Oak Oak Go Away!

Dear Nathan and Hannah,
Oak has been pretty bad lately, so we've been staying indoors mostly. It seems like this year the oak has not been affecting you as bad as we only had to give you allergy medication once or twice this week. Hannah is pretty much not allergic to anything, so you got to enjoy a few afternoons outside with Daddy. I, on the other hand, have horrible congestion (which apparently is exacerbated by pregnancy hormones) and have developed a sinus infection. It seems like with this pregnancy, it's just one thing after another. Sheesh. Other than that, I'm eating pretty well, but still exhausted. I have my appointment with the endocrinologist next week and hopefully my levels will be on the normal side.

Hannah, lately, you are basically Nathan's shadow. Whatever he says, you repeat. Whatever he plays, you want as well. Whatever he wants to eat, you want it too. (I'll talk more about how I capitalized on that later). But this has also led you to be quite grabby as you take whatever cool toy Nathan is playing with because you want to play with it too. Nathan just whines right now and does a good job of not fighting back, but one day he will lose his cool. Hopefully you get over this phase before that happens. We visited Daddy at AMD and you wanted to do everything that Nathan was doing. We used to be able to split up and play different things, but no, you want to do everything like Nathan.

 We got a surprise in the mail from an uncle. I thought it was a package that Daddy ordered, but when I looked at the shipping label, it was to Hannah and Nathan. You guys loved the animal crackers.

And Nathan was super excited to put together the lego set that was in his bag. You completed the whole thing all by yourself (with the exception of 3 pieces, which after you were "finished" were left behind).

One oak-y day we spent the morning painting lots and lots of pictures. I was surprised at how long your guys were able to sit and paint.

You two love watching those short recipe videos that people post on line. I capitalized on this and found a video to show you guys on how to make kale chips. We've done this before, but I think I made too big a deal about it, so I just let you guys tear apart the tender leaves, spin dry the kale, massage the oil into the leaves and spread everything in the pan. Afterwards, I tempted you guys by eating a crunchy piece and then asking you two to wait while the chips cooled. Then I said you two could snack on them while I got the rest of dinner ready. 

After the first crunch, Nathan, you exclaimed, "These are pretty good!" Hannah took a bite, face was hesitant, but then also repeated, "these are pretty good!" 

Later we had sloppy joe sandwiches and Nathan even decided to put some kale in the sandwich! Ok! I was feel all sorts of happiness inside. I even told you guys that you could have whatever dessert you wanted because kale is such a healthy food. 

 After dinner, you two decided to have ice cream. I saw the little crumbs of kale left on the baking sheet and immediately thought, kale sprinkles! So I yelled out, "Who wants kale sprinkles on their ice cream?" Hannah immediately says,
"OOOh, sprinkles! Kale Sprinkles! I do! I do!" Meanwhile Nathan and Daddy give each other strange glances and Nathan states,
"I think she's just kidding, but maybe she's not. " Oh, you guys know me too well.

Well, Hannah sprinkles a few crumbs of kale on her ice cream and says, "Yum! I like kale sprinkles!" I tried some too. I'd have to admit, pretty good.

 Ever since you guys have been little we've told you that green stuff makes you strong. We made a few comments about how strong you two will be tomorrow and that maybe you should take it easy on the kale so you don't get too strong. Nathan exclaims, "I love kale! It's so yummy!" And then this morning, when you woke up, you started doing push-ups to show us how strong you are. You even asked me if you were strong enough to fight bad guys. I told you that you weren't quite ready, but you didn't quite believe me, so I sent Daddy in to pin you down. You did a pretty good job of kicking and pushing him away. So we told you that maybe you were strong enough now. Let's just hope you don't have to fight any bad guys in real life.

Then we went to the dentist today. Everyone checked out just fine and Hannah did a great job taking pictures of Nathan while he was in the chair. After I told you Hannah that you were too small to sit in the chair, you would occasionally remind me that you were only 2 years old and you need to be 4 to sit in the chair.

 I ended up lying (unintentionally) to you because after I told the dentist about your dying teeth up front (due to rough playing and teeth hitting the tile floor) he wanted to take a look at them. You clung to me as he quickly inspected your front teeth and said that as long as they aren't loose and that the gums around them are not inflamed, we can wait it out. In the end, you got a toothbrush too.

Today we were able to play a game, completely unmodified with both of you today. We broke out the game, Sneaky Snacky Squirrel, and had so much fun playing it. I can see why it has won so many awards. If you have a 2.5+ kid I'd highly recommend it.

Other than what I mentioned above, we are all working on staying calm. Nathan needs to work on staying calm when things don't go the way you want. Hannah needs to work on staying calm when making simple requests and also say "please." I need to work on not yelling when I get frustrated. Daddy is definitely the calm one in the house and a great model for us. At least I can say, "Be like Daddy when you are frustrated."

The recent rains this past weekend knocked most of the pollen grains off of the trees, but oak pollen levels are still in the mid-high range. Hopefully it will soon go down and we can enjoy this amazing spring weather before it gets too hot!

Until next week,
Love,
Mommy