Birthdays and nature

We've had a couple of exciting weeks. The birthday fun continued last Monday. While I was at school Monday morning, Mom took Hazel to Central Market's playground, where a boy tried to befriend Hazel. Dad took us out to lunch at Double Dave's on Hazel's birthday and on Mom's birthday the next day, we took cupcakes to Hazel's class. Her friends and teacher made her a great sign and the cupcakes caused everyone to go into a frenzy. I did a great job singing the birthday song to her.

Since then, Hazel and I have been pretty hung up on birthdays. Every day we ask how old is every person we see, whether we know them or not, as well as characters in our books. We also ask when is everyone's birthday. Today Hazel told Mom it's Peanut and Froggy's birthdays. Mom asked me when Duck's birthday is and I told her October 13.

Friday I had the day off school so we celebrated by doing everything fun we could think of doing. Mom made waffles for breakfast, then we finger painted before heading out to see the peacocks at Mayfield Park, one of Mom's favorite places in town. It's mating season, so the boy birds put their feathers up and they were all very loud. When we first went into the park, their whooping scared Hazel. Mom told me to hold her hand because she was scared, and I kissed her on her head before grabbing her little paw.

Next we had Taco Cabana for lunch and after our nap, went to Terra Burger for a milkshake, a tour of the Dillo trolley, and for the first time this summer, fun in the splash pad.

Saturday was fun too. After an Easter Egg Hunt at Sprouts, Dad took us to Tot Shabbat Saturday morning and Hazel entertained everyone by going up and dancing on the bimah throughout the whole service.

We next went to our friend Clark's third birthday party, where one of our favorite singers, Neal Kassanoff, performed. Hazel danced there too and played the tambourine. It was great to see Clark and his family and continue the April birthday madness.

Aside from the peacocks, we've had some interesting run-ins with nature lately. One night last week, one of Mom's friends was leaving our house and they were saying goodbye at our front door. While the door was open, a snake came in! I have never heard Mom scream so loud! Dad was a hero; he chased it out of the house with a chair, like a lion tamer. Mom is still scared of the front door.

I am still very interested in animals, especially birds. When Mom was on her way to pick me up from school one day, she noticed a vulture snacking by the side of the road. After she picked me up, we went back to watch it for a while. I loved it! I asked Mom if we could take the vulture home. She thought about it for a minute, in light of our snake situation, but ultimately said no.

One other pretty funny new thing is Hazel has started doing somersaults. Sometimes she yells, "That was a good one!" when she's done.

I have been reading a lot, even more than before, and I have been reading to Hazel. Our current favorites are "The Best Mistake Ever," "Cat in the Hat" and "Green Eggs and Ham." We have been using our Tags a lot too. When I put mine on words like "Plop!" and "Bump!" it reads them in funny voices and cracks me up.

I have also been pretty funny about eating lately. Often I say I don't want to eat anything but if Mom puts it out, I'll eat it. If Mom and Dad call it dinner or lunch I won't eat it, but if they call it a snack, I will eat it even if it's the same food at the same time of day as our meals. I think it's important to have opinions.

Turner is doing great. He's getting much stronger and is sleeping really well through the night. Most of the time, he only wakes up once, around 3:00 a.m., has a snack, and goes back to sleep until we all get up in the morning. The other day Dad was holding him and we noticed his eyes and head followed Mom when she walked across the room. It was pretty neat.

A couple of weeks ago, Turner had his first modeling gig. A local photographer came to our house and took pictures of him. Here are the photos, and here he is on the photographer's blog.
 
His other exciting news is he can now take normal baths, since his umbilical cord fell off when he was in the hospital. He did not know what to make of it the first time or two and cried a little, but now he seems to love it.

To see photos of our exciting adventures, visit us at Snapfish.