The Swimsuit Edition

We have been taking lots of pictures lately- and today was no exception. It has been unseasonable hot here, so hot (over 90 degrees!) that we pulled out our baby pool in the back yard and let Hazel break out her swimsuit. It was such a blast to put Hazel in her very first swimsuit and let her play outside in the pool. She loved it, and we are looking forward to lots more pool time fun this summer- she is such a little water baby! Here are some of the photos we snapped of Hazel in her swimsuit and in her little pool.

She even poses!

10 months in motion

A few new videos for your viewing pleasure. Hazel is chatting up a storm and still as active as ever. She is so curious about her world and spends her days exploring everything. We are having so much fun with our little adventurer.

Hazel tries her hand at film from esther benoit on Vimeo.

Here she is eating a rice krispie treat- her first real taste of sweets.

Rice Krispie Treat from esther benoit on Vimeo.

Today we had fun with the phone when we got home from spending the day on campus.

Chatty Cathy from esther benoit on Vimeo.

More fun with the phone.

More fun with the phone from esther benoit on Vimeo.

Step by step

Hazel is starting to walk. Today she took three steps without holding onto anything, and she is now pulling herself up and standing unsupported for minutes at a time. I just can’t believe our little girl is walking! She holds our hands and moves forward- albeit kind of awkwardly, but she is so enthusiastic about walking. Little by little she is growing more independent and day by day she gets more and more like a little kid and less and less like our little baby. This is all going so quickly!

In other exciting news, this weekend while we were reading stories to Hazel we pointed out a kitty in one of her books (Goodnight Moon). She got so excited and started to pet the page. I thought it might just be a fluke and kept reading until we came to another page with kitties on it- I asked Hazel if she saw the kitty and again she got super excited and pointed to the kitties on that page. She is starting to understand what things are and you can just see the little wheels in her head turning. All of this is so amazing to watch- and it’s incredible how quickly things change.

Favorites

A few favorites mid-week…

We got Hazel’s special delivery from the Easter bunny tonight at 8:30- who knew FedEx delivered so late! Thanks Grammy and Grampy- we can’t wait to give Hazel her new bunny and her first car. A car for Easter… you guys are really setting the bar high!

Hazel gave me so many big sloppy kisses today, and she’s taken to making clicky noises with her tongue just before she does it.

I love that Hazel’s first teeth are really visible now. She has been using them to eat apples- yesterday she nearly finished an entire apple by herself (it took her 4 hours, but it made for cheap and easy entertainment!).

Hazel’s hair is really coming in and I can clip little bows in it now. I’ll take pictures soon- it looks super cute.

She says “Hi” to everything- short little “Hi!”s and very long “Hiiiiiii”s. Hi to the dog, hi to mama, hi to papa, hi to strangers… we love it!

Tonight we had Thom Kha Tofu soup for dinner and she loved it. I love that she tries new foods and is so curious about different tastes.

We think she’s almost ready to walk- lately she’s been cruising around the coffee table using just one hand and standing unsupported for minutes at a time. Of course, she probably won’t walk long before she starts running, she is so active!

And one of my new favorite pictures of my two favorite people

Easter Pictures!

A visit from the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy

Hazel is 10 months old today and celebrated her very first Easter. We went over to Omi’s house for Easter dinner and Hazel got to have her first taste of strawberry cake- she loved it! The Easter bunny got Hazel some great little Mary Jane shoe socks and a bunch of great books, that bunny must know that our girl really loves reading books lately. Hazel is absolutely enthralled with her books and actually sits still and looks at the pages when we read to her. Anyone who doesn’t know Hazel- this is a big deal, she is usually all over the place crawling, cruising, never sitting still long enough to enjoy a story, until recently. She is such a curious little explorer, so this new-found sitting still comes as a surprise to us. She loves to point at the pictures in her books and she looks back and forth between the book and whoever is reading the story to her. Sometimes we read 8 or 9 books in a row- yup, she likes them that much! Clearly, the Easter Bunny knows her well.

In other exciting news, Hazel finally got her first tooth! Her bottom tooth broke through yesterday morning, and the second bottom tooth isn’t far behind. 10 months and no teeth, we were starting to worry she would be a toothless wunderkind. Fortunately, not having any teeth hasn’t stopped her from chewing food really well- she eats so well and has moved on to mostly table foods now. Sometimes I make her oatmeal or fruit/veggie purees in the morning, but generally she is eating table food with us now, it is so cool! She loves all sorts of different foods and tries everything and anything. Some of her favorites include broccoli, asparagus, curried green beans, all sorts of different cheeses, yogurt, strawberries, mango, pears and little bites of chicken or turkey. She still isn’t a fan of sweet potato purees, but she does love baked sweet potatos cut into little pieces. Lately she has been really into feeding herself, and she does very well. We usually give her a small handful of cheerios, some tiny cheese cubes and little pieces of asparagus or green beans as finger foods while we feed her- this goes over well, she feeds herself and we sneak in a spoonful of food every now and then. She still loves drinking water, which is hilarious. I need to capture it on video so that we can show you all what we’re talking about. One of her favorite things is drinking water out of a regular cup- not a sippy cup or a bottle, a regular cup. She gets so excited about it, it’s kind of ridiculous. Sometimes when she is really fussy and can’t seem to settle down we give her a little sip of water, and magically her mood is lifted. I hope it lasts into her teens. “Hazel, calm down, have a glass of water.”

We took pictures today but I haven’t uploaded any of them quite yet, look for a picture and video update later this week. Happy Easter!

Our climber

Hazel has taken to climbing on things lately, and I caught her in the act. A few days ago she decided to climb up onto her toy chest so that she could reach our tv and push all the buttons. She definitely keeps us on our toes!

A few of my favorite things so far this week:

Hazel is walking forward a few steps at a time holding onto just one of our hands- it is so sweet!

The weather has been gorgeous lately and we’ve been able to dress in short sleeves and no socks!!

Hazel is absolutely enamored with all animals. She cranes her neck to see every dog, cat, bird and squirrel in our neighborhood.

And my most favorite thing right now, and possibly of all time, this face:

A few of my favorites

As I work on wrapping up my dissertation I’m finding I have less and less time to sit down and write lengthy posts for the blog. This makes me sad because there is so much I’d like to write about. In an effort to satisfy my need to continue to post regularly I am going to try to start a list of favorite things that Hazel is doing. I figure this will be a quick way to jot down some of the new things she is doing so that when I do have time to sit down and write, I’ll have a starting point and a way to organize my thoughts (I need as much help as I can get in that department!).

This past week Jered, Hazel and I flew to Wichita to spend a week with Hazel’s Great Grampy as he nears the end of his life. The visit was difficult, particularly saying goodbye and knowing it will be the last time. We are so grateful we had the opportunity to spend one more week with him. We should all be so lucky to live such a full life and be surrounded by the ones we love when our life nears its end. So I’ll start my list of favorites here…

I love my family, and couldn’t have joined a better group of people when I married Jered.

I love that humor and laughter were such a big part of our trip despite the sad occasion.

I love that Hazel got to wave at her Great Grampy, and gave him lots of big wet kisses.

I am thankful to whoever it was who bought that toy piano- Hazel loved it so much!

One of Hazel’s first words has been Hi, and she says it when she waves at people, it’s adorable.

Hazel said spoon to Preston and me, and she said Kitty to Shauna… she has yet to repeat either word.

Our girl is now standing all on her own- she doesn’t need to hold on to anything and she is *so* close to walking.

I hope to post more pictures and video soon. It has been an adjustment getting back into the swing of things here at home as it feels like we’ve been gone a month instead of just a week.