Thursday, August 28, 2008

Don't think it's an approved carseat

But at least she's doing her research!






Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Colander

Classic

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Hannah charms Flagstaff


Hannah and I took off for a little grandparent time with my folks in Flag last week. The travel was long, but she did a wonderful job considering delays and missed connections both directions. Mom and Dad secured a real crib and high chair from some grandparent friends, which made a world of difference. Hannah did wake shortly after the sun every morning (which is very early in a place with no daylight savings time), but luckily my dad does as well, so I was off the hook.

I really enjoyed watching Hannah explore the natural surroundings at my parents' house and on a hike up the inner basin of the San Francisco Peaks. We've done some "hiking" in North Texas, but we don't much put her down to let her wander - in the dust, fire ants, and poison ivy.




Just one of the hundreds of mushroom colonies along the trail. Mom was seeing fairies and trolls at every turn!
Hannah coming in for a kiss at the springs.

We had a simply magical evening in downtown Flag with my parents' dear friends Karen and Maury, and were later joined by Dad's best bud Mick. There were free dancing lessons in the square that night, so Hannah took the opportunity to critique and dance the night away!

Apparently my mom had never seen, much less done, this trick before. Sheer glee!

It was really wonderful to watch Hannah interact with her grandparents now that she's getting old enough to play back. As to be expected, her Baba is her new best friend, and she was calling for him by the end of the week. (You think he picked a repeated-syllable name by accident?) We'll spend a week with Andy's family in Acadia soon, and I'm looking forward to her spending some quality time with the rest of her family!

The girl loves her shoes. And other people's shoes.

She did not, however, love Dad's circa 1949 little boy suit. We're guessing it was for his 1st birthday. It was a little short, but we couldn't pass up the photo op!

Today's conversations with Hannah

Mama - "If you're done, please put your cup on the kitchen counter."
Hannah - "Do"

Mama - "Do you want some super smoothie?"
Hannah - "Do"

Mama - "Please help me clean up your toys."
Hannah - "Do"

I think you get the idea. For "Do", think the word for the musical syllable, not the "yes, I'll do that" variety. I just couldn't bring myself to type "doh" for my baby's dialog, and "no" just really doesn't capture it.

In happier news - it's been raining this week! A lot! I'm quite confident that our grass will recover from the dry and return immediately to it's crisis fungus state, but at least we're not doing the sprinkler samba every morning for now. Hannah got to go out on her first puddle-splashing adventure, wearing my 30-plus-year-old Wellies from England.

Monday, August 18, 2008

Catch up: Hannah stuff

Hannah's grown up so much while I've been neglecting the blog! I know I'm going to forget a lot, so I'm going to be lazy and list...

Words - she's really into this whole speaking thing these days. Most of her words are still starting sounds (or random sounds from the middle or end of a word), but Andy and I are usually able to translate for those who don't speak Hannah.

Lovey-dovey - she still loves to give hugs and kisses, and they're more often than not the pucker kind rather than the wide-open-mouth super-drooly variety! She can also say hug ("ughh") and seems to have possibly pick up "a choo" as an attempt at mimicking "I love you." She and I will go back and forth trading a choo's, hers with varying levels of hilarity in the pauses, full-body emphasis, and giggle. What could be better?

Helping - her ability to follow directions is really amazing. I guess you could call them 2-step directions, since it usually involves going and getting something, then bringing it to us or putting it somewhere. So cool! In general, we're pretty impressed at how much she understands when people speak to her.

Laughs - oh, how the girl loves to giggle. She's an excellent tickle-ee, peek-a-boo (that's "pee" in Hannah) artist, victim of surprises, and observer of all things funny. I love that she and I are able to laugh together!

Independence - she definitely has a shy side around new people, but pretty quickly warms up to new places and situations. She's a great explorer and flirt. She doesn't seem to be afraid of much, but she did have some moments of sheer terror/glee watching her Baba pretend to be an airplane. She would say and sign done when he stopped - so cute!

Eating - who new that this would be the most stressful part of parenthood, from day one 'till ??? The rule still seems to be "let nothing green pass these lips", and protein is a mixed bag, but so far she'll still drink her "Super Smoothie" - straight out of the jar. (It's going to be sad when she can read and I'm ripping the labels off greenbeans and rice baby food.)

Sleep sacks - it totally snuck up on me, but they've become her lovey/blankie/cuddly thing. When she's tired, she'll go find one of them and bring it to where I am and lay down with it. We've talked about trying to wean her off them, especially in the heat, but I still come back to the fact that she can't climb out of the crib in one (though she did her her feet good and stuck yesterday) and she can't claw at the eczema on her legs all night. Plus it's a great source of price that I made the two that she uses most of the year.

Catch up: the facts

Some event-type things that I've missed... (more random cute photos at the bottom if you want to skip to the good stuff)


Lakewood 4th of July Parade

Andy's parents came for a great long-weekend visit in July. It was good and hot, but we had fun going to the Dallas World Aquarium and getting out for early walks. From her early months, Hannah's had a sweet spot in her heart for men, so true to form, Grandpa was her new best friend. She also enjoyed some great floor time with Grandma, and I really enjoyed being off-duty for a while!

We also spent a lovely weekend in Austin visiting friends and getting in some Town Lake (guess it's Lady Bird Lake, now!) and Barton Springs time. Our good friends Mike and Leslin were gracious enough to let us crash at Mike's place, even with the toddler in tow! They're training for Ironman number 5, so they were nice enough not to wake Hannah when they got up at some insanely early hour to run very far! We also enjoyed a wonderful meal with newlyweds Liz and Sascha at their renovation-in-process home. Hannah was an angel and went to sleep in the back while we were able to stay late and chat. What a gift!

Hannah and I just got back from a trip to Flagstaff to hang out with my parents, but that'll be a separate entry...

In mama news, Hannah's going to go to Mothers' Day Out two days a week this fall, and I'm going to teach a whopping 5 hours a week!

On Mondays, I'll teach a little babies and parents music class with a program that's already been started by a neighbor mom and her friend. It's called Rhythm and Rhyme: Movement and Music for Youngsters, and they ran a really successful program last year. I'm pretty impressed with their curriculum and am excited to join them. They weren't offering a class for pre-walkers anymore, and I realized that doing a toddler class in my house is more than I want to deal with, so I threw the idea their way. We're still waiting for enough enrollment (if you live in Dallas - I'd be glad to send you a flier!), but I think it will be fun.

The real "bulk" of my workload will be two 2-hour days teaching at Hannah's MDO at Church of the Incarnation, an Episcopal church nearby. I really like the director, the program is in a great upward transition, and I get a sweet deal on Hannah's tuition for working there. I'm excited to get to work with kids as old as 4! One of many examples of how motherhood's changed me - I used to dread Kindergarten every year. Really wanted the teachers to just keep them until around November when they'd learned to be students and real people. Now I'm thrilled to work with the big 4-year-olds - woo hoo!

Mama's bike jersey - we've been doing more family rides with the trailer and Andy's new smokin' "Dad bike." (An excuse to buy another really good bike that's better for pulling the trailer. He works his butt off and bikes a ton of miles on his road bike - he deserves it!


As close as Hannah will let me get to the piano.

Morning paper - a rare moment of not hounding us for breakfast!

Not sure how to type this sound - imagine "moo" with your mouth closed. It's the sound a dog makes, a cow, and apprently sometimes a baby.

Fashionista! All put on at her request. I see tutus and boots in Winter in our future.

Parting shot.