Hazel's Last month of her 0s!

It's really a shame we are too young to remember any of our zeroth year...  Zero is such a mathematically important number :)

Hazel is finally 11 months, as of Tuesday!  She is such a joy, and turning out to be such a curious little explorer.  It is clear she can tell that her siblings are capable of more than she and that they don't always get to eat the same foods (which drives her crazy).  After a couple of failed attempts at getting her to use a sippy cup at 6 or 7 months, I realized just last week, that she still wasn't using one, and so I pulled one out and she took right to it!  You can tell she gets a real sense of satisfaction getting to drink all by herself.  (I was helping her use cups in the past)  It's so cute.  My favorite is if her cup gets left on the floor and she crawls over it for a quick sip.  I can tell she's going to enjoy more independence as she gets older, which is probably an essential quality for mom in a #3.  We all just love her to bits!  Every night during family prayer, we go around and everyone says one thing they are grateful for (to include in the prayer) and most of the time at one or both of her siblings will say they are grateful for Hazel :)

She prefers to feed herself and often rejects being spoon fed- so forcefully that she will grab the spoon and chuck it to the ground.

gripping a garden pear that she devoured while I cooked dinner

I have a lot of people say that she decidedly looks like The Frog or definitely like Peach.  What do you think?

Hazel at 11 mo

The Frog at 11 mo

Peach at 11 mo

funny-face phone pic

 She's for sure more adventurous than the first two.  She often will go upstairs all by herself, to explore. in the dark.  Her siblings rarely attempted that unless someone else was up there already.  She loves to splash in the little puddle of water that doesn't drain right in the shower and has been caught with the toilet brush more than once.  (yuck!) however, she is my first baby to stop what she was doing when I said, "no, no, no!"  It's truly amazing and I hope it's not just a phase...

Her siblings love to be where she is and when she wakes up from her nap, they run up there really fast and climb in her crib with her until I get there to pull her out.  She can already wave "hi" and even says "ah" with it in such a way that kind of sounds like she's saying "hi"!  I've recently started brushing her teeth when her siblings brush theirs (she does have 8 teeth now, after all...) and she loves it!

I love to get her into giggle fits by tickling her armpits or following her hand with mine at the pack 'n play she still sleeps in (in my closet!)

Oh, if all babies could be like you, I'd do it again in a heartbeat!  (and that's saying a lot...)

We love you to bits, Hazel!