Hazel - 22 months

Hazel is full of personality lately. She is very goofy and she knows it. She's always laughing (much of the time it's forced and fake). She is also getting very dramatic and fake crying a lot.

I can't help but crack up every time I look at this picture. It captures Hazel perfectly. She insisted on wearing the sweatshirt, sandals, and sunglasses, none of which match. And she is obsessed with chewing on a carrot from her play food. So here she is, riding her car in all her glory.

This picture also cracks me up. I went to put Nona down for a nap when we got home from church and when I came out, this is what I found: Hazel riding Jude's car in her dress, wearing her backpack, drinking her water.

Sometimes one pair of sunglasses isn't enough. 

Here are some other funny things Hazel's up to:

• Whenever she says "sorry" to Jude, she also gives him a kiss
• She refuses to give kisses at bedtime now (she used to be very generous with her kisses, then she went through a phase where only Nona would get a kiss, now no one)
• Whenever she says "all done" after a meal, and I start to take her tray or plate away, she quickly grabs 2 more pieces of food and stuffs them in her mouth. Seriously, this happens every meal.
• We have magnet letters on the fridge and Hazel always takes both of the "E's" off and wants to put them in her pockets
• She loves to hold my hand wherever we go.
• She still isn't talking but shakes her head "no" and nods her head "yes" a lot. She imitates "yum" and "baby" and today said "yes", but no real words yet. She says "ble-beeeeee" a lot when I think she's trying to say baby.
• She always copies Jude (and vice versa). If Jude blows his nose, she wants to blow her nose.

Jude - 22 months

Jude is definitely getting a mind of his own lately and keeps me on my toes. He is "all boy" according to most people who meet him. 

Jude's first goose-egg! He fell into a door frame when he was trying to follow Noel.

One of Jude's favorite things is to sit on the floor and have me throw the diapers out of the dryer onto him. He thinks it's so funny.

What's Jude up to?

• He is OBSESSED with books. He brings book after book after book to anyone who will sit and read to him. His favorites are "Love You Forever", "Nursery Rhymes", and touch and feel books. 
• He LOVES music. He often points to the CD player and whines. As soon as I turn on the music, he zones out and goes into his own little world.
• He shakes his head no a lot and soon after Hazel stopped giving kisses at bedtime, he did to (shaking his head no anytime I asked him to kiss Nona or Daddy)
• He's finally choosing to walk up stairs with a railing instead of crawl. FINALLY! I've been trying to get him to do this for months. One day, he just did it. And now he wants to practice over and over and over.
• He is a big time wanderer. He refuses to hold hands and insists on running the opposite way we are supposed to be going. This makes it impossible for me to take all the kids someplace by myself.
• He's very affectionate and will randomly come up to me, nuzzle his head against mine and kiss me over and over again. It's hilarious.
• He is a serious limit tester and often gets back to back timeouts (sometimes 7 in a row) for doing the same "bad" behavior. He also recently started refusing to say sorry at the end of a timeout, so he sits there til he says it (sometimes 10 minutes). This really pushes my buttons...just a little...okay, maybe a lot.
• He LOVES to be chased.

Mother's Day Out

All 3 kids started going to Mother's Day Out at church a couple of weeks ago! They go on Tuesday and Thursday for 4 hours. Whoa. Amazingly, the time has gone fast for me. I will admit, it was very hard to take them the first day. I've never really been away from them and no matter how much I want/need a break, it's still hard to trust that they'll be okay with other people. But, they did great! 

Hazel and Jude are in the 18 month classroom and Nona is in the baby room. They learn about colors and shapes, do crafts, color, have a lesson, eat lunch, and play. And when they come home, they are pooped. Hazel and Jude seem to enjoy it! Well, they've only been 2 days because after the first week they got sick and they missed the whole second week. I have a feeling that that will be the pattern for several months. 1 week there, 1 week sick. Anyway, Nona does well there too, but hasn't slept yet. She doesn't drink a bottle so I have to go feed her once, but I'm hoping that her love of solid foods can let me be off-duty during that time frame soon. And I'm hoping she'll learn how to sleep there.

Hazel generally has a hard time going into the classroom (she cries), but settles down within seconds. I've asked her at home if she likes Mother's Day Out and she hasn't shaken her head "no" yet. That's really saying something because she definitely shakes her head no to everything she doesn't like. She's very proud of her crafts, which is so cute.

Jude loves his backpack. If Hazel has hers, he wants his.

And then he tries to take it off.

"Hey, how did this happen? Mom! Help me!"

Since Nona's in her own room, she needs her own backpack too. :)

Sweet little Nona with her ladybug backpack. The workers in the baby room say that she is great. She's so chill, that I believe it. She is usually just sitting there watching what's going on when I check on her.

Hazel and Jude LOVE their new lunch bags (they match their backpacks) and the containers that I pack their lunch in (Lunchbots). They wanted to finish their lunch on the floor after they got home.

I'm so grateful for this program that our church runs! It's GREAT for the kids. They learn so much and get used to interacting with other kids. I'm sure we'll encounter lots of sickness this year, but that's to be expected. Hurray, hurray, hurray for baby school!

Nona - 6 months

Wow! Can Nona really be 6 months old already? Time is flying! She is such a smiley girl and is constantly giggling. She giggles most at Hazel, even if Hazel's not doing anything funny. I think Nona is going to be Hazel's little follower.

I took these pictures of her about a week before she was 6 months old. I think she already has more hair than this because she definitely doesn't look this bald anymore.

Trying to crawl.

What is Nona up to at the grand age of 6 months?

• She gets up around 6 every morning and is THRILLED to see me 
• She sits very well
• She is NUTS about solid food and is still nursing a lot during the day (and night)
• She is still not a great napper, but is getting much better and is frequently taking longer naps
• She usually gets up 1 to 2 times each night, but never at the same time. I think we'll start working on sleep training her soon.
• She would like to crawl but hasn't figured out that she needs to use her arms in addition to her legs
• Her favorite song is "Rubber Ducky"
• She is a drooling, biting, chewing, teething fool

She has her "well-visit" next week, so we'll find out her stats then. However, I took her to the doctor this past week since she was sick and she weighed 14 lbs 14 oz.

Nona's new adventure

We started Nona on rice cereal a couple weeks ago. She was fine with it but not crazy about it. A little over a week ago, we introduced some actual food (sweet potatoes to start). She LOVES it and can't get enough! 

She has now had sweet potatoes, beets, butternut squash, and some random squash that someone gave me from her garden. She has been crazy about all of them! Also, I am so glad to be able to make my own baby food this time! It was something I desired to do with Jude and Hazel, but just couldn't given the difficult circumstances.

The favorite toy

And again...

The joys of having a cold

Suctioning has been something that all of our kids actually enjoy (Jude the most). I've always heard how much kids hate it, but not mine!

More happenings over the past few weeks

One of these days, I hope to do shorter, more frequent posts about each of our children individually. But right now, I'm still playing catch up and need to do things as quickly as possible. So here goes...

I'm attempting to get my kids to eat more vegetables, especially green ones. So, I made a green puree (spinach and zucchini) and put little pats of butter on top in the shape of a smiley face (took the idea from a book I read). Instead of eating the butter and puree, it turned into an art project. I guess we'll try again another day.

Raspberry face from the Farmer's Market outing.

Hazel's obsessed with putting on Noel's shoes.

Sunset the other night!

Here she has one of Jude's shoes on and one of Noel's slippers.

Yogurt mustaches are funny!

Future gardener?

My friend, Amanda, and I were weeding the lettuce garden and gave Hazel and Jude the freedom to play in the flower pots. I never thought she'd end up with dirt all over her hair, face, and body! She thought it was hilarious to dump handfuls of dirt over her head.

Definitely a future gardener.

When Amanda was here, we were finally able to take advantage of our Deception Pass Boat Tour season passes! 

It was a beautiful day and turned out to be a lot warmer than we thought it would be!

Hazel loved standing and having her hair blow in the wind.

Some days Hazel will not leave her room until I put lots of things in her hair. I don't even attempt to make it look nice because it's really not possible to make 7 non-matching bows look nice. Many days she wants 2 ponytails, a few bows, and a few barrettes. Oh, and of course, her sunglasses.

Hazel loves to use Nona's things. She got in Nona's bouncy seat and even put the toy bar on.

Clean baby! Honestly, Nona doesn't get many baths. She doesn't stink and I just don't remember. I know. Horrible.

Sometimes Hazel thinks Nona needs bows too.

This was our first outing to the grocery store with all 3 kids (which meant we were totally counting on this cart being available). Unfortunately, Hazel and Jude came down with Hand, Foot, and Mouth disease a few days after this. I'm quite sure the germ infested cart was to blame. Amanda and Noel also caught the disease. Nona and I were spared.

Hazel thinks she needs a bumbo. And a pacifier (which Nona doesn't even use).

Jude loves these play kitchen utensils. Sometimes he bangs Hazel on the head with the ladle. Not okay, Jude. Not okay.

We went to Rosario beach last week since the weather was great and Noel was home for the afternoon. Hazel and Jude loved playing in the water and didn't seem to notice (or mind) that it was FREEZING cold. I couldn't even stand to have it touch my feet.

Seaweed!

Sitting? They are very brave.

Random activities

Hazel and Jude greeted me at the car as I came home with some produce the other day. It's always more fun eating straight from the box!

Hazel ate handful after handful.

Jude has yet to eat blueberries sitting at the table at a meal. He always hands them back to me. But, he ate them out of the box! He thought it was so special.

Jude is really into opening the front closet door and taking all the shoes out. He then proceeds to scatter them all over the house. Lovely.

Hazel helping me wash and rip lettuce from our lettuce garden. And why not do it shirtless?

This picture cracks me up. Jude is really into squeezing things. And this is the face he makes when he does it. It's hilarious. I think I have a video of him doing it, but I need to find it. I say, "Jude, squeeze it!" and he squeezes whatever he's holding really hard and looks like this. Here he was squeezing his toothbrush.

We found another fun park to play at!

Jude and Hazel love these new kind of swings. 

Hazel likes to take lots of things out of bed with her in the morning. Here she's on the changing table with a bunch of her loot. 

Fun afternoon in the backyard!

We made it to the Farmer's Market the last 2 weeks thanks to having my dear friend, Amanda, around to help out. Hazel and Jude are most interested in picking up rocks. Oh, and Jude's also interested in throwing a complete tantrum throughout the whole market because we wouldn't give him the bag of raspberries we bought. He was that kid that you see in public and think to yourself, "I'm glad that's not my kid." We got a lot of looks. He was all smiles by the time we got home.