Oh, Christmas Tree. Oh, Christmas Tree

Sunday was our "official" ring in the holidays day as we put up the tree and hung the lights. It was a great day. Grandma came over to help and cooked her usual Christmas hors d'oeuvres, which were yummy. We played Christmas music all day, and Hannah was too excited to even nap. The only wierd thing was the fact that it was over 80 degrees outside, so it looks a bit funny with Hannah, Christmas tree and shorts.

I hope everyone is getting geared up for a great Christmas. It has been so much fun with Hannah. I would also like to take this time to send out a big thanks to Nona for the Chipmunk Christmas CD. I am sure the entire CD is wonderful, but Hannah only likes to repeat #3- Jingle Bells! The little chipmunks have such wonderful little voices!

Christmas Songs- the Hannah Version

We are in full swing for Christmas at our household. Hannah LOVES Christmas songs- the bad part, she really likes them when I sing them. Needless to say our commute to and from work and school is full of Mommy singing Christmas songs, which wouldn't have been so bad at my last job, but now the torture goes on a little longer with our trip across the causeway (and not Hannah torture- my signing torture- sorry if anyone has to ride anywhere with us. I am a bit tone deaf, and yes, that is my excuse).

My major concern is that come December 25th, Hannah won't know to turn them off!!! We may have Christmas in January, February, March and so forth.

As I am singing the songs, Hannah has come to realize that she wants to adjust the words a bit- our (I should say her) favorites are "Jingle Bells" and "Santa Claus is coming to town." Now here below is the correct version vs. the Hannah version.

Jingle Bells:
The Version We All Know and Love: Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle All the Way. Oh what fun it is to ride on a ONE horse open sleigh- hey.

Hannah's New and Improved Version (She think I said "WHITE horse open sleigh"): Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle All the Way. Oh what fun it is to ride on a YELLOW horse open sleigh- hey. (Hannah has a yellow horse- not a white horse)

Santa Claus is Coming to Town:
The Version We All Know and Love: You Better Watch Out. You Better Not Cry. You Better Not Pout I'm Telling You Why; Santa Claus is coming to town.

Hannah's New and Improved Version: You Better Watch Out. You Better Not Cry. You Better Not Pout I'm Telling you Why; Santa Clause is coming to Hannah. (She gets super upset if Santa is only coming to town. He must come to Hannah.)

The first time I sang "Santa Clause is Coming to Town" and I got the part about "He knows when you are sleeping. He knows when your awake. He knows if you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake." Hannah looked at me really strange like, "Uh, what. I don't think so." We'll see how good that song works.

Oh, things get so fun when they can talk! So, just beware when you sing Christmas songs to or around Hannah and she falls out on the floor mad- you, my friend, have sang the wrong words.

Getting Back to Life With Mommy

As most of you know, Hannah spent all last week in Alabama with Ninny and Grandaddy- and of course, everyone else! Well, we have had a small adjustment period getting back to life with Mommy. As it should be, Mommy isn't quite as "giving" as grandparents.

On our way home, I didn't do something exactly right (or as Ninny would have), she started screaming that she wanted to go back to Ninny's house. I politely told her that we could call Ninny all the time, but we can't go back right now. She didn't like that idea too much either. She finally stopped screaming at me when she realized I was no longer responding.

That night, we had to go to timeout about 4 times in a row for the same thing. At that point, I realized that both of us were just hard headed and wanted to win. We were both holding strong to what we were trying to accomplish. Well, as it should be, I won. Only after having to take her out of the bath 4 times to go to timeout. (oh, I forgot to mention she was in the bath tub for a little over an hour throughout this issue. She was pruny.)

And I also realized that it is not just her readjusting- it is me too. After an entire week of a quiet house with time to watch TV and read books and do whatever I want, Mommy's can get spoiled too.

But as she is throwing her tantrums and taking the walk of shame (or probably in her mind "walk of pride") to time out, I have to remind myself what a great time she had last week. Everyone needs a good spoiling every now and then- even Mommy's. I am glad to have her home, but my reading has slowed down quite a bit from last week.

Potty Confusion

We have made MAJOR strides in potty training this week. For three days in a row she has woken up with a dry diaper and used the potty. Her teacher told me yesterday that she only had to change her diaper once! YIPPEE! We are getting there. Our only hang up right now is the confusion on what to call the "items/stuff" we put in the potty.

Hannah is a bit confused on the subject. So below are Hannah's definitions of potty stuff.

Poo Poo = Tee Tee (she tells me her poopoo is yellow)
Diarrhea = Poo Poo (long story how that came about. In a nut shell, one day she had poo pooed and it was really smelly and I asked her if she had diarrhea- it stuck)

Two days ago I was changing her diaper- it was a bad one. She began to sing a diarrhea song. I had to laugh. I try to correct her, but for now this is our terminology, and hey, it makes me laugh when she screams out that she has diarrhea!

Oh, and Hannah has now identified poots, and she thinks those are seriously funny. We are in the processes of learning to use our manner after pooting and say excuse me, but it is usually a laughing excuse me.

Well, I guess I wrote another embarrassing blog that Hannah will thank me for later in life. Good Mommy!

Last Days and First Days

As you all know, Hannah's last day at her daycare in Mandeville was Friday and her first day at her new school was yesterday. I have to say it was a couple of emotional days for mommy!

On Friday when I picked her up from school, Hannah left with some very sweet and exciting things. During that week, her teachers had been taking pictures of her and her classmates. They posted and decorated them on construction paper for Hannah to take home. They made signs telling her good luck at her new school and little notes saying how much they were going to miss her. One of her friends mom even called the school to get my information so Hannah and Mia could still play together. They were so kind and loved Hannah very much. I, of course, walked out of the door in tears. They were so amazing to Hannah, and they showed it when we left. The director of the daycare insisted I call this Friday and tell me how Hannah's first week went.

And then we were onto Monday. WOW! That was hard. She said she was excited as we got in the car. She walked in like a big girl. She picked out her little bed (they get to choose their sleeping bags for nap time- we got Strawberry Shortcake- although I think the "cake" part really threw Hannah off because she kept saying she had cake at home). And then we set off to her new class. She cried of course, but we made it quick and painless- at least I think we did. I cried a little bit on my way to work, but pulled it together quickly. I didn't call the entire day because I figured they probably wouldn't tell me she was having a horrible day- they want me to be okay too. So the time came (5:00), and I left super fast to go and pick her up. I walked in the door expecting someone to just take off running to me- uh, no! At the same time, one of the teachers was allowing a sweet little child to get a piece of candy to take home and Hannah honed in on that opportunity. She took me over to the candy, picked out a piece, and just walked herself out of the door. Geez! Glad I worried so much all day. The daycare director said she had so much fun- the teacher had to clean her up a few times. Not really sure what that meant, but I went with it.

So today was a tad better. She never told me she didn't want to go back. She did cry when I left her again, but I am sure she is fine. I feel a little bit of relief now that the hardest part seems to be over, but this better work out awesome because I don't want to mover her again until I HAVE to.

Well, I thought all of you would want to know how it went. As expected, she did awesome and I was a total wreck. Oh, and she would never quite tell me exactly what she did all day- so that is still to be determined. The only thing I know for sure is that she played outside.

Happy Halloween

Halloween was a blast this year! We went to my sister's this year because she has an AWESOME neighborhood for trick-or-treating. My sweet sister was kind enough to send me some pics today, so I won't talk too much this time and just let the pics tell the story.


Ah, Halloween dinner!



The kitty cat was REALLY happy!



The fun begins!



And the fun continues (Claire was the pumpkin)



And continues......



The kitty cat transformed into a zebra (this is the mask they made at school for trick-or-treating)



As you can see, Hannah had a fun filled day. Not only did she get tons of candy trick-or-treating, but she also had a party and trick-or-treating at school. She was exhausted.

New School

Since I have begun my job on the Southshore, I have decided to move Hannah to a new daycare close to my office. And since Bill and I both work over here now, it seems silly to leave her on the Northshore.

She will start on Monday if everything plays out right, but I have been talking it up with her. She woke up this morning asking if she was going to her new school today. I thought that was a good sign, and then she talked about Gigi and Missy (her current teachers) being there. I immediately thought- oh no, this isn't going to go as smoothly as I thought. I knew I couldn't ignore it, so I told her that she would have new teachers at her new school and new friends, and that GiGi and Missy wouldn't be there with her. She looked at me for a second and then said "Ok." I started breathing again.

It is tough moving her, but I ultimately know it will be harder on me than on her. And it makes me feel better when I think about her at church. We visit new churches and I leave her in a room with a bunch of kids who she doesn't know, and she hardly wants to leave when I pick her up. That makes me feel better.

She has been at her current school for a year and a half and it will be sad to say Good Bye to them- especially our infamous friend Hazel. Hazel was the little girl who always bit Hannah, and now they are like best buds- go figure.

So just think about us next week as we transition to a new school. I will be talking to her about it a lot, and already feel a little sad leaving, but it is best for everyone. Now I can be 5 minutes away if she needs me, and not to mention Bill will be a lot closer to her as well. That is always good too.

I will let everyone know how it goes. Have a great rest of the week. And HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Potty Training Happy Time

Well, I have finally gotten ready to make a more serious approach to this potty training stuff. I know there is a fine line between pushing too hard and waiting for them to be ready, so I am walking that line.

So, we have started wearing big girl panties when we get home from school. We have started sitting on the potty right when we get out of bed (well, on most days because I don't push it and some mornings she wants to go straight to mommy's bed). We have started talking ALL the time about potty. Seems a little strange at first because no other than a potty training 2 year old do you have these types of conversations.

It is going good. We actually used the potty successfully the other morning, which we danced around the house about all morning. I know we have a long way to go, but I know it will come soon enough- I hope at least.

She gets excited about it, and the girl loves some toilet paper. Again, another thing in life that little people get excited about. She likes it soooo much, that I use it as a reward. For example, she pretends to potty to get toilet paper, but in my house you ONLY get toilet paper if you actually potty. Well, I may be acting a little stronger than I am, sometimes when she sits a long time on the potty I let her have it because I think if she put in that much time on the potty, she should at least finish the process.

Well, I am sure Hannah will love this post as she gets older, but I could have made it much worse by telling how she waves good bye when you flush a toilet. Oh well, the joys of growing up.

First Name Basis

Well, Hannah and I have grown our relationship recently. We are now on a strict first name basis. She calls me Allison and I call her Hannah. Oh, aren't we becoming close.

She has understood for a while now that she calls me Mommy, but my name is Allison. But just recently, she has decided that just calling me "Mommy," must not be doing the job efficiently enough so she has switched to Allison.

Now the way the process goes is that she usually starts with Mommy, and about the second try with no response Allison kicks in. She attempts screaming Allison until she has my attention.

I also have to say that she is one little smart cookie because this has worked like a charm for her. I have been so thrown off by her asking for Allison that I immediately turn my head toward her. HAHA, what a sucker I am.

So don't be alarmed if she asks for Allison. It is not a new friend, but more like an old friend with a new alias.

As I always say, they do learn fast and the whole calling me Allison thing is like the mommy thing. It is so cute when they first do it, and then after a while it is not so cute anymore, if you know what I mean. So I have a feeling as soon as I become bored with being called Allison, I will gladly switch back to Mommy. Oh, the games we play.

Just call me fancy

I feel like every time I write now, I am apologizing for my negligence to keep my blog updated. Well life has been crazy for us as usual. Hannah and I are never real "still."

We won't have pictures for a bit on the blog, because I had an unfortunate event of having my purse stolen from my car with my camera. (I know, lock doors at all times.) So we will have to revert back to the times before I uploaded fun pictures and silly videos. At least for a short while..

Well, what has Hannah been up to. She talks non-stop. All the time. Never stops. On-going. I think you get the point. She is also quite a remarkable singer- but we all know who she gets that talent from- hehe. You should ask her to sing you a tune. You will be super impressed. She is quite the smart little cookie.

But beyond all of our normal growing mile markers, Hannah has become quite the avid princess. She LOVES playing dress up. Our sweet cousin Caroline had a whole mini suitcase full of dress up clothes and shoes that is now scattered from every corner of my house (I never in my life corresponded dress up with a HUGE MESS- who would have known). So she comes home each day and transforms into whatever beautiful princess she wants to be for the evening. The shoes are the best though. She won't take them off. I even had to throw her in bed with a pair on the other night- geez.

She loves to have her hair straightened in the morning before school. And she thinks all of her clothes are so pretty. The best part of all of this "super girlie" stage, is that she thinks everything mommy wears or puts on is beautiful. Having a 2 year old can do LOADS for your self esteem.

Other than that, we are onto all of our adventures. School, work (oh, I started a new job for those of you didn't know- yay for me), fun, cleaning- if you need something cleaned just give Hannah a lysol wipe and she will have it spic and span for you in just a few moments, along with all of life's other fun stuff.

Have a great weekend everyone!

My Little Saints Fan

I feel like I always start my post like this, but......... Yes, we have been busy and doing all kinds of fun things. Hannah has been doing a lot of growing and learning TONS of new words!

Due to the Saints preseason game today, Hannah wore her Saints t-shirt. It was too cute. I will also follow this post with a bunch of fun miscellaneous pics!

Beach Time

As most of you know we took our annual beach trip with my family a couple of weeks ago. Hannah has always been a little skeptical of the sand, but this year was our breakthrough. She and her cousin, Ella, especially liked to build sand castles and the jump and stomp all over them.

She also really like the pool (the big pool, of course). The last day we finally coaxed her into putting on her swimmies and she swam like a big gir, pretty much. She liked to jump in the water. Instead of counting to the normal 1, 2, 3 jump, Hannah went all the way to 10! Always the cautious one, never in a rush.

Below are some pics at the beach.





Snack time on the beach!

My first REAL Haircut

This was last month, but the picturs are so cute I really wanted to post them. My best friend, Renee, is a hairstylist so it makes it fun to have someone you know do the cut. And it helped that Hannah new her a little bit. After a few bribes with candy and a sneak of the cape, we were good to go and she did awesome! I just had to keep dishing out the smarties!

Burn Rubber

We went to hang out with our buddy Braewyn last night and her little sister Ciel (you will see her vaguely in the backgroun trying to catch up). Braewyn has this cool new car! I will let the video do the rest of the talking. It was hilarious.



Hope you enjoy!

Where do they learn this stuff?

Hannah is like a human sponge and I think she is telepathic too (HAHA)! The other day we were on our way to work and daycare and Hannah kept telling me she wanted a quesadilla. Well we just happened to be going to a small wedding party at a Mexican restaurant that night. I told her she could have it for dinner. Well as we neared the Taco Bell, she started going crazy and pointing and screaming quesadilla, quesadilla! I just laughed. That one was understandable (we both love Taco Bell).

Well on the way home that night we passed McDonalds (as we always do), and she points, says McDonalds' Mommy and without a thought says MMMMMMM! Now, the Taco Bell I understand, but we don't eat McDonald's that much. Maybe some Saturday mornings so I can relax and she can go play, but definitely not enough for her to pass by and say MMMMM! Oh well, it was funny.

And the whole telepathic thing. I talk on the phone to various people throughout the day with her, and there are so many times I have hung up and she has told me who was on the phone. I immediately go back and think if I said there name, but most of the time I hadn't. Maybe I talk to people differently on the phone and she has picked up on that. Whatever be the reason, it is a little scary!

She is just full of surprises all the time. As you know we turned 2 a couple of weeks ago, and I am not even trying to be dramatic, but we are starting to act 2. I mean I have never had a 2 year old, but she is not the same baby she was a couple of weeks ago. We are dealing with it, and lets just say she has come very acquainted with her time out areas in the house. She tried to bite the molding off the wall last night because apparently I didn't do something to her specifications.

Okay, I have to stop now because now you wondering what I am talking about. Don't worry about us. We are just battling the 2's (at least I hope that is what we are battling).

Have a great weekend!

Hannah's Birthday

Monday was Hannah's 2 year old Birthday! We had a party on Sunday with her cousin Claire, but I don't have pictures from that yet.

On Monday, we went to Chuck E. Cheese to celebrate with our friend Braewyn. Hannah loved the slide, but was not too fond of Chucky.

Also, we watch Sesame Street every morning, and those of you who do the same you know that Elmo learns about a new thing every day (I mean there are reruns). Well on Hannah's birthday, Elmo ironically learned all about BIRTHDAY'S! It was so fun because Elmo sang Happy Birthday and I loudly slipped in the name Hannah! And he learned about birthday cakes and presents. Hannah had a good time!

Oh and sorry for the lack in postings. I switched to a MAC the other week at work and it took me a while to figure out the pictures and I still learning the videos!

Enjoy the pics!

They sure do learn young!

I just thought this was cute. We were in Monroe a few weeks ago for a party, and as you can see we were getting ready for the festivities. Hannah had a blast with the ice chest. It went up and down and up and down the driveway!

More Water

Everyday Hannah reminds me of how awesome it must be to be child. And by that I mean, how little it takes to get excited about things.

Recently Hannah has had this fascination with water! Yes, something she has been very familiar with her whole life, but is now the coolest thing ever. For those of you who don't know, we live REALLY close to Lake Pontchartrain and we go over it all the time. Well, if you were driving with us last week, you would have thought we had never gone over the lake or played on the lakefront. It was hilarious. She was so excited I thought she might jump out of her car seat. She kept saying "More water Mommy," and "WOW" and "Look Mommy, water."

When we pass by fountains, she says, "More water Mommy." And a few weeks ago, I was finishing up painting my house, and Hannah figured out that if she had some paint on her hands that I would run and put her hands under WATER! You can imagine what went on after that.

I guess the point of this is that sometimes we should stop and try to look at the world through a child's eyes. It must be amazing.

Self Portraits

Hannah is really loving the camera lately. The other night we were playing on my bed before she went to sleep, and we practiced our self portraits. Lets just say, the girl loves the camera. Please excuse me, this is my end of the day, don't really care anymore look.








HAHA! These crack me up!

Silly Bath Time

Hannah has learned to open and close the door on the bathtub, so we play silly games with it. First are some pictures of her sillyness and then a video. Hope you enjoy!

The video and the sound are delayed a little bit.

Straighten on up!

Again, sorry for the lack of posts lately. We are alive.

So, I may put my foot in my mouth big time, but I am just proud of myself. I always thought I would have the child that you would find on Nanny 911. Yes, I watch that show and I realize that most of the time its the parents that need the Nanny more than the kids. Well, I have to say that I don't have one of this kids.

It's not that Hannah never acts up or whines. Because she is teetering on the terrible two's, but what I have done is instill the fear of mommy in her! I was worried a few months back about Hannah getting out of control, and my parenting skills are still so young that I new I needed help- so I asked her Dr. He suggested a book called- Magic 123! Now it is for disciplining ages 2-12, but I would say it is pretty effective for under 2 as well.

For instance, when Hannah acts up I simply count to 3, and then to the room. You are thinking, okay Allison, my parents did that to me- what is the secret? Well, there is none! And now when Hannah acts up, all I say is "Do you want to go to your room?" She sweetly replies "NO" and straightens right up! Its a miracle.

One day we were in the movie store and she kept running the ailes. I stopped, looked at her and said "1"- she came running back to my side. It is like telling a dog heil! Okay, not just like that- but they can be trained!

I know next week this exciting new parenting skill may not work so great, but for those of you who keep Hannah sometimes- give it a try!

Well, this isn't really a good Hannah blog, but I am just excited that this actually works- at least for now. So no one make fun of me when I am around you and this doesn't work!

Oh, Hannah is doing great! She is just talking away and so much fun! I wish I could freeze her like this. I will get some pictures updated soon.

Hannah and Claire

I know most of you know by now that Hannah LOVES babies. Well this is a video of her and her cousin Claire. Hannah will copy anything you do with Claire. It is super cute!

For those of you who don't remember, these two are exactly a year apart- only separated by hours! So, this is a great comparison of the change in one year. They are cute together.

Hannah at Christmas

Hi everyone!

Yes, Hannah and I have been MIA (missing in action). We have just been busy little bees. I went through my camera this weekend and found some cute videos that I had taken.

This one is of her at Christmas. If you notice, when she tries to open one of the presents she says "broke." Well, Hannah now refers to alot of things at "broke." If something doesn't go the way she wants it tom "broke." If something doesn't work just like she thinks it is intended, "broke." It is really funny, and also a great thing for me!

When there is something I don't want her to get into, I simply tell her it is broken and she quietly walks away. I mean, who wants to bother with something that is broken!

Well I hope you enjoy!