December 19, 2015

9 Months of Hazel


Dear Hazel,

You are 3/4 of a year old, and I am late on writing this. It has been a BUSY month for us and I am trying to keep up! You weigh about the same as last month at 18.6 pounds and XXinches. You're still wearing the same size clothes, and you have 6 teeth (4 on top, 2 on bottom)!

You are eating more variety and REALLY enjoying it. You've added blueberries, pears, banana, and chicken and you've liked everything including the things you didn't like before. We also bought you some puffs to start eating textures and get you ready for table food. You are so cute and precise as you pinch each little bite. Small pieces of banana and pear are fun but challenging because they are so slippery. Sometimes I sprinkle some rice from my dinner onto your highchair and you enjoy eating that one piece at a time too! It also makes it easier to have family dinners around the table.

We've been working on sign language as you eat using the signs for eat, more, and all done. Just this past Monday and Tuesday we've seen you make the sign for "More"! At first I thought it was a flue and you were just playing with your fingers, but we've seen you do it multiple times, and it makes me so proud to see you communicating in a way that we taught you!! Although, I have to say that your normal version of "more," which involves banging your hand on the tray, is pretty effective too.

Your crawling skills have improved and you hardly ever army crawl anymore... It's up on all fours for you! And even that isn't acceptable to you so you pull up on things as often as you can. You can walk along objects as long as you're holding on. You are a daredevil though, and frequently let go to test your balance! Needless to say you've done quite a bit of falling down this month. Now you've figured out how to sit back down from standing, but for a while you would get stuck there until we helped you or you came crashing back down.

Another cute thing you learned was how to cross your fingers. For two days straight you practiced crossing them and it is one of the most precious things I've watched you do.

You have been quite the traveler this month making your way to Mexico for your first international adventure to celebrate Thanksgiving. Then last weekend we made a rather last minute and speedy trip to Denver, Colorado for your Aunt Cara's Graduation. While we were there you got to meet your Aunt Karen, Uncle Dan, and Cousin/Aunt Sarah as well as some of momma and daddy's friends from school (and I forgot to take any pictures with them!). You also got to experience your first good snow! Saturday we spent a lot of time walking around Denver while big fluffy flakes were falling. Part of the time you were riding with mom or dad and sometimes in your stroller. You didn't get to play in it, but I still think you appreciated the spectacle. It was fun being an urban family for the day, walking, walking, walking. You did well on most of the flights we took this month except for the one coming back from Denver... you were awake and fussy on and off through the whole flight and then when we started our decent you started screaming, throwing your head back, uncontrollably. No amount of shushing, singing, bouncing, pacifiers, toys, boobs, or anything else at our disposal would pause the wails. So we waited. And I cried a little bit with you. Yikes, girl!

You met Santa TWICE already. He came to visit your school and you were not very happy with him. You didn't cry, but your face was saying "I don't like this!" But once we took you off his lap, you grabbed his finger and gave him some smiles. Then, when we were in Denver, we were riding the elevator in our hotel and it stopped on a random floor and when the doors opened Santa and one of his elves were standing there to get on! He rode down and took a picture with us in the lobby! He's a good guy, and I'm glad you're starting to warm up to him.

The day after we got back from Mexico, I moved all your clothes into your laundry bin next to my suitcase, but didn't do the laundry right away. But after a couple days  I did a load and when I went to move it to the dryer I found my saline spray in the washer and a lot of cardboard pieces.... and everything was LINTY. More lint than I had ever seen! Turns out I washed an entire mini notebook with your clothes!... and I have a sneaky suspicion that YOU were the one who put those items in your laundry.

You're becoming more of a momma's girl, preferring to be with me more than most other people, including your dad. He's not convinced you like him very much, but that doesn't stop the two of you from having some pretty good times together. He put a pickle up to your lips very early on this month (when you still didn't like apples) and we didn't think you'd like it, but we were completely wrong. You latched on and couldn't get enough and sucked the seeds right off the top and put your teeth to good use chewing on it. He let you play with a baby guitar while we were at Target recently, and you liked it so much he couldn't bear to take it away from you again... so it will be under the Christmas tree next week. He really had fun clucking his tongue with you. You each sounded like you were talking to a pony but you were just clucking back and forth and smiling big goofy grins. He appreciates all the little bonding moments he can get out of you!

As always, we are smitten beyond measure with everything you do and are.

Love,
Momma



 

 









{  Close up on that pout.  }



{  A rare moment of sleeping on Mom  }






{  Maternity coat over baby carrier = my favorite winter get-up  }










<<<<<>>>>>

P.S. The pictures that were not showing up in the last post, are now working... hopefully!

December 7, 2015

Gracias Giving




For the past 5 years (minus the one we were in Hawaii) I've been going to Mexico with Tyler's family for Thanksgiving. At first, it seemed weird to me to leave the country to celebrate a holiday that is so American; however, it's now become a welcome tradition.

Mexico almost has a more wholesome holiday atmosphere than the states because we get away from the hustle and bustle and the blight of Thanksgiving that is Black Friday. Instead of worrying about buying more STUFF that we don't need, we spend time with family and have the time to actually be thankful for what we already have. I never participated in Black Friday even when I could, but it was still THERE and a part of the holiday and the constant advertising was the worst.
Not. a. fan.

This year, there was/is SO MUCH to be thankful for. New family, new friends, community, health, old family, and old friends... It's the people that make our lives so wonderful. Not the stuff. We are lucky to have such wonderful supporters, confidantes, and goofballs in our circle.

{  Graciasgiving as I shall now call it  }
{  Tyler's phone has a scratch over the selfie camera. Wah!  }
Hazel got to put her passport to use for the first time. Little miss international baby had many firsts. First time staying in a hotel, first time out of the country, first time seeing the ocean, first Thanksgiving. She had a great time with everything!


  
                          "So this is sand?...."                      

She liked the sand a lot and had fun inspecting it and letting it run through her fingers... and of course trying to put it in her mouth.                        


The ocean temperature was pretty chilly so there was no swimming for us, but she got to stick her toes in with her dad for the first time.



I thought this trip would be more difficult than our last because she is older now and more opinionated about what she is doing (and she was pretty congested), but she was a trooper pretty much the whole trip (minus a few car meltdowns and some extra mid-night wakings) even though we were way out of her normal element.


She was awake for our Thanksgiving feast and got to enjoy the festivities and her own version of dinner.



She thoroughly enjoyed her turkey puree!


One day when the tide was out and the waves were looong and shallow, we let Hazel crawl around and play in the surf... I think she liked the wet, gushy sand even better than the dry stuff.

{  no, she didn't constantly wear her hat  like Yosemite Sam... it's just the only way to see her face in any pictures.  } 
Displaying IMG_24921.jpg
Displaying IMG_24921.jpg


Displaying IMG_24921.jpg
{  They are the coolest couple of cats I know  }
{  Her first wishbone action... it shattered... what does that mean?  }


THANKS. THANKS! THANKS!!

(thank becomes weird after using it too much... even though you can NEVER use it too much.)

<<<<<>>>>>

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!  }











<<<<<>>>>>