Weekends are fun!

We have had a really great time the past couple of weekends.

Last weekend, I woke up one morning to a visitor -- Aunt Lauren! We had a really fun time. We spent some time having lunch with our buddy Prabhakar at a Mexican restaurant with delicious interior Mexican food, Polvo's, in South Austin, visited Dad and some friends at work, went to the Children's Museum, and ate lots of delicious food. She showered us with gifts -- I got a cool grill kit, Hazel got a beautiful print for her room, and we both got some nice new clothes -- and she taught me lots of fun new things to say. Hazel really liked snuggling her. We were so sad to see her go Monday, and we really miss her.

Another neat thing that happened last weekend was Bubbe and Papa sent Hazel and me an early joint birthday gift, and Mom and Aunt Lauren put it together for us. It's called a Learning Tower and it makes it easier for me and eventually Hazel to reach the counter so we can help cook. So far I have helped make smoothies, rice, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. It's awesome! It's fun to climb in and out of it, and Mom and Dad are happy that I can't really fall off a chair onto the floor anymore.

This weekend, we spent some quality time with Dad so Mom could work; we found a fun new way to go to my friend Benjamin's house -- Mom and I went in our bike/bike trailer while Dad and Hazel walked; and Saturday morning, we did something super cool - a group bike ride.

Before I came along, Mom used to do triathlons. She misses it, is out of shape, and wants to set a good example for us, so she decided it is time to start finding things like that we can do together. Her friend Al, who has an amazing story, had a cycling event with a family ride for his organization, Please Be Kind to Cyclists, so we decided to do it. The event had 40-mile and 20-mile routes, but the family route was more our speed -- two miles, mostly on a protected bike path. We squished Mom's bike, our helmets, and my bike trailer into the car and headed downtown for the 8 a.m. start.

About 10 people -- our ride leader, some kids, and their moms -- did the family ride. We were the only ones with a bike trailer, and we easily kept up with everyone else. It was great. I sang along the way and yelled things like "Whee," "Go, go, go," and channeling Aunt Lauren, "Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!" Mom said my sounds helped motivate her, and everyone thought I was funny, especially when they realized I was the only one who remembered to bring any water.

While we rode, Hazel and Dad enjoyed a loud rock band, and when we got back we enjoyed delicious breakfast tacos and muffins, and Al gave us a CD and a cake to bring home! There's nothing not to like about bike rides, in my opinion. Mom and I are excited for Hazel to be able to join us on our rides next month, once she turns one and gets a helmet. When that happens, we figure we'll be able to go out more often.

Sunday I woke up to a new face, our friend Sweta. She lives in Boston but was in town this weekend for a wedding. Lucky for us, she had a little extra time to visit. In honor of her visit, we went to Waterloo Ice House, a restaurant Mom recently discovered has delicious breakfast tacos and a huge fenced-in area with picnic tables and a playscape. I had huge blueberry pancakes, which Hazel kept trying to steal, and we all thought it was a perfect day to be outside.

In general, Hazel and I have been up to some new tricks. Hazel is interacting more. This week she held her arms up when she wanted Mom to pick her up, mimicked a sound Mom made at her, and has been pointing at ceiling fans when we turn them on. She is more fun by the day.

Meanwhile, Dad taught me to count to three and I have been imitating everything Mom and Dad do. Today I copied Dad when he was putting his laundry away. Then Hazel was being grumpy, and Mom decided to nurse her. I realized Duck was hungry too, so I climbed up on Mom's bed beside her, lifted up my shirt and put Duck to my chest. Dad and Mom thought it was cute and hilarious. I don't see what the big deal is. Ducks need milk too!

Pictures from all of this month, including our weekend adventures and the snow a few weeks ago, are here.

Happy Purim

Dad was out of town most of this week, so it was just Hazel, Mom and me.

The day he left, Tuesday, we got lots of snow. Yes, we still live in Texas, and the inch or two on the ground was the most snow we've had in six years (so I've heard). As soon as Hazel went down for her morning nap, Peepa, Mom and I played in it on the deck. I loved sweeping it with a broom, sliding in it and feeling it in my hands. Peepa liked eating it. And Mom threw a snowball at me, which was hilarious. We couldn't stay out as long as we wanted to because since it's usually 75 degrees here, like it was two days before this happened, I don't have any gloves or mittens and my hands were turning red. Next time I will wear socks on my hands, but we thought of that too late for this time. By Wednesday it was in the 50s and sunny again, and all the snow melted. It felt magical while it lasted.

Although Hazel didn't get to play outside with us in the snow, she's been making her own fun. She is really pulling herself up to standing now, which means she can reach more of my toys. She especially likes pulling herself up at my train table so she can play with my legos and trains. I don't mind. I really laughed at her the first few times she did it and she is fun to play with.

I am doing really well sleeping in my big boy bed. Mom and Dad said it is going better than they expected. I am even napping better than I did in my crib and I am going to sleep pretty quickly at night too. Hazel is enjoying my old crib too, which we moved into her room. It actually has taken her a little longer to adapt to the new sleeping situation than it took me.

This week I have been testing out more new words, like "water" and "more beans" (thanks to Amy, Gigi, and Aunt Laurie, who gave us yummy Freebirds gift cards), and twice while Dad was gone, I said, "Dada home," which Mom was really excited about. I am also paying more attention to the teacher in my Gymboree class.

Tonight all of us went to a Purim celebration at our synagogue. I wore my lion costume from Halloween, and got lots of compliments. Everyone was very impressed with my fearsome lion roar. We ate hot dogs, danced to some fun songs, played with the water fountain, and ran up and down ramps. But my favorite part was playing in a bounce house. I had never been in one before, but when I saw other kids jumping around, I really wanted to try it - even enough to wait in line for it. Dad waited with me in line and tried to convince me to be patient. When it was finally my turn, I ran and jumped around for my entire allotted sixty seconds. When it was time to come out, I came without any fuss. Mom and Dad sure were proud.

Talking, Tantrums, and Transportation

So you may have noticed it has been a while since we posted a blog entry. That is because I am keeping us all EXHAUSTED and too tired to write.

The most exciting thing for me is I am talking a lot, all of a sudden. Just last week alone we counted 12 new words, just off the top of our heads. Some of the words are red, blue, green, purple, in, out, up, and more. Yesterday I learned "kiwi," which sounds like "wheeghee" to me, and today I learned "home." Mom and Dad are thrilled and I am having a lot of fun with all my new words. Not to mention my new favorite fruit (the kiwis).

Speaking of kiwis, I am kind of obsessed with them. I am really pretending a lot lately and I also really like spending time in the kitchen. I have been incorporating all these things into games like yelling "wheeghee! wheeghee!" while trying to pull out the cutting board, like Mom does when she is getting ready to make me a kiwi. I have also been sharing my fruit with my best friend, Duck, whose pants I have been changing a lot lately, using my own wipes and diapers.

At the same time, I am keeping Mom and Dad busy showing them what it means to be two. I have my own opinions and ideas and I am really starting to be vocal about them. For instance, I do not like my car seat or booster seat. EVER. While the car seat is evidently not optional, we have made some mealtime changes. For lunch and breakfast at least, I have been sitting at my own little table next to Hazel's highchair and Mom and Dad are teaching me to stay seated while I eat. That's a good lesson to learn anyway, they say.

(My speech therapist says all this newfound independence is a developmental milestone, by the way.)

Tonight I threw Mom and Dad for the biggest loop of all though, by jumping out of my crib. When Mom asked what hurt, I pointed to my noggin. So now we are on to our next major challenge -- my move to the big boy bed that has been in my room for about a year now. If any of you have any good advice about how to make this transition, please post it in the comments section of this blog. Seriously. We need your help.

Hazel's sunny little personality is emerging too. She is clapping a lot, is starting to wave, cracks herself up blowing raspberries, only crawls on her hands and knees now -- and she is FAST! -- and has started pulling up on things. She is really starting to enjoy reading books and playing musical instruments. At the end of last week she also went from crawling to sitting and a few times when Mom went in to get Hazel at the end of her nap, Hazel was sitting in her crib instead of lying on her belly, as usual. Hazel is much happier for all this and is a lot less fussy now. We think she must have been very frustrated before she was mobile.

We have had a few fun events in the past week or two. We celebrated Tu B'Shevat, the Jewish birthday of trees; Valentine's Day, with lots of fun presents from Grandma, Grandpa, Bubbe and Papa; and best of all, Daddy's birthday! For Dad's day, we challenged him with a scavenger hunt, which he had to do in order to find all his fun presents. After that, we went to Fuddruckers for burgers. I hear there was cake but that must have been after I went to bed.

For pictures of our latest adventures and smiles, click here.

Finger Food and ABCs

Since our travels and the holidays, we are finally starting to fall back into our normal routine -- our nap schedules, Gymboree on Mondays and Thursdays, and when we really have it together, the Parenting Center on Fridays. It is nice to be able to predict how our days will flow a little bit, and we have had a few new twists.

Hazel now eats finger food. For the first time, Mom gave her peas for lunch yesterday. Hazel loved it. Now instead of screaming while Mom rushes to make her food, she can snack on those while she waits. It is making life more pleasant for everyone.

Hazel is also getting around more and more, faster and faster each day. I still like being a big brother but I am starting to be a little annoyed when she plays with some of my toys. Mom and Dad say I am still doing a good job being a nice brother though.

I've been working on saying a few new words -- "uh oh," "whee," and "whoa." I have also been saying and reading some new letters. Now when Dad and Mom sing the alphabet song they stop at the right parts so I can say "D," "O," "S," "X," "Z," and sometimes "E." I can also read these letters and it is fun to find them in lots of different places around the house and when we're out. My favorite way of singing and reading the alphabet is the book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.

I had a little bit of a rough time earlier this week because I was sick. It may have been a tummy virus or something I ate, but no one else has gotten it, so it was probably some food. It was no fun, but we were lucky our nice neighbor Candace could come help Mom take care of Hazel when Mom needed to take care of me Tuesday afternoon until Dad came home from work. Now we are just really hoping Hazel doesn't come down with it.

Here are some pictures of Hazel and I in the bath, me and duck hanging out on my bench, and Hazel eating peas.

Hazel at nine months

Hazel turned nine months old on Monday, which meant she had to go to the doctor for a checkup. The doctor was really impressed by how cute Hazel is, and how well she is growing, sitting, rolling around, and army crawling.

The doctor said she thinks Hazel is really doing a great job at eating, and that we should try to get her to start eating three meals a day instead of two. Mom pointed out that Hazel's been eating three times a day for almost two months, ever since we got back from our Thanksgiving trip to PA. The doctor said, "She has quite a metabolism!"

Hazel was good about letting them poke and prod her, although she cried a little after her shots. Mom said they gave me a flu shot too, but I am not sure I believe her because I didn't even notice. While we were there, I had a good time turning the light on and off, which made the doctor laugh.

The nurse gave us Hazel's latest stats: she is 26.75 inches tall (25th percentile), she weighs 16.22 pounds (10th percentile), and her head is 42 centimeters around (6th percentile).

Just before we left for Atlanta, we started a new nightly routine -- Hazel and I now take our baths together! Mom decided it was time, since Hazel can sit up now and Dad came home late the night we started it. Anyway, it is a lot of fun. Hazel likes playing with (a.k.a. chewing on) all the toys, and I like making her laugh, splashing her and rolling plastic toy balls off her head.

The other night, we had a good time sort of talking to each other in the tub too. While she was playing, Hazel was making happy little screamy noises and I decided to join in by imitating her. We did it back and forth, and it was so hilarious, we cracked each other (and Mom and Dad) up. We all wish we'd have had the video camera for that one, but at least we have since taken some fun photos.

Hazel is also sleeping better these days. She had been waking up about every hour and a half at night for the past month or so and Mom said Hazel was having a harder and harder time falling back to sleep. While this was happening, Hazel was also in an increasingly worse mood during the day. Finally, Mom realized enough was enough and Thursday night began doing sleep training with her. They did this with me too when I was little, so while Mom and Dad knew it would be no fun, they also knew it would work.

Not only did the sleep training work in about two nights (the third night, Hazel did not wake up once at night that anyone knows of), it went much easier than Mom expected. Hazel has been napping better during the day and has been in a smilier, happier mood. She must have been very tired from being up all night. Mom is better rested and in a better mood too.

Today we tried a new class at Gymboree, a family play class that is for families with more than one kid who want to play at Gymboree. We had a good time, but we are going to stick to my regular class for the next few months. Although there was one kid in the class who is a little younger than Hazel, there wasn't much for babies to do, so we'll wait to join that class until Hazel can walk around and climb on the equipment a little bit.

You can see Hazel's new growth chart on the side of the blog, or click here.

Aunt Laurie is married!!!

Over the weekend, we came to Atlanta because Aunt Laurie and Uncle Jonathan got married Sunday.

Friday was an exciting day because that was when we flew on an airplane. Hazel and I were not at our best, but neither were the other passengers who tried to boss Mommy around, or American Airlines, who broke the handle off our stroller. At least Hazel and I have a good excuse, since we're kids.

Once we arrived, things looked up. We were very excited to see Bubbe and Papa. Also, when we got to the house, we got to see something else that was very cool (in more ways than one, I guess) - snow and ice! I had a fun time playing in it Saturday morning.

Saturday and Sunday, Mom and Dad had to go to a rehearsal dinner and the wedding, so Hazel and I stayed home, but nice people stayed with us and Bubbe and Papa had loads of great toys for us to play with, so we had fun anyway. Dad and Mom say the wedding was gorgeous and fun, and we are all super excited for Aunt Laurie and Uncle Jonathan.

Monday Aunt Laurie, Uncle Jonathan, Aunt Susan and Uncle Stuart came to visit, then we went to see Great-Grandma Millie. It was nice to see everyone and Bubbe and Papa were happy to show us off. Great-Grandma Millie gave me a big kiss and told us how much Hazel looks like her. She said it is very nice how well we get along.

After our naps, we hopped back in the car, then met up with Aunt Laurie and Uncle Jonathan for dinner. I showed everyone how much I love Italian food by throwing spaghetti everywhere. Mom enjoyed my enthusiasm and Dad is still traumatized by my mess.

This morning we had the chance to visit Bubbe's office. Mom enjoyed the leftover wedding candy too much Monday night and pulled her crown out with a caramel so Bubbe's boss stuck it back on for us. Mom said it is a good thing for her that Bubbe is a dental hygenist. The office trip was fun for me - I had a good time brushing my teeth, riding up and down in a dental chair and playing with Legos. It was also nice to meet all the fun people Bubbe works with.

After that, we headed to the Atlanta Children's Museum. It was fantastic! There were so many awesome things for me to do, I didn't have the chance to get to everything I wanted to try. Mostly I liked playing with the pretend kitchen and a grocery truck. I drove the truck, ran up and down a ramp onto the truck, filled a grocery cart up with food and pushed it up a ramp onto the truck, and pushed baskets full of food down a conveyer belt. I also liked fishing in a water exhibit, putting balls in a tube that went up in a machine, playing with enormous Legos, and visiting with Curious George.

When we were hungry, we went to Papa's favorite restaurant, the Varsity, where I enjoyed an order of fries and a delicious cheeseburger.

After I rested for a little bit, Mom and Dad went to the movies and Bubbe and Papa took us to a place with lots of stuff to climb and jump on. To see all the fun we had, check out our pictures!

Happy 2010

Mom and Hazel are still coughing and the weather still isn't cooperating with us, so Hazel and I had to make our own fun this week.

Hazel kicked things off by learning how to clap her hands. Sometimes she does it for fun and other times she does it because she is mad. We like it best when she laughs and claps at the same time. She is also now an expert at eating peas, sitting up and playing, grabbing magnets off the fridge and parts off our toy kitchen, and crawling around, mostly via the army crawl. She moves fast and with purpose, Dad likes to say. I say she just has a hankerin' for my toys.

Meanwhile, I have been busy growing. I have been eating more than usual. When we had breakfast at Austin Java with Zhenya a couple of weekends ago, I even ate two grown-up size orders of pancakes! Anyway, it's catching up with me. When Mom dressed me the other morning, she thought she'd try a pair of overalls on me that she thought wouldn't fit until next winter. But guess what - perfect fit!

I am still helping Mom out in the kitchen, with more enthusiasm than ever. The other day when she was working on making dinner, she got out the rice cooker and I pushed my chair over to the counter to help before anyone even asked me. The next morning when Dad asked me what I wanted for breakfast, I pointed at the bananas and the blender so they would know I wanted a smoothie. I am glad they are finally letting me help out in there.

I am also working on saying some new words. A couple weeks ago, I mastered "duck" and "book." On New Year's Day, Mom gave me a bath and I surprised her with a couple new words "yellow" and "bye." Then when we read a goodnight book, she helped me learn to say "O" when I point to that letter in my books. I have also been making the sound for the letter "S" when I see it.

My body is not the only thing that has been growing bigger. Dad said my afro was getting too gigantic and hard to wash, so he made Mom give me a haircut. Dad and Mom like my new style but Mom misses my curls. I don't have much of an opinion on the matter but getting my hair cut wasn't that fun, though the sheet Mom put on me was pretty funny.

We had a good time New Year's Eve. We wore wizard hats and Dad tried to show me how to play with a thing that pops out when you blow on it. My new year's resolution is to figure that out by next New Year's Eve.

Today we made the most of Dad's long weekend by meeting some friends at the Austin Children's Museum. We haven't been there for a while, and I especially liked the train, the elevator, the pretend kitchen, and a little pretend store with a cash register. I really liked the exhibits with buttons and balls.

For pictures of our new year's adventures, click here.