Just another mild Texas winter and Hannah's Potty Training Progress

Dear Nathan and Hannah, 

I can believe how amazing the weather has been lately. With the nasal sprays we've been able to keep Cedar allergies manageable. We finally got around to planting all the plants that we bought from the wildflower center in the fall. They don't look that great, but hopefully their new home will help revive them back to health. 

Hannah has recently shown interest in dresses. You particularly love this green dress. You put this on and you instantly transform into this little twirly girly girl. It's adorable.

 Since we are leaving for Taiwan soon, I've been trying to get you guys to walk more. So, I found that you guys will walk without complaining basically forever if you both are pushing babies.

 We take all the long-cuts and take several detours to extend the length of our walk.

 This Saturday, we had a few friends come over and we went to the wildflower to spend the morning. Again, I had you guys walk as much as possible.

 And this week Hannah has made significant gains as far as potty training goes. You have been able to stay dry if I take you potty at least every 75 minutes. On Friday, you started to actually tell us when you need to go. So, in celebration, we went to Target and you got to pick out your own set of undies! Between Peppa pig, frozen, and super heroines. As you can see from the pic below, this is what you picked.

I think I have to give your teachers credit for helping it finally click for you. On Wednesday, you came home with the same dry diaper that I sent you with. And later that day, you told me that you "catch the pee pee with the potty," not your diaper. And then I added on, yes. When your tummy feels full, you need to tell mommy that you need to go pee pee and you catch the pee pee in the potty. Do you catch the pee pee in your diaper? And then you said very cautiously, "No!"

Thursday, I didn't think too much of it, but on Friday, after you've been sleeping in on all the naps and in the mornings, I think you had a mental leap and finally understand what it feels like when your bladder is full. Ever since, you've been doing a great job and keeping things dry (except when we were gardening yesterday and you had an accident while playing in the sprinklers as I was testing them out.

When I walked into class yesterday to drop you off, I told the teachers the following,
"You guys told Hannah something last week..." which got their attention really quick, "that she should catch her pee pee in the potty and not her diaper, well, that must have helped the idea click in her head because she can now tell when she needs to go." You could tell that there was a sense of relief on their faces. Maybe next time I shouldn't barge in and start a conversation with the words that I used.

Well, this week is a short post. I've got lots of things to get ready before we leave. We only have 2 more weeks before we leave for Taiwan! So exciting!

Love,
Mommy

Surviving Winter in the 70's

Dear Nathan and Hannah, 

After a few days of a cold snap after we returned from Illinois, we've been enjoying nice days averaging in the 70's during the day. Cedar pollen, though high does not seem to be affecting us much this year thanks to Flonase and Allegra. 

Though it's been warm, there have been days where it is still a bit too wet to play outside, so we brought the fun inside with these aqua balls that basically bounce everywhere. It's not a big deal because they dry quickly and you can just sweep and vacuum them up, and most importantly, Teddy does not think they are delicious at all. 

 I decided to take a risk and we planted a few plants in our planter. Most of them are winter crops, so they'll survive any frosts that we may get before it finally warms up for good, but maybe we can have a few things before we leave for Taiwan in a month.

 The new planters in our backyard are the perfect height for little people.

 It's pretty cool to see you two play together so much. Hannah pretty much thinks Nathan is the coolest guy ever. You will listen to Nathan "read," play guns, transformers, and just chase each other around the house like crazy kids. Meanwhile, I can get some cleaning done. Life is good.

 Hannah, you are now realizing how cute you really are and you are capitalizing on this. You are requesting hairstyles. Last week it was the pig-tail look, this week it's "Cinderella hair," which I later discovered is basically a pony tail.

 You continue to love cruciferous veggies. You absolutely go crazy for Brussels sprouts. You even do a little dance after you eat each bite.

 And you are breaking barriers with traditional gender based toys. Here you are pushing Optimus Prime around in a baby stroller. Other times, you play guns with Nathan in a tutu. Or you blast Nathan using one of your barbie dolls as a gun.

 On Sunday, I went to a professional development so Daddy spent most of the day with you guys. Here are the pictures that he left me.

 What I don't get is how he manages to get you guys to sit so still for so long. He's also a master at keeping Hannah quiet during hide-and-go-seek.

Hannah, after much convincing, I finally agreed to let you use the peeler to peel carrots. You pretty much made a good argument. "I'll be careful. OK? I not scrape my fingers. OK. I want to peel. OK?"

 The weather has been absolutely gorgeous. We've spent as much time outside as possible.

 We were even able to prune all of the trees in our yard. As you can see from below, it was not a small pile at all.

Saturday was birthday party day. Nathan and I went to the fish gallery and celebrated a 5 year old's birthday. Here are some cool shots. These fish eat the food which is stuck to the glass and each fish looks like a flower petal. 

 The kids learned about different types of fish.

 And Hannah went to a joint 2 and 1 year olds' party. There were lots of toys to play,

 including lots of Thomas things. (Nathan was so jealous when you got home and heard about all the Thomas things at the party Hannah went to)

Earlier in the week we went to Altitude, a trampoline house. You guys had so much fun. Not sure if you could see in the pic below, but Nathan is hanging off of a trapeze. This requires jumping onto the trapeze and hanging on as it swings around. Lots of fun. Hannah loved the sensation of just jumping around.

You guys lasted for around 1.5 hours before you all we OK with just going home. It's a great place for little kiddos and we will be returning back for sure.

Well, the weather ahead continues to be mild but wet. Maybe we'll get some play dates in.

Until next week,
Love,
Mommy

The Twelve Days of Christmas

Every year, I always become a little bit sad when I realize that you guys don't get to experience the excitement of Christmas at home. So, we decided to start celebrating Christmas a bit earlier by asking Santa to come a couple of days earlier so that we could open up a few presents before we left. 

First, we set out some cookies for Santa, because they are his favorite. And instead of milk, Nathan suggested that we set out some coffee for Santa because he may be tired from delivering all those presents. 

 Hannah also contributed some water to the spread because Santa might be thirsty.

 The next day, we smashed both of our gingerbread houses and started to enjoy them before they got too stale.

 Gumdrops are not our favorite.

"Christmas" morning at home was not terribly exciting. The kids woke up, just like every other morning and headed right for breakfast. Nathan took a peek at the cookies and coffee and announced that Santa ate the cookies, but immediately afterwards asked for a bowl of cereal. 

Alas, Santa brought most of the items off the wish list: For Nathan, a nerf gun, lightning mcqueen slippers and a lego set. For Hannah, a teddy bear, hair bows, and a set of skating protective gear. 

On the day before Christmas Eve, we drove up to Dallas to visit Auntie Momo. We spent the night there and then flew to Chicago to spend Christmas with Daddy's side of the family. 

So, without further ado, 

On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, a happy family and a huge Christmas Tree. This picture was taken in front of the Dallas Museum of Art where we spent Christmas Eve morning. 

The DMOA is one of Auntie Momo's favorite places and they had a pretty amazing Children's area. You guys tried your hand at still art and tracing. 

On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me, 2 trolley rides.

Well, technically not on the same day, but we were able to ride 2 trolleys during the Christmas break. Hannah loves riding the trolley and kept asking if we can stay on. The first trolley was the McKinney St. trolley that went through downtown and uptown Dallas. 

 The second trolley we rode in Kenosha, WI. We boarded the car, and between all of us, did not have exact change for the fare. We asked a couple in the car if they had any change for a $20 and they decided to pay the fare for our family! What a nice gesture.

On the third day of Christmas my true love gave to me, 3 costumed mice (including a mouse king). One Friday, we went to go see a Children's theater production of the Nutcracker. It was pretty neat for me to look over at Nathan and see how his slight lean forward and how his eyes were just lit up. He really enjoyed the show. Hannah really liked the "princess" (fairy) dresses. 

On the fourth day of Christmas my true love gave to me, 4 crazy cousins. While we were in Chicago, our cousins from Florida also joined us at grandma and grandpa's house. You guys had lots of fun together. Hannah enjoyed having other girls to play with and Nathan enjoyed having older kids to play with.

On the fifth day of Christmas my true love gave to me, 5 mammoth fossils. On our drive up to Dallas, we stopped by the Mammoth National Monument in Waco. The tour lasted about 45 minutes and it was really neat to learn about the Colombian mammoth and be able to walk through an active archaelogical dig site. 

On the 6th day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, 6 exotic animals in the animal show. The Palatine library is pretty amazing. Not only are their bookshelves filled with multiple copies of each book, hold regular story times (even during the holidays) they also have some pretty cool special programming like the one we went to a few days after the new year. We were able to see a hedgehog, a weasel, a turtle, a boa constrictor, a large rabbit, and a frog. Hannah was interested in going up to be a volunteer and raised her hand each time. It was pretty cute. 

On the seventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me, seven Jelly Belly samples. We drove about 45 minutes north to the quaint city of Kenosha. We took the jelly belly factory tour and had samples of different types of jelly beans. It was a fun sugar rush filled day. 

On the 8th day of Christmas my true love gave to me 8 Train Cityscapes. We visited the Trains at Northpark, which benefits the Ronald McDonald Foundation. When Nathan was in the NICU, the 1 afternoon where we were able to use their facility was an amazing blessing. It was neat to be able to point out the different things that we've seen in real life. 

On the 9th day of Christmas my true love gave to me, 9 Sick Havlirs. It all started with Grandma and Hannah getting sick on day 1. About 24 hours later, people started to drop like flies. It was a house with surround sound puking. (Sorry for the graphic description...) can you guess who was the only one who did not get sick? 2017 will forever be remembered as the year where we almost all of the Havlirs in the house got sick. 

On the 10th day of Christmas my true love gave to me, 10 Antique Bowling Pins. Besides the game belonging to grandma when she was a little girl, it was also really cool to see how well Nathan and Hazel played together. For this game, one person would set it up and the other person would knock the pins down, then you guys would change turns...all on your own. 

On the 11th day of Christmas my true love gave to me, 11 Skating Havlirs. On the day before everyone else got sick, most of the family brought their cold gear, skates and drove to downtown Chicago to skate at the Ribbon. Nathan eventually got the hang of it and was able to skate around the 1/4 mile loop by himself twice. He even told Daddy not to follow him (but Daddy asked Uncle George to follow behind). 

On the 12th day of Christmas my true love gave to me, 12 People Splashing in a Pool. We went to 2 Christmas parties while in the Chicago area. One of them was at the great-grandparents' nursing home. We played in the pool with the cousins and then ate and played games upstairs. Of course, there was also the opening of presents. 

I left out a few other things because they didn't quite fit nicely in the 12 days theme, but I'm going to mention them below.

The other Christmas party we attended was at Daddy's other set of grandparents house. All the aunts and uncles were there, along with cousins. The Christmas band was small, but mighty, and the white elephant game...well, everyone didn't get as much...let's just say that we all ended up with gifts that we could actually use, which is a bonus in itself.

We went and watched Moana with the cousins at the movie Theater. This was Hannah's first time at the theater and Nathan's second time. Nathan got a bit upset and had to leave the theater at one point of the movie, but he was able to watch the rest with Daddy, sitting in the back row of seats. Hannah watched most of the movie not scared and during the scary parts, she sat on my lap.

We also visited the little red school house, a nature center at a Chicago suburb. We think this may be where we all got the stomach bug, but we are not quite sure. It was fun, there were lots of cool animals to look at and little activities for the kids to do.

Well, that wraps up our Christmas holiday vacation. Back to the swing of things!