Hazel Catch-up

4.7.2012: Walking - Apparently my little darling would rather crawl the rest of her life than walk when I encourage it. On Friday (April 6), we were visiting with my neighbor and she crawled away from me (after I had tried to get her to walk), stood up in the middle of their sidewalk and took 4-5 steps. She fell down, and hopped right back up, took 3-4 steps and repeated that about 4 times. Oh goody, a stubborn one.

4.24.2012: Hazel finally decided to walk. She's known how to walk for a while, but waited until she was ready. When we got home from Suzanne's, she just started walking around the house and hasn't really stopped. It's so cute watching her wobbly legs and loose hips waddle side to side.

Talking - She repeats so much of what we say, but says thank you (which is mostly recognizable by her intonation and nothing else), dog, bark (when asked what a dog says, she doesn't bark, she says bark, ha ha), ball, ma ma, mommy, da da, no, snack, nap, yeah, night night, moo, do (as in the solfeg do - whenever Clara practices her music, Hazel walks around and says "do do"), gama (rare, she usually just calls my mom mama), gampa (rare), annie, eeshe (could be please or cheese), banana, kitty (her intonation on this is very dramatic), apple, sister (more like di-der). She says "hello" which is more of a deep "lo" and holds things to her ear. For a while she'd get things, put them to her ear and say, "Hi, Daddy". She also babbles. I think my favorite thing she says is "yeah" because while she's saying it, she opens her eyes really big, raises her eyebrows and nods her head. She also started screaming several weeks ago to try to get what she wants. I worked with her for a few days and taught her to sign "please" if she wants something rather than scream. It's worked like a charm. Although sometimes she thinks signing please means she'll get whatever she wants. The other day just before her nap she got really frustrated. I don't think she wanted to take a nap (usually she'll say please for a drink of water to stall, but this time she would sign please every time I got by her crib) and she started frantically signing please, eat, more and then hit her head (not hard, just hit it with her hand).

Books - Hazel has been really interested in books lately. Before she loved to look at them and turn the pages but I usually couldn't read a whole book to her. Not even the short little board books. Now she asks for them before her naps, before night time and sometimes just when she sees one on the floor. She especially loves Mr. Brown Can Moo and knocks on the book like clara did.

Eating - She is such a good eater most of the time, which I never take for granted. We eat healthy and she eats what we eat. If she didn't, I think I'd have a hard time with that. A few weeks ago we had pizza on wheat flatbread. She wouldn't touch it but had seconds of the steamed broccoli, steamed carrots and cucumbers. She usually eats a ton, but just like most of us, she goes in waves so if she isn't eating much for a few days, it doesn't bother me.

Tantrums - Hazel is a really great baby. She is happy, easy going, sweet and curious about life. But if she has her heart set on playing in a certain drawer and you peel her away, she will lose it. She whips her head back, kicks her legs and screams. And just for the record, she has a giant head, so I've learned how to avoid contact with that weapon of hers. I have been focusing on mitigating this behavior, so the worst of it lasted just a short time. Or at least I hope so.

Grandma - Hazel loves my mom. Well, I think all kids love my mom, but Hazel loves her more than she loves me. Or so it seems. She goes straight for my mom whenever she sees her, screams if my mom walks past and doesn't pick her up, cries when my mom leaves our house or we leave her's and cries if we drop Lily off and she doesn't get to see Grandma. However, there have been two times she has wanted me over my mom. 1.) When she was hysterical after seeing Kevin (she seemed to warm up to him a bit more last time we saw him) and 2.) when she had a pretty hard fall on the back of her head. I don't mind that Hazel generally prefers my mom over me, but it sure made me feel a bit smug knowing that when she's at her very worst, she prefers me. :)

Comparing - I know you're not supposed to compare your kids, but it's fun to me to see how Clara and Hazel are alike and how they are different. They don't look much alike and they have very different personalities. At this point, their two closest similarities are they are awesome and cute. Clara has such a loud, fun personality. Hazel does not. She is much more subtle with her humor and not quite as animated. She is, however, very witty which makes me smile. Tonight I picked a bell pepper out of the pan and ate it. When I went to give her some, she refused it. I pretended to nibble on the piece I had for her and offered it to her again. Instead of turning her head away from it again, she went forward and when her mouth was just an inch or so away, she pretended to nibble on it just like I had.

She has not put things in her mouth from the floor for a long time. However, she must be teething again because this week she kept putting things in her mouth. Once I found her chewing on 6 (SIX!) of Clara's little clear hair rubber bands. That same day she had a rubber piece of Clara's computer in her mouth. And maybe I shouldn't tell you about the nasty things she put in her mouth outside. Or maybe I should so you can be sick to your stomach. Item number one: bird poo. She scratched a pile of it and put her finger in her mouth. A few days later she put the shell of a bird egg that fell onto our driveway in her mouth. Jason asked me if I just don't watch her anymore. Both times I was just a few feet away from her and didn't get to her quick enough, especially since I'm not used to her doing that so until this week I haven't felt it essential to hover over her to stop her from doing this.

Hazel gets SO excited when Jason comes home from work. She screams and yells, Daddy! She usually kicks her legs and goes a little crazy. If he walks past her to set his stuff down or changes his clothes, she instantly starts crying.

She will not look at me when she has done something she shouldn't and I'm trying to talk to her about it.

All these pictures are from the last month or so, in no particular order.

This is shortly after we turned her around in the car. She was SO happy for days.

Hazel loves to climb into things. This cubby is the worst since a fall backwards would land her right on the corner of the tile bench around the fireplace. This picture is a good time to announce (per Gracie) that Joseph married Hazel. They really are fond of each other and I love watching them interact.

 She is so very observant. She knew exactly where make up goes.

I'm not exactly sure why I love this picture, but I do. Maybe the yellow and turquoise? Maybe her cute little profile? Maybe her perfect little face and her even more perfect cheeks?

She pretty much refuses to eat without a spoon or fork. Although that doesn't mean she doesn't use her hands to help shove food into her mouth.

Another plus (the only plus?) of not folding laundry for months is it gives Hazel somewhere to play. Here she's trying to put her shirt on. I didn't have the heart to tell her sleeves go on our arms, not our legs.

She is still very busy and destructive. She loves taking everything out of my purse and carries my camera case around like it is her purse. And doing it on a box she's climbed onto makes it even more thrilling.

See? She climbs into everything - even if she doesn't fit.

She's recently decided she's much older than 16 months and climbs onto chairs. Usually she faces the right direction. Usually.

I don't buy cereal. I think it's a waste of money and I can't stand how much sugar is in it. However, there was a coupon at Costco for Lucky Charms. I decided to buy them for mornings we might be running late and for church since I don't really have snacks for church. My great idea totally backfired on me. I gave Hazel a bowl, she got a spoonful of cereal, noticed a marshmallow in the bowl, picked it out with her other hand and began to eat every last marshmallow out of her bowl without touching a single piece of the actual cereal. Then she dumped her whole bowl of milk out. Now she gets dry cereal and the first time, she screamed and begged for more after she picked all the marshmallows out. She signed "more, please" over and over and over trying to get more. I discovered that if I say no, explain that she can have more cereal if she eats what's on her tray and ignore her, she'll eventually eat the rest of the cereal after she's done whining for a few minutes.

In church, it was worse. Or maybe it was just quieter so it seemed worse. When I wouldn't let her eat just the marshmallows out of the bag, she threw a major fit and we had to take her out. Note to self: Lucky Charms are a really bad idea.

Hazel loved the boiled eggs from Easter. Let's call this picture "Now you see it, now you don't" because you better believe she shoved that entire egg into her giant mouth.

A few weeks ago I was scanning stuff for work when Hazel woke up a bit earlier than normal. Usually, I'd leave her in there to see if she's go back to sleep, but that morning I decided she could come hang out with me. She just sat on the chair and was cute and played and talked on my phone.

T-ball was not Hazel's favorite thing. She wanted to get down, crawl onto the field, go visit Clara and her team, etc. Having my parents at many of the games made it easier since we all know how much Hazel looooooves my mom.

She gets so excited to hear music  and bops her head and marches. Before she started walking, she'd hang onto something and march in place.

This post was too long to edit - forgive my mistakes. :)