Rare Shark Attack Caught on Video!

Shark Attack!! Part I

This weekend was Hazel's Halloween party with her friends from the Beverly Hospital Mom's Group. There was about 60 people there, and piles of babies in costume. Of course, the cutest one was Hazel, who was dressed as a shark and played the part well. Hazel is the only one in the group who was crawling because the is many months older than most of them other babies. She spent the party "swimming" around the floor of the party, attacking one baby after another. For most of the afternoon, all we saw was her dorsal fin, weaving in and out of the crowd. These are some of the pictures other folks took at the party, and I'll upload ours as soon as I figure out how.

The Land Shark and her father.

The Land Shark primarily feeds on the pacifiers of other babies.

The Shakedown. "Where are those pacifiers!?"

Anson the Lobster and Magnolia the Organ Grinder.

The Land Shark likes to help take down the decorations.

Magnolia, Hazel and Anson

Getting everyone together for a group shot. Not easy. Note the Land Shark (far right) devouring her newest prey while everyone is distracted.

Lots of crying.

The Shark takes out the Lobster.

Anson and his dad, Scott.

Sharks also feed on Giraffes.

Magnolia nad Mama Laurie.

Planing the next move.

I love this fat little shark.

Hazel's New Favorite

I sort of invented this based on a few different recipes I read and what I had from the farm this week. Dahl is an Indian lentil dish that is great for babies. It's high in iron, fiber, calcium and can be made out of almost any veggies you have in the fridge. You can use green, red or brown lentils, but I had black Beluga lentils on hand. All measurements are approximate.

Baby Dahl

1tsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
3/4c. chopped carrots
1/2 large white or yellow onion, chopped
1 small Yukon Gold potato, skin on, chopped
1 apple, peeled, cored and chopped
1/2c. lentils
1tsp ground ginger
1tsp cinnamon
1tsp turmeric
water

Saute garlic in olive oil until fragrant. Add onions and carrots and saute on medium heat for a minute. Cover and let carrots and onions sweat for 2-3 minutes. Add potatoes and apples and mix everything together. Add lentils and spices. Stir and add enough water to cover. Bring to a boil, lower heat and cover. Let simmer until lentils are soft and water has been absorbed, about 30 minutes. Puree or mash to a consistency right for baby. This freezes well in ice cube trays. Hazel loves this! Sometimes I mix in some roasted sweet potato or squash.

Old Men

...but first I just wanted to share that my most heart wrenching and honest blog entry about multiple sclerosis was posted on Brass and Ivory, a blog that discusses "health policy and big pharma are sprinkled with a little multiple sclerosis and music." Lisa is an MS blogger extraordinaire and send me super kind and informative emails when I was first diagnosed. Just wanted to share. Someone likes me!

So, since this camera problem has me operating about two weeks behind schedule, I'm just getting around to updating with pictures from our trip to Middlebury for the Old Boys Rugby Reunion. Jamie, and the other old men from rugby teams past whooped the young 'uns who currently play for the college. They taught those kids a lesson in Newtonian physics; force equals mass times acceleration. Roughly translated- you get fat when you get old, and though you may not be able to run as fast because your knees hurt and you have angina and so forth, it don't matter when what you're hitting is a third your size. The Old Boys beat the kids 38-14.

Getting ready to leave for Vermont

It's a long drive!

Grumpolina watching the game

Group picture of the Old Boys Middlebury Alumni Rugby Team

There's your dad, Hazel!

Look how old they are!

Hazel was stunned seeing all the old men in their tiny shorts.

This is my friend William Taylor. He was kind enough to let me stay at his house with Hazel since the boys went out to the rugby drink up and slept in a trailer in the parking lot after the game. His sister Emma who is five was also nice enough to let me sleep in her princess bed. We made cupcakes for their brother John's first birthday. Their mama Danielle certainly has her hands full.

The next night we stayed with Hazels grandparents in St. Johnsbury. Hazel was kind enough to lick Hectors tags clean for him.

Hector didn't mind.

Watching the game.

Keeping the pesky Vermont mid-October mosquitoes off.

And here are some funny pictures of Hazel over the past couple of weeks. This is Hazel's imp-y, troublemaker face.

She gets these teething cookies stuck in her mouth every time and we can't pry them out, so we just wait for them to dissolve in there.

Hilarious pacifier #1

Hilarious pacifier #2

My House Was Full of Sarahs and Maias!

We had our two friends Sarah over for a play date, both of whom have daughters named Maia, and we had so much fun! We had grand plans of taking pictures in a pumpkin patch, but it didn't work out that way. One set of Sarah and Maia came all the way from CT to play, so that was pretty impressive! We did manage to get out to the bar for some beer and fried clams, and Sarah's super-cool husband Jeremy played photographer for the afternoon. Now if only I could somehow get Sarah to send those silly pictures of all three babies crammed into the armchair together.....hmmmmm.......

Sarah and Maia, Me and Hazel and Sarah and Maia out at the pub.

Baby love!

The two Maias!

This is my favorite picture! Maia is so sweet that she offers everyone her pacifier to suck on. When she is without a pacifier, she just lends you her finger. Hazel was happy to take her up on it. They had a symbiotic relationship. Mutually dependent.

Introducing Hazel to Her Rich Uncle, Manhattan

I know we are so far behind with the pictures, but we have been experiencing some technical difficulties. Our old Cannon broke while we were in New York, of course. Then when we got home I had a helluva time getting the old pictures off of the broken camera, ordered a new Kodak camera which took a while to get to us, took a bunch of pictures with it and then couldn't figure out how to get the pictures off of the Kodak onto my hard drive. Arugh! I somehow managed to, but I have no idea what I did. Now I can't get the videos that I recorded to be recognized as video files, and they won't play. It is sure to be a very long process. In the meantime, please enjoy these pictures from the first half of our trip to New York two weeks ago, for our five year anniversary.

Hazel loved the train and did so well! She slept for half the trip and was pleasant for the rest. All of the people that glared at us when we walked into the "Quiet Car" walked out saying what a great baby she is. Well, duh.

Oh the glare!

We arrived in New York the day after the market crashed, and our hotel was right by Wall Street, so of course we had to walk over there and check everything out. I have to say, despite all of the people in these pictures, it was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop... It creeped Hazel out. I was also surprised at how beautiful the NYSE is. The pictures don't do it justice. They are temples to money.

Directly across from the NYSE is where George Washington gave his inaugural speech.

The Waterfalls are an art installation by Olafur Eliasson. We took a boat out to see them up close, but two of them were off, and the two that were operating were dirty and while they were cool, they otherwise didn't do much for me. It was nice to be out on the water though.

Waiting for the boat to take us to the waterfalls at the South Street Seaport.

My impy little daughter. She was so delighted by everything.

Brooklyn Bridge waterfall.

Hazel spent a good ten minutes licking her dads nose.

This is obviously the Statue of Liberty.

We went out for a really great Chinese dinner, but Hazel had a fit and you would be horrified by the high-chair that was brought to us. HORRIFIED.

Apropos to the times.

MoMA! I had been waiting to take Hazel to MoMA since before she was born! I was so excited, because she love museums, and loves looking at art, and I thought she would have so much fun here. But she fell asleep the moment we walked into the museum and stayed asleep until the moment mama stepped foot in the best museum store on the planet on the way out. Of course.

I could have stayed there all day...

Before MoMA, we walked from Battery Park to 2nd and 12th in the East Village to meet our super-cool friend Emily for lunch at this great vegan restaurant. Everyone should eat there. Emily gave Hazel two little books that she adores. One was Good Night New York and one was a beautiful story about a little boy enjoying a snow day in the city. This is Hazel reading her new books that night before she retired for the evening.

And here is the only picture we have of Hazel at the Natural History Museum. Right after this picture, she had a meltdown and went to sleep in her stroller. She also slept through the whole museum until mama stepped foot into the second coolest museum store in the country.

And right after this picture was taken, our crappy old camera broke for good. We don't have any pictures of the rest of our trip, which really sucks because we did some cool things and saw some neat stuff. We walked all over Manhattan, listened to some great music from sitar to acapella, and spent some time with the most amazing friends in the world. Luckily those moments were captured, and I was emailed some pics of them, my family.

Joymala (Hazels Fairy Godmama), Adam who flew in from San Francisco for the visit, Me, Dana who flew in from Long Island. Justin is missing, and I have no idea why he isn't in this picture.

Justin and Adam.

Joymala and Justin. This is how we love each other.

Mama and a sleepy Hazel on our last night in Manhattan, having dinner with friends.

Special thanks to Jesse, Adam's girlfriend and the newest member of our family, for taking the pictures and sending them out. Also for sitting there, sipping her Stella Artois and listening to our outrageous stories of the good old days without judgement and with love and amusement. You are a fabulous woman.

Hazel had such a good time in New York. She just loved all of the exciting things going on all over. Our little country bumpkin was pretty stunned by the whole experience the first day (her first time on the subway!) but settled in quite nicely. She especially loved riding around in cabs without a car seat! She just shrieked and shrieked and wanted to stick her head out of the window like a dog. Our hotel was awesome, even if it was quite far downtown. We had a pretty damn good time, and I cannot wait to go back. Maybe we can make this a yearly trip. Travelling to Manhattan was so much easier than I thought it would be, and I never once felt like a sherpa. Hazel was dazzled by the lights in Times Square (our cab drivers idea to go there, not ours) and has decided that she wants to dance Fosse on Broadway. I can't wait to bring her back.

Happy Anniversary, Jamie! This has been the best five years of my life, and I never could wish for a better partner and father to our daughter. You have been so much more than I though a husband could be, especially in these last couple of months, which would have been unbearable without you holding my hand. I love you and I can't wait to see whats to come. Go Sox!