Whoa

It's hard to believe that this is what I looked like six months ago. It's even harder to believe this is what Hazel looked like six months ago.At six months this little darling has mastered rolling, sleeping, screaming, smiling, 2 bottom teeth, thumb sucking (when Mom isn't looking) and melting hearts everywhere.
She has the most scrumptious cheeks, hates to cuddle and tries to sit up when she's in her swing, car seat, stroller or someone's lap. Ironically, she rarely sits up in the Bumbo, but rather leans completely to the side, nearly falling out. Her spitting up has gone down dramatically (Clara's tapered off around 6 months too), she sucks/chews on anything she can get her mouth on and she loves exploring new textures by scratching. She's getting out of 6 month clothes, she wants to move forward SO bad (but arches her back so much while trying to push with her foot that she just flips over to her back, much to her dismay) and has eaten bananas twice. This is how she felt about those bananas.
My heart hurts a little thinking that we're halfway to her first year birthday. I actually have to divert my thoughts to avoid getting too emotional/anxious over it. Clara's friend Abby and her brother constantly tell me they wish Hazel would stay this size and they wish their sister was this size again. Don't we all? Especially since my little Hazel is about as darling as a baby can get.

Mornings

I have always told people I can be a morning or a night person, but not both. The problem is, when I need to be a morning person, I rarely have enough self control to go to bed early enough to deal with an early morning. Since having Hazel, I have continued to try to dabble in my I-can-stay-up-as-late-as-I-want world and wake up at 7-something to feed Hazel. 7-something is much better than her recent bout with 6-something but 7-something still means I wake up tired pretty much every morning.

However...

After I get over myself and my beauty rest, I really do enjoy my mornings. In fact, I really cherish them. Most mornings (and by most I mean about 6 out of 7), I wake up at 7-something and feed Hazel. Often we'll have some time to visit, snuggle, play and relax before Little Miss Sunshine (aka Clara) comes sauntering in, close to 8am. Clara climbs into bed and the three of us just hang out, in my bed, for a good chunk of time. We read books, talk, laugh and discuss our day. Hazel giggles at Clara and Clara puts on a show. It's usually about an hour, but the length of time is heavily dictated by Clara's appetite and slightly influenced by my laziness. We get up, make breakfast, put Hazel down for a nap, eat breakfast and I clean the kitchen. So even though I really hate waking up, I love my mornings. I love squeezing Hazel's chunky thighs and eating her cheeks. I love having a few quiet moments with just her before you-know-who comes around to rule the show. I love feeling Clara snuggle up next to me and being so excited when I suggest we read a book. I love hearing Clara declare our cover for the day (because whatever she wants to be, she asks if we can be a "fam-a-ly" of that same thing) and squeezing and kissing her soft little cheeks. I love relaxing with my two babies before we get to work for the day. I know these mornings can't last forever, but I am going to enjoy them while they do.

The Santa hat: don't ask, but it's rare that Clara comes into my room wearing only what she went to sleep in. My curlers: I wish they weren't so big, I'd curl my hair regularly. Hazel is dressed at 8am? I can't remember where we were going on this particular day, but I thought I'd be efficient and put her clothes on while I was changing her diaper. Let's hope that helped us be on time to wherever we were headed.

For the Daddies

I heard a story at church about a kid that said when they played house, the mom doll did everything but they didn't know what the daddy doll did because he was always gone at work so the kid just threw him under the bed. It was funny and makes sense since yes, most dad's spend most of their time at work. Even still, so many of us are blessed with wonderful fathers that influence us and our kids and those around us despite their frequent absence from the home.

My dad taught me the importance of a good education, how to love unconditionally, that roads are most slippery just after it starts to rain (I can still hear him in my mind whenever I'm driving in the rain saying, "Be careful, there's lots of oil on the road when it first starts raining."), how to bargain, I could accomplish what I desired and not to settle.

Things I love about my dad:
- He is the Trivial Pursuit Master. Seriously.

- He has the biggest tender spot for kids, especially his grand kids.

- He is a hard worker.

- He always has a good joke to share.

Things I love about this man that raised my children's father:

- He sings (and sings me Happy Birthday every year)

- He likes to hold babies

- He taught Jason the importance of good work ethic

- He is genuine

And of course, Jason:

- He loves to play with the kids

- He works hard to provide for our family

- He makes Clara and Hazel laugh

- He makes Clara and Hazel feel important

- He doesn't whine if I am gone and he has to cover my responsibilities

Clara made a card for Jason and drew a darling family picture. From left to right: Mom, Dad and Clara; Bottom center: Hazel (maybe the two ghost smiley faces on either side of Hazel are our future kids?)

She also had this to say about her Dad (I love these things, they make me laugh every time):

My dad is strong.

He is 50 years old, very tall and weighs 5 pounds.

His favorite food is watermelon.

My dad is really good at fixing cars*.

His favorite ice cream flavor is all of them.

I'm just like my dad because I clean my room**.

My dad's favorite song is on the radio.

My dad loves to play walkie-talkies.

My favorite thing to do with my dad is go on daddy daughter dates.

My dad's favorite movie is Batman.

It makes Dad happy when I clean my room.

*This one was particularly funny since the last time Jason tried to fix a car, he never got it to start again.

**Yes, Jason and Clara definitely clean their room the same way. Here's a little visual evidence...

Jason's Desk

Clara's Desk

Happy Father's Day!

Cute Babies

Clara was a cute baby. Seriously, she was darling! When I was pregnant with Hazel, I kept hoping she'd look just like Clara, because I was worried that if she didn't, I wouldn't think she was as cute. Hazel and Clara don't look very much alike, but I am happy to report, Hazel is just as cute and equally perfect.

Surviving

This week has been long, tiring and kind of crazy. But look how much I have learned...

A broken A/C and inside temps of 85* isn't so bad. Just spray yourself down with water at bedtime, turn on a fan and you will wonder why we even have A/C's to begin with.

I haven't done a very good job of teaching Clara about Satan. At KS my cousin Court was telling Clara how he fell into the pool when he was young and his brother pulled him out. He said he was glad, otherwise he wouldn't be here because if he would have died he'd be up in Heaven with Heavenly Father.

Clara: I might be with Satan.

Court: Uh, what?

Clara: Yeah, I might be with Satan when I die because I was kind of bad during nap time.

Clara gets awesomer every day. (Yes, I said awesomer.) Hazel was extra tired today and was having a hard time eating. When Clara came into the room, I mouthed, "No! Stay off!" and motioned for her to stay off the bed. She gets this 15 year old look on her face, starts moving her hands and mouths (extremely dramatically), "Why not?" She was also talking back and I said, "Excuse me?" And she said, "Don't talk to me like that." I told her I was her mother and that was not appropriate to talk to me that way. She used her favorite comeback, "I wasn't talking to you, I was talking to {insert imaginary friend/sibling here}."

(She's being a pioneer here, that is not meant to be a head scarf, although it looks like it is.)
I am just as skeptical of the service companies the warrant companies send out as I am salesman. I was completely frustrated when the first tech from the warranty company assigned company showed up and said he didn't have anything to do anything for me (seriously!) especially since I had to wait another day for our A/C to get fixed. Supposedly it's fixed and it's working well, but I'm still worried they just "fixed" it by masking the problem so they don't have to replace something.

City swim lessons aren't bad. In fact, I am regretting that I didn't put Clara in them last summer.

Standing too long makes my shins feel like they did when I was pregnant (think shin splints). My legs also swell when I stand for way, waaaaay too long and eat Panda Express.

Speaking of Panda Express, I used to love it. I tried not to eat it when I was pregnant with Hazel because of the salt. We went a few times since Hazel was born, and it was never great to me. I will go there if invited, but I don't think I'd ever pick to eat there.

Speaking of picking where to eat. I have found that the more I focus on preparing nurturing meals, the less often I am satisfied with meals eaten out.

Really happy babies are "just" happy babies when teething. (Tooth #1 - Sunday, tooth #2 - Monday.)
I'm a lousy friend when I am running around like a chicken with my head cut off. Dear Lisa, Beka and Mom, I promise I thought about calling you all day on Wednesday. Don't take it personal that my thoughts never quite made it to action.

Just because a package says "Organic Baby Spinach", that doesn't mean there are actually small spinach leaves inside. "Organic Spinach Leaves with a few Baby Spinach Leaves" would have been a more fitting label.
Starting sugar cookies at 11:45pm is not a good idea. Especially when the poor sleep-deprived toddler has an accident which pulls you away from baking for 30 minutes. (But have you had my sugar cookies?? Totally worth it. ;))
I feel like no matter how much I plan, "things" always happen. You know, like Clara peeing all over her clothes and the bathroom floor when I'm already running behind... running behind mostly because Hazel, the angel baby, decided of all the days, today was a good one to scream for an hour and not take a nap this afternoon. At all.

And finally, weeks like this make me extra excited for the weekend. Oh, happy day.

Nice & Toasty

In my post yesterday, I started talking about how I think our A/C is broken. But then I thought maybe I was exaggerating or overreacting so I deleted it. The A/C in our room was turning on around 1pm and wouldn't go off until about 9pm. It would go off and on all night too. We do live in Arizona and in the summer, it's going to take longer for things to cool off, right? Then I noticed the air coming out wasn't really cold. I justified that with the fact that our bedroom has always been hot. Between our room and our bathroom, there are lots of windows that let lots of afternoon heat in. But the more I thought about it last night, the more I realized there was a problem. I called someone to come look at it today and the verdict is in. We have a leak in the air handler unit. If they can replace the coil, it'll be about $1500. If they have to replace the air handler unit, it'll be about $2500.

Last night I was imagining the worst case scenario (thousands of dollars in repair costs) and mourning over all our hard earned money we'd have to spend when I remembered our magical little home warranty we bought when we bought the house to save us if something like this happened. Hooray! I still have to have one of the insurance's technicians come look at it (the soonest they can come is tomorrow afternoon, which is annoying), pay another service call fee and hope that they will actually replace it without having to haggle. Per my A/C guy, based on where the leak is it can't be repaired, it has to be replaced, but we all know how warranty companies roll. Luckily, it's only 84* right now, so hopefully it won't get much hotter than that before they get it fixed (even if it doesn't, we might head somewhere with a working A/C). So yes, tt's a bit of an annoyance to deal with the warranty company and have to wait, but I'd definitely rather deal with this than the financial nuisance had we not bought the warranty!

Sweet Sunday

It usually seems that Sunday is the perfect ending to any kind of week and the perfect beginning to the next. It's a day to rest from the past and prepare for the future. I think a lot on Sunday. All my thoughts that didn't get adequate attention during the week pile up and Sunday is my day to sort through them.

I had a nice balance of work, fun (lunch dates, swimming, play dates) and responsibility this week. I almost feel caught up on laundry, most of the rooms in my house are almost clean and Ialmost got everything on my to do list marked off. Saturday was the first Saturday in a very long time that was completely unscheduled. It was so nice to be able to clean and not worry about having to be anywhere at a certain time.

I have so much stuff in my house. I kept waiting to have a garage sale, or sell it online, but last night I read a conference talk about helping the needy and then today in our program at church I read something about DI needing donations and I decided I really just need to donate it. That's my goal this week: get rid of everything I have been hoarding for a garage sale. That's an easy way to help those in need.

I think one of my life long quests is going to be to lighten up. It's hard for me to just lay on the floor and play with my kids when the house is a mess, to go out to eat when we have dinner at home and to stop, pay to go to a swimming pool when we can swim for free and read a book or two to Clara when I have work to do. I did good this week.

I know life is one big game of two steps forward and one step back. However, knowing that doesn't make it any less discouraging for me when it happens. During the step back, it is hard to remember the two steps forward was worth the effort. Just when I think we are going to make it through the month on our budget, a large expense comes up. Just when I think certain issues are behind me, they come back to haunt me. Just when I think Hazel is getting over her waking up before the sun, she starts it again. I guess that's why they say life is a journey, not a destination.

I love my garden! I finally picked one of my bell peppers. I don't know if I'll ever get over how amazing growing food is.

I was so focused on my cute, tiny little fuzzy melons and the curly cues that I didn't notice a rapidly maturing melon that made me smile when I first saw it. I first noticed it when it was about the size of a men's softball, and now it's probably just smaller than Hazel's head. Neat!
For lunch today we had meatless taco salad and used lettuce and tomatoes from our garden. It seems my Sweet 100's tomato plant has kicked production up a notch.

Does anyone else think it's funny that a certain member of the household just checks out every Sunday afternoon for several hours? Or is that just in our house? Every week it makes me chuckle a little that they assume they have no responsibility for most of the time between church and dinner. What would happen if the moms did that? I kind of want to try it sometime, on a day other than Mother's Day. It'd be really funny to test it out next week on Father's Day. Just kidding.

My little Hazel basil. She rolls and rolls and rolls and then sucks/bites on whatever she lands on or next to. This is cute when I find her sucking on a toy. It's not cute when she's sucking on my shoe or the metal closet door track or chewing on the piano leg.

She cut her first tooth today. I knew it was close, but that is little comfort that she's not even six months yet. As if it didn't feel like time was already flying, now she's getting teeth 3+ months sooner than Clara did. This is a picture I took on Friday of her bulging little gums. If you look closely, you can see the little white teeth just under the gums.
I hope this explains her extra early morning crying. I thought it was because she kept getting her chunky little legs stuck, but it happened again after lowering her crib and putting the bumper back in. I guess now I'll blame it on the teeth. She's been such a good baby and a good sleeper that I feel caught off guard when she starts waking up early and I don't know what to do. Clara started crawling around 6 months old so I laid a few inches from Hazel to see if she appears interested in moving forward and she just sat and smiled at me for about 5 minutes. I'm thinking she won't be crawling any time soon, but who knows. I think I'm having a harder time being okay with her growing up, but the excitement of her new phases, accomplishments and milestones certainly do a good job of keeping me from focusing too much on the past.

And now this girl.

She has the cutest little face, complete with beautiful blue eyes, little red lips, tiny little button nose, soft skin and the cutest little dimples. I guess it all offsets her little attitude that is anything but cute. About a month ago I was having a really hard time with her disobeying and throwing fits over just about everything. After pondering and praying over the situation, I decided to implement a 3 strikes plan. If Clara could go without 3 strikes during the day, she would get a book read to her at night. If she threw a fit, she didn't get another chance, she immediately got a strike. This lasted less than a week because it snapped her out of her wild streak. We still have disobedience and fits, but not all day every day like before. We recently started reading chapter books together. The first was Stuart Little. I am amazed at her level of reading comprehension. Hopefully this is a sign that she's not taking after me in that department (trust me, I have the ACT score to prove it). While at the library I saw the American Girls series so I grabbed one. I loved those as a kid. After we finish this one, I'm thinking we won't explore any more of that series until she's older. They aren't really age appropriate right now. Luckily the one we have is only 4 chapters so we can start on our next one soon. Clara loves Hazel. She's recently found out how to make her giggle and laugh even more than Jason. I love watching them and will always remember how cute they are when they interact.
While I was typing this, Clara was supposed to be having quiet time. I went to check on her when I heard something in the kitchen and found this.
I am glad I didn't get upset over it because she told me, "I'm so sorry, Mom. I said a prayer to Heavenly Father so He would forgive me because I did something wrong." Looks like the primary lesson on forgiveness came at the perfect timing. My goodness she makes me laugh.

My heart is full.

Southern Comfort

I've never been to the South, yet our dinner tonight (BBQ pork on homemade buns, corn on the cob and collard greens) made me feel very "southern".PS Hazel didn't really have her first swim swim. She and I just put our feet in the water, it was too cold for much more than that in my book. My swimsuit is from Shade, purchased before they shut down for several months. Not only does it fit great, but I got a smokin' deal on it. Also, it took me longer than 24 hours to do that laundry. I could have been done sooner if I would have stayed home and only done laundry, but what's the fun in that?

Guess

I did or did not let Hazel suck on watermelon last week
I do or do not have a swim suit that I a.) adore and b.) feel comfortable in for the first time in years
Hazel did or didn't go swimming yesterday
I will or will not be doing laundry for the next 24 hours

We're A Fam-a-ly of Unicorns*

Unicorn horns were made Friday morning for the ladies in the house.Am I not one of the ladies?

After a rather tedious two hour conference call later that day, I was greeted by Clara with, "Welcome to Unicorn Land" which made any residual stress from the conference call leave immediately and without hesitation.

Does life get much better? Friday was a good day.

*Whatever Clara's current obsession is, she'll say, "Let's pretend we're a family (pronounced with 3 syllables - fam-a-ly) of (insert obsession here)." Obsessions have included, but are not limited to, unicorns, robots, lions, frogs, cats, dogs, bird and mice. Of course we are expected to make the appropriate noises in lieu of speaking.

Announcing...

Jason thought I was ridiculous to send birth announcements out 5 months after Hazel was born. It definitely wasn't necessary and maybe a little silly, but I really, really wanted to. And since I always get what I want, right? Just kidding. Yes, most people probably know I had a baby. However, we have several family members that don't read my blog and we don't see or talk to, so they have never seen Hazel nor do they know how much she weighed, her birth date, etc. My two best friends from California haven’t even seen pictures. I don’t even think one of them knows what we named her! There is also something about trying to keep formalities alive that are fading, sadly, as technology advances. I like “old fashioned” traditions. A big thanks to my own personal designer and sweat shop (she did all the letterpress herself), Angela. We didn’t send out many, only to close family and a few friends. But I did it and am happy I did. Why wouldn't I want to formally announce this beautiful, precious little baby?

Images stolen from Angela herself.

How Does Your Garden Grow

It’s been a while since I have had a garden. My first garden died. I was working full time and stopped watering the poor thing. I had a few successes in my square foot garden after that, but more fails. I just never stuck with the daily watering. Our new yard has endless possibilities for the giant garden I’ve always dreamed of, but it’s going to take time, money and hard work to set it up. Plus, we'll have to be strategic with the location because of the irrigation. In the interim, we took out some of our rose bushes (we probably had about 15, so plenty to spare) and called it our garden spot. The soil was good, but best of all, the drip system was already in, requiring minimal modifications to have an auto-watered garden. Even with that, I wasn’t expecting much. I used seeds I had from two years ago and I started them late. After having good luck with them sprouting quickly, I waited too long to get them into the ground, so not only was their growth stunted but I am pretty sure I traumatized them when I finally transplanted them into the garden. Even after all that, I am still happy with the success we've had.

{Top: corn, curly cue on melon vine (that's almost better than the fruit!), melon, zucchini

Bottom: roma tomato, butterhead lettuce, another curly cue, bell peppers}

{Deformed radish, yellow squash and zucchini}

Summary of results (boring, but I want to remember for next year):

Corn (seed) – at least a few ears between 8 stalks, growing well, but not consistent between stalks
Sweet 100’s (plant from Costco) – almost died after transplant, but has revived nicely, we get 4-5 tomatoes every 5-6 days that Clara and I normally eat right away
Romas (little plant from Wal Mart) – this plant has grown like crazy and is probably the biggest surprise, lots of fruit on the bush waiting to turn red
Bell peppers (seeds) – I don’t think any of these made it
Bell peppers (tiny plant from Wal Mart) – growing well; mini bell peppers are cute, 2 well established peppers, hopefully more will come
Butterhead lettuce (seed) – growing nicely
Spinach (seed) – the one surviving plant is mostly dead
Romaine (seed) – growing okay, but not as good as in my square foot garden
Melons (seed) – nice plant, but only teeny tiny little melons (I love the curly cues on the melon vine - see photos above)
Watermelons (seed) – tiny plant, no hopes of anything growing on it
Radishes (seed) – one giant, disfigured one that was inedible
Beets (seed) – not so great, but we'll see
Turnips (seed) – not so great, but we'll see (I think my root vegetables suffered the most from being stuck in my seed starters too long)
Basil (plant from Lowe’s) – yay! first basil plant I haven’t killed in my life!; thriving and I use it a few times a week
Strawberries (plant from Wal Mart) – we’ve gotten about a dozen strawberries; planted more for fun than anything
Jalapenos (seed) – tiny plants, no reason to believe I will get anything from them since they still haven't even flowered
Yellow Squash (seed) – got one nice sized squash early on and not a single one is in the works despite the plants being big, so who knows what’s going on
Zucchini (seed) – doesn’t grow for a while then doubles in size, it’s weird; first zucchini was giant, a few more, smaller are coming along as well

I love gardening. I love watching them grow, picking and eating the fruits of our labor and pondering how so many lessons can be learned from the act of gardening.