birthday. We had pizza, key lime pie and presents. Jordan fell asleep way before the key lime pie, but he had a great time with his grandparents and Aunt Cristina. March 31 was actually Grandma's birthday, so it was fun to have the party on the actual day.

* Sunday, March 26, Jordan, Mom and Dad went to Grammy and Grampy's to celebrate Dad's and Aunt Deona's birthdays. Great-aunt Diann and Great-uncle Jim were there. As were Trent, Jay, Kelly, AJ, Brittany, Aunt Deona and Monica. Jordan had refused to nap all day long, so that didn't go well. He lasted about 30 minutes before we took him home and Grandma and Grandpa came to baby-sit, so we could go back to the party.

* Saturday, April 1, was the big camp reunion Mom had been looking forward to. Grammy came to stay with Jordan and Mom and Dad followed frequent poster Wendy to the camp in Hood County. We made it as far as the Tarrant/Parker County line when some car trouble overtook Wendy. So, instead of a camp reunion, we had a two-hour reunion in the median of US 377 outside of Wheatland, Texas. The day wasn't a total loss, however, as (1) we found the nearest Honda and Hummer dealership to the Benbrook area and (2) we had a great visit with Wendy's mom and dad at their gorgeous new house (and to Wendy's parents, thanks for dinner!).

We have a slew of events in April and May (Aunt Cristina's birthday, Dad's birthday, Easter, Mom's birthday, Mom's graduation, first Mother's Day), so if the posts aren't as frequent, well, that's why.

Last Saturday, we had Jordan's 6-month-old pictures taken. He did not enjoy the experience at all, but we did get some good shots, as you can see below. (Due to copyright restrictions, you won't be able to expand the size of the photographs like you normally would; sorry, that wasn't our call to make).

Just a short update

Jordan had a well-baby check yesterday afternoon, and got another clean bill of health. He is up to 16.8 pounds and is 27.5 inches long. For those of you keeping score, he's a week past his 6-month birthday and is doing very well.

At the doctor, Jordan had three more immunizations (which he didn't like), and then he slept for more than two hours when he came home. That was about all we accomplished yesterday!

This morning, if all goes as planned, we're going to head to a kid-friendly photography studio and get his six-month pictures. We'll post some new pictures later this week.

Baby Dedication

We dedicated Jordan at church in this morning's 9 a.m. worship service. Baby dedication is our opportunity as parents to commit to our church family that we will raise Jordan in a Christian home, and in a Christ-honoring manner. It is not the same as a christening or infant baptism, because, well, Baptists don't do those things.



Afterwards, Grandma, Grandpa, Grampy, Grammie D, Aunt Deona and Moncia, Mom, Dad and Jordan all headed out to a late breakfast/early lunch at Cracker Barrel. Aunt Cristina joined us for the baby dedication, but headed out to her church for Sunday school.

Sunday afternoon we went and had a diaper detail party for some friends of ours at church, then we spent the rest of the afternoon watching the Olympics, running errands, then a nutritious, energizing dinner from Taco Bueno. Yum. You can't beat a 99-cent burrito.... Well, you can, actually, but not for 99 cents.

Some pictures

Jordan (2-10-06), on his new blanket (thanks Great-Aunt Pam!)

Jordan decided his first trip to the River Legacy Parks (2-5-06) was a great time to nap.

Jordan looks like he's ready for baseball season to start.

A milestone

Jordan decided to roll over this morning. Dondi had him on his tummy, and after a couple of tries, he rolled over to his back. He did it twice today. Crawling won't be too far away. Then our cat will really have some fun with Jordan....

A Short Post

Jordan went for his 4-month checkup today and got another clean bill of health. He is up to 15.2 pounds and is 26 inches long. The doctor said Jordan is right in the 50th percentile with his length and weight. He had four more shots, which he did not like at all, but he took them pretty well. He goes back to the doctor again in late March for more shots and another checkup (he'll be about 6 months old then). We'll try and get his 4-month pictures posted sometime this weekend.

Some news we saw

For all our fellow new parents (and all our concerned friends and family), WFAA reports there is a pretty serious outbreak of RSV going on in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Which is surprising, since it usually spreads when it's cold out, and we're having record heat. Details here.

Happy New Year!

Christmas finally concluded yesterday, as we got together with Grampy, Grammie D, Mimi, Deona and Monica for presents and dinner. Jordan was definitely spoiled with more stuff than any 3-month-old needs.

Dinner was Spring Creek BBQ sausage and beef, plus potato salad, deviled eggs, a corn casserole and lots of desserts. Sharon from next door and Roy's parents joined for dinner, too.

After dinner, we broke out the cards for some Texas Hold 'Em. Grammie D, Grampy, Monica, Deona and Sharon played until 1 a.m. Dondi bowed out about 10:30 p.m. so we could get Jordan home and bathed. We watched the ball in Times Square drop live at 11 p.m., then watched it tape-delayed at midnight. We made it all the way to 12:03 a.m. Parenthood really does drain the energy of celebrating all night on New Years.

The schedule returns to some level of normalcy Tuesday, when Roy goes back to work. Dondi starts on her last two classes at school after the MLK holiday in mid January.

It's Christmas

Wow, December has been a fast month. Jordan's first Christmas has been a full week affair (and still isn't over).

December 18 marked Jordan's first trip to church and he did pretty good. Jordan skipped the actual church service and went to daddy's Sunday school class, where he was pretty popular, plus he was the best student there. He laughed at all of his dad's jokes. He also had his first experience of Mexican Inn that day (he slept until the wait staff came to shout "Happy Birthday" to the table behind us -- that startled him good!).

Saturday night, we went to our church's Christmas Eve service, along with Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Cristina. Jordan really had fun. His head bopped to the music as we sang Christmas carols, and he enjoyed the orchestra and choir as they sang the Hallelujah chorus and a couple of more contemporary pieces. Jordan did decide he was hungry when it was time for the Lord's Supper at the end of the service. Santa Claus stopped at Grammie D's and Grampy's a little early, and brought some stuff for Jordan that they brought by.










We had what may be our last Christmas to sleep in this year, since Jordan didn't know it, but Santa Claus came and brought Jordan a whole bunch of toys. He was pretty excited by the wrapping paper, the Christmas lights and all.










Christmas afternoon we went and saw Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Cristina and opened some more great gifts. We also ate lunch, and Jordan slept a lot.

Monday morning, we loaded up the car and headed north to Oklahoma to see Jordan's great-grandmother (Grammie D's mother). We left about 9:30 and got there about 2:30, which was pretty good, considering we had to stop in Denton to feed Jordan, stop at the Oklahoma line to change Jordan, stop in Davis for gas and in Guthrie for another feeding. We got to see so many family members once we finally made it. Jordan's Great-Grandma was thrilled to meet him. Here's a picture of four generations: Dondi, her grandmother, Grammie D and Jordan.










Jordan is currently the youngest great-grandchild for Katherine. She has 22 great-grandchildren, plus five step-great-grandchildren, ranging in age from 3 months to 20 years! That doesn't count the two we know of on the way for 2006. That's pretty impressive no matter how you slice it.

We headed home Tuesday night, which went a little better. We left at 6:45 p.m., made a stop to feed Jordan in Moore and another stop in Ardmore for gas, then made it all the way home by 11:15. We had to drive through two pretty serious areas of smoke from wildfires burning in southern Oklahoma, but otherwise it was an uneventful trip.

Jordan did pretty well, but the trip messed up his schedule quite a bit. The good news to report for December: he is now regularly sleeping 6-7 hours through the night. They aren't the 6 or 7 hours we'd like him to sleep (he's a night owl, like his mom), but they are pretty continuous, and that's great!

Merry Christmas!

Today was Jordan's first trip to the mall, and he got to meet Santa. Jordan was great the whole time (90 minutes in line), and told Santa everything he wanted for Christmas. Well, maybe not, but he didn't fuss at all around Santa!



Photo copyright purchased by Roy & Dondi Hayhurst. (c) 2005, Roy & Dondi Hayhurst

Happy Birthday Grandpa Jordan

We celebrated Grandpa Jordan's (Dondi's dad's) birthday Saturday night. His birthday was Wednesday, but because of the potential for icy travel conditions, we decided to postpone the celebration to Saturday night.

We went to Cici's Pizza near our houses and Jordan was mesmerized with all the smells, the colors and the noise. He was good the whole time (minus a couple of seconds of fussiness when he was tired of being in his carrier).

We came back to our house to open birthday gifts. Jordan had a great time seeing everybody.

Immunizations

Today was Jordan's first round of shots. He received the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine; the polio vaccine; the diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis vaccines, the haemophilus influenzae type b (HiB) vaccine; and his second dosage of the Hepatitis B vaccine (he received the first one in NICU). That's a lot of big words to type about one little boy.

This morning, as those of you who live in the DFW area know, was pretty cold, so we bundled him up and took him to his pediatrician's office. He was taken right in to an exam room and got a clean bill of health. He is now 23 inches long and weighs 12.4 pounds. The doctor said Jordan is growing very well and is one healthy kid.

After the doctor's examination, the nurse came in and she gave the four injections, two in each leg. Jordan cried for a few seconds, but then went back to being his normal happy self. He has two crayola-shaped (and colored) bandages -- one on each thigh.

Next doctor's checkup is scheduled for late January/early February.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Jordan's first Thanksgiving was full of fun. We were going all day long.

(You can click on any photograph to make it bigger in your window; click on "back" in your broswer to return to the blog)

The day started so early. He was so tired as he laid down on Mom and Dad's bed.

We left the house this morning and went to Grammie D's. There, he had all kinds of fun:

Dad held him.

Then Mom had to feed him.

Then Aunt Deona and Monica wanted to hold him. (He spit up for them. I think in the baby world that means, "I like you." If so, he likes Mom and Dad a lot!)

Then Grammie D wanted to hold him. (He woke up for a couple of minutes, then).

Then Derek, Trent and Reid took turns hanging out with Jordan.

Bobby, Michelle and Kim got in on the fun, too.


Oh, he's so tired.

Four generations: Mimi (great-grandmother), Jordan, Grandpa and Mom.

After a stressful midday of sleeping and being held, he needed a bath to relax.

He needed to relax after the bath, too. (Bubble baths really take it out of him).

We spent the midday with the Jordan family and had a great time seeing everybody, then went home and relaxed (with the bath). Then, it was time to head to see Grandma and Grandpa Hayhurst and Aunt Cristina.

So he slept in Aunt Cristina's arms.

Grandpa spent some quality time feeding. Notice, Jordan will wake up for that.

And Jordan spent some time with Grandma just hanging out in her luxurious recliner.

Back home, Jordan was spent.


We had a great day seeing so many family members today. Jordan also got to be held by Jim and Diann and probably some others we didn't get photographed in time. He was a good kid and everybody seemed to enjoy seeing him today. Thanks to Grammie D and Grandpa Jordan and to Grandma and Grandpa Hayhurst for having us over today. We had a blast. And, as you can see, Jordan enjoyed every minute he was awake. All three of them.

We're Back

So where have we been you ask? Here and very busy. What's been going on? A lot. Highlights:

Since it's almost Thanksgiving, we thought you'd like to see Jordan's Halloween outfit.

Nope, we didn't take him trick-or-treating, and we only had one ringing of the doorbell Halloween night, but he got all dressed up, anyway.

That little hat he's wearing reads, "Mummy's Little Pumpkin." Too adorable.

Early November was relatively uneventful, but Jordan did surprise us with sleeping through the night one time. He hasn't since, but that was a great 5 hours of sleep.

Jordan made his first trip to see Daddy's office in Dallas' Uptown area early this month, too. He slept all the way from the house to Dallas, then slept when Daddy got in the car to go to lunch, then slept while Mom and Dad ate lunch at a great little deli near work. Then, we brought him to my office. He was officially done sleeping then.

He cried some, but for the most part was a huge hit with Dad's co-workers. He also made a trip to see Mom's work where he was pretty good and received many more admiring ohs and ahs.

November marked his great-grandmother's (Mimi's) 90th birthday celebration. We all got together for dinner at Spring Creek Barbeque in Bedford to celebrate her birthday and AJ's 17th birthday last Sunday evening. Jordan didn't join us (Roy's parents graciously babysat), but he did finally get to meet Mimi on Tuesday, Nov. 15, when she came over to see him at the house. Mimi and Jordan both seemed to enjoy it (Jordan doesn't quite get how to smile on cue, but we're working on that).



Jordan's umbillical cord stump also finally fell out this week -- his lasted a little longer than normal, due in part to the IV tubes they inserted there while he was in NICU -- so that meant no more sponge baths. Instead, he gets to have real big-boy baths. You can see, he was thrilled by that! (He'll also be thrilled when this picture gets carelessly laid out for his first girlfriend to see, or when it shows up on the video montage our church puts together for seniors at high school graduation. Parental blackmail really is fun).

And yes, that is a giant inflatable yellow duckie he gets to be bathed in (with a beak that quacks!). I bet you wish you had a giant inflatable rubber ducky to take a bath in.

Jordan's upcoming week should be exciting, too. He'll head over to Grammie D's and Grandpa's for the Jordan family Thanksgiving Thursday morning. Then, we'll head over midafternoon to Grandma and Grandpa Hayhurst for another Thanksgiving dinner. By then, Mom and Dad will be worn out, even if Jordan isn't.

Will we post pictures of Thanksgiving? Of course. By Christmas....

We're still blogging

Just not as much. We have adorable pictures to post of Jordan in his Halloween costume -- he didn't go trick-or-treating, but he still got dressed up -- but, someone hasn't adjusted well to the end of daylight saving time. He was on a schedule. He was doing so well. Then we "fell back" and he hasn't been the same since.

Last night did go better. Tonight hopefully will, too. And if Dondi and I can catch up on some sleep, we'll post some pictures this weekend.