Hazel Update

Last weekend, Hazel celebrated her 444th day of life.  

In honor of her, I thought I'd record some of her milestones and personality blossoms from the past couple of months during my blogging inactivity.

It took me a long time to try giving her a sippy cup.  I think I'm becoming a more lazy parent has time goes on.  (or, more charitably, busier?)  As of November, she's been using one regularly.

As-of the end of November, she has been spotted standing hands free!  She, in the last week, has started taking a couple of steps on her own, between hand-holds, and can walk around pretty well while holding only one of my hands.  But she is still quite wobbly and not brave enough to try it on her own.  Not pictured, she is getting great at riding around on her "motorcycle", as we call it.  It's just a little blue wheeled push rider that is supposed to have a horse covering on it, but the kids always take it off.  The Frog used that same motorcycle to learn to walk, by pushing it around standing up, and Hazel does some of that as well.

We got Peach and The Frog these awesome bench-desks (which we didn't know, but it turns out they're made in Provo!  aaand I can't remember what they're called, sorry!) for them to do their "daddy school".  It has left quite an impression on Hazel, as I see her climbing up and adding her corrections to their work a lot. :)  Neither of my other kids had any interest in coloring until much much later.  (4 for The Frog and Peach still isn't really interested at 3).

Hazel also adores playing on the piano.  All of my kids have loved banging around on it a bit, but she will spend good amount of time there.  On this particular day, her playing was so entrancing, the other had to join in!

I can't believe how mature she is starting to look and less baby-like.  Luckily, she still has chunky baby thighs and I LOVE them!

We've had quite a bit of good snow for playing in this year, but by now, I have learned that if one can't walk yet, one doesn't often have fun in the snow (despite my past attempts) but on this particular day, Peach and The Frog went to my neighbor-swap preschool together and they thought it would be fun if I pulled them on a sled.  Hazel was sleeping at the time, but when I went back to pick them up, I thought I'd try her out and see how it went.

She actually really liked it!  She sat happily on the sled by herself and had fun running her hand through the snow at the sides.

However, once she had to share a sled with Peach (who kept pulling her back to keep her more "secure") she had enough.

Hazel has been babbling for quite some time- I don't remember my other kids babbling so much, but I feel like Peach must have, because she learned to speak so young... But Hazel manages to say things that sound exactly like phrases, not just words.  It's quite alarming!  We're still trying to figure out if she knows what they mean or not, but she seems to understand the right timing for them!

She has the typical "dada" and "mama" down, and lately has been saying "uh-oh" when anything drops to the floor.  (I think she often drops things on purpose, just so she can say it :D)  She also says "ah-duh" for "all done!" when she's done eating or needs help getting down from somewhere.  I'm pretty sure she calls herself "dah-dah", which makes sense if you know her real name :)

Before her nap, when I'm putting her in her sleep-sac, I usually have a little tickle session and say "tickle tickle tickle" while I'm doing it.  When I stop she'll grin and say "ti-ti-ti", asking for more :)

She is, much like The Frog, fascinated by lights and loves trying to flick the switches on and off.  She'll often point at lights around the house and say, "la!"

She is very conscious of things her sibling receive, or get to do, that she does not get to partake of and makes it very clear that she is upset about it!  Lately, she gets annoyed if I cut her food in smaller pieces than theirs.  One time, we all had leftovers for lunch- she and I had pasta and the other kids had soup.  She was really upset that she didn't get the same as them, even though she ate the pasta happily the night before with everyone.

I think she might be trying to go from 2 naps to 1, but her wake-up time has been very irregular, so I can't quite make the switch yet.

We sure adore this little chipmunk!  Every night, during family prayer, we go around the circle and all say something we're thankful for (to add to our prayer) and most nights, one or both of them says they are thankful for Hazel.  She is a little ray of sunshine in our family and I couldn't imagine life without her!!