My Day with Hazel

Hazel went to the Ear, Nose and Throat doctor this morning. She was
very brave so we took the day off and went to the Seattle Aquarium.
She touched all kinds of sea life and got to see Olive Oyl the octopus
get fed.

Photo fun

Allergies

Hazel was tested for allergies today...guess what...she's got some!
Man, oh, man!
We told Hazel that the test wouldn't bee too bad. I realized that I was wrong right about when she buried her face in my chest and silently sobbed. She was so brave and held it together until the nurse left the room...
Turns out that she's allergic to trees and their fruit...no more apples, peaches, nectarines or cherries. She's also allergic to cats...and slightly to dogs. The Doctor suggested getting a HEPA filter for her room and that the dogs have to stay out of her room...not a problem. When she heard the list of allergens she balled because she thought we would have to get rid of the dogs. The Doctor assured her that the dot for dogs was a very small reaction, that she was more allergic to cats which was half the size of the tree allergies.

Dog Picture of the Day

The day started COLD but the sky cracked at poured the sun down on our thirsty skin. The dogs have spent a record amount of time out in the backyard. Tank does this funny thing where he'll run laps around the yard. Penny only wishes she could keep up with him and often tries to cut him off through the middle of the yard...it's quite entertaining to watch. While Penny can not run as fast as Tank, she is quite crafty at escaping her backyard confinements. We had the side fence barricaded for a while but had to move things in order to mow the lawn. I thought that maybe she'd gotten a bit too big to squeeze through, alas, I was wrong...I'm comforted by the fact that she's escaping only to run up to the front door.
Hazel loves the sun almost as much as Tank and Penny do. Immediately upon coming home from school she retreated to the yard and began building things for fairies. I gave her some string and this is what she came up with:"It's a fairy suntanning thing."

Being a Mom

I had this big long post ready with complaints about motherhood and a few light hearted stories in to give the reader something to chuckle about...but then I decided to just say this:

Being a mom can drive a woman crazy. But then there are times when it's the best thing this woman has ever done.
Laughing with Hazel makes me so happy.

Recap

We had quite a weekend! Trey was off to SXSW and we had a house full of friends and dogs and good memories.
Ann and El came over for an old fashioned sleepover...Hazel did a read aloud with El when they first arrived. Hazel is getting better and better at reading. She still gets easily frustrated if she can't get a word right away...I remember this feeling as a beginning reader. August, Trey and I just try our best to encourage her and motivate her with lots of interesting books.
August had the Francis over from Wednesday through Sunday...talk about a sleepover! They got along just fine and had plenty of video game time. I think Hazel enjoyed the one on one time this allowed the two of us to have...

Hazel is a girly-girl

Can you read the words Hazel wrote?
The assignment was to find more interesting words for their writing. Hazel wrote about a rainbow. She used words like colorful and fantastic and...glamorous and...yes folks, "as colorful as makeup."
You'll also notice that she used the whole page and filled it with these "glamorous" colors and even included a pot of gold and a little leprechaun.

Hazel's 7th Birthday Party

Hazel had her birthday party tonight. She invited a hot list of gals and our friend Francis to go to a gymnastics center for an hour of sweaty playtime followed by an hour of pizza, cookies, water and a wrapping paper fight.


















Tomorrow is her actual day of birth and we're going out to eat at Buca with Aunt Kat and Uncle Justin along with our friends the Isreal family.

Happy Halloween from My Girl

Hazel can be found, almost daily, working on some form of art. Don't you just love the cute animals with the blood and the stitches? These are some of my favorite works of art by my girl.
She has just started sounding out words without asking for help. I just can't get enough of these examples of her work.
August is quick to tell her when the words aren't spelled just right and I have to pull him aside and gently remind him that he still spells words wrong and that I still spell words wrong and that it isn't his job to correct her right now. I want her to feel confident in her ability to read and write and with August zipping through books like A Wrinkle in Time and the Harry Potter series it can be daunting to her as she struggles through her easy readers.

Seasonal Thoughts

***I think Mike G took this picture last year at Alki Beach***


I tend to get a bit melancholy as the temps change from warm and dry to wet and, well, not warm. I would be exaggerating if I said it got cold here...yesterday it was windy and 65, today it will be rainy and 60...not too bad. But I really did love this summer. I know, we had some cold days, but they were bumpered with very warm days...and I kinda like that.
So I'm thinking about why I get down around this time of year and I realize that I have absolutely NO reason. Here's what the change in weather brings the Many Family:

Trey's birthday, October 16.
Halloween (and my brother's birthday), October 31.
Hazel's birthday, November 17.
Thanksgiving, November 27.
August's birthday, December 4.
Christmas travel dates, December 19- January 3.
My Dad's birthday, Christmas Eve.

That's a lot to plan for folks! I have nothing to be down about. There are a million things to do and yet I'm sitting on my couch with a scarf wrapped around my neck. Trey's birthday is right around the corner...and what are we going to do for Hazel's birthday this year? She is still flip-flopping between a gymnastics party and a nail polish party...decisions, decisions!

Hazel

Hazel is sitting on the other end of the couch cleaning her nails for the first time all by herself. I'm working really hard at not helping her because I want her to be able to do this herself. She is working very hard at getting all the dirt out and at one point she says, "Oh Mama, you do not want to see what's in this nail!"
Me: "Is it a booger?"
Hazel: "No, it's just a bunch of boogers....I mean a bunch of dirt!"
Me: "Glad you're cleaning them out then, huh?"
Hazel: "Yup."

Hazel, a few minutes later: "HOLY MOTHER OF STARS! That's a lot of dirt...and it kinda hurt!"

Thursday

So to give Hazel a little credit, she did wake up at 1 in the morning saying that her head was hurting so I gave her some Tylenol and she went back to sleep. But I was still surprised by the phone call from the school nurse suggesting that I come and pick Hazel up at 10:30 this morning.
I told the school that I'd be there as quick as I could but that I was in Edmonds and it may take a while, then Tank and I regretfully left the amazing dog beach and raced home.
When I arrived, Hazel was sitting on that bed thing that every school nurse office has, she didn't even notice me when I came in the room. We loaded in the car and started driving to Whole Foods to get her some soup.
During the drive we had this conversation:

Me- "OK, Haze, when we get home you can eat your soup and then you're going to go to bed."
H- "WHAT?! That's not right! I'm not even tired! I never fall asleep when I'm sick! Can't I at LEAST lay down on the couch?"
Me- "Nope. You've got to go to bed so that your body can get better. Did you think it would be fun to come home sick?"
H- "YES!!! I thought I could lay on the couch and watch TV cause that ALWAYS makes me feel better!"
Me- "Sorry baby, that is not resting, that's watching TV. Today is a school day, no TV, you know that."
H- "BUT I'M SICK!"
Me- "I know...that's why you're going to go to bed after the soup."
H- "This is TOTALLY not fair!"

So, she's eaten her soup and had a glass of water and is currently in her room. I'm sure she's not in bed, but she's quiet and she's not in front of the TV...success!

****Hazel has been asleep for about an hour now! I ended up going into her room to lay down with her, she resisted and talked....a lot...but was snoring within a half hour. TRUE SUCCESS!!****

First Day

Well, August is in 4th and Hazel is in 1st! Big day today...Grandma Klier asked August what he was going to do on his first day back to school and he said, "Pout!" He wasn't so bad though. Trey bought him a cool new hoodie and he was excited to show it off, I think it helped that we had one of his good friends over yesterday too.
Hazel was downright excited by seeing all her friends and having the same teacher that August had when he was in 1st grade. She's the classic second child in that she's ready for anything.

Here are their first day pictures from last year:And here are the pictures from today:

Hazel is super excited because she gets to have one of her good friends from preschool in her class this year. They were the first in line.

Saturday

Uncle Justin came by around 8:00am this morning to collect August so that they could make their way to an airplane show somewhere by the Tacoma Mall. Imagine August, who has become accustom to sleeping in past 10:00am, having to wake up at 7:30am! It was not a pretty sight but he managed to pull it together by the time Justin arrived.
When the field trip was over August sat in front of the TV for about 30 minutes until I told them to shut it off. He seemed pretty quiet until we got into the car...then...he started talking...and talking...about all the airplanes he saw and how big they were and the helicopter he actually GOT IN!! And a fighter plane of some sort that he was able to move the target in...HOLY COW!
Thanks Uncle Justin...August had a great time.

After he talked through everything he could remember about the day, Hazel, in a small voice said, "Hey Mama? You know I like boy stuff too."

Hazel and I had a relaxing morning together. I told her that she could pick our brunch destination and she chose:As we walked toward the yummy goodness that is Mae's we passed our friends place...so sad that they are STILL on their FREAKING vacation...Hazel and I sang about how it was probably time for them to come home so that we can ring their bell and hang out with them...let's just move on.

Hazel drew this while we waited for our food:
We had a nice time together. After brunch we took a nice walk in the our old neighborhood and checked out all the cool new shops.

Happy Saturday!

Lately

I thought of Scott when I drove past this the other day:While it's not as cool as a rabbit making a shadow of a rabbit...I thought the fish looked pretty neat.
I found it while we were on our way to Greenlake park. Kathleen was taking Jonah around the lake and we happened to be going there as well so we all met up for a stroll...
with a quick break for lunch of course.
Today Hazel went to record a song for the upcoming Rosie Thomas Christmas album. We've been listening to holiday music non-stop during the day for over a week. It's been kind of fun belting out winter songs in the dead of summer!

I'll keep you posted as to when the record is released...Hazel is sure she's going to be on the radio...we'll see.

Earlier today we took a drive out to bellevue to pick some blue berries. I didn't bring my camera because I just knew that Ann would have hers ready to go...and thankfully I was right. Keep checking her blog for shots from the day...(how's that for pressure AK?!)