It's Hannah's Birthday!

Dear Nathan, 

Today, you have been such a proud big brother, telling everyone that it's Hannah's birthday! Everyday you make me so proud to be your mommy. In fact, the other day, after seeing me wearing a dress, you sweetly told me, "Mommy, you look like a princess." Boy, if my ego could be measured then, it would be as high as the Burj Khalifa. I thanked you and our morning continued. During breakfast, you came over to me with your lower lip all pouty looking and said to me, "I want to be a princess too!" How could I ever resist that face? So we put you in one of Hannah's dresses, in fact one that Grandma made and you could not have been happier. Daddy calmly explained to you that usually only girls wear dresses and while he did not want me to make a facebook post about this, he gave me permission to write about it here. 

This week has been a pretty normal week. We've had a few play dates, but other than that, nothing too special. You have, however, started asking "why" questions. While I thought it would be really annoying, you seem to be content after I answer your question and unlike other toddlers that I know, you don't keep asking a string of "why" questions. Perhaps that is still to come, but right now, I appreciate the inquisitiveness. 

I can tell that each day you are falling more in love with Hannah. You will comment on how you like certain things that she does: for example; babbling, blowing bubbles, and giggling. You are even really excited to help prepare for Hannah's birthday party. 

You worked really hard on painting the pinata. 

 And stringing the caterpillar banner was all you.

You've also suddenly started an interest in playing with guns. You'll make imaginary guns with different things and start shooting at random people. I'm not sure where you picked this up, but boy, you are definitely a boy. In about a month, you will be 3. Wow. 

****

Dear Hannah, 

I can't believe it, but 365 days ago, we brought you into this world and today, you are a happy little girl, doing all sorts of crazy things. You continue to amaze me each day as you transform from one little lump of helplessness into a young girl who is dexterous and inquisitive. Here's how you have changed month to month. 

One odd thing that you've picked up is placing rope-like items around your neck like a necklace. It's almost automatic. If we place a rope or a string close to you, you'll quickly crawl to it, grab it and pull it over your head. Here are a few times that I've caught you...

Vacuum Cleaner Cord

Lanyard String for Name tag

Binoculars

Belt

This past weekend, your friend Lucas, the same kid who pushed you into the pool the other day, 

It happened so fast, not sure if  he pushed you in, or if you jumped in yourself, but we thought it was pretty funny and you were probably more startled than anything. 

Anyways, after that incident, you still like Lucas and are willing to share your toys with him. 

4

 Other new things you have been doing are throwing balls around...hard.

 Flipping pages in books.

Swimming in the water for a little bit and you absolutely love being thrown in the air. 

 Your wave delay seems to have gotten shorter and you are even figuring out how to climb down stairs. Oh, and you learned to sign "more" from Auntie Linda. I was telling Daddy yesterday how you can now sign "more" and you instantly showed him the sign. However, when you really are focused on some sort of food (like the ice cream we gave you today), you forget about signing and you just open your mouth wide to let us know you want more. Hey, I guess whatever works, right?

We are going to have a little birthday party for you this weekend. We are all really excited and I think you'll have a lot of fun.

Buh Bye for now!

Love,
Mommy

Hannah is 51 Weeks old

Dear Nathan and Hannah, 

Can you believe it? Hannah will turn 1 year old in a week! Time has flown by too quickly. This week has been more on the uneventful side but we did manage to make it to the pool 2 times. Nathan, you have been reluctant to stick your head under water, but when I swim with you, you seem to be more willing to do it. Well, if this is what it takes, I accept it. 

 On Monday, Nathan went to see an allergist. Of course, that day you were less drooly than normal so the doctor didn't get to see the extent of your drooling, but when she looked into your nose, she noticed that it was pretty red and inflamed, so you have been using nasal steroids each day since then. I feel like your drooling has improved just because of that.

On the same day, you also had to get your blood drawn for an allergy test. You were really brave and sat through the procedure only complaining, never really crying. Afterwards, we went to get ice cream because you were so brave. You picked a rainbow sherbert and cookies and cream.

 Hannah and I just sat and watched you eat. We were not the ones who got blood drawn, so we didn't get any ice cream.

 Hannah is getting more interactive as each day passes. In this picture, you can see that Hannah is feeding Nathan. Throughout each meal Hannah, you would be eating yourself and then randomly hold out a chunk of food towards one of, as if offering it to us. Sometimes you will put it in our mouths, but sometimes you quickly retract your arm, as if you are saying, "Just kidding!"

 Hannah, you really love to mimic Nathan. Whatever Nathan is getting into, you want to be a part of it too! Nathan is usually amused at first, but then gets annoyed when you get in the way.

 This is the sad pouty face that comes up to me to tattle on Hannah.

 Next weekend, we are having a birthday party for Hannah. We are keeping it small, only inviting kids who are around Hannah's age and their families, but since most of Hannah's friends have siblings Nathan's age, it will be a big kid party as well.

One thing I'm working on is a pinata. Since the theme is hungry caterpillar, I'm making a caterpillar pinata. The head is going to be a pull-string pinata (for the little ones) and after they are finished with it, the rest of the pinata will be beat up by the older kids.

 Still not completed, but I have plenty of time.

 Hannah is pretty excited about her birthday party!

 Before I end our post this week, I want to share a cool trick that we've been working on...dismounting safely off of couches and beds. With some prompting Hannah, you can go from sitting on the edge,

 to rolling on your belly,

 and then you slide off the edge.

Sometimes after mini practice sessions, you can do the whole sequence seamlessly, but when you get distracted or are tired of climbing down, you need a bit more encouraging. Oh another thing you are doing is turning off light switches before you leave the room. You really enjoy doing it and I can see the little power trip you get after your little finger flips the switch down.

Hannah is cruising around the house, but not quite comfortable to take steps on your own. Occasionally, you will move from one object to the next, letting go for a second or two, but you are usually pretty cautious and will sit down and crawl to me if I am trying to get you to walk towards me. It's ok, I am in no hurry for you to walk. I'm ok with you still being a baby. Well, this week will be a bit more exciting and next week will be even more so. But we will continue to enjoy each moment of every day as it comes.

Love,
Mommy

50 Weeks Moving On Up!

Dear Nathan and Hannah,
I know there are a few avid readers out there (great-grandparents) who are wondering why there wasn't a post available this evening. Well, as they read on, they will see.

Well, let's start at the day we returned from our trip. As soon as we got home, we unloaded the car with both of you still sleeping inside and drove to Nathan's best friend's house for a play date. Abigail's mom had a super fun activity planned for everyone to do.

 As you can see, Hannah got down and dirty with the big kids too!
We realized that we left Hannah's white noise machine back in Illinois and I was really worried about how it may affect your sleep. Well, it turns out, you now take longer naps without it shutting off after 45 minutes. It takes you awhile longer to fall asleep, but once you do, you are pretty out. So I guess this was a good mistake.

A few days later, we realized that Hannah can climb all the way up the stairs. Here you are, rounding the corner...

 with big brother cheering you on!

 Now that you are more mobile, I find you peering into all sorts of places. It's cute to play peek-a-boo.

 And Nathan has to get creative when playing with toys. Hannah is quite the destruct-ophile. If you see a tower, you feel like it is your destiny to knock it down.

 Oh and your climbing is not limited to stairs, I found out one day... You had used one of Nathan's toys as a step stool to boost yourself onto the second shelf. I have a feeling I'm going to need to watch this one like a hawk.

 And then there's the push cart. You LOVE pushing that thing around the house. Each journey is accompanied with copious amounts of squealing and laughter.

 One day as I was trying to distract Hannah from tearing apart the Thomas tracks, I brought out the ol' pom pom and tupperware toy. Nathan stopped what he was doing and came over to play. My instinct was to say, "Go, play with your trains and I'll play this with Hannah." But I'm glad I held my tongue, because it ended up being the best bonding time between you two. Nathan would push each pom pom into the container and say "Boop!" causing a chain reaction of deep belly giggles from both of them.

 You two played this for about 15 minutes. Too cute!

 I also love watching Nathan play kitchen. You are now really using your imagination to do lots of detailed things that you see me do in the kitchen. You even will find the correct ingredient (for example, baking soda to make a cake) and imagine scooping that stuff into the bowl. Another cool thing you have been doing is using the playdoh as food and cooking things for us to eat. Unfortunately, Hannah actually likes eating the playdoh. Hannah, we are pretending to eat.

 Nathan has a little sou chef who likes to get in the way sometimes, but sometimes she stays at her station and does her own thing.

 On Saturday, we met up with some friends whom we have not seen at a long time. We first met up at Deep eddy pool. It was cold and Hannah pretty much hung on to me like a sloth on a tree. I thought that the mosaic telling the history of the pool was pretty cool. Each tile was made by a middle school student.

 Afterwards, everyone came over to our house to play and have dinner. We had so much fun that I forgot to take more pictures. But when the kids went home in the evening, Nathan said, "I miss them already."

And then came Tuesday and Wednesday, what I call, the crazy days. I watched 5 kids aged almost 1, almost 3, almost 4, almost 6 and 7. While I was pretty much orchestrating a group one short of the Brady bunch, it actually went as well as it possibly could have gone. The girls that I watched were actually excellent girls. Really well behaved and super sweet. I think the most difficult part of it was keeping everyone semi-quiet as Hannah was trying to fall asleep and trying to get everyone to agree on what to do. I quickly learned after the first day that I just need to tell everyone "This is what we are doing."

While I loved the joyfulness and energy in the house, I know that we will not be having 5 kids. Since the kids were all so close in age, everyone actually played really well together. Especially Hannah, because which little girl doesn't like to play with a little baby?

 There was a moment today when one of the girls accidentally hurt Hannah, causing her to cry and Nathan comes over leans towards her face and asks, "Why you hurt my sister?" I was so proud!

I can't believe that I didn't realize the power of the large box. Nathan and Hannah played peek-a-boo from this box for about 20 minutes. (At least that's how long Nathan stayed in the box waiting for Daddy to get home from work to get him out)

 And they're also good for making trains... Half way through setting things up, Nathan exclaims, "I need a newspaper!" I asked you what you needed it for and you said, "People read newspapers on trains." So there you are reading a newspaper on the train.

 You were also kind enough to share your new marble toy with the girls. I think it was even more fun because the older girls made it into a game where you try to grab the marble right as it hits the bottom. I guess with older kids, everything is a game.

 These past 2 days have been really good for you two. Nathan got a chance to learn how to play with other children in a civilized manner. The girls were great about sharing and taking turns and communicating without screaming and tantrums.

Another picture to share how well you all played together.

While everything went as well as it possibly could, I was pretty much exhausted after the first day. It was a bit draining to constantly have to figure out how to entertain a bunch of kids around nap time. We went to the pool today and it took 45 minutes to get everyone ready and packed to get to the pool and probably about the same afterwards to get everyone cleaned up and changed back to dry clothing. Luckily the 2 older kids were more independent. 

One of my teacher friends who I lost contact for awhile came to visit today so it was nice to have an extra set of eyes to keep track of the safety of 5 young children at the pool. The 2 older kids were amazing swimmers as they did back-flips into the water. I was hoping that their courageous spirit would inspire Nathan to put his head under water and swim, but he was happily slowly kicking his way through the water on a noodle. I really hope swim lessons didn't scar him from playing in the water for life. 

Hannah got a new tooth on the first of this month and I can see that 3 more are coming in simultaneously. Poor girl, you have been fussy, cranky, drooly, and clingy today. Hopefully the teeth will all emerge by tomorrow and you'll be back to your happy self again. 

Well, that's all I can remember for now. Until next week! 

Love, 

Mommy

Week 49: B is for Beaches, Boats, Birthdays, Baby Animals, Bikes and Buckets

 Dear Hannah and Nathan,
What a week! I've uploaded over 50 pictures for this post this week. I think this will make all of the grandparents very happy. Well, we got to visit the mid-west for a week and while the weather was not as cool as I expected it to be, I gladly appreciated the upper 80's weather we had the whole time we were there. This post will mostly be chronological since we did so much.

After flying international with you two, a short flight a little over 2 hours was a breeze. Both of you two were so well behaved and calm and before we knew it, we were in Chicago already. The first full day we were there, we went to the Morton Arboretum. This was a great park for kids to play. Lots of neat things to see and interesting things to climb.

 We stopped and took this great family portrait. I just wish Hannah was smiling.

Nathan liked to climb this "spider web." You wanted to climb it over and over and over. 

 Hannah and Grandma both wore matching pink caps. Pretty cute! We were waiting for storytime. The theme was Owls.

 And while we were waiting, Hannah decided to climb a few steps. Oh no.

 There was also a lego exhibit with huge models of nature-y things made out of legos. I thought this was the neatest one.

 And then Nathan spotted the giant Lego man head (and claimed a prize after we found it).

 After naps on Friday, we went to great-grandpa and great-grandma's house for dinner. Afterwards we played outside and even got to ride the paddle boats for awhile. Nathan is actually tall enough to paddle with Daddy (although, you need to sit on the ledge below the seat).

 And afterwards, you two just played on the sand bar while the adults visited with each other.

 We had to watch Hannah, because for some reason, you think that sand tastes pretty good.

 The next day, your cousins arrived from Florida. In the morning, Nathan and Hannah went outside to play with the neighbor kids. They had lots of toys and a great playground in their back yard. Nathan and the little boy played really well together. Afterwards, Nathan convinced grandpa to let him play with the LGB trains. After awhile, Nathan came up with an idea to make a roller coaster with the train set by placing the little barrels underneath the track.

 After the cousins arrived, the house was pretty wild. I simply loved the energy that flowed through the house. Little feet pitter-pattering, squeals of laughter and little voices communicating to each other in toddler-eese.

After naps, Grandma had planned a combined birthday party for all the summer birthdays. What's a party without birthday hats? Can you guess the theme?

 And then there was also pin the eye on the minion.

 And a wild game of hot ice cream cone.

 And of course, there were presents, lots of presents.

 And cake.

 Hannah loved her first bite of cake.

 Nathan worked diligently on his cake, making sure no crumb was left behind.

Here's everyone who attended the party! Family picture :)

Then, the next day, we all loaded up the cars and drove up to Wisconsin. Both of you did really well, despite next to each other. There was an occasional dispute over a toy, but luckily Hannah is pretty easy-going. I wonder how long this will last. 

 First we visited "The Farm" in door county. This place was pretty much a farm with lots of farm animals. We fed baby animals bags of feed and baby goats bottles of milk. (Although Nathan was not a fan of feeding) And I even got a chance to milk a goat!

 Nathan's favorite baby animals were the pigglets

 and the chicks. You stood mesmerized for quite some time at these two little pens.

All 4 cousins together. 

Afterwards, we checked into our resort, and hung out at the pool for the rest of the afternoon. In the evening, we went out for dinner and that evening, both of you guys slept like rocks.

The next morning, we went to Peninsula State Park to go bike riding. At first, we were going to let Nathan ride the tag-along, but your legs weren't quite long enough to reach the pedals, so we put both of you in a little trailer.

 About 10 minutes into the ride, Hannah got tired and you pretty much cried your head off. I ended up carrying you on my back for the rest of the 8 mile ride.

At the beginning of the trail, we hit a fallen tree. We had to all work together and navigate around the tree that blocked our way.

 The view was quite scenic. For most of it, we rode through a forest lined with both deciduous and coniferous trees. The light peeking through the branches, along with an occasional glimpse of the lake was simply beautiful. And then, we even got to see a lighthouse.

 And a trolley. We took this picture for Nathan's best friend, Abigail, who loves Daniel tiger and the trolley.

 After 5 miles of riding, we hit the beach. The kids all jumped onto the tire swing and simply had a blast.

 After a picnic lunch, the kids went to the beach to play for awhile.

 After we rode back and returned the bikes at the shop, we drove to where Daddy used to visit when the family came to Door County. Uncle Tim rode with us and it was pretty cool listening to them recall memories from their childhood.

That afternoon, we went back to the resort and spent more time at the pool. I don't know why, but for some reason, Nathan, you did not want to put your head under water to swim. I really hope swim lessons didn't ruin your passion for playing in the water.

Then, after a delicious meal outdoors, we enjoyed the beautiful sunset over Green Bay.

 Once again, both of you slept like rocks and then the next day, we drove to Cave Point County Park, and found this amazing place. Of course, we had to contribute with our own trail marker statues.

 The water was so clear and inviting. You all really enjoyed putting your feet in the water.

 The hike at the park was pretty easy and filled with cool obstacles for a little almost-three year old boy.

Tree Roots

Low-Hanging Branches

 and not-pictured, fallen tree trunks.

Nathan, you did something pretty clever. You got an idea to make snowmen by sticking twigs between the rocks. I was proud of your idea.

 Hannah really enjoys playing with sand. This time you didn't put as much in your mouth, instead you would find pieces of wood or shell and put those things in your mouth instead. [sigh]

 We found a lot of smooth twigs and you kids all had fun casting spells on each other with your "magic wands."

 Afterwards, we went to the beach and played for about an hour. Hannah really liked crawling around and didn't mind the cold waves as they washed up the shore.

 After everyone took nice long naps that afternoon, we went to the famous Al Johnsons restaurant for some delicious Sweedish food. The main attraction there are the goats that hang out on the roof. Unfortunately, we did not get to see them.

 Playing out in the sun made everyone hungry.

 Can you see the sod that is planted on the roof? Normally, there would be goats on that roof.

 After dinner, everyone went and played at the playground and grandma passed out the traditional "Best of" awards. Nathan received the "Best lumberjack" award for his determined efforts at whacking the bark off of a certain tree and Hannah received the "Best Sand-eater" award.

We finished our trip to door county with some tart cherry picking. These cherries are the local specialty and we lucked out by visiting an orchard with trees bursting with ripe fruit.

 We collected a total of 3 buckets and took home one. I will be making some cherry pie pretty soon. Yum!

 After cherry picking, we drove to a country store to sample and buy various cherry goods. Who knew cherry was so versatile. After lunch at a delicious sandwich place, we went to a distillery/winery and went on their tour. After the tour, we headed back to Illinois and had a yummy dinner at one of my favorite Chicago restaurants, Portillos. Their beef dip sandwiches are AMAZING.

The next morning (this morning) we woke up at 4:30 am to board our 6:30 flight to Austin. Despite arriving at the airport about an hour before departure, the airport was crazy busy. Luckily we were rushed to the head of the line both at check-in and at security and we made it on the plane as they were making the final boarding call announcement.

Nathan quietly watched shows on the Kindle and Hannah slept for a bit. When you were awake Hannah, you would wave and play peek-a-boo with the people around us. It was really nice to see you so sociable.

For the most part, we were happy to be back home. While we were waiting for Daddy to get the car from the parking garage, Nathan, you discovered that you could climb up these little benches by yourself and started to dance like it was a stage. It was too cute that I had to take a picture.

We made lots of great memories, but unfortunately, you guys probably won't remember this trip. That's part of the reason why I'm writing this blog. I hope that you guys will think that these posts are interesting to read when you grow up.

Final note: For the first time, we noticed that Nathan, you are starting to not like "good-byes." Both times when you were saying "bye" to great-grandparents, you became really sad and expressed that you did not want them to leave. Good-byes are tough, my sweet boy, but they don't last forever.

I'm looking forward to getting back into our routine as we have one more month before school starts. Nathan is a bit reluctant about moving up to a different class, with different teachers, but I'm sure once you meet your new teachers, you will love it.

Until next week!
Love,
Mommy