Big Girl Bed

Well Hazel is now sleeping in a big girl bed. She's growing up too fast! Originally I hadn't planned to move her to the big girl bed until after the baby was born because I still thought she was too young. We did want to put it in her room though just so she could get used to having it around. Knowing Hazel we should have realized she would want to move to her big girl bed immediately:) That's just her personality.

Here she is modeling her new bed in her room the first day we set it up.
And here she is that night...

My parents had a toddler bed that was my dads then all three of us used it. My sweet mom got it all cleaned up and painted it brown to match Hazel's room. Hazel kept saying "Gram make it big girl bed!" We got it home and she immediately wanted to try it out. For the first week and a half she would ask to go to bed so she could sleep in her big girl bed! Haha. Now the novelty is wearing off a bit, but she's never gotten out more than once in a night. We've told her that if she does she will go back to the crib (and she would hate that so she's listened).Once again I'm amazed by Hazel and how well she's handles transitions. Now if only I could convince her that sleeping past 6am is fun:) She's just an early riser and always has been.

On that note, I wanted to share a story about one of those "tender mercies" from the Lord that bless our lives in small but deeply impactful ways. The week before my test was a crazy time around here. I was attempting to study from the minute Hazel went to bed until I had to get to bed every night so I wasn't getting anything else done. Guess who slept in until 7am every day that week? Hazel honestly NEVER sleeps that late. EVER. It was a huge blessing so I could wake up, read my scriptures, and do some of the other things I needed to get done before work. After my test was over she went right back to waking up between 6 and 6:15. Coincidence? I know it wasn't. Just a blessing from Heavenly Father to help keep me sane during a very stressful week. He truly knows our needs and gives us the ability to meet them. I am so thankful!

One more picture, Hazel with her new blanket that Gram made her.

50 Days and Counting!

Believe it or not, little Eliza is due in just 50 days! In some ways this pregnancy has just flown by, but it others it feels like it will never end. I'm getting to that uncomfortably large stage of pregnancy where I have a hard time sitting up, can only eat a tiny little bit but end up starving an hour later, etc, etc. I will be glad when I can hold her instead of just lugging her around:)

For the most part I have had an easy pregnancy. I did have the stomach flu this past week which was pretty miserable, but luckily it only lasted about a day. Also, thankfully she is positioned differently than Hazel was at this stage. Hazel's feet were right up in my ribs on the right side. I once had one of my right ribs dislocated while partnering for ballet and ever since it dislocates again easily. Well, Hazel LOVED kicking it out of place and it hurt so bad every time she did. I'm glad Eliza hasn't caught on it this one yet (and praying she doesn't figure it out!)

We think Hazel is getting excited to see Eliza. She will play a peek-a-boo type game with my tummy where she says "Where baby Liza? I don't know." Then lifts my shirt over my tummy "There she is!" She has also calls things "baby Liza's ____" when she sees the baby things out ("baby Liza's bath" "baby Liza's crib" etc). I hope that she does well to the adjustment and likes her little sister. They will be so close in age that I think they will quite enjoy each other's company when Eliza's a bit older. I sure hope so!

My tummy has also become a hot topic of conversation among the kids at my work. They have all definitely noticed; even some of the kids with more severe autism seem to notice the difference. One little girl just stood looking at it one day, then came up and said "touch your belly?" Another boy asked me, "Why is your belly getting so big?" My personal favorite was a boy who asked: "Your tummy is big. Why?" Me: "There's a baby growing inside. I'm going to have a baby girl." Boy: "Really! Is your baby going to hatch today!?!" It's cute to see them try and wrap their little minds around a concept that is hard for them to understand and to see them so excited.

Mike keeps complaining that I have barely taken any pictures this pregnancy. After your first the novelty of your growing stomach just wears off and all your left is less than flattering pictures. At least that's how I feel. I did take this one a few weeks ago because I was amazed how much tummy looked like a watermelon....

I'm getting so excited for her to come. I have to keep stopping myself from starting to wash clothes and pack my bag haha. It's still a bit soon for that:)

Free at Last!

My test is finally over and I'm free!!!!

It was a long haul trying to fit in studying between work, Hazel, house work, callings, and everything else, but I'm done! Mike was wonderful this past week. I seriously did not touch one dish, pick up anything, or do any laundry because he helped out so I could study as much as possible. Thanks honey!

To be honest, by Friday night I still felt like I wasn't as prepared as I wanted to be. I kept finding random things I didn't know enough about. Thankfully, those tiny things weren't that important and I feel like the test went well! It was a lot of choose the BEST answer, or which would be MOST appropriate so it's hard to say how I did. But, I felt good while I was taking it which was a huge relief. I won't know if I passed until the beginning of July, but I don't care. I'm just thrilled it's over!

Now I can move on to more important things like getting everything ready for little Eliza to come join our family! By the way, that's the baby's name.... Eliza Rosalyn Ballard. We can't wait to meet her.

Look for lots of blog updates this week since I have stuff all the way back to Easter to post (sad I know).

Our Poor Brianwashed Child (Part 2)

Life Lately...

Since I use this blog as a type of family journal, I wanted to post some updates on our life lately....


Mike just finished coaching his club volleyball team this past week. It was definitely a good experience for him, but he is glad the season is over too. He had a total of 3 full weekends (Thursday - Sunday) out of town plus several day long tournaments in Denver which made it pretty busy. I think he enjoyed coaching the girls through.

Otherwise, he's busy with school. He also has a new calling as the Elder's quorum secretary which he is excited about.


I have been busy using all of my spare time to study for my test. It's officially scheduled for May 21st. I will be glad to just take it and get it over with. So far this pregnancy has been much like Hazel's - fairly easy:) I did have a scare though about 2 weeks ago. I was having some odd pain/pressure in my pelvis that just didn't feel right. I felt it all day on Sunday despite lying down and trying to take it easy. I told my doctor about it on Monday at my normal appointment, and she said to call if I had that same feeling again. Well Tuesday I started feeling the same pressure/pain again so I called and she sent me to labor and delivery to be checked out. Thankfully, they found that nothing was wrong. The best explanation they could come up with was the baby was sitting very low and pressing on my nerves which were mimicking symptoms of pre-term labor. I didn't care much what was causing it - I was just so thankful nothing was wrong. After about a week, she moved and I've been feeling much better since. Whew!

Saturday was my work's annual 5K Run/Walk fundraiser. We had a blast! Hazel ran in the children's race before and then insisted on walking the actual 5K as well. Between her and my parent's old dog Nellie, we decided to turn back early:) It's a good thing we did. Hazel would have been fine, but poor Nellie could barely move by the end. My parent's had brought the wagon so she could ride when she got tired, but Nellie refused.



Now to the cutest part of our family....

I could blog all day about Hazel. She just gets smarter and cuter every day! Today I took her in for a check up (I'm a bad mom and completely spaced her 18 month well child check up. It was only when I called to get a current immunization record for her daycare that I realized she wasn't up to date on her shots. Oops!) Anyways, she is in the 97th percentile for her height (35 1/2 inches) but only the 10th percentile for her weight (22 lbs 7oz). Haha, such a tall, skinny girl! She makes us all jealous!

She says the cutest things all the time. The other night when I got home from work, she grabbed my purse and my lunchbox and started walking to the door saying "Bye! Hazel work." Haha!

Potty training has gone so well! She is doing great and tells us when she has to go. It was almost too easy with her. I honestly feel like she pretty much trained herself. We gave her a stear in the right direction and she ran with it. I can only hope all my kids will be so easy (though I'm not counting on it). Number 2 took a bit longer to get down, but we're going on 4 days with no poop accidents:) The other night she didn't even want to put a diaper on for bed. I told her she didn't have to, but she had to keep her panties dry. Once she was asleep I snuck in and put the diaper on so she wouldn't pee the bed. The next morning I got her up as usual but didn't remember to take her to the potty for about a half an hour. When I went to take off her diaper she was dry! I couldn't believe it! We'll still keep her in diapers at night until she moves out of her crib because most mornings she wakes up wet, but I was amazed she listened and didn't pee since she thought she was in panties.

Here's Hazel at the walk on Saturday. I wish I knew what she was thinking in this picture....
One more adorable Hazel story. The other day I was talking to her about how this week we were going to drive to Utah with Gram and Grandpa. We would see Gabby and Jake, Aunt Holly, Aunt Angel, cousin Haley, etc, etc. Then she looked at me and said/signed "Ha-son?" (aka Harrison, my brother who is on a mission). I thought it was adorable she realized Harrison was a family member we hadn't seen for a while and asked if we would see him. It almost brought tears to my eyes to tell her, no we wouldn't see him because he was on his mission. She then said "No Ha-son. Hazel sad." Ohhhh, melt my heart!

That's the news from us (sorry it was sort of scattered). I should stop procrastinating the dishes and studying, but blogging is so much more fun sometimes. Utah pictures to follow soon...

Big Girl!

Last weekend I had Friday off work so we spent the weekend potty training. Normally I wouldn't have tried so early (Hazel is almost 21 months) but Hazel was SO ready. She would bring us wipes and a diaper when she pooped, had peed in the potty several times, and wanted panties so bad.

Friday was rough with 7 accidents and only 2 successes, and Saturday morning I almost quit because she was crying every time we mentioned the potty. But by Saturday afternoon she was getting it and seemed so proud of herself. Sunday we took her to church and she had no accidents at church and even peed twice in the bathroom there!

Today was her best day by far with ZERO accidents!!!! She even told me tonight, "Potty" and then peed on her potty. Yay big girl! We are so proud of her! She is still in diapers at night, but that will come.

I'm so excited she is doing so well and thrilled beyond words that we won't have two in diapers. Hazel is one smart cookie that's for sure:)

It's Really a....

Girl!

Haha, surprise for us! I went in for my follow up ultrasound this morning since after the first they only "thought it might maybe be a boy." Turns out it's a girl! She was very photogenic today and there is no doubt that she's a girl. We are super excited. I love the adorable pictures they got today....

She was sucking on her foot. You can see her little foot right above her mouth. In the second one you can see her mouth open.


Seeing her today made me so anxious to meet her. July is coming up fast though. I can't believe it's almost April already!

Warning: If I disappear off the blogging radar soon it's because I'm studying. I will be taking a test in May to become a Board Certified Assistant Behavior Analyst. My work has paid for all my online classes and I've finished my 1000 hours of supervision so this is the last step in the process. Essentially, I'll be certified as an expert in behavior and ABA (applied behavior analysis). That means I can help a variety of people change their behavior, but specifically I will focus on children with autism. It's exciting that I'll be official soon, but I'm so out of the habit of studying. Wish me luck....

Ah, Saturday!

Life has been really busy around here lately so every Saturday is a wonderful break. Yesterday was an especially wonderful day to spend time as a family. It was a gorgeous Colorado day too!

Our day started out with a trip here....
Hazel talks about the temple all the time so we wanted to take her around the grounds. She LOVED the fountain. (And I love this picture. Sometimes her face reminds me of one of those porcelain dolls)
Then we took some family pictures in front of the temple. If you look closely in this picture you can see the baby bump...

Hazel also enjoyed running around the grounds. It was a wonderful start to the day. I loved feeling the peace of the temple and watching Hazel enjoy herself so much. She cried when we had to get back in the car and kept saying "No all done temple!" What parent doesn't enjoy hearing those words?


Next stop was Mike's volleyball tournament. He is currently coaching a club volleyball team of 18 year old girls. They had a tournament this weekend at the convention center in Denver, and sadly Hazel and I hadn't seen them play before so we were excited to go. It was "pink day" in support of breast cancer so Mike got to wear a lovely hot pink shirt:)

The girls played hard but only won 1 of the 3 games we saw.
My parents joined us, and Hazel had fun with "Gam" and "Gampa!" Hazel loves them to pieces. Of course Gram had to bring her some Oreos which she thoroughly enjoyed!
My mom also helped me turn one of the team shirts in to a little dress for her so she could be their little cheerleader. It turned out soooooo cute! Too bad she wouldn't smile for her picture.

Last, but not least, was the bouncy house.... Between the 2nd and 3rd game we took Hazel over to an area with bouncy castles and mazes. At first she wanted nothing to do with them and refused to get in. Once we convinced her it would be fun, she had a BLAST! They were closing for the night so she only got a few minutes in it before we had to get her out. I've never seen her so upset. She kept saying "Jumpy bed, jumpy bed" and crying big, fat alligator tears. It wasn't until I took her back to show her that they were deflated and had gone "night-night" that she finally calmed down.
Despite the minor melt-down, it was a wonderful day!

Fancy Hazel

I LOVE that Hazel likes to be fancy. She wears a necklace pretty much everyday because she asks for one.

The other night she went all out. She's so cute I had to share:)

Sickness

Poor Hazel had a pretty rough week fighting a nasty case of bronchitis. She had a mild case about a month ago that cleared up quickly with an antibiotic and an inhaler, but this one wasn't so easy.

Monday I took her to the doctor because I heard her wheezing again. They put her back on the inhaler and also started her on antibiotics for an ear infection. By Tuesday night she was actually worse (barely sleeping, not eating, and coughing so hard she would throw up.) I've never seen anything more sad than a toddler who is terrified because they are throwing up. She would just look at me and say "Mommy, yuckies!" while bawling her eyes out. It broke my heart so much I just let her puke all over me.

Because she obviously wasn't getting better, on Wednesday Mike took her back in to the doctor. This time they put her on nebulizer breathing treatments. Thankfully she's finally feeling better! She hated the nebulizer at first, but she's starting to get used to it. She calls it a "necklace" and will tell us "no nec-ace" or "all done nec-ace." Too cute!


Poor Mike was sick too with an adult form of the same thing. I'm so glad they're both feeling better (and that I can get some sleep again and stop doing laundry). Modern medicine is a wonderful thing.
On a brighter note, yesterday was the monthly ASL session (see here) at the Denver temple and there were a total of 12 deaf members there! It's so exciting to see the program grow!