Grace and Hazel

Twinkle Twinkle Superstar

brad — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 15:00:23 +0000

This video has nothing to do with this title except for the part where she is generally a superstar. It will also serve as an excellent clip for the VH1 Before They were Stars segment in 20 years or so.

The favor that I am doing in this post is not putting up video proof (not even recording it) of the duet that Grace sang with me tonight. After nearly two years of singing songs to her every single night (I do the “edutational” ABCs while Jenn pushes the one about the star) before lights out, tonight out of nowhere Grace started trying to sing the words with me. The song wasn’t the best choice for her (I would have gone with ABCs over her choice of “Tinkle, Tinkle”) and she was a little pitchy (while I was right on key) but she tried her level best to remember the next word and say it with me, which came off a little like singing along with a radio song that you don’t really know. Needless to say Jenn was Leprechaun Green with envy when I told her that her song was the first sung and sad that she couldn’t be there to express her Paula Abdul-like pride and support.

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Proud Panda

brad — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 03:45:28 +0000

IMG_0576

Originally uploaded by Lincoln Topliff

Lincoln may not have appreciated the situation but Grace couldn’t have been prouder to get to control the leash as we walked the neighborhood. Some of her pride may have stemmed from her favorite panda and her wonderful new backpack—made by the same wonderful people who created Bla Bla, Rosy and Gigi (the newest contender for Hazel’s coveted BFF spot)—courtesy of Homer and Marcia.

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Smiles, everyone, smiles!

brad — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 01:02:54 +0000

Completely oblivious to the state of the economy, the latest natural disasters and the fact that she could put her Nuk back in her own mouth if she gave it half a try, Hazel is ready to smile at just about anything! Anything includes a request from her dad in a decidedly silly falsetto.

She might be smiling with pride that her diapers now contain a big #2. By that I mean that she is getting so big that she has graduated from ill fitting #1 diapers to the much more comfortable and form-fitting #2 size. What did you think I meant?

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Sister Times 2

brad — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 19:08:23 +0000

Here is another very cute clip!

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Sister time!

brad — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 17:00:35 +0000

It has been a long time coming but we have been waiting for the right moment to let Grace hold Hazel for the first time. She needed to be relatively healthy, happy and willing which haven’t all happened at the same time, until this morning. Mostly we just wanted her to be receptive to suggestions like “Don’t put your finger in Hazel’s eye” or “Hazel isn’t ready to play Bonk” without throwing a world-class tantrum. It turns out that we didn’t need any suggestions at all, she took to big sistering like a champ.

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Welcome Benjamin Colin Pitts!!

brad — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 13:49:30 +0000

We couldn’t be more excited to welcome Benjamin into the world! Born March 7th at 1:08 AM, he is 8lbs 3oz, 22 inches, and going to have to get A LOT bigger to defend his last name in the schoolyard. His mom, Lolo (Lauren) is, was and forever will be our doula, our boob juice voodoo witch, our naughty nurse, our comic relief and our go-to encyclopedia on all things baby. She was there from minute one when Grace’s pregnancy went squirrelly and stood around looking bored when Hazel’s didn’t.

Like correcting an English teacher’s grammar, or watching a construction worker build their own house, we look forward to Ben’s progress through new baby-hood. After his 4 days-after-his-due-date entrance this morning, he is 0 for 1 on following the rules.

Congratulations to Lolo, Daddy Jay and sisters Mollie and Maggie who are all anxiously awaiting their newest family member’s lessons in how boys are “different”.

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Picking your victories

brad — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 19:35:11 +0000

One of the things parents of a two-year-old relish is the development of language skills. Words are an important, ongoing milestone. We were ecstatic when Grace said “More” and “no” and just as happy when she changed to “mas” and “nope”.

Word combinations are even more exciting because we can begin to recognize ideas and understand context. “Gracie ball” shows she knows who she is, what a ball is and who’s ball it is…all in two simple and clear words.

First sentences are the very exciting last stop before the tedious, lifelong journey of correcting grammar begins. “I reading it” feels incredibly advanced and ellicits peals of delight from us. It also ushers in a new era in which Grace gives us information that we might not have already known or—as today’s offering proved—we might not really want to know. From here on out we are not protected from the need to parent by what we do not see. Henceforth, we must avoid awkward parental choices by actively ignoring (while stifling our laughter) the little voice from the back seat that announces matter-of-factly, “I picking nose!”

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Rosy is the new Bla Bla

brad — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 06:52:45 +0000

We can’t control everything about our children, or probably anything, really. Among those things that we REALLY REALLY can’t control is our children’s friends. We can only influence, guide, cajole, coerce, recommend, suggest those that they spend their time with. With Grace, we strongly suggested that she and Bla Bla consider a long-term relationship…and it worked. It is a little early for Hazel to be picking her friends and there are surely going to be other contenders, but Grammie sent us Rosy, a few weeks ago so we thought we would get started. Grace’s Bla Bla was originally named Prudence but Bla Bla (the name of the manufacturer) is more pronounceable so we changed it. Unfortunately, to do the same thing would probably cause catastrophic confusion so we just shortened this little piggies name from “Rosalie” to “Rosy” to make things a little easier on Hazel. Only time will tell if our influence is even a little successful, but if it is, we will be able to point back to these pictures as the day they met.

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Hearty, Healthy Hazel

brad — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 05:28:33 +0000

Hazel had her 1 month check up today and we can honestly say that she has never been healthier. Just after she was born, her pediatrician (who happened to be on call at the hospital) noticed a slight murmur in her heartbeat. There was an initial shock, followed by a lot of assurances that this was pretty normal and most of the time, these things close up in the baby’s first few weeks and that, even if it doesn’t, many people have small murmurs with no impact on their lives. Of course we don’t want any asterisks on the Healthy Baby label but the various doctors that looked at her said that if you are going to have one problem, this is the one to have. We would rather not have any problems but we would just have to wait and see. Luckily, our pediatrician had a cardiologist look at it while we were in the hospital sparing us a trip to a specialist and a lot more worry

Today, we heard the great news that the murmur was gone and that Hazel had reached the 75th percentile in weight and the 50th in length and head circumference up from an all around 25th percentile. At 9 lbs 14 oz, she is gaining in weight, personality and adorable-osity every day with not an asterisk in sight.

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Too Cool for School

brad — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 00:43:54 +0000

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