2 months!

In January, Hazel had a few firsts and milestones! She started smiling, cooing, grasping, and holding her head steady! She also had several special moments, including her first time to church, first trip, and becoming an American citizen.

Hazel gained 1 lb, 7 oz. She's now 10 lbs, 12 oz, which means she's finally grown larger than her daddy's birth weight, but hasn't quite reached her Uncle Stephen's birth weight of 11 lbs, 9 oz. He was a chunk, and Nana was a champ!!

2007 in pictures

This is continued from the other blog. These are my top 5 favorite pictures from 2007, mainly because they sum up my 2007. Well...no picture can fully depict morning sickness and aching joints. But fortunately, 2007 was more to me than just pregnancy. Otherwise, that would have been 9 long months of waiting!


5. This is just a fun picture from Thailand, that I think is a great picture of us, one of the last before Hazel's life was created. And I love the flower and fruit design which really made the picture.


4. This picture was from Paris, and I chose it over the one of us smooching in front of the Eiffel Tower because I think this shot captures our time in Paris perfectly. Every day, we rolled out onto the streets of Paris in a big group, slightly chaotic and ready for action. And of course, most of my favorite people in the world are in the picture (or taking it :).


3. This picture isn't spectacular, but it's from my favorite day in Venice. James and I rode bikes all over the island of Lido, stopping to step in the Mediterranean, take pictures, and explore. And we found this great restaurant tucked out of the way that had my favorite meal of the trip - a seafood lasagna. Mmm, my mouth is watering with the memory!


2. This picture of James is awesome. It was taken moments after Hazel arrived, and he ran out to yell to our awaiting friends (and really, anyone who crossed his path), "I'm a dad!" Andrea captured it perfectly. Thanks for that, Andrea!


1. I absolutely love how happy and clueless we look! I can still remember perfectly what I felt when at that moment, we first were able to hold our baby. Our family of 2 grew to 3, and besides my wedding day, I have never been more happy.

hazel's first trip!

First passport at 5 weeks old, first international trip at 7 weeks old! She slept pretty much the whole flight (not that it was a long one...a little over 2 hours).

Here's the little traveler all bundled up, ready to face the cold weather in Kathmandu, Nepal.

And then every time we ventured out, she promptly fell asleep! Here we are shopping in their very hippie-ish market.

We met these shopkeepers through an American friend. The younger one, had us sit and drink tea with them as we shopped. The older man just smiled and laughed the whole time, and Hazel slept some more.

So the last day, when we realized she wasn't going to stay awake outside, we each took a picture with her in the hotel room to prove she was actually in Nepal.
Something really funny to us is how common it is for complete strangers to come up to us, squeeze on her face, and ask to hold her. Sometimes, people will just walk up, squeeze her cheeks, and walk off! It's the funniest thing. It's been mainly Asians - Indians love babies. (I guess they'd have to - there are a billion of them! :) And some Japanese grandmas on the flight with us could not get enough of her. They kept covering her head with the blanket, told me she was hungry, giggled over her, kept asking to peek at her through the sling, and oohed and ahhed. It was so sweet.

leaving for a bit

We're headed to Nepal for a week. I realized before she's 6 months old, she'll have been in 3 different countries. She's a much cooler baby than I was, that's for sure! Since Mimi and Nana will have to wait awhile to get their daily Hazel fixes, I'll post some recent pics of her that I like.

And please remember us as we are going there to get Hazel's visa to return to India. We'd love for it to go as smoothly as possible!

thank goodness for the happy sauce

We stubbornly fought the official term. Oh no, not our precious baby. Sometime around the first of the year, though, we finally let down our pride and realized that yes, Hazel has colic.

My name is Emily and I have a colicky baby.


But then...oh but then we found out about Colicaid. Literally upon the first usage, we saw a transformation.

She became a completely different baby - cooing, smiling, and not crying for no reason. James calls it the Happy Sauce.

She plays with us now, and we melt. I love having a happy, gas pain-free baby girl!

gardens

We had a fun day yesterday! Nana wanted to see these beautiful gardens we have here that are filled with historic buildings, and I always love going for walks through parks. We remembered there is this really nice restaurant next to the gardens that you sit outside. They even have these tent areas to eat in, not to mention how tasty their food is. I am beginning to think Middle Eastern food is my favorite. And of course the big pillows you sit on made it the perfect place to take a baby!



After lunch we walked through the gardens for about an hour. We discovered that Hazel LOVES looking outward. It was a big 'duh!' moment for us. She was so happy all day. What a great little girl!!

first fashion show

This is one reason it's so fun to have a girl:


Here's Hazel modeling a dress sent by my cousin Tami, and patent leather shoes brought by Nana. You're a tiger, Hazel!

And now, straight from trendy nurseries across America, a dress from Aunt Sarah, sweater from Judy's friend Darline, bow from Aunt Christi, and boots from Aunt Ashley.


And finally socks from Ms. Darline as well.


Quick, someone get this girl an SFA onesie!


Even with cute clothes (and one sub-par onesie :), I think she's happiest in her pj's.

hazel and aash

Hazel has been able to hang out a little more with Aashini again now that both of them seem to be over their first sicknesses. I hope the next bout doesn't come too soon!

As Andrea pointed out, these aren't the most flattering angles. Especially in combination with Hazel's "ooh" face!

Their daddies are the Swaddlemeisters! (is that the correct German usage, Deanna? :)

Look who's smiling!

Aashini slept a lot this day for some reason. But she made some funny faces!


Our new version of the belly shot. Here we are at 44 and 46 weeks. :) It's a lot more fun to carry them on the outside!

dancing hazel

She's already on her way to being the next big Bollywood star:

delurking week

My friend Kelley posted on her blog that this week is Delurking Week in the blogosphere. Meaning, those of you who read peoples' blogs, like for instance this one, but don't comment, should comment this week so the writers of the blogs, like for instance me, can know who you are. I've been told by several people that so-and-so reads this blog, and I never knew. Just who are Hazel's anonymous lurking fans? Time to 'fess up! :)

elephant sighting!

Whatcha looking at, Hazel?
An elephant!


She was extra fussy that evening, probably overstimulated from all the elephant fun. Or maybe scared out of her mind. We were pretty darn close to the beast.

proud to be an american

Hazel is now an American citizen! She can never be President, but has all the other rights of our great 'home'land. (of course our true home is in heaven...we pray she'll choose to be a citizen of there too!)

It took a few steps to reach this point:
1. Receive an unofficial birth certificate from the hospital.
2. Take the unofficial certificate to the city government to receive an official one. (it's in Hindi and English! She's a cool baby)
3. At the appointed time, take the passport photo, official birth certificate, prenatal records (to prove I was pregnant), passport application, baby, and both parents to the Embassy.
4. Receive another birth certificate, this one from the Embassy for her birth abroad.
5. Pick up the passport a week later!

This doesn't include all the photo labs we went to trying to get an acceptable picture. My passport photo is pretty unflattering, and so it seems is Hazel's. Funny story about her face in this pic - she laid on the table to take the picture. There were several men standing around and watching, and right when they shot her photo, she let out a very loud toot! The room erupted in laughter, and the photographer said, "Oh, very good." So apparently, this is her gassy face.

first scrapbook page

I'm doing something a little different for Hazel's scrapbook. I'm going to try to do one scrapbook to give her later when she's grown. Probably when she's 18 or so. A mere 10 years before she's allowed to date. :) I say try, because it will be hard to keep the most important things in her life down to just one scrapbook. I finished the first layout - her birth. And now I'll have to hold off until her 1st birthday.
Closer look:



(P.S. I loved Leslie's idea of adding journaling, so I typed up some memories during the pregnancy and then the birth story, then made an envelope for it and pasted it to the second page)

now nana is here!

We had a 6 day break where we got to see if we can handle a newborn by ourselves. Turns out we can! And then after that, we got help again. This time from Nana! (James' mom)



Hazel is loving her Nana! And we are so glad to see her again.