splish splash

playgroup last wednesday was at hermann park. all of the kids wore swimsuits and played in the fountains:

the girls, of course, had tons of fun:

lucy preferred splashing in the muddy puddles (lucky me):

happily, hazel was more excited to feed the ducks:

turns out they don't much care for ritz crackers. strike two, mommy.

today we planned on going to the discovery green downtown. so this morning we put the girls in their swimsuits and headed out:

oops.

we left anyway, thinking we might have a little time to play before the storm could catch up. wrong, again. this is what it looked like at the first major light (about 1/2 mile from our gate):

hmmmmm. at this point we decided to just drop grant off at school. it was slow going. houstonians treat rain like utahns should treat snow, i.e. they drive very slllllooooooooooooowww. just as we got on to the freeway, the car in front of us nearly caused a wreck by stopping. there was a big puddle in his way. anyway, we made it passed a couple exits and this sign:

"hurricane season is here...be prepared" oh, happy thought! this is where grant gave up and got off the freeway. we splashed our way back home (hopefully missing any pedestrians that happened to be on the sidewalk or at a bus stop):

and, go figure, by the time we got home it was barely sprinkling. so we let the girls brave hypothermia:

this is one of their favorite things to do. lucy especially can't get enough. she runs back here whenever we're outside to see if the puddle is there:

at first they were content with just running back and forth through it:

but soon enough, it was this:

and finally, this:

hazel is a stingray and lucy is a very rare water-loving cat. the best part of all of this splashing is (no, not the laundry) the tantrums that get thrown while trying to get back inside.

it's a good thing they're both so stinking cute.

happy anniversary?

i can hardly believe that it has been a whole year since ike passed through. it was an. . . .experience, one that does not need repeating, especially since our new apartment has electric appliances, not gas. that would mean no stove top birthday cake, no warm showers, no hot meals. . . it's kind of funny reading over my 'hurricane' posts. i'm optimistic and pessimistic in turns. hazel was more affected than i would have thought possible for a not-quite-2-year-old, she still says, 'yay! power!' when she notices the refrigerator clicking on.

hazel's hat, hair & other type hits

i have some more hazel stories for y'all. on march 3rd, grant took the girls to the zoo while i went out to lunch with kandice (it was during spring break and i got the whole day off. it was awesome.). one of hazel's favorite animals to see is the tiger. on this particular day the tiger was sleeping in the furthest corner away from all the people. grant told hazel to tell the tiger to come out. so hazel yelled, "come 'ere, tiger! i wanna tell you a secret!"

this next story i wouldn't normally want to immortalize, but it reminded me of a story gail has written down in grant's baby book. hazel likes counting and we often ask her to count 'how many' of something. at the end of february she came up to me in the kitchen and said, "how many boogers? 1...2...3...i counted the boogers!" it was cute because she was so excited, and funny only because she's mine. the story about grant is somewhat similar. when he was about the same age as hazel, he wanted to go with his dad in the truck somewhere for work. his dad had had a long day and told him to sit still. after sitting still for a little while, grant asked his dad if he could 'pick his nose' (at least that's how i remember the story going and i haven't heard it in a while.).

lucy had a pretty nasty cold back in february and still has the cough. on march 7th, grant was feeding lucy her fruit and vegetable with hazel standing by. lucy began coughing and hazel laughed, a superior laugh, and said, in a very patronizing tone, "oh, woo-cy, don't barf!"

doing hazel's hair is kind of a frustrating thing. this isn't just because she doesn't hold still, but also because her hair is so super fine it won't stay put. well despite this, i was adventurous yesterday and decided to try french braids:

it turned out pretty well. her hair was dry when i did it so i think next time i'll do it when it's wet, maybe with a little gel. i'm really glad i took a picture right after i braided, because they didn't last long. they made her pretty happy though:

next on the list would be hazel's new wardrobe. she is so skinny and tall. all of her 2t/24 month clothes from last year fit, they're just too short. so i went to target for something (ha! i'm racking my brain trying to figure out what i was intending to get...did i even get it?) and ended up in the toddler/baby section somehow... anyway they have fairly good prices so i looked around and got hazel a few shirts and found these awesome shorts (note: the shirt in this picture is an old 2t shirt. it fits well, when she's not raising her arms):they're long! hazel's previous shorts had been dubbed 'hot pants' by grant. it was so great to find these long ones and she really works them! especially with her hand-me-down etnies:this brings me to the latest purchase, hazel's new hat. we all know what a big head she has, it's been difficult to find hats that actually fit her head. this one is a perfect fit so it won't last long, but it is so cute!

and finally, this last picture i took on the way home from the park (not the one in the background):

hazel wanted to walk home and i let her, figuring she would get tired soon since she had been running all over the grass and the park is just barely under a mile from home. she surprised me and made it halfway before letting go of my hand and trying to run away, thus earning a seat in the stroller. this picture was taken just before that happened. i took it because i thought it was the stump of one of this tree that fell during hurricane ike:

but if you look in the lefthand corner you can see part of the stump. apparently it was already there.

**just a quick word on the potty training issue. thanks for all the comments and advice. they were most helpful. i've decided to not push her. each morning i give her the choice to wear panties or a diaper and so far she has picked panties once, only to back out of it as soon as i sat her on the potty to make the change. i don't think she is really ready, emotionally or physically, so i'm not going to press it until this summer (when grant is around to clean up all the mess, heeheehee...).

the rain, the duck and the laundry

this post is a compilation of several stories i've been meaning to write about (at least that is my excuse for it being so disjointed).

*for the past couple of days it has rained heavily. so heavily, in fact, that last night i was having flashbacks to hurricane ike. we did not flood last night, however, though it seemed to rain hard enough. it has been nice having to wear jackets, makes it feel more like fall.

*hazel was confused the other day. lucy was wearing this:

somehow hazel thought that she saw this:so she pushed the duck on lucy's shirt expecting to hear a 'quack'. she was pretty upset when lucy didn't produce the same sound and cried out in frustration, "i can't do it! duck broken!"

*yesterday i started laundry for this week. beginning with the kids clothes, i went through the usual motions involved with this task, then fed lucy a bottle and got hazel to pick up her toys. when that load was done washing, i went to put it in the dryer. the first thing i noticed that was not quite right, was that one of hazel's old shoes had been washed with the clothes. no big deal, probably needed it anyway. then i found it, an unused diaper that must have been in the basket with the clothes. for those who don't know what happens when a disposable diaper gets wet, i will explain. there is some sort of lining that expands and turns to an almost jelly-popcorn consistency. this past summer we let hazel play in a neighbors kiddy pool with a regular diaper, not knowing that they make swim diapers for a good reason. hazel's diaper expanded and covered her with this jelly junk. anyway, back to the laundry. every piece of clothing, each blanket, burp cloth and towel, was covered in this diaper stuff! i had to shake it all off on to the floor and vacuum it up.

i had closed the door to keep hazel out of the room and when i came out, she was standing in the hallway looking guilty. getting nervous i asked her what she was doing and she replied in gibberish. so i hurried around trying to see what she had gotten into. i found the toothpaste open on the couch, luckily it hadn't been squeezed yet! then i looked at lucy.....she was surrounded by baby wipes. hazel had given her a sponge bath! (in writing this post, i've just realized that it could have been really bad -- hazel could have covered lucy in toothpaste!)

*here are a couple more silly stories. hazel has a strange and bizarre affection for inanimate objects, such as the vacuum (pictured above), lampposts, her sippies, etc. the other day she was leaving a room and upon noticing the vacuum leaning against a wall said "buh-bye vacuum! nigh-night! ohhhh, big hug!" yes, she did hug it. she puts her sippies to nigh-night in the fridge and cuddles them like her baby-doll. she is very affectionate to grant, lucy and me as well. every morning she gives grant a hug and kiss and just as he's is about to open the door she says " 'nother big hug? 'nother kiss?" it's very sweet.

*hazel has also started skipping! it is so cute. on sunday she was skipping over to grant who was holding lucy on the couch and lucy was laughing so hard. she loves watching hazel play and tries to follow her every movement.*hazel's new game is playing house in her tent. her favorite movie to watch lately is the muppet christmas carol. she calls it 'froggy movie'.

how to bake a cake on the stovetop

ruth's birthday came before we got our power back. she was saying she really wanted a cake and was bemoaning the apparent fact that it was not going to happen. i had purchased a cake mix from the store (operating on generators) the day before and planned to cook it while she had a nap. after i mixed it up, i realized that i wasn't going to be able to light the oven (no knob for the gas). drawing on all that macgyver we've been watching, i filled a large skillet with a layer of crinkled tinfoil. on top of that i put a spring-form cake pan with about 3/4 the batter in it. i put the lid on the skillet (glass lid lets you watch without opening) and turned the gas to medium-low. nothing happened for about the first half hour or more. but then bubbles started coming up, and after about an hour it was done. the bottom was a little burnt. i cut it off, and the rest was fine. i had it frosted and in the freezer (cooled with ice) before ruth woke up. but i overlooked some of the evidence, which she quickly spotted. so it wasn't a complete surprise.

psalms 30:5

so, i am feeling rather sheepish about last night's post - but mostly i am overflowing with joy. our power came on this morning at about 9:30 (hallelujah!), just after i had decided that i wasn't going to the store again, for ice. i never thought that i would be so happy to do the laundry. i am sooooo grateful to have the a/c back online - i will never take it for granted again (at least not today). i am so relieved that the girl's heat rashes will now go away. i want to break into a song and dance every time i hear the refrigerator click or the washer switch to the spin cycle. hazel has watched her third movie and just went down for a nap with visions of the fan twirling in her head. lucy is happily gurgling next to me. life is beautiful. what a far cry this post is from last night's. i guess Heavenly Father really does know how much i can endure.

where is the light at the end of the tunnel? (literally)

9 days!!!! is there no pity? i know i am not the only one without power here and i know there are so many worse off than me, but i am not it the mood to be fair or long-suffering. reading my 'lights out...' post, i can't believe i was so chipper. i don't think i can take anymore sweaty, sticky heat. the nice cool weather is apparently over. nothing but bugs come in the windows; not a lick of breeze. i have hundreds of mosquito bites, so do lucy and hazel. it is too hot to cook, too hot to sleep. i am sure i should be learning some sort of life-lesson here, but i am too lethargic to wonder what it could be.

HAPPY . . .

birthday Ruth!

lights are out and everybody's home

so we are coming up on 5 days without power!!! who would have thought we could survive so long? not me. i find it rather funny that we have no power but we still have access to the internet (when the lappy is plugged into the car, anyway. thanks again for the adaptor, dad). we have been really lucky with the weather the last couple of days. it has been staying in the 80's during the day and 60's at night, so with the windows open we get our apartment down to the mid-70's. it is great. even the humidity is mostly gone! it has been really nice for me to have nothing to do-can't do laundry, no dishes (i love paper plates!) and grant home to help with the girls. hazel has been doing very well without her movies. she starts asking for one and then says, "movie later, tv power broken." she misses having her ceiling fan on but knows that it is 'broken' too. despite the lack of sesame street, she has wow-ed us by reciting the abc's without missing a letter! i knew she had most of it down thanks to "abc bears" (s.s. episode with baby bear learning the abc's from big bird) but i was still amazed. she is so clever.

hazel 'reading' with flashlight

pictures

the slide show is up and running with pictures of our neighborhood after hurricane ike. enjoy.

we're alive!

well, we made it. hurricane ike has finally passed over us. it was a scary night, for me anyway. the wind was howling loudly and throwing things into our building. i wasn't able to sleep much due to the noise and worry. grant slept just fine and keeps telling people it wasn't bad. when the wind was at its worst and i was bracing myself for shattering windows, grant started talking in his sleep, scaring me even more. i have to keep reminding him that the wind blew very hard all night! we were very blessed, the worst that happened to us was flooding. at about 6 a.m. we woke up to find a half inch of water in the hallway. it had just come into our bedroom and got the bookcase and box springs slightly wet. the water came not from the door or large window in the front, but from the flooding on the side of our building:

grant was able to clean up the water fast enough and luckily the rain slowed and the flooding stopped. we walked to our neighborhood park this afternoon and saw lots of big trees laying on their sides, smashing things. i took some outside 'before and after' pictures for you to see, but i am having trouble uploading them to this post. i will try to put them into a slide show.

houston, we have a problem.

yes, that is a hurricane and yes, it is headed straight for us. this morning we added to the chaos that is houston. we went to the store. we bought some of few remaining cases of water, wrestled for non-perishable food items and stocked up on diapers. batteries were gone, ice-gone, alcohol-going fast. we are considering evacuating if grant's professor does. she is going to call us if they decide to go. otherwise we are going to batten down the hatches and hope that hazel doesn't ask for movies too often. she is really excited that the hurricane is coming thanks to grant's pep talks -"hazel, guess what--a hurricane is coming, yeah!"

will post again as soon as i can after ike leaves us alone and power comes back on.

p.s. don't worry we really are taking it seriously.