Summer is wrapping up. Hazel starts twice-a-week preschool after Labor Day (a co-op with some buddies from church). I'll start taking Jack to toddler gym class when she's gone.
Hazel just finished eight weeks of soccer. She liked it better than dance, but not nearly as much as gymnastics. It was cute to see her running around in shin guards, giving the ball power kicks. I'd like to do it again next summer.
The kids love riding their bikes. I finally came up with the genius idea of having them ride back and forth on the sidewalk between our stairs and our garage, instead of making Hazel stop at check points along the way to the park while Jack slowly caught up. It's been much better. No more worrying about cars. They're actually playing together (usually Hazel pretends they're Peter Pan and Tink, dodging cannonballs). Jack's only made one escape attempt so far (on the stair end where I couldn't see them), and Hazel alerted me to it in time.
Climbing trees has been a big deal this summer. I'm glad. I was always too scared to climb trees. I love how brave and adventurous Hazel is.
Jack's been using the play kitchen a lot. He makes things that are "hah, hah" (hot) and sticks them in the fridge to cool off before giving everyone a taste. His vocabulary is starting to take off. He says mama, da for Dad and helicopter, Ja for Jack, bluh for balloon, puh for poop, uh-uh, uh-oh, and has his own words for dog, truck, bye bye, night night, blanket, Hazel, outside, bath, ball, van, car, book, and a few others. He is also starting to make animal sounds. My favorite is a growl for jaguars and other wild cats.
Hazel is suddenly quite taken with coloring and will invest a lot of time in it. Right now she's getting better at staying in the lines, and is far more interested in making her pictures colorful than making them look realistic. Here is a sample of her current style:
She's also starting to free-style draw a bit. She likes it best when Todd draws with her, teamwork style. The other night they drew a leopard and a cheetah together. It was cute to hear them talking about how to shape the tail and what the pattern on the fur ought to look like.
Hazel's still fascinated with getting tied up in our pretend play, but she's finally starting to expand beyond that plot-line on occasion. Here she is being Tiger Lily tied up at Skull Rock:
It's kind of boring for me when she plays Tiger Lily, because I have to hold up all the dialogue. She's really good at staying silent and looking away from Captain Hook (me) just like in the movie, but she says almost nothing and expects me to continue to beg her to tell me where Peter Pan's hideout is.
My mom and sister Kathryn came to visit last week. My poor mom spent a ton of time trying to get this ancient sewing machine an old co-worker gave me to work. No dice. But it made me realize how much I want one, and ordered a machine on Amazon. I can't wait for it to get here!
I love this picture. Mom impressed me with how patient she was, trying to figure this thing out while my kids were all over her. She just lovingly showed Jack what she was doing and chattered right along with Hazel's make-believe. I always feel like I can't get any "real" work done while the kids are awake, but obviously, that's not a problem for my mom! With six kids, she probably had no other choice but to develop that skill.
Todd went boating with the Scouts and sprained his ankle doing a wakeboard flip. Now he's on a serious evening routine of elevating, icing, and making me do his bidding. Notice that impressive snack platter he's sporting? Yeah, I'm a good wife. I even napped on the floor on Sunday and let him monopolize the couch. (Hazel uses our room for quiet time.) I expect a full return on my investment when I'm in my third trimester!
Speaking of quiet time, it is going magnificently. Hazel loves it. I take a nap almost every day.
On laundry days, the kids love to commandeer the laundry baskets. This week, they were puppy crates. Arf!
That same day, I woke up groggy from a too-long nap. Usually, Hazel wakes me up by about 3:30 as she decides she's done with quiet time. This time, I wandered back to peek in at her and this is what I found:
She swears she wasn't really asleep, just pretending to be the sleeping puppy, but she was out cold for half an hour after I took this picture. I had to wake her up. That looks so uncomfortable!
Hazel thinks she doesn't have enough coins in her collection of special things, so she's been doing a few odd jobs around the house to earn more. She's dusted, cleaned the toilet, and washed the sliding class door. I could get used to this!
So, her special things... Hazel's got this ongoing collection of small toys, shiny ribbons, jewelry, and other odds and ends that she guards
possessively. Todd finally bought her a little stationary chest with a code lock, so she can stop hoarding her stuff in all the high places in the house and FREAKING OUT any time Jack comes close to her stash. It is a serious obsession. She asked if she'd be able to have her special things in heaven, and I was torn between lying so she'd still think heaven was a great place, and telling her the truth so she'd start to learn that possessions aren't the most important things in life. Now she says she's scared to die, because she figured out she might not have them with her up there.
A few days ago, we read a book about a family whose house caught fire and they had to save money to buy a new chair because all their possessions were burned up. It really got the wheels turning in Hazel's head. Later that day, she announced that if our house caught on fire, she would run and save her special things,
and not Jack. She specifically said that! So we had a couple big talks about how Jack is our family and our family (and people in general) are far more important than any of our stuff, even our special things. Finally, we got her to say she'd grab Jack AND her special things at the same time to save them in the fire. And the next day, she'd figured out a better answer: she'd save Jack first, carry him under his arms to me, and then run back real fast to get her special things before they burned up. We're getting there... ;)
Jack's had a wart on his foot. His pediatrician said to cover it with duct tape. It's actually worked, but the funny thing is how hard I've had to work to keep the tape on Jacks' foot. It got to the point where it was only worth the effort after Jack was asleep. Well, that only worked for a few weeks. Jack has now trained himself to half wake up when he hears us come in to check on them at night, and pull the tape off right after I put it on, without even opening his eyes! It's hilarious. Now I'm taking a break for a week or two to get him out of the cycle before starting up again. Funny boy.
Sorry for how long this post is! Apparently, I need to blog more frequently. Kudos to anyone who read the whole thing!
