Thomas the Tank Engine

We trekked to Grapevine today to the Day Out With Thomas at the Grapevine Vintage Railroad. We went with Pa-pa, Emo (Grandma) and Aunt Cris out to the railway. It was a ton of fun.

When we arrived in Grapevine, we parked at the library, which was a designated remote parking lot. The shuttle took us straight up Main Street to the train terminal. As we crossed the railroad track, we saw Thomas ready to go. All the little kids on the bus were delighted. Jordan shrieked as loud as he could, "Thomas the Train!"

















There was plenty for a two-year-old to enjoy: Legos, ball throwing, crayons, model trains and lots of wide open spaces to run. Jordan and I had our picture taken with Sir Topham Hat. Jordan wasn't sure what to make of Sir Topham, but he did give him a high five.

At 10:25 a.m., we lined up to board the train, pulled by Thomas for a 25-minute train ride. Jordan was pumped. We all had a great time on the short train ride (Jordan's first on any kind of train).

Thomas pulls into the Grapevine station.













Emo, Pa-pa and Jordan on the train.













Aunt Cris and Jordan on the train.













Jordan with his junior engineer certificate.

Dondi at 29 weeks

(Twenty-nine weeks is a little over seven months along). We haven't been as diligent posting about the pregnancy this time as last, so let's bring you up to date:

First, Dondi's picture at 28 weeks:















She's been pretty sore, but the doctor said her blood pressure looks good and the baby is developing right on schedule. Today she had her blood glucose mini screening. We'll get the results probably on Monday.

Dondi also starts visiting the doctor every two weeks now, rather than every three weeks. As we enter the 8th month, we'll probably have those visits every week. As the countdown calendar above shows, Matthew's arrival is quickly approaching!

Hoppy Easter

Saturday morning we all loaded up and went down to church for an Easter egg hunt. The church had set up three fields of eggs (0-18 months old; 19 months-3 years, 4 years+) and had three separate egg hunts. They also had a petting zoo with goats, geese, ducks and rabbits, plus two bounce houses. The Mansfield Police Department showed off one of its Dodge Charger police cars and the Mansfield Fire Department had one of its older fire engines out there for kids to climb on and have a look around. Jordan was pretty impressed with the siren.

Jordan had fun, though we think he enjoyed walking along the gravel driveway (and picking up the rocks) behind the church best.

U-T-A

Congrats to the Mavs on the team's first appearance in the big dance. It wasn't the outcome we would have liked, but it's great to see UTA men's basketball in the brackets this year, if for only one round.

See you back next year. :)

-Roy (BA, 1999) and Dondi (MPA, 2006)

Just chillin'

Jordan kicks back and enjoys a little Dora the Explorer this evening.

Hospital tour

Dondi and I took the half hour tour of the maternity facility at our chosen hospital. We'll be doing Matthew's delivery at the same hospital where Jordan was born (hopefully without the week of bed rest and week of NICU). We thought that we would have forgotten something since Jordan was born, but it all came screeching right back to us. Right down to the smell of the labor/delivery rooms.

We asked the tour nurse -- who also handles education -- to sign us up for the sibling class for Jordan and for a refresher course for Dondi and me. We'll see how much of the actual delivery process we remember with that class.

As for us, we haven't been up to much, though I did have to brag a little. We finally, for the first time since we moved in, are able to park both cars in the garage. All it took was the threat (that never materialized) of severe weather overnight here in Fort Worth-Dallas. Here's the proof:

Spring Cleaning

This weekend and last have been about Spring cleaning. To get ready for Matthew's arrival, we need to clean out our "office" (our third bedroom) and move stuff around the house. Of course, it's like the worst Catch-22 imaginable: before we can move stuff from the office to the dining room, we've got to move X from the dining room to the living room. Before we can do that, we have to move Y to the, well you get the idea.

Last week we took two full carloads of clothes to the Arlington Resale Shop to donate. This weekend, the garage has been tackled (at least half of it). The right half is now totally clean. Maybe next weekend, we'll get the left half and perhaps, we can park both cars in the garage. Only in America do we park $20,000 cars outside to store a few hundred dollars worth of junk in a garage....

Anyway, while we were cleaning out the garage, we also dumped the potting soil out on a couple of dead houseplants. Jordan enjoyed that part immensely.

"Hi baby brother"

Friday morning, Dondi had another sonogram with the specialist. Jordan and I tagged along for the visit.

Jordan was pretty impressed watching the images on the TV screen. The sonogram technician explained where the baby's head, arms and legs were in relation to each other. As you can see on this Web site the parts are all on top of each other. Jordan was real quiet and then said, "baby brother is broke." Too cute.

Some general Q-and-A:

How's Dondi feeling?
As far as the pregnancy, Dondi is feeling great. She did battle a sinus infection for much of the last three weeks, but is finally feeling better.

When is the baby due?
June 10, 2008

Is Dondi planning to return to work when the baby is born?
After a 12-week maternity leave, yes. Unless we strike it rich with the sale of our mineral rights on the Barnett Shale.

What's the baby's sex?
Two sonograms confirm it's a boy.

Do you have a name yet?
Matthew Ryan Hayhurst. (When we asked Jordan what he thought of the name "Matthew Ryan," he looked us both square in the eyes and said in a slow, precise prononuciation, "My name IS Jor-dan." It was like we were in the remedial class at school.) :)

How's Jordan handling this?
He's been in denial, but is slowly moving to acceptance.

Texas Rangers winter carnival in Frisco

We decided to make the long trek to Canada, I mean Frisco, Saturday morning for the Texas Rangers winter carnival at the Dr Pepper Ballpark. The stadium is home to the Frisco RoughRiders, the Rangers' AA minor league affiliate. Jo-Jo had received an invitation to go, so Gee, Jo-Jo, Dondi, Jordan and I loaded up the Camry and headed up there. It was a full day.

The RoughRiders were there selling season tickets to their games, which the Collin County families were snapping up. For us, though, we came just to see the ballpark and get a baseball signed by several Rangers players: Ian Kinsler, Wes Littleton, Travis Metcalf, Kevin Millwood, Jarrod Saltalamacchia and former Ranger catcher and now front office vice president Jim Sundberg.

All of the six players were friendly and signed autographs for about two hours. The RoughRiders and the Rangers had a pretty good traffic flow through the suite where the autographs were happening.

After we got the autographs, we walked around the stadium (an absolutely gorgeous minor league ballpark), then walked on the field, through the dugout and into the locker room. Jordan got to meet Deuce, the Riders' mascot, and Rangers Captain, the Rangers' mascot. He wasn't sure what to make of a person walking around with a horse's head. :)

From there, Jordan was ready to have some more fun. We made a return trip to the Wiggly Play Center in Frisco. Jordan started cheering and yelling, "oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!" real loud when we pulled into the parking lot. (What's most surprising is, he's been there once, and the Wiggly Play Center is located in a standard suburban strip shopping center, so (other than the non-descript sign), there was nothing too exciting about the outside).

This trip wasn't as much fun as the first time we took him last summer. There were a lot of older kids in there who apparently had no adult supervision and overran a lot of the younger kids in there. And the Wiggly Play Center staff was just lazy (both at the front door and at the concession stand there were more than three employees doing nothing, and wouldn't stop doing nothing to help us out -- by helping us out, I mean, "take our money"). Jordan had fun, which was what was important, but we'll find somewhere a whole lot closer and more attentive for our next winter outing.

No trip to Frisco is complete without a stop at the Ikea store, and since Jo-Jo and Gee had never seen it before, we stopped in for a couple of hours. We were ready to buy stuff, but so were about 25,000 other people, so we decided we didn't need $2 shelves and $2.50 knives so much. :)

The drive to and from Frisco is a bear because the 121 Toll Road is a giant parking lot through Plano, The Colony and Frisco (thanks for that, BTW, TxDOT and Gov. Perry), but we made it home in about 90 minutes.

All and all a lot of fun! We do have a few pictures we'll post later.

Jordan's first trip to the movie theater

We took Jordan to his very first movie today: The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything from the Veggie Tales. It was pretty good.

We went to the AMC theater at The Parks at Arlington for the 10 a.m. showing. (We figured if Jordan acted like a 2-year-old, we'd be at the early show with all the other kids. Boy were we right!). When we arrived at The Parks mall, Dondi made her way to the Chick-fil-A in the food court (free tip: AMC at The Parks does allow you to bring in drinks you buy from food court vendors) for some iced tea for the two of us and lemonade for Jordan. We then walked around the empty mall for a few minutes, then headed into the movie theater.

Jordan was overwhelmed by the colors of the place, the plasma-screen concession stand signs and all the noise of the theater, but he was having fun. We had told him we were there to see Bob and Larry (his name for Veggie Tales, named after the tomato and cucumber, for those who haven't been blessed with the Veggie Tales craze). Every time a preview started, Jordan would go, "Bob and Larry?" When the opening credits started, Jordan screamed out to a theater with at least 150 people, "BOB AND LARRY!" He was pretty thrilled.

Jordan sat completely still for the first half hour or so. Of course, we did bribe him with a hot dog and some popcorn (I'm glad they do home equity loans at the concession stands now, that makes it so much easier to pay for a hot dog and popcorn). He started getting tired and wanted to move a lot. Fortunately, there was some room on our row for him to walk; then he wanted to walk up and down the stairs of the theater. Finally, he was ready to go, so we missed the last half hour of the movie, although I'm pretty sure there was a happy ending.

We'll Netflix it when it comes out on DVD to see how it ends. :)

Christmas 2007

Well, it was another eventful Christmas season for Jordan and the rest of the Hayhursts. Here is the run-down of our activties.

* Saturday, Dec. 21 was the Jordan-Kimsey shindig. There we do a Scrooge exchange with favorite DVDs. Dondi and I got Shrek the Third and The Holiday. (I bet you can guess who got which). Uncle Jim also got a copy of Shrek the Third, and you could tell he was very excited to receive it. :)

Jordan made out like a bandit, as well, receiving a set of blocks, a keyboard and all kinds of things that make more noise. Thanks for all of that, by the way.

Special appearances were made by Michelle's new (and we do mean new) baby boy Ayden and by Kelly and Jay's new pug Annabelle. Jordan was terrified at first of Annabelle (who at five weeks old is smaller than Jordan's shoes), but eventually was OK with petting her. Jordan also was pretty impressed with Ayden.

* Saturday, Dec. 22 was Christmas with the Jordans. We arrived and ate a huge breakfast with the whole gang. Then, it was time for presents. Jordan got a Little Tykes drum set, a toy kitchen set (he loves to cook) and some musical bath toys. We got to pick out a new TV. So, Saturday evening, we went to our local Costco and bought it. It only took an hour of looking to decide on what we wanted and "needed." :)





























* Monday, Dec. 24 was Christmas with the Hayhursts. We met up with Pa-pa, Gma and Aunt Cris for our church's 5 p.m. Christmas Eve Carols and Lord's Supper service. Jordan got to go to big church, and loved the singing. His eyes were fixed on the screens at the front of the worship center looking at the pretty backgrounds and the words to the music. We sang Jingle Bells, Deck the Halls, Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer during the first part of the service, followed by some baptisms and then some more traditional church Christmas music. Jordan wasn't sure what to make of all the people being dunked, but he liked clapping when each one was baptized.

The service lasted right at 60 minutes, which was good, because Jordan's attention span wouldn't have made it much longer. As the juice cups were being passed during the Lord's Supper, Jordan got a little perturbed that he couldn't have a drink, too.

We headed to Gma and Pa-pa's house for some sandwiches then opened some Christmas gifts.

Jordan really got into it. He received some Thomas the Tank Engine books, a Blue's Room DVD, some Tonka cars and a Radio-Flyer tricycle, among some others. Jordan had a lot of fun with opening all of his gifts.



* Christmas morning started about 7:30 with Gma, Pa-pa, Gee, Jo-Jo and Aunt Cris stopping by to see what Santa had brought Jordan. Santa ate the sugar cookies and drank the skim milk we left out for him. He also left him a train set, a bunch of books, three DVDs and Aunt Cris brought a floor puzzel of Thomas the Tank Engine. Jordan didn't know what to play with first!

























































All and all, Jordan had a very fun (yet busy) Christmas season! Tomorrow is back to school for Jordan and to work for Dondi and me (luckily, just two days til our weekends start on Friday!).

We hope everyone has had a very Merry Christmas and has a safe and Happy New Year.

Want to know what we're having?

Another boy!

We visited with the specialist at today's doctor's appointment, as well as met with the genetic counselor (who we waited an hour for). We declined all the different blood tests and the amniocentesis. We figure the results don't change anything, and really, the results aren't all that conclusive (my favorite was the cystic fibrosis test, which the American Academy of OB/GYNs recommends, but they acknowledge it is not a conclusive test).

So, after another 45 minutes of waiting (not that I was counting), we were taken back to the exam room for some super-duper, viper double doppler, megacharged, four on the floor, superscan sonogram that showed amazing detail of our son's feet, arms, head, heart, you get the picture.

We're pretty surprised we found out today the baby's gender, since it normally doesn't happen til somewhere between weeks 20 and 25 (we're at week 15). The detail of this sonogram made it possible to see this early.

Dondi is feeling well. The baby, now about 5 ounces, is developing well and was moving a lot during the sonogram.

Merry Christmas!

A cold December update

It's a damp, windy and cold 41 degrees today, so what better chance to catch you up on what's been happening around the Hayhurst household:

* Jordan's asthma has been acting up again, so we're back to doing regular breathing treatments. For those of you not in the DFW area, you may not realize it is entirely possible to wear sandals, shorts and T-shirts on Saturday, and then need your heavy coat and gloves on Sunday. (That was last weekend, by the way). So, thanks to crazy North Texas weather, Jordan's allergies and asthma are giving him fits. Here's Jordan doing his breathing treatment.















Dondi has to pretend like this is a microphone that she and Jordan can sing into. Bear (in Jordan's lap) also has to take part in the breathing treatment.

* Jordan's day care center had a demonstration of its music class Thursday evening. Along with Dondi and me, Grandma, Grandpa, Gee and Jo-Jo all came to see it. Jordan had fun as the instructor sang some Christmas songs.















* Saturday, Dec. 8 was the Parade of Lights in downtown Arlington (bet you didn't know Arlington had a downtown, did you?). We went with Gee, Jo-Jo, D and M and staked out a spot at the corner of West and Main and watched the parade come by. All the floats, trucks and trailers had lights decked out all around them. The paper said that 12,000 people came downtown for the parade and it was one of the longest - 80 some odd participants -- in the parade's history. Jordan got a light-sabre during the parade. A couple of pictures here:

























That same night, we celebrated Gee's birthday with pizza and presents at their house.

* I (Roy) finished my accounting class at Tarrant County College with almost no help from Dondi (which was the goal; she did offer to help). Got an "A" on my final, and an "A" overall for the class. For that, I was thrilled.

* Last night was Dondi's company's Christmas Party, at Austin Ranch in Grapevine. Food was fantastic, and the entertainment (casino night) was a lot of fun. It was also great to get to put faces with the names Dondi talks about all the time.

* Dondi's next doctor's appointment is this Wednesday. This one is with some kind of specialist (he worked with Dondi during the last two weeks before Jordan was born, too, and she tells me he is a good doctor). This pregnancy is considered high risk due to the issues Dondi experienced leading up to Jordan's birth. So, we'll see if the good doctor earns his copay Wednesday or not. We'll let you know later.

According to the nice people at BabyCenter.com, Dondi is about 14 weeks along and is officially in her second trimester. The baby is about the size of a lemon. Here is the interesting tidbit about this week's development:

This week's big developments: Your baby can now squint, frown, grimace, pee, and possibly suck his thumb! Thanks to brain impulses, his facial muscles are getting a workout as his tiny features form one expression after another.

We'll post about Wednesday's appointment sometime Wednesday night or Thursday morning.

Over the Red River and through the woods...

Jordan's third Thanksgiving was a lot of fun, and it was characteristically busy. Lunch with the Jordan bunch on Thursday, dinner with the Hayhursts Thursday night, and then Oklahoma Friday and Saturday.

Thursday, we started the day at Aunt Deona's house. There, we enjoyed a lot of Thanksgiving favorites: turkey, ham, stuffing, desserts -- everything. We watched some football, played some Bingo and had a good time.

We had a few hours before dinner with my parents Thursday evening, so Dondi went home to rest and Jordan and I went to my parents to watch the Cowboys and Jets play. While we were there, we saw some big snow flurries falling. It's been too warm for it to stick, but it was pretty to look at. Later, we went and got Dondi, then returned to Mom and Dad's for turkey, stuffing, rolls, and all the fixings. We were too stuffed for dessert, but leftover dessert is good, too!

Friday morning, Grampy (who Jordan now calls Gee (hard g, not a soft g)) and Grammie D (who Jordan calls Jo-Jo) took Dondi and Jordan to Oklahoma. I had to work for a few hours, so I drove up Friday afternoon. We all met at the farm and had a good visit with everybody.

It started snowing on the farm, so Dondi and I decided to head into Stillwater for the night (Jodan stayed with Gee, Jo-Jo and Grandma Cross on the farm). As we headed north, the snow really picked up. While the roads were mostly clear (just a couple of patches of ice), there was a lot of snow on the roofs of cars and in grassy areas. The news Saturday morning said we had about 3 inches of snow in Stillwater. Some of the kids staying at the hotel even built a snowman that was about 3 1/2-4 feet tall.

Here are some pictures from the snow:

Boo-Boo Bed

Jordan loves Thomas the Tank Engine. Absolutely loves it. Except, when he refers to Thomas, he calls him "Boo-Boo," which we're pretty sure is Jordan-speak for "Choo-choo." So, when it came time to move Jordan to a toddler bed, we had an easy selection to do for it.

The crib Jordan has used these last 21 months converts into a toddler bed, so we did that in about half an hour this morning. We added the Thomas sheets, and voila, Jordan's first "big boy" bed.

Here are the pictures of the bed. We'll try to get some pictures of him in the bed and post them here.

100th Post

Well, it took almost 3 years, but we've hit the 100th posts for TheHayhursts.com.

What's the latest? Not just a whole lot, actually. I just got back from the annual International Conference of the Public Relations Society of America in Philadelphia. More than 4,000 public relations professionals worldwide networked and learned best practices from industry leaders. It was a great time.

While in Philadelphia, I did make it (after hours) to Independence Hall, Benjamin Franklin's grave and the Liberty Bell. Since it was after hours, I didn't get a chance to tour inside the buildings or past the gate of the cemetery, but was able to see the exterior. Some pictures:

And baby makes four

It's official: Jordan's going to be a big brother. Dondi is due June 10, 2008. We went to the doctor's office on Thursday morning and got to see the heartbeat. (And it does appear there is just one heartbeat!).

According to the experts at BabyCenter.com, Jordan's little brother or sister has an oversized head, and dark spots on its head where the eyes and ears will be.

We're pretty excited, as you can expect. And, we'll keep everyone up-to-date with doctor's appointments, sonograms, etc., via the blog.

Our State Fair is a Great State Fair

Friday was Jordan's first trip to the Great State Fair of Texas
in Dallas. Jordan seemed to have a good time, though he was definitely ready to go at the end of the day. While we were watching the US Marine Corps Drum and Bugle Corps play, Jordan asked to be put in his stroller, and then said, "Bye, bye."

So, we were done.

We met up with Grandma and Grandpa (who also chose Oct. 5 to go) and ate lunch (yep, corn dogs were required fare at the fair). We visited the Children's Medical Center petting zoo, visited the food exhibit (lots of delicious native Texan food), then (Dad's favorite), the auto show.

At the petting zoo, we bought food for Jordan to feed the animals with. What was funny to watch was Jordan getting real brave to feed the animals, right up until they came up to him then he jumped back, laughed because he scared himself, but then kept his hands well on his side of the fence. Too fun.

Here are some pics from the day:














(Yeah, we saw the OU trailer and truck, too, but, really, who cares?)















Jordan was convinced every animal he saw: goats, kangaroos, pigs, emus; were all cows.














Hey! This goat is eating my food!














Wow, you're kinda tall.














The rest of the Longhorn 18-wheeler. The OU one was around there somewhere.

Terrible Two's

It's official: we have a two-year old.

Jordan crossed the magic point a week ago, and we celebrated on Saturday with a Blue's Clues-themed party at our house. Dondi decorated the backyard with images of Blue characters, Tickety, Sidetable Drawer, Magenta and Mr. Salt and Mrs. Pepper.

Jordan had a ton of fun. We had five kids ranging from 2 to 5 in our backyard (thankfully, the weather was gorgeous), plus lots of adults.

Here are some pictures from Jordan's second birthday. Enjoy!