Hazel's 2nd Birthday (Part 2) -- April 22

This is the longest post, but it was a big day!

We ate at Corona Village, where Hazel had taquitos as an appetizer once, and has since regularly requested them.  It's a nice place to go with the little ones, especially early in the evening.

When we got back, Grammy and Nellie were waiting for us.  Grammy brought birthday surprises for Hazel, including the most spectacular tiny bicycle ever.  It has no pedals.  It is a balance bicycle, and the idea is that little itzers get used to balancing when they are tiny, so that they can skip the whole training wheels stage later on.  It's going to take a little while for Hazel to really get good at it, but she already has a lot of fun with it and asks to go out side and use it whenever she gets a chance.

Grete: Here she comes!

Hazel:  [shaking head] Bulldozers not moving.

....

[someone says something about how the guys in the bulldozers are maybe eating dinner]

Hazel: Eating dinner...

....Bunny!  Bunny.

Hazel had fun with Nellie, who helped her with the new bike and then read some books with her.  Here they are reading Flora and the Flamingo, a new library discovery which we highly recommend.  

Flora and the flamingo dance, and this is Hazel's best arabesque, with her new ballet shoes from us.

We rounded out the festivities with an ice cream birthday cake.  

Grammy generously shared her portion with Vivian.

After Grammy and Nellie left, Hazel was a little bit wound up, so we settled in on the couch to watch her new Anuna DVD for a while before getting ready for bed.  It's the same concert that we had discovered on YouTube, and now Hazel also has it on CD so we can listen on the iPod in the house and also in the car.  Hazel has about 4 or 5 favorites, and Vivian will bounce along to a few of them, especially Fionnghuala.  We have listened to a lot of "Gotay" (how Hazel says Gaudete) in the past week!  

All in all, a great birthday.  We can't believe she's TWO!

She is talking so much, she "reads" many of her stories out loud now, and she is putting together more and more sentences.  She helps out around the house with feeding the dog, putting away groceries and laundry, putting the soap in the dishwasher, and picking up her toys.  She helps her sister when she can't reach a toy.  She puts on her own shoes, and if she puts them on the wrong feet she'll swap them so that they are correct.  She likes Christmas lights (some people still have them up!) and calls them "pretty" (as a noun).  She is starting to pretend play, and it's so much fun to watch her have a tea party with her bear, monkey, and kangaroo or put her baby doll to sleep in the cradle and sing her a goodnight song.  She also makes sure to tell me "shhh! baby sleeping" so that I don't wake her up!  The way her face lights up when she first comes out of her room in the morning and sees the rest of her family is just the sweetest, and we are just as excited to see her.  She is a wonderful, sweet little girl, and we are so blessed to see her every day!

We spent some time going through old pictures, and I thought I'd put a couple here.

This is Hazel on her 1st birthday:

She had been walking for a couple of months, and she could say about 5 words.  

This is  the day she was born:

Hazel's 2nd Birthday (Part 1) -- April 22

We started the day with a trip to the grocery store, where Hazel got to pick out her own balloon.  Most of them had things like the Hulk on them, but she was drawn to this one with flowers.  The birthday ones weren't very interesting, so I understood this choice.  

We picked out macaroni and cheese shaped like fish, and hot dogs, and fresh organic strawberries for lunch.  Vivian approved of the macaroni.

After Vivian went to sleep for her afternoon nap, the mail came, and Hazel was excited to open some packages.  One was from Aunt Betsy and Uncle Bill in Alaska, and Hazel was delighted by the pretty wooden bowl with her name in it.  It's a perfect treasure, because she can't really hurt it, but she'll still love it when she's all grown up!

The other package had all kinds of goodies from Grandpa Van and Grandma Tina in Boston, including the most amazing chocolate bunnies that Christina picked up in Germany.  Hazel went right to work stacking the blocks, and I wrote down her chatter until I ran out of room on my paper:

  "Build with blocks...I can do it.  [pause in chatter for building a small tower].  I love my tower!  This one's a block.  this one's next.  And this one's next.  And this one.  I just keep trying.  [tower falls].  Oh no! Ohhh no.  Those blocks are...are...are... building blocks.  I did it!  [tower falls down again, is rebuilt again].  I keep trying.  Get better.  Oooh.  I got my blocks.  I got 'em.  Hazel [has a ] lotta  blocks.  Oh no!  Ok. Try again.  Just keep trying.  I'm building blocks."

We rounded out the afternoon with a trip to the UW Art Museum to see a new astrophotography exhibit. We suggested the art museum on the weekend, but didn't make it on time, and Hazel had been asking to go.   Hazel especially liked a picture of Neptune and the moon Triton that she thought looked like the crescent moon and a tiny crescent moon:

Vivian is always up for an outing.

After the art museum, we hurried downtown to pick up Andrew in the truck so that we could go out for supper. 

The Hunt Continues -- April 21

It was another beautiful day, so Hazel and I ventured out into the "back front yard" as Hazel calls it, to hide the eggs that we got at church on Sunday.  I hid them a few times, and then Hazel started hiding them for herself to find.  I have many memories of playing both sides of a chess or checkers game, so I suppose this wasn't much different than that.

We decorated our tree for Easter, but Hazel kept calling it the "birthday tree."

Hazel noticed the acolyte light the candles at church, and she has been "turning candles on" in the yard.  She very carefully and seriously taps each flower with her stick, in the same manner that the candles are lit at church.

New Chick Box -- April 21

The chicks were outgrowing their little box, so we spent an evening making them a new one that should last until we get them moved into their real chicken coop.  

More Easter festivities -- April 20

We spent the afternoon with Nana and Grandad.  Nana had set up an egg hunt for Hazel, who had a splendid time running around after eggs and opening them up.  She was quite pleased with herself whenever she found one with jelly beans in it, and will still shake them, hoping to find a few she might have missed.

Vivian with her Peep.

He is Risen... -- April 20

He is risen indeed!

Church was appropriately festive on Easter Sunday, and Hazel was pleased that the girl with the trumpet was playing again for the first time since Christmas.  After the service, we brought our spinach quiche in for the potluck Easter brunch.  It was such a lovely morning that we walked the girls to the park afterwards to enjoy the fresh air and sunshine.

More Chickies! -- April 14

We now have a total of 6 chickies.  We went back to Murdoch's for the latest shipment of chicks, and came home with 4 more.  We added a silver-laced wyandotte, a Rhode Island red, a black Jersey giant, and a black australorp.  

Hazel loves them.  We get regular requests to "look at chickies?  look at chickies?! chickies in the garage!? see 'em.  look at chickies?"

The Aptly Named Optimist Park -- April 8

April kept getting warmer, and we actually started leaving the house without coats!  Optimist Park, indeed.  It was warm and cheerful.

This is what Hazel calls her "tiny swing."  It is a step on the playground equipment, but she likes to swing on it.

Generally speaking, we can't manage to push Hazel high enough on the big girl swings.  We are both a little nervous.  She is fearless.