Who's The Boss?

I have to preface this post with the fact that I'm obsessed with Hazel and think she's the greatest little girl ever. I just find some things about her kind of funny. =)
So, some things that irritate Hazel are the following: when I put her down, when I change her diaper, when I leave the room, when another child touches me, when Daddy hugs me, when someone touches my diaper bag, when someone touches any of her things (although she is willing to share if it's on her terms), when she doesn't have a snack in both hands, when a kid plays with or gets in something she was playing with (even if it was an hour ago), when I clean her, when she doesn't have food right away in the high chair, when I sit down to play the piano, when I strap her in her car seat, when I cook, when a cashier touches our groceries, when people leave the room who have been previously playing with her, etc. She cracks me up. She's definitely an only child and a toddler, and that's just that. At least I know what makes her happy... all I have to do is give her my full attention all day long! I'm grateful I'm not working so I can give her what she requires.
After that, I have to list a few amazing facts (to me) about her lately:
She has gone #2 in her diaper twice for me when I asked her to, she eats pretty much anything, she identifies several colors (she must've learned them from her books), and she stacked this tower on her own (I haven't seen her do a pattern like that again, but I still think it was crazy random... who knows?):

Spring Break

James has been working late recently, and Jeff has been out of town a lot, so Nat and I decided to make the best of it. We joined forces and drove down to Beaumont for Spring Break! Mom always thinks we need to plan things when we get there, but we really just like to hang around the house and play outside. As always, we had a fantastic time!

Check out Hazel's curls with all of the humidity. Love it!

Hazel loved being at the big kids' table most of the time.

We played outside and at the pool almost everyday, although Dad was the only daring adult to join them. I love this suit we found for Hazel to wear. I think I have a picture of me wearing it when I was little. Just keep your swimsuits for 20+ years, and they'll come back in style.

I think I need to dognap Diesel because he's a total cure-all for Hazel's grumpiness or tantrums. She LOVES him. I love him too.

Hazel was hilarious with her pointing. We would pick Diesel up for her to pet him, and she'd bend over and point on the ground for us to put him right there. She knows how she wants things done and is pretty demanding most of the time.
Here's another old swimsuit and Grandpa's hat that she put on herself.

I just love those little half naked bodies sitting at a table!

We visited Grandpa Hayes at work one day, and all of the kids were matchy matchy in their green. They were a hit at the office.

There was no bad luck for us on St. Patrick's Day. We ate all kinds of green food, wore all kinds of green, and had shamrock cookies and green jello after dinner.

Nat coordinated the outfits, of course. Hazel looked like one of the Dunnings with her shamrock shirt, Hello Kitty clip, and personalized bracelet. Ah, the power of gum to get a toddler to sit for a picture... nevermind the stuffing of it in her mouth.

Some of the other highlights were going to see Great Grandma and Grandpa Hayes, watching Never Say Never (Justin Bieber) with the girls, riding on paddle boats at a small amusement park (not really a highlight for Hazel; she hated it, starting with the life jacket), going to the Beaumont ward on Sunday and seeing old friends, eating at Pappadeaux (Hazel and I shared the salmon - best ever), popping Hazel's ant bites, and chatting with the adults at night while Nat made ribbon people (see littlebugboutique.blogspot.com).

It was great to be home. Luckily I don't have to wait very long to see the whole fam because they'll be up here this weekend for Bitner's 12th birthday!

Pink & Purple

Surprise, surprise.. another friend of ours is having a girl! I'm wondering if boys are being made anymore these days. Here's Courtney and some of the girls at her shower.

Something else pink -- the strawberry cupcakes Bri and I made. Mmm. The icing tastes like strawberry ice cream. It's the Sprinkles wanna-be recipe we found on Pinterest. The actual cupcake turned out a little purple-ish, gray-ish, but those were Courtney's colors, so it worked out.

Hazel's favorite stuffed animal right now is Rosie (also pink) the bear. A week or two ago, I noticed she was doing things to Rosie that I do to her (ie. lay her down on a diaper, put her in the Bumbo, put the Baby-Vac tube up to her nose, etc.).
The other day I told Hazel I needed to change her diaper, so she ran and got Rosie and plopped her down on the diaper. (She does tend to be a bit more rough on Rosie than I am on her... I think??) So I went along with it and put a diaper on her. Then she obviously needed clothes, so Rosie got a t-shirt, a clip in her hair, a paci, and some shoes. Love this stage!!

Hazel also had her first playdoh experience. I figured she was mostly out of the put-everything-in-your-mouth stage, so I thought I'd give it a try. I found an easy, soft playdoh recipe and went with it. I should've done the traditional red or blue color because the purple didn't turn out so well. Hazel didn't seem to mind though. We used cookie cutters and all of that, but she just preferred it in a tupperware.

Concentrating to get that lid on...
Check out the piggy face.

Squishy playdoh, squishy thighs. Both are fantastic.

Happy Love Day

Valentine's weekend was great. I told James I'd love for him to plan a date where I didn't have to arrange anything, so it was nice to just get dressed and go out! We splurged on a nicer meal, and it was totally worth it. That was some delicious grub. I even got sick the next day because I ate so much.

I could probably write a whole post about our meal... but I won't. I'm just a person who appreciates a delicious, well-balanced bite of food. I also appreciate a good movie, and Mission Impossible was very entertaining. For the record, James was willing to see The Vow, but I told him I'd go see that with my girlfriends. What a sweet husband.
Hazel had a good Valentine's Day too. Jones drove her to the mall, and then they went on a boat ride and shared pretzels. Sweet little Jaxon joined them.

That night Hazel and I shared a heart pizza with ham and pineapple. How romantic!

She's the sweetest little valentine.

Happy Valentine's Day from our little lover.

Heather and James Come to Texas

We had another James in the house last week! My friend Heather got a new job and is occasionally required to travel to Dallas. I don't know if she's thrilled about working again, but I think it's pretty great because we get to pretend we're in college again and chit chat, cook, and watch movies. It was so fun to see her again and to see her little man, James, play with Hazel. They're only a month apart, and they make quite the cute couple. Unfortunately I didn't get to spend too much time with James as Hazel was extremely possessive. Little does she know we plan on having more children down the road.
Heather is from California and lives in Arizona now, so I had to expose her to some good BBQ for her first trip to Texas. I brought her to Rudy's because I love their turkey, spicy chop, and BBQ sauce. We have similar tastes, so she loved it just as much. Another hit was the chicken empanadas. We made them from scratch, and they were worth it because little James looved the filling - spicy pepper jack cheese and all. We also made homemade vanilla ice cream and mixed in my favorite -- cinnamon. Mmm. Heather was a convert.

Here are our cute little munchkins!

We had so much fun! Hopefully we get to see them again soon!

That FACE!

Hazel and I are kind of like sisters. We hang out all the time and have our ups and downs like all sisters. The only problem is I have to play Mom, too, and discipline her. I always thought I'd be a tough mom because I had practice being a school teacher. Well, it turns out it doesn't exactly transfer. When Hazel does something naughty, I try to put my game face on and say very sternly, "No." A couple seconds later, I can't keep a straight face! It happens almost every time... even when I'm actually really annoyed like when she yanks my hair and laughs or tries to hit me. I've even tried to pull her hair back, and she just looks at me like I'm crazy, which makes me laugh. Flicking doesn't work either because sometimes it turns out to be a sissy flick, which makes HER laugh. Oh boy. I actually know what works though, and it offends her to the core...that is to put her down and ignore her. It's so hard to do though when she puts out that quivering lower lip, showing her 2 little bottom teeth. Heartbreaking. And then that FACE! I just can't handle the cuteness. The reality of the matter is that as she gets older, I know there will be fewer and fewer times that I can't keep a straight face while disciplining, so for now I'll just enjoy the fact that our biggest problems are temper tantrums and occasional toy stealing and hair pulling. I hope I can pull it together in the next few years. I'm going to need a lot of practice since she's not getting any less cute.

Side note: My little baby is now 15 months and still near the top of the growth charts for height and weight. I still can't figure out how James and I have a tall baby. James figured that since she's close to 3 feet tall, she'll probably be 3 feet tall when she's 2, which means she'll be about 6 feet tall as an adult. haha I guess we'll see!

2012

It's a new year! I feel like it's been 2012 for awhile - maybe just because people have been talking about this year for awhile now. The fact that it's 2012 means it's been a decade since I've graduated high school. Since then I've gone to college, graduated, taught for 3 years, gotten married, and have become a mom. But it still doesn't seem that long ago that I was in high school.
I'm ashamed to say I haven't really made new years resolutions yet. I like goals and such; I just have a hard time committing to do something for a year. In general, this year I'd like to actually exercise (I haven't worked out since before I was pregnant... seriously), eat less sugar, eat more greens, increase my spirituality, and be a positive influence in all of my relationships. We'll see how these resolutions turn into weekly, attainable goals.
My parents came to visit Matt's family and us at the end of December, so we were lucky enough to see both sides of our families for the holidays. Hazel is sort of funny about my dad at first. She just watches him like a hawk for the first few days, and then finally warms up to him. It was a done deal after they shared a love for the dog next door.

Hazel is pretty cute with her cousin Faith too. I love those little people.

For New Years Eve, we had steak and potatoes with plenty of fruit, veggies, and sweets from Costco. I thought it was funny that Bitner asked my mom if she thought she went a little overboard because she brought New Years plates, napkins, cups, gold gum balls, chocolates, and fancy poppers from home. Mom thought it was low key.
That night my mom offered to stay at the house while James and I went out to play with friends. We played cards and Bunko and watched people play on the XBox Kinect. I started with a score of 0 for the first round of Bunko, but I finished with the most points and most Bunkos. I never win anything (especially with all the gamers who were there), so I was pretty impressed with myself and almost left for Vegas right then. I had to leave on a win, so I left James to fight for the title of 4 square champion. Before I left, we rang in the new year with some classic Martinelli's sparkling cider.

This time I got a picture of Hazel before church on New Years day. I love her pose in this picture. That cute little dress is a hand-me-down from her cousin Cohlee.

After the new year, we went out shopping with the girls. Hazel was so excited about all the good deals.

Here's my happy girl ready for a happy new year!