November 16, 2015

8 Months of Hazel



Hazel my dear,

How can another month have possibly gone by already?! It just can't be so!

It was a huge month for you! You're hitting the milestones one right after the other.

You are now 18.4 lbs and 28 inches long. You are still wearing most of the same clothes you were last month.

We've added green beans, turkey, peas, apples, and prunes to your food rotation. You liked your  peas right away, but all the rest you were/are pretty hesitant about. We were shocked that you don't like apples!! We got some store bought baby food to try it out for our upcoming Thanksgiving trip and the apples are one of the flavors, and you just hate them. We'll have to make you some homemade honey crisp apples and see if you like those better.

The biggest milestone this month is your mobility!! You started army crawling early in the month and now you can make it a little way up on all fours! We are now on high alert because you like going for all the dangerous stuff, like cords and the outlet covers. You also like to try to eat whatever is on the ground. You can spot a tiny piece of leaf from across the room and you will go after it and try to chew it up. You have started trying to crawl into other rooms than the one we are in to explore. You are becoming so independent, but at the same time, you can now crawl over to me and let me know that you want to be held. It's incredibly sweet.

You are also proficient using your walker to go wherever you want to go and you love the fact that you can pull things off of the coffee table. One day when you were supposed to be napping, I heard you fussing, walked in your nursery and found you STANDING in the crib by yourself!

You love it when we tickle your belly by giving you lots of raspberries. You only like snuggling occasionally, but I absolutely love it when you press your forehead to mine and just chill.

This month you started the Shrimp Swim class at the YMCA, and you have been enjoying the warm pool. Even when you get dunked you don't cry because you really like the water!

We try to surround you with your many toys, and you like to play with them. Sometimes. But most of the time, it seems, that you are going for the items mentioned above. You do like to bang things together, use your pincer grasp to pick at things, and chew on pretty much everything.

And speaking of chewing, your first top tooth started poking through, and then a week or so later 3 or 4 more started coming through. The top teeth have been beating you up the last two days, and you have been pretty grouchy, but you've been doing your best to sleep it off.

Last night, we were convinced it was going to be a rough night, and then we woke up to morning light. We LOVE it when that happens, but it doesn't happen very often as you are still mostly waking up once a night.

What is parenting if it isn't an excuse to talk about poop...

Last night, we were getting you ready for a bath and your dad took your diaper off. You were wearing a cloth diaper and had gone poop. With cloth diapers we have to empty them into the toilet, and since you've started solids your poop has been pretty solid too so it's pretty easy to do. I had you in the tub, and your dad called out to me, "I think I lost her poop!" He had picked up the diaper to come empty it, but it was already empty! He found it, of course, but I made fun of him of course.

Then today, the EXACT same thing happened to me. I changed you and set you down to play, then went to take care of your dirty diaper but when I got to the bathroom to empty it, once again, there was no poop!! I had to go back and find it on the changing table. Oy, you and your run away poop!

There is so much going on in your head at all times. You can tell you are absorbing and learning the world around you, while developing your own likes and dislikes. Time is speeding up even more as we watch you develop by the day, hour, minute. We love encouraging you to push the boundaries of what you can do in order to learn new things, but at the same each new milestone makes me a little sad. Remember it's okay to slow down, little girl, and take your time. You are only little once.

Much love,
Momma




{  Major hat hair  }



{  Mimi walked in to find her sitting by herself for the first time!  }
{  ...and pulling up! Time to lower the crib mattress.  }










 



{  First pig tails!  }











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November 11, 2015

Baby Threads: Take it away, Tights!

Fall is fading fast, the leaves are pouring down off of the trees, and there's that bite in the morning air that says winter is not far off. I have been going over Hazel's wardrobe trying to prepare for the cold weather. It's tough to dress her in warm garb that is car seat friendly AND daycare friendly.

Now I have to say, I generally send her to daycare looking like she got dressed in the dark. I tend to put her in my least favorite outfits and save the cute ones for when we're going to be with her. But with winter coming I've been thinking a lot about her toes and how cold they will be if I don't come up with a solution to keep them covered (her room at daycare is always cold!).

Most shoes and socks get kicked off and even though we now have some Zutano booties that stay on MOST of the time, they still don't make it through a day of daycare. SO I've been thinking a lot about TIGHTS!! They make some really great baby tights that are thick and warm, and the feet do not come off!! ...and there are some adorable ones out there to boot! When it comes to tights, in my mind, the more pattern the better!!!

Currently she has one pair that I really like, and I am looking to get some more before the cold really hits. Her legs are long so I sometimes put the tights on under a pair of pants that I know will end up riding up and leaving her little shins exposed to the elements, but they are so darn cute that I let her wear them as pants sometimes too! I took to the interwebs to find some more tights and I started doing some hardcore window screen shopping, planning cute hypothetical outfits to go with the cute tights I found.

We in no way own all of these items, nor will we end up purchasing them, but I thought it'd be fun to show you what we like out there this season!


Cool and collected in our favorite color around here; blue. Hazel's Bammie Cindy got her the adorable grey coat and I just feel like she needs a beret to wear with it so she can look like a little French baby! She's only gotten to wear the coat once because it hasn't really been cold enough yet, but pictures to come, I promise! 

Hazel's friend, Sam, wears these booties frequently and his mom gave them a good review, so in our quest to cover Hazel's feet we decided to get a pair and we've been loving them. (We got size 18 month which was definitely the right size for her right now. Either she has large feet or they run small.)

I LOVE these tights, and it's not pictured, but I really hope there is a little animal design on the butt of these. I have not seen them in person so I don't know how think they are or whether they are really worth the $$. 



Now, we generally don't go with much pink, but I love the pink version of the animal tights, and I really like the soft pink in these pieces. They all just look so SNUGGLY!

Now that Hazel is crawling, I have been keeping my eye out for knee patch pants, and I think the hearts are sooo sweet.

We have the gold moccasins, and I love that she can wear them with almost anything. She thinks they are toys, not shoes (and I certainly don't blame her with that shiny fringe), so she does try to get them off to play with them.



Who needs pants when you've got tights?!?! I have no qualms about her wearing thick tights as pants (I like onesies over tights too), but I have a feeling when Tyler sees this he is going to object.  In order to compromise... Tunics!! They aren't dresses but they are long enough to provide some more coverage. We don't own any of this, but I feel like all of these pieces would be so versatile! Gotta love the whisker hat!!

I try not to buy many clothes for Hazel because she has a lot that have been given to her already, but sometimes it's just too hard to resist. If we end up getting any of the above, I will be sure to post some pictures!!

Check out my Kiddo Kicks board on Pinterest to see even more baby styles that I like!

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November 6, 2015

Frolicking through Fall

It has been a wonderful season! We have had a great mixture of gorgeous fall days as well as foggy dreary ones (which are also awesome in my book)... fall can do no wrong!

We've tried to take advantage of the season and squeeze in all the fun that we could. And we've done pretty well!

We hosted our first ever Fall Firelight Festival at our house complete with chili cook-off and bonfire in early October...

{  The chili awards  } 
{  We had scarecrow supplies but forgot to make any  }

{  We party in our carport :)  }


{  Cleaning up after everyone left. LOVE hanging out under these lights  }
We attended a cute little event called Parkfest in one of our town's parks. There was a car show, trolley tours, craft booths, food, puppy adoptions, and live music from this adorable gazebo! It was quaint and very Star Hollow-ish.



The leaves have been beautiful so we've been trying to take advantage of the nice days, going out for walks and enjoying them while we can.


Hazel thought playing in the leaves was pretty nifty!






Downtown St. Charles hosted an event called a Pumpkin Glow! All the shops in the historic downtown area stayed open into the evening and put out their jack-o-lanterns. The place was packed with families and there were all kinds of costumes to look at. We scored a table on an adorable restaurant patio and chowed down on some delicious steak. The weather was nice, the atmosphere (complete with fire, creek, and "house dog") was superb, and we just thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. After dinner we walked the streets and peeked in a few shops, but with the crowd and historic building entryways it was hard to maneuver with Hazel's stroller so we just walked and absorbed the  scene. 

 

{  This dog was more of a horse... pardon my steak stuffed cheeks!  }

Fall wouldn't be complete without some pumpkins, so we chose to go to a nearby pumpkin patch that was so much more than just pumpkin picking. They had a corn maze, petting zoo, a giant bouncy bubble thing (pictured below) games for the kids, honey bees, pumpkin cannons, tractor tire swings, sack slides, and more!







Hazel slept through the actual pumpkin picking part, but there's always next year!




And then of course there's Halloween! The past few years we haven't done anything for Halloween. Last year we were out of town, and the year before that we planned to hang at home and hand out candy, except no one came.  :(  This year we went to our friend's house in the neighborhood behind us to hand out candy instead and also attended our town's Halloween parade. Hazel HAD to dress up, but we had two costumes that we loved. She went as a scuba diver and a mandrake!! Let the picture overload commence...


She's ready to hit the open waters with her dad!



We decided on an ocean theme for the whole family (minus Norbert who didn't come out to celebrate). A shark, a scuba diver, and a narwhal!  ... Sadly, this was the best group shot that we got. 

{  The whole family (minus Norbert) dressed up!  }
{  Gosh, she's good! She doesn't even need her mask over her eyes or her regulator in her mouth when she's swimming with her dolphin friends -- Photoshopping done Picture by Tyler  }






{  Obviously the real deal because only real mandrakes can move in pictures...  }
She was even got a few retroactive cameos in these scenes...

Holidays with a baby are so much fun. I cannot wait for the big ones coming up. I know she is going to love all the twinkle lights that come along with Christmas! Autumn, however, is not quite finished yet, so we will continue to milk it for as long as we can. If it dries out enough, we may need to make a giant leaf pile this weekend!!

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