Wow. It has been almost a year since Hazel turned 2 and I completely fell off the wagon with blogging. Knowing that no one really read my blog, I doubt anyone has noticed...but me. I've gotten lazy and I feel beyond guilty that my little girl won't have even a fraction of the written memories to look back on that her brothers have. I recall a time when I was younger browsing through my brother's baby book. It held all sorts of information about his early years. Then I looked at my own and found that it was almost empty. When I pointed this out to my mom, she simply smiled and said that she got busy. As a mom now myself, I know how true this is. I rarely have moments to myself and when I do I either want to sleep or lay on the couch and drift off to a far away land of make-believe. Life is hard. Mom-ing is hard. But I still want my little girl to have my memories her early years to look back on, so here I go. I can't say I remember everything (or even most) of her traits as a new two year old, but I'll do the best I can to remember (whatever) I can....
At two, like her brothers (especially Avery), Hazel is an independent and head-strong child. She knows what she wants and she goes after it. She is sweet and sensitive. She loves to 'help', but insists on doing things her own way and on her own terms.
When it comes to food, Hazel lies somewhere between Asher (who eats almost anything) and Avery (who won't eat almost everything). Unfortunately on that spectrum, I believe she lies closer to Avery. She is a picky little girl and often prefers not eating over eating what we make for her. When she does it, she definitely has her favorites. In the morning she LOVES her 'hear-al' (aka cereal) and insists that we pour her a bowl with 'balk' (aka milk). She also loves her 'nana', and used to eat them like crazy. Now however, she often begs for one but then eats only a small amount of it and throws away the rest when we're not paying attention. For other meals she loves fruit, hot dogs, spaghetti, French fries, smoothies, pizza, cheese and crackers, and PBJ sandwiches, but her ultimate favorite these days is Mac & Cheese. She enjoys all varieties, but since her obsession with 'onies' (aka ponies) began earlier this year she flips out for Kraft's unicorn mac & cheese, lovingly known in our home as 'pony cheese'.
Side Story: To write this blog, I copied the blog I wrote when Avery was two to remind me of what things I should write for Hazel's version. This story could word-for-word be in this blog as well if you simply replaced Avery's name with Hazel's:
Like I said, Hazel loves to do things herself. Brushing her teeth is a constant struggle because she RARELY is okay with my help and always insists that 'me (she) do it'. With two big brothers, she wants nothing more than to be a big kid like them. She rarely approves of my placing a lid on her cup (even though she spills more often than I'd like), allows only limited help getting dressed and even tries at times to change her own diaper (which I realize could result in a major nightmare at some point). One night recently, as we are trying to convince her that potty training is a good idea, she even insisted on wiping her own bum after she'd pooped in her diaper and I'd caught her and put her on the potty for a few minutes. We are hoping that we can potty train her soon, but although she's shown interested for many months now we have yet to have a successful attempt.
Socially, she is forever our Little Miss Sunshine. She is bright and always ready to give us a smile, hugs and kisses. Like Asher, she tends to be a bit on the shy side with new people, but she is always happy to see her loved ones. She LOVES her Daddy and idolizes her big brothers. She also loves her grandparents and talks of them often. It is quite common to see her walking around the house with a toy pressed to her ear talking on her 'phone' to them. She is always very excited to call Grandma on FaceTime, but it is pretty obvious that Papa holds a special place her heart (which I think Grandma is okay with...most of the time 😂) as she rarely talks long to Grandma before asking "where Papa"? In addition to her family, Hazel also loves her friends. She loves to play with 'Ro-Ro' and 'Mia' at daycare and now that there is a new baby there, 'Ava' can be added to the list.
Hazel is also very affectionate. She loves to snuggle and always want to sit right next to us (or on us) whenever we are watching TV, reading or really doing just about anything (it makes working on my computer a challenge at times). She also loves when Eric and I give her a three-way 'Triple Kiss' and always says 'adain' or 'do it adain'. 💗
Hazel not only loves her family and friends, but she also LOVES her babies and 'ony'. A few months before she turned 2, I reintroduced her to the baby doll that we had given her for her first Christmas. Being that she wasn't even one yet, she really wasn't quite ready for a doll. But later that year, she was ready and when they met again she fell in love and never let go. Since then Hazel has become a wonderful and devoted mommy to her baby. She loves to feed her, take her for walks in the stroller, change her and undress her (for some reason that baby is ALWAYS naked!). Then in the Spring of this year when we went on vacation she found a stuffed unicorn that she also fell in love with. Since then Baby and Ony get to spend a lot of time playing with Hazel at home and NEVER go to bed anywhere other than in the crib right next to Hazel.
In addition to Baby and Ony, Hazel has several other friends that often find their way into her crib, along with a ridiculous amount of blankies and several books. I am always amazed that she can find anywhere to comfortably sleep, but she does and seems to want it no other way. Unlike the boys, our night time routine with Hazel is considerably short. She loves to read and would read all night if we let her so we still have a story time with her, but unfortunately because we have the boys to put to bed afterwards she doesn't get as much of the fun time and snuggles afterward that they received. Still we do have a routine. Every night, after getting dressed, brushing teeth and reading Hazel turns on her 'hoo hoo' (owl) night light while watching to see if I will rush and try to beat her to it (a silly game we play). Then she runs over and turns off the bedroom light (all by herself now that she can reach the switch) and then comes to me to lift her so that she can turn on her 'doo-doo' (noise machine). Side note: While the boys (who have the same noise machine) both always preferred the music option, Hazel always selected the waves and miscellaneous nature sounds instead. Once her sound is on, we say quick prayers, she hits all of the owls on the mobile above her crib and then I set her in the crib and say goodnight. It isn't much, but it is our routine and pretty much happens exactly like this every night...or at least the nights that it is my turn to put her to bed. Side Story: For as long as I can remember, Hazel has loved to very enthusiastically say 'A-men!" after our dinner and bedtime prayers. At some point in the last year, she also started saying 'oh man!' quite often. One night after our prayers she said her 'A-men', but it sounded much more like 'Oh man' and ever since I've wondered if she thinks they are one in the same?! 😆😂 Definitely places a different meaning on the prayer!
Size wise, Hazel has always been the peanut of our three. At her two year check-up she weighed 27 pounds (50th percentile) and was 2'-9 1/2" (40th percentile) tall. While this doesn't seem that small, she is still considerably smaller than her brothers where at this age and only recently has started to grow out of her 2T clothing (but most of it still fits well and most 3T things are quite large on her). Being that she is taller now, she also learned this summer to open doors on her own which makes things more difficult for us. Early in the summer we had a small kiddie pool in the back and one day I found her in the pool 3 separate times in 3 separate changes of clothes...each in a split moment that I had turned my back on her. After that, the pool was never again used and when we got a slightly larger one it was given a cover to keep kids out when we aren't using it.
For fun, Hazel's favorite toys besides Baby and Ony are her Fisher Price Little People babies and doll house, her Kitchen/cooking toys, the sandbox and anything of her brothers'. She loves to play anything house related and loves to take care of all her little babies. She also loves to cook and clean like Mama. When she can get away with it, she also loves to play with the boys' Legos, Magnet Tiles and marble run. As I mentioned, Hazel also loves to read and has more patience to do so than her 9 year old brother. She is captivated by the stories and pictures of books and as mentioned will sit for as long as you let her to listen to us read them. She also loves to bring them into her bed to read them on her own or have one of her brothers read to her. Her favorite stories vary from season to season, but often they include the Noisy Books, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, her princess and Frozen stories, The Little Blue Truck books or the Steam Train/Dream Train and Good Night Good Night Construction Site books.
At this point, Hazel talks a ton and we (or at least I) understand most of what she says. That was not always the case though. At the beginning of the year, she barely talked and had a very limited vocabulary only saying simple things like Mama, Dada, Wa-er (water) and bye. I wish I could recall all of the words she had at the start of the year and the ones she's added but unfortunately this is one of things I really can't recall. What I do know is that she has come a long way and not because she struggled with language. Instead, I believe that she had no desire to really speak until she knew she could say things correctly (or close). She seems to be very thoughtful about her words and often pauses between each word to try and pronounce it as correctly as she can. Sometimes she will put a sentence together and I am surprised that with all of the pauses she puts between the words she can even remember what she was going to say! Still, I know she has said many words incorrectly and I wish I could remember them all. This is probably one of my favorite things about having a toddler -to watch them learn and grow. The day that Avery stopped saying 'el-pha-nent' and instead correctly said 'elephant' broke my heart. Now I mourn Hazel's baby words fleeting as she quickly grows into the Threenager she longs to be. Still though, she says 'balk' instead of milk and I will enjoy that for as long as I can! :)
As the youngest of our kids, and just like the other two, I cannot help but compare her to the boys. She is so different in so many ways, while also being so much the same. Like Avery and unlike Asher, she is right-handed (although Avery is likely actually ambidextrous as he does most with his right hand, but throws and does most sport-related things with his left). While the boys are interested in many more 'boy-ish' and bigger kid things, Hazel embraces her feminine side by loving to wear her dresses, insisting on carrying her purse when we go out and constantly caring for her babies. At this point I have seen her show no real interested in sports, other than basketball (especially if her brothers are playing). Like Avery, Hazel has loved TV from a very early age. Asher never had the patience for it at a young age, but Hazel and Avery both could sit for hours to watch cartoons. In Hazel's case, COVID probably didn't help as Moana, Frozen and My Little Pony were frequently a necessary evil/babysitter while we were all home together.
Family & Friends: Mama, Dada, Bupa (aka Grandpa K), Amma (aka Grandma K, Amps (aka Grandpa M) & Ammy (aka Grandma M)
No comments:
Post a Comment