Christmas morning, in their annual matching PJs: Nightgown, pants and sleep sack (respectively), as requested
Seeing as it is now well into January, I clearly have a bunch of blog catch-up to do. The holiday lead-up, Christmas and our whirlwind trip to New Brunswick, and now all that has transpired since the dawn of 2019. Also, as it just so happens, today is a particularly noteworthy one: Hazel is officially 6 months old. Unbelievable, I know. So sit down, grab a tea, and get ready for a whole lot of photos!
The Lead-up
The lead-up to Christmas this year involved the usual (and always exciting) ridiculousness: Solstice fairies, school concerts, gingerbread houses, Christmas tree trimming, and as much wintery outdoor time as we could manage.
Walking across the frozen Oathill Lake one day while the older two were at school
Close-up on the adorable adventure baby
Linden and I went for a couple of mother-son Shubie walks to burn off some energy
No Lindens went for an unexpected swim during the taking of this shot (phew!)
When putting the garden to bed for the season, one should always take advantage of the empty garden beds
Dressed in matching blue velour for Juniper's school concert
Enjoying the concert from the balcony!
My favourite part of the gingerbread houses this year: the amazing "stained glass" (melted gummy bear) windows.
Poor Linden was sick the day we put these together, so he dictated what candy should go on his house, and where he wanted it.
Trimming the tree...
...
... and eating the ornaments when offered the opportunity to join in.
Walrus tusks. (Eating my parents' bits and bites)
Looking cute while looking on
The three siblings, looking very festive
New Brunswick
Ever since Juniper was born, Clark and I have made it our policy to spend Christmas at our own home. Often, however, weather and time and health permitting, we have tried to make at least a short little holiday trip to New Brunswick during the holidays - usually somewhere between Christmas and New Years. This year, what with having a 5-month-old and everything, I might have campaigned to just stay put. But... the lure of seeing so many friends and family all in one go is just too tempting. So, after having Christmas and Boxing Day in Dartmouth, off we went for a wee, relatively crazy trip to Fredericton and then to the farm. We had my parents' house to ourselves, as they spent Christmas in Vancouver, so we didn't even have to put anyone out. There were meals, loads of gatherings, and some magical Canadian wintery fun. I'm really glad we made the effort!
In Fredericton:
The four cousins!
A true scotch connoisseur, just like her dad.
Linden looking at this year's calendar
Group snuggle at Pat and Liz's awesome brunch
Rocking some fancy velour and rainbow slippers
Hanging with grandma and grandpa
Erin and Zack got to meet Hazel for the first time!
At the farm:
The tradition as of late as been to do New Year's Eve at the farm, complete with wintery cold bonfire. This year we did just that, but a day early so that we could get home before a raging Maritime storm hit. So... a New Year's Eve Eve celebration, if you will. This meant we were only actually at the farm for about 24 hours, but as it just so happened, the skating conditions were ideal. There was consequently a LOT of skating that happened over that 24 hours, some of which was on the Saint John river (we could have gone for kilometres if we'd wanted - it was amazing).
Juniper hangs with Sylvia
The Saint John River skating begins
Practicing some hockey skills
Out comes a sled that has been around for... maybe 60 years?
Theresa, Scott and Sylvia join the festivities
The most devoted skaters!
Hazel napped while I took pictures and enjoyed the day (sans skates, of course)
The light was so amazing that afternoon
Losing the sun
Tracks on the ice
Here is a video of one of the very favourite ice activities:
Juniper brought her piano books with her so that she could play some holiday tunes
Hazel and Sylvia discuss their thoughts on being posed with cracker crowns. They were non-plussed.
Best. Look. Ever.
The best I could do to capture the NYE bonfire. No one skated into it, thank goodness.
And finally: Hazel at 6 months!
A snapshot of Hazel right now:
a) This is a girl who wants to MOVE. She can roll herself around the room if she wants, but has been more interested these days in trying to figure out how to crawl. She will get up on hands and knees, and then flop back down on her belly, flailing like a fish out of water, and making frustrated noises. Then she'll scootch backwards, and repeat the process. So, she has not yet moved forward, but could cross the room backwards if she chose to. I think she'll figure out the forwards motion sooner rather than later. Here's a little stop-motion animation of her process:
b) We've started giving her food whenever she sits down with us at meals, and she is VERY pleased with this development. She has mostly just been experimenting and making a huge mess, but she clearly has also been ingesting at least some of it. She'll no doubt master this skill at some point in the near future as well... in the meantime, Clark and I will become masters of clean-up!
Very first meal: steamed carrots and broccoli, and some water
After feeding herself some prunes and apricots. This was perhaps her very favourite meal, for obvious reasons.
c) She LOVES her siblings. Her face lights up whenever she sees them, and honestly, they take very good care of her.
Juniper, going in for a diaper change
d) She wants to touch everything, all the time. Then, anything that she gets her chubby little hands on goes directly in her mouth.
A little too interested in the jade.
"This play gym is WAY better sitting up! They can ALL go in my mouth!"
e) She decided early on that she was not interested in a soother, nor was she interested in her thumb. Lately, her solution has been to chomp on her fingers. These two fingers, to be exact. Hopefully this doesn't become a "thing" for years hence, but for now, it seems to soothe her poor sore gums.
Just before bed, at the farm
Again, just with much more artsy light
f) Hazel has endured more colds and sniffles than a poor girl should in the first 6 months of her life. This meant that early on, we started showering with her rather than just straight-up bathing her, in hopes that the steam would help. Typically, she sits in her little tub while the shower runs. She LOVES it, and looks longingly at the shower head after it is turned off. She has also become a master splasher. Lately, however, she has also been trying to grab and then eat the shower curtain, which is obviously disgusting, so we'll have to try and outsmart her if she's going to continue getting cleaned in this way.
In her happy place
g) Clark's three month parental leave has now come to an end (sob!), which means that Hazel and I have been spending our days together, just the two of us. The upshot of this is that Clark has been requesting that I send him periodic pictures throughout the day, which means I get some candids I would otherwise never have thought to get:
Quintessential laundry basket shot
The smiles I get after she wakes up from a good nap
Trying to get her to smile for a selfie
Just hanging out in a hot pink athleisure suit with ridiculous hair
Again, with the ridiculously cute wake-up smiles
Isn't she lovely?
And that's enough for one post, I'd say! Oh, except for this one final video, which Linden put together (with Clark's help) during yesterday's snow day. It is about "bad guys", cops, and a canon. They used his new Lego movie creation book that he got for Christmas, and playing with things like focus. Stay tuned: Linden also did a little JuniperandLinden.org video about the process of making a Lego stop-motion animation movie, which I'll edit down (he was... long-winded), and then post in the next couple of days.
