Hazel's Blog

Awesome horse statues in our hotel.
Our hotel (the Gaylord Opryland) was giant. I mean GIANT! It was a .25 miles from our room to my conference area. Sometimes, on the way to visit me, Hazel had to stop and take a nap.

The Adventure Science Center
Big astronaut. Little astronaut.
Train at the Adventure Science Center.
The ambulance at the Adventure Science Center. This was Hazel's favorite part. She could drive that ambulance for hours. Which will come in handy the next time we go visit Grandma Marilyn in Wyoming. Except that we don't have an ambulance.

Testing out her mad doctorin' skillz. Between this and the ambulance, she has a great future in medicine. She did tell me that she wants to be a doctor. For monsters.

Nashville Zoo at Grassmere
So, we went the Nashville Zoo. Hazel was our navigator. We should go thatta way.
Hazel. Brushing a goat.



Misc.
Hazel and Geoff go to White Castle.
And then Meadow made this awesome flower out of White Castle boxes. We actually ate 10 burgers between the three of us. Which (a) sounds like a lot except (b) it isn't too bad until (c) you consider one of us only ate one burger but (d) they are little and (e) delicious.
Mmmmm...the giant ice cream ever. Hazel was only pretendin' to eat it. Trying to see the mighty Cumberland River.
We ate at the Aquarium restuarant. As expected, it was no Market Street. However, it did have an aquarium. We saw lots of fish, but no mermaids. Bummer. And we got to hug a shark. Which is cool until you remember that we got to pet baby camels. And they were REAL!
On the way back to the hotel from the Aquarium restuarant, Hazel decided she didn't need to wear a shirt. Also, when we landed in SLC, she whipped her shirt off and said, "We're home! Mom, take your shirt off." I did not, however, take my shirt off.
**Alternate caption: My name is Hazel! I like to dance!"**

Geoff likes to take pictures of flowers. I thought this one was very nice.

Awesome shot. Good job!

The end.

I will have Geoff update with our rafting trip from the weekend.

Labels: Adventure Science Center, Baby Camel, hazel, hotel, Nashville, zoo

Okay, I am going to keep my Nashville stories, that don't have pictures, here

1. Hazel and Meadow spent a good hour in the pool yesterday playing with "kitties". They were not real kitties, but we had a great time. We fed them and let them swim and named them "Charlie" and "Charlie 2". After the Charlie Daniel's Band. Because it is hard to think of names. When we went into the bathroom to dry our swimsuits she made sure to put the "kitties" on the ground and then scoop them up when we were done. She is still very concerned about them today. Apparently, she is keeping them in one of the drawers under the sink.
2. The napping/sleeping situation is less than ideal. We are all in one room, instead of Hazel having her own room. This makes for an overly-tired baby. She has actually been okay but gets a little nuts and starts saying crazy things, such as, "Bingo-bango ate my baby." It started as just "bingo-bango" but then Geoff kept thinking it was, "dingo" and that it ate her baby, and it has evolved from there.
3. Monday night, we walked to the mall to eat at the Aquarium restaurant. Not surprisingly, it was not so delicious. But, there was a giant aquarium, and that was pretty cool. The weather is NOT at all cool. It is blazing hot in Nashville. Even at 9:30pm. On the way back to the hotel, Hazel was quite tired and hot. She decided that she no longer needed to wear a shirt. (#57 in the list of things Hazel has in common with a frat boy, she doesn't like to wear shirts) So, we walked home a good part of the way with Hazel wearing no shirt. We told her that a maintenance truck was looking for girls without shirts (some sort of shirt-police), and she got super-worried and put on her shirt.
4. Then we got into the hotel and she decided to somersault the entire way to the room. It is a quarter of a mile from the convention center to our room, this is not an easy distance to somersault. At other times she has decided to walk "like a dinosaur" (hands on the ground, butt in the air) and to walk backwards down the long, long hallway. We do not move quickly.
5. Wednesday we went to the Adventure Science Center (a children's museum). Hazel seems to have inherited Aunt Jenni's fear and loathing of see-through floors. A good portion of the museum has the floors with holes (like in a factory). She did not love those parts and need to be carried.
6. At the ASC, they had a body exhibit (not Bodies, with the plasticized people). In it there was an ambulance you could drive. Hazel LOVED this and would have happily driven the ambulance all day. All the while chanting, "I am driving! I am driving!"
7. Then there is the swimming. A lot of swimming. A couple of the pools are only 18-inches deep and perfect for the Hazel. Hazel and Geoff swam for about two hours this evening while Meadow went to meetings. This brings the total swimming hours to approximately 1,500.
8. Everything is fried down here. And the only vegetable is corn. No point. I am just sayin'.

Labels: hazel, Stories, Tennessee

Oh wise Internet, I come to you for advice. Hazel has been using the potty fairly consistently for about a month and a half now. Which is fabulous. She is still completely in diapers at night, although she woke up dry this morning.

Here is my problem. Sometimes, she just pees. Like five minutes ago she just lifted up her dress and peed on the floor. A lot. ON THE FLOOR!! Yesterday, she peed on the porch. Saturday she peed in the closet (although, she did come out and tell me that she peed in the closet and when I asked why she said, “Mom, sometimes I need attention.” And then I felt like a bad mom for working all weekend.)

WHY DOES SHE DO THAT?!?!! Except for the closet incident, where she was looking for attention. Why doesn’t she just go to the bathroom?? And how do I stop it?

Also, how do you go about training a kid at night? She is asleep. I am asleep. How does a sleeping person train another sleeping person? Or should I call it good and just keep her in diapers at night? Plus, I had just purchased a case of diapers at Costco like 3 days before she decided she was going to wear panties during the day. And that is a lot of diapers when you are only using one per day (night, really).

Labels: hazel, Potty

Oh, Internet, you have failed me. I was hoping someone would tell me something such as: Feed the kid mangos, she'll be potty trained in 13 minutes.*

Thanks for the comments and stories and encouragment. I have decided that Hazel is pretty danged trained and after we use up this giant Costco box** o' diapers she will probably be trained at night. And if she isn't I will (gasp!) go buy more diapers. But at a regular store that sells in less giant quantities.

Now, read my fab update on Nashville. And leave me comments. Because I love comments. It makes me feel like I have friends. Friends who read my blog, even when I am lame.

*Or something magically like this, you get the idea. To get this kind of kid-rearin' secret, I probably need to go to Wal-Mart.***

**We had already opened and started using the box when she decided she wanted to use the potty, or I would have returned it.

***Because once, I was at the WM and some "lady" told me she "teethed all her kids on jerky."

I really need to study. I am ejecting the wireless card.

Labels: hazel, Potty

City Search rated this place rather highly, so we went. They stuck us all by ourselves at a big table then proceeded to bring us lots and lots of food. We ate way more than we probably should have. A lot of it was really delicious, some of it was seasoned differently than our preference. Seems salty is in around here.

Labels: fried food, hazel, meadow, Tennessee