Grace and Hazel http://www.graceandhazel.com/blog More girls than one Dad deserves. Fri, 03 Sep 2010 17:53:44 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 Welcome Zoe Anika Johnson! http://www.graceandhazel.com/blog/2010/09/welcome-zoe-anika-johnson.html http://www.graceandhazel.com/blog/2010/09/welcome-zoe-anika-johnson.html#comments Fri, 03 Sep 2010 17:50:29 +0000 brad http://www.graceandhazel.com/blog/?p=1086 It’s raining babies around our stork-awaiting friends.  Hot on the heels of Charlie came little Zoe on Wednesday.  She is actually in LA but we don’t hold that against her, it is her parents’ (Bart and Susie) fault for living so far away from civilization.  She came into the world with what Susie seems to imply was very little effort, but I am guessing it was harder than it sounded.  At 6 lbs 9 oz and 20.5 inches long, Zoe is happy, healthy and hopelessly cute.

Her mom writes a great blog (or did before she had a kid) and she describes the whole thing better (and in more detail) than I ever could.

http://emphasisonjoy.wordpress.com/2010/09/02/welcome-to-the-world-zoe-anika-johnson/

]]> http://www.graceandhazel.com/blog/2010/09/welcome-zoe-anika-johnson.html/feed 0 Rockin’ Good Luck Hazel http://www.graceandhazel.com/blog/2010/08/good-luck-hazel.html http://www.graceandhazel.com/blog/2010/08/good-luck-hazel.html#comments Tue, 31 Aug 2010 23:50:51 +0000 brad http://www.graceandhazel.com/blog/?p=1077 I posted this video to Facebook but I felt I needed to immortalize it here and make sure that people who read the blog but avoid the ultimate timesuck of social networking don’t miss 2 solid minutes of cuteness.

Hazel starts doing her impression of either a head-bangin’ rocker or one of those teetering birds that drink from a glass of water. Grace then joins to display her affection for Hazy and her belief that rubbing her sister’s head is good luck.

IMG 1276 from Brad Topliff on Vimeo.

]]> http://www.graceandhazel.com/blog/2010/08/good-luck-hazel.html/feed 0 Welcome Charles George Phillips! http://www.graceandhazel.com/blog/2010/08/welcome-charles-george-phillips.html http://www.graceandhazel.com/blog/2010/08/welcome-charles-george-phillips.html#comments Thu, 26 Aug 2010 18:58:27 +0000 brad http://www.graceandhazel.com/blog/?p=1073 Grace and Hazel take great delight in welcoming their new friend Charles George Phillips into the world. The new son of Rick and Jess and brother of Sam was born this morning at 8:45AM and weighed in at 7lbs 1oz and measured 19.25 inches long. No word on whether he cries with an English accent (like his dad).  Jess and Charlie are doing great!

CGP

]]> http://www.graceandhazel.com/blog/2010/08/welcome-charles-george-phillips.html/feed 0 Happy 7-Month-and-four-day-iversary, Hazel! http://www.graceandhazel.com/blog/2010/08/happy-7-month-and-four-day-iversary-hazel.html http://www.graceandhazel.com/blog/2010/08/happy-7-month-and-four-day-iversary-hazel.html#comments Wed, 25 Aug 2010 16:32:10 +0000 brad http://www.graceandhazel.com/blog/?p=1069 1000001120

It’s a good thing Hazy has no concept of the calendar and cares little about anything but where her next bottle and the subsequent snuggle are coming from. If she was less focused on those things and could read, she might have noticed that the blog lacked a certain triumphant declaration of her 7th monthiversary. She may have seen the picture posted on Facebook (if she would bother friending her dad) that Nana took last weekend but she wouldn’t have read anything about her new hobby: rolling over in her sleep and then sleeping until 8, her tendency toward chattiness (dadadadadadadadadada) or her incredible prowess at sitting up and feeding herself crackers. She is still too young to have poke-a-deed without the direct supervision of her big sister (obviously) but she is still the happiest, cutest, cuddliest baby we could ask for.

Happy (belated) Monthiversary Hazy!

]]> http://www.graceandhazel.com/blog/2010/08/happy-7-month-and-four-day-iversary-hazel.html/feed 0 got poke-a-deed? http://www.graceandhazel.com/blog/2010/08/got-pocadee.html http://www.graceandhazel.com/blog/2010/08/got-pocadee.html#comments Tue, 17 Aug 2010 20:40:53 +0000 brad http://www.graceandhazel.com/blog/?p=1052 I am still mostly in the dark about this mysterious thing called “poke-a-deed” that Grace has been mentioning lately with some regularity.

Here is what I know:

    • Hazel and Grace have it together!
    • Daddy does NOT have it
    • It looks like friends
    • They like to have it



Here is what I suspect:

    • It may come from school/daycare
    • It is probably a good thing (unless you force feed it to an infant)
    • It’s origin may be spanish, spanglish, toddlish or some other hybrid of toddler+languages
    • It might taste like cereal



Judge for yourself (and please tell me if you figure it out)…

100 0209 from Brad Topliff on Vimeo.

]]> http://www.graceandhazel.com/blog/2010/08/got-pocadee.html/feed 0 Well, me talk good! http://www.graceandhazel.com/blog/2010/08/well-me-talk-good.html http://www.graceandhazel.com/blog/2010/08/well-me-talk-good.html#comments Sun, 15 Aug 2010 21:20:38 +0000 brad http://www.graceandhazel.com/blog/?p=1036 The other night at dinner, Jenn wanted to remind Grace to chew her food completely and she, to make it perfectly understandable to a 2-year-old, she decided to ignore the rules of grammar (which she knows PERFECTLY well, thankyouverymuch!) when she said “Gracie, chew your food good!”. Grace’s looked up at Mommy and her cute little high-pitched voice confirmed “Chew my food well?”

For all of the cute-but-slightly-wrong things that Grace says, It’s hard to decide when to correct them and when to just leave them cute. For example, for Grace, when you pass gas, it’s called a “farp”. We left that one alone, which may make her the laughingstock of the playground someday but for now, we have adopted it ourselves.

Another one is “amorrow”, as in the day after today. When she can’t do something today, Grace often holds the hopeful expectation that amorrow it might work out. I’ve tried to fix this one. Every time she suggests an activity for amorrow, I say “No Gracie, TOmorrow,” and, for reasons that lie well out of my meager understanding of the two-year-old mind, she says “five minutes”. Every time. It’s like every time Costello says “I don’t know” and Abbott answers “Third Base”. There is nothing left to say. I think the TO/TWO thing might be confusing her so perhaps I should just teach her to say “on the morrow” and curtsy.

A couple other ones that come to mind:

    If you are sitting down you can “stam up”
    If the floor is wet you must “Be carefully” because it might be “slipily”
    If you are a small dog and do something funny you are “slilly Lincoln”
    In the morning when I get Grace from her bed she asks me to “carry you me downstairs”
    If you don’t want to get burned, you put on “some screen”

There are many more and they seem evenly split between things that are just hard to say when you are two and things that are hard to hear when people talk fast.

]]> http://www.graceandhazel.com/blog/2010/08/well-me-talk-good.html/feed 1 Mmmmm crackerzzzzzz http://www.graceandhazel.com/blog/2010/08/mmmmm-crackerzzzzzz.html http://www.graceandhazel.com/blog/2010/08/mmmmm-crackerzzzzzz.html#comments Tue, 10 Aug 2010 01:58:20 +0000 brad http://www.graceandhazel.com/blog/2010/08/mmmmm-crackerzzzzzz.html

]]> http://www.graceandhazel.com/blog/2010/08/mmmmm-crackerzzzzzz.html/feed 0 The Phillips + Firetrucks = Awesome! http://www.graceandhazel.com/blog/2010/08/the-phillips-firetrucks-awesome.html http://www.graceandhazel.com/blog/2010/08/the-phillips-firetrucks-awesome.html#comments Sun, 01 Aug 2010 19:16:42 +0000 brad http://www.graceandhazel.com/blog/2010/08/the-phillips-firetrucks-awesome.html We worked out this wonderful deal yesterday where our good friends, Rick, Jess and little Sam got to spend time with Grace and Hazel and we got to…well…not do that. Everybody wins, especially Grace, who got to ride point on this San Francisco firetruck. Everybody loves a firetruck! Rick got to wear a fire hat and pretend to steer the back of the truck with Sam but for some reason didn’t send me that picture.

Grace had such a good time she announced that she needed to come back and visit “Rick, Sam and Dress (Jess)” again amorrow.

Thanks for taking such good care of our girls. I’m sure we will leap at the chance to do the same for you when the new baby gets here let you do it again.

]]> http://www.graceandhazel.com/blog/2010/08/the-phillips-firetrucks-awesome.html/feed 1 Hazy wanna cracker? http://www.graceandhazel.com/blog/2010/07/hazy-wanna-cracker.html http://www.graceandhazel.com/blog/2010/07/hazy-wanna-cracker.html#comments Tue, 27 Jul 2010 02:30:53 +0000 brad http://www.graceandhazel.com/blog/?p=1029 After months of only ripping her pacifier out of her mouth, just when she really needs it, those infernal hands are finally doing Hazel’s bidding…

]]> http://www.graceandhazel.com/blog/2010/07/hazy-wanna-cracker.html/feed 0 Happy Place http://www.graceandhazel.com/blog/2010/07/happy-place.html http://www.graceandhazel.com/blog/2010/07/happy-place.html#comments Fri, 23 Jul 2010 21:24:09 +0000 brad http://www.graceandhazel.com/blog/?p=1024 While I was conference calling into Hazel’s 6 month check-up today (as I often do), I heard her pediatrician ask how Grace and Hazel got along. I wanted to yell into the phone “CHECK OUT THE VIDEO!!” but I realized that I hadn’t posted the video yet, and that Jenn shoving her iPhone into Dr Piel’s face was probably unseemly. Here is the video that, I think, says it all.

The current status is LOVE. Hazel can’t help smiling whenever she sees Grace and Grace just wants to give her little sister kisses and hugs. Grace shares her toys and her special chair without a moments hesitation because “She’s my sistuh”.

Who knows if this mutual adoration will stand the test of time. They almost have to fight at some point in the future when they realize they want the same thing at the same time and there is only one of said thing…like boys…ugh. When that time comes, I will lock myself in a room and watch this video over and over again as my “happy place”.

This picture is pretty good too…

Sisters

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