Hannah Turns 2 and rainy fun for days and days and days

Dear Nathan and Hannah, 

I think you guys are getting to witness the anti-drought of 2016. It has rained for almost 2 weeks straight. In order to keep you guys from rebelling and going crazy, we've broken out the good stuff. starting out with the Michael Jackson dance experience for the Wii. Both Mommy and Daddy are not the greatest dancers, so we figured that you might as well learn from the best. 

 And then there's good ol' indoor hockey. Roller skating is out right now because Nathan, just wants to knock Hannah down all the time. Gee, I wonder where you learned that?

We also spent a lot of time reading books. Luckily we had checked out a bunch of books from the library the week before so when we got sick of the books from our own library, we had reinforcements. 

In this picture, we were reading the cheerios book, and after we were finished, Hannah, you asked if she could eat the rest of the cheerios and after I gave you permission, you just shoved the whole container in your face. It's like you were simply giving in after a whole 5 minutes of self control. It was too cute not to snap a pic. 

 On Sunday, our church had a back-to-school special event for all the kids. You guys each got an animal balloon and Nathan, you got your face painted. You were a bit sad, however, that you guys didn't get to do children's church.

 You requested to have your face painted like a clown. On the way to the car, you admitted that you didn't really like the painting and that it didn't really look like a clown. You were nice to not have said it in front of the lady, in order to not hurt her feelings.

 After church, we went to go have some Indian food at one of our family favorite restaurants. We always have to cover up Hannah completely because you are now such a messy eater. You know it too, because you will tell us when your napkin is out of place.


But you love your food, I just found you to be simply adorable while eating some meat off of a huge rib bone. I simply had to grab my phone and take a pic.

 Luckily it didn't rain the the whole day every day it rained. There were a few stretches of time where we could get out, run around, play some bubbles, go take Teddy on a walk, and my new favorite post-rain activity: exploring the creek behind our house. This creek bed is usually dry, so it was nice to be able to go and explore it as it was gushing water from all this rain that we've gotten.

On our way out, we happened to pass by one of our neighbors and we asked them to join us. They happily came with and you guys loved having all the attention that they gave you.

 Hannah, you were fearless, as you crawled through drain pipes to explore and splash around in the water. Nathan, however, was a bit more timid

 But after a lot of coaching and hand holding, we explored and splashed, and got a bit muddy. 

We'll probably go again later this week. 

Hannah, whenever I'm in the kitchen, you just want to come and "help cook." I think you really just like the snacking that you get to do while you cook. (pss...me too!)

On Thursday, I picked up a couple of crabs from the grocery store. figuring that I would probably be the only one eating it. But as soon as I sat down, Hannah, you come pitter pattering and as you are pointing to the delicious crustacian in front of me, you ask, "[What's] that?} I tell you it's crab and I give you a little chunk of meat. Immediately, you exclaim, "MMmmm! More crab!"

I couldn't catch up and before I knew it, you had eaten most of the crab that I had plan to eat myself :( So then I cooked up a batch of shrimp and you ate another 5 shrimps!

Another thing you love is egg. If there are eggs on the table, that is the only thing that you will eat. Of course, when I made boiled eggs, it was so tough for you to stop yourself from eating the eggs as you peeled them. 

And then, there was your birthday, Hannah! I had asked you what type of cake you wanted, and gave you a choice of cookie cake, chocolate cake, cupcakes and all you said was, "Sprinkles!" So I made a sponge cake with whipped cream and let you guys decorate the cakes with sprinkles. 

 But your favorite part of the whole birthday cake deal, was blowing out the candles. After we sung the song the first time, you asked for "more candle" and so we lit it again and sung the song again. And then you exclaimed, "more candle" so this time we just lit it again and had you blow it out. We probably repeated this about 10 times.

 We actually just did a family party the night before your actual birthday because Daddy had a hockey thing the next evening after dinner.

And then you opened your presents

 And after you saw dresses, you immediately insisted to "try" on the "piao piao" (pretty) dresses.

On the day of your actual birthday, we had our usual Chinese storytime group come over and everyone stayed for lunch and cupcakes. 

We didn't do an official big birthday party this year because we have decided that we will be hosting "big" parties when you guys turn odd number ages. Both Mommy and Daddy didn't grow up with having big birthday parties, so we think having one every year is unecessary, and exhausting.

In two weeks both of you officially start a mother's day out program at our church. I'm looking forward to the free time that I'll have in the morning, but until then, we'll still make our trips to the grocery store, and run our errands. In fact, we are kind of a well known at our local sprouts with the little carts. The workers there either think, "oh, here are those two adorable kids who push the carts!" or "Oh no, here come those kids!" Around the produce section, you guys are pretty good, following directions, following me, not picking up too many random thing not on the list. By the time we get to the bulk foods, you guys want to buy everything and touch everything. The dairy aisle is a bit dangerous, because there are so many varieties of yogurt to get, and by the time we get to the meat section, carts start to become abandoned, and random spices start showing up in the cart. Why do they place spices at the bottom of the meat counter?!?!

Anyways, I continue to love spending time with you guys (looking forward to a little break though) and I hope we can get some more outdoor time now that the rain has stopped for now and the weather is a bit cooler.