Hazel's latest trick

She trains us as much as we train her. We love to get Hazel to perform tricks on command, but she's even more delighted at the discovery that her actions can prompt a response from us. These days, one of her favorite ways to initiate play is by shaking her head at someone, knowing that we will respond in kind.

First tooth!

Hazel's first tooth broke through the skin last Friday. Nice to have an explanation for several days of uncharacteristically cranky behavior. It's still not visible, but you can definitely feel it. Photo to follow, once we get one.

Crawling along

It's amazing how quickly she went from this...



...to this.

Juniper's 1st blog post

Aaron recently gave Juniper an old camera. She's been enjoying it. Juniper took all of these pictures (and many more). She picked out her three favorites for this blog post. The captions below are all hers. Be on the lookout for more Juniper posts to come!

Hazel's not sleeping, and I took that picture.

Johnny's flaming on. Only that.

Honk, honk

Thanks Scott!

Good times with the Brooks cousins

We recently returned from a trip to California to attend the funeral for Mary Louise Brooks, Aaron's maternal grandmother. She passed away peacefully and unexpectedly about two weeks ago. It was an emotional trip, especially for Aaron, and we have great sympathy for Janet, who lost both her mother and her housemate.

At the same time, it was also a fun trip with lots of great family time. This was the first Brooks family trip where Juniper was one of the kids, not one of the babies. She was able to run around with the big kids, and she had an enthusiastic blast. One of the highlights of her weekend was getting to swim in the irrigation pond for Uncle Walt's vineyard.



Janet got some water wings, which worked perfectly. Juniper was able to float and kick and "swim" all by herself in the deep water. Can you tell how much she enjoyed her watery independence?



Juniper and her Aunt Rebecca paddled a boat around the pond (with help from cousin Brooke, whom you can just barely see kicking up waves as she motorboats behind them).



Steep sides plus an inflatable boat made for a fun water slide.



In fact, the slide was so much fun that just a photo doesn't really do it justice.



After a while, Juniper was even willing to brave the water slide, as long as she could go down snuggled up with her dad.



Post-slide, Rebecca, Aaron, and Juniper floating in the water.



At the end of her pond adventures, she was all tuckered out. We know Juniper's a good sleeper, but it's been a while since she fell asleep at a dining room table.

She crawls!

Saturday afternoon, Hazel crawled for the first time! She's still not very reliable at it, but there have been multiple repeat performances. I'm comfortable saying that she has a new skill. Video evidence to come soon.