Hayden at the Park

We had our first really nice day in Montgomery yesterday. Eric had off for MLK day so we took Hayden to the Shakespeare Theatre park here in Montgomery. Its our favorite place to go on long walks as it has miles of paved walkway and it is has really pretty grounds. I wanted to do a little photo shoot of Hayden for his upcoming 1st birthday invites. Here are some of my favorite photos.

10 months

Hayden turned 10 months old on Monday. He's really had a lot of firsts in the last few weeks. He started to crawl, is pulling up on everything, and now almost has both of his front teeth. Sometimes he is a little too big for his britches and thinks he can walk.....which always ends up in a fall and totally stresses me out. He is enjoying his Gymboree classes and is making new friends. He is trying new foods but has become a little stubborn when it comes to eating his vegetables. He has started spitting his food out at me as made evident by the splash marks all over our wall. He has finally started sleeping better after months of traveling, colds, ear infections, and new teeth which has made life in the Vaillant house much happier. :) I can't believe he is only two months away from his 1st birthday! Here are some recent photos......

I Can Crawl!

Here's a video of Hayden crawling. For the last couple months he was on the verge but never really had interest. Eric was doing daily "crawl camps" with Hayden to encourage him to move. He finally officially crawled at my parents house in MD a couple weeks ago but I just got it on video. He's realizing he can move all over the apartment now and loving it. Let the fun begin!

Residency News

The military match for residency was announced on December 16th. Eric applied for an Orthopedic residency and we assumed we would most likely be going to San Antonio, TX for the next 5 years starting in June 2010. We were totally surprised to find out he received a civilian sponsored spot which means he can apply and interview at any civilian training hospital of his choice and the military still pays for it. We had talked about the possibility before and where we would try to go if it happened but Eric had pretty much told me this was about a 15% chance so I was already planning the move to TX. I like to know things in percentages so I don't get my hopes up and so I can plan ahead. :) This was the best Christmas present I got this year knowing that we would try to move closer to the MD/DC/VA area....which is closer to my family. We both love the DC area and thought it might be a while before the military would send us back that way so it was just very exciting news. We also like the Raleigh/Durham area so would be happy to move there as well. Two of my best friends live there so it would be great to be able to live in the same town for a while.

Eric has contacted 10 hospitals on the east coast from Baltimore to Raleigh. So far he has heard back from 6 of them and has interest from 5 (Richmond, Georgetown, Johns Hopkins, University of MD and Union Memorial). Hopefully he will receive interviews from most of them. We hope to find out where he will be going in the coming months and then begin a home search asap. We will keep you posted as things progress!

Christmas 2009

We traveled to visit my family this year in MD and VA. We decided to make the drive to save money.....and bring gifts back....and overall the drive went pretty well. We left Montgomery on Wednesday, December 16th in the evening hoping Hayden would sleep in the car for the first leg of the trip which didn't go so well. He was not a fan of sleeping at the hotel so on the way home we just decided to do it all in one day which actually went much better. We got a car DVD player for the trip and that seemed to really help. He loves to watch Baby Einstein DVD's....they are the only thing that will hold his attention.

We arrived at my sister's house in Fredericksburg, VA on Thursday afternoon. We stayed one night there and then headed to my parents house in Southern, MD on Friday just before the big snowstorm hit. From Friday to Sunday we got about a foot of snow. We missed out on our big family get together that Sunday afternoon but it was fun to be snowed in together. Luckily we brought a hand me down snow suit for Hayden just in case. We took him out for about 5 minutes just to get some photos.

Most of the trip was spent just hanging out with my family. Hayden had lots of time to play with his cousins Ryan and Sarah. We also took Georgia with us which made my 5 year old nephew very happy. He really wore her out chasing her around the house and hugging on her. My parents also kept Hayden for a couple hours so Eric and I could have a nice dinner out together.

We traveled back to Fredericksburg for Christmas Eve and Day. The kids were so cute together opening their gifts. We then drove back to MD so we could visit some friends and then back to VA the night before we left to cut some time off our trip home. It was a great Christmas and Hayden was totally spoiled by everyone. Here are some photos from our big trip......and a video of Hayden in the car on our way home playing a game with Daddy.