Week 75: A musical household

Dear Hannah and Nathan, 

I'm glad Cedar levels have gone down a bit. They are actually low now and boy can I tell the difference! Both of you guys are just getting slightly watery eyes after being outside, but the coughing has gone down dramatically. Maybe we can enjoy the upcoming nice and sunny weather a bit more. 

Both of you must be feeling so much better because life has been like a musical these days. Hannah is just singing (melodically) but blabbering and Nathan is making up songs left and right. I don't even have to turn on any music when in the car. 

Well, we've been decluttering the house and finally came across the gingerbread house that we made before Christmas. We decided to just go ahead and eat the thing. The first night we tore into it, we just let both of you guys go crazy. A bit later, Nathan, you got a tummy ache. Perfect teachable moment on the effects of the over-consumption of sugar. 

Hannah did a good job with moderation. You had a few bites and then left the rest on the table. Surprisingly, the cookies still tasted pretty good. 

With us being stuck inside the house, we were able to break out lots of the christmas presents that I've kept stashed away for the past few weeks. We've been on a science experiment streak the past few days and one day Nathan asked if we could do another experiment and how can a science teacher deny it when a kid wants to experiment. So we got the crystal growing kit out and started an investigation on growing crystals. Nathan mixed and poured the chemicals...

 We are currently making daily observations...

The directions say that it should be fully completed by 7 days. So I'll be sure to post the final observation log next week.

Other experiments include foil boat building to test effectiveness of design, ramp creation to test steepness and sliding speed, and stapling to test which surface makes using a stapler easier.

Hannah is getting to be pretty fearless. While you are doing a pretty good job of following directives, like "Come here" and "Don't touch that" you still really have no sense of danger when it comes to climbing things. Here's just a hilarious one.

When big brother is going through one of his dramatic tantrums, you really know how to cheer him up. 

In other exciting news, for the first time ever, Nathan, you were able to finish a mario cart race all by yourself. Even though you finished last and it took you 8 minutes, you finished and you are showing that you understand how the driving world really works. As we are driving, you are noticing things like changing lanes, passing cars, and making turns. Too bad there aren't random boxes with items to pick up and giant bullet rockets to quickly take you to your final destination. 

You are getting a bit better at some "adult" games that we let you play. Here, you are teaching your friend how to play. 

 Hannah loves this Elmo book. Every night, after we finish milk, you will request, "Melmo"while signing "book" As far as other books go, you love books with babies in them and you are all over any book with an interactive feature.

Oh, and yesterday, we had an interesting even happen: After lunch, I noticed that Hannah was making the poop face and when I looked at you, you said, "boo boo" which could mean "poo poo" or short for naiobu which means, diaper. Regardless, it indicates that something happened. So when I took you upstairs, expecting you to go to your room, you headed straight for the toilet and was pointing at the toilet when I came in to get you. Then, we sat on the potty and you went both number 1 and 2. I'm pretty impressed that you are able to communicate a dirty diaper and am curious to see when you will be in your first pair of undies. I'm not quite sure I'm ready for that yet!

You guys are absolutely adorable and I love witnessing the ever growing times where you two will make each other giggle. Nathan is noticing that Hannah is not a little baby anymore and is so proud that Hannah can say a few words, that he's telling his friends about it. I think that is adorable. When Hannah does something she's proud of, she wants to show big brother. Sometimes Nathan acts a bit apathetic, but I think Nathan, you will soon learn that in situations such as that, you are expected to over react a bit and act like it's the coolest thing you've ever seen.

Well, that's about it for now. I had something I wanted to write about, but it has slipped my mind. Until next week,
Love,
Mommy

Hannah is 17 Months and We've all got Cedar Fever!

Dear Hannah and Nathan, 

We've been laying low this week due to cedar pollen in the air. Some days are worse than others, but we've been playing it safe by staying inside as much as possible. Hannah's had a runny nose for over 2 weeks, and Nathan has been coughing for about the same amount of time. Normally Cedar also gets Daddy and me, but we've been both using nasal steroids (along with Nathan) and that has helped with easing the congestion. I've been coughing too, but Daddy's been doing pretty good, except for the day after he forgot to spray his nose. We won't make that mistake again. 

Nathan's hearing has become a bit diminished as well. Earlier in the week, I thought it was just selective hearing and that you were ignoring me, but when you didn't respond to questions like, "Would you like some dessert?" I started to think it was something more. It turns out that these allergies have caused some fluid to build up in your ear canal, causing you to not hear low frequencies as well. It should get better once the cedar levels go down and you start to feel better. 

Both of you guys have been a bit more fussy than normal, but I am starting to understand why. It's tough to be happy all the time when you can't breathe. 

We've limited our play times to indoors and after playing Thomas the train for so long, we decided to build an obstacle course. This knocked you both out pretty good for afternoon naps. Too good. Neither of you wanted to go to sleep that evening. 

 Our neighbor across the street had a birthday party and Nathan was still coughing his lungs out. Since the dad also happens to be Nathan's doctor, I felt ok bringing him to the birthday party, but at the party, he was super active, causing him to cough even more and so I'm sure I had a lot of parents upset. Both kids had a blast.

Other new favorites that we play indoors include hockey. Hannah's actually really good at being the goalie. You are able to stop slower rolling balls from getting into the net.

Action shot: Hannah, the rejector!

Recently, Hannah, you've become really interested in playing with baby dolls. You carry the babies around, push them around in carts, and feed them pretend food. It's too cute watching you play.

Hannah, you are also getting pretty good at following directions. You help put things away, and when I drop things, you will help me pick them up. You tend to like order, which is nice.

Nathan is starting to do chores. Your daily chores include putting away the silverware from the dishwasher, and setting the table for everyone before dinner time. You are very proud that you get to fill GLASS cups with water.

Being cooped up inside has been a bit rough on my patience. I find myself snapping at (mostly Nathan) you guys for little things. With 2 children who need so much of my attention, I am having a tough time giving you guys the undivided attention that you want. Usually I'm playing with Hannah so that she doesn't mess up a big boy activity that Nathan is working on, and when I'm playing with both of you at the same time (or trying to get some chores done with both of you playing in the background), my temper can become short (Like the time Hannah decided to stick Nathan's toothbrush into the toilet). I need to remind myself that both of you are still figuring out how things work and act on impulse. You are toddlers, that's what you do.

For the most part, when I do slow down and take the time to explain calmly to Nathan why what he did was not a good idea, he seems to understand and really internalize what I'm telling him. I'm very blessed to have a reasonable son. Hannah, on the other hand, is not very reasonable right now...but that's expected.

Well, that's about it for now. I love both of you so much and I hope that this Cedar will blow away soon so that everyone can start to feel better.

Love, Mommy

Week 73: Sickness, Allergies, or Teething

Dear Hannah and Nathan,
For the past week, we've all (except Daddy) have shown these following symptoms: coughing, sore throat, and a little bit of occasional runny noses. I'm really not sure what is going on...I know Hannah was sick with a little cold, but you are still fussy at night and will wake up in the middle of the night, crying, unless I give you some advil before bed. Maybe it's teething. You still have a runny nose, but its clear and gets worse after we go outside, so I'm thinking that is allergies.

Nathan, you and I have had these dry cough spells on and off for the past week. You tell me when you have a sore throat, and some days you seem to get better and then the next day, you are coughing your lung out. I know you are allergic to cedar, which is high right now, but we've also been doing nasal steroids to prepare you for this. Your symptoms are very similar to mine, sore throat and dry cough. Either sickness or allergies. Not sure.

Anyways, the weather has been on the cold side, but nice enough to go outside to play, but we've been stuck inside for the most part because I don't want your allergies to get worse. So, we've been spending lots of time playing inside.

Our favorite activities are still playing with the train set. Now I have to make 2 separate track systems, one for each of you and divey up the trains so you two don't fight over them. But then occasionally, Hannah thinks Nathan's track is cooler and turns into destruct-o-Hannah...

Hannah is getting more interested in cooking. I remember the afternoons where Nathan and I would cook side by side. Hannah is now interested in helping out. You either point at what you want to help with, or if a step stool is nearby, you'll push it to the counter and climb up to help. You want to try out all of the neat gadgets.

 And then Nathan, sees Hannah helping and suddenly wants to help too. Below, we are making a quiche for dinner. I step away for a minute to grab a few things and when I come back, I found that my spot was taken and a medium sized ninja turtle boy was helping me roll out some dough. (We call you medium sized, because you are not a little boy anymore, but you are not quite a big boy yet. Lately, you've been kind of obsessed with growing bigger. Every morning, when you wake up, you will ask me if you "growed."

 Hannah's communication is starting to get even better. Your verbal vocabulary is slowly expanding, and I find myself in the same predicament I faced 2 years ago, with having to figure out first if you are speaking chinese or english, and what you are talking about. Just the other day, we were at a fabric store and passed by a section with fuzzy boas on large bolts. I kept hearing you say, "moy, moy" which is your usual word for "more," but I couldn't figure out what you wanted more of, then I looked up and saw you pointing at the bolt of fuzzy things and realized that "moy" is chinese for "touch." You wanted to feel the fuzzy things, which I thought was pretty cool.

Today we took the car in to the shop to get a few things taken care of so while we were waiting, we decided to split our time between shopping around and watching the mechanics work on cars. On our walk back from the shops, Nathan, you decided that you did not want to walk anymore, so we tried having Hannah sit on your lap and walked for about 5 minutes back to the shop. Usually Hannah is not up for these kinds of shenanigans, but today, you were quite content, sitting on Nathan's lap, looking around. No double stroller, no problem.

 Hannah's also getting better at sorting shapes. You seem to like to put things away and take things out of containers these days, but I'd have to say your attention span isn't quite like Nathan's was when he was your age. I'm actually a bit nervous about how you are more strong-willed than Nathan is, very determined too. But you love to help and you are super gentle with Teddy. I think you'll be ok to handle.

Well, that's about it for now. I am going to take a nap. This coughing at night has worn me out. Until next week, 

Love, 

Mommy 

Week 72: New Years in the Big D.

Dear Nathan and Hannah, 

You two actually travel pretty well. We may just have to start taking you guys on more trips. Nathan, you were not a great traveler when you were younger, but Hannah does great and now, so do you. 

We returned from our trip to Illinois late Saturday night after a lost key ordeal, which actually helped us realize how small our little first world problems really are. But other than that, the trip went really smoothly. The kids slept most of the way back and were relatively happy. No blow outs, no melt downs: win. 

After a brief day of resting on Sunday, you and me had a doughnut date, where you picked out your own blue sprinkle doughnuts, followed by a quick play date with one of your friends from school. 

This was actually with the kid that has been bothering you. After an hour of playing, on our way home, you told me that you like this kid now and that he was pretty nice. With some additional conversation about accidental roughness and being able to  tell others when you don't like what they are doing, I think you are not going to view this kid as a bully any more. And so far, this week, you have told me that you guys played nicely together. Yay! 

After we went home and had lunch, we headed out on the 240 mile trip to Ama's house. This must have been the best trip because we made it in 3 hours and 30 minutes. Three years ago, this same trip took over 8 hours and since then, we have never made it under 5. So that went super well. 

We left around nap time, hoping that you guys would take great naps for most of the trip. Not so much. Hannah slept for 45 minutes and was up the rest of the trip, and of course, that woke Nathan up and so both of you didn't get great naps that day. 

We gave you guys snacks along the way to keep you busy...at one point, Hannah was too quiet, so I looked back and saw you doing this acrobatic thing...

And these water painting books are simply amazing. Hannah liked painting with them, but the pictures alone caught your attention for awhile.

And Nathan, you practiced your letter and number writing.

While we were in Plano, we visited a few museums that popped up after I left for college. The first one pictured here is the Frisco heritage museum, which eventually will become a train museum. Hannah eventually got a chance to ring the bell all by yourself. 

Because when big brother is around, all you can really do is watch.

We got to walk along some train tracks.

And we got to see just how big these steamies really are in life. 

Of course, Nathan, you wanted to tell Hannah about all the different parts of the engine.

We also rode the commuter train one morning to go downtown to visit the Perot Museum. It was exciting because we got to travel over bridges as well as go underground. Pretty cool.

I was a bit unimpressed with the Perot museum. While I feel it was very educational, it was not very hands-on. There were a bunch of amazing fancy lit up posters and displays behind glass cases, geared towards the older crowd, this was not too cool for little ones. Look, but don't touch. 

And of course you guys got to open more presents. I love this picture because it captures how happy you are, Nathan, for Hannah, as she opens up her present with Ama. 

Ok, back to museums... another day, we went to the science and tech discovery center, also in Frisco. It was a pretty cool place for kids to be mischievous and explore. 

The bubble station was a big hit with everyone...apparently, the square bubble wand worked the best.

And Nathan somehow got caught up with playing with the older winter camp kids who were also there. Haha, as I look closer, looks like Hannah is too!

There was also a cool t-rex that you could control remotely.

And a pit filled with rubber "sand." What a cool sensory experience! 

And then there was a magical house where kids get to grow tall like adults instantly. In the picture below, Nathan, you are as tall as Auntie Momo!

We also got a chance to eat lots of yummy chinese and japanese food. I pretty much dragged you guys along as we hit up all of my favorite restaurants. We spent some good quality time with family and had a good time exploring the city a bit. After 5 days, it was time to go home.

We were not quite sure how the drive home was going to be, considering we were driving back January 2nd, but we decided to stop at my alma matter, Baylor and visit their children's museum on campus.

We usually stop there when it's cold outside, but if we are ever driving to or from Dallas, and it's warm outside, we just stop by the big playground in town and play until you guys tire out. But after a hearty meal at chick-fil-a, which Nathan spotted first, and requested it for lunch, we went off to explore the museum.

Here you guys are trying to walk around in wooden shoes.

Well, now that we are home, things are slowly starting to get back to normal. It's been a cold few days, and we are going to have a few days of 70 degree weather before it gets back down to the 50's again. Here's a picture of Nathan wearing a rhino sweater that Daddy wore when he was a kid. Kinda cool, right? 

And when it stopped raining, we braved the cold and took the bike out for a spin.

It's amazing just how much Hannah is picking up from just observing things around her. One day, we were wandering around walmart while we were waiting for my car to get an oil change across the street. We started at the book section and then eventually wandered to the toy section. I thought I would just let you roam around to see what kind of toys you would naturally gravitate to and at first, you were excited about balls, but then lo and behold, once you saw the "ba-bees" you immediately stomped towards them and pulled one off the shelf. Then you pulled a wheel chair off the shelf and set the baby inside the wheel chair, adjusted yourself and started pushing the wheel chair up and down the aisles.

Well, there you have it. I am finally caught up with posts and I can finally relax a bit before we start decluttering the house...which will be so much fun. yay.

Until next week,
Love,
Mommy

Favorites from our Trip to Chicago

Dear Hannah and Nathan, 

10 days before Christmas, we traveled to Illinois to visit Daddy's side of the family. It was a lot of fun because we got to see a bunch of people that we don't get to see including your cousins who now live in Florida. 

One of Daddy's favorite memories from the trip is playing hockey with you guys in grandma and grandpa's basement. 

One of my favorite memories was going to an event at a nature center and making cool crafts and learning about different nature-y things.

In the picture below, we learned to make a snow sled.

There was a bonfire set up for people to roast marshmallows and warm up.

This was the first time you've roasted marshmallows without our help.

We also went on a nature walk where the guide talked about tracking animals.

I think one of your favorite things to do is play pinball on grandpa's machine. You probably spent several hours down in the basement, clicking away.

Hannah's favorite memory would probably be visiting the Shedd aquarium. There were lots of cool things to see and you seemed like you were very intrigued.

Nathan got a chance to wear some of Daddy's old ice skates. This was the first time trying them on and you got to practice just walking around with them on.

This whole winter vacation, we visited a total of 5 museums geared at children. The Kohl's Children museum was probably my favorite one. There was plenty of age appropriate activities for you both.

We also spent a lot of time at the library. Besides an excellent selection of books there was also an awesome area for kids to play.

But Nathan's all time favorite memory was visiting the choo choo restaurant in Des Plains. We were lucky to be able to snag a table by the train tracks. Your grandpa came to this restaurant when he was a kid, so you can imagine how vintage this place is. They even still use a vintage cash register.

And right before we left for Chicago, we had a Chinese play-date for the kiddos and a pot-luck for the mommies. Most of the kiddos are sitting around and eating very nicely. Hannah pretty much tried to sneak a bite of food from everyone's plate.

After we got home from Chicago, we stayed for a day and a half and then drove up to Dallas to spend time with my side of the family. A post about that section of the trip will follow. 

It was pretty amazing to see Nathan being able to understand and appreciate a bit more of Christmas traditions.  And Hannah, having the luxury of staying under big brother's wings, has picked up on a lot of things. During this trip, Hannah has started to mimic others' actions and words. You are also very generous with "Hi" and "Bye" along with your all time favorite, high fives. 

While we were in Illinois, we also got a chance to get together with one of Daddy's old friends from college. They also have 2 kids, but both were boys. Nathan and their oldest son are about the same age and you two played so well together. Both of you guys took turns, played together and laughed and talked like little adults as you sat at the kids' table eating your pizza (which we had A LOT of on this trip). I just wish we lived a bit closer because I think you guys would make great best friends. 

Well, that's about it for now. Hannah has not been napping well since we've gotten back, which is why I'm so behind on posts. 

Until next time, 

Love, 

Mommy