the thursday after the first night that we ever set ears inside the silver dollar, i called my mom raving and she wanted to know how long i thought it would be until mikey was on stage with any of them.

so hazel was eight months old a few days ago:

- her sleeping has not changed (she still is) and her mobility has not changed (she still isn’t), but she’s way different and way more fun over the past month.
- she knows how to wave hello / goodbye and is generally interacts much more with people, and tolerates other people for longer periods of time.
- she is usually amused by other people’s attempts to entertain her instead of just confused – if you make her toys talk or filp your sunglasses up and down really fast or any other baby-amusement-things, she will almost always smile or laugh instead of just staring at you with her brows furrowed.
- she still babbles incessantly and now says “mama mama mama” :)
- she cut her third tooth to the right of her bottom two.
- the car is much easier – she can be entertained by toys and snacks. no more crying fits.
- she continues to be obsessed with food – in the past month she’s had papaya, olives, tofu, cheerios, a wee bit of cheese, rice, watermelon, and probably some other stuff – still have not found a food that she doesn’t like. she can feed herself little finger foods and it’s quite adorable to see.
- being on her belly is somewhat more tolerable since she can push herself up really well and scootch around a little.
- her hair is growing back.
- she will sit in the bathtub splashing and screaming until the water goes cold if you let her. she can’t scoop up a cupful of water, but if she happens to pick up her cup and it’s already full of water, she will attempt to dump it on her head.
- she’s still in skinny clothes and small fuzzibunz (not for much longer, i don’t think – her legs are her only chubby feature), and i found some size one disposables at my parents house that still fit her with room to grow… i can still circle my hands all the way around her waist :) not sure how much she weighs – so “heavier” will have to suffice.
- her favorite toys are a little people ark full of animals (great yardsale find!), wooden stacking rings, nesting cups, other little stuff like that, a velvety/silky little taggie blanket… and of course her spatula. she now has bright measuring spoons to go with her spatula and she’s pretty in love with them. still doesn’t care too much about stuffed animals, blankets, or have anything like that that’s her “comfort” thing. i was starting to think this was weird until kelly pointed out that it’s probably because she nurses for comfort – duh.
- she loves books. absolutely loves them. plays with board books “by herself” and i’ve been trying to get through her regular storybooks because she now only sometimes gets really grabby / rips at them. i don’t have to read to her with her arms pinned down.
- when she wakes up from a nap we can hear her in bed just talking to herself for awhile – it’s so cute.
- since paisley has not been here to tell her when daddy’s home, she has learned the sound of his key hitting the lock and her head snaps towards the door, and then she dazzles him with her snaggletooth grin.

Tiny, vintage, mustard-colored elementary school chairs for hazel – $2.00 each at yardsale… freshened up the legs with black rustoleum and they are patiently waiting for her to get big enough to use them.

Pretty fruit skewers for a summer picnic – I love projects where everything comes from the dollarstore. Skewers, wooden bees and flowers, and glittery hot glue – all $1.00 per pack.

Shirt for Hazel’s first rock show :) Stitched a handmade patch onto a long-sleeved shirt that she already had – felt was twenty cents per sheet.

Ok, not a craft project, but she’s so darn cute – Hazel & I sitting on a caboose. She’s wearing her banjo shirt from Sarah Holsapple. She’s going to bust out of it by the end of summer so I really need to buy the next size up… it’s Mikey’s favorite.

Listening: Ryan Adams
Reading: almost done with Columbine
Working on: Etsy photo revamp – after a battle with Ritz camera, who lost the macro filters I ordered and wouldn’t respond to emails, Amazon has refunded my money, I bought filters from elsewhere, spraypainted my props, and I’m ready to go…

when the weather is like today’s i almost always get the song “three marlenas” by the wallflowers in my head. i haven’t actually listened to this song since grade nine, probably. a degree difference in either direction would mean a different song i’m sure – but it’s a wallflowers day. so i am listening to it for real. for bob dylan’s kid, he sure didn’t go very far.

home was awesome. a list:

+ spending a few days at the farm was just what i needed to remind me why i joined the catholic church – after a bunch of bullshit that happened regarding luca’s baptism (isn’t that the weirdest statement one should ever have to make?) – i was swimming about four-hundred feet from the boat and feeling like i was throwing hazel to the dogs, in a way.

+ mikey dragged me back on the boat, jesus fish clutched in hand (as andrea says), and all ended well thanks to good catholic priests and lots of good friends to remind me that some asshole priests are not the catholic church. the double-baptism went off without of hitch and with an efficiency that exceeded my brother’s expectations (i think he thought he was settled in for a couple of hours). lots of people came and we had beautiful weather for a picnic.

+ i found two tiny, vintage, fiberglass school chairs for hazel at a yardsale. i rustoleum-ed the legs in black and the shiny new coating really makes the mustard-colored seats pop. they were two dollars each – find of the day.

+ also found a pristine set of pyrex milkglass teacups in a brown-flower pattern that i’ve never seen before (one dollar), a seventies owl spoon rest that i will probably give to manda (one dime), several records for mikey (five bucks), and a basket of vintage plastic fruit that was mostly MUSHROOMS – i have never seen mushrooms in a fake fruit arrangement – they are fabulous (one dollar). hazel got a little people noah’s ark, whose clearly heterosexual animal pairings she is in love with – i suppose procreation is the point, but it’s still kind of annoying. she is mostly in love with the zebras, with giraffes at a close second because they have very eatable faces. i also got a brand new christmas tree stand – the ingenious kind – for a dollar. because… we will live somewhere this christmas that we can have a REAL TREE.

+ all i was looking for were dressers (none to be had) and a booster seat for hazel to keep in wv (found one for $3). so all in all, the twelve-mile yardsale was a success.

+ after a battle with ritz camera, who are STILL harrassing me by phone to take down the negative feedback i left on amazon regarding never receiving macro filters or any responses to my inquiries about the lost order, amazon refunded my money and i ordered some from elsewhere. they were waiting for me at mom & dad’s, as were the supplies i’d picked up a couple of months ago in anticipation of having filters to use then, so i finally dragged all of that out and spraypainted everything i need to start redoing my etsy shop photos. for the record, valspar spraypaint is far superior to krylon. far, far, superior.

+ hazel is not the least bit afraid of horses. she also got to meet pigs, chickens, and a rattlesnake (which was in a tank of course). she spent some time squeezing and scritching bones, feathers, turtle shells, pinecones, a swatch of mystery-animal-pelt, and various other touchy nature things at the nature center at pipestem state park and was delighted.

+ we left paisley with my parents for three weeks. she would have been in a funk all of this week. on sunday or monday we are going up to chris’s cottage for a few days, so she would have spent all of next week in a funk after that stint in the country. that only leaves a week of happiness to be had before we drag her back down to wv at the beginning of july. just couldn’t do it to her. we are thinking of her time there as doggie summercamp – hopefully grandma-the-enforcer and a pack of dogs will teach her some country dog manners. her city etiquette is good, but she freaks out (some) other dogs (sometimes) when we are in the country or elsewhere. it’s very weird to not have her here – i don’t like dogless existence. we keep hearing her toenails on the floor in the next room, and keep almost putting our plates on the floor for her to lick. mikey got out of bed this morning and looked down at her bed and said “hi padel” and it was very weird. i didn’t know he was home yesterday until he was well into the apartment becuase she’s not here to tell me he just got off the elevator. i know she is having so much dog-fun though.

+ i don’t know what else. here are some pictures.

listening: the wallflowers