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.)

"Arm, owie. I no like it."

Hazel's registered for a toddler gym class we attend weekly. She LOVES it. It is unbelievable how much she runs around and moves and jumps in there. It is awesome to watch what she can do as she balances on horizontal ladders, jumps on tramps, tosses herself down slides and takes very literal advantage of the fact that the whole room is padded. My only concern is that she's likely to barrel over one of her classmates, who are all pretty small and wobbly on their feet. (This course ends next week, and I signed her up again, but this time with the 2-3 year olds. Hopefully she will be less of a danger to the other kids there!)
Todd came to watch for the first time yesterday, and I was so thankful he was there, because we actually ended up with quite an ordeal. At the end of class, we were playing under a parachute during circle time, and Hazel was super hyped up and running under it and throwing herself into my arms. (I think she was a teensy bit thrilled that Daddy was there to watch - she's not normally wild during circle time.) At one point, she ran away from me and thought she was headed for the cupboards to stop (couldn't see them, as they were hidden by the parachute) but hit dead air and fell forwards on her extended arms.

After that, she held her left arm with her right hand and cried quite a bit. She's usually really tough, and almost always hops right up after a tumble. If not, a kiss and a two-second hug is about all she wants before she's back to playing. But this time she just sat in Todd's arms and cried and would not be consoled. Also, she refused to let go of her arm to let us take a good look at it.

I didn't know what to do, because we just got on new insurance with Todd's new job and I haven't picked a pediatrician for Hazel, and I didn't know where the hospital was or anything. Todd made some phone calls and got Hazel an appointment in 45 minutes with a pediatrician at the medical offices in the hospital, and found out the address. He had to go back to work, so we strapped Hazel into her carseat as best we could with her refusing to let go of her arm and I took her to the appointment.

The doctor determined that she needed x-rays, so down to radiology we went. We waited to get in for a full hour, and then when we finally did get in, the technician realized he couldn't get Hazel in the positions he needed her arm in unless she was sitting higher, on someone's lap, and I couldn't do it because I'm pregnant. We tried for a few minutes to see if there was any way we could make it work, and poor Hazel put her head down on her arm and cried the saddest tears of all. Then I called Todd at work and asked him to come and help us out. Twenty minutes later, he was there.

Sitting outside that radiology room, listening to Hazel scream in pain, was one of my least favorite moments as a mother. I wished so bad I could be at her side, especially when I heard her calling for me. I'm crying again now thinking about it. Horrendous.

Then back to the pediatrician. Todd stayed with us. By this point, it was 2:30 or 3:00, hours past naptime and neither of us had had lunch. All I had to give Hazel was more of her morning snack crackers, and she was so sick of them. The blessed nurse asked if Hazel had had anything to eat, and brought her a little can of apple juice and a straw. Todd asked her if she wanted to hold her drink herself, and for the first time since 9:50 that morning, Hazel voluntarilly let go of her arm and held the juice can in both hands. She kept saying, "I like it, juice," and I was so thankful to see her look a little bit happy. Within a few more minutes, she had perked right up and was really using her arm again.

The x-rays came back negative, meaning they didn't show anything amiss. No broken bones or anything, thankfully. Some poking, prodding, questioning and observing later, and it was determined that Hazel had had what's called nursemaid's elbow (a dislocated elbow) and that it was now back in place. We are convinced Todd pulled it back into position when he was moving her arm around for the x-rays.

Back home at 3:30, Hazel fell asleep in the car and napped until 5, which is when my rockstar husband came home from work - an hour earlier than usual. He really took over yesterday and saved me from having a breakdown. He bathed Haz and put her to bed that night, and when she was still awake and cranky at 10:00 (practially unheard of!), he went in and sang to her and soothed her to sleep.

Yesterday made me grateful that this was our first rush to the hospital for Hazel despite her huge energy level, that her arm is good again and she's no longer in pain, that the angel nurse brought her apple juice, and that I married the best man in the universe.

Some of the Bonners visit the Bonners

Last weekend, Todd's parents, Larry and Ellen, and brother KB came out for a visit. We had a great time:

Buying produce at the local European market, the Milk Pail

Eating out, trying Chinese, Vietnamese, and seafood

Renting and watching what was probably the dumbest movie in the Redbox, "The Losers"

Going to the pumpkin patch
Tide-pooling at Half Moon Bay, where Hazel shamelessly broke the "no collection buckets" rule
and KB stepped on a dead seal and didn't realize it until it sunk in under his feet - ha ha!
Attending a Santa Clara University soccer game, where the highlight was when the goalie for the other team ran all the way across the field and made the goal that tied the game, all while a girl a couple rows over from us was shouting, "What are you doing, Max? You're going the wrong way!"

Checking out the migrating Monarch butterflies at National Bridges in Santa Cruz

Making our now-traditional pumpkin soup for dinner

And playing such a raucous game of Uno that we were all crying while laughing and I wet my pants just a little bit.

Fun times. Thanks for the visit!

Mount Shasta Trip

Todd starts a new job today. Hooray! Hopefully this one will mesh work and family time a little better than what we've been living with the past 9 months. In celebration, Todd took a week off between jobs, my mom came out to watch Hazel, and Todd and I took off for a trip, just the two of us, up through northeastern California.

Monday we drove up towards Mount Shasta, stopping along the way for a tour of Shasta Caverns on Shasta Lake. As interesting as stalagmites and -tites are, we couldn't stop thinking it would be more fun if Hazel were with us. The three other people on the tour (it's so great traveling during the off-season!) were pretty strange, and they f-r-e-a-k-e-d out when they saw a squirrel. "Stop the bus, a squirrel!" "Oh, look at its fluffy tail!" I guess they don't have squirrels in Phoenix. We see ten a day easy from our front window. They're pretty common in Northern California.
We then journeyed the rest of the way to the city of Mount Shasta, where we relaxed at our bed and breakfast, Shasta Mountain Retreat and Spa. Apparently the owner is a certified massage therapist. The whole place had a very new-agey feel to it. Foot and calf massage machines in the "relaxation room," vegan banana bread on the kitchen counter, bath salts in our (fabulous) whirlpool tub, the works. It turns out the whole town is super hippy. We couldn't believe how many natural foods stores and restaurants there were, nor how many people were walking around looking like they conserved water by declining to shower. We rested up, but were restless to get out of town by mid-morning the next day. Funny.

Todd had dreams of hiking to the 14,162 foot summit of Mount Shasta, a feat with no trail and recommendations of crampons and ice picks. Sadly, his pregnant wife held him back, and we opted instead to just take the scenic drive that wound around the mountain as we made our way to our next destination.
We stopped instead at McCloud River Falls, a waterfall with three cascades that flowed into a chilly pool. The hike down only took ten minutes, which was just about right for me. As we were making this trip off-season, there wasn't another soul around when we got there. And so we may or may not have skinny dipped. (And I might or might not have an incriminating picture of Todd.)
Our accomodations decreased in luxury as the week progressed. Night two found us at McArthur-Burney Falls Memorial State Park, where we camped in a heated cabin equipped with bunk beds and foam mattresses. It actually turned out to be our ideal camping situation. We picked berries by the lake, made tin-foil dinners and s'mores over a campfire, put two mattresses together on the floor and were able to snuggle all night (I started to write "spoon all night," then realized my belly doesn't really let us do that anymore...), and even got to take hot showers in the morning, 50 cents for 5 minutes. I took one for 10. Delectable. There was room in the cabin for a pack and play and more. If Todd and I DO camp again in the future, this is how we plan to do it. Hazel would have totally adored it, and we so could have done it with a baby, too.
We checked out the McArthur-Burney Falls from the overlook the next morning while sipping hot chocolate. The quick path down was closed for renovations, and we bypassed the long hike due to my "condition," so this is all we saw of these magnificent, 129-foot falls. They were still breathtaking, but alas, no opportunity to swim in the emerald pool. Wink, wink.
We stopped for lunch at a little diner we found in the middle of nowhere and were tempted to buy some leatherwork art by "Cactus Jack." Then on to Subway Cave, a 2,000-year-old lava tube that you can walk through for a quarter of a mile. This was super cool. The ground was all bumpy from the pumice stone and it was dark and cold so we had to bundle up and wear headlamps. Again, we were the only people in there. Made for some freedom to goof off. Whoever named the different features in the cave had a great sense of humor. We paused to take a menacing picture in "Lucifer's Cul-de-sac." My loud laugh echoed off the walls.
We then entered Lassen Volcanic National Park, where we had a Yellowstone-like experience. We took a short hike to Cold Boiling Lake, where the water was cold but gases made the water bubble anyway. Todd made us some sweet walking sticks. We actually hit a crowd of school kids on a field trip, and overhead at least 10 kids wishing they had walking sticks like us hikers. They were covetable! Then we drove over to an area called Sulphur Works and saw a sweet mud pot which is right by the road. Ah, treasure without the work!
That night we camp-camped, for reals, in a tent. Thankfully, again, almost no one was around, so we were able to wander through the campsites and find the one with the flattest spot for a tent, close but not too close to the bathrooms. I wish we had taken a picture of our campsite, but I think I was too paranoid about sleeping badly and being cold to even think of getting out our camera. Our roasted hot dogs were juicy and we even popped popcorn over the fire. We stayed by said fire for as long as we could (ie until we ran out of firewood and it died down) reading Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express aloud. Todd mocked me every time I went to our bag for another layer of clothes, but I was so afraid of being cold overnight and didn't see any reason why I had to be cold before the middle of the night.

It turned out to be fine, though. We slept on a queen-size air mattress that didn't even leak air during the night, with a fleece beneath us and three heavy blankets and two opened sleeping bags on top. My fleece hat fell off once in the middle of the night and I definitely woke up with a cold head, and of course I tossed and turned most of the night, keeping Todd up and neither of us got a good night's rest, but hey, at least we were warm! Well, I was warm. Turns out layers do make a difference. Todd admitted he was a little chilly, and I was like, "You could have put on your sweatshirt, dear."

The next day we hiked Bumpass H-e-double-hockey-sticks, which is THE hike you must do if you come here looking for volcanic delights. It was only a mile and a half in, and led you to an 18-acre area filled with mud pots, steam vents, and bubbling pools. There were signs everywhere warning you to stay on the boardwalk, as Bumpass himself lost a leg when he stepped through the ground into one of the thermal pools back in the 1800's. It was cool.
We returned home smelling of sulphur and campfire, excited to sleep in our own bed, and begging for hugs and kisses from Hazel, who we missed and talked about way too much during the week.

And now we are just crossing our fingers, hoping Todd's new job is worthy of celebration after all.

Great Day

Nana (my mom) is here visiting for a week and a half, and really only had three things on her agenda:
1. Bond with Hazel as much as possible,
2. Help Todd and me in any way she can, and
3. See the beach.

So we took a jaunt down to our favorite beach spot, Manresa, today. Hazel dug in the sand, fell in love with seaweed pods, cheered for surfers, and walked as far away as she thought she could get away with, and then would run back and fling herself into my arms.
My mom oogled over the way the sand felt on her feet and the sound of the waves crashing, wondered what type of bird that was that dived straight down to snatch fish out of the ocean, and rolled up her jeans and let the waves wash over her up to her knees. I wished I didn't have a tired toddler so I could let her stay there all day. My mom is a woman who needs to live closer to the beach. She said on the drive home that the waves had been calling to her to come swim.

Mom's face as she came back from standing in the crashing waves. Priceless.

I was floored that Hazel didn't fall asleep on the drive home, nor did she settle down for a nap during an entire hour spent in her room afterwards. This is the first day in her entire life Hazel hasn't taken a nap at all, and come on, people, you need one after playing at the beach! The sun, water, and wind take a toll on your energy. In order to occupy her without taking her outside and getting stranded with a tired girl who whined and begged her pregnant mom to carry her, I got out a project I've been wanting to do with her for a while now.

Hazel's latest hobby is to gather "treasures" when we're outside. She comes back each time with leaves, acorns, rocks, pine boughs, seeds, snail shells, sticks, and more. I've been saving them in a gallon-size ziplock bag for a day just such as today.
We made a collage on contact paper. I taped one piece down to the table with painter's tape and let her lay out her assortment in whatever manner suited her fancy. Then I covered the whole thing with another sheet of contact paper to hold it all together.
It was super fun and easy to do, and Hazel loved looking through several weeks worth of her treasure hunting. The sad part is the contact paper was not as sticky as I would have liked, so things are still moving around quite a bit. It's definitely going to be displayed short-term, rather than becoming a lifetime memorabilia. Still, I recommend it, especially while it's fall and there's so many interesting things on the ground outside to collect!

Putting Bunny to sleep instead of smiling at the camera.

Big Bed Transition Report - 3 Days In

Well, folks, after about two months of talk and not much action, we finally put together Hazel's big girl bed on Saturday. She's pretty excited about it, thank goodness.
Here's the run-down so far. We didn't start putting the bed together early enough Saturday morning, so her nap got delayed by a little more than an hour. By the time we had it all thrown together, she was exhausted and fell right to sleep.

All three nights so far have been a breeze. We go through the regular bedtime routine except that she's been requesting that I sing her bedtime song while I lay in her bed with her, when normally we sit in the rocker. She's gone right to sleep, slept 11-12 hours like usual, and has given us no trouble at all so far. Knock on wood. She's even stayed on her bed until I've come to get her in the morning.

The biggest trick has been naptime. Sunday she talked, sang, and shouted to herself for two full hours before falling asleep, and then only slept for 2 hours instead of 3. Today she talked to herself for about 40 minutes before settling down to a 2 hour nap. I am suspicious that the shorter naps have played a pretty big part in how easy bedtime has been.

But the glorious part is that so far (granted, it's been three days - I know we're due for a dip in luck before this thing becomes routine) she has stayed on top of her bed the whole time she's been in there singing and playing. No getting off to get toys or books or sit in the rocker or do any other mischief. The only evidence of naughtiness we've seen so far is some knocked-over name letters after Saturday's nap:
That, I can handle. The running rampant through the house in the middle of the night that hopefully none of our angel children will ever do, not so much.
The part that I have mixed feelings about is that she has figured out on her own that her crib is now for baby Jack. We did NOT tell her this, and have tried to not say much at all about the why of this transition other than because it's so exciting to sleep in a big bed like mommy and daddy. But day one, she was already pointing to her crib and saying, "It's for Jack." She seemed sad about not sleeping in her crib Saturday night and she tried to climb into it, but besides then, she's been very matter of fact about the crib belonging to Jack and has been really excited about her big girl bed. I hope she feels like it's a milestone instead of a displacement.

For those who want to see, here I am in my 25 weeks of glory. The baby's starting to move a lot more, but still not even close to as much as Hazel did at this stage. It will be interesting to see how different these two little beans are from each other.

Bed Advice Request

Alright, people. How do I do it? How to I transfer this little monkey:
to a big girl bed?

We've been trying to build up the anticipation. The mattress has been behind her crib for a couple of months now, and we point to it and talk about it and have put it down and let her jump on it a couple of times. She came with me to buy sheets and comforters and loved toting those around the house. She's excited for it.

But she's going to be even more excited when she realizes she can get in and out of the bed herself without getting hurt (the pain is all that stops her from climbing out of her crib - she's been able to do it since May).

What strategies have you employed as you moved your kids from crib to bed that you recommend? What did you do that you wouldn't have if you knew what you do now? How long can I expect Hazel to take spotty naps and wake us up in the middle of the night?