Hazel is 7 months old

Here are her stats at 7 months old:

• She weighs 14 lbs. 13 oz. (so this is less by 1 oz. than her 6 month appointment, which is interesting! I only know this weight because I took her in for an ear infection 4 days before she turned 7 months)
• She is in size 3 diapers
• She is in size 6-9 month clothes.
• She is still a great sleeper! She generally will be asleep by 7:30 or so at night, but even if it's 9:00, she will still sleep 12 hours before she is ready to be awake.
• I am still putting her in her sleep sack for bedtime, but not nap time. She usually will hang out when she wakes up and roll around and play. I think the sleep sack keeps her from moving as well, so I've stopped using it at nap time.
• She is still taking one good nap a day that might last 2-3 hours and then catnaps either when nursing or on a car ride. That nap is usually around noon, since she doesn't wake up until 8:30 or so. 
• She is eating more baby food. She has had carrots, peas, and peaches in baby food form and still loving bananas in her food masher. And, she acts like she knows exactly what to do with her sippy cup when she reaches for it!
• She has just started trying puffs. She can't really get them into her mouth by herself, but once it's in there, she gums it down.
• She is still nursing about 5 times a day. Although lately, I feel like we've been so busy, I haven't gotten to really enjoy my nursing times; but, I am going to start slowing down to make sure I enjoy them more. It's the sweetest time and while I usually have at least one other kid talking away to me, I try to find at least one nursing a day to just be with me and Hazel.
• She is the cutest thing when she grins while nursing. This is always one of my favorite things my babies have done - smile while latched!
• She is very mobile in my arms. She wants to be held all the time, but also moving around while being held. Does that make sense? She doesn't want me to leave her on the floor and walk away, but once in my arms, she is reaching for things and pulling my hair and turning around or trying to stand on my legs when I sit down. She is a busy bee!
• She is still sitting up great. 
• To move around, she will push herself up on her arms and push herself backwards to move back. She is not thinking too much about crawling yet.
• She has not attached herself to a particular toy yet.
• She loves to be naked. Really! As soon as I get her diaper off of her in the morning and before I get a new one one and put clothes on her, she just smiles and kicks and is the happiest baby!
• She still likes the bathtub, but only lasts a little while. She splashes and plays and then gets cranky and wants out.
• Her skin has been so dry lately and we are greasing her up constantly to avoid those red, dry patches. And she still has terrible cradle cap.
• I've noticed her little hands and feet being kind of cold and blue again lately. I know this is just normal for babies, but mostly in the morning after I get her up, I spend time rubbing them to warm them up and make them pink again.
• She LOVES to watch her big siblings and they are getting VERY comfortable with her. They love to pick her up and carry her and Atticus and Grace are actually very helpful. They will play with her, giver her puffs, bring her toys, carry her around and are just the best big siblings. Everly, although younger, wants to copy them. She even wants to carry her! Yikes! But, she loves her so much.
• Everly calls her Hazel Basil all the time and I love it!
• She loves to grab my face for those open mouthed kisses!
• She got another ear infection this month...when will they end??
• She is just growing and getting sweeter all the time!

Hazel is 6 months old!

Here are her stats at 6 months old!

• She weighs 14 lbs. 14 oz (22nd percentile) and is 24.75 inches tall (7th percentile) - she is teeny!
• She is getting into 6-9 month clothes slowly!
• She is wearing size 3 diapers.
• She is finally sleeping through the night in her crib as of a couple of nights ago. She's been back in her crib at night, still swaddled for the past couple of weeks. But, I've been putting her down in her crib in the evenings for a little nap but she always wakes up to nurse, stay up longer and then go down in our room. But, one night she just never woke up from that little nap and slept all night long!
• Side note: it makes me sad that we do not have her in our room anymore! 
• She takes one long nap a day - sometimes 3 to 4 hours, but otherwise just naps while nursing or after nursing. And, she still likes to go to bed around 10pm when we do. 
• She can sit up all on her own now!
• We've started giving her mum-mums in her high chair. Soon, we must start giving her baby food! She watches every single thing I eat or drink and has been starting to reach for it to put into her own mouth.
• She is so snuggly. I just LOVE when my babies snuggle up in my arms. It's a feeling that I don't want to forget but I know I will never experience again - my OWN babies in my arms anytime I want and for as long as I want. 
• She tends to suck on her tongue a lot and I think it has to do with her teeth coming in.
• She has just started to mimic folding her hand open and closed for "bye-bye". GG did it one night when she was here recently, and Hazel just copied it. It was so cute!
• She still loves mama and daddy most!
• She observes her siblings all the time and doesn't seem to mind them holding onto her and loving on her. 
• She had some solo time with Vic and I during our MLK weekend in College Station! And, she was even ok with our group holding her! Hooray! 
• She's just cute and sweet and we love her!
  

January Memories

Except for our MLK weekend, our January memories were spent indoors playing and watching kids love on Hazel or watching Atticus play basketball! So, here's just a few photos to sum it up!

 A trip to Sam's Club!

 This was the month we put Everly into Atticus's bed so he could teach her to sleep in a real bed and not her crib. She had been loving crawling into their bed's lately, although she also loved her crib. But, this was an exciting night!

 Lots of Electric Scooter Riding!

 I remember this day when she nursed and fell asleep against my arm. I never tire of sweet baby skin against mine.

 Ear muffs during prayers and bedtime. You never know what you will get with this girl.

 We took the girls to Olivia's 4th Birthday party. Our kids have been to every single one of Olivia's birthday parties, but GG or Mom has always taken them because it's been during our MLK weekend. But, this year it wasn't and we got to go! (no picture of the birthdayday girl though and Atticus was at basektball).

 As a mom, I never get pictures of me with makeup and hair done and in good clothes, so I made Atticus take some. I loved them!

 This was Grace's ballerina snowman she and I made for school.

 GG spent a long weekend with us to take care of kids for MLK and got snuggles!

 They were all trying to do the splits like Grace has been trying to learn to do in dance.

It was a good month!

MLK 2019 - 14 years minus a couple?

I would actually have to make our MLK group go back and remember each year and add them up, but it's pretty close to 12ish years that we have gotten together and I hope it continues for 75 more! That would make us old, but wouldn't it be great?

So, for this year's MLK, we actually congregated in College Station. In the end, this was really nice because our little crew just gets bigger every year and as they get older, it's easier to leave them, but I was having a hard time making GG keep all 3 kids, plus get Atticus to basketball and deal with school pickup, etc. all by herself. So, when everyone mentioned coming to CS, I was relieved and so excited! We rented a big house over close to the Historical District close to campus. It was a great house (though the owner was hard to get along with after we checked out and wanted to charge us $80+ dollars for some towels he said we ruined - ugh). But, it was great for giving us all enough space and bathrooms and quiet space for Mary and I because we also had Dean and Hazel along for the trip. In some ways, MLK is the same every year because we tend to do the same stuff over and over - lots of good food, visiting, and hanging out. But, at the same time, it is THE BEST trip every year because we can all do those things and have the best time and want to come back again and again. It's always a little more work with the babies, but everyone just scoops our babies up to love on them and help us with them. Mary and I have now spent 4 MLK's in a row being pregnant or having a nursing baby with us. And Katie has been pregnant during one too!

So, we gathered Friday afternoon. It was nice being so close because on that day, we ended up having someone to come out and fix our washer at the last second. And, it was great because we had been getting down all of Atticus's clothes we had saved for years (in case we had another boy) to prepare for a spring garage sale. So, I loaded a bunch up and Mary went through 4 or 5 boxes and bags of clothes to take back for her boys. So, being in CS was super convenient for those reasons too. We got Wings N More Friday night and I spent a long time getting Hazel to sleep. She was in a stage of going to bed really late, but also taking a long time to nurse before settling down for the night. Once she was asleep, we were good though and she would sleep a good 10-12 hours in a row. On Saturday, Vic took everyone to the new A&M Conference Hotel on campus for fun drinks and I think to the Chicken maybe? He even took Hazel because I went back home to grab Atticus and take him to his basketball game. I hated for him to miss but I didn't want GG to have to do that with the girls too. Plus, I love to see him do his activities and I was too close to not take him (another perk of location this year!) We ate some more delicious food that night and hung out some more. On Sunday afternoon, we headed to Century Square. Some of us went to Ulta and then back and Mary and I had crepes at Sweet Paris while everyone else had fun drinks. Katie and Kirsten and Johnathan came by during the weekend to visit as well as Cady, David & Holly. On Monday, we got lunch and then everyone went home. See? Food, visiting, hanging out. :)

It was a great weekend!

A Sibling Photo Shoot

I like to play with my new camera lens so I took some fun photos of the kids one day after school. Here's what we got! I realize you will be very impressed...especially with our group shots. :)

Hazel is 5 months old!

Here is Hazel at 5 months old!

• She weighs 13 lbs. 14 oz. (20th percentile).
• She is in size 2 diapers.
• She is in 3-6 month clothes.
• She is up and down with sleeping through the night. She got an ear infection this past month, right after her cold was gone. And, we traveled for Christmas. So, between being sick and not being home, she hasn't really had consistent sleep arrangements.
• She is currently sleeping in her rock n play.
• She is still swaddled when she sleeps at night.
• She still doesn't take a paci, so I'm giving up!
• She is getting so good at standing up on me when I hold her. Her little legs are getting strong!
• She still doesn't love tummy time, but will hang out for longer periods of time.
• She smiles a lot like Everly did - more close mouthed than open. It's the sweetest smile though!
• She is still pretty quiet. Sometimes, I can get her to giggle a little bit, but mostly, she is just a quiet baby. Of course, in this house, it's hard to get a word in!
• She still doesn't love to be held by too many people. I have yet to be successful leaving her in the nursery at church or in her class at MOPS. At MOPS, she screamed for 15 minutes straight until they called me and it took her about 30 minutes to calm down while nursing. Poor little Hazel!
• She had a really good Christmas! She slept, she ate, she hung out. 
• She's starting to put things into her mouth and still especially loves my fingers!
• She still gives sweet, open mouthed kisses when I try to kiss her! 
• She will also reach her toes up to her mouth when she is on her back.
• We've started putting her in the bumbo on the counter. she will hang out for a little while. None of my kids have loved the bumbo, but she likes it so far. 
• She got her first two teeth this past month. They are the two on the bottom; and she drools a lot!
• She can sit up assisted. I will usually put her on her bottom and sit behind her in case she falls. But, she will sit and grab for and play with toys until she topples over. 
• She pushes up on her stomach really well, but would rather just roll over onto her back.
• She lights up when I sing to her the song "If You're Happy and You Know It".
• She is loved by every sibling and is just the sweetest baby!