i'm six weeks old!!

ok, i'm a few days late here, but last friday, the 24th, was hazel's six week birthday!  jana and i decided to celebrate by having our first moments alone without her since before she was born!  jana's parents judy and dana graciously volunteered (or at least said yes when jana asked) to babysit, and hazel returned the favor by sleeping pretty much the whole time!  we took the opportunity to walk 10 minutes away and eat greek food, and then we even had time for a drink and dessert at the stumbling goat afterwards.  of course 2 hours into it, we were sitting there looking at pictures of hazel on our phones (quite the change from when we first left the house, and jana was so excited we practically ran down the street), so we knew it was time to go back to the babe.

here are some six-week pics for your perusal and enjoyment...

this one doesn't seem to want to rotate, so.... turn your head.

awesome leopard print ROCK onesie courtesy of aunt ali!

i know it looks like i'm crushing her... but trust me, she's faking

outie!

hazel's first vacation

last wednesday we took an overnight trip to leavenworth, wa.  for those who don't know, it's a "bavarian village" town in the cascade mountains.  they were apparently pretty down on their luck in the 60s/70s, and decided that the best way to revitalize the town was to put up bavarian-looking false fronts on all the buildings, and change the name of everything to "das sausagehaus" and the like and to dress up the town with a million christmas lights all winter.  and hey, it worked!  it doesn't hurt that it's in the middle of beautiful mountain scenery and activity-land, too. 

so we wanted to test hazey's long-distance (or relatively so... about 2-2.5 hours each way) car skills, and our own ability to navigate hotels, restaurants, and bier hauses with her, so off we went.  and she did great!  she slept most of the way both directions in the car (minus a quick boobmilk stop on each trip), and everything else was pretty similar to negotiating our daily lives in seattle with her.  so it was a success!

hazel samples the leavenworth village inn's bedding.  despite her face, i think she approved.

one hand for baby, one hand for martini!

french onion soup is not the easiest one-handed dish, as it turns out...

not too many crowds around on a wednesday evening in late january...

jana next to the big seahawks snowthinger

das kristmaslights!

random cute picture update

aaaaaand, here are some pictures of hazel being cute.  and her mom being cute as well.

angelina and aunt sarah come to visit!

this weekend, jana's sister sarah (indeed, hazel has two aunt sarahs... we haven't yet determined what to call each one to differentiate them) and her niece angelina came to town from new jersey to visit.  it was great to hang out with them as well as jana's parents- good times indeed!

matching bear hats!

Chris is the best dad. ever.

as you might have noticed, I haven't been contributing to this blog at all. yet. so, since Chris is going back to work next week, and I have a baby sleeping on me right now, I thought I'd write my first post and try to get into the habit of posting hazys milestones on the blog. 

I don't have much to report on hazy, though I do think she's starting to smile. but I would like to say that Chris is the best and cutest dad I've ever seen (full disclaimer: I might be biased). he has been so helpful over the past five and a half weeks - helping me recover from surgery, changing diapers (he is affectionately known as "output specialist"), giving her baths, making me food, doing laundry, fixing stuff around the house, taking us to various doctors appointments, staying up with her all night for baby party time, and everything in between. pretty much everything but feeding her (I'm the input specialist). needless to say, I'm nervous about doing it all by myself starting Monday. 

so, I wanted to pay him a tribute on this blog and say thank you from hazy and me. we love you!!

a day of firsts! and a wee pink harness....

today was a day of firsts!  we gave hazel her first bottle, which was a momentous occasion since it means that jana can actually be away from her for more than 2-3 hours at a time.  she took right to it, and it worked even better once we realized we initially used a low-flow newborn nipple that let almost no milk through.  we got that fixed, and she chugged the whole bottle like a champ! 

it was also the first time jana fed her in public- in a crowded coffee shop, no less! 

and lastly, it was hazel's first day in her pavlic harness, since yesterday she saw the orthopedic doctor who confirmed that she has a bit of hip dysplasia.  it's a condition where her thigh bones aren't fully seated in her hip sockets.  this is due to a combination of risk factors- her breech position in the womb (butt down, legs up by her ears), her being a girl, and her being first born.  we knew it was a possibility that she would need to wear this harness (based on evaluations by the pediatricians when she was born) for a bit, so this wasn't a complete surprise (although we had of course hoped she could avoid it).  the harness goes around her chest, shoulders, and legs, and it is designed to pull her legs up and out, so that her thighs are encouraged to stay firmly in the hip joints.  it's not a huge imposition, since it can go over some clothes, although it changes clothing options, makes changing her more difficult, and makes her slightly less cuddly in general (don't worry- she's still plenty cuddly).  we're just glad that the doctors identified this condition early-on, and that hopefully a few weeks of harness-wearing should be all she needs.  luckily she doesn't seem to mind it too much... although hopefully her fitful and irregular sleep last night with it on was just a glitch...

drinking from a bottle, whoa!

hazel and her little pink harness

i'm one month old, whoooo!

ok, so technically hazel was one month old yesterday... but hey, not every day is ideal for a photo shoot.  so this morning it happened, and here ya go!

babytimes hangout at the demas' house!

last friday bonnie/ryan/charlotte and julie/cam/sophia came over for dinner (thanks for the mac n cheese, bonnie!), and it was a crazy baby partytime....

julie and the haze

hazel's future buddy charlotte

sophia is a little person already!  (and so is cam!)

relaxing with aunt bonnie

ladies love babies

cam is a natural... experience pays off!

animated hazygif!

the passport photos were just begging for this treatment....