Vacation, Tubs, and Hannah

We took a little road trip these past few weeks.  By little, I mean 32 hours of driving over 2 weeks time.  (That's 32 hours of just driving, not overall travel time, which included many stops for potties, leg stretching, meals, and Starbucks.  All equally important.)

 It may surprise you that at a hotel in Kentucky was the first time we dumped both kiddos in the bathtub together.  For our routine at home, it just works better to give them baths separately, especially since Hannah goes to sleep an hour before Jayce.  But since we all go to bed at the same time in a single hotel room, they took their baths together.   It was cute.  

 I won't share more than these photos, for obvious reasons, but it's also pretty obvious why, when I put them in, and called "Chris, come look at this," he came with my camera bag in hand.  He's a good husband like that. 

When we reached our condo in Florida, I let Hannah play freely, unrestrained by the confines of the car and car seat.  I tried to entice her to crawl, but instead she looked at me like I was crazy.

But in the end, I did it.  Or I guess she did it.  That is, I enticed, and she crawled.

Or maybe it was her toys and the ducks outside that were the real motivation.  Either way, it was win-win.

And that's enough pictures for one post.  I love these ones.

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Mother's Day Weekend

As I mentioned in my last post, I was thrilled that I got to spend Mother's Day with my little family, and it was the first one with all four of us.

We had a low key weekend.  We headed out to dinner on Friday night so that we could beat the Mother's Day crowds and Chris let me wander and shop in Old Navy with much less complaining than usual.

Then we had lots of at home, family chilling out time, which was just what I wanted. 

We introduced Hannah to the tree swing and she loved it.

I couldn't put my finger on what I thought was so strange about the baby in these pictures, until I realized I'm just so used to seeing pictures of THIS baby in the swing instead.  

(Jayce, in May 2008, above.)

Then Chris and Jayce took to the sprinklers.

One of the sprayers was broken, and when we told Jayce about this, he had no choice other than to go inside for his tools to attempt to repair it.

Then there was lots of running and giggling.

Before church on Sunday I made everyone go outside for a few pictures.  

I tried to get one of all of us, but Hannah realized in the middle of it that I wasn't holding her, and decided to punish me.

But I can take her.

And in honor of Mother's Day, this is basically just a post of pictures.  Hope you don't mind.

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When You're Four

The other night we were snuggling before bed and you asked me to sing to you, as you often do.  I was surprised when you requested the Moon Song, because it's not one of the normal songs on the rota, but the song we used to dance to in the kitchen all the time a few years ago, back when you were only two.  I truly cannot remember the last time that I sang it to you, but I still know the words and started to sing.
  

We were in a hotel on our way to vacation, so we weren't in the normal spinning chair, but laying down on the pullout bed on the couch.  As I sang, you twirled the ribbon on your bear's neck, occasionally hummed along with me and held my hand, and wiggled your legs all over the place because you are SUCH a wiggle worm.  And as I sang and held you in my arms, tears slid quickly and steadily down my cheeks and onto the pillow.

 I can't believe we used to dance to this song when you were two, and now you're FOUR.  That seems crazy to me.

 One afternoon just after you were born your dad and I were riding with you in the car and I started to cry.  He looked over at me and I shrugged towards you by way of explanation and said, "I just love him so much!"

You were a new baby.  You slept pretty well, then you cried it out for a week and you slept amazingly.  You ate perfectly: bottle, formula, nursing, baby food, adult food, all of it.  You travelled easily.  You played happily alone or sweetly with whomever approached you.  You were the most content baby that I have ever known.

Then you were one.

You started to walk, sign please, and eventually talked.  You didn't like the cockroach or the jack in the box.  You hit a golf ball off a tee with scary precision.  You took 2 long naps every day and kept to a precise routine.

Then you were two.

You loved to kick a soccer ball, watch your dad play softball, and at the softball games you would "golf" the softballs with your bat.  You loved to sing any song that we taught you, and dance to any song that was playing.  At play dates you began to play with your friends instead of everyone just playing alongside one another.

Then you were three.

You started preschool and loved it.  You got potty trained, then untrained, then re-trained.  You shot a basketball and hit a baseball with scary precision.  You became a big brother.  You struggled and acted out at first, but eventually you (and the rest of us) fell peacefully into a new rhythm, that of a family of four.

And now you're four.

You turn anything that you're doing, into a song about anything that you're doing.  

You use adult phrases with profound accuracy 95% of the time.  5% of the time you're way off, and I love it.

You insist that I call Hannah's favorite lovey a bear, despite the fact that it's an elephant, because your loveys are bears.

You pump both fists into the air and say "Yay yay" when dad gets home from work, greet him at the garage door, and then run away, either for him to chase you right then, or to hide so that he'll come find you.

You sing the Fireman Sam theme song often, and you dance while you sing it.  You have a version where you replace "Fireman Sam" with "Jayce and Dad."  "So move aside, make way, for Jayce and Dad.  Cause they're gonna save the day.  Jayce and Dad...

Everything right now is "Amazing!"  or "Impossible!"  or "How did they do that?!!"  You slip these phrases into our regular conversation and seems that the world is a mystery to you.

 When I think about the little(r) you and cry, it's not because I'm sad that you are getting older, or sad that you aren't little anymore.  It's just that I love the four year old you so much that it overwhelms me.   I remember feeling the same way about the one, two and three year old you.  Apparently, just when I think my heart is completely full, it stretches just a little bit more.

And I'm glad.  Because now there is "wait for thi-is" when you're supposed to be in bed, and you applying the multiple stages of a goodnight kiss to my cheek with concentration, and you always ALWAYS wearing safety goggles when you are "fixing" something with your tools, or you reminding me to set the timer at every nap time because you are so serious about routines, and a  million other things that make you the way that you are right now.

You, at age four, are all that we ever wanted in a little boy, and I can't wait to see how you stretch our hearts (and surely our patience) in the years to come.
  

Happy birthday buddy.  We love you.

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Eleven Months and Early Birthday

Hannah, at 11 months, you dance.

You dance to She'll Be Coming Around the Mountain from the toy on the fridge.  You dance when Jayce is beating on a bowl like a drum.  You dance if you hear a song on tv or if I'm singing to you.  You dance in your high chair, sitting on the floor, or standing.  And it's always the same, the baby bounce.  I love it.  For some odd reason I haven't gotten it on video yet, but I will soon.  Or so I've promised your Aunt Chelsea.

You got an early dose of cake.  Your birthday party was a few days shy of you being 11 months old, but it was your party, so of course we (literally) let you have your cake and eat it too.  Not that it was your first taste of sugar anyway, we broke that rule a long time ago.  I had a ball planning and making things for you and Jayce's party, which I'll share more about later.

 You have some words.  You've had them since 10 months, but I forgot to mention it then, so here will do. 

Mamamama or Ma!  

Dadadada or Da!  

 Nananana.  (Which is you.  I'll say "Han-nah," and you'll say "Na na na!")

You say "Uh oh" all the time.  I love it.  You can't beat a little baby's uh oh.

This month you have added Ba!  Or buh buh buh buh, with a wave.  

Yes, this is obviously buh bye, and you should have seen us when you first started doing it.  It was like you were crossing the finish line at a race.  Or like you were crossing the finish line at the Olympics.  We were like, "Hannah, buh bye!  Buh bye!  Ohmygosh, look she's doing it!!!  Look she's waving!  Buh bye honey!!  Buh bye!..."  And on and on for about 10 minutes. 

Sometimes your bye bye wave is just your fingers moving up and down, sometimes it's a flick of your wrist up and down, and sometimes you just extend your hand and arm, almost like you're waiting for a high five.  In true Hannah form,  you don't do it every time, or often start waving frantically just as we start walking away.  You like to keep us guessing and remind us who the boss is.  It's you Hannah.  We just pretend it's us, but we know it's you.

You also will imitate our inflection.  You'll hold play phones, or things that resembles phones, between your ear and shoulder and say "Ya -yuh," with a high and then low inflection.  You will imitate animal noises sometimes too.  We've already been a big fan of your bear growl, but you are adding a few more to the mix, a kitty, and really any other squeaky sounding animal.

You've started to crawl.  Not all the way across the room, but you've just added it as a step to getting whatever you want.  You start on your knees, crawl a few steps, then slide onto your stomach, then you push with your toes and pull with your arms, then you roll from side to side.  You certainly aren't staying put.  You walk reluctantly while holding our hands, but you're not really into it, and you HATE the walker.  You immediately start crying and reaching for me, clawing to get to the safety of my shoulder if I stand you up in front of it.  You stand alone for a few seconds here and there, but don't really cruise much, you just stand and hold onto whatever is in front of you and play.

You give strangers a shy bashful act.  You watch them, and when they start talking to you, you lay your head down on my shoulder but give them a sweet closed mouth smile.  You do it every time.  

If we're sitting somewhere waiting, you will watch the people who are walking by you, and if they don't look at you and smile or acknowlege you, you will yell, "Bah!  Bah!" at them once they've passed, like, "Hey, you forgot to say hi to me!"  (Or maybe you're telling them buh bye, but it seems kind of aggressive.  Maybe you're yelling at them for not telling you buh bye as they passed, that sounds more like it.)

Your play time is becoming more interesting to observe, as opposed to you just holding something and then discarding it seconds later.  You like to put things in containers and unpack things from containers.  You regularly pick things up and hand them to us and you'll sit and throw/roll a ball back and forth across the carpet.

Your still a peanut, in 9-12 month clothes, which is technically your age so I guess it's fine.  You're still a very picky eater, prefer proteins and starches to anything else, which I can't say I disagree with personally, but it's not great for babies.  You now have 5 teeth, 3 on top, 2 on bottom, you're working on another and I can only guess where it might be since I can't pry your mouth open for anything.  You're still up a few times a night too.  Those darn teeth have been coming one right after another, spaced out just right between sinus and ear infections, so you have never learned what a full night of sleep feels like, and I have completely forgotten.

I imagine that I should be sad that you're getting to be such a big girl, or that you are nearly a year old, but I'm a little too smitten with this age to act like I'm annoyed with it.  

Yep, 11 months is officially my favorite age.  Happy almost-birthday little sugar.

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