Cool at the pool

Mitch Fish

We live in Texas, where it is super hot in the summer. Because of this, we haven't been outside much lately, and Saturday, my friend Megan invited us to her neighborhood pool. The last time I went to a pool, I hated it and threw a fit the whole time, so we haven't gone much this summer, but we had a blast Saturday. Megan's pool is great. The baby pool is like a beach; it slopes down to the deepest part, which is about a foot or two deep, and there are a couple of little fountains in the shallowest part. Hazel really liked that pool best. They also had a big pool that I visited with Dad and a medium pool, which was fantastic! That pool had a waterfall that splashed onto a wall I could stand on and jump from, into Mom's arms. She was waiting to catch me in a section that was about 3 or 4 feet deep. Hazel and everyone else loved it too.

We had so much fun, in fact, we went swimming with Megan and her family again Monday. This time we had to go to their other neighborhood pool because the main one was closed for cleaning. The pool we went to Monday was just as good though. The baby pool was attached to the big pool, with a short wall separating the two. I liked jumping off the short wall into Mom's arms in the deep part, and Megan's dad put me underwater (he is a swim instructor and knows what he is doing). I didn't love that but I didn't cry either. Mostly it just surprised me and taught me to stay away from him. Megan's little brother, Ryan, loaned his little inflatable boat to Hazel. She liked floating around, and it freed up Mom's arms to catch me. We also invented a game we call "Mitch fish, Hazel fish, Mommy fish," which entails swimming around together.

Hazel Fish

All this has inspired a new trend. Yesterday afternoon we didn't know what to do with ourselves, so we headed to the pool at the J. Their baby pool is pretty standard, and the best part of that trip was there are pool toys everywhere for us to play with. Also, they have a shower room that is really cool. It's walled off so it's very private, but there's no ceiling! I can't stand taking a bath and throw a major fit every time Mom or Dad try to bathe me, but I really liked taking a shower at this place. We could look at the sky and watch grackles while getting cleaned up. Also, to turn the water on for 30 seconds at a time, you have to push a button. I am a button guy, so I loved that. Hazel didn't like it as much; she is more a bath girl. She liked being in the pool though.

Today we met up with a bunch of our friends. In the morning, we went to Barnes and Nobel, where Megan's grandpa tells stories to kids while playing his ukulele. Megan and Ryan were there with their dad, and Benjamin and his  mommy met up with us too. Hazel and I had so much fun, we both screamed when Mom said it was time to go. She had to haul us both out of the store. I was also mad that she wouldn't buy me all the books I liked.

After our nap, we headed to the J again to have a poolside picnic dinner with Clark. I ate a bean taco for dinner, jumped to Mom in the pool, swam around and then told Mom it was time for a shower. It was a great night.

Hug bugs

We have been taking it easy this week and Hazel and I have taken the opportunity to be really snuggly lately. We both have been giving Mom and Dad lots of snuggles, hugs and kisses. I have also been playing with my new birthday toys. I am especially loving my bingo game, a game called Cariboo Grandma and Grandpa sent me, a Very Hungry Caterpillar felt board Aunt Lauren sent me, and of course, snuggling (and jumping on) Big Duck.

One fun thing we did over the weekend was we all headed to South Austin to visit the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. We looked at lots of fun sculptures, plants, fish, and turtles. They had story time and paper flower making for kids, but I wanted to run around outside instead. Here's a great photo of a moment when I tried to break some of the art at the center.

Today was not such a fun day for Hazel. She had to go to the doctor for a well visit. They found out that she is now 29 1/2 inches tall (20th percentile), weighs 18 pounds, 10 oz. (3rd percentile), and her head is 43.6 cm around (4th percentile).

The other big news is Hazel has molars! We didn't know it, but she has two just coming in on the bottom and one that has really come through on the top. The doctor was really impressed with how loud Hazel can scream. She really has a great set of lungs, which she put to work when the doctor tried to look at her.

Here's a link to Hazel's latest growth chart, also available by clicking the small chart on the right side of the blog.

Here are a few photos of me and Dad, mostly at the Wildflower Center, but also a few from around the house.

Happy birthday to me! It's good to be three!

I turned three Friday! In honor of my birthday, Bubbe and Papa came to visit. I was really excited to see them, and they came bearing gifts. Papa came in wearing a special safari hat for me, which he likes so much he wore it on the plane here, and Bubbe gave me some fun fish glasses that Mom says make me look like Elton John. We all love them because they are hilarious.

Bubbe also brought me a new toothbrush. It's nothing like the other toothbrushes I have. It's electric and it looks like a train! I love it and it makes me a lot happier about cleaning my pearly whites.

We did lots of fun things while Bubbe and Papa were here. We ate at Taco Cabana, Waterloo, P. Terry's, and Threadgill's. Mom and Dad had to work Thursday so Hazel and I kept Bubbe and Papa company. We took them to one of our favorite places, Jungle Java.

Friday was my birthday. I woke up to find a new resident in my room, a giant duck. It's name is Big Yellow Duck, but I usually call it Big Duck for short. I am crazy about him and my old pal, simply known as Duck, likes him too. Big Duck sure is making nap and bedtime a lot easier.

I got loads of great presents throughout the day. Bubbe kicked off the day with a special singing bear we can only play with on our birthdays. Hazel and I really like jamming to it. I also got lots of stuff from Mom and Dad (highlights include a ViewMaster and some cool vintage reels, my own copy of Chicka Chicka 1, 2, 3, some awesome duck slippers, and of course Big Duck), a bingo game and alphabet stickers for my room from Aunt Laurie and Uncle Jonathan, Rainbow Rollers and a clock puzzle from Aunt Susan, Uncle Stuart, Aunt Pat and Uncle Neal, cookie and pizza sets from Grandma and Grandpa, and lots of things from Bubbe and Papa (my favorites were an alphabet puzzle, number flash cards, make-a-face toy for the tub).

While Hazel took a nap Friday morning, Papa and I thought it'd be a good time to put together another present I got -- a big wheel bike from Oma. It's great. It's red, flashy, and really, really fast when I'm behind the wheel. It was so fun putting it together. Turns out I'm really good with a screwdriver.

Lunch Friday was a treat in itself. Dad joined us for lunch and we went to my favorite lunch haunt -- Costco! We had pizza and hot dogs, and Hazel and I really chowed down. Friday afternoon when I got up from my nap, we celebrated by eating more, this time cupcakes and ice cream. It was great!

Saturday we continued celebrating by having a party with all my buddies at one of my favorite haunts, Champion Park. We had lots of food -- turkey wraps, fruit, veggies, hummus and best of all, banana cake made from my great-great-grandma's recipe. Her name was Mimi, she had the same birthday as Mom, and my great-grandma (Mom-Mom) sent the recipe to Mom a few weeks ago. Everyone loved the cake, which reminded Mom of Pennsylvania.

The party was very fun. About 40 people were there and we played in the sandbox and on the swings, dug for dinosaur bones, and played in the whale splash pad. My friends brought me so many cool gifts, we haven't even opened them all yet. I'll let you know how that goes later.

Today we slowed down a little and met up with Bubbe and Papa at their hotel for a swim. Even though I hated the pool the last time we went a month or two ago, I had a blast today. I hung out in the hot tub with Dad for a few minutes. I really liked it because of all the cool bubbles. I even spent some time in the pool with everyone. Hazel liked the pool too but screamed anytime Mom went underwater. I guess she didn't like her disappearing into thin air like that. It was too bad because until we figured out why Hazel was crying, Mom kept doing cannonballs to make me laugh.

So, we've had a very busy weekend, and even aside from that we've had a lot going on. Wednesday, Hazel really started walking a lot more. She hasn't done it as much since that afternoon, but she walked a quarter of the way across Mom and Dad's bedroom. She kept taking steps until she fell over, and a few times started dancing while walking, which made her lose her balance. Every time she cracked up. We're hoping when things settle down around here, she'll pick it back up again soon. It'll be fun when Hazel walks everywhere!

Since Bubbe and Papa have been here, Hazel has also said two words, "cat" and "dog." And since our last blog entry, she has grown more teeth. She is now up to eight! She's growing them so fast, we can't even keep up with it on this blog. She's happy about it all because she can eat so much quicker.

We've been dancing a lot lately to a song we have enjoyed since I was born, "Mahna Mahna." You'll have to watch our video to see how much we dig it.

It's still really hot here, and we are still enjoying our sprinkler in our backyard. Last week it was so hot, even Peepa joined in the fun.

You may remember, for the first 15 months of my life, I wore cloth diapers. Then Mom was pregnant with Hazel and couldn't take it so we started using disposables. Well, after a potty training effort gone wrong, both Hazel and I are wearing cloth diapers. I am not thrilled about it, but the point was to make me dislike diapers enough to use the potty. As a side benefit, Mom and Dad are hoping Hazel will potty train earlier/easier because of it too. So far, it's not working for me but I am complaining about it a lot. The other day Mom showed me some Cat in the Hat big boy underwear I am pretty excited about, so maybe that'll take it to the next level. I'll keep you posted.

Here's a link to pictures from my fun birthday weekend, and here are a couple of videos:

• Fun clips from my birthday weekend
• Me and Bubbe spelling words

Mitch and Hazel get their groove on

For your viewing pleasure.

A fun 4th of July

Happy 4th of July everyone! We had a fun holiday weekend. Dad was off work for four days in a row, so we got to do lots of fun stuff.

We started the weekend by going to my friend Benjamin's third birthday party. It was at the Austin Children's Museum. They had a new exhibit there that had a bunch of really big games. A chess board with pieces as big as me, a checkers board with huge pieces, lots of number magnets to play Sudoku, and a giant Connect Four game. Dad was pretty excited about it. I looked around a bit, but was more excited about riding in the elevator. Hazel had a good time crawling around in the baby area, my old stomping grounds. Unfortunately, Mom and Dad forgot the camera.

Last week, I made a fun fireworks shirt at school that was red, white, and blue, and I was excited to get to wear it on the 4th of July. I loved telling Dad what colors my shirt was. For the fourth of July, we want to a party at our friend Prabhakar's house. Prabhakar and his wife just had a baby a few months ago, so we were happy to meet Lakshmi, and Mom was excited to see lots of old friends. Dad stayed pretty busy chasing me around the house, keeping me out of trouble, and found that with Hazel in tow, it was easy for him to make lots of new friends.

It has been pretty hot here, but Grandma sent us a fun new present that makes me look forward to the hot days -- a new sprinkler! Mom put it out in the yard and we ran around and played in it. I really liked filling my duck water can and dump trunk with water and trying to touch the flowers that were spraying water. Mom was glad that we could have so much fun in our own yard. Hazel was napping while we were playing with it today, but hopefully she'll have a chance to play with it next week.

Mom made burritos for dinner tonight. They were delicious. Hazel got them all over her face and Dad said she looked like a hobo. Mom took some good pictures of her smiling and showing off her teeth. She has five teeth now, with one or two more well on their way, and can eat almost everything we can. Peepa, who thoughtfully picks up any food Hazel drops, is glad that Hazel is eating so many more foods.

You can see pictures of our exciting holiday weekend here.

Yoga, cookies, a week (almost) without Dad, and trying to keep up with Hazel

We've had an exciting week or so and haven't posted anything on our blog in a while.

Two Fridays ago, we decided to try something new -- a mommy & me yoga class. It was great. Hazel liked clapping along to some of the songs we sang and I did downward dog a few times at home, after we left the class.

I've grown really tired of Gymboree and was screaming, "Stay home!" every time we went for the past couple weeks, so we decided to join Austin Stay n Play, the place with the yoga class, instead. It's fun. Not only do we take yoga there, they have an ABC 123 class we went to a few times and most of the time we can just play with their toys, make a craft, or eat our lunch there. Our favorite thing at Stay n Play is a huge duck. It's bigger than me!

Unfortunately, yesterday we learned that Stay n Play is closing at the end of June for a few months and then will be in Round Rock. That's too long of a haul for us, so we'll have to find something else to do.

The same day we tried yoga for the first time, we went to a party at Dad's company. Mom and Dad broke down and let me have some cookies. I ate three or four and then really spazzed out -- I started shaking, let out a whoop, and ran to Dad. It was hot out and the chocolate chips were all melty, so I ended up wearing some of it.

Hazel had a great time at the party too, but she stuck to healthier food choices. Taking full advantage of all four of her teeth, she munched on watermelon and corn on the cob.

We were glad we had the chance to go to Dad's work party because the next day we had to see him off until Thursday. He had to go to Germany for a work meeting. We kept busy though. In addition to our usual stuff -- school and Stay n Play -- we went to a birthday party, which I did not like because it was at Gymboree.

We also went all the way to South Austin to go to a park and eat at the Mighty Cone with our friend Zhenya. It was really fun, but so hot and tiring. Lunch was the most exciting part of the morning. We saw a guy get arrested while he was walking down the street and there were tons of flies. Mom kept swatting the bugs away, which I thought was hilarious. I kept cracking up laughing and then I started swatting them too. It was really funny. We also loved the MC french fries. Most of all, it was fun seeing Zhenya. I think she had fun too, because she cuddled Hazel a lot and helped us with our lunch.

Another fun thing we did while Dad was gone was eat lunch and play in the splash pad at Terra Burger. It's been so hot here, the only reasonable thing to do outside is to get wet.

We are really happy Dad is home! To celebrate, we got some new bath toys. I have really been protesting my bath for the last month or two, so Bubbe suggested Mom find some good bath toys to cheer me up in the tub. I am really into reading letters and numbers and spelling the 8 words I know how to spell right now, so we picked up a set of these foam ABCs and 123s. I love them. The first day we had them, I nearly fell into the tub leaning over to play with them. When I dropped my duck in, I had to get in too. I am glad I did. I really like spelling words on the wall. We also got a set of fish I can catch with a net, but Hazel and Mom like it more than I do. Dad brought home some neat toys for Hazel and I as well - an alligator and a mouse that are really fun to squeak.

Mom had to work a lot this weekend, so we spent a lot of quality time with Dad and we all went to Terra Burger again for dinner Saturday. The only thing Hazel and I really like there are their fries, so we mostly eat food we bring from home while Dad and Mom eat TB sandwiches, but we both really enjoyed playing in the water again and were more adventurous about it this time.

Otherwise, my talking has picked up, big time. Last week I told Mom, "I love you," after she said it to me when she was tucking me in to bed one night. I have also informed her that I would like to learn to play the oboe and piano one day. Dad and Mom said if that is what I want, it will happen.

When I went to school last week, Mom tried putting me in a different class that usual, but I was too surprised to do it. Evidently, now that I will be three, I am supposed to be in a big boy class. We talked about it a lot this weekend and today when she dropped me off, I was ready. I went in there like it's been my class all along. I kept up with everybody and had a great time. Mom is very excited that I understood what she had been saying to me and is really proud of what a cool big kid I am.

Hazel is doing amazing things too. She is still eating tons and growing a lot. If you ask her what a monkey says, she says, "ah, ah!"

She is also determined to walk all of a sudden. Saturday night she let go of the side of the tub and stood all on her own, without holding onto or leaning against anything. She's really been into using our alligator walking toy and has been walking while hanging onto furniture a lot more. Yesterday she let go of something and took a step and fell over, but today was most exciting of all. She stood up in the middle of the room, without pulling herself up on anything! Then a few minutes later she let go of something she was holding herself up with and took a couple of steps to Mom!

We think she'll be walking any day. We have learned that when Hazel decides to do something, she does it pretty quickly.

It's all been really fun. For some photos of our exciting times, click here.

What has four teeth and is always hungry?

It's not what, but who -- Hazel!

Hazel has been eating like a maniac lately. The other night she ate for two hours straight. We think she must really be getting ready to grow. For now, in addition to growing a cute little buddha belly, she has also been growing teeth. She's now up to four -- the two she's had for a while in the bottom front and now two on top in the front. It's a good thing she has them, she is able to eat more things in time for her wild eating/growth spurt!

Mom and I have been under the weather. We must have caught Hazel's virus from the other week. Mom came down with it last Wednesday night and was better Monday and I came down with it Thursday and was better Tuesday. It was a real bummer and we are glad to be over it.

One thing that was good about being sick is Mom finally let me watch a little TV! We've been watching Sesame Street clips from the first season, which was in 1969, on Hulu. My favorite is Ernie singing about his Rubber Duckie, which I have seen before on Mom's computer, but I also like this one, which I call "Cows," and a series of clips that teach about numbers and end up with a man falling down some steps with a bunch of cakes. Now that I am excited about reading the alphabet and numbers, Sesame Street is right up my alley.

We are glad blueberries are in season. We made blueberry waffles one day but I couldn't wait for them to finish, so Mom gave me a bowlful while they were baking. This picture shows the result, along with my new hand gesture, "peace out."