Week of Making and Fixing of Things

Dear Nathan and Hannah, 

This week has been busy. About a week ago, our garage door broke. So after looking for parts locally and not being able to find anything, Daddy ordered some springs on-line and they finally arrived for him to fix the garage. That morning, I noticed that the house was eerily quiet. I walked out to the garage and I found everyone here. It was so cute how you both just pulled out the lawn chairs and was watching Daddy fix the garage door. I almost went inside to pop you guys some pop corn. 

On Friday, we had a MOPS playdate where we decorated cookies and had free-play. You both had a fun time decorating the cookies, but definitely were more interested in eating them.

 On Saturday, we had our another birthing group gathering. We moms have secretly met without you guys a few times since we all got together last time, but it was really neat watching you guys interact and actually play together. Even if "playing" meant plotting to capture your poor old 10 year old dog.

Our excuse to get together (if we even need one) was to build gingerbread houses. They were a bit smaller this year, which made them a bit easier to manage. And only one house completely collapsed.
Everyone did a great job sitting and working on their houses.

 Even Hannah, you got to decorate your own tiny little gingerbread house. On a side note you seem to like "tiny little" things right now. You want your pancakes "tiny little," cookies, and cups too. With little things you are pointing out how the little ones are the "babies" and the larger things are mommies or daddies. I totally remember Nathan doing that around your age.

 You also tried your first black jelly bean. I personally don't even know why anyone would think licorice is yummy by itself, but you seem to not mind it, (or not think it is disgusting). You didn't quite finish it, but you didn't spit it out. You look like a little goth girl with those black lips.

 And then there's the obligatory baby line picture that we do every meeting.

 I totally forgot to snap a picture of everyone with their finished products so I let you guys work on your houses a bit more the next morning and snapped a picture then.

 Hannah, you are getting to be such a medium sized girl. You are now able to sit through most of a game. For the first time, you were able to understand rules of a game and play it a few rounds.

 You two also found bottling beer to be very exciting. Nathan, you even decided to give up bedtime stories just to help out with beer bottling. Both of you did a great job at not breaking any bottles. In about 2 weeks, we will have a new batch of pretzel wheat beer...adult drinks. Plus they are fizzy and you guys don't like fizzy drinks.

 On Sunday, Nathan you had your end of the semester performance in Chinese school. You guys performed 2 songs for the group, had a party and played some games. You all were so cute!

Hannah absolutely loves school. You say "Hi" to your friends at school (even include their name in the greeting) and Ms. Kim says that you are a joy to have in class. She can't imagine what you are like when you throw a tantrum.

 Speaking of tantrums, you had an off day (you ended up getting sick the next day) which made me question having children at all in the first place. Everything I did was not right and everything I offered, you didn't want, but then did want, and then did not want, you know how it goes...

While most of the time you are really pleasant and polite, you are starting to get some sass and a sense of humor. For example: One day, you were helping me out with dinner prep. I had asked you to relocate the cubed tofu from the cutting board to a bowl. I turned away to work on something else and when I returned, half of the tofu remained on the cutting board looking like this:

 I exclaimed, "Hannah, I we don't smush tofu like this. I don't like to eat it like this!" and then you exclamed, "But I like it smushed!" "It's OK!"

And then here's an example of your sense of humor. Last week I talked about how you know that emperor Palpatine says "Goo-ud" a lot. Well, this week, while we were driving around the neighborhood looking at lights, you pointed at a Darth Vader and Yoda lawn ornament and said, "Goo-ud!" and giggled.

Hannah, you also like to play with little boys. When we have little girls over, you don't pay them much attention, but boys, you kind of go gaga over them. We had some dear friends over for a play date and you were pretty much enamored with Conner. You immediately started feeding him you snacks, asked him questions and later, as we were playing outside, you guys shared bubbles (for awhile).

We finally broke ground on our backyard remodel project. I'm looking forward to being able to spend lots of time outside, exploring, investigating and growing. 

Well, we have more exciting things to come this week and next week. Pretty soon Christmas will be over and we will be back to our normal routine. Until then, I'll cherish every memory that we make together.

Until next week,
Mommy.