April Catch=Up

Phew! It's been busy the last couple of weeks. Our house was the Spring Break hot spot for family members on both sides of our family. We did a lot of hosting. My kids are now suffering from a major lack of attention and are making me pay for it dearly!

My mom and dad came first. The weather was windy and cold, with threats of rain, so we didn't venture out as much as we otherwise would have, but they kept insisting that they came to see Hazel and Jack (oh,yeah, and Todd and me) and any activities we did would only be icing on the cake.

We spent one day at the beach and driving along the coast. Hazel was too busy playing hard to ever look at the camera. Seriously, Nana took 30 pictures and you only get a glimpse of Hazel's big blues like twice. That girl will not stop to pose.
Books, books, books! Hazel loved having extra people to read to her, and Grandpa and Nana even spoiled her with a field trip to the book store.
Jack got cuter. Is that even possible? He was so happy to always have someone wanting to hold him and listen to his baby talk. My mom spoiled me by sending me out to shop sans kids while she cleaned my bathrooms, folded several loads of laundry, and made dinner. AND every single morning while they were here Hazel got out of bed around 7 and played with my parents while I slept in for an hour or more until Jack needed to be fed. Bliss!

The day they left, Todd's crowd showed up, comprising of his mom, his brother KB, his sister Missy and her four girls, and their family friend Art. And yes, everyone slept in our two-bedroom apartment! It was packed.

The boys ran a 25K trail run in the morning, near the Muir Woods north of the Golden Gate Bridge. It was beautiful. Soooo fun to see Hazel playing with cousins! She was in heaven. But that cup full of trail mix? ... Gave her the runs and a terribly painful diaper rash for several days. Apparently, she can't really eat that many nuts at a time. We thought she was over her peanut intolerance. Guess not. We spent the rest of the day in San Francisco, heaving around the double stroller, which seemed to always either be embarrassingly empty or high in demand. (For quite a long time, Jack slept on one side, and Hazel sat in Shaylee's lap on the other side. It was so fun to listen to those girls giggle!) We snagged Ghirardelli chocolate samples, ate sourdough bread, watched some acrobats do a street performance, and saw the sea lions on Pier 39.

Sunday we relaxed, complete with a visit to the Oakwood hot tub. Ha ha! Love that place.
Cousin Carly is six months older than Jack, but not a whole lot bigger. No wonder people thought I might have been pregnant with twins! Jack is huge!
Monday we went to the beach at Santa Cruz, and Tuesday we checked out the tide pools at Half Moon Bay, then took the scenic way home along the coast and through the redwoods. Nine loads of laundry later, we're back to a quiet house.
Jack's finally hit an age where he's really, truly fun to be with. He's sooo cuddly and squishy and warm, and it's wonderful to hold him, but he's also quite content to lay on the floor by himself, too. He'll talk and squeal and just figured out how to get pretty loud. He'll play on his tummy for long periods of time, holding up his head and chest and even scooting from side to side a bit. He's laughing and ticklish and loves to chew on his hands, which produces a ton of drool.
Hazel has learned how to really get under my skin and butt heads with me. I think that may be why I'm so in love with Jack right now. He's been just [a little] more fun to be around this weekend. Todd was gone for Guard and I got tired of how Hazel wants to defy me no matter what I ask her to do, just to not do what I want her to do. Aargh! It took 15 minutes to get Hazel from the car to the house after church yesterday. I took this video 10 minutes in. I laughed at the end, but only so I wouldn't cry. The video was evidence for Todd to see what Hazel had been doing to me all weekend long. I'm hoping I'll think it's funny for reals someday [soon].

I'm so tired and long for the days when Jack'll sleep through the night [except that I love the stage he's at right now otherwise!]. I try to nap whenever Hazel and Jack are both asleep, but it doesn't work that well. I swear one or the other of them cries out and wakes me up every time I've been lying down for 15 or 20 minutes. I just want a solid hour, darn it! But if I can't nap while they're down, at least I can catch up on here.