Video Update
Untitled from esther benoit on Vimeo.
More Camera Cheesin’ from esther benoit on Vimeo.
More fun with the nasal aspirator from esther benoit on Vimeo.
Playing with Papa from esther benoit on Vimeo.
Inside Outside Equilibrium Day
Tomorrow marks Hazel’s inside-outside equilibrium day. She will have been on the “outside” as long as she was on the inside, which is pretty crazy to think about it. We’re not talking about prison here, folks, we’re talking about gestation. Hazel is 9 months old now and tomorrow marks 40 weeks since her birthday- my pregnancy was about 40 weeks so all in all our little Uni/Hazel has been around for 80 weeks now!
We had a lovely visit with Grammy Jane last week and Hazel already misses her very much. We got a few really sweet pictures of Hazel trying to rob Grammy of her jewelry. Our daughter the jewel thief:
This is what happened when Grammy put up a fight for her earrings. I think Hazel won.
While Grammy was in town we went down to the river and enjoyed some unseasonably warm weather. Here is a rare shot of Hazel with me!
Hazel with her Papa, eating a pine cone.
Hazel discovers grass.
and by discover we mean eats…
She gets sweeter every day.
Hazel has really started “talking” a lot lately. She now says “Haaaaaa” whenever she waves, and BaBa when she waves goodbye. This morning when I went to get her out of her bed she waved at me when I walked in and said “Haaaaa.” Now that’s a surefire way to melt a Mama’s heart!
We got a package from Aunt Sarah on Monday afternoon and Hazel was thrilled to discover she has a new friend, Camelia, the pink camel. I’m not sure I have mentioned this on our blog, but my sister Sarah is deployed to Iraq right now and recently learned that she will be moving over to Afghanistan in the next month or so- we are very proud of her and extremely anxious for her to come home (she was deployed this February and will be gone a year). Sarah was so thoughtful in sending us a package- we thought it was supposed to work the other way around with us sending her all the care packages, but that’s just how Sarah is, always thoughtful, always generous, always putting others first. Here are a few shots of Hazel with her new best friend, all the way from the desert!
Thank you Aunt Sarah!
And finally, (this is getting to be quite the lengthy post!)- Jered and I just learned that we will be having our first “weekend” without Hazel tomorrow and Friday night. I was originally scheduled to attend a conference in Charlotte, but at the last minute my presentation was cancelled by the lead presenter and I decided not to make the trip- to make a long story short, our hotel reservations are non-refundable, so we decided to go afterall. This morning my mom generously volunteered to take Hazel for two days so that Jered and I could have a mini-vacation, just the two of us. We are both excited and very very nervous to leave our girl for more than a few hours, but we are so thankful to get some time for each other. Thanks mom, for letting us have a little holiday to mark our 10 year anniversary! We’ll post more about how that goes when we get back (wish us luck!).
Filed under Pregnancy by esther | Comment (0)9 month appointment
Today was Hazel’s 9 month well-baby appointment. Her weight gain has slowed down considerably- she has moved from the 75th percentile to the 50th percentile for weight, and is still around the 50th percentile for length. She is growing perfectly for her age- it’s a little strange for us not to have a really chubby baby anymore. Ever since Hazel started crawling and cruising she has thinned out so much! Her head, however, is still in the extremely large category- 85th percentile!! It takes a lot of noggin to snap and clap and cruise around. Hazel is growing extremely well and even impressed the nurses and doctor with her snapping, waving, babbling and general excitement.
In other exciting news, we bought plane tickets today and Hazel and I will be making a trip to the passport office next week. My dissertation research has been accepted as a paper presentation at the Association for Moral Education’s annual conference in Utrecht this July. We will be flying to Amsterdam at the end of June and spending two weeks in Europe!! It was a major decision, but after talking it through today we decided this would be one of the last times we would have a real excuse to go to Europe- and we both realized how much easier it will be to travel with just one baby, once there are other little ones around we may not even consider traveling long distances for quite some time. So we are going to Europe! We are traveling with Hazel in our laps since a child’s ticket costs the same as an adult ticket and we are already flying in high season- but we got great flights. We will be flying into Amsterdam, attending the conference the 1st-4th of July and then driving or taking the train to Germany where we will visit my mom’s side of the family, staying with my Oma. We also plan to do a few day trips and Heidelberg is definitely on the agenda. July will be here before we know it and we still have plenty of details to iron out, but we are incredibly excited to take Hazel back to where Jered and I first met. How appropriate that we are going back to visit, this March marks the tenth year Jered and I have been together- hard to believe how quickly time passes.
Pictures (for Grampy)
Hazel now loves to cuddle anything that is soft. She loves stuffed animals.
Here she wrestles an alligator. And wins.
This is one of Hazel’s many crazy expressions.
And here is another (if you look closely you can see what we think is her first little tooth peeking through)
And that last post wasn’t all fiction- she really does snap. We are trying to get it on camera, but it’s hard. She can snap her fingers, and usually does it when she is eating something delicious.
Still loves chasing that cat…
Our sweet girl is 9 months old tomorrow. Time sure flies.
Hazel sure does love her Grammy
Grammy Jane is in town this week and Hazel is just thrilled about it. Hazel has been so excited to spend time with her Grammy that she developed a bit of separation anxiety from her and was sad and despondent all day yesterday and today while Grammy was away at her conference. When Grammy comes back from her conference every day Hazel greets her with a big smile and loves of waving and clapping- sometimes she even snaps.
Hazel really wishes her Grampy was here, but since he couldn’t come she decided that her first word would be Grammy- but she communicated with me that if her Grampy had been able to make the trip, she might have said Grampy first… clearly she is showing a bit of favoritism. (She hasn’t actually said any real words yet, and she was reasonably pleasant all day yesterday and today: this paragraph was just an effort to get Grampy motivated to come out and visit again…)
The weather has been great and we’ve been going on lots of walks in the evenings. The time change has pushed bed time back to 7:15, which lets us get in a nice long walk after dinner every night. This Friday is Hazel’s 9 month well-baby check up so we will have more to report then- namely how long and heavy our little girl has gotten, she’s getting so tall!
Filed under Pregnancy by esther | Comment (0)And she’s just a little ticklish…
Ticklish from esther benoit on Vimeo.
Hazel loves to play with her blocks on the coffee table when she’s not being tickled.
Blocks on the Table from esther benoit on Vimeo.
More Videos
It’s taking a while to upload all the videos, probably because there are lots of people who are sitting at home today because of the snow storm uploading all their videos at the same time. We are having our first snow day in about 4 years and loving every minute of it. Jered and I both got to stay home today, which was especially nice because we were away most of the weekend. On Saturday morning we decided to go visit Preston and Rob on a whim and spent the evening up in Bowie. We came back down here on Sunday morning, but didn’t actually get home until 4:30 because we were invited over for brunch at Hazel’s friend Nora’s house. We had quite the fun filled weekend and today is the perfect day to relax (and get a few loads of laundry done) before starting the week.
Here is another little video of Hazel playing with us.
Follow me! from esther benoit on Vimeo.
Video Updates
We took a bunch of videos this month and I haven’t had a chance to post them until now- check back later this week for more video updates.
This first one is of Hazel walking with her little Hippo Walker toy- she actually walks forward for the first time (instead of side to side along the furniture like she usually does).
Taking a Walk from esther benoit on Vimeo.
Playing (Pardon the terribly mismatched outfit) from esther benoit on Vimeo.