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.

Turner @ two...

...weeks, that is. Monday was Mom's due date but really Turner's two-week birthday. Mom says one nice thing about having a baby is she can make him sit still while she practices with her new camera by taking loads of photos of him. 

In other Turner news, he is starting to get a tiny bit more head/neck control. He also had his first modeling gig today.

Not much else is new with Turner, but Hazel and I really like him a lot. Hazel likes to hug and kiss him. I was trying to show him Animal Town videos today and printed a picture of a xenops for him to color.

Hazel and I have been making Mom and Dad laugh a lot. Hazel is obsessed with Bob Marley. Every time we get in the car, she asks Mom to play his music.

I am really enjoying my Tag, especially my animal cards and Green Eggs and Ham. Yesterday, Mom asked me if I like eating green eggs and ham. I said, "No, and Sam doesn't either."

Another funny thing I said to Mom this week was, "Oh no, it's you again." There was no context for this, it was just out of the blue, and I cracked up after I said it.