Happy Halloween!

Hazel was a vampire for Halloween. You know, she bites. Although, she only tried to bite once the whole night. She had a great time Trick-or-Treating and was a big hit. She was cute and friendly and wished people "Halloween!" The "happy" was really more just implied, not so much spoken.

And the vampire family at home.

I was a Lazy Eye for work. It was hilarious. to me. No one got my costume. But, I found myself to be quite funny. But way too hot.

Not Related to Halloween

Hazel playing with the oh-so-authentic Castle Greyskull
Hazel being a cutie pants. A cutie overall pants.
Hazel and Alex in the shower. They have the same stare!!

And cute little baby Alex.

A Brief History of October

A few things notable October events:

1. Hazel learned about tents. This involves putting something, especially a blanket, over her head. In fact, Hazel and the daddy are playing in a tent this very moment.
2. Hazel learned about "lights on" and how to turn on the dining room light (aided by the fact that our safe is sitting under the light switch and is the perfect height to assist her in turning it on).
3. A whole lot of "shut up"s and "don't know"s
4. Even more crazy outfits (see exhibit a) - why does she have the carbon monoxide tester? I have no idea. We will probably die in our sleep.
   
5. Not a lot of naps.
6. (random story) One night I mentioned to Geoff that I needed to go to the library the next day because I had books due. All Hazel heard was library and she got very excited. She got her stuff ready and started chanting "li-berry, li-berry". When I explained that we were not going until the next day, she lost it. However, when the next day came and we actually went to the library she was ecstatic. A girl after my own library-lovin' heart. Or, really her librarian grandma's heart.
7. Oh, and a lot of candy. And it isn't even Halloween yet.
   

8. Fish faces, really silly faces in general.
9. Helping daddy rake leaves.
   
10. And, apparently, a lot of ponytails and looking concerned.
    

21 Months!!

Yeah, it has been a while since we had a monthly update but oh, what a month it has been. Hazel has now moved to a "big girl" aka toddler bed. This is the reason she had to get a new bed.
The new bed which she does not feel the need to nap in... She will go to bed at night, but naps are another deal all together. She had a nap today, so hopefully this whole no-nap thing will go away.


This has also been the month of "no way". I must hear "no way" one hundred times a day. Everything is met with, "no way", really more of a "no wee". Even if she is agreement, she will still no way me and then say 'yeah'.

Oh, and she says 'shut up' now. Awesome. She just started chanting "shut up, shut up, shut up" one day and seeing that it causes a reaction (because, come on, the "shut up, shut up, shut up" is kind of funny), she has continued on with the chanting. She is, in fact, this minute shouting "shut up" at our skull. It lights up with noise and apparently, especially with "shut up".



Hazel has also recently discovered the moon. We got out of the car one night and she started shrieking (joyfully) "The Moon! Hooray, The Moon!!" We always look for the moon, day and night. We sing songs about the moon.



We are also painting our house. It is far more difficult and time-consuming than we had originally anticipated. Plus, the weather had completely not cooperated. It has rained practically every weekend since we started (like today). My mom was nice enough to come down and take care of Hazel while Geoff worked on the house.












Geoff was kind of going crazy with the painting...






And since it is now Halloween month, I made Hazel this smashing dress. Frankly, I don't love it but it is okay. The pattern was kind of weird, and it was hard to match up the stripes and I was not as patient as I could have been. And I made a matching dress for the baby. And a hat for me. That I will probably never wear.

I have been on a sewing kick. You can see the pink skull dress that I made in the elephant pictures. It was made at the same time as the reversible spider/red flower dress. I hope I still have enough in me to get through Halloween costumes.


When Zoe Jane was one-ish, Auntie Jenni and Meadow gave her this awesome elephant. We even sewed a hat and saddle for it. Well Zoe Jane is old now, and too big for the elephant. So she gave it to her cousin Hazel. Hazel LOVES the elephant. Here are a couple of pictures of Hazel and the elephant.



Finally, a picture of Hazel's scared face. Oh, it is going to be a fantastic Halloween!

Slacker Mom No More!

We bought this bird book at Costco. It is giant and has lots of pictures of birds. And it makes noise. Which goes against my ban of noisy toys. But this book is actually pretty cool. It is not a kids book it has recordings of the actual bird noises. Hazel loves it. Especially the turkey page. And she likes to share it with her blue friend.

The other day we found some sort of flying thing in Hazel's room. It was orange and black and I think it was a moth, Geoff thinks it was a butterfly, at first Hazel called it a spider (see the itsy-bitsy-spider motion in the first picture). We explained that it was a butterfly and now she is fascinated with butterflies and has to point them out in books.

The butterfly let Hazel hold it*. She was mesmerized.

Harry Potter? Nope, that is a "bandaid". Turns out stickers are WAY cheaper than bandaids and when there is no blood they work just as well. And as a handy bonus, I have a calendar at work that has stickers every day. Well, it combines the weekends but still it is a lot of stickers.

You don't get the full picture her, but she is in the baby crib, with a blanket and like four stuffed animals and the wire/bead toy thing and a couple of books. It kept her occupied for a good hour this morning.

This picture looks peaceful, when in fact she was dumping a box of animal crackers in her baby crib. She did, however, pick up most of the crumbs and the dustbuster took care of the rest.

And finally, Geoff wanted Hazel to be "scary" for Halloween. I guess she took it to heart...

Seriously, I have no idea what she was doing, but she looks crazy.

*No butterflies were harmed in the making of this blog. It was released back into the wild of hte backyard.

Bangs!

Monkeys, climbing and dresses. Oh my!

I think this picture captures some of the mischievousness that is the Hazel.

Hazel is very taken with taking care of her animals. She will actually get the dogs (the real dogs) food and likes to help fill their water bowl. This is a great skill, one which I heartily endorse. She also likes putting her stuffed animals and dolls into her high chair, buckling them in and feeding them. I am just waiting for her to get big enough to pick up Triscuit and buckle him in.

Sometimes she wants to eat with her animals. Notice the matching bibs.

And what do her stuffed animals eat? Goldfish crackers, of course.
Do you see how ALL of Hazel's stuff is on the ground? She has to dump all the boxes when she plays. I am guessing she wants to see all the stuff at once. I don't know. But, notice she is dressed and has a barrette in her hair and is (mostly) on the ground.
Obviously, Geoff took this picture. As I don't so much care for the climbing on the crib and try to discourage it as much as possible. Thank goodness she only climbs into the crib. Of course, the floor is pretty clean and I didn't see any visible bruises or cuts, so I guess it isn't too bad.

For Labor Day weekend, the mama, the Hazel and the Jenni went to Wyoming to visit the grandparents. While there, the mama spent many hours of back-breaking work sewing dresses. And ignoring the Hazel, according to the grandmother. She may have been momentarily ignored, but look at the cute end result.

A scary spider dress and a sweet red flower dress:

Oh, but wait, they are the same dress!! I love things that are reversible. The bloomers are not reversible. I made two sets. And I made a pink skully dress but don't have a picture of it. When Jenni sends me pictures from our long walk to Colorado, I will post pictures of the pink dress.

And finally, a cute picture with natural lighting. And it shows detail of the top of her dress.