Everyday Life With the Haze

I am loving Hazel's fun personality these days. She's discovering her imagination and it's just brimming over the top. I find myself wanting to eavesdrop on every little thing she says. Not that I miss much. She mostly wants me with her when she plays. She's even started feeding me lines. She'll say, "What are you doing over there, princess?" and if I don't repeat it, she says it again. That's MY line, not hers. It's funny.

Speaking of princesses, they've become quite the obsession. Very first thing when Hazel wakes up in the morning, and very first thing after her nap, she heads out to her toys in the living room and puts on her complete princess get-up: necklace, bracelet, two purses, shoes, and lately, the Belle dress (because it's yellow).
She is all about anything pink and sparkly, and spends all day talking about Belle, Cinderella, and the rest of the crew. The only Disney movie she's seen in its entirety is Beauty and the Beast, but she's quite addicted to any princess songs we can find on youtube. She also loves Swan Princess, and the last few days she's pretended Derek (the prince in the movie) is hanging out with her everywhere she goes. He knocks on the front door and comes with us to the park, to lunch, to play in her kitchen, to read books, everywhere. I suspect he may become her serious invisible friend. I love it!

She likes to play with her baby doll, too, especially now that there's a carseat and a baby swing in the house for her to use. She wraps her doll up in a receiving blanket and carries her around the house patting her back.

Last week I acquiesced to her request and bought a pack of wet wipes in a princess package. She has been using them to thoroughly clean the house. She washes furniture, walls, doors, appliances... And yesterday at lunch she had a cheese quesadilla cut into strips, and she stacked all the pieces up into a precise little pile on her plate. Hmm... I guess she's my daughter after all. Can you say OCD?

Beach Day

Yesterday we went to the beach. It was Jack's first time at the ocean.
Remember Hazel's first time at the beach? January of last year. I can't believe how little she looks in this picture, just one year ago!
We tried a new spot at Half Moon Bay. It was a harbor area, and the water was very shallow. I missed the crashing waves, but it turned out to be an excellent spot to let Hazel explore. She had a blast tromping around in the water and throwing mussels in, digging in the sand and getting majorly wet and dirty. One casualty: we lost a boot to the tide. Bummer. We still have rainy weather for another month or two, and she loves wearing those boots.
We've had fabulous weather here the past week, in the 60's. My mom goes back to Northern Utah and snow on Tuesday, and I can't help but feel bad for her. I love California weather!

Here's our best shot at a family picture. Hazel did not want to sit still when there was so much to do. She was busy, busy, busy the whole time we were there.

Todd's Birthday

Todd's birthday is the day after Christmas. Every year for as long as I have known him, we have been with his family on his birthday and I haven't ever made him a cake or really had a chance to spoil him.

This year was different. I rocked it for his birthday. Not only did I make him his ultimate favorite treat, raspberry dessert, as his birthday cake, but I got him the gift of his dreams: a glass blowing class.
Todd's been interested in glass blowing for years. Every time we see a spot that does it, he wants to look. When Todd came back from Afghanistan, we rendezvoused in a hotel decorated with blown glass art. When we went to Italy, we took a day trip over to Murano to see all the glass works. So when the idea of taking a class ourselves came to me way back in October, it was a stroke of genius. I've been privately gloating for months just waiting for this.

We took the class last weekend, while my mom would be here and could watch the kiddos, and when kiddo #2 would for sure be outta me. A man named Doug runs a little glass blowing shop in Half Moon Bay and offers classes. The one we took gave us the chance to make one of three items: a paperweight, a heart, or a pumpkin. We both chose the pumpkin.

And now, a few pictures. First, we dipped a long metal pole into this furnace of molten glass. We gathered up the glass on the tip of the pole like we were picking up honey with a spoon, turning it around and around as we carefully lifted it out.
Then we put it inside a super hot oven while we kept turning it in circles to help it keep a round shape.
This process was repeated a few times, and occasionally we had to roll our glass along a slab of steel, which helped the glass to cool as it shaped.
To color the class, we'd dip it in for fresh "honey," then roll it in colored powder while it was super hot, followed by the oven to bake it all in.
And sometimes we'd sit down and roll it back and forth, too, as it cooled. We added a few layers to it, giving our pumpkins a cool double look, where you can see a more solid piece inside a clearer piece.
We got the pumpkin shape by pressing the hot glass into a mold.
Doug added the stem on while we were sitting and rolling it, then we pulled it up with a metal tool to give it some shape.
Doug took the pumpkin off the pole by hitting it sharply. Then he went over the whole thing with a blow torch to smooth out any sharp spots.
They had to sit in another furnace or kiln for a day to cool off gradually so that the glass wouldn't break. We went to pick them up yesterday and had a beach day while we were there, which I will blog about next. Mine is the green one, and Todd's is blue.

Siblingitis Update

Hello. It is 10:30 and Jack is asleep and I am not and I'm medium okay with that. It's good to not be dying for sleep, but I know I will regret this (being awake now) in the middle of the night.

Just wanted to make a little record of how Hazel's doing with Jack. She loved him in the hospital, then majorly freaked out when we brought him home. She wouldn't even touch him for the first few days, but finally the third morning home she announced "I like Jack," and from there on out she hasn't had any hard feelings towards him. She even wanted to feed him once. She has, however, been extremely frantic for me. I've been trying to pass Jack off to Todd or the moms and give all my attention to Hazel when I'm not nursing, and that has helped, but she's been very possessive and clingy. It's getting better day by day, and it's of course understandable, but in the meantime, it's made me a little weary and it's been hard for me to rest and recover because she wants me up and out with her. Hazel boycotted her nap for five days in a row when we brought Jack home and that was almost the end of me. She's a three-hour napper, so it was a significant chunk of sleep she was missing, and she does not function well without it. Mornings tended to be okay, but the afternoons were a nightmare of meltdowns. One day while she was supposed to be napping she took down her name letters and destroyed her treasure collection instead of sleeping. I was devastated. Hazel has never exhibited destructive behavior before and I didn't know what to do. That day I hit a wall and locked myself in my room to cry for a while. But she's napped almost every day for a week now and I almost feel like I have my Hazel back. I was honestly afraid I'd lost her forever, but I don't feel that way anymore.

Meanwhile, Jack has been super calm and sweet. When he wakes up in the middle of the night, he shuffles around in bed and grunts and breathes a little harder, but he doesn't even cry until I've tried to sleep through it all for 20 or 30 minutes, and then it's just a little cat meow. He's really mild and warm and cuddly and I'm in love with him.

Mr. Jack

Introducing Jack Todd Bonner!
Stats:
Born at 10:36 am Tuesday, January 4, 2011.
9 pounds 9 ounces
21 1/2 inches long
Details:
I spent all night Sunday and all day Monday having irregular contractions. We went into the hospital Monday night and had nurses telling me I probably wasn't really in labor and should go back home until my contractions were coming more regularly and I was no longer smiling and friendly. Boy, did I want to shove it in their faces when a doctor checked me and I was dilated to a seven!

I got an epidural around midnight, and everyone thought we'd have a baby in a few hours. Not so. I stalled at that darn seven for a few more hours until they broke my water at 3:30. Even still, I progressed slowly. It was 10 am before I was checked and at a 10. Fifteen minutes later, I was pushing, and 20 minutes after that we had our little man!

Overall, it was (incredibly) longer than my 22 hour labor with Hazel, but much easier. And I would never survive without an epidural.
Hazel was loving, gentle and soft when she visited at the hospital, but since we've been home she's had an enormous case of sibling-itis. She's majorly Mama Clingy and has boycotted her nap two days in a row now, doubling the fussiness in the afternoon. Wish us luck as we adjust to being a family of four!