Wednesday, August 9, 2017

Baby Hazel


When I discovered I was expecting baby #5, to say I was startled would be the understatement of the century. But it's not like Daryl and I didn't have a TV, or four other children, come on really? " You sure you're not just trying for a boy? Yeh, that it's...and we're going to keep on trying until we get it right. Seriously, people say the stupidist things to pregnant women.

But now she is 10 and has left for her first two night camp, she packed her bag all by herself three days early. That makes me happy. What makes me a bit unhappy however, is the the ticking time bomb until she is 14...no offense Tobie. The endless hours of drawing and watching Adventure Time will be replaced by Snapchat and a closed bedroom door. You promised me Hazel that you will never do that and I'm holding you to it. There is such a knot in my stomach when I think of high school, Hazel walking out that back gate with her sisters instead of riding off up the hill on her bike. They are little and then suddenly they have grown out of clothes and there's no one to pass favorite things to and so you buy another plastic storage container for more pilled old handknits. 

Hazel still sleeps with about 15 teddies. She rotates them so nobody gets left out. Sometimes I even find her pink Sherrin under the covers. Her converstions are constant and cute and inquisitive. I still seem to know a lot of stuff. Despite her newly pierced ears, she still prefers tracksuit pants and a flanette shirt. She wears a dragon necklace because she loves them. She runs like the wind and will spend hours in the ocean on a cold Autumn day. She has a little boiled egg with soldiers for breakfast most days after the other girls have gone to school. She loves watching " Call the Midwife" with her mum, confidently suggesting when she thinks a woman needs to get up off that bed and move around. A doula's daughter. 

Hazel takes everything in her stride and gives 200% but never shows disappointment when things don't go her way. She loves spending time at the farm with her Dad. She loves her family. She eats pretty much everything.

There is a tree on our front nature strip that Daryl planted nearly 25 yers ago. It's a beautiful wattle that if you drive by on a certain day in Spring, you would gasp at it's show. It's Hazel's climbing tree, perfect branches for hanging upside down or sitting in waiting for the ladybugs to come. 
Hazel knows it is old for a wattle, there is a big split that has started to make us nervous, she says she is ready to replace it with fruit trees. It's time. 

Her body is changing, tall and lanky, the features of her face finer. She's in her Spring and still in my arms and I'm holding on tight.