Hope is the Thing: April 2013

Man oh manny, this was definitiely a Christmas to remember. As previously mentioned, we had partied with my brother and sister and their families and by the time Christmas Eve day rolled around the plan was to enjoy a quiet Christmas Eve and morning with my parents as we were flying to Australia the day after Christmas.

It started out perfect. The morning was picturesque. Big, white, fluffy flakes fell outside while Phil built a snow dragon with Ryder and Penny. I stayed inside wrapping presents while watching White Christmas with my mom who rocked a napping Hazel. I had cozy coursing through my veins.

After Hazel woke up from her nap she was a little fussy. Nothing new since she had been fighting a cold. I figured she was just tired still so I fed her and started dancing her back to sleep. Her fussiness turned into crying and my dancing turned into hopeless bouncing. And after about 3 hours of passing her from one adult to another and weighing potential problems and solutions, it was time to take her in to see a doctor. And since it was Christmas Eve the ER was our only option.

So right around dinner time on Christmas Eve Phil and I left Ryder and Penny with my parents and headed off to the ER. She was diagnosed with a nasty double ear infection. Luckily, the ER was completely empty (which I found comforting that no one was getting hurt that day) so we were able to get in and get out with an antibiotic and good advice. Our biggest concern at this point was that we had to be on a very long flight in two days.

How grateful I was to know Penny and Ryder were in such great hands still enjoying their Christmas festivities. After we got back we had a bit of a scattered family home evening lesson where we shared our thoughts about the Savior and watched a movie about his birth. All in all a success considering the circumstances of our day.

If memory serves me correctly, Hazel got a good nights sleep and had noticibly improved by Christmas morning. We enjoyed watching Penny and Ryder open their presents that morning, enjoyed Skyping with Phil's family and ate a delicious Christmas lunch.

We spent the rest of the time with my parents, packing and taking Hazel in for a follow-up appointment to get the OK for her to fly. Thankfully, her cute little ears were on the mend and we were good to go.

****And to anyone who remember Ryder's Christmas list....(he wanted two things--a dragon with special wings and...fire pants)****

Santa delivered! (phew)

It seems as though overnight Hazel became mobile. It was like one day she learned to crawl and then the next day she figured out how to pull herself up. Standing is her new passion. That's all she wants to do. She likes to find the sharpest, most precarious edges in the house to pull herself up on. She then holds on for dear life while her little legs wobble as though she's trying to set some sort of record. I'm confident that if there were a baby version of Survivor, she'd do awesome in the immunity challenges.

She's also at that glorious stage where she puts everything in her mouth. Every intake of breath, hiccup, or abnormal sound coming from her mouth makes me think she's choking on something. Sad to say, half of the time I'm right. Today alone, I've already swipped five random items out of her mouth. She's like a human lint roller.

She has also been teething a lot--or so we think since at almost eight and half months, they have yet to make an appearance.

And as for her obsession with the headless Strawberry Shortcake doll...well, there's no explaining that one.