For three months now our little girl has been ONEderful! I confess that I have done a terrible job of journaling her first year and can only tell her "I'm Sorry" when she is old enough to realize that I have FAR less posts about her baby phase than I do of the boys. On the plus side, I believe I may have made up for what I lacked in blogging with abundant photos and videos for her to enjoy someday. That said here is a not-so-quick summary of Hazel's first year, along with what makes her ONEderful now (or at 12 months).
Pretty much from day one, Hazel has been a smiley girl. It started with sleepy smiles while she rested in my arms and continued as she gave us her first 'real' smile and began talking to us at 6 weeks old. Now as a one year old, she is still a happy girl saving her biggest smiles for me, Eric and her brothers, whom she adores.
Hazel really loves music. Back when she was only two months old she was a captive audience while I sang to her. Now at one, her little butt starts bopping pretty much immediately when a song comes on and often she will raise her arms and sway them to the music. She likes pretty much anything that we play, but seems to consider Moana, Baby Shark and Old Town Road as a few of her favorites.
Hazel really loves music. Back when she was only two months old she was a captive audience while I sang to her. Now at one, her little butt starts bopping pretty much immediately when a song comes on and often she will raise her arms and sway them to the music. She likes pretty much anything that we play, but seems to consider Moana, Baby Shark and Old Town Road as a few of her favorites.
At the end of her third month, Hazel laughed for the first time. Since then I am amazed that my heart has not yet burst open from the joy that her giggles have brought me. Hazel loves to laugh at the silly antics of her brothers (and her Daddy), she thinks farts are hilarious and she also frequently gives us a joyful laugh at things that startle or surprise her.
When Hazel was 4 months old, she learned to roll from her back to her belly and once she learned there was no turning back. Every time I would lay her on her back she would almost immediately flip over and there she would stay (not knowing how to flip from belly to back) until she got bored at which point she'd fuss until someone came to rescue her. At six months she began learning how to sit on her own and she also learned how to flip from belly to back, allowing her to become an adorable roly-poly bug and get around to exploring more of the house. Then at eight months she truly became mobile as she mastered the army crawl to get around the house. Finally at one she wasn't quite walking yet. She had the skills and would take a few steps here and there, but lacked interest and confidence to take it any further, however she still found many ways to get into anything and everything that she shouldn't!
In her first year Hazel got to travel around Wisconsin and Michigan visiting family and camping. She also got to take her first train ride to St. Louis where she also got her very first National Park Passport Stamp (a BIG deal in this family)!
Pretty much anyone that saw Hazel as a newborn would say that she was a spitting image of Avery. As she grows older I am seeing a good mix of both Avery and Asher in her, but there is no doubt that she had Avery's same hair. Unlike Asher's hair which is more course, a dirty blonde color and has some curl to it, Hazel's hair (like Avery's) is a deeper brown with some auburn in it. It is also poker straight when it is dry and quite fine. Also like Avery's hair it grows like gangbusters! We spent most of her first year learning how to manage her hair and keep it out of her eyes and mouth as much as possible. At four months old she got her very first pig tails which stood straight up in the air and now she can put many two or even three year olds to shame with her pig tails! While she made it through her first year without a haircut, it was only because I didn't have time to get her one around Christmas. She did finally get a haircut just a few days after she turned one evening out the baby mullet/rat tail that she had with her newborn hair grown down to the middle of her back and a lot of thicker new hair growth coming in under it.
Another way that Hazel is like her big brother Avery is in her ability to grow teeth! She cut her first tooth at five months old and by the time she turned 12 months she had 12 pearly whites in her mouth which is even one more than Avery had! Finally, she seems to also have Avery's eyes. Like him she has held onto her baby blues throughout her first year, but her eyes do seems to be changing and my guess is that she will end up with the same blue-green eyes that Avery and Eric share, while Asher and I ironically have hazel-green eyes. ;)
While Asher and Eric were tight at age one and Avery was a Momma's Boy, Hazel is truly and 'Everyone Girl'. Don't get me wrong she is kind of a Momma's Girl too and follows me around pretty much everywhere, but she can also be comforted by and enjoys the attention and love of pretty much everyone in the house. She is a little Daddy's Girl, loving her cuddles and silly time with her favorite guy and she also loves the cuddles, silliness and excitement of her brothers.
While Hazel does insist on being with me much of the time, she is also very independent when she wants to be. She loves to brush her hair and her teeth and gets incredibly irritated if anyone tries to help her (and God help if you if you take either of those brushes away from her!). She also insists on feeding herself. She has never really liked to feed herself with her hands and even from a surprisingly young age has insisted on using silverware to eat.
Speaking of eating, we introduced Hazel to solid foods at 6 months old and she was soooo ready! She was constantly trying to grab what we were eating and if she couldn't get her hands on it she would watch us eat and mimic us as we chewed. She loves to eat and is sure to let you know when she is hungry. She is also a pretty good eater (as long as she gets to feed herself) and eats almost everything we give her. So far the only things I can recall that she has never been interested in is olives. Sometimes she will turn away cucumbers or tomatoes, but other times she is fine with them. I will say tough she does seem to dislike anything that is really cold, often giving us a dirty look when we give her something cold. Her favorite foods seem to be bananas, eggs, toast, baby puffs and french fries. Moreso than any of our kids, we believe that she has taken after Eric in his love for salty and greasy foods. She does seem to enjoy sweet foods but not to the degree that the boys did and while we haven't tried this test, I think that she might choose a french fry over a sweet treat.
Another thing that Hazel did at 6 months was a silly trick with her hands. She would wave them all over and hit them together and while we had no idea what she was doing, it was obvious that she thought it was spectacular. I would ask her to do her trick and she would show me. Then if I made a noise to seem scared or surprised she would bust out laughing. At one, her love for entertaining us continues as she is quite used to be being the center of our family's attention.
Hazel is also possibly the most curious of our babies. She is always looking for trouble and wanting to know what is going on around her. She needs to know what Eric and I are up to at all times and insists that we pick her up, but as soon as we do she is wanting to get away to discover something else.
Not only is she curious and silly but she is also quite affectionate. She LOVES to be held, but requires you to do so walking around so that she can continue to explore. If you are sitting she will be sure to stay close by and will climb on you and sit in your lap, but only for brief moments in between hunting for some sort of mischief to get into. She loves to get kisses and will place her mouth by your lips or face if you ask her for a kiss.
Since she is so curious and does not sit still for long, Hazel is not a big fan of books yet. She enjoys looking at them for a few seconds but soon after sets off to explore. If I try to read her a book in her room, she will usually wiggle away from me and end up inspecting all of the shoes in her closet, or the socks in her dresser.
Speaking of socks and shoes, which are two of her favorite things to play with, Hazel also loves to play in her little red car. She also loves pulling wipes from the wipes container, splashing in the toilet (which has only happened once, much to her dismay), emptying any container that she can get ahold of (her favorite being my underwear drawer) and playing with anything and EVERYTHING she can find in her brothers' room when they forget to close their door. She also loves to play pat-a-cake, peek-a-boo and spin in her chair in the nursery.
In closing (almost), when I was expecting Hazel I downloaded an app called Qeepsake that texted me questions and things to remind me of things about her as she grew up. I did a terrible job responding to the texts, but I did keep them list of them, so here are my answers...better late than never right?
- How did you decide on Hazel Grace's name? (Hazel is named after my maternal grandmother Hazel Piche and Eric's maternal grandmother Grace Smiley)
- What is one trait of Hazel Grace's that you hope will never change? (Her love for her Daddy and Brothers. I love that she has three amazing guys to look up to, to protect her and to show her what awesome traits to look for when she is older).
- Which of the five senses does Hazel enjoy exploring right now? (Pretty much all of them, but she is well known to taste test anything in her path. Putting random things in her mouth is so commonplace these days that I simply have to say, "Hazel, what is in your mouth?" and she will almost always pull it out and hand it to me.)
- Is Hazel big, small or average sized for her age? (She is pretty average. At 12 months she is 29.5" tall (59%), 19 pounds, 11 ounces (47%) and has an 18" head (70%).)
- Does Hazel Grace have a nickname you use? (Most of us call her Hazy. I also like to call her Little Miss Sunshine, Little Miss or Baby Girl).
- Where and how does Hazel sleep at night? (She sleeps in the nursery...when she sleeps. She has never been a great sleeper and even at one year of age she has never slept through the night and still gets up 1-2 times a night!)
- What feature do people most often comment on when they meet Hazel? (Her hair. No contest!).
- What was your first thought when you first saw Hazel? (Well my first thought after she was born was if the doctor was kidding about her being a girl. When I actually saw her, my first thought was that she looked a little gross, covered in thick "cheese").
- How does Hazel Grace like taking a bath? (Hazel LOVES bath time! Eric and I share the upstairs with her and the nursery and any time she hears the water running in the tub/shower she is on the move to get there as fast as possible!)
- What does Hazel do that makes you laugh? (Her laugh pretty much always makes me laugh, but her fart noises also do it for all of us).
- What do you love most about Hazel's personality? (She is a bubbly light for us all. She brings our family joy and silliness and I cannot imagine life without her).
Finally in closing...for real this time...I'll leave you with my (many) favorites from the winter photo-shoot that Eric and I had with her to celebrate her 1st birthday! I had planned to hire someone to take the pictures, but couldn't decide who to hire and couldn't make it work out time-wise with Eric's cousin, so we attempted the pictures on our own. I was so happy with how they turned out, I decided to save the money for a photoshoot at another time.
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| FB Post:
One year ago today, I heard three words that I never thought I’d hear directed toward me and I could not believe my ears (so much so that I needed Eric to verify them for me): It’s A Girl. Seconds later I held the most beautiful little girl my eyes had ever seen (even covered in “cheese”) and I was immediately in love. Since that moment I have watched as Hazel Grace has captured the hearts of everyone around her. The boys in her life (Eric, Asher, Avery & Papa) were smitten from that very first meeting in the hospital and never did I fully grasp the power of the Daddy-Daughter bond until I watched Eric hold his baby girl for the very first time. His eyes instantly filled with a fierce love and I knew in that moment that anyone would be crazy to ever miss with this little girl.
Since that day, I have watched as this girl gave us her first smile, listened to her first giggles, watched as she learned to crawl, snuggled her after several falls and ouchies, smiled as she danced to the music, rocked her during hundreds of nighttime “requests for attention”, prayed for her growth and relationships with the Lord and others, struggled to do her hair before she crawled away, taken thousands of pictures, confiscated countless tiny objects from her mouth, corrected her desires to play with/on/in the outlets, stairs and toilet, clapped as she clapped and so much more. It has been an amazing year with this little girl who loves French fries, her Daddy and brothers, her red convertible, brushing her teeth (by herself!) and waving at everyone she sees, including her own reflection. I cannot wait to see what the 2nd year brings. I am truly blessed beyond measure! Happy 1st Birthday Baby Girl, my a Little Miss Sunshine!! Mommy loves you! 💕
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| I wish I didn't have my eyes closed in this one :( |
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| I think this one's my favorite! |
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| Fist Bump? ;) |
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