5 months old

To say things have been busy around here would be an understatement. I took these pics on the day Hazel turned 5 months old - a little over a week ago - but only now have I found taken a moment to sit down and post them...before she is yet another month older. The time really flies - both when you're having fun, and when you're just plain...busy :) Busy doing good things, and exciting things for our family, but busy nonetheless. I have some older video, too, but haven't had time to put it together yet. Maybe by next month? 

So here's our Hazel Grace at 5 months old. I can't decide if she looks more like the Gerber baby or more like a Kewpie doll. What would your vote be? Either way, she's very cute, squishy, and lovable. And oh those beautiful eyes! She gets so many compliments on them, and it's not a wonder why. So happy, so bright, so beautiful! They still haven't truly "settled" which, in my experience, the longer they take to settle, more unique color they turn out to be. I'm guessing they'll end up a custom shade of - Hazel.

Little Hazey girl, at 5 months...

-daddy says you smile with your whole body, and i think he's right :)

-you melt my heart in a serious way

-when chaos is happening around me, you are the calm in the middle of the storm. Not that your siblings are a storm - but sometimes they make for some crazy times, and sometimes life is just a little crazy - but all we have to do is look at you and your smile as you giggle and try to grab our noses, and the chaos magically turns to calm as we slow down to enjoy you, dear sweet girl.

-you and I love snuggling up together in the evening. usually, after dinner, you're ready to go nurse and cuddle, so I steal you away and get you ready for bed and while daddy gets your brother and sister ready for bed, I get to lay in bed with you and kiss your sweet cheeks while you nurse and snuggle up. You are so sweet. Often, we fall asleep together and daddy usually lets me just sleep, too. 

-you are about to get into some serious trouble - you're starting to crawl! it's quite darling how you are SO tiny and petite and you get up  on your hands and knees (strong girly!) and you bounce and you get going. Now, you're not full-on-all-out speed crawling yet (which is a blessing in my opinion) but you are right there, on the verge. You get places. And sometimes you lurch forward so quickly you startle yourself (it's kind of cute). No doubt you'll be booking it toward our Christmas tree and gifts in a few more weeks. This is both exciting, and sad. Bittersweet that you're growing up so fast, little girl!

-the past two weeks - since you've gotten your crawl on - you wake up earlier and have a hard time napping because you are soooo excited to get on all fours and practice your new skillz! at nap time, I find you crawling all around your crib, and in the morning (you sleep in between me and daddy) you are awake singing and experimenting with your sweet voice. Your so delicious and happy, we just love it! but I wouldn't mind if you went back to your old habit of sleeping until about 8am instead of 6am. ;)

-I may have said this before, but you and a rockstar, baby! You just are so chill and go-with-the-flow. And that's good because almost from the moment you zoomed into the world (thank goodness it wasn't in the hospital parking lot, but very close!) things in our life have been moving at mach 10 speed, or so it seems. Just a lot of changes and things going on - and you roll with it. Most of the things going on are good, even great, things, but stressful nonetheless because so many  things have happened so fast.

-the only time you don't roll with the punches is if we drive downtown to pick up your daddy from work, and it's dark outside. This only started about two weeks ago, and I think it maybe has something to do with daylight savings? not sure - but if you're in the car after dark you aren't our usual happy camper. and you usually save the worst of it for when daddy gets in the car after a very long and high pressure day at work. now, that's not very nice, but we'll forgive you ;)

-you love to suck on your fingers and toes. especially those toes. it's pretty cute and pretty amazing - you're like a little pretzel.

-your favorite toys, hands down, are Sofie the Giraffe and these two little vanilla teething toys (elephant and sheep) that smell so good! You love those the best! You also love the cute dwell stacking blocks that Mama's friend, Cassandra, passed down to you from when her boys were babies (she'd be happy to know they're getting lots of good use!)

-you're having so much fun with your brother and sister these days, now that you're getting around. you love to crawl over and get into whatever they're doing, which makes it fun for everyone. They especially think it's funny when you get into the legos. come to think of it, they think you're quite funny, and vice versa. they love to make you giggle, especially your brother. and you do have a darling giggle! 

-if this post seems a little more frazzled than usual, it's because your Mama is super kind of maxed out and tired. It's been a whirlwind week. Tomorrow is a big day and if all goes well, we'll have about the best Christmas present ever this year for our little family. Oh, SO much to do before Christmas! I'm so excited for your first Christmas - and all of our first Christmas here in Austin. I think it's pretty safe to say it won't be a white one, this year :)

-keep on smiling sweet one! You are so very loved!

Celebrations // Happy Birthday, Jacob!

Words are not enough to express how much we love our Daddy.
happy birthday jacob from Tysha on Vimeo.

Outings // Austin Zoo and Animal Sanctuary

We went to the Zoo.

We frequently went to the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle (you know, like weekly, sometimes more than once a week - we had a pass and it was right up the street so why not?) The Zoo in Seattle is one of the best in the country (also one of the most expensive!) It's like a gigantic, beautiful park, really - with tons of animals. Even an indoor play area (we loooved the Zoomazium on rainy days with it's music time, story times, creature features, etc. not to mention rocks to climb on and places to run around etc.) We loved the Zoo. That said, I had been warned that the Zoo in Austin wasn't quite up to par. I was told to lower my expectations, and to see it for what it is - more of a refuge and sanitary - and then I wouldn't be too disappointed. I wasn't worried about the kids being disappointed, they're always happy simply to be outside and if animals around, well - bonus :) So, Saturday as we drove the 5 minutes to the Zoo from our apartment, we lowered out expectations...a lot. And guess what? 

We loved it!

There was something very cozy about the Zoo. We went on a Saturday, which is probably their busiest day - but it didn't feel overcrowded. And because it is smaller - everything is just closer to see. A lot of the animals are older, and more slow-moving, because they take animals that other Zoos won't take - but do the kids care? NO! It made it that much easier to see them! Also, in Seattle, I don't think a lot of the animals like the rainy weather - so they hide out. But we didn't have trouble seeing ANY of the animals here! And the kids got up-close-and-personal with a lot of the little critters.

Mmmm - eat those fingers, Hazey!

Mr. Turtle says hello! He's even waving and flashing you a smile!

And the next animal...

Hello Kitty? Yep. Mm Hmm.

Aspen's kinda obsessed with the little kitty. She has been telling me for months she is going to have a Hello Kitty Birthday. To her utter surprise and joy, I busted out a Hello Kitty lunchbox all for her - to take on our picnic to the Zoo. I was originally saving it for her birthday, but we only have one insulated lunch box and with a family of 5 and warm temps, I thought it would be a good idea to bring another one. Not to mention, the kids were fighting over who would get to carry the "owl lunchbox". So I told Sawyer the owl is officially his and Hello Kitty is Aspens. Problem solved and two happy campers :)

Picture overload here of Aspen. Sawyer was so busy running here and there - but she was in her own little quiet world. I love catching her there. The girl LOVES rocks. LOVES them. So, while everyone else was admiring the jaguars - she was sitting their plunking rocks over the little fence. At first I was calling her to move on along with us, but then I just stopped and watched her. What does she think about when she carefully selects her little rocks, feels them in her fingers, and tosses them over her shoulder? I don't know...but I sure love watching her.

My favorite of the day - the Bengal Tiger! So majestic! And he came walking right up close to me! We hardly ever got to see the Tiger in Seattle - only saw him napping or heard him roaring - kind of a hard spot to see in the distance. But here, the Tiger was RIGHT THERE in front of us. We watched him for quite some time. 

And how cute is this little spotted deer?

Daddy and Sawyer were ready to head to the train...but Aspen got caught up in her little world again. Rocks. Rocks. Rocks. I stayed back with her while she built a little mountain out of her rocks. Also, gotta love her dirt-covered face at the end of the day!

We were at the Zoo a good 5 or so hours. And we pretty much saw it all. It was perfect. We really had a wonderful time. Our outing ended perfect with a 20 minute ride on the Zoo train! Who doesn't love riding a train?

This girl had such a great time, she was asleep after half a second once we got in the car :) I think the train ride kind of lulled her into sleepy mode. (It did to her Daddy, too - just don't tell!)

So, there you have the Austin Zoo. We had a wonderful time. I know I say it whenever I write about a family outing - but it's only because it's true: I love my little family and being with them is the best thing in the world to me. There was craziness at the beginning and end of the day when Jacob and I had chores to do and work to get done (aka his day job comes home a lot) but the time in between - we just enjoyed, together. After the Zoo, we went for an afternoon swim with the kids, sat in the hot tub, and then went to Torchy's Tacos (one of our favorite places!) to end it right. Perfect, really. Our lives aren't perfect, we aren't perfect, but the time we have together: is perfect. 

I loved this outing because it showed me, again, that things ARE different, places ARE different. But not in necessarily a bad, or a good, or a better, or a worse, kind of way. Just different. And that's okay.