Second birthday weekend

We met Daddy's family in Seaside, OR for a weekend of Dixieland Jazz and another birthday celebration. Sadly, we kept forgetting to get the camera out until the end of the weekend. We went to the children's museum housed in the old fire station in Astoria and then to the Maritime Museum. The "boat museum" was too loud for Hazel and she asked to "go outside," so she and I took a walk around the deck of an old boat and watched the seagulls and ducks.

The next day we spent some time on the beach. She must take after me, because she never sat in the sand or got dirty playing in it with her hands. She just scooped the sand with her plastic spoon - we also had a plastic cup and Dixie bowl from the motel - nothing but the best beach toys for our toddler. Every couple minutes, she'd look up and say "it's the ocean."

The last day we went to the little aquarium by our motel, where we watched other kids feeding fish bits (yuck) to the seals, who performed for the treats. Hazel makes a lovely seal barking noise when asked what seals say. We also visited the carousel mall twice where Hazel rode the black horse three times with Aunt Trudy. I remember talking her into waving her hand the first time we rode on a carousel, almost a year ago - now she waves almost nonstop to everyone as she rides.

We lit a birthday candle in a dish of ice cream at the Pig 'N' Pancake restaurant and Hazel got two balloons, but the memorable birthday treat was saying hello to our favorite band Titan Hot Seven before a set. Each of the band members serenaded Hazel with Happy Birthday. That was six Happy Birthdays (and one Old McDonald) on clarinet, trumpet, bass, trombone, guitar, piano and drum. She was a bit blase from her cold, but I think she was impressed because she kept singing Happy Birthday to herself on the trip home.