Most Beautiful Kids In The World

I watched this about a hundred times tonight, and it made me cry every time! These are the kids from the PS22 Chorus in NYC. This is why school music programs are so important!

Perfecting the Walk at Mount Vernon

Stay tuned for the good stuff at 1:45

Here is the story as it aired in Philly!  I think they did a great job with this one.  Thank you, Stephanie!

Some Videos

Another Aquarium Visit

Hazel checking out the schooling exhibit

Tropical tank

Starfish and anemone

Getting really good at pointing

Dreaming

Diver in the big tank

Moray eel friend

Hazel, dada and the shark

Snack time

Jellies

Beautiful

Moon Jellies

Glowing

Perfect

TV Machine

The story,

and the video!!

More Crazy Pictures

Oh how we have been behind on blogging! Things have been nutty here with yet another gift-free birthday party/ fundraiser for Children's Hospital that we did for Hazel's family, and Jamie's nine day nose-bleed. Yes, you read that right and yes, he has already been to the doctor and the hospital and yes, he is feeling better but things just became a bit messy around here this week. So like I said, last Thursday was Hazel's actual birthday and we put her in her semi-formal tutu and went off to our mother's group at Beverly Hospital that we have ben attending since Hazel was just two weeks old. We then went to our friend Patty's house with some of the babies and ate food and drank wine all afternoon. A good time was had by all, certainly. I'm only now getting around to posting pictures of Hazel on her actual birthday.

The day before her birthday, inspecting the big box that arrived for her.

A pretty fun box!

Starting our new tradition of taking a picture of the birthday girl when she wakes up on her day. This is Hazel waiting patiently for mama to come rescue her from her cage in the morning.

CRANK! PANTS!

Warming up to the idea of a birthday.


Hazel's birthday outfit- semi-formal tutu, "President, NOT Princess" shirt and stripped tights.


The beautiful Jen and Bea.



Snacking in the Neurotic Mothers Group

Playdate/ cocktail party at Patty's- Hazel was on the move the whole time.

Making a snack of Hazel's semi-formal tutu.

I love this picture- Hazel and Sean-Adam getting caught red-handed in the kitchen.

And I love this video! Unfortunately, I only caught the tail end of Hazel and Matthews conversation, and there is a lot of loud chatter in the background, but I caught enough of it to make it worthwhile (at least I think so). They kept this up for some time, "RAW RAW RAW." "raw raw raw." So funny- there was inflection and gesture and everything.

...And This Is Now

At this moment I was pushing your body out into the world one year earlier. You are such a blessing. I love every moment of your life, every breath. You have created a million new lives with yours. I wouldn't trade a moment of this year. We love you a thousand times over. And over, and over. For ever and ever.

Hazel's First Cake at Party Number One

Hazel Versus Cheesy Pasta

PART ONE




PART TWO

Singing

I posted this on Facebook but never posted it here.  This is one of my favorite videos.  It was the day before we were discharged from Children's Hospital, and one of the happiest days of my life.  She did this for about half an hour.

Final Christmas Post

On Christmas Morning, soon after the Giraffe Incident, we headed up to the Northeast Kingdom in Vermont to stay with Grammy and Grampy Donovan for a few days. We made our annual trip to Caplan's Army Store, visited with friends and family and ate a lot of turkey. Hazel had a blast, as usual. Here are some pictures of her with her Uncle Jeremy and Uncle Christopher, her first encounter with a Christmas tree and four videos of her in action. The last video is really special- Uncle Jeremy serenades Hazel with Blackbird by The Beatles. It's more sweet than I can even say...

Hazel with her Uncle Christopher

Christmas Continued

Still trying to catch up with all of these holiday pictures, so let's not waste any more time. First off, look at how incredibly beautiful my daughter is becoming. Every day she grows into herself a little more, and is just blooming into this opinionated, independent, curious almost-toddler. I'm just continually amazed by her. Even in my wildest dreams when I was pregnant, I never pictured her like this. I never imagined that she would be so bright and so beautiful. She just takes my breath away a thousand times a day.

Hazel and her cousin Owen, who is ten months older than her. Isn't it funny how much they look alike? I guess it's not that funny- they are related. I can't wait to see them grow up together.

This picture was so much fun to take! See the video at the end of the post of the crazy grown ups trying to get them to all look at the camera. So, left to right, this is Hazel, Annabelle, Owen, Cecelia and Lorna. This is five of six cousins, all born within two years!

Okay, so yes, Jamie and I brought Hazel to a bar in Jamaica Plain on her first Christmas, but it's not what you think. We had some time to kill is all, and the dining area was closed and there is this great big stone fireplace in this bar and we just thought it would be a nice place to grab a beer and warm up between parties. That's all. But, In case no one noticed, I have no pictures of Hazel with Santa. This is mostly because I refuse to wait in line with a screaming baby for three hours at the mall. So, we are sitting in the bar when this man (obviously Santa) leans over and says, "So, you want a picture with the kid?" and he pulls his hat out of his pocket! I guess he was just fueling up for his trip around the planet later that evening. He was kind enough to come over and do his thing for the camera, and I love that in Hazel's first pictures with Santa you can see whats on tap.

Oddly enough, she was the only baby in the bar this Christmas.

Off to the second Christmas part of the day at Hazel's great Aunt and Uncles house. She was pretty exhausted at this point, and was a little stunned by the attention showered on her by her tween cousins and aunties. This is her cousin Nora holding up the very cool hat and mittens she picked out for Hazel. We can't wait until she is big enough to wear it.

Here is my double chin.

She really is quite good at opening presents.

Trying to escape the tween paparazzi.

Best. Christmas. Ever.

Jamie has had his eye on this giraffe for Hazel since I was pregnant. Finally he had his chance! Hazel woke up in a delightful mood- I would rate this a three on the four-point escalation scale for Hazels fussiness. You can tell by how many pacifiers she has in play- note in this picture that she has one in her mouth, and one in her hand. If we were to ignore her much longer and allowed her to become more upsent, she may pick another pacifier up with her free hand and wave them both around through her tears. When Hazel reaches mach 4, she will rapidly switch the pacifier in her mouth out for the ones in her hands in a sort of juggling-type movement; spit out the one in the mouth, plug mouth with right-hand pacifier, become upset that both hands aren't holding pacifiers, pick up pacifier that had been spit out, repeat cycle. This is how she woke up, so we thought it would be a good time to present her with her gift. And document it. Enjoy in particular the video. Note the poopy butt-sniff at 0:28. Merry Christmas, little Porkpie! You make us laugh so much.

I would like to add that now, about three weeks later, the girafe lives in the corner of her room and she spends every moment in there waving at it. "Hi, girafe. Hi, girafe. Hi, girafe." I think it is going to be one of the things about her childhood that she rememebers forever.

Finally, Part One

Here are some mediocre pictures from Hazel's first Langford Yankee Swap party in Maine. This is by far our favorite holiday party. Please note Hazel's super cute bow. She was quite the star, despite being passed from auntie to auntie all night long. She held up well like the tough girl she is. The last picture is Hazel picking her Yankee Swap gift. She got mama a "movie night" basket, complete with candy popcorn and a DVD of the Dark Knight. Way to go, Hazel! Much better than the crappy gifts we normally get (or the crappy gifts we normally contribute to the swap). Hazel certainly love opening presents, and honed her skills well this night.

We were lucky to get lots and lots of snow this holiday season, which we love so Hazels first Christmas was a white Christmas. Lucky kiddo. Lucky mama. Sometimes I just can't even believe how lucky we are that we get to keep her... We spent as much time in the snow as we could, but Hazel had a pretty yucky cold, as did mama and it was about a hundred below zero. She had fun catching the snowflakes on her perfect little pink tongue. Here are our pictures from the afternoon we headed out to our farm in a snowstorm to pick up our farm share. We live in the most beautiful part of Massachusetts, I think. Lucky kiddo, lucky mama.