A Curious Hobby

I thought the door to my bedroom was closed when I left Hazel to her own devices for several minutes while I got things done in the kitchen. When she'd been quiet just a bit too long, I got suspicious and discovered that she was, in fact, in my room. Can you tell what I found Hazel playing with?

Am I a bad mom for not taking it away from her?

Instead I whipped out the video camera and tried to get some footage. This clashed, however, with Hazel's new-found activity of begging me to take videos of her and then wanting to watch them repeatedly.

Our First Visitors

My brother Chris and my dad came to visit us over the long weekend. They drove through the night on Friday and drove back to Utah all day on Monday, so we only had them for about 48 hours. It was quick, and I KNOW Hazel was the big motivator to make the short trip worth it. What can I say, she's irresistible!

We drove down to Big Basin on Saturday and spent our afternoon having a picnic lunch and strolling through the redwoods.

(Todd is a photographic genius.)

The rest of the visit was spent eating good food, playing fun games, laughing and talking, and just hanging out at home. Sunday afternoon we went outside and let Hazel walk whatever direction she wanted, and the four of us just trekked after her for about an hour and a half. This was Hazel's itinerary:

*show everyone the magnolia blossoms we're in love with

*run up and down across all the speedbumps in our parking lot

*dig in the sand at the playground

*swing for a couple of minutes

* investigate wood chips and a colony of ants

*climb everything imaginable

She didn't stop moving until she was so worn out she had to be carried home by ME and no one else (tired Mommy time). She slept great that night!

We sure loved having visitors! Thanks for coming, guys.

Hazel's Vocabulary

According to Hazel, the word for just about any picture she sees, on the computer, in a magazine, hanging on the wall, or otherwise, is "Dada." I see where she's coming from, since Daddy WAS a picture for the first 10 1/2 months of her life.
This is "Momma." Maybe because she hears him say it the most?
This person does not get a name. Not fair.
We went to Todd's church ball basketball game last night, and every time she picked Todd out of the crowd, she pointed and said, "Momma, Momma."

She also says "uh-oh" and "oh, wow." She makes a Russian-sounding "kkh" (I think from trying to say yucky) for trash and diapers and anything else she thinks is stinky or not supposed to be touched. And Hazel says "Dain da," meaning thank you, whenever you hand her something she's asked for. It's very sweet.

Beautiful, beautiful blossoms

Spring! I was so excited to see these beautiful blossoms on the trees here. Hazel and I walked throughout the complex and hung out by the spring flowers all afternoon yesterday.
Gotta love short California winters. There have been huge snowstorms all over the country, but here's what we've got this week. Cost of living here isn't high for nothing.

Surviving the One-Nap Schedule

Hazel has mostly moved over to a one-nap-a-day schedule now. It's been a little bit overwhelming for me, going from 2 1/2 hour chunks of time to 5 hour blocks in which to keep my little monkey occupied. I've been scouring the web for ideas and would welcome many more!

Hazel LOVES to sit at the computer and "type" (we turn the keyboard off to avoid catastrophes). Our screen saver is a slideshow of our photos, and she loves to see them all, especially the ones with herself in them.
She likes to help clean the house. She uses her toy vacuum, and also likes to help me push the real one now. And she'll get out the little dustpan and broom and sweep the kitchen floor.
One day I was desperate for her to be occupied and happy for a while, so I put in a Hazel video. (I made monthly video compilations for Todd while he was gone.) It stroked her ego, and I got a break. It was also so, so fun to watch cute nine-month-old Hazel and be amazed at how much she has changed so fast.
Sometimes when I'm desperate for a shower, I'll give Hazel a cup of cold cereal and an empty milk jug. She has fun snacking while she drops Fruit Loops down the hole, making a giant rattle to shake. Small-motor coordination, folks! Cause and effect!
She's just started to get into dress-up. There were a few days in a row she was constantly bringing me scarves and jackets, begging me to put them on her. She was adorable, waddling around the house like that. Now she wants to hang my purse on her arm every single time we go out, too.
I covered one end of our kitchen table in paper and deemed it Hazel's "craft area." She is learning how to scribble with crayons, but also spends a lot of time taking them in and out of the box. And, unfortunately, taking bites out of them.
I made a batch of edible playdough that keeps in the refrigerator. Hazel plays with that at the craft area, too. At first she didn't know what to do with it, but every day she tries something new. Last week, she would only pinch little pieces off and mostly just played with the tupperware. Today she was really into smashing the dough with a hand-mixer hook. Last but not least, I bought her a baby doll and stroller today. She's coveted every baby doll stroller she's seen at every other house she's ever been to her whole life. It's about time I got her one. She pushed that thing all over the house all day long. She is in love with it. And every time the baby doll fell out, she would say "uh-oh" and go settle her back in. We're outside digging in the sand and climbing and swinging whenever the weather lets us, but what else can I be doing with her at this stage? I just want a thousand great ideas!

At the Beach

Yesterday we took Hazel to the beach for her first time. She liked it right away. We set her down on the sand and she walked straight to the waves. She did stop for a quick inspection of some seaweed, but was soon back on track. Here is a video documenting her first moments there:

Hazel spent her time continually walking towards the waves. We would let her, then grab her and run when the tide rushed in. We only got caught once, but it was a doozy. I got soaked up to my knees!

Hazel plopped right down on her bum and investigated the wet sand. Plus, she fell forwards once. We decided to be carefree and let her do what she wanted to do. We didn't want to make the beach a scary or a bad place for her. She was not impressed by the delightful popping sounds Todd and I made stepping on the seaweed pods, although he and I were.

After a while, we decided it was time to leave, not because Hazel's interest was waning, but because she was too wet, and therefore cold. She made the drive home in her birthday suit and a fresh diaper (and a nice, warm, fleecy blanket, Mom).

Getting Through Winter One Day at a Time

Our new place faces an enormous park, which Hazel can see from our windows, so naturally, we are there most every. single. day. Thank goodness we live somewhere with mild weather! How would I get through the winter otherwise?
Todd came with us to the park on Saturday, and we made a quick stop at the garage, where Hazel picked up this super sanitary morsel: the car wash sponge.
Hazel would not part with it. Occasionally, she would set it down on the ground and stand or sit on it, but she kept it in her clutches for ten or fifteen minutes. Funny girl.

I love this picture.
This week it has rained almost all day, every day, which puts quite an, ahem, damper on playing at the park. Hazel and I were both pretty restless by today, so I searched online for ideas and found an area jewel: the Palo Alto Junior Museum and Zoo.

It's small, interactive, and free. We spent about an hour and a half there today, and that was with just a quick walk through the little zoo while the rain took a short break. For a ten-minute drive, I couldn't have asked for a better find.

Hazel loved the stuffed animal cave:
which had some frighteningly realistic residents! I was creeped out by the raccoon claws and the furry tarantula, but Hazel adored the owl.

There were also several exhibits that used tennis balls, PVC pipe, and cranks. Hazel stayed at this one for a long time, putting balls in the tube over and over again, watching them fall into a big silver bowl.
Later on, she figured out how to climb into the bowl and put her head down at the end of the tube to watch other children's balls come through.

Any other rainy day ideas for a one-year-old?

This Week's Project

This week I've been working on some picture frames to hang in Hazel's bedroom. I started with three wood frames we were no longer using and painted them using leftover paint from her bedroom wall in Utah. They needed three coats (especially the yellow one). I did one coat a day, to give the brushes time to dry after being washed. That was the longest step.
I matted them using a receiving blanket with a pattern I love. One blanket was big enough for all three frames. I measured using the backing, not the width of the entire frame. First I ironed the blanket so it would be smooth when it went in.
Then I layed the cardboard backings on it and cut the fabric around them. I left enough fabric to pull up behind each (I checked to make sure that wouldn't be too thick to fit, first.
Then I pulled up each edge one at a time and taped it on, simple as that! I tugged it really tight to make sure it would look smooth. I even tucked in the corners and just taped them in place, bulky fabric and all. I did cut down the fabric at the spots where you hang them.
Then I put them in the frames, just so. I haven't ordered my prints yet, so I didn't bother to put in the glass, but you get the idea.
When I place the pictures in them, they'll look something like this:
I'm pretty excited about it! And to think, the only cost of this project is the picture developing. Everything else I used was just sitting around the house, begging to be used.

Looks like he knew he'd just married a winner.

I was going through my pictures looking for a mug of my dad, and thought this was too cute not to share. Why isn't this on our living room wall? The man adores me.

Daddy-Daughter Date

Hazel has recently discovered the art of hand-holding. Last night, she used all her womanly charms on Todd and got him to stroll around the apartment with her for several minutes. It was too adorable not to record. Forgive the missing pants - it was bathtime and she was stalling.