A Little Story Called Hannah

Hannah's Christmas Performance

2010-12-16T21:13:00.003-06:00

This is Hannah's first year in dance. Tonight they had a Christmas performance and here are the videos I caught of her class. For those of you lucky enough to attend the recital in the Spring, this is a preview of how awesome that experience is going to be.

Here was Hannah before:

Hannah after with her flowers:

How do you get to the Northpole?

2010-12-09T12:58:00.002-06:00

We were riding in the car the other night and Hannah told me how to get to the Northpole. This is what she said.....

Note: I'm trying to post this from my phone so if it looks different that is why.

Hannah's First Day of School!

2010-09-02T19:55:00.003-05:00

Here is Hannah on her first day of Kindergarten. She did amazing, but I was a different story. I held it together until she walked off like a big girl and didn't even look back. I just kept telling myself how proud I should be for having such an amazing, independent child.

Here is the pic.

So to continue....the second day wasn't as great. I got a call from the teacher. (This part of the post is really for her when she gets older) Apparently, my child that I brag about for being so sweet, gentle and nurturing, also pushes boys at the water fountain. Not to mention this little boy is not a small boy either. Her side of the story is that he sat on the carpet where she was sitting earlier and wanted to sit again. Didn't end up that great for him.

Other than that, school has been awesome. She is learning lots and having a blast.

Welcome William Price Sawyer!

2010-05-23T10:33:00.004-05:00

Welcome to William Price Sawyer! Born, May 6, 2010.

This is Hannah's first picture with the new addition.

Welcome Marin!

2010-04-14T11:07:00.002-05:00

Marin Jennings Price was born yesterday! Another cousin to welcome to the crew. Hannah was very excited to meet her.

In a few weeks we'll welcome another little one- its getting crazy. Here is Hannah, her cousin, Ella, and little Marin.

Saints in the SUPERBOWL!

2010-02-22T08:50:00.004-06:00

Hannah on SuperBowl Sunday! LOVE THIS PICTURE!

Hannah and her WHO DAT Owl. She said it goes "Whhhhoooooo Dat?!"

Back Track: Snow Day Feb 2010

2010-02-22T08:42:00.005-06:00

As everyone knows it has been an unusually cold winter. Hannah got a snow day a week ago and here she is playing in it.

This was also the week we were stricken with the flu, so thankfully we were feeling better on Friday to go out and play a little. It did not stick like last year, but she got to have some fun in it none the less.

Hannah warming up before heading out again. She refused to take her jacket, hat and gloves off.

Hannah running in the snow. You can see the snow a lot better in the video.

Back Track: Christmas 2009

2010-02-19T16:51:00.005-06:00

Welcome to Christmas 2009! I didn't do so good getting a lot of pictures this year- too much going on!

Hannah and Claire getting cookies ready for Santa Claus!

Hannah and her new bike with helmet! All Barbie.

Mardi Gras 2010

2010-02-19T16:34:00.003-06:00

I'm back!

Here are some pics from Mardi Gras 2010.

My cautious, sweet, loving child turns into a mad woman at Mardi Gras. I wish everyone could witness it because you would think its a different child. It's like no fear lives in her.

Hannah and her Zulu Coconut. This is a very big deal to catch a coconut in Zulu. It's hand painted with gold glitter. The Zulu "Z" is in glitter on the other side.

Hannah and Braewyn with their coconuts. Hannah's face pretty well describes at parades.

Hannah and her best buds, Braewyn and Ciel.

Hannah and Mommy

Hannah being for beeds. The mittens did cause some issues for correct bead catching, but Hannah never gave up.

Poor Nicholas.

2009-09-30T18:39:00.002-05:00

I went to pick up Hannah from school yesterday and her teacher said, "Hannah sure did cause some drama today." I'm like, "What? My sweet little angel." Well, apparently they have a new kid in class.......Aiden!

The day before Aiden came to class Hannah was smitten for Nicholas, and Nicholas was in love with Hannah. They were holding hands and playing all day. Everything in life was perfect! Then...(really dramatic music).....Aiden walks in.

The next day at school the teachers become really concerned about Nicholas. They thought he was sick. They took his temperature (it was normal). They CALLED HIS MOM! It was obvious Nicholas was not well. They were legitimately concerned about his health.

As one of the teachers was holding and taking care of Nicholas they asked him what was wrong. Sadly, Nicholas confesses that he is upset because Hannah is playing with Aiden now. Needless to say, they called his mother back and told her he was fine. I am sorry, but that is funny. HAHAHAHA!

Today I go to drop Hannah off. The class is on the playground and as soon as we turn the corner to get to the playground-- there is Aiden. Waiting on Hannah.

(This seriously can't be starting already.)

Natchez- the Neighborhood Deer

2009-08-02T20:12:00.003-05:00

Yep, the neighbors have a baby deer as a pet, at least for now. Apparently, they were driving back to Mandeville, and somewhere around Natchez they saw a mother deer and a baby deer. The mother deer was dead, so they rescued/took/adopted (however you want to put it) Natchez. Don't worry, they are moving her back to the woods soon. They may keep her since she's used to people now, but they are going to put her in a big area that they own.

Hannah has become fond of Natchez and this is a picture of her bottle feeding Natchez today. She really is cute. She licks you and plays with you. Today, she tried to eat Hannah' dress, which Hannah quickly put a stop to. We will be sad when Natchez has to move out to the country, but its been a good learning lesson for Hannah on wild animals vs. pets. Although I am not sure it is working because now she keeps talking about when we find a dead mommy dear that will bring us a baby pet deer- oops. Oh well, a learning lesson at that.

Hannah and Natchez

Insectarium

2009-08-02T20:04:00.003-05:00

This weekend I took Hannah to the New Orleans Insectarium. I didn't tell her much about it at first as I wanted her to get through the door, but she did great. It was really crowded, so I didn't get too many pictures, but there are a couple from the Butterfly garden. Basically its a great big room that you walk into and it has butterfly's living freely. They are on the windows, the trees, the flowers and people from time to time. Here are some pictures from that room.

There is a butterfly in the bushes, promise.

Hannah's Picture of the Butterfly, she's pretty handy with a camera

Again, there is a butterfly there. Hannah just didn't want to get "too" close.

Beach in Madisonville

2009-07-23T09:00:00.005-05:00

There is a little beach in Madisonville, a tiny town right beside us, on the river that you can only get to by some type of floating device (i.e. boat, jet ski). It's pretty cool because its small, but the water is only about a foot or 2 deep for quite a while. We went a few Saturdays ago with our buddies the Arceneaux's (Sommer, Ryan, Braewyn, Ciel). It was a blast. We stayed out there almost all day and the girls were nonstop.

Hannah's first time on a jet ski.

Hannah and Braewyn just chilling in the floaty rings.

Wacky Wednesday Fun Runs

2009-07-23T08:51:00.003-05:00

We just finished up our Summer Series of Wacky Fun Runs last night. A local running store holds these runs throughout the summer. They are a lot of fun and laid back. The run last night was that we had to have a partner 30 years age difference. Hannah and I fudged a little bit, but no one asked. Needless to say she was my partner.

She did so awesome. It's a 2 mile run and she ran quite a good bit of it. I was trying to teach her the art of pacing, but 4 year olds like to run all out and crash. She got a little better at the pacing deal, but who really cares. We finished in about 24 minutes, which I think is pretty awesome for her running most of it- stopping to put her in the stroller and so on and so forth. Hopefully she'll grow up to be a faster runner than I am. She did run it in hard to the finish line and everyone around cheered really loud for her- she blushed. OH, and her favorite part might be the watermelon and endless jugs of gatorade at the end. They also give out door prizes and Hannah won something last night, so that was equally as fun.

The run prior to the this one was a swimmy run. We had to wear our swimming gear. Hannah had her bathing suit on underneath, but that was a fun one too. She was kind of enough to let me borrow her floaties. AND, she ran in her flip flops- what a champ!

Random- Running and Bangs

2009-06-11T16:01:00.004-05:00

RUNNING:
In the summer a running shop in Mandeville hosts a Summer series of runs. It's only 2 miles across the lake front in town, so Hannah and I joined last night. I took the jogging stroller, but Hannah ran a good bit of it. She hasn't really gotten the whole "pacing" thing down. She basically runs REALLY fast for a while and then jumps in the stroller for a bit and that goes on for a while until she just stays in the stroller and doesn't get out. She has a good time regardless.

Hannah suited up with race number- ready to go!

BANGS:
I am attempting to grow out Hannah's bangs. I have been saying for a couple of weeks now that training her bangs to go the side has been SO much tougher than potty training. This is probably due to the fact that my expert bang cutting skills has progressively made her bangs account for half of the hair on her head. She has really thick hair AND really thick bangs. Well today, I finally got a bobby pin and clip to work. I'm not sure what the outcome will be when I pick her up from school today, but this was before. So, be patient because before long Hannah will look like this:

GEAUX HORNETS!

2009-05-27T18:51:00.003-05:00

Hannah and I became really big Hornets fans this season! Hannah's favorite part, of course, were the cheerleaders- better known as the Honey Bees. Actually, I think the Honey Bees are a lot of peoples favorite part (no names will be said outloud).

Here is Hannah and I at our last hornets game of the season. Hannah got to take a picture with a couple of Honey Bees. Although we lost desperately, Hannah always has a great time screaming defense and dancing in the aisle. We have yet to make it on the big screen, but she tries VERY hard every time. Maybe next season.

Hannah's 4th Birthday Party

2009-05-27T17:03:00.005-05:00

Here are some pictures from Hannah's birthday party. It was hard to pick through them so if anyone who was there have any they remember may have been taken then let me know and I will get them up.

Hannah at her party- Cinderella!

Hannah's Birthday Cake- Thanks Grandma!

Hannah about to blow out her candles!

Hannah at breakfast the day of her birthday.

Hannah and all of her buddies at the party.

OMG! Exactly what she wanted! (she says that for every present she gets- you can't go wrong)

Hannah and her new fishing pole.

Hannah and Mommy

Hannah and Daddy

Hannah on her birthday after Disney on Ice

All of Hannah's friends toasting her for her birthday.

Hannah doing some karoake

Hannah singing to her friend Mia.

Disney World

2009-03-30T21:40:00.003-05:00

Yep, its been a month, but better late than never. I was trying a new blogging project, but its going to be a while before I can figure it out enough to transfer everything. I'll let you know when its ready, but that's one reason I haven't posted in a while. The other reason is that I sit in front of a computer all day and I really don't feel like staring at anymore on most days. Sorry. I'll try to get better again, if anyone ever even checks it anymore.

We had a GREAT time at Disney World. Hannah had a blast. She was princess most of the trip, but that's totally acceptable to go playing around dressed up as Cinderella in Disney World. Enjoy the pics- there are a lot of them.

Hannah's First Airplane Ride- she thought it was loud.

Hannah in front of Cinderella's Castle

End of Day 1 - OUT!

Epcot- Day 2

Dinosaur Ride

Hannah's First Time Driving A Car- We were almost thrown out a couple of times!

Character Breakfast- Hannah's not a big fan of characters, but she liked the mickey waffle

Cinderella in front of Cinderella's Castle
The crew- Ella, Caroline, William, Larkin, Claire and Hannah
Petting Zoo at Animal Kingdom

Hannah (aka Cinderella) with her Fairy Godmother.

Hannah pretending to be Hannah Montana- she got a Hannah Montana microphone.

This is just a long story, but a cute pic

My favorite pic of the entire trip- notice the shoes too!

Kirbo and Hannah before Muppet Babies 3-D

Claire (Snow White), Hannah (Cinderella) and me at Epcot.

Hannah and Sleeping Beauty

Hannah and Jasmine

Hannah and Belle

Hannah, Larkin, Ella, Claire, Caroline and CINDERELLA!

Hannah and Me

Hannah first "roller coaster" like ride. It wasn't a full out roller coaster, but it went really fast at one point.

Hannah was just shy of 40", so I taught her to kick her heels off the ground when she was under the measure stick. She caught on faster than I thought she would.

And then it was time to head back home!

Catching Up: Christmas

2009-01-23T14:52:00.005-06:00

Hannah and I had a great Christmas. Here are some pics from our Christmas tree to Christmas morning to taking down the Christmas tree. Enjoy!

Hannah had one limb that she took a liking too. Needless to say in the middle of the night there were a few ornament casualties from that limb- it just couldn't take it.

We loved this tree very much!

Leaving Cookies and Milk for Santa. YUM!

The tree leaving our house. And yes, we had the same replacement tree as last year very shortly after this tree left our house. If you don't quite remember, this should help your memory. (http://allisonpcates.blogspot.com/2008/01/our-new-christmas-tree.html)

Santa did good! "It's just what I wanted!"

SNOW DAY

2008-12-12T10:04:00.003-06:00

Hannah had a blast yesterday in the snow. I felt so bad dragging her inside because who knows when she'll see snow next. Her gloves were sopping wet, her hands were freezing, her socks were wet, but she couldn't stop throwing snowballs!

We built a snow man too, which you will see below. There is also a video of Hannah first thing in the morning! She was still trying to figure it all out. By the end of the day she had it down- Compare Video 1 and Video 2. Enjoy!

Go Hornets!

2008-11-23T17:06:00.005-06:00

Last week Hannah went to her first Hornets game. At first she sat very still in her seat just taking it all in. She would point at the cheer leaders and look for Hugo the mascot every so often, but for the most part was not moving.

Hannah First Half

Right before half we went and got snacks and walked around a bit. She came back a different child and Hornets fan.

None of these pictures really captured the end of the game when Hannah was in the aisle with her hands cupped around her mouth screaming DEFENSE!

It was a blast. Needless to say she threw a tiny fit on the way out because she didn't want to go home, but who could blame her.

Halloween- Part 2

2008-11-19T19:56:00.004-06:00

Oh my goodness, was Halloween 19 days ago? Oops! We went to Prairieville to my sisters for Halloween. Below are a few pictures of our Abby Cadabby.

Halloween 2008- Part 1

2008-10-31T13:54:00.006-05:00

Last night we went to carve pumpkins with Ms. Sommer and Braewyn and Ciel. Braewyn and Ciel are both being fairies- well I guess Hannah is too since Abby Cadabby is a fairy- so we carved Tinker Bell. Not sure if you can see it, but here is Hannah helping clean out and then the finished product- its hard to get the full affect even with the flash off.

And then here is Hannah on her way to school on "Halloween Day." Yep, she's calls it "Halloween Day." She was pumped when she woke up this morning. Got right out of bed, put on her clothes and even let me do her hair. She looked adorable!

Just thought this one was a cute face.

More to come later after the big "Halloween Night."

Happy. Sad. Silly........

2008-10-12T16:38:00.004-05:00

I won't say much about these. As with most kids and their parents, you have the happy face, sad face, silly face, etc.- these are our faces.

Silly Face (could also be happy face for Hannah):

Serious Face

Cheesy Grin (Hannah's is a tad bit of a scary face)

Sad Face

Our rock concert face (this is how we will be at a rock concert one day)

2008-10-12T16:20:00.008-05:00

Hannah went to the cutest birthday party yesterday. It was a princess tea party- so cute. They had a blast.

Meet Ariel:

Ariel with her accessories:
\

Hannah and Mia:

Hannah in the princess fashion show:

The entire Princess- and two heros- crew:

She had a blast!

Work It!

2008-09-29T20:08:00.002-05:00

If you have read my last posts, you are aware that I run now. Well prior to running and the gym membership, I worked out to videos at my house. Hannah wanted to workout to one tonight. She chose Pilates for Dummies- don't laugh at me.

If you listen really carefully to the background of the video, you can hear my chuckling softly. Its been a silly night in our house tonight.

Fall is Definitely Here!

2008-09-22T13:26:00.002-05:00

Hannah started with an innocent cough last week, and people kept telling me she was coughing. I think I was in denial, but I refused to take her to the Dr. for just a cough. And it was "just a cough." Well last night I had her sleep with me, so I could see how she was breathing at night- because we have been through this quite a few times, I get a bit nervous- and sure enough, she was sucking in at her chest to breath and wheezing away.

So, I opt to take her to the Dr. this morning and we are back on breathing treatments! I have to go dust off that stupid machine- in fact, I have to find it because its been stored away since last March.

And my favorite is when you take a "sick" child to the Dr. and other "sick" children are laying in their parents laps and looking sick and mine is literally bouncing off the walls. She was running across the room from game to game, and I am pretty sure the other parents were thinking "why did she waste that co-pay?"

Oh, and Hannah is becoming quite the drama queen. Every time she coughs she just looks at me with sad eyes and says, "I cough because I'm very very sick." HA. Whatever.

So, welcome Fall and Welcome Back little green breathing machine.

Evacuation Trip: Gustav 2008

2008-09-06T11:03:00.005-05:00

We have finally made it home from evacuating to Monroe for Gustav. Everything is fine here and life is pretty much back to normal- pending the limbs I have to pick up in the front yard today.

Below are just some pics from our trip. Hannah had a great time in Monroe with all of her cousins, but I think she was glad to get home too. She was so incredibly hyper when we pulled up to the house. She wanted to help do everything to get our house put back together. It was cute, but I kept having to find small things she could move around.

On Tuesday, at least I think that was Tuesday, we went to a store called Doodlez and let the girls paint some pottery. They had a great time.

On Wednesday, we took a trip to Target with Renee. Hannah picked out some sunglasses and tried on some shoes.

Wednesday was when all the rain from Gustav had hit Monroe. My parents have a deck outside their house on the bayou. The water is usually a good few feet below the deck, but Gustav brought it all the way up. These pictures were taken when it had gone down a bit too. Larkin, Ella and Hannah found something super interesting on the deck as well.

On Thursday, we packed up to go home. We packed up food and drinks in the ice chest. Hannah was responsible for the ice. I have to say, she was very good at it too.

All in all, it was a good trip. We got to visit with family and let all the cousins play. We are glad to be back home and are back to watching Ike now. This could get old real fast.

GO SAINTS!

2008-08-28T23:09:00.003-05:00

Tonight I took Hannah to her first Saints game. She had an absolute blast. She danced and cheered and danced and cheered.

Hannah has always been amazed with the Superdome. It has an arena beside it, which is not small, but up against the Superdome it looks tiny. She calls the Superdome the Daddy and the arena is either the Mommy or the baby- depending on the mood. So, she realizes how big it is.

We sat up high, so Hannah obviously didn't realize how high we were going on the escalator. As we walked through that tunnel and she saw the field and all the people, she just stopped. I could tell that she was not sure what exactly just happened. I gave her a little nudge and she slowly walked. We got to our seats and she stuck really close. She was just taking it all in. It was so fun to see. She warmed up real quick and started doing her thing. Here are some pics.

Oh, we went and got her a Saints cheerleader uniform too.

Sleep Over- kind of!

2008-08-25T13:37:00.003-05:00

I remember a picture growing up where my sister, brother and me were all asleep together. We were everywhere on that bed. Not sure how they got us all to sleep. Actually, I think it might still be in my dad's office. Dad?

Well, Hannah doesn't have 2 other siblings, but close enough. She has her two best buddies, Braewyn and Ciel. They came over one night while their mommy had something she had to go do, and I had to get all 3 ready for bed and in bed- asleep. I think I deserve something for actually pulling this off, but it was super sweet. So here is Hannah and her best buddies all snuggled together and......ASLEEP!

And we keep on Running

2008-07-14T21:48:00.004-05:00

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I have taken up running. Well, Hannah has really been getting into it as well. We went the other day and got her some new running shoes and outfits.

The first pic is right after we left the store. She couldn't even wait to get home to try them on, so we changed in the car.

The second pic was that night when she went to bed. Uh, yes, she wouldn't take them off. I did finally get the shoes off when she was REALLY asleep.

I have to find her a race soon because she keeps telling people, "My mommy is going to find me a race." They do have little one mile races for kids around here and even an age group for 5 and under. You just have to stumble upon them though because they aren't advertised like adult races. I guess I better start stumbling.

Beach Trip 4th of July

2008-07-14T20:55:00.006-05:00

HI! Sorry for the lack of posts. I have some catching up to do.

A couple of weeks ago we took our annual trip to the beach with the fam. Hannah had a great time. Although she won't get near the ocean, she loved the beach and the pool.

They nicknamed her Safety Patrol. Guess which pictures those are? Needless to say, I felt safe if I had to turn my head from the pool. There was no way she was going under without A LOT of effort.

We also went to The Track for some fun. Her super Uncle Mike rode the water boats with her. She was drinched. In the last pic, you can see a few other uncles and cousins who joined in.

We had a great time. Until next year.....

\

Run, Run, Run

2008-06-07T11:57:00.005-05:00

I have recently begun running, which means Hannah has too. I have entered a few races, but was fortunate enough to have someone take Hannah while I ran. I say fortunate, because the past 2 races I have done this week have posed some new running challenges to me that I never really thought about. I mean, in all honesty, I should have thought about it since these same things happen all the time when we run regularly- for some reason I was thinking an actual race may be different- HA!

We ran our first race together on Thursday. Hannah had a blast. We were only sidetracked once with an emergency potty run. We also partook of the END of race munchies (bananas, water, etc.) before the race even begun. I bet these people didn't think they were providing an after school snack for Hannah!

Today, we ran another one that was longer than Thursday so Hannah was a little more ancy. Not to mention we were running by the lake and playgrounds, which is one of Hannah's favorite things to do- you can probably imagine how that went without further explanation. We stopped many times to pick up fallen flip flops and chap stick. Oh, and we had one melt down after I passed the drinking station half way through and didn't get her a cup too. Geeze, that was horrible!

So we are both learning how to do this together, but we both are really enjoying doing it. Hannah likes to show off her running skills too before and after the race. And like I mentioned before, she loves the snacks! So here is a picture of us after the race today. I totally forgot my camera on our first race!

Our Beauty Pageant Face

2008-06-01T20:50:00.002-05:00

This was actually taken on Mother's Day at my sisters house. We had an awesome day. Hannah and Claire played all afternoon in the water toys. It was a blast.

So a few nights before this, Hannah and I were watching a TV show where a girl won a huge prize. Needless to say we made fun of the way she reacted, and hence came up with our beauty pageant face. This is Hannah's impersonation of what you do if you win a beauty pageant. Claire got pretty good at it too.

Hannah's Birthday

2008-06-01T20:34:00.003-05:00

I know its been about a month since her birthday party, but I wanted to get pics up anyway. Sorry for the delay, busy life, computer broke, excuses, excuses.

Here are some pics of Hannah's 3rd birthday party!

Hannah with her friend, Mia, at the playground.

Hannah with her awesome Abby Cadabby birthday cake (Thanks Grandma)

Hannah with her new Dora bike! (Thanks Dad)

Hannah and all her friendly helpers playing with the new toys.

This is Hannah after we got home. She obviously didn't know what to play with first, so we attempted to do everything at once.

It was a fun party!

The Little Things

2008-04-23T21:53:00.002-05:00

Hannah is getting to be quite self sufficient these days, and I have to say that I LOVE it. She is also a great retriever of things. Again, I LOVE it.

The other day she did something that I usually have to help out with. I said, "Wow Hannah, you don't even need me anymore." She just looked at me cutely and said, "Yes I do Mommy."

I just kind of stopped in my tracks when that came out, smiled and savored the moment.

Hannah's Surgery Aftermath

2008-04-06T10:07:00.002-05:00

Most of you know that almost 2 weeks ago Hannah had a little surgery. The video below was right after we got home. The medicine was still in full force. It was good comic relief after everything, even though it was the expense of Hannah!

During all of this Hannah was also seeing double. She was watching Sesame Street and told me that there were two Elmo's. Then we were looking at pictures and she told me there were two Hannah's.

We are doing much better now! Back to school and life tomorrow!

Funny Hannah Talk

2008-03-18T21:47:00.002-05:00

I think I could go on forever with these, and I have probably told a lot of you these same stories, but I thought it nice for me to save the memories for Hannah.

Hannah has become quite the little speaker and reasoner. Below are some Hannahisms.

Bath Tub:
H: The waters hot mommy.
M: I'm sorry.
H: It's not your fault mommy (haha. don't tell her who ran the water.)
M: I'm sure the water says its sorry too.
H: The water can't talk it doesn't have a mouth. (Haha. silly me.)

When I grow up:
This started because we were singing a song on one of her Cd's that talks about not wanting to grow up....
H: When I grow up I am going to be a mommy and cut strawberries.
M: Then what are you going to do.
H: I am going to drive and take you to school and I will go to work. (I bet you wish you were me because according to Hannah I get to go back to daycare where they MAKE you take naps. Hate it for me."

Going to Daycare:
This discussion happens about every morning.
H: Where we going?
M: To work and daycare
H: I don't have to got to daycare today, I went yesterday. (Geez. That's all I can really say about that one.)

American Idol and the microphone:
This happened when one of the guys was singing REALLY close to the microphone.
H: He doesn't do that. That is for singing the ABC's.
M: ??????????

Coloring on the way to school:
H: I am drawing a castle with my hand.
M: Pretty.
H: Look. TADA! (Now a lot of things are TADA)

I have tons of them and now that I sit down to write about it my mind is going blank. I need to just write them down. Needless to say, we are having fun and laughing a lot. The mind of a 2 (almost 3) year old is amazing. Oh, we have a new monkey song that may be funnier than the last. I have to capture it on video for everyone. It's awesome.

Dance Machine

2008-03-02T16:15:00.003-06:00

This one is hilarious. Hannah likes to turn on my radio in the morning and dance around while I get dressed. She was particularly in the groove this morning. Check out the music in the background. This is what we jam out to at my house!

Oh, also pay attention that she is really dancing for the camera since she is smiling so intently that she looks a little...well....I'll let you just see.

My first experience with Fun Dip!

2008-03-02T15:56:00.005-06:00

Hannah got a lot of yummy candy for Valentine's Day and below is our first experience, at least that I know of, with Fun Dip. I held the package most of the time and we only had one spilling casualty (Thankfully Bill had a new dust buster close at hand).

In case some you have forgotten the awesome candy Fun Dip. Its the package that comes with the edible stick and you basically dip the stick into the powder and you lick it off. Yum!

No More Monkeys Jumping On the Bed

2008-01-28T18:46:00.000-06:00

Well, I don't really have much to say about this. Enjoy!

Our weekend

2008-01-27T20:56:00.000-06:00

This past weekend we went to Monroe for some fun times. Hannah got her haircut by Ms. Renee and it is so cute. I feel like I am talking to a different child when we have conversations. It is so sweet.

Also, at Nona and Kirbo's house the kids have a nice little play area. In the area is an old rocking horse that used to be in my bedroom as a kid. It just happens to be one of the favorite toys amongst the kids. I thought I should video Hannah on it. If that poor horse makes it through this generation of kids it will be a miracle. They ride it like its brand new.

OMG! I think we have issues........

2008-01-16T19:24:00.000-06:00

The good news is that Hannah finally moved our last "Christmas Tree," but now we have a new one.

Welcome to the world of Play-Doh.

Welcome William!

2008-01-15T21:22:00.000-06:00

Hannah got a new cousin on Monday. William David Raymond. Unfortunately, my batteries to my camera ran out right when we go the hospital, but below are a few that Daniel sent us. Everyone is doing great.

I picked up Hannah from school and told her we were going to go see him. She kept saying, "I'm going to hold him, and pat him, and hug him, and kiss him and stick his thumb in his mouth." haha. She was so excited.

Hannah's first time to see him. She wasn't quite sure what to think.

All of the cousins that were there together with the Baby William. It's Caroline, Claire, Hannah and William.

Proud Aunt Allison. What to do with a little boy?

This put us up to 6 cousins, including Hannah: 5 girls and 1 boy. Poor William.

Cashier Please!

2008-01-13T21:06:00.000-06:00

Today, Kirbo, Nona, Caroline, Hannah and I all went to the children's museum in New Orleans. It was so much fun. One of the exhibits they have is a grocery store where it is actually like a real grocery story, just miniature. The carts are tiny, the aisles are tiny, the check outs are tiny. Hannah and I both took turns being the cashier as you can see below, but she also helped another little girl check out too. It was amazing how she knew what to do.

Mommy, What Did You Just Sing?

2008-01-07T22:54:00.001-06:00

This blog is going to be a little difficult to write about, but I am going to try. I can't really catch it on my camera either because it is super spur-of-the-moment stuff.

As a few of you probably know, I like to sing every now and then. HAHA. That's an under statement. Well a lot of times before we leave the house or go somewhere, I take us back to the movie Grease (not sure if its 1 or 2). I sing: "Let's go. Let's go. Let's Rock-n-Roll. Hey come on, let's get this show on the road." Does anyone feel tempted to sing?!?!?!?! So the other day we were leaving the house and I said, "Hannah, let's go." She said, "Let's Rock-n-Roll." HAHAHAHAHA. Silly Hannah.

I honestly at that point totally understood why she would say that because I sing it all the time. However, today on the way home across the Causeway was when she really made me laugh. Apparently I sing things and don't realize it a lot.

We were on the Causeway just having our normal daily chat. Hannah said, "I don't want to be on this road." (Sometimes Hannah doesn't have much of a liking for the Causeway.) Then she started singing, "On the road again. Just can't wait to get on the road again." HAHAHA. Now that one really made me laugh. A little Willy Nelson anyone? I do sing that from time to time, but I didn't think it stuck.

And last night, she started singing this new song that I forget the words to know, something about "It's too late to apologize. Too Late." Anyone know what I am talking about. HAHAHA. I crack myself up- or I should say that Hannah cracks me up. Well, hope it makes you laugh because I sure got a kick out of it!

Our New Christmas Tree

2008-01-05T18:00:00.000-06:00

So, if you read my last post here is a picture of our new Christmas tree- courtesy of Hannah Cates. She sweetly placed it exactly in the spot where the old tree was. Look real close!

And I have now begun to move into the 21st Century. I just got a new computer and internet at my home. It has been over 2 years since I have had Internet at my house. My next step....full cable television. Hannah and I live off of about 15 channels right now, but I think that will come later. I kind of like not having cable. Makes me do other things, and at least we still get Sesame Street!

The "Sweet" Moments

2008-01-03T12:36:00.000-06:00

Okay, this one may get a little sappy, but bear with me. These are the little things I want to be able to remember!

Hannah's little mind and vocabulary are just growing by the day. Below are a few stories that are funny and sweet, but really are the little things that make every day worth living.

Bye Bye Christmas Tree--Hello Replacement:
This past week, we took down our Christmas tree. Hannah didn't seem to have a problem with it at first, but it must have hit her that the tree is not coming back soon. For one of Hannah's Christmas presents, she got a small tree that may go with a Dora. It is plastic and about 2-3 inches tall. Well it has now replaced our old Christmas tree, and sits exactly where the tree used to be. You really have to see it to get the complete humor because it is seriously tiny. I will try to get a picture of it because it is hilarious, but also a very sweet 2 year old moment. Not to mention we were sitting on the floor playing last night and she just sat up and said, "I miss the Christmas Tree." So sweet!

Hey, We're Getting an Airplane:
As most of you know, Hannah and I cross the Causeway bridge 5 days a week at least! Well the New Orleans airport is not far off, so you can see when planes take off and land. Hannah saw one last night and was very excited. She asked, "What's in it?" I told her that people were in it. She said, "Like us." I replied, "Yes, just like us." She calmly said, "We need to get us one, so we can fly up high too." HAHA. "Ah, yes, let us just go pick up a plane on our way home!" Makes me feel good that she believes Mommy can just go get a plane!

Just for You:
Now this one I almost left the daycare crying it was so sweet. Everyday I pick up Hannah from daycare and ask her what she did. She rambles through the normal things: eat, color, outside, etc. One day last week, I picked her up and as usual I asked her what she did that day. She said, "I color for you." I was a little bit shocked, and thought, what a sweet baby I have. The next day, I dropped her at school and her teacher pulled me aside. She said that yesterday Hannah was coloring and Hannah was telling her how proud mommy was going to be with her coloring. I am about to tear up now thinking about it. All this time of being a mommy, you think about how selfless you have become because babies are selfish (not in a bad way, they have to be), but now all of a sudden I have raised this baby who is not 100% selfish anymore. It was a great and yes, as Hannah said, proud moment.

I must have made a big deal about it too with Hannah, because she came home yesterday and said she used the potty for you! Oh well, still sweet!

Life is just great!

Oh, Christmas Tree. Oh, Christmas Tree

2007-12-05T11:33:00.001-06:00

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

2007-11-29T12:40:00.000-06:00

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

2007-11-27T09:40:00.000-06:00

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

2007-11-15T14:01:00.000-06:00

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

2007-11-06T12:46:00.000-06:00

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

2007-11-01T16:37:00.000-05:00

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

2007-10-30T13:03:00.000-05:00

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

2007-10-24T12:14:00.000-05:00

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

2007-10-17T09:02:00.000-05:00

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

2007-10-12T15:01:00.000-05:00

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

2007-08-30T14:55:00.000-05:00

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

2007-07-17T09:08:00.000-05:00

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

2007-06-28T08:40:00.000-05:00

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

2007-05-16T09:16:00.000-05:00

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?

2007-05-11T08:43:00.000-05:00

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

2007-05-02T08:08:00.000-05:00

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!

2007-03-27T10:49:00.000-05:00

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

2007-03-19T15:11:00.000-05:00

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

2007-03-08T08:53:00.000-06:00

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

2007-03-05T08:23:00.000-06:00

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!

2007-02-26T16:39:00.000-06:00

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

2007-01-25T09:47:00.000-06:00

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

2007-01-25T09:06:00.000-06:00

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!

Picture Time

2006-12-29T08:30:00.000-06:00

Hi everyone,

So I apologize for the lack of posting. The holiday have been a bit crazy. For those of you who don't know already (probably not many), Hannah was in the hospital a couple of weeks ago with a repiratory lung virus. Do not fret- we are okay now. After about a week and a half of breathing treatments, the little one is now breathing easy.

We went to Monroe for Christmas, and this is Hannah and all of her cousins (Larking, Claire, Caroline and Ella). We were trying to having a photo opp, but you can imagine with 5 little ones. But I have to say it went quite well. The video below is a bit of the excitement. Just imagine, all of my siblings and the grandparents behind/beside me trying to take this picture. HAHA.

Enjoy!

Sea Shells for ME

2006-11-28T09:54:00.000-06:00

As many of you know, we went to the beach for Thanksgiving this year. Hannah has never been real keen on the sand touching her, but this time we finally broke through. We had to keep her shoes on her, but hey, atleast she wasn't glued to my hip.

The video is of her and Nona looking for sea shells. This will be Nona's debut on the blog, so everyone give her a big applause!!!!!!

I will try to post more pictures of the weekend later on in the week.

What exactly are "Age Appropriate" chores?

2006-11-22T09:12:00.000-06:00

I am not real sure what is going on with my blog this morning, but it is underlining and making everything blue like a link- wierd! So I am just going to go on with my story.

So what are "Age Appropriate " chores? Hannah is very interested in the cleaning aspect of the house. I have a mini dust pan that she takes out and tries to pick things up, and as you can see below she also has a passion for swiffering! Is it so wrong of me to stick a swiffer pad on the bottom and let her have at it!

I mean she seems to want to help, so why not let her? And I must admit she is very talented with the swiffer. But personally, I like swiffering ALOT more than I do other chores around the house- and now that I can make the decision on who gets what chores, Hannah better get a knack for folding clothes! Since that was my chore as a child, I am so over it. So I will just make Hannah dislike it as much as I do, then she can make her kids and/or husband fold the clothes. It is just a mass conspiracy against clothes folding! Well I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving! We are going to the beach, so we should have a lot of good pictures when we return next week.

My Buddies

2006-11-17T08:48:00.000-06:00

This is Hannah and her two buddies, Braewyn and Ciel. I believe I have talked about them before, but they came over last night to eat dinner and we decided to capture the sweet little angels all together.

Braewyn and Hannah like to dance together, tear apart nicely organized living rooms, crowd around the same toy at the same time and expect not to bump heads or lose the parts to the toy and teach each other their different animal sounds!

Now, as you can see, Ciel is a baby, which is now Hannah's favorite thing in the world. So she loves to hug on Ciel, help feed her bottle, pat her head and last night she just walked up to her like she was a big girl and tried to pick her up. She just loves Ciel so much, so it will be fun to watch how they interact as Ciel keeps getting bigger.

Well, these our Hannah's buddies. Sommer (Braewyn's and Ciel's mom) and I were talking about if they stayed friends until High School how bad they would be together. I would suspect Sommer and I would stay up many nights wondering where they were, but not much different than now- we stay up all night wondering why they won't sleep! Is this called irony?

Zoo- Look at the sheep and billy goats

2006-11-13T09:25:00.000-06:00

Saturday, Hannah, my mom, Claire and I went to the Zoo for my mom's birthday. It was a blast. Below is a video of Hannah with the Sheeps and Billy Goats. It took her a minute to warm up to them, but after a while she loved them.

P.S. Just ignore me. I really hate how I sound on these recordings, but they are too cute to worry too much about that.

Random Pictures

2006-11-09T08:46:00.000-06:00

Hannah had her Chistmas pictures at school on Tuesday. Of course she wouldn't let me do anything with her hair. But the good news is that they said they might have gotten a couple of good shots, the others she was a little displeased with be made to sit in fake snow- but who could blame her. So this is what she looked like at th end of the day- bring on the proofs!

This is just a picture of Hannah this morning. She loves Sesame Street. She watches it every morning, and when we are leaving, she waves and says good bye to Elmo and everyone. And the benefit- I learn lots of new stuff too. We both get a Spanish word of the day and some times a sign language word of the day. I think I love it as much as Hannah (I know that is sad)

If can tell by the two pics, Hannah got another trim last night. Her bangs just keep growing right into her face, and I can't seem to train them to go over. I am trying to get rid of the mullet and people refering to her as a him- it really aggravates me. And I have some pics of that, but she was drooling a little and it didn't look pleasant enough to place on the blog- she had a two-tone shirt.

Well, everyone have a good one!

Halloween

2006-11-02T08:39:00.000-06:00

I know everyone is very eager to see our little Indian! There are a lot of pictures below and some are from Boo at the Zoo on Saturday and others are from Halloween night. Hannah liked Trick-or-Treating, even though she never actual said Trick-or-Treat when we got to the door. And she has now discovered her love for Candy- better known at Nandy. I had to pull quite a few wrappers out of her mouth Halloween- those silly wrappers weren't going to stand between her and candy.

1) Caroline and Hannah before Boo at the Zoo,

2) Hannah and Caroline at Boo at the Zoo. Hannah liked carrying around her pumpkin with the candy.

3) Hannah dancing to the music at Boo at the Zoo. Everyone kept saying, "Look at the cute Pocahontas." So I just went with it, and Hannah officially turned from plain old Indian to Pocahontas.

4) Hannah and Mommy on the carousel at the zoo. Hannah wasn't quite sure about it. She kept holding onto me and then the zebra would go up and she would have to let go. She had this very confused look on her face the whole time. And if you look real close you will see Brad and Crawfish Elle beside us.

5) Here is Hannah on Halloween night. I think this picture speaks for itself.

5) This is Hannah after I dug the wrapper out of her mouth. Apparently, there was chocolate in there.

6) And this is the puking Pumpkin. I just thought is was funny. Mike carved it himself. I kept walking past it all night and thinking- that looks wierd. And then as we were leaving it dawned on me- his pumpkin was puking! HAHAHAHAHAHA I thought it was funny.

So that is rundown of our Halloween. I have to go home today and hide the Pumpkin with the candy because Hannah threw a fit this morning for candy. I hope everyone had a good time at Halloween too.

Halloween Party

2006-10-27T08:39:00.000-05:00

Today is Hannah's Halloween Party at school. They can't wear their costumes, so those pics will be coming next week. When I handed her pumpkin to her, she immediately put it on her arm and said, Bye-Bye. I guess she picks up that when Mommy or anyone else puts her purse on her arm that means we are leaving.

We have been practicing Trick-or-Treat all week, however, I am not sure if just anyone could decipher it- but I can tell what it is. I am sure she will get to a door on Halloween and just freeze! She will be with her cousins and her friend, Braewyn, so maybe they will keep her going.

Oh, and Hannah is going to be an Indian for Halloween. She has already tried it on a couple of times, and it is super cute.

Along with Trick-or-Treating on Halloween, we are going to Boo at the Zoo this Saturday in New Orleans. I have never been, but it should be a lot of fun. And as you can see, Hannah is ready to go!

I hope everyone has a great weekend, and I will post the Halloween pics next week!

Hannah 1-2-3

2006-10-24T09:23:00.000-05:00

Check it out!!!! When Bill brought Hannah home on Sunday, he had realized over the weekend an awesome trick. Of course, it took me a few tries to get it on camera, but here it is.

Please disregard all the goldfish in her mouth- she ate all her dinner so she got a treat!

A Lesson for Mommy!

2006-10-19T10:49:00.000-05:00

So, I had my first "watch what your saying" lesson last night. I was so shocked that it took me a few minutes to realize what had just happened- then of course, I laughed!

Hannah and I were on our way home from school and it was raining. I almost missed a turn, and I said "Crap." Then I hear her say, "Crap". It wasn't real distinct, but she was definitely mocking me. Then I said, uh oh, and then I hear her in the back seat saying that too!!!! The crazy thing was that she wasn't even paying attention to me. She was playing with her shoes.

I knew this was going to happen, so I don't know why I acted so surprised. I just kept driving home and pondering what had just happened. I am still a little taken back, but I guess I should just be glad it was just "Crap"!!!

Now I am going to start telling strangers on the street to watch their language! HA- that would be awesome. "Um excuse me sir, I know this is a free country with free speech and all, but could you refrain from using those socially unacceptable terms in front of my daughter." But I guess I need to start with myself!!! Who would have thought I would get in such a tizzy about the word "Crap".

Ah, the learning lessons that my 18 month old daughter continues to teach me. She will straighten me out before you know it!

Sweet Baby!

2006-10-17T08:51:00.000-05:00

I know I tell people this all the time, but I think it is so sweet. Hannah loves babies! Everytime we are in a store and she sees a baby carrier she points and says baby. There was even a time when a lady had a department store cart and it was filled with clothes were a baby would normally sit, and Hannah kept pointing and saying baby, baby. I think the lady was a little taken back because she was like, "no, baby and thank goodness for that!" I just laughed and went on.

She loves being around her cousin Claire. Although, she did scare her a few times when she got real excited and screamed. I hope Claire isn't too scared, but she sure has leary eyes when Hannah gets close.

Last Friday, we went to a friends house who has a daughter Hannah's age and another 2 month old baby- yes, pray for her! Hannah was so sweet to the baby. We put all three of the girls in the back seat, and Hannah just sat there quietly and watched the baby. When we got home, she rocked the baby and was just so interested in everything it was doing (which wasn't much).

And her friend, Braewyn, who is her age has a baby doll with a stroller and pacifer and all the good baby stuff, and Hannah goes straight for it every time we are there. She loves to hold the baby and put the pacifer in its mouth, and stroll her around the house.

I guess I like it so much because it amazes me how she is so young but still picks up on this baby stuff. She just seems so sweet and gentle (I mean as gentle as an 18 month can be, we do have to tell her stop rocking so aggresively sometimes). I just think it is sweet, and it makes me feel good about the person she is becoming and will become in the future.

There's more than one way to say No!

2006-10-03T08:41:00.000-05:00

Hannah has really gotten good at understanding what I am saying to her. I am finding many advantages to this. For example, she will put her toys in the basket, put her milk on the table, and whole bunches of new things. But she is also learning how to say No- in more ways than one!

On Sunday, Hannah took an early nap, so she went down again later in the afternoon. I didn't want her to sleep too long, so I went and got her up about an hour later. I let her lay on my bed to wake up slowly, but then it was time to get up. We were going to a friends house to eat dinner, and it was time to go.

Hannah was laying on my bed with her thumb in her mouth, balled up with her butt straight in the air. I started asking her questions like, "Are you ready to get up? " "Are you ready to go and eat?". At first, she was shaking her head no, but since she was face down on my bed, that was obviously too difficult. I noticed a second later that she hiked up her butt a little higher. I continued to ask her questions simply to annoy her. Do you know what she did? She answered me with her BUTT! She started shaking her butt in the no direction!

So I kept asking questions and she kept shaking her butt! By that time I was laughing so hard that she got up and jumped on me and it was over. But (no pun intended), how smart of her to use other body parts to communicate when other things weren't convenient. Although I would rather her not communicate with her butt, whatever works!

Smarty Pants

2006-09-21T08:56:00.000-05:00

I know I always say hannah is getting super smart, but I was just shocked (and a little sad) last night. My mom was with us last night, and after her bath my mom said, "Look what Hannah can do." Of course I naturally say, "What?" Then my mom starts singing the itsy bitsy spider and Hannah starts doing all the motions and trying to sing it!!!!!! I thought I was going to cry!

It was so cute, and incredible to see her little mind just expanding all the time. She tries to say everything you do, and sometimes she gets really close.

These instances are happening a lot now. She goes to school in the morning not saying and word and comes back saying it. For instance, I have been working on Hannah saying "Milk" when she wants her cup (since I always put milk in it), and she hasn't ever really tried to say it back. Well that was Monday morning, when I got home Monday night she was saying milk!

I know this is going to happen a lot now, and it is exciting to watch her learn. And a little scary how much she learns so fast!

My first colors

2006-09-14T09:07:00.000-05:00

The other day my mother asked me if I had been teaching Hannah her colors. Oops! Is that what is next?

Needless to say, it hasn't been a top priority in our house. Animals and the sounds they make have kind of taken the lead. Not to mention, one of my friends pointed out the other day, "Why do we spend so much time teaching them what animals say?" Colors, letters, numbers, what the animal actually is, is really the important stuff. I told her, "You haven't seen a toddler try and make a monkey sound or an elephant impersonation."

Anyway, that is digressing. So Hannah was in the bath last night and she has these colored floating balls that she plays with. Well, last night I start picking them up and saying, "Yellow ball, Red ball, etc." Then I put them down and asked her, "Where is the red ball?" And by golly, she went right to it. Oh the exceptional child that she is!!!!!! I proceeded to go onto to the other colors, and she goes right to them.

I will try it again tonight and we will see how she does, but I am sure she will nail it again. I mean, since she is sooooo smart for her age! HAHA

Who is Momma?

2006-09-12T08:57:00.000-05:00

For a very long time- probably before Hannah even new what was going on in this world- I would point to me and say "Momma" and point to her and say "Hannah." Well Hannah is exceptional for her age and all (hehe), but I think she is really confused on this one! Instead of pointing to herself and saying Hannah (or something along those lines), she points to herself and says "Momma."

I repeatedly tell her, "No, I am momma. You are Hannah." But then I realized that she called everyone Momma. She understands peoples names because this weekend I would tell her to go and find Renee, and she would go right to her. But then again, she would look at her and say Momma. I am just a little curious to what she thinks Momma is.

I mean how does she define "Momma." Any person who gives me food. Someone who plays with me on the floor at night. Someone who constantly asks for hugs and kisses. Any person with long, brown hair. Any persons who says "No mam, Hannah." Or does she know a persons name (which is obvious that she does), and the only thing that comes out of her mouth is "Momma."

It is all cute and funny until she points at the stranger in the grocery store and says "Momma." Then she will take my all-powerful Momma status away and just hand it to a stranger. I don't mind sharing with people she knows, but geez I don't want to share with a complete stranger. I am sure she has her own all-powerful "Momma" status.

I assume as she begins to talk more, this situation will take care of itself. And for the record, it is really cute when she points to herself and says Momma. I would just like to get into her brain and see what she means.

Little Trim

2006-09-11T09:20:00.000-05:00

Hannah got her first trim this weekend. For those of you who don't know, my best friend, Renee, is a hair stylist. She came to visit this weekend, and gave Hannah her first trim.

Hannah had the longest bangs EVER! They hung down to the middle of her nose, and I tried to train them to go to one side, but they had a mind of their own. So now, Hannah has some bangs that she can see with.

We distracted her with baby einstein, so I am not sure if she even knew what was going on. But I did save it and put it in an envelope!

The rest of the weekend was wonderful too. Hannah has learned how to turn in circles. We were at the mall yesterday and they have a big open area, and I took her out there while Renee was shopping. She would run out there, twirl around and then collapse. I have to say she is pretty good at the twirling. I don't know if she learned it at school or what, but on Sunday she just started twirling around. And then when we woke up this morning, she just got to twirling. And let me tell you, it is hard to dress a twirling child! I hope her shirt is on the right way.

I hope everyone else had a great weekend!

Hello Everyone (and everything)

2006-09-08T15:55:00.000-05:00

I have started walking again after work (I think my bike needs new tires), and I have realized that I don't just need to do this for me, but for hannah too.

It is such an awesome way for Hannah to explore her world. She sits in the stroller and just looks around, points at things, attempts to tell me what she is looking at and just has a great time. I point out things to her and repeat them, while she tries to figure out what I am pointing at. She waves to cars, people, dogs and anything else that passes us by.

And as I was walking last night, I started thinking how great this was for her. She gets to interact with me and discover new things about the world everyday.

Well, we are going tomorrow to hang out with the fam. And Hannah gets to meet her cousin, who is about 3 weeks older than her. They live in Houston, so they have never been able to meet. It will be fun with three babies within 1 month of each other- how many toys will be snatched out of hands tomorrow! It should be fun.

I hope everyone has a great weekend.

2006-09-06T16:34:00.000-05:00

Sorry I have been slacking.....I know I say that everytime. Life is just a big hustle and bustle and sometimes I get lost in it!

Hannah is just growing like a weed. She is learning so much, so fast- sometimes I look at her and think, "Hey, I don't even know you anymore. What did you do with my baby?" She responds to what I say and she just tries so hard to spit out every word she can. Her vocabulary is expanding everyday- but so is her independence, attitude, opinion, etc., etc. You see where I am going with this.

There were a couple of days last week I thought I was losing control!!!! Dinner plates were being tossed across the room, necklaces and shirts were being pulled, bodies were going limp, tears were flowing and screams (from both of us!) were going off. I felt like a demon had taken her over. I even had a girl at work pick me up a brochure on child-rearing classes. THANKS- really! (I should toss it back though since she is about to have her own bundle of joy any day now!)

But she was getting over a virus she had all weekend, so I think that was a lot of it. We are over it now and my sweet little angel has come home. She just toddles around talking and picking up everything in site and on the shelves.

I was talking to a friend last night who asked about Hannah, and it is so hard to really explain how awesome she is, and I am having that same problem now. Just take my word for it- she is a ball full of energy that amazes me everyday.

I am trying to post pictures, but my new camera is really wierd. I have some coming soon.

We're still alive!

2006-08-25T19:14:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone,

I have to make this short, but I wanted to let everyone know that we are still alive. I feel like I always say this, but things have been crazy. All of you have been on mind and I have been concerned about my readership failing because of my lack of blogging, so please don't give up on me. I could go into my crazy life, but who really cares- it is a job, not a life. HA- that is funny!

Hannah is doing great. We had our 15 month check up last week and she is doing fine. She had a big melt down in the room, and the doctor was like, "Nevermind, I was about to ask if she was throwing things around." That would be right after she chunked my phone across the room- I can laugh about it now.

She was a huge flirt. She has a male doctor, so you can imagine. He left the room and she was having an "episode." She was sitting in my lap just wailing, and I was trying to confort her like we mothers do- she just kept shoving my hands away and tossing everything in arms length onto the floor. I finally raised my hands in the air and just let her be mad. So............the doctor walks in again. Hannah sticks her thumb in her mouth and curls up on me like a sweet little angel. He just looked at her and said, "don't try that, I heard you all the way down the hall." Now if she could only understand that- it would have been priceless!

So she has definitely hit the toddler stage- at least I hope this it. But she is still sweet and just an angel, but she is definitely asserting herself more now! Oh well, I always liked a person with an opinion.

Well I will talk to you all soon. Have a great weekend!

Thunder- scary! and other fun stuff (kind of)

2006-08-11T09:01:00.000-05:00

It seems like it rains every day here in Louisiana, but usually it just has one big downpoor and then we are good until tomorrow. Well the other night was a different story- we actually had a storm. Hannah has been through a lot of storms and they have never seemed to bother her until the other night. Everytime it thundered she came barrelling toward me, and letting out a small cry. She would curl up until she felt like it was safe again. I thought it was so strange.

But then I started thinking about how lately she has been more jumpy. Sometimes when she is really into her toys, I will say something to her and she jumps like it startled her. Do they all of a sudden get super-duper hearing? I don't get it. I guess it is just another guessing game, but for the record- Hannah does not like thunder.

On another note, Hannah has another tooth and probably by the weekend another one will break through. Does she have an abnormal amount of teeth for a 15 month old? She has 13 officially, but like I said it will probably be 14 by the weekend. Everyone always comments on how many teeth she has. They ask me if that is normal, and I say, "I suppose, she is the only child I have to compare." I mean it seems normal to me, but hey what do I know- I am just the mother.

And on another note, Hannah has really perfected her art of walking. I have gotten to were I will let her down to walk around places- malls, Walgreen (not the best idea I ever had), etc.- and it cracks me up. Most people swing there arms in a rythem, but Hannah only swings one arm. She sticks out her belly and gets to pumping that arm. It is hilarious.

We had to go to the hospital earlier in the week to visit a friend who just had a baby, and I let her down. People were just laughing at her the whole way up to the room. Of course, a lot of people in a hospital just need a good laugh. Maybe I should take her up there once a week to just walk and make some people smile! Anyway, it was really funny and the girl I was with couldn't get over how she walked so funny. I wish everyone could see it.

Okay, enough rambling for one day. Oh yeah, I am going to put a disclaimer on this one to preface all of my blogs. Please excuse all of my punctuation, spelling, word usage and/or grammar mistakes. This is the one place where I do not have to worry about this and I enjoy that about my blog. My job entails me everyday to be very detailed about it and I get tired of doing that. And this blog does not contain spell check! So please excuse. If you have a huge problem with it- then read someone else's blog. HAHA.

Have a great weekend!

Circus Time

2006-08-08T14:12:00.000-05:00

Last Saturday, I took Hannah to the circus. Actually, my mom, brother, sister-in-law and their two children went to the circus too. It was so much fun!

I have never been to the circus, so it was just as much fun for me! Well, back to Hannah because I know you are not interested in how excited I was!!!!

Overall, Hannah really liked it. At first, she was a little scared by it and she just curled up on my lap, but then her cousins got there and she was good to go. She jumped off my lap and was dancing and clapping and having a good time. She liked the dogs and other animals the best- she really isn't at the point of liking the trapeze like me! My brother bought M&M's, so by the time it was over Hannah and I both had chocolate over the front of our shirts.

It is just one of those other things that makes being a parent so much fun- I get to be a kid again too.

The stairs are so tough!

2006-08-02T12:06:00.000-05:00

I read in a book recently (and I may have blogged about it some), that if you have stairs in your house you should take time to teach your child how to go up and down them. Let them practice why you are nearby to maybe prevent any accidents. So everyday when Hannah takes a bath at night she climbs tup he stairs and does very well at it, and every morning she climbs down.

In the morning when she gets ready to go down, so stands by the edge and puts her hand up for me hold. She knows she is not secure enough to walk down by herself, which I think is so cute when she holds up that hand. So to get down she holds my hand and puts one foot at a time onto each step, and since her but is the same height at the stair you can imagine what a drop it is for her little legs.

Well this morning we were walking down the stairs as usual, and she started this grunting every time her foot stepped down. She sounded so pitiful, like it was the toughest thing she had ever done. Every step....huh....huh....huh....huh, all the way to the bottom. I just walked down beside her and laughed! It is so hard being her! But I guess it is the same concept as me stepping up and down a 3 foot wall. Who knows, I'd probably be grunting too!

We'll see if she starts doing it every time. This may be the first sign of a drama queen! (HAHA)

Pictures!!!!

2006-07-28T09:56:00.000-05:00

Here are some recent pictures of Hannah. I hope you enjoy!

1) I am being brave and putting a picture of myself in my bathing suit on the web. AAAHHH! But it is a good memory for Hannah. As you can see, she liked the water as long as someone was really close. It is fun going to the beach with children because you find yourself acting like a child again (sitting the sand with the water, building sand castles, running and jumping over the waves)- you get the point.

2) Here is a picture of Hannah and I in our famous khaki and white pics. Not real close, but we are laughing really hard because Hannah kept shaking her head. Seems that she is not a big fan of the family pictures either!

3) Another picture of Hannah at the beach. Kirbo is taking her down to the water. That is after she had him bringing her pail after pail of water to fill her hole. I guess he thought it would be easier to just take her to the ocean instead of the ocean to her.

4) Hannah's first ponytail. Her hair is finally getting long enough to put up. It is really cute, but she pulls it out so she can't wear it up to school. I am just about ready to go for the first hair cut. Her hair is always in her eyes.

5) Ah...mischevious. Hannah really likes her new cousin, Claire. She likes to rock her in her toys, but most of all, she likes to poke her eyes out. It is really sweet to see her with Claire, because I thought she would not pay any attention to her since she doesn't do anything, but Hannah pays a lot of attention to her. I think Hannah will definitely take up for her when all the other older cousins want to get her!!!!!

Well I hope everyone enjoys the pics. I broke my camera at the beach, but I now have a new one. Hopefully, I will be able to post more pictures. Have a good weekend! Hannah is going to Alabama this weekend, so I hope all of you have an awesome time with her. She is bunches of fun!!!!!

A few new tricks!

2006-07-27T08:40:00.000-05:00

I know I have been slacking on my blog lately, but you would understand if you saw my desk!

Last weekend we went to my brother's house to play. For those of you who don't know, he has a daughter a month older than Hannah and a 3 year old. They put out the kiddie pool and Hannah had a blast. Although she was having a good time, I was a nervous wreck. Being the independent child that Hannah is, she did not want mommy to hold her hand the whole time. So I would let go while she was still and not trying to walk all around this pool, but then splash, hannah would lose her grip and under she would go. I would catch her arm and pull her up. At first I thought she might get scared and want to get out, but no, she kept doing it. I felt like I was constantly trying to save my child from drowning, but she loved it. So if anyone wants to go swimming in a baby pool with Hannah, make sure you don't have any distractions because she is not afraid to go under!

Hannah is also starting to pick up on a lot of words I am saying and I think it is so fun! We are working on getting out of the "point at what I want and whine" phase, so I am repeating what she wants when she points to it. We can officially say cracker! Although she still doesn't use it as well as I would like, we are getting there. She also says a little something that sounds like turtle, and she will point to the turtle when she says it. We still have a lot of learning to do because my niece who is a month older than her can say Speedboat!!!

She also knows milk. When she starts getting fussy for something, I say "where's your milk?" and that usually stops the fussing while she looks for it. We always keep it in reach for that purpose. Last night we were downstairs after dinner and it was time for bath. I asked Hannah if she was ready to go and take a bath and she darts to the stairs. I was not as fast as her getting up because she usually doesn't respond when I ask her, but I guess repetition pays off. She would walk back and look at me like "Okay come on I want to take a bath." I love that she is understanding me now. It kind of blows my mind when she does things like that because I still want her to be a baby and being able to communicate is a huge sign that she is not a little baby anymore, or atleast she won't be for long.

There are also a couple of really sweet things she is doing now that I LOVE! She knows to give hugs when you ask and give kisses. Although she has been slobbing kisses for a while; she is also becoming a wonderful hugger. Also, at night before I put her down, I tell her it is time to go night night and she curls up on me and starts to fall asleep. This is awesome because Hannah hasn't always been the biggest snuggler, but she is now.

Well those are a few things that have been going on with Hannah. I am working on posting some pictures soon, so look for those.

I did good!

2006-07-21T12:07:00.000-05:00

Clapping has become one of Hannah's greatest joys in life. She claps at everything, especially when she does something good.

We watch Wheel of Fortune at night, and she claps when they get excited. She sees herself in the mirror and she claps. She simply walks around clapping.

The best thing is when she is carrying something around and gets excited. She stops, leans down to place the object on the floor, leans back up and then claps. It is so funny, because she doesn't just let go of the object and let it drop to the floor. She very nicely places it on the floor. She also gives you a big grin when she does it, so it makes it even more cute.

It is just amazing how she knows when she has done something good. What's even better is she also knows when she has done something bad. But I have to say she is really good about not doing something when she knows its bad. Well, it is not that simple, but atleast she will get really close to doing and give me that look like "I am about to touch it, when you are going to say no." Sometimes she will still do it, but a majority of the time she will stop and onto the next thing.

I know I say this a lot, but she is just so fun. It is amazing how much she is learning every day.

Well, I hope everyone has a good weekend. Talk to you soon.

I'm Back

2006-07-18T13:10:00.000-05:00

I know it has been a while since I posted, so don't think I forgot about all of you in Hannahland.

Hannah and I have been really busy lately, and she is getting so big. A few weeks ago, Hannah got a new high chair that allowed her to sit up a little straighter. Since we got that high chair, we have moved from putting food directly on the high chair to using bowls and silver wear. It is so nice because I just sit her in her seat and she goes to town. She is still getting used to her fork and spoon, but she's got the idea. She just picks up the food and then puts it on the spoon. She then tries to get it turned back around to go in her mouth, which sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. I place her milk in the cup holder and she picks it up to drink and places it nicely back into the cup holder. Her fine motor skills are just getting better by the day.

This won't be a big deal for anyone really but me, since I see it everyday. But Hannah just made me so happy Friday morning. When I take her to day care, she usually goes to her teacher and they hold her for a bit while I leave - to make sure the transition goes smoothly, if you know what I mean. Well, when I dropped her off on Friday, her teacher had another baby in her arms and she was putting her down to get Hannah. I went ahead and put Hannah down on the ground. My baby just walked off to the toy box, not even looking back at me or her teacher. I was so proud.

As for the weekend, we started painting our house. We only had one incident with Hannah and the paint. She was really good about not touching the walls and staying away from the paint brushes, but one time we put the paint bucket too low. The good news is that I turned around fast enough to stop her entire hand from getting into the paint. She merely decorated the ends of her fingertips.

And on a not so fun note, Hannah has another ear infection. She hasn't had one since the winter, so that is good news. She is just really fussy right now, and very clingy. But her being clingy is not much of a difference -we are still going through all of that. Hopefully the antibiotics will kick in soon and we will be good again.

Well, that should catch everyone up for a while. Hannah is growing so fast. I don't even have to carry her to the car in the mornings. She just walks out of the house herself, and when she hits an area she doesn't think she can make it around by herself, she very cutely puts up her hand for me to hold. It is really cute.

I hope everyone is having a good summer- school will be in again soon!!!!

Don't leave Mom

2006-07-13T08:48:00.000-05:00

Sorry I have not posted in a while. Work has been really busy and I haven't had time to even think about my poor neglected blog. Oh well, busy is a good thing!

Hannah is going through a very clingy phase. I can't get 5 feet from her without her screaming, and you can forget walking to the other room without her. I asked my friend at work, who also has a child Hannah's age, what was going on. She said that babies will go through a separation anxiety phase around 18 months. Oh my goodness! We are not even 15 months yet......what am I going to do.

I sit down with her every night and give her my undivided attention - hoping this will calm her a bit. I always tell her, "Mommy will be back soon." I don't know what else to do. Any suggestions would be awesome!!!

The good thing is that when I take her to day care she seems fine. Some days she will cry when I leave, but that is usually on Mondays after we have been together all weekend. And even if she cries when I leave, it lasts 2 minutes. I know because I watched the other day at school.

She was crying when I gave her to her teacher, and by the time I got to the gate of the playground she had stopped! This makes me wonder - is it really separation anxiety or is she just SPOILED!!!!!

Well, just another adventure in parenting. I am sure as soon as I figure this one out, we will be onto the one. I do have to admit, that sometimes I like it. Especially when she runs to me with that big smile and her arms wide open - it kind of melts me inside.

Also, I know I reported last week that Hannah had a new tooth on the bottom, well the other side came in also. I believe we are up to 12 teeth!!!!

Beach Bum

2006-07-06T16:15:00.000-05:00

We just got back from the beach yesterday and it was so much fun. Hannah did so good and it was fun to see her with all of her cousins.

The first day we went straight to the pool and Hannah did a lot like she did the first time, she curled up really close to me and acted like she was falling asleep. I finally peeled her off of me and we played motor boat and I threw her in the air a few times. She laughed at that a lot, but the thumb never came out of her mouth (I think we have discovered Hannah's safety blanket).

The next day we took Hannah to the beach for the first time. She was a little hesitant about the sand at first. I would put her on her bottom and she would lift her legs really high while sitting down so she wouldn't get the sand on her. It was funny. Eventually she got a little closer and a little more brave. She started taking the toys and filling them with sand.

On Monday, we went to the beach first thing. We pulled the chairs right on the water and sat there. Hannah liked it when her Kirbo would bring the bucket full of water and sit it in front of her. She would splash in it and then dump it out, only for someone to walk back to the water and fill it up again. I picked her up and took her into the ocean, which she liked a lot. We jumped the waves and they splashed onto us. She thought that was funny. Then we went and sat on the edge of the water and let the ocean come to us.

All in all, I think Hannah liked the pool the best. We had a floating turtle for the pool and she sat it in for a couple of hours at least on Tuesday. I was able to get some sun and she floated in the pool with Kirbo. He said she kept trying to pick up the water and feed it to him.

But the fun didn't stop at the beach, the condo was a whole other world and were the real excitement began! We had 5 children, a 5 year old, 3 year old, two 1 year olds and a 2 month old. It was fun to see them all interact. Hannah really liked to play with Claire, the 2 month old. At least she liked her toys. Claire has a bouncy seat, one like the green one that Hannah loved when she was a baby. It had an ocean theme to it and the colorful part that attached was intriguing to Hannah. She would see me bouncing Claire and come up and do it herself, except she wasn't quite as gentle. But when Claire was out of it, Hannah was trying to get in it and a few times she suceeded. We would look over and Hannah had crawled in and was just enjoying herself. Aunt Amy and Uncle Mike weren't a big fan of this, and Hannah kept getting the boot.

Hannah is also a lot stronger than I give her credit for. One time the balcony door was pretty much closed, at least Hannah couldn't slip through it. I look over and she is pushing the door open and had made it inside. This is one of those sliding doors that isn't the lightest in the world, but leave it to Hannah to get were she wants too.

So Hannah had a really good time, but I think we were both a little glad to get home. We were exhausted and ready to get back to our quiet little house. You really don't realize how quiet your home is until you have entered into that condo last weekend. Someone was always screaming!

Well that was a summary of our 4th of July. Oh yeah, Hannah loved the fireworks. They were right in front of our condo, and when the first one went off, she screamed real loud and came barrelling toward me. I took her outside and she was fine. She curled up in my lap and just watched. She would sit up every now and then and point at them. I was glad she wasn't scared.

Okay, that is a brief summary of our weekend. I am not sure if I made it sound real exciting, but I am just getting over my exhaustion and it makes me really tired again thinking about it! All that really matters, is that it was a great time and it is so awesome to know how close Hannah will be to all of her cousins. I hope they like each other because they don't really have a choice!

P.S. Hannah got another tooth on the bottom last night. A girl at my work calls her chompers because of all of her teeth!

My glasses

2006-06-30T12:35:00.000-05:00

I know everyone saw the picture of Hannah in her sunglasses, and if you didn't then simply scroll down.

My mom kept her last Friday because she was sick and went ahead and took out the other eye, so now Hannah has frames with no lenses. Well, when Hannah first discovered these glasses she wouldn't keep them on. She would take them off, hand them to me and I would put them on either her or me. Now Hannah loves to wear them. She brings them to me; I put them on her and she takes off walking around the house with her hip glasses on. If they fall off, she tries to put them back, but no one can put them on like mommy, so she brings them back to me.

It is really cute, and I did get her on video with the glasses so I can black mail her when she gets older. Not to mention I am cracking up in the background, so she will know I intentionally made fun of her. Oh well, one day she will have a child she can make fun of! AAAHH, thats scary.

Well, we are leaving in the morning for the beach. For those of you who read this and do not participate in our July 4th festivities, my family gets together every July4th at the beach. It will be 15 of us in one condo, with 5 of the 15 being under 6 years old. When you put it like that, it doesn't sound really intriguing, but it is a lot of fun. Hannah will be a lot of fun at the beach this year, and we have our bikini packed!

I hope everyone has a great July 4th weekend. Happy Birthday America!!!! Another reason to have some fun! Okay, I am a dork! BYE....