Hannah's First Thanksgiving at 15 Weeks

Dear Kiddos, 

This week has been an exciting one. First, Ama and Auntie Momo came to visit for Thanksgiving. While they were here, we went to visit Mt. Bonnell (Austin's highest point) and the new riverwalk on the east side of town. 

Ama and Auntie Momo are pretty much the only other people that you two hear Chinese from, so just after 2 short days, I feel like Nathan is already speaking more Chinese. Every morning Nathan will say good morning to me in Chinese, which I think is so sweet.

Nathan also loved playing with Auntie Momo's pit-bull mix dog. He would chase her while riding on his scooter. I feel like those few play sessions helped improve his scooter skills. In fact, yesterday, we were able to go on a normal paced walk with Hannah in the stroller, Teddy on the leash, and Nathan on the scooter.

After our guests left, the weather stayed wonderful, so we went outside to put up some Christmas lights. Nathan wanted to rake the leaves, so we got the rake out for him to play.

 Hannah just hung out and watched us while we were all hard at work.

 Then, I decided to take a few pictures of Hannah in a pile of leaves like I had done with Nathan.

 And then Nathan decided that he needed some pictures too.

 Which quickly turned into playing with the leaves.

 After coming home from church that night, we saw the fruit of our labors.

 The lights are a bit mismatched, but I kind of like it. As our family grows, our light display will also slowly grow. Maybe someday we'll get one of those giant blow up lawn ornaments to put up front. Last year, one of our neighbors had a 20 foot snowman. Crazy.

On Saturday, we went to watch Daddy play roller hockey with Abigail's dad. Abigail's mom brought hockey sticks for the kids to play with and Nathan got so excited that he wanted to go in the court to play hockey. I love Nathan's spirit and willingness to try new things. When I told Nathan that he couldn't play hockey because he was too small, he pointed to himself and said, "try?"

He's adventurous, and for awhile when we would tell him things like "it's spicy" he would second guess us and want to try it anyways, but now, he takes our word for it most of the time. Now when he tries it anyways, I think it's just out of curiosity. Almost everything that he is experiencing now is new to him, so I'm just going to encourage his sense of curiosity by making sure he remains safe doing so.

Other interesting things that Nathan has tried or wanted to try include black pepper (liked it), hot fries (liked it), coffee ice cream (liked it), kosher salt (liked it a lot), root beer (didn't like it at first, but then liked it), driving (too young), brussel sprouts (didn't like it), hot sauce (didn't like it), kale leaves (said "yum" but didn't eat anymore), climbing a ladder (successful), and pomegranate (liked it).

Nathan is starting to understand how to play more gently. More often than not, he makes it through a whole day without having to go to any time outs. And as Hannah becomes more interactive, I can see Nathan's love for Hannah grow each day.

Nathan is starting to understand how pronouns are used correctly in both Chinese and English. For a long time, "You" was incorrectly used by Nathan when he referred to himself. He is starting to sometimes correct himself by using "I" or "me." Nathan is also saying "sorry" a lot. It's really cute when he does it. 

Oh, a few nights ago, we were going through the bedtime routine and noticed that Nathan's post tuck-in protesting had escalated into a cry. So Daddy went up and re-started the routine and I came in to help finish (once Hannah had been put to bed). We talked and as I put you down in your crib, your lower lip started to tremble, getting ready to cry. I quickly stroked your face and said, "Don't cry." and my heart just melted as you took a deep breath and tried to hold your tears in. I don't know why, but bedtime has become a bit tougher on you lately. Last night, we sent you to bed with a flashlight and it made the transition a lot smoother. You were even able to turn off the flashlight before you fell asleep like I asked you to. We'll see if this helps you in the long run. 

Last night Hannah had a weird night as well. After sleeping for 7 and a half hours (not counting the dream feed) you woke up at 4 am for a feed and stayed up for almost an hour and a half before falling back asleep. At one point, I looked at you and you smiled back with big eyes like you were ready to play. I hope this will not continue (the staying awake for 1.5 hours part...not the sleeping for 7 hours part, you can keep doing that). 

I am very thankful to be able to be such a big part of both of your daily lives. Your innocence and fresh take on life is a refreshing reminder of the perfect beings that God has created us to be. I wish I could protect you two from the...complications of the world, but I think one of my biggest challenges as a parent will be to adequately prepare you two to face bravely them.  I pray for God's guidance. 

In the meantime, keep exploring and playing joyfully. 

Love, 

Mommy