Hazel, Three and Half!

Our sweet little Hazel isn't so little anymore! She is 41" tall and 35 lbs. She has grown into her big sister role well and typically plays very nicely with Jade. So far Hazel is the only who can get Jade to laugh the most! Hazel's favorite things are anything pink, kittens and baby chicks. She is still a "slow warm" but has become a lot more comfortable with her friends and extended family over the past months. She loves to help and will often pull up a chair to help with any cooking, baking and egg washing. Going for drives is often the highlight of a day, and if she is in a comfortable setting is quite chatty. Hazel is very snuggly when tired, or likes to find cozy pillows, blankets and a favorite stuffy, which will change from day to day. Audio books have become a good source of downtime and rest from all the extra playtime.  Her imagination and pretend play are the cutest things to watch and listen too, I even caught her chasing a pretend baby bird across the kitchen and catching it in her hands gently. We are both enjoying watching her grow up, even if it has seemed to go much to quick, especially with a little one in the house as well.

Hazel's Birthday Party

Cupcakes, candles and party hats was a happy combination for Hazel's birthday party. I made a special note to get the party hats as at one of my friends birthday parties that we went to Hazel was disappointed at the lack of party hats. The candles and cupcakes went over pretty well to, and every time she got a cupcake it needed a candle.

It was a lovely warm spring day so some of the party actives were able to be held outside, we just had one friend over as Hazel does much better in small groups.

Some Mommy snuggles after a morning full of fun.

I was planning to wait till Jared got home before we started to open presents, but it was such a nice day and one of her presents was a outside pots and pans set, so Hazel got to open that one early and played with it for the rest of the afternoon.

After Jared came home then Hazel got to open her inside toys presents of some play food and dishes.

Daddy inspired goofiness! 

3 Years, 3 Months!

 Hazel turns 3 years old and Jade turns 3 months old one day apart!

I don't quite feel ready to have a 3 year old, but Hazel is 3 whether I like it or not. Hazel is a still a sweet child, especially when she gets enough sleep. Lately she has been taking up afternoon naps again which has helped a lot in getting our "normal" Hazel back. 

Hazel is still our little helper and always eager to learn. She is fond of running around outside and enjoys having Nova run around with her, if Nova happens to cooperate with Hazels imaginative games. Hazel has a great imagination and has a knack for using items for many other purposes then what they were made for.  

Hazel is about 31 pounds and 39 inches tall and often gets comments on her height.

Hazel is getting more and more excited about her little sister. When Mommy and Jade were gone for a day Hazel was more excited to see Jade then Mommy.

Jade has happily reached the 3 month mark (I remembered once Jade was about 2 and half months that newborn babies are not favorite stage). Jade is a very content baby, she is napping well and mostly sleeping through the night. She is pretty quick to give a smile and is often content to lay on her play mat for a while. 

Jade also just rolled from her front to her back after her nap today. So far she still fits in her bassinet and hopefully will for the next month or two as it has been rather handy. Jade has switched from swaddling to sleep sacs, and happily sleeps on her tummy and will rarely fall asleep on her back. Jade is somewhere in the 12-13 pound range, and right in-between 0-3 and 3-6 in clothing sizes. 

Yup, they are sisters! Hazel at 2 months (top) and 3 months (bottom).

Early Spring

 New chicks showed up Wednesday morning and kittens showed up Friday night! Pirate the Mama cat (second picture) choose to have them under the BBQ table on the deck, so we get to take a little peek at them every once and a while. Very glad the kittens are hands off and have their own mama as I'm not sure how many more babies we can handle. 

Working on filling up my new box garden, hopefully we will have a bit more produce this year to store away for over the winter. 

Jade is a pretty content girl in her buggy.

Hazel either helps or plays on her owns and runs around with Nova. And as long as she has her hair out of her face she's pretty happy too.

We got some soil delivered that afternoon to fill the remainder of the box gardens.

Hazel helped check up on the chicks that afternoon and offered to hold Jade. 

Chicks are doing well, we are still having lots of fun watching them, especially noting the size difference from one week old's to two week old's. We also received the news that the chicks that died were sick before we got them, so we didn't do anything wrong and couldn't have prevented it, which was really nice to know.

Naptime and Smiles

All the excitement must have been tiring! Three times in two weeks I had Hazel and Jade taking afternoon naps at the same time. This is quite unexpected as Hazel stopped napping just under a year ago.

Even managed to get both of them into bed after they both feel asleep in me. 

Can't get over how Hazel still curls up in her sleep 😍 

They both had a couch nap that afternoon.

Someone was a bit to tearful one afternoon, so I laid her on the couch for some downtime and she was soon asleep, and Jade went down for her afternoon nap as well.

Jade has been showing some more personality lately which has been so fun, especially when it's mostly smiles and the occasional attempt at a laugh. 

Hazel has been asking to hold Jade more, and acknowledging Jade more. It has been good to see her slowly warming up to the new normal.

On Sunday she even wanted to take pictures with Jade! Considering Hazel doesn't really like pictures this is a pretty big win. And they even both smiled at the same time, at each other! 😍

 

A Tuesday on a Monday

 We had our Tuesday on a Monday this week. Jared took this coming Saturday this off for some more firehall training and was working the Monday to make up for it. We also have our little chicks arriving any time on Tuesday so it worked out best to get a head start on all of my Tuesday chores on the Monday. 

Spring has definitely arrived, not the 15 degree weather we were having a month ago, but "normal" spring, mild but still around freezing at night and all sorts of different weather. Today we got to watch a bunch of hail clouds come and go throughout the day.

A couch nap :) how handy! I was trying to put Jade to sleep, but so many things needed two hands in a short amount of time so I put her down for a few minutes and she was soon sleeping.

 It's amazing what a good sleep can do! Jade slept from 11pm to 9am last night (which was quite the treat!) so I actually felt awake that morning and got bread and cookies baked, dishwasher unloaded and one load of laundry washed and put away before 12:30! 

That afternoon Hazel and I were reading though an activity/learning book that had a cheetah in it. Hazel got all excited that it was the same as another book, she hopped off the couch and got another book off of the shelf and flipped though the pages till she found the page with the pull out that had the other cheetah! It was is so neat to see her make connections from book to book.

With the next hail cloud that came through Hazel asked if she could touch the hail, so we opened the back door and brought some into the house to play with. (yes she is still her jammies, didn't feel like fighting that battle today, and she asked quite nicely if she could stay in them)

Hazel has quite intrigued by the hail and soon outside to play in it!  

The rest of the day was a bit more relaxed, we had lunch, I folded some more laundry, read some more books, Jared came home and then after dinner we all went outside and I watched Hazel play as Jared worked on a few more last minute things for the barn. This has been a regular routine for the last week or so with Jared spending so much time working on the barn, it has been quite enjoyable. 

Today was a very lovely day, things went smoothly, both kids were in good moods and some household chores got done! I'm making an effort to make note of or document the good days so that they are easier to remember on the tired days :) as I'm continuing to learn that staying on top of mental health is very important!

Hazel's Hair and ABC's

Settling in back at home after our whirlwind of a trip (that post will need to come later as it will take some time to put together!), Hazel enjoyed finding all of her favorite things back. This ABC book has been a recent favorite and she is really interested in learning the song, so far she has "a,b,c" and then rhythmic sounds after that 😅. Hazel started reading the ABC book to herself after I read it one afternoon and I was enjoying her variation of what each page said, I managed to catch a little bit of it on video and I can't get enough of it!!!

Aunty Albany did a cute braid in Hazel's hair when we were down for Aunty Genoa's wedding. I was inspired to attempt some braiding of my own. So one day after a bath I tried some braiding while Hazel played with the running water in the sink.

It's a bit hard to make out, but Hazel discovered that the little medicine cup works as a "drain plug" and it took some doing to get it unstuck!

Hazel requested another warm bath the next evening, so I tried another braid. I was rather proud of the results, but sadly it didn't stay in very long. It loosened as it dried and after Hazel slept on it only the back stay in and the front had all fallen out, which was too bad as the goal was to keep the hair out of her eyes.

It took a bit of doing to get Hazel to bed that evening, and once when Jared checked on Hazel it took him a few seconds to find her. Can you find Hazel?

Then I turned the light on to take a better picture, as she wasn't sleeping anyways 😛

The next day I gave up on the braids, and while Hazel played with the tap water I figured out how to get all of her hair into one ponytail. (when I try two ponytails they always end up lobsided)

Thinking s😊he might just end up being a ponytail girl like her Mama.

Jade, One Month!

  We reached the one month mark already! Feels longer and shorter then that all at the same time. Jade is a comfortable weight and is gaining right on track, weighing in at 9 lbs 7oz, she doesn't feel quite so newborn and fragile anymore which is nice. Breastfeeding is going much smoother than last time and I can already see some chub on her legs, much different than Hazel as she didn't gain super well for the first 6 weeks. We are out of the newborn clothes and into 0-3 clothes. Jade has been a lovely baby so far, maybe because I know what I'm doing this time, maybe just a character thing. One thing that we have noticed so far is that Jade is either content or she is NOT, which I hear may be contributed to the redhead traits. 

We have a nice system going with Jade sleeping in her crib during the day and in the bassinet in our room closet during the night. I'm hoping we can keep this up for a while as so far she is a lot quieter of a sleeper then Hazel was (or I'm less paranoid?), But Jade may outgrow the bassinet quicker then I want her too.

Night time feedings have been going well and she has done some four hour stretches already, though typically she does three hours. So far the hardest thing has been waking up fast enough as Jade doesn't give much warning, she is either sleeping or awake and crying quite loudly and my brain just doesn't quite wake up that fast! Though I have a feeling it will learn to. 😅

Hazel is starting to adjust and I'm learning how to teach Hazel about Jade. We took out the baby toys so that Hazel has some toys to give to Jade when she is sad. Hazel is learning how to help burp the baby and helps find outfits when we are changing Jade. Hazel has learned that when Jade cries she typically needs milk and is happy to help with the blankets if Jade got "to much milk". 

Looking forward to seeing these girls grow up together, though hopefully not to fast!

Jared was pretty excited when this outfit fit already, as he was looking forward to his little giraffe again if the baby was a little girl!