Week 56: Climbing and spell casting

Dear Children, 

This week seemed like it was a bit more busier than average. The weather is so nice right now, so I am trying to get us doing more stuff outside as much as possible. One of these activities involve helmets and bikes. Hannah, you actually love being on the bike. You are actually a lot less mischievous than Nathan was. When he was your age, he would kick my behind and pry off the safety bar constantly as we were riding. You just like to look around and point out things, occasionally giving a little squeal of delight. 

 But you have also been getting into, or shall I say climbing up on anything. But I'd say your favorite thing to climb into would be this activity center.

 Whenever I hear things get quiet, the first thing I look for is the activity center and about 80% of the time, you are trying to climb inside. The other 20% of the time, you are climbing up the stairs. In fact, you often will just climb up the stairs and play by yourself for a long time.

You have a pretty good plan, looking all cute and all, you climb in and you wait; wait for someone to see you and push you around the house as you squeal in delight. But really, how could anyone resist this?

Like I said, we've been trying to find excuses to get outside in the afternoons, in the mornings, really, any time. One day we went outside and played with chalk. Nathan, you decided to pick up a roll of toilet paper and trace a circle. Tracing, I didn't even know that you knew that this was a thing. 

 And after watching Nathan create master artwork on the driveway, Hannah was determined to get to the chalk as well. At first, I kept you away from it, fearing that you would make a feast out of it again, but I decided to trust you and let you have it. You actually picked it up and tried to draw with it.

 On Friday, we went over to one of Nathan's best friends house for her 3rd birthday. It was a decorate your cupcake party and they all had a blast. While Ariane's family will be finding sprinkles around their house for months to come, it was so cool watching all the little ones build their fine works of art and devour it with satisfaction. Nathan, you actually sat there admiring your work for about 10 minutes before you asked me if you could eat it. You have amazing patience and will-power.

 And of course, Hannah wanted to climb the vacuum cleaner.

 On Saturday, we decided to go (along with 2,000 other Austinites) and meet Daniel Tiger. The line was so ridiculous, so we took a picture with the PBS car and went to the Nature Center instead. I think we would've had to wait about 2.5 hours to spend a few minutes (if even) to take a picture with the tiger. Apparently, he got a heat stroke, which slowed things down a bit, but in the end, he was ok.

 Nature center turned out to be way more educational and fun. Both of you guys were very interested in the little animals that they had  there.

 Hannah, you found a magic wand and started to cast spells on the animals. I blame your Harry Potter loving cousin for teaching you this oh so adorable skill.

 Then, you two practiced your paleontology skills, as you dug for dinosaur fossils in the sand pit.

 Daddy decided to dig a few holes and Hannah just loved crawling in and out, from one hole to another.

 After about 30 minutes, we found something. Nathan worked really hard for about 3 minutes to brush off the debris to uncover the hidden gem.

 Before we left, we stopped by the indoor portion and Hannah discovered the power of refraction.

 On Sunday we went to church and for the past few weeks, Hannah has not been able to stay in the nursery for too long. Separation anxiety plagued this little girl, but for the first time in about 2 months, Hannah was able to stay in the nursery the whole time. Things are starting to look up.

Birthday party season is also about to start. For the next month, we will have 5 birthday parties, including yours, Nathan, to attend. It's going to be crazy, but fun.

Nathan, you've been telling me lately that you don't want to be a boy anymore and you want to be a girl. I've tried to explain to you that God made you a boy for a reason and you seem to have accepted it. You also say that you want long hair like me, so I'm thinking that was what you wanted in the beginning and didn't quite know how to communicate that. Anyways, we are going to let you grow your hair out. We'll see how it goes.

While you were at school, I went to the gym with Hannah, and the ladies at the gym put Hannah's hair in a little "thing" on her head. I don't think it's quite a pony tail, perhaps a unicorn horn? TV antennae? Anyways, the first thing you asked me after you saw her was, "What is that? I want one too." So I tied your hair up with a hair tie and we went on a walk. That little thing was quite amusing to you as you watched your shadow and wiggled your head to see the "thing" wiggle back and forth.

Yesterday, we visited Daddy at work. Hannah, you were very adamant about using a fork to eat your food. You didn't want any help and I put the food on the fork for you, you would take it off and re-pierce it on the tines before putting it in your mouth. We've been experimenting since then and you will pretty much eat anything off the fork. This morning, I put you down for breakfast and you started slinging food off the chair, but as soon as I put a fork on the table, you returned back to your civilized self and ate your food in peace.  

Before we visited Daddy at work, we went to story time at the library where Hannah shocked everyone when you started to sign the hand motions to almost all of the songs that we sing at story time. You really love music. 

What am I going to do with the 2 of you! I love you guys to bits and pieces. I look forward to the many adventures to come. Have a great week!

Love,
Mommy

Communication Skillz

 Dear Nathan and Hannah,
We have had quite the busy week. New discoveries this week for Hannah include nodding and shaking your head "no." It was actually really cute when I asked you last night, like I do every night, "Are you ready for bed?" You quickly and vigorously shook your head.

Nathan has discovered Hammer Time  by MC Hammer. I love the way you dance to the music and the way you say "Hammah Time!" and when Hannah is touching one of your things, you will rap, "Can't touch this, du-na-na-na" Much improved from those temper tantrums that you would throw.

Here's an example of how Hannah is pretty much wanting to do everything Nathan does. One day, I found you climbing on the scooter, so I pushed you around the house and when I stopped, you protested strongly.

After spending some time with your Harry Potter-loving cousins this summer, you have picked up the "stupify!" move. Any time you see a wand-like device, you'll pick it up and point it at someone as if you were saying "Stupify!" When you get me, I always make a silly face and freeze, which urges you to keep going. 

At the pool, you noticed how much fun Nathan was having with his goggles. So when he placed them down to play sans goggles, you immediately crawled over and tried to put them on your face. For this picture, we had to help you a tiny bit.

After a long stretch, Nathan, you finally got to see your best friend. We went to the park and you guys just sat on the swings and had fun. 

 For this week's crafty Tuesday, we made a lion mask. We've also been working on connecting the dot activities as well as completing simple mazes.

 Nathan, sometimes when you are doing something really cool, Hannah wants to join you and usually ends up making you frustrated because she's just throwing stuff around; therefore, I will take her to another part of the room and do something cool with her too. But then you almost always abandon the cool thing that you were working on to try what Hannah is doing as well. Luckily, you get bored of this baby stuff pretty quickly, and Hannah can go back to doing what she was doing.

 The other day, your friend Abi made you a get well card. After we found out that she was sick too, we decided to draw a picture for her. I suggested that you draw a picture of yourself and Abi holding hands. I walked away to play with Hannah a bit and when I came back, I was pretty amazed at the picture that you drew.

A few days later, I thought that maybe grandma and grandpa would like a picture too. So, I asked you to draw a picture of grandma and grandpa with you in between. First, I suggested that you draw something on grandma's shirt. You decided to draw a dinosaur like the one you have on your shirt, but then you changed your mind and drew "lines" like how Daddy has on most of his shirts. You even drew shoes on grandma. Then, for grandpa you drew his face and added glasses, which made him look angry. And then you decided to give yourself an orange shirt to wear.

 Yesterday, we went outside and you went dinosaur hunting with the older kids next door. I think it is so cute, how they include you in their big kid games.

 A few days ago, we went to the grocery store to pick up some food. You were completely excited about the kid-sized cart. When we saw anyone , you would make sure to tell them, "I got my own cart!"

 Some days you are pretty silly.

 On Friday, we met up with some other moms from MOPS and we went to the Wildflower center for their Sprouts program. Afterwards, we went to the swings and played.

 Hannah enjoyed sharing food with Lillian.

 We also had a pretty busy labor day weekend. We started it off by visiting the Thinkery with baby Lucas on Saturday.

 And then we went swimming later that day. I don't know if it was the nasal steroids, or if Nathan figured out how to hold your breath under water, you suddenly love swimming again. You don't mind putting your head under water anymore.

 On Monday, we went over to a friends house and we had a triple play date and fajita fest. Both the kids and the adults had lots of fun.

On Tuesday, I got a chance to join a bunch of other Chinese moms to make moon cakes. Moon cakes are typically eaten during the mid autumn moon festival. Everyone loved eating the moon cakes.

And at that moon cake party, Hannah took her first 4 step walk! I am sure by the end of this month, you will be walking. Nathan started walking at 12 months as well!

Until next week!
Love,
Mommy

Back To School for Nathan

Dear Nathan, 

This morning, I dropped you off at school for your second year of our church's mothers day out program. Here's the picture from last year, compared to the one from this year. While I can't quite figure out what has changed, you definitely look more like a young boy than a baby. You are growing up too fast! 

We went and met your teachers yesterday and afterwards, you told me that they are pretty nice and that you like them. Drop off went pretty smoothly as the teachers had a bunch of paints ready for you guys to use. You too quickly said "bye, Mommy" and just like that, we left. 

Other than the first day of school, lots of other things have happened. I'm just going to talk about them in the order of how the pictures were loaded on. 

But before I begin, I just had to share this adorable moment that I saw while I was preparing dinner one night. 

 The super moon occurred again this past weekend, so on Sunday evening, after church, Daddy got to show Nathan what the moon looks like up close. Nathan was a bit disappointed to not find little aliens driving around on the surface. (These guys are the characters from Kirble Space Program game that you boys sometimes like to play).

 Hannah loves playing with water. Sometimetimes I will even catch you splashing your fingers in Teddy's water bowl.

 Daddy had lasik done on his eyes late last week and before the procedure, we decided to explain to Nathan what was going to happen the next day. I was cooking dinner in the kitchen and I overheard this conversation:
Nathan: Daddy, why you get lasers in your eyes?

Steve: Well, my eyes are broken, so the doctors need to shine lasers in my eyes to fix them.

Nathan: Oh, ok. Will it hurt?

Steve: I think so, but just a little bit. Like a shot. I'll be brave.

[A pause and then suddenly, I hear]

Steve: Hey, stop hammering my eyes!

Nathan apparently had found his plastic hammer and was trying to fix daddy's eyes. How cute!

 It's pretty amazing how every day I see both of you grow closer to each other. Every day Hannah is more able to do what Nathan is doing. For example, when we stopped by the store the other day to pick up a few items, you two were just a hoot, "beeping" your way through the isles.

 You two are just too cute! I can't even stand it! How am I so lucky to be your mom?

We also went to the Thinkery this week. Boy, it was pretty tough keeping up with both of you. While Nathan just wants to do everything right now, Hannah is pretty busy trying to eat all the new things that she found.

Both kids playing...

Hannah decides to kiss herself. 

 And then during story time, Hannah crawled out of my lap to sit up front to listen to the story.

 And so I thought....when I wasn't looking, you made a run for the trains. Luckily, I've been working out and so it was pretty easy for me to catch up to you.

 After story time, we went upstairs to the active kids area. Nathan built an obstacle course, which all of the kids ended up wanting to try out. While I was nursing Hannah, it was pretty neat to see Nathan interact with other children.

 I had to take this picture because Hannah, you had so much sauce in your hair that it was working like a hair gel. Your hair was crazy!

 But then we took a bath and like always, you really enjoyed turning off the lights.

I think that's about it for now. If I think of anything else, I'll be sure I post it next week. I am so proud to be your mom and I am cherishing every moment that I spend with the two of you. I like you two a lot.

Mommy