Easy Baby Book

When Hazel was born, Todd's sister Laura gave me one of the best gifts ever thought of - a beautiful and simple, ready-to-fill baby book. It had a cover page with Hazel's name on it, and then each two-page spread after that was dedicated to one of the first twelve months of Hazel's life. Laura had already done all the cutesy paper/sticker/doo-hickey decorating and had it all ready to go so that all I had to do each month was print out one 5x7 picture of Hazel and fill in a 3x5 card with sweet details of Hazel highlights. It was so easy for me to stay up to date, despite being a tired and sometimes sad single mom with a husband overseas and a baby with a clubfoot that required so much attention. I am so thankful for that gift! It was all done a month or two after Hazel's first birthday, and now she loves to look through the "Hazel Book."
Another great thing about this baby book being so simple, is that it's completely do-able with the follow-up children. I just finished making Jack's. (I knew it had to happen before he comes for it to remain an "easy" project.) Not counting the time I spent shopping for supplies, I spent a grand total of about 4 hours putting the book together. Now it's ready to go when he gets here, and I know I'll be able to keep a record of at least the first year of his life. ;) I had to spread the news because I think these baby books are revolutionary!

Morro Bay Trip

On November 19th, Todd and I celebrated our six-year wedding anniversary.
We left Hazel with a neighbor and went on a casual date. First we picked up some pizza at Vito's Famous Pizza, a joint we've been told is run by the mafia. (!) We had to check it out. The pizza was delicious - New York style - but the place was a little strange. If you go, pay in cash. Just in case. Then we stood in line to watch the new Harry Potter movie on opening night.

The big celebration came this week, though. I'm too far along in my pregnancy to travel far, so we didn't get to go to Utah/see family for Thanksgiving. Todd still had two days off of work, and we opted to take a little trip to honor both the holiday and our anniversary. Once Todd got home on Wednesday afternoon, we piled up in the car and drove south to Morro Bay. We got there just in time to put Hazel to bed and silently read books by lamplight until we were ready to hit the sack.

Thursday we did some hiking and then spent an hour or two at Spooner's Cove in Montana de Oro State Park. What can I say, we gravitate toward the ocean whenever we can! We gathered rocks and threw them in the water. This was perhaps Hazel's favorite activity. We're just glad we found something she was willing to do with her rocks other than fill her pockets til her pants fell down (she's been known to do that before).
Todd and Hazel climbed some big rocks and saw this great view from the other side. I tried to follow them, but couldn't hack it with my rotund body shape and lack of balance.
We planned to have our "Thanksgiving dinner" at whatever restaurant happened to be open during the holiday. Unfortunately for us, it turned out Morro Bay is a small enough town that no one felt the need to stay open for lunch. We improvised at the grocery store and ended up with a white trash feast centered around a rotisserie chicken.
Friday we went to the very little Morro Bay Aquarium and threw fish to the barking seals inside. Hazel really liked that. Then we spent the rest of the morning kayaking around the bay. Hurray, that was a hit with H, too. Look how cute she was, gazing at the water, resting her arm on the kayak and her chin on her fist:
We got close to some seals and touched some kelp floating in the water, and we parked the kayak on a sandbar and hiked to the other side to hang out by the ocean again. When we got back to the mainland, we got some lunch, and then we drove home. Ah, a delightfully successful trip.

And tomorrow we pick up a Christmas tree! I'm stoked. Todd and I have only had a tree twice before. Just one of the small perks of being too pregnant to travel for the holidays, I suppose.

Today's Wish

I miss my old body. Can't I have it back? I'm not even going to be greedy. I'll take the one I had a year ago, post-baby, with the tummy chub (and the baby snot on my shoulder).
This one aches too much, weighs too much, itches too much, and is only going to get worse. I walk like a gimp and can't fit into some of my maternity clothes anymore. Six more weeks until my due date. I don't want a January baby anymore.
Although I still have to say thanks for no nightly heartburn or charley horses yet. I had both of those before this point when I was pregnant with Hazel, and I would be elated if they didn't pay me a visit this time around.

Weeklong Halloween Festivities

It didn't matter that Halloween landed on Sunday this year and we didn't go trick-or-treating last night. Hazel got plenty of bang for her buck all week long already.

She painted a pumpkin.
And sported her "uffly" costume for days. (It's a fairy costume that I found for five bucks at a fund raiser, but she's convinced it's a butterfly wearing a dress. It's all good.)
We went trick-or-treating Tuesday morning at a moms and tots activity held at an outdoor shopping mall in San Jose. Hazel spent literally every waking moment of the rest of the day sorting her candy.
Most of the rest of the week has been candy-sorting as well, and as you may notice from the remainder of the photos, she firmly held on to a sucker bouquet no matter what else she was doing. The pumpkin basket has gone with us pretty much everywhere, as well.
And we went to our church's Halloween party, where Hazel ate great food, played fun games, and scored more candy during a trunk-or-treat.
We ditched the uffly costume so we could do a family theme, and went as bunny rabbits. It was supposed to be funny because I'm pregnant, but I don't think it really worked all that well since our litter is still so small.
But the tails sure were a hit! (Yes, Todd and I had them, too. I wish I had asked someone to take a group shot of them.)