Here is the song I made up today:

Free feet
Free feet
Hazel's got free feet!

June 30th. I've been counting down to this day for three months. Today means freedom. Today was the happiest day of my life. (Okay, not really, but it was pretty darn awesome!)

We made a jaunt over to this miraculous place:

Shriner's Hospital

where the doctor said Hazel's feet looked fantastic and she could start only wearing the brace at bedtime. Not even naps, people! This is a bonus that I only dreamed about!!!

The entire rest of the day I couldn't stop staring at, tickling, kissing, and otherwise making a private spectacle of Hazel's darling little baby feet. I am overjoyed.

Now she gets to learn how to do all her tricks barefoot. She had a challenge with this one:

As she held on to the couch and took steps, her feet kept getting farther and f a r t h e r away from each other until she was practically doing the splits. She basically freaked out. We've got a bit of a learning curve here, but I think she'll get the hang of it pretty fast. She did get her father's genius genes, after all.

I took her outside for a quick, celebratory photo shoot. I decided I should take ALL my pictures outside in the shade. The lighting and colors were perfect! I could end up with some serious framers if I would just go in the yard whenever I feel camera-happy. This was news to me. All of you probably already figured that out. Ha ha!
Anyway, I'm feeling delightfully joyful and wanted to share the news!

Confessions of a Shopaholic

I swear I'm not a shopper. I rarely spend money on anything other than groceries. I groan at the sight of the mall. I purposely buy basic clothes instead of trendy ones so they'll last longer and I won't have to go out and buy anything for a while. When I do shop, it takes a lot of persuasion to get me to spend more than ten bucks on an item of clothing. Ask Todd. He'll vouch for me.

But I've found my weakness - the Carter's outlet in Park City.

This is today's loot:
Imagine a pile just that big and just as costly coming home with me a few weeks ago.

Because it did.

Shrug. My kid's gotta be cute, right? And babies fit into clothes a lot better than I do. Hence the ease with which I whipped out my credit card and swiped it without so much as a blink of the eye. In fact, I praised myself for spending enough to qualify for the 20% off coupon.

If only there was a Carter's for grownups.

Time to Childproof for Reals

Let the games begin!

She's Got Timing, That One

Good grief, that's a gorgeous grin!

When I was talking with Todd today, he wanted to know if Hazel had figured out how to crawl forwards yet. Nope, I said.

Less than an hour later, this is what I caught on video:

I had to post it so Todd doesn't have to wait a month for me to mail him the June video clips. Forgive me the indulgence: this is a big deal to us!

Tick, Tock, Tick, Tock, BRRRRIIIIINNNGGG!!!

Yawn.

Hazel loves to wake up at 6:20. On the dot. Occasionally it'll be 5:20 instead (oh, the horror!) and every once in a while she sleeps in until blessed 7:20. Always 20 after the hour. Very punctual.

I've got this ideal picture of her waking up between 7 and 8 each morning. I've been trying to train her to that end. Most of the time she spends the time from 6:20 to 6:58 alone in her crib, as I lie in my bed hoping she'll go back to sleep - trying to teach her that we get up at 7:00.

Occasionally she does go back to sleep.

Most of the time, not so much.

Yesterday she didn't even go back to sleep when she woke up at 5:20. I went in there after 20 minutes and kissed her, told her it was still nighttime, and even turned on her naptime music to try to hypnotize her back to sleep. Not successful. Protested off and on until I got her out at 6:35. (Am I a bad mom?) She took a nap at 8:00 am. Ridiculous.

What can I do? Ideas, please!