Great Day

Nana (my mom) is here visiting for a week and a half, and really only had three things on her agenda:
1. Bond with Hazel as much as possible,
2. Help Todd and me in any way she can, and
3. See the beach.

So we took a jaunt down to our favorite beach spot, Manresa, today. Hazel dug in the sand, fell in love with seaweed pods, cheered for surfers, and walked as far away as she thought she could get away with, and then would run back and fling herself into my arms.
My mom oogled over the way the sand felt on her feet and the sound of the waves crashing, wondered what type of bird that was that dived straight down to snatch fish out of the ocean, and rolled up her jeans and let the waves wash over her up to her knees. I wished I didn't have a tired toddler so I could let her stay there all day. My mom is a woman who needs to live closer to the beach. She said on the drive home that the waves had been calling to her to come swim.

Mom's face as she came back from standing in the crashing waves. Priceless.

I was floored that Hazel didn't fall asleep on the drive home, nor did she settle down for a nap during an entire hour spent in her room afterwards. This is the first day in her entire life Hazel hasn't taken a nap at all, and come on, people, you need one after playing at the beach! The sun, water, and wind take a toll on your energy. In order to occupy her without taking her outside and getting stranded with a tired girl who whined and begged her pregnant mom to carry her, I got out a project I've been wanting to do with her for a while now.

Hazel's latest hobby is to gather "treasures" when we're outside. She comes back each time with leaves, acorns, rocks, pine boughs, seeds, snail shells, sticks, and more. I've been saving them in a gallon-size ziplock bag for a day just such as today.
We made a collage on contact paper. I taped one piece down to the table with painter's tape and let her lay out her assortment in whatever manner suited her fancy. Then I covered the whole thing with another sheet of contact paper to hold it all together.
It was super fun and easy to do, and Hazel loved looking through several weeks worth of her treasure hunting. The sad part is the contact paper was not as sticky as I would have liked, so things are still moving around quite a bit. It's definitely going to be displayed short-term, rather than becoming a lifetime memorabilia. Still, I recommend it, especially while it's fall and there's so many interesting things on the ground outside to collect!

Putting Bunny to sleep instead of smiling at the camera.

Big Bed Transition Report - 3 Days In

Well, folks, after about two months of talk and not much action, we finally put together Hazel's big girl bed on Saturday. She's pretty excited about it, thank goodness.
Here's the run-down so far. We didn't start putting the bed together early enough Saturday morning, so her nap got delayed by a little more than an hour. By the time we had it all thrown together, she was exhausted and fell right to sleep.

All three nights so far have been a breeze. We go through the regular bedtime routine except that she's been requesting that I sing her bedtime song while I lay in her bed with her, when normally we sit in the rocker. She's gone right to sleep, slept 11-12 hours like usual, and has given us no trouble at all so far. Knock on wood. She's even stayed on her bed until I've come to get her in the morning.

The biggest trick has been naptime. Sunday she talked, sang, and shouted to herself for two full hours before falling asleep, and then only slept for 2 hours instead of 3. Today she talked to herself for about 40 minutes before settling down to a 2 hour nap. I am suspicious that the shorter naps have played a pretty big part in how easy bedtime has been.

But the glorious part is that so far (granted, it's been three days - I know we're due for a dip in luck before this thing becomes routine) she has stayed on top of her bed the whole time she's been in there singing and playing. No getting off to get toys or books or sit in the rocker or do any other mischief. The only evidence of naughtiness we've seen so far is some knocked-over name letters after Saturday's nap:
That, I can handle. The running rampant through the house in the middle of the night that hopefully none of our angel children will ever do, not so much.
The part that I have mixed feelings about is that she has figured out on her own that her crib is now for baby Jack. We did NOT tell her this, and have tried to not say much at all about the why of this transition other than because it's so exciting to sleep in a big bed like mommy and daddy. But day one, she was already pointing to her crib and saying, "It's for Jack." She seemed sad about not sleeping in her crib Saturday night and she tried to climb into it, but besides then, she's been very matter of fact about the crib belonging to Jack and has been really excited about her big girl bed. I hope she feels like it's a milestone instead of a displacement.

For those who want to see, here I am in my 25 weeks of glory. The baby's starting to move a lot more, but still not even close to as much as Hazel did at this stage. It will be interesting to see how different these two little beans are from each other.

Bed Advice Request

Alright, people. How do I do it? How to I transfer this little monkey:
to a big girl bed?

We've been trying to build up the anticipation. The mattress has been behind her crib for a couple of months now, and we point to it and talk about it and have put it down and let her jump on it a couple of times. She came with me to buy sheets and comforters and loved toting those around the house. She's excited for it.

But she's going to be even more excited when she realizes she can get in and out of the bed herself without getting hurt (the pain is all that stops her from climbing out of her crib - she's been able to do it since May).

What strategies have you employed as you moved your kids from crib to bed that you recommend? What did you do that you wouldn't have if you knew what you do now? How long can I expect Hazel to take spotty naps and wake us up in the middle of the night?

Thank Goodness for Holiday Weekends

Labor Day weekend was the best thing to happen to the Bonner family in a long while. Todd worked all three weekends leading up to it, so the fact that he put his foot down and didn't even come in to work on Friday - giving us a four-day weekend as a family - was pure bliss.

We hit the road Friday morning and drove up to Point Reyes National Seashore, a protected little patch of hiking trails, beaches, small towns, trees and open sky surprisingly just 45 minutes or so north of the Golden Gate Bridge. We hiked trail after trail, drove through winding, mountainous roads with excellent views, dined out on delicious food I didn't lift a finger to make, and made a stop at the Cowgirl Creamery in Olema so we could sample all the local gourmet cheeses (a dream come true for Todd).

We spent the night at a cozy B&B, the Inn at Roundstone Farm. We had a large and comfortable room, a delicious homemade breakfast, and plenty of garden space for Hazel to explore outside.
Hazel's pack-and-play fit nicely in our private bathroom, giving Todd and me the luxury of reading Catching Fire out loud as we lounged in our quarters, snacking on sweet chocolate cake and tangy Red Hawk cheese.
The next day was filled with similar activities, hiking and browsing the local farmer's market and just taking life at a slow, carefree pace. On our drive home, we had the delight of rendezvousing for dinner with Todd's sister Laura and her husband Tyler, who were in San Francisco celebrating their 10-year anniversary. Sadly, no one got out their camera for that!
Sunday we chilled at home, then Monday we went to Raging Waters and played for hours with Hazel at the kiddy pools and on the lazy river. We ended our weekend only two chapters away from cracking open Mockingjay (the third book in Suzanne Collin's Hunger Games trilogy), a little sunburned and dehydrated, completely disappointed that Todd had to wake up at 4:30 this morning to get back to his darn job, but so pleased with the great time we just spent as a family.