Hazel Update

Boy do we love this girl lately. Her capabilities have really exploded being here with so many cousins and aunts and uncles and grandparents. She has been learning so much (including some things that I'm not thrilled about like mooning me every once in a while....not sure who she got that one from.) She has had the time of her life....but she's also really excited to get back to Boston. Almost everyday, out of the blue she tells me something that she misses about our life back there. Mostly it's that she misses her "big girl bed" (and I can see why from what she has been sleeping on during this trip!). But at times she'll just blurt out that she really misses her kitchen, or her mini van or one of her babysitters or friends. Mostly she says that she misses her daddy.

Hazel is pretty Zen sometimes. We were down at the lake one evening out "swimming" and I was commenting on how beautiful the sunset was. Here's how the conversation went:

Me: "Hazel, look how beautiful those clouds and mountains are!"

Hazel: "yep, I made them."

Me: "Really? How did you do that?"

Hazel: "just with some shaving cream that I got at Costco"

Me: "really? I thought Heavenly Father made them."

Hazel: "yep, I helped him. It was a really tricky part"

and maybe she did help him!

Hazel has had some pretty sweet moments on this trip. She is really good at interacting with her aunts and uncles and great at letting them know how much she likes them. Here are some examples:

To my mom when she arrived at the beach: "Grammie, I'm SOOO glad you're here."

To Shawni: "How did you get to be so cute Shawni?"

To Charity: "You're eyes look Beautiful!"

To me: "Mom, you're being a really good mom, that means you get a Gem."

She also has some pretty good conversation skills. Whenever we sit down to eat she'll ask me some good questions. Most of them have to do with how I like kindergarten, or what I miss at home. Today at dinner she said "So mom, how are you liking your life." Pretty deep.

She's also had her terrible two moments. She says "but MOM!" in an insistant, irritated and angry tone about 20 times a day. When I ask her to run put something away or do something she often says "I'm sorry, I can't, I'm busy." Hmmm, wonder where she got that from. She throws some fits, and often lets me know how hard it is to be an almost three year old with a clear idea of what she NEEDS and a very strong will. She's especially good lately at manipulating and procrastinating as she is being put down for bed. The other night after what seemed like a million reasons why she needed to postpone bedtime I finally shut the door on her saying "but mom, wait.....one more thing" and then after I shut the door she shouted "I LOVE YOU MOM!" She is really so sweet in her core.

I'm so happy that Hazel has so many older girl cousins to lead her along. They are all such good girls, and Hazel looks up to them so much.