March Update
Lots of updates!
Miss Hazel:
Has been a ball of fun, she is learning new stuff every single day! She calls me Mom or Mommy about half the time, the rest of the time she calls me Macy, and I love it! ha! ‘How you doing Macy?’ Best way to wake up! She loves telling everyone who her family is “Mommy, Daddy, Baby Miles (sounds like Mouse), and Ando (which is how she calls Denver… no idea why, but he answers!). We celebrated her second birthday on Sunday, she’s full on crazy toddler and had a blast! We lucked out with another sunny day to have an outside party at the park! All of her in town family made it and some of our good friends! When we got there she took off for the playground, once everyone showed up I walked her back and it was kind of fun to see her realize it was pretty much everyone she knows. She looked up and Grandma, then Nana, then saw her friend Maddie and had a HUGE smile! We tried to give her a heads up that it was her party day soon. Things are all still so new and fun for her, it’s awesome to experience that through her eyes! This morning was her dr appointment so we will know her vitals then but she’s pretty tall for her age she’s pretty solidly in the just above average range on height and weight, about 76% for height, 63% for weight, still has not much hair, though it is growing and we actually had little pig tails for the first time today.
She is often told she’s ‘shy’ but she’s just always a watcher and takes time to warm up! I recall being the same way when I was young, new people need watching first! 🙂 She has been that way since birth, I always try to find a comment to let her know I get it and take the spotlight away from her because being called shy never helps someone feel less ‘shy’. She is getting favorites, purple is her favorite color, pizza for food, animal changes, right now it’s a duck but in five minutes its something else. She loves horses though. She is a big fan of elmo despite my wishing otherwise. Her favorite movie, and the only one she will partly sit through is Monsters, Inc. I love seeing (and hearing) her personality coming out!
Mr. Miles:
Is getting more kid-like every day, he knows his name now and the kid hardly does anything but grin or laugh! He and his sister are SOOOO different in that way. He’s a little ham! He love his sister so much, he will let her do just about anything without a single complaint, and she seems to love it when he pays attention to her too. It’s so exciting to start to see them already being friends! Hazel was teaching Miles how to have a tea party, her favorite thing right now! He was a willing participant for now. He sits up on his own mostly, he can roll over back to front and front to back. He’s super strong in the legs and constantly tries to stand up but he’s a bit to stiff and uncoordinated just yet for that. He’s got adorable chunky thighs and a strong grip on just about anything he puts his mind to but especially my hair (which I have been working on growing back out but recently have remembered why I cut it in the first place ;-)) He has never had a problem sleeping and is a very happy baby. He’s got his bottom two teeth and his canines keep threatening to come through (completely out of order). Last week he had his first big sickness, Roseola. He had a super high fever {103-104.5] for a few days followed by a rash all over his body but otherwise was feeling fine. I was glad when the fever broke, poor boy was a trooper. I will also find out his vitals next week but he seems to be just a tad above average on height and weight. He’s still breastfed but has tried a couple foods that he gagged on so we haven’t been trying too hard. He had a little banana, I and pretty sure he thought it was the worst thing on the planet, and some asparagus, which was pretty good, he packed it around in his mouth for 30 minutes before spitting it on me! ha! We haven’t tried anything new for a couple weeks and he has been paying WAY more attention to when we eat, it’s a little unsettling how hard he watches us! So soon we will try again!
Denver:
Is almost three years old and I am pretty sure his name changed to ‘Ando’. Who does that? You can’t rename a three year old dog! Hazel calls him Ando, he answers. I like the name. I actually considered naming him Enzo after one of my favorite architects, Renzo Piano, but decided against it. My most favorite architect though is Tadao Ando and I kick myself for not even considering it! I like the name, he seems to like the name, he keeps getting called Ando… but I can’t just do that to a family member… We won’t be renaming Hazel Eliza just because it’s another cool name I like… right? 😉 Can we do that? (just kidding!) All seriousness though, Denver is doing great, hes ans slobbery and sleepy as ever! This is his favorite time of year, he can play outside but it’s not so hot or cold. We just have the mud to contend with but that will go down hopefully when we finish our deck project!
James and I:
James is working less for other people and more for himself lately, that’s a great thing. He started getting back into self defense stuff and is taking a class a few days a week. I try not to be jealous he has scheduled adult time :). In reality I don’t think I would change my situation right now to include that. But sometimes… :). Hazel, Miles and I stay pretty busy, we have a weekly schedule pretty well set. Mondays are my day off to deep clean and meal prep for the week. Tuesdays, Miles and I got to our baby and me class while James and Hazel have a daddy date. Wednesday Miles, Hazel and I go to a music class where they get to sing, dance and play with instruments with other kiddos. Thursday the three of us visit grandma (James’s mom) while James works. Friday we visit Nana (James’s step mom) while James works. Saturday the three of us visit my mom and dad (and their moms who live with them, ‘the gigis’). Sunday James usually takes the kiddos so I can get some work stuff done. We both run some local meetup groups and have our own projects and have play dates with other kiddos around that stuff so we stay pretty busy even if it feels a little slower than our ‘normal’! We are currently [slowly] transforming our patio into a nice deck with a fire pit, a sandbox and a movie projection wall for some fun movie nights [and some crafty storage for our tools and deep freezer!]!
The house renovation is working out so well, the kids still end up in bed with us but Hazel starts in her room at least! We are going to work on a couple projects to start customizing her stuff soon, she is starting in with the favorite toys so the first action will be getting her a special place for her favorites, we’re going to build some shelves inside her bed cubbie for her favorites (she really likes PEZ dispensers right now, no idea why but my girl has opinions and that’s great!). I want to make it more personal but they have to be big enough to add input, I don’t want to pick for them! 🙂 I assumed it would work well until Hazel was 3-4, I still think it will for at least that long, we will see as it goes. We made the first step of our container house but the next steps still have to wait a little while, we don’t plan on breaking ground until summer 2017 at least. We will get to do the fun planning stuff though before then!
Funny [in hindsight] mom story:
I just wish someone saw this happen though I am pretty sure no one did or they would have helped! I had a bunch of errands to run Monday, I toted Hazel and Miles all over town and we had one left, grocery shopping. I decided it could wait and they had been so good so we dropped by the park instead. Well, it’s goose nesting season, I mistakenly thought it was too soon for that… We unload, Hazel wants to bring her bubbles, totally fine, lets go blow bubbles in the park! I unload her, go grab Miles. Hazel is excited to share her bubbles so she shows Miles, he grabs the tag off of them. I thought it was plastic so I figured no harm in letting him play with it a bit, Hazel was fine, I was fine, he was happy… yeah!
We take off toward the park. As we’re walking I notice all the geese (I have an irrational fear of geese because I have been attacked several times by them!). No big deal, they are minding their business, we are minding ours. Just about when we get to the furthest point on our walk I see a goose perk up from WAY across the field and start walking pretty intently toward us…. I panic, there was like 100 geese between me and her but she was pretty focused. I’m nervous so I look back, there are geese all over the path behind us so I keep going forward, which happened to also be away from this goose (coming at us from the side). She starts hissing and spitting at us and is on a full run toward Hazel. I can’t pick her up because I have Miles in my hands. Hazel thinks its awesome and that the goose wants to play. She’s toddlering me [fighting me] to stay so she can blow bubbles to her new friend, Angry Goose. I am trying hard to push her along knowing if I push too hard she’s going to collapse into a full screaming fit on the ground and all hopes of retreating will be lost. Shes insisting, no, she’s going to play with Angry Goose who wants nothing more than us gone.
The goose makes it to us… she’s circling us, flapping her wings and pecking at us, I am blocking every move with my feet while trying to hold Miles out of harms way and stay between Angry Goose and Hazel while simultaneously herding Hazel away. I am literally kicking this goose. Hazel is LAUGHING! We are slowly making progress away but alerting all the other geese which I am irrationally fearing will come help Angry Goose!
As if that isn’t enough to deal with… I have a weird feeling, no idea what alerted me but I somehow realized something is wrong with Miles. In between kicking this goose I look down and he isn’t breathing. He’s not panicked, just looking at me like he needs help. I look down and the tag I thought was plastic is actually thick cardboard and half of it is missing from the piece in his hand. I look in his mouth, see nothing, just that he is not able to breath! Freak out! Kick goose! Flip Miles over in my arms and Heimlich his back and this piece of cardboard goes flying out [Thank God!]! He grins and whimpers a little, I PUSH Hazel who is still bargaining with me to just let her play with her friend, Angry Goose. I get tired of playing defense with the damn bird, charge her and she takes off away toward her babies… I decide that that is about enough fun for one day and we walk straight back to the car…
What the hell, right!? Who else has to deal with these weird things!
It was pretty frightening at the time but it’s honestly pretty damn funny now, I mean, what a sight! It was the battles of the mommas trying to protect their babies. I won! And screw that park. I instantly remembered why I hadn’t gone to that park in years, it’s because the last time I was there I got attacked by a damn goose too! NONE of this helps my irrational fear of geese that my friends think is so funny… but that is my funny story of the week!
I know others have funny mom stories, I want to hear all these funny mom stories in the comments because someone needs to know the weird crap we occasionally deal with!
Here are some random pictures in no particular order:
thank you for sharing your stories and pictures of your sweet sweet babies with us!
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I love reading about your wonderful family. Thank you for sharing your life with us.
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macy, i’m sorry to hear that miles contracted roseola. there is inoculation for that (and a bunch of other things). you may want to ck with a med provider on kids’ shots. several should be given while they’re young. others, including roseola, have to be administered before they’ll be able to enroll in school. if you wait much longer, it could turn into a real hassle to bring them up to date. just sayin’ . . .
I think you are thinking of rubella (measles) that there is a vaccination for, there is no vaccination for roseola, its a very mild virus that most kids get before two. Its just hard on moms, especially to watch little babies have to fight sickness. There are many vaccines that should be given while young, but no too young. You don’t just want to shove them all in a four month old at the same time. I thanj you for your concern, Miles’s health is our top priority and he has been vaccinated on the normal schedule.
Hi Macy. I enjoyed reading your stories…lovely family. Kids are amazing. Thanks.
I can tell how much you are enjoying being with your children, which was, after all, the purpose of the tiny house! (The ability to live the way you want).
I tend to think it’s on the parents for siblings to get along (vs. compete), but I’m afraid I discount the personality of the children. It’s wonderful that Hazel is such a good big sister.