Life of Hazel

I met with a friend from Trinity Western in Portland today and I realized how much of my life is all about Hazel. I think the shift from self absorption to sacrifice is important, although it's a fine balancing act between being a good mother and being a consumed mother. I love our daily routines, but I find it hard to explain to someone who is on a completely different path for their life. Especially when I could have easily taken the same path my that friend is currently on.

I love Miss B, and since you keep coming back to my blog, friends, I'm assuming you have a special fondness for her in your heart also. I'm counting on those feelings of niceness since this post is all about her.


Crib Friends: a heart-monitor bear, her Easter bunny, and a bear from Korea, gifted by Tiffany and Uncle Ricky. I lowered her mattress just the other day when I caught her standing up in her crib. A new phase of life is upon us!

The zoo, the zoo, going to the zoo!

These pictures are from Hazel's first trip to the zoo (thanks, Mom). She was almost exactly five months old at the time. She was pretty clueless (what else could be expected?) but I had a grand time. I love the zoo!

Easter 2009

Another batch of forgotten photos! I took some time the other day to browse through the amazing number of picture folders on Nate's desktop, and I found some jewels. This quick post is from Easter 2009, at Mom and Dad's house with Rae Ann, Tom, Stella, and Ivy. A couple days after Easter, we all spent some time at the Hangar, so a few pictures from that are on here, too.

Mom put together baskets for Stella and Ivy, and was a crazy enough grandma to put chicks in them. The girls were tickled pink. Mom kept the chicks in her pen with the other "grown up" chickens after Easter so that they wouldn't be lonely and the girls could visit them at any time.



The ever creative Rae Ann stitched together a very sweet bunny for Hazel's basket.



And these are from Hangar 52. I love my little family.




Micah Echo is in the background...

Going Back A Ways

I mentioned months ago that I would post some pictures of our move and the house. It's old news now, so I won't say much but I'll post pictures. The pictures of our house are from not that long ago - Rae Ann and Julia came over to talk Mary Kay, so I took advantage of a clean house to snap some photos.



The day we moved it was frigid outside. One of the first things Nate and I bought when we knew we'd be moving into this house was a space heater. Our first night here, we sat in the family room with the space heater aimed at our feet. We didn't have enough oil in the furnace to run it (good thing, too, since there were some serious problems with the heating ducts - they were in such bad shape, carbon monoxide could have easily seeped through into the house), and we didn't have any firewood yet, so we sat and huddled together for as long as we could stand until it was time for bed.

We set the space heater up in our room and everyone went to bed, Hazel in her little bassinet next to my side of the bed. I woke up several times during the night way too hot and with a pounding headache. We set the space heater too high and it heated up the room nicely, but too much. And Nate had finished the wood floors maybe 3 days before we moved in, so the heat was drawing out some leftover fumes. We spent the next week with my parents at their house, let's just say.

Hello, World.

Mmm, coffee.

We love love love our Cuisinart coffee maker. Nate's uncle bought it for us when we got married and we've never regretted registering for it.

Well, Nate bought an espresso machine yesterday. He did alot of research before picking out the one he wanted. It's by DeLonghi (EC155 model). It's sitting on my kitchen counter staring at me, waiting to be plugged in and used. I'm not in any rush. I still love my afternoon coffee and cream - I relish the time I get to sit and sip while watching Hazel play. Straight espresso is more about expediency to me.

Nate sure was cute with his buy, though. As excited as a little school boy...


DeLonghi is a good brand, so as much as I'm attached to my afternoon cup of delight, I do look forward to sampling the espresso from the DeLonghi. Who knows, maybe this change is good!

The park, the park, going to the park.

Hazel and I hung out with Linsea, Jacob, and Lucy the other day, and we visited a nearby park while we were at their house. Linsea wanted to try out her new carrier with Lucy, so Hazel rode in the double-stroller with Jake on the way over. Jake didn't know what to do with Hazel, as she's not his little sister, and a total stranger to boot, so he kept pushing off her hand whenever it would cross the middle line, which it did often. Hazel, as her very tactile self, wanted to touch Jake. Hey, he was sitting close so why not!


We didn't get to stay long at the playground. Hazel and I swung for about five minutes before we had to head back.

On the walk back, Hazel and Lucy rode together in the double-stroller and they were in heaven. It was a blast to watch them interact, playing peek-a-boo and touching each other's hands and giggling. Such girly girls!


It's always fun spending time with Linsea and the kids! I'm totally content with where Hazel is at in her physical development. She's rolling and sitting up, but not quite crawling. She's showing more interest in it, definitely, but I'm happy that she still stays pretty much put in place when I set her down and walk away for a minute. I'm not ready for her to be totally mobile yet, and that was confirmed with me when Lucy began pulling herself up and taking steps while we were over there. Linsea now has two kids walking, one at 2 years and 2 months, the other at 9 months. Good luck, Lins. God be with you.

Good times. Seriously.

Holy crap, it's been almost a month since my last post. I knew I was bad, but THAT bad, my goodness...My apologies, friends.

My computer is having a communication breakdown with me. It's disconnecting from itself in odd ways. I opened iTunes the other day and I no longer had any music. I checked my library and it was all there, but my computer wasn't reading that information. And then I restarted my computer and all of my personal preferences (like the desktop) were forgotten/undone. It's been lovely. I've been working to back-up all my information so that I can either perform a disc repair or clean the hard drive. I'm so excited.

Hazel is just about 9.5 months. That's weird! She's getting closer and closer to crawling, so we're working on that every day. The best I can do is get her interested in crawling (which is what we had to do for rolling - she really had to want it).

We went on a camping trip with Nate's family this past weekend to Breitenbush so I'm going to post about that really soon. Once again, Nate has the camera with all the pictures!

I found some other pictures ("long lost") on Nate's computer that I'd love to post, so I'll do that tomorrow during her nap. She's hollering at me right now, so I'd best go find out what's up with the bub.

Did you know it's almost Fall?

a whole list of random things

First, Hazel trying to feed herself. Yeah, she's not the best at it yet! It's going to take some time for her to get "big" bottles figured out. Anytime I try to show her how to hold the bottle, she freaks out and throws her hands out to the side, letting go completely.

We visited with Rae Ann and the girls a little while ago, and I turned my back for one second and Rae Ann had Hazel in this position, showing her to Mr. Jensen on the other side of the fence. Had to memorialize the moment with a picture, just had to.

The Volvo ended up in the shop for about a week not too long ago. It decided to randomly quit running, so we sent it in to get fixed, oh and to get the air conditioner working so Hazel and I could go places during our triple digit heatwave. When I got the Volvo back from the shop, I put Hazel's mirror back up so I could see her when I was driving. It was as though she'd never noticed it before. Suddenly she's her own best friend, dancing for herself, laughing uproariously, and watching herself slyly from the corner of her eye. I tried my best to get a picture of the joy she brings herself. I wish it was clearer...

Nate and I celebrated our four year anniversary on July 22nd. We sent Hazel to spend the evening with Nate's parents and went out for dinner and a movie, one of our favorite things to do together.

Are you tired yet of my crappy phone pictures? I just confiscated the camera and phone cord from Nate's office, so better pictures are coming soon!

I had some allergy testing done recently - I've needed to get it done for the last few years, actually, but I just got the okay from my midwife. Of course the results were inconclusive after two hours of testing. Yes, it's true - I have to go back and do it all over again, but next time I have to take the fruit with me so they can poke it and then me. Great. Just peachy.


Okay, that's it for now. I have more to share with you - since it's been so long since my last post. Apologies, apologies.

Goodbye Farmers.

Leslie and Adam moved to Utah for Leslie's new teaching job. Nate and I helped them load up their moving truck the day before the big move. We miss them already, and it's only been a day!

Hazel and Her Big Belly

Too bad my phone is often the camera most handy these days. The quality of pictures it takes is decent for the most part (to view online), but they aren't great to print off. So sad! I love most of the pictures I take with my phone!

Anyway, here is a batch from a couple weeks ago: Hazel and Nate playing on our bed. I love her belly. She shoves it way out in front of her when she looks down toward her toes.




Oh, and this is my freezer jam - raspberry!

My "Sweet Cheeks" strikes again.

Hazel is busy with her various therapies this week. Yesterday we saw neurotherapist Crystal again - it'll be three weeks until our next appointment with her. Crystal has been thrilled by Hazel's progress, by all the rolling over, sitting up, and her new interest in standing.

Crystal worked Hazel on a big fancy swing for awhile, helping her strengthen her coordination and trunk muscles (and balance, I should say - the swing was a giant board with carpeting on it; Crystal sat on the back of the board and kept it in motion while Hazel dominated the rest of it by rolling everywhere and kicking her feet in ecstasy).

When we were done with the swing, we moved to our usual room, which is largely taken up by a raised platform with heavy padding on it. Usually Crystal has laid down a sheet (which is generally a huge distraction for Hazel - she works hard to pick the dolls, bears, flowers, and poka dots off the various sheets), but this time there was an 85cm yoga ball. Hazel spent most of the hour perched on top of it. I can't even begin to explain all the exercises we had her doing up there. Eventually, the exercises Crystal wanted her to focus on involved gently strengthening her back shoulder muscles (think wall push-ups). That's how I ended up taking this marvelous photograph. I've never laughed so hard.



Ah, my little Sweet Cheeks.

update

The last few weeks have been interesting around our household. Hazel has been putting her foot down in several areas.

Nursing has become such a task. She's super resistant so I've had to make some changes in the way I nurse. We now nurse in a pitch black room with only a fan making noise. I lie down on the guest bed with her and she nurses that way. She does better nursing now than a week ago - she had been pulling off and pushing away and thrashing and arching her back. I'm not sure what's going on; could be she's growing or finally teething. We'll see.

Also, we moved her naps from our bed to her crib. Yes, that's been interesting. She had been napping two to three times a day for two to three hours at a time, and it was wonderful! Well, she didn't like the transition to her crib. She began napping once maybe twice a day for an average of 30-45 minutes at a time. Yuck. Today is the first time she slept for two hours during one of her naps in the crib. I think, I think, she may be coming around to seeing things our way!

Nate and I have continued to set up house, and boy does it feel good! We went several months letting things just sit right where they were at, mid-progress toward being settled. This last weekend we worked on organizing the basement, and then we hung shades and curtains in our room. It's like it's done or something...there's nothing left for me to do to our bedroom. Huh. Weird.

I'll post some pictures of our house next and give you a virtual tour.

lost in her cheeks

A couple seven month self-portraits. This girl is getting so big.

Oh the zoo, the zoo...

Love the zoo, just love it. It's never a bad day to go to the zoo.

Except, of course, when there's an ungodly number of school children screaming and running in circles like wild beasts.

We went for mom's birthday last week and I snapped a couple pictures with my phone. Of course they're of Hazel. I always think she's cute and a good subject for picture taking.