Back to the Snake Farm

Mom had some work to do at our old house today, so Dad took Hazel and me back to the famous Snake Farm.  You may recall that we took a fun road trip there last September.  Hazel and I didn't really remember it though because September was a long time ago, so it was new to us when we went this time.

We had so much fun!  We saw a lot of snakes, of course, and we even got to pet some of them.  Hazel and I especially loved the big snakes. But we also liked looking at all of their outdoor animals. 

They had ponies, bulls, zebras, crocodiles, alligators, goats, pigs, chickens, peacocks, roosters, an ostrich, macaws and tons of monkeys!  It was fun looking at all of the different monkeys.  We also got to pet a baby alligator, and pet some of the animals in the petting zoo, including a goat and a pig!  After we were pretty tired from chasing all of those animals, we had a nice picnic lunch there.Then we did it all again!  It was a fun day and Hazel slept the whole car ride back.

Here are some pictures from the day.  Dad didn't get too many because he was watching us pretty closely around all of the animals.

Otherwise, we've been doing lots of work trying to sell our old house and having a blast in our new house. Mom took us to the playgrounds behind our house a few times last week. We discovered that even though it has been really hot in Austin (around 100 degrees every day), we didn't notice because the trees make it so shady in our new neighborhood.

We've also spent some time meeting our new neighbors. Ella, who is 13 and lives next door, visited us with her mom yesterday. She wants to babysit us. Our neighbor on the other side has a garden and brought us some  tomatoes. Today we said hi to a dad across the street, who we were happy to learn has a two-year-old and a four-year-old.

Turner has a new trick too. He sticks his legs in the air, then drops them and rolls over on his side. It seems to make him mad when he does this. He's not totally rolling over yet, but it seems like it won't be long. We think he may be a gymnast one day,

Here are more photos; these are from our playground adventures.

Welcome home!

We moved into our new house this weekend. It's been really crazy but productive and exciting. Bubbe was here for a little over a week and left today. Here are all the photos she took of our adventures, including our new neighbors -- loads of deer! Mom and Dad are pretty wiped out but we all really like our new house and are having fun settling in.

Turner's eight weeks old!

Turner is eight weeks old this week. He smiled at Mom for the first time last Thursday night and smiled again a lot this morning. We're pretty excited. His grin makes him look cuter than ever.

Since he's almost two months old, it was time for him to visit the doctor. She said he's doing great, and he's grown a ton! He is 23 1/4 inches long (55th percentile), 11 pounds, 7 1/2 ounces (50th percentile), and his head is 37.8 cm around (10th percentile). His legs are really strong and the doctor likes his hair. Turner smiled a lot at her too. He was having a really happy morning until they gave him a bunch of shots.  You can check out his latest growth chart here, or on the right side of the blog.

We had a great Mother's Day. We surprised Mom with a great gift, then headed to a Neal Kassanoff show, where we met up with Clark and his family. Hazel danced a lot and enjoyed getting lots of attention from people who were happy to hang around with a little girl. Clark's dad said we are following Neal Kassanoff around like he's the Grateful Dead. Mom thought that was hilarious.  Hazel and I signed a card and gave it to Mom, which she loved.

Otherwise, we've been REALLY busy because we are moving to a new house next week. Since I learned we're taking all our stuff with us, I've become more excited about it. It will be a fun place to live because I won't have to share my room with anyone and if you go out the back gate, you are at the elementary school, which has a good playground.

To see our Mother's Day pictures and some photos Mom took of Turner and Hazel this morning, click here.

Soaring skyward

Rise & shine!

The other day, Turner woke me up from my nap. You can probably tell what I thought of that from the look on my face in this photo.

Yesterday Hazel spent the whole day at school and Mom took me and Turner to Brushy Creek Park. I had a nice picnic lunch before playing in the sand. Next I took my shoes, socks and pants off so I could play in the splash pad before spending some quiet time reading on a blanket in the shade. It was a nice, relaxing afternoon and I was having so much fun it gave Mom a chance to catch up on some important phone calls. Mom was glad we could be outside on such a beautiful day and Turner liked it too. Hazel had a great day at school.

Mitch (red shirt) in the Brushy Creek splash pad

Today was Soaring Skyward day at my school. We blew bubbles and flew kites outside with kids from other classes. Mom picked me up at my usual time and after we had lunch, we headed back to school to watch the Austin Police land a helicopter in our field. It was great. After they landed, we could look at it close up. I ran off with my awesome teacher, Miss Christy. She showed me her camera and I asked her if I could get in the helicopter. She wouldn't let me but it was fun anyway.

Mitch & Miss Christy

Mom and Dad are really proud of me because when Mom picked me up from school yesterday, my teachers were gushing over how good I am at reading. A teacher from another class came in when I was reading a book to them and couldn't believe it when they told her how old I am because I was reading so well.

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.

A wild week

Before

We have had a pretty eventful week.

Last weekend was pretty busy. Mom talked me into letting her cut my hair. Here are before and after pictures.

Sunday afternoon we headed downtown to party. Dad was invited to a bash where we found a fun fountain I liked splashing in, a great view of the Colorado River, yummy food, and one of our favorite bands, Matt the Electrician. You may recall one of our first outings after Hazel was born, and our first rock concert, was one of his gigs.

After

Anyway, my buddy Clark and his parents met us there. They brought nice birthday presents for Mom and Hazel and we had cupcakes in honor of Hazel's upcoming second birthday. Hazel had a lot of fun dancing and kept calling the singer of the band Bob Marley.

One of the gifts Clark and his family gave Hazel was a huge bubble wand and a bottle of bubbles. I had a good time rubbing the bubbles all over myself and Clark followed suit.

Monday morning Turner woke up with a fever and Mom had to take him to the hospital. Dad stayed home with Hazel and me, and we were all able to go visit them a few times over the next two days. They came home Wednesday and Turner is okay now. He just picked up a virus or something from one of us.

Once Mom and Turner came home, Hazel had a fever for a few days and Dad was under the weather too (he learned Saturday that he has strep throat). We had to go to the doctor Friday for Turner's follow-up appointment and she checked Hazel out too. The good thing about going to the doctor so much is we have up-to-date info on Turner's growth. Monday he weighed 9 lbs. 9 oz. and Friday was up to 10 lbs. 3 1/2 oz.! He is going a good job getting bigger. He is also starting to lose his hair and his neck is getting a lot stronger.

Since everybody's been sick and Mom had a work deadline Friday, we laid low until Sunday. Hazel's birthday is Monday so we kicked off our day Sunday with a trip to Whole Foods so she could pick out a cake. We thought she wanted cupcakes but she insisted on a chocolate cake with a yellow flower. It was very yummy when we ate it Sunday night and she called it a cupcake anyway, so she had the best of both worlds.

We were planning on having friends over to celebrate but ended up canceling that so we wouldn't make them sick. But Hazel still got to open her presents Sunday since we will be at Passover seders the next two nights.

Grandma and Grandpa sent her a Tag of her very own and lots of books, which we both are very excited about. Aunt Laurie and Uncle Jonathan sent her a Sit n Spin, which she loves. Mom and Dad gave her a bunch of boring stuff -- books, clothes and a few little toys -- and a t-shirt with her favorite singer, Bob Marley, on it.

Otherwise, we have been up to our usual. I grew some beans from seeds at school and brought them home last week, so Mom and I planted them in a pot. At the end of the week I told Mom I wanted to go outside and watch them grow. Everyone else was napping so we took the opportunity to spend a little one-on-one time outside looking at the beans, blowing bubbles and playing with Mom's camera. It was a gorgeous day outside and nice to spend time with each other.

Hazel and I are still saying very funny things to Mom each day. One day while Mom was nursing Turner, Hazel said, "Turner's eating! Turner's eating Mommy!"

I told Mom I don't want to share a room with Turner. Hazel's been trying to kiss him a lot lately and I have been kissing Hazel a lot. There's tons of love (and germs) going around at Chez Cone.

Today I went into the bathroom to wash my hands and was laughing and running water for a while so Mom came to check on me. When she came in, the sink was overflowing with bubbles and I was cracking up. Lucky for me, Mom came in instead of Dad and she cracked up too.

To see photos of our latest adventures, click here.

We did it!

Since Turner was born, Mom hasn't taken us on many outings. She has been doing errands when I'm at school so she can go with just one or two kids instead of having to keep track of all three of us by herself while trying to get things done. Today though, ice cream was calling so the four of us (Mom, Hazel, Turner and I) went to Costco. Turner rode in his car seat, which was covered up, in the cart. He slept through the whole thing. Hazel and I were so angelic, some lady even stopped Mom to tell her how cute we are. Here's a picture of us.

We made Mom laugh a lot today. When she picked me up from school this morning, I told her Turner doesn't like to color. She told me he just doesn't know how yet and I'll have to teach him one day. I liked the sound of that. Later when we were in the car, I said, "Peace, Turner," and Hazel started saying it too. Mom liked it.

Hazel wore a dress today. She usually doesn't wear dresses because they get in her way. When Mom put it on her, she ran around yelling, "What am I wearing? What am I wearing?" She looked cute, but we learned that dresses aren't good for climbing on everything.