Need a little Christmas?

We put up our Christmas tree and hung our stockings the day after Thanksgiving.  Or was it Saturday?  That doesn't matter.  Hazel has loved looking at the ornaments on the tree.  We put it up and decorated most of it while she was napping, but she got to hang some ornaments on too.  We put the less destructible ones toward the bottom, including some fabulous 2-inch green and yellow granny square ornaments made by my sister Betsey.  Hazel hung four shatterproof ball ornaments through one of the granny squares.  She doesn't seem to get the idea of hanging them on the tree, rather, she keeps trying to hang them on other ornaments.  We have some little My Little Pony ornaments that Kyle got a couple of years ago as a gag gift, and she LOVES them because she has been watching my MLP DVD's.  She also really likes a sheep that is made out of baked dough.  When I was quite young, my great friend Sarah's mom (who is totally awesome) made these sheep ornaments, and gave our family two of them.  I got to bring them with me when I got married, and they are totally awesome.  Hazel likes to either try to eat them or kiss them.

The other day Hazel was poking at her stocking, wondering what it was.   Kyle and I were both there, but I can't remember who said what, so I'll just label our parts as "parent."
Parent: That's your stocking.  You get treats in it on Christmas.
Hazel (smiling): I need a treat!
Parent: No, you don't get treats in it until Christmas.
Hazel (in a sad voice): I need a Christmas.

She is such a doll.  We love to watch her grow, and all the new things she is saying and doing.  Here are some more updates:

Last night at dinner she kept saying "Catch a tiger by da toe!"  She would also substitite "tay-oo" (tail) and "nose."  Kyle advised her that it is not a good idea to catch a tiger by the nose.  That is close to where the teeth are, you know.

She loves to sing her ABC's and "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star."  Her versions:
"A, B, C, D, E, F, G, Next time woe do sing et me."
"Yiddle, yiddle star, how I wuh-der are.  Up above da worl so high, Yiddle, yiddle, star, how I wuh-der are."  She repeats those two lines over and over.  It is super cute.  She's been singing it that way for a few weeks, which was a sudden improvement over "Ah-bah twinkle star" like she was singing when she turned two.
She can also count to 13 consistently, and sometimes to twenty, although 13, 14, and 15 all sound like 13. 
I recently figured out that when I ask her what bedtime song she wants to sing, if she says "gif-oh gif-oh," She wants "Give, Said the Little Stream." 

She has also been talking about monsters a lot lately, saying things like "I scooed a monster in da bed."  We can't tell if she's saying that she scared a monster that was in her bed, or if she is scared of a monster in her bed, but either way, she doesn't seem scared.  I don't want her to be scared of monsters, so the other day after she said that, I asked if it was a nice monster.  She said "yah."  I asked if it made her laugh, and she said "yah!"  Now she will say "I scooed a monster in da bed.  It make you laugh!"  And then she'll giggle. 

On another note, I know quite a few of you readers know already, but we are expecting another baby at the end of May!  We are super excited.  We're calling the baby Charlie/Charly for now.  No, that name is not going to go on a birth certificate.  We'll probably find out what kind of baby he/she is around the end of January.