When "No" Means No.

Dear Hannah, 

You've learned a new word this week and you know to use it well. "No!" While this is fine in my book, Nathan is not as keen about it because when he makes a request of you and you say, "No" it can be very frustrating for him and so he'll start to thrash wildly--which by the way is not the way to handle "No." There are much better ways and I hope he will start practicing them more soon so you don't pick this up sooner than you naturally would on your own. 

Well, in other news, you are very interested in scooter riding. One day, I was helping Nathan with something and as I glanced back to check on you, you were hanging onto the handle bars, rolling across the driveway, exclaiming, "WEEEE!" Of course, when you hit the grass, you toppled over, but you got right back on the scooter and tried to push off again. I'd say by next month, you'll be zooming around just like big brother. 

 You found a stick in our yard and decided to use it like a walking stick. Not sure where you picked that up...

 Yesterday, we had our usual Chinese storytime, but on a day when Nathan could attend too. For the end of the Chinese new year festival, it's traditional to eat sticky rice balls which is like the full moon, which symbolizes the fullness of life. Everyone had lots of fun making the little round balls.

 Nathan was a rolling machine.

 And when it came time to eat, everyone enjoyed them, except for Hannah, who preferred the sweetened red beans.

For fun Friday, Nathan requested that we make a dessert out of the limes that he picked out from the grocery store. We ended up making lime bars, which were super yummy. Hannah cracked the eggs (too quickly for us to keep up) while Nathan measured and poured the ingredients. It was quite the operation and in the end, we ended up with a concoction that looked and tasted as it should.

At some point, Hannah got into the pantry and pulled out a bag of opened macaroni noodles and spilled them all over the floor. I decided to see if you were now mature enough to clean it up yourself, so I swept up the noodles and put them on a plate and asked you to put the noodles back into the bag. Sure enough, you started to do it. And with more applauding and encouragement from me, one by one, you started to put the noodles into the little open hole. I got the camera and took this picture.

 A few seconds later, Nathan joins in and the stash of noodles quickly dwindle. By the end, you both were fighting over who gets to put back the last few pasta pieces! If cleaning up were always this fun.

Hannah, you still continue to LOVE swings. When you see one, you will book it, and run as fast as your little legs can towards the swing, pointing and grunting to make sure we know that you want to get on and when you are on one, you will point to the swing next to you, as if you are inviting me to get on and swing too. (Which makes me nervous because you are only holding on with one hand) 

 And girl, you sure love to accessorize. Whether it be a belt, a necklace, or book, you love sporting little things around your neck.

 Today, we went in for your 18 month check up. Everything looks good and you are following your growth curve just perfectly. However, you seem to remember the people because as soon as you saw the nurse, you started to cry. She was the one who gave you the shots in the past and that did not sit well with you. You also got 4 shots today and seem to be taking it pretty well so far.

 Dear Nathan,
On Saturday, while Daddy was playing Hockey, we met up with a friend at the Nature center. You guys are about the same age and both of you have little sisters who are about the same age as well. Both of you are just the sweetest boys and except for a few whines over chips and strawberries, you guys get along really well. Here you are both so patiently waiting for lunch.

 On Sunday, you got invited to a birthday party at an inflatable jump house. You used to hate going to these places and I'm so proud of you for being brave and despite the loud fan noises, joined your friends on the inflatable toys. It was neat seeing you boys follow each other around, interact and play on the different inflatables.

 Yesterday, you completed a painting and you wanted to add it to your art wall. As you can see, it's pretty full.

I asked you which of these pictures is less cool or less pretty, that we could take down to make room for new pictures. Immediately, you said, they are all very pretty and cool. We need to keep them up. Just find more clips. Ok,

Well, that is it for now. Hannah, you keep practicing the scooter and Nathan, you keep practicing your roller skates. I'm looking forward to the day where we can just roll around the neighborhood as a family.

Until next week,
Mommy

Hannah is 18 Months!

Dear Nathan and Hannah, 

Sorry for not updating on time yesterday. I was definitely out with food poisoning. Luckily, I was the only who got it. But Super Daddy stayed home and took care of both of you while I pretty much laid in bed and slept the whole day. Today I feel about 80% better. 

Man, we are so fortunate to have this awesome weather lately. Short sleeves in February? Crazy. Well, here are the highlights from this week: 

For Valentines Day, we kept up the tradition of making chocolate covered strawberries. Nathan did a pretty good job of making 4-5 and then you wanted to eat them. After eating the ones you made, you made sure to tell us that you were probably going to stop eating, so you don't have too much sugar. Seriously, who are you? 

 As Hannah watched from the sideline, I would see your fingers creep over to try to grab a strawberry. Since you are not allergic to strawberries anymore, I just let you eat as many as you want---as long as they weren't covered in chocolate.

 We even let you dip a strawberry, which went directly from the pot into your mouth. Luckily, the chocolate wasn't too hot to burn your mouth.

 Nathan, you've been practicing on your skates and are starting to get the hang of it. You find it pretty funny when you fall down and you are able to just pop back up, with a smile on your face.

 And one day, we decided to try planting a few things. I usually plan these things out, really try to balance out the soil, and in the end, the plants don't survive. So this time, I just gave you guys the stuff and let you guys pick out the seeds, poured them in the soil, and poked them in. Maybe, we'll do better with this method. Here, Nathan is even teaching Hannah how to poke the seeds into the soil.

 I think we ended up growing spring onion, chives, and snow peas...with maybe some radish sprinkled in? We'll find out.

 I even just let you two go crazy with the watering.

 We'll keep ya'll posted on the progress of our experimental garden.

On Saturday, Nathan requested that we go visit the wildflower center, specifically the swings area. I was surprised that you two were able to share a pack of goldfish crackers without fighting.

 We got a few good "cheeses".

 And then on the way back, no one wanted to walk, so I stuck both of you in the stroller and surprisingly, there was neither pushing, nor shoving.

 Later that day, Nathan and I went on a date. We watched half of a roller derby bout and then collected tickets for about an hour. You really enjoyed watching the skaters skate "roughly" and when they got sent to the penalty box, you would repeat the announcer excitedly, "Penalty box 30 seconds!"

 The next morning we had breakfast and I simply took this picture because Hannah was posing like grandma.

 And you are also getting pretty good at your spoon feeding skills. Definitely better than Nathan. At least you use the spoon more often than he does.

 On Tuesday, we went with Abigail to try out a soccer class. It turned out to be lots of fun and I thought that the teacher was great. He scaffolded the drills so that there was a logical progression in skills development.

 Hannah was pretty interested and watching the whole time. You even wanted to get out there and try.

 At the end of the day, I asked Nathan if you had fun and wanted to go back. You said, "No." because Coach James didn't let you kick the ball high into the air. Then, today when I asked you again, you said that you wanted to go so that you can follow the coach's directions and do a better job. I personally thought you did pretty good already, but apparently, you have higher standards for yourself.

Well, that's about it for now. I'm going to try to go and take a quick nap before you both wake up.

Love,
Mommy

Havlir House is Back to Health

Dear Hannah,
How did I end up so lucky with such a sweet girl? You are curious, you follow directions, and you are definitely not afraid of heights. Recently, you've started to sing more and more to yourself, while we are walking, and you will point to the radio or my phone and dance to show that you want to listen to music. I think you've got my genes for loving music.

We've been stuck at home for the past week due to illness. Luckily, your symptoms were mild, but Nathan faced the worse cold (possibly flu) in his life. During this week, I pulled out all of the pinterest activities just because we were just running out of new things to do.

This activity with the pipe cleaners was a bigger hit with you than with Nathan. Nathan maybe liked to poke 1-2 pipe cleaners in, but you did 4 before you started to lose interest. In fact, in this picture, you are multi-tasking: eating cheerios and working on your fine motor skills.
                                    
 And here is your oh so lovely "cheese" face. You actually will request that I take pictures of you at random times by pointing at my phone or camera and saying "cheese!"

 You've also become a master at begging for food. In this picture, you found the colander that I use to wash berries with and you walked up to me, holding it up, saying, "boobooies?"

How can you say no to this face????

 Yesterday when Daddy took Nathan out on a bike ride, you communicated that you wanted to wear a helmet too, so I handed you my derby one and snapped a few pictures. Maybe one day, you'll be a derby brat.

 One of the toys that I brought out, thinking that it would be too advanced for you is the cutting food kit. Oh wow, it is like your. favorite. thing. to. do.

 The weather here lately has been absolutely beautiful. We are talking about 60-70 degree afternoons, clear skies, slight breeze. And now that you guys are cleared of sickness, we've been venturing out into public a bit more. Today, you and I grabbed a free chicken biscuit from chick-fil-a, and had a mini picnic at the wildflower center. It was super nice to just be able to focus on exploring the center with you. We walked at your pace, touched what you wanted to feel, and wandered towards whatever direction interested you.

 And then we went to your favorite spot at the swings. You wanted to try all the swings. After a few swings on one, you would point to another one, try that one, and point to the next one down the line. You actually do this with water fountains too. You are just getting the most out of the world!

Dear Nathan, 

I am so glad that you are finally starting to feel better. After several days of severe coughing bouts, congestion and a few days of fever, you were simply a miserable little boy. But you are back to yourself again and I'm so glad. 

Monday was Chinese New year and our friend sent me a link for a cute lantern craft that we all made together. Both of you were very proud of your work! I remember the days when I was a kid, and we would walk around carefully with our brand new paper lanterns during the lantern festival days. 

 We also made our final observations of the crystal. It's actually started to grow a new one on the side of the cup and still growing as we speak.

One day, we managed to make a quick trip to costco for some milk and of course, ended up with a cart full of other "needs." I'm glad I accepted the box that they offered because it kept both of you busy as I unloaded, re-packaged the goods, and cooked lunch. 

 Among the stuff that I got at Costco was a gigantic tub of peeled garlic. I was starting to feel a bit sick on Friday, so I ate a few slices of raw garlic, slept as much as I could and I think it chased away the cold. My breath reeked for 2 days or so, but I'll take stinky breath over sickness any day.

 Yesterday morning, we went to the playground to play for a bit. You guys played pretty well and Nathan is starting to understand what it really means to watch out for Hannah.

 And then, we went to storytime at the library. While waiting for it to start, I glance over at you and I noticed that your pants legs were up to your knees. Have you had a growth spurt lately? I guess time to get more pants.

 The thing I love about our storytime is that they have a craft at the end of the stories. Here, you are making a love bug.

 We also went to visit Daddy at AMD yesterday for lunch. They have a pretty cool arcade close to the cafeteria, so we always go there and wait for Daddy. You were actually able to score points at the skee-ball machine. In the past, your throws would either barely make it to the targets, or simply roll back towards you. Top score: 120. Not bad.

Potty is still a hit and miss some days. You really will just not go by yourself. We constantly have to remind you to go. I've pulled out one more stunt: Roller skates. We got you your very own pair and after a day of keeping your undies dry, you can practice in the afternoon. So far it's been 2 days and it's kept you pretty motivated. Still have to remind you, but if you are just wandering around with nothing to do, you will remember to go to the bathroom.  Well, that's about it for now.

Love, 

Mommy