Party Animals

Dear Hannah and Nathan
Hannah is 23 weeks old  and Nathan is 2 and a quarter years old. Every week I must sound like a broken record player when I say, you two are growing too fast! But it's true and with each passing day, it seems like time just goes by that much faster.

I am very thankful that both of you are taking afternoon naps at around the same time. Hannah usually will start napping from about 1-2 and nap for about 3 hours. Nathan is starting his naps closer to 2 and sleeping until 4. When you both wake up, half of the time, Nathan wakes up super cranky like this...

 Hannah is almost always in a happy disposition. I flip her over and I get the sweetest smile.

 After everyone wakes up from naps, we usually play a bit. This past week a very weak cold has been going through the family so we've stayed home in order to rest up for the 2 parties that we would have later on.

We played the usual grocery store.

 And painted...

 And the day before the party, we made sure the house was nice and clean for our guests.

 Nathan was super excited when it was party number 1 time. It was the normal monthly get-together that we have with the babies from our birthing group, but calling it a party makes it that more fun. We actually tried to replicate a picture that we took 2 years ago when these toddlers were babies who could barely hold their heads up. We flipped the 2 kids ind the middle, but otherwise, I'd say it turned out better than I thought it would.

 Of course, the new brother and sister in the group along with the yet-to come sisters also got their own picture. The boy sitting next to Hannah is only 3 days older than she is. Hannah is wearing his older sister's clothes and the boy is wearing Nathan's old clothes.

 We then had some yummy snacks and everyone got to make their own pretzels.

It was really cool to see everyone interacting with each other more now that you all are a bit older. There were a few "mine" wars, but things always work themselves out and life goes on.

The next day we had some friends from our Chinese play group come over. Every mom brought super yummy Chinese dishes and after lots of practice with Daddy, Nathan did a very good job with sharing his toys with his friends. Many of the moms commented on how well Nathan spoke Chinese. Some even exclaimed that even though both parents spoke Chinese, their child insists on speaking English. Let's hope speaking Chinese remains "cool" to both of you so that you don't lose this precious gift of being able to speak with at least 20% of the world's population.

Hannah is sleeping very well. When she starts getting a bit fussy, I start the bedtime routine and put her down. Within a few minutes, she falls asleep with little to no fussing. If we are in a foreign place, I will pat her to minimize the fussing, but she will quickly fall asleep. At a MOPS meeting, I was able to put her down on a table and she took a good 45 minute nap in the middle of a meeting. As soon as I start to sing the lullaby, she starts to rub her eyes and I know she's ready to sleep. I am pretty sure she has learned that the lullaby means that it's time to sleep. I hear about the things that some other parents have to do to get their kids to sleep and I'm super super thankful for my little angel baby who falls asleep so well.

Funny story happened this week with Nathan. We all woke up a bit late that morning due to the rainy weather and we were all rushing to get out of the door. I had just finished changing and Nathan noticed that I didn't have any shoes on. He asked, "Nathan get shoes for mommy?" I replied,
"Thank you, but I'm going to wear my boots today."
"Nathan get boots for Mommy?" shocked, I replied,
"Ok, thank you." Pitter patter, off he goes and I resume with getting Hannah ready. A few moments later I hear,
"Mommy!" and then some grunting. The sound was a bit muted and soon I figured out that it was coming from the garage. I quickly opened the door and found Nathan at the door holding onto my roller blades by the straps. Looking up with a proud, but exasperated smile, he said, "Mommy, boots!"

Everyday I am reminded of how God has blessed me with 2 amazing children, I love you both so much.

Ama is here to visit for a few days this week so let's see what sort of adventures we will go on.

Until next week,
Mommy