So, What Have You Been Doing That You Can't Blog?

Touch down estimated to be February 3, 2010. I'll have two under two for two weeks! Wish us luck! Hazel won't know what hit her.

P.S. No fertility treatments needed this time! I love surprises.

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!

Hazel's New Playroom

This child's stuff was taking over my living room. In an effort to streamline things in our little almost- two hundred year old house, we (initially reluctantly) decided to transform the adjacent library into a playroom. We kept much of our stuff in there, but moved it onto the top shelves. We are giving Hazel the bottom two shelves of the built ins, and eventually we will clear out the cabinets underneath for more of her stuff. We wanted to get her a kitchen, since she always loves playing with them at other peoples homes, and a little table and chairs for crafts and snacks.

These toddlers start taking up a lot of space. We were lucky to have a friend bring over a huge box of toys for Hazel, none of which would fit in our living room anymore. We also wanted to rid ourselves of the gigantic, 200-pound tube television that took up half the room with a slim, light, wall mounted LCD with hidden wires and components on the built ins. This is probably the best thing we have done for our quality of life. Hazel is so happy to have her own little space, and we are so happy to have some of our space back. Everyone is happy. Except the cats- they are never satisfied.

Kid friendly, without being kid-centric.

Eventually I'll make it to Ikea to get some storage bins for the bottom two shelves for Hazels toys and art supplies. The record player will probably stay so Hazel can rock out. Also, that framed lace on the wall was made by Hazel's great-great grandmother Zarhouie.

We still have some more art to hang on the wall. Hazel loves this little light up "fish tank" that scrolls fish by. She sits in her chair with her cup and just watches them go by and laughs.

These shelves will have containers/bins eventually.

That's Hazel's purse- I loaded it with her sunglasses, toy cell phone, plastic keys and my expired credit cards. She carries it around on her elbow all day.

Yay! Our new little TV! The room seems so much bigger now.

Living room looking into the new playroom. The bins on these built ins were just moved up to make room for Hazels books on the bottom shelf. The bins still contain some of her toys that will eventually move into the playroom or up to her room. The cable box and DVD player are now on the fourth shelf up with the wires run through the wall. Thank you, Dave!

Knitting and blogging chair.

The dogs on their couch. *sigh*

It's like getting a new house. Still small and old, but a much cleaner and less cluttered one.

Happy Birthday Beatrice!

Hazel's friend Beatrice turned one, and we got to party with her!

Bea Balloon

Bea Boo Hoo

Bea's Knees


Hazel wearing her Party Pants

Enjoying Bea's birthday swing

Hazel enjoying some food she stole from another baby. She likes to push kids, screech at them, then steal their snacks.

Double-fisting Lil' Crunchies

Mas

Clearly having this toddler has taken up more of my time than I expected it to. I love every moment of it. She is such a crazy kid- so opinionated! So funny! She loves to make us laugh. She had a crazy growth spurt, ate me out of house and home over about three days then one day was twice as long. She is 15 and a half months old now, and she is a totally different kid than the one at her first birthday party. She still sleeps a lot (thankfully) but when she is awake she just goes goes goes. We have been seeing a lot of friends and visiting people all over New England this month and we feel so blessed to do so! Here are a couple of the highlights.

Favorite snack- raspberries and tofu. Conveniently, this was right before she got a bath.

This is Hazel with her friend Maia! We went down to Connecticut so that the girls could have a sleepover party while the mamas and dada's went to see Spinal Tap! Maia's grandma was sweet enough to watch the girls while we stayed out too late and drank too much.

Dining together. They were such funny monkeys. I have video, of course.

This Is Spinal Tap: Stonehenge (cell phone camera- note the model of Stonehenge lowered on a wire via the screen in back, with gnome dolls "dancing".)

Cute stuff.

Helping dada assemble her new wagon, which she LOVES.

The only decent picture from the bluegrass concert that Jamie and Hazel went to in Salem. She was dancing and spinning so much, and this person was from the local newspaper trying to get her picture. You know, since she is the most adorable and funniest kid in the world.

Food porn! Fiddlehead season! It's one week a year here in New England, and I have grown to so love these tender little beauties so much.

Play day at the Boston Children's Museum Playspace!

"Driving in my car car."

Hazel met her friend James at the Children's Museum because it's in the middle of their homes. James lives in Providence, Rhode Island with his mom and dad, Rob, who happens to be an old college friend of mine. How convenient!

After a long afternoon at the Museum, we had to stop by dada's office in Cambridge.

And the tired little porkpie heads home with her blanket.

We had another visit from our friends Corleigh and Cameron, and Cam's new puppy, Mavis.

Hazel squeezing into the walker with Cam. Now there's no one to push.

Corleigh and Cameron were so incredibly kind to bring Hazel a big huge box of super fun toddler toys that Cameron don't need anymore, since he is 3. Hazel has never been so happy in her life. She climbed right into the box and plopped down in the middle of it all and just laughed. Cameron is our new hero.

Hooray for toys! Mama always refuses to get Hazel any plastic, light-up, noise making toys because she is cruel and heartless. Cameron just saved her with these. She is enthralled with them, which prompted mama to create a separate playroom in the house so they wont be in the living room any longer. Pictures to come.

Talking Teddy

"Cup", "clap" and "quack" sound suspiciously familiar.

Just Some Good Reading To Share

Dear Pixar, From All The Girls With Band-Aids On Their Knees

Let The Kid Be

...and, for my fellow grown-women/Twihards, this is a great article that pretty much summs up our obsession...

What Girls Want

Enjoy.

Can't Be Contained

I am beyond angry, beyond heart broken, beyond distressed and shaking with emotion.  Elaina Redding was two years old when she died last week.  The button battery that she swallowed remained in her esophagus for ten hours before it killed her.  For Hazel, the battery remained in her esophagus for six days.  Elaina's doctor did a chest x-ray after her mother reported that her daughter had been coughing up blood.  After Hazel's second admission to the hospital following respiritory distress and an episode of coughing up bright red blood, we were told that it couldnt be blood, and that the doctor "wasn't even going to look in [her] throat".  

This poor child, beautiful baby, loved by her family, supposed to live forever, was taken out of this life by something that Hazel and I grazed by.  Something hard, hot, corrosive and terrible brushed us as it moved by and settled in with another family chosen at random.  I don't know if there is a way to express my horror and my sadness.  Please think of this perfect child- running, intact, cool, smooth, alive.

One day, and Some Birthday Fun

We went to cousin Owen's second birthday last month- un-freaking-believable that it's already been a year since the first one.  Hazel fell in love with this little buggy, and because her feet didn't touch the ground to mover herself around, Sucker Mama pushed her all over the play space for most of the party.  It was pretty awesome for her.  She is really into mechanical things right now- her Legos are her favorite toy that she can play with for an hour straight.  She loves anything with wheels and anything that moves.  I'm going to have to become one of those mothers that pushes the car-carriage hybrid at the grocery store very soon.  I always hated those things, but now I can appreciate the genius behind it.  Anyway, this was one of those times where she had to be forcibly extracted from the buggy as the play space employees flickered the lights on and off.  I had to carry her out under my arm, legs flailing, screaming bloody murder.  I secretly love it.

Just some pictures of my kid hanging around the house looking cute.  Playing with the dog dishes.

This!  This picture stops my heart.  This is her smile that slays me.