Little Chef...

Hannah has become quite interested in my cooking lately. Well, probably not necessarily in my cooking, but in what is going on up on the counter where she can't see. Well, today she decided to remedy that problem. She pushed the chair from my desk in the kitchen (behind her head in this picture below) over to the counter where I was cooking and climbed up into the chair so she could see what I was doing. She must have been really curious to go to these great lengths. Anyway, it was fun showing her what I was cooking and seeing how she tried to do things herself.

She grabbed the can opener to try and open the can of tomatoes. She watches me do it all the time.

Here she was standing tall in her chair. I guess I might have a permanent helper now when I cook. That can be both good and bad...you know what I mean!?!?

She also figured out she can open 2 drawers and get to things inside of them. We didn't need the ladle today, but she would have been on the ball if we did.

She even grabbed the basil and tried to shake them on the tomato can. Maybe this girl will be a cook. That would delight my mom's heart (and mine too!) more than anything. Mom - maybe it really does skip a generation because I certainly did not get the cooking gene.
I guess this will have to be seen in a few years.

Sorry the last 2 posts have had some grainy pictures. I have taken them all with my camera phone. Most times like this I don't have the camera close by and I can't leave her standing on the chair with food and utensils while I go grab it...then I might be blogging about a trip to the ER!

Outdoor fun

Since it was a whopping 88 degrees yesterday (which is GREAT for TX!) we brought the pool back out and decided to have a little water fun. The last time Hannah was in a little pool was back in Birmingham earlier this summer and she was not such a big fan. Well, the times have changed and she loves the water now. She splashed all around and had a blast. Every time I asked her if she was ready to get out she would shake her head no. Eventually I had to decide she was done and take her out (even though she shook her head no the whole time we were drying off).
Anyway, it was a really nice way for the 2 of us to spend a beautiful Friday afternoon. It is still blown up outside, so if the weather is still nice this week I imagine we might have a few more water dates with the pool.

Hannah LOVES splashing. She loves to also stick her tongue out when she splashes so she can taste the water. In bothteh above and below picture you can see her little tongue sticking out....silly girl!


My little cutie!

Our little cutie

We found an old toy the other day and I decided that we should pull it out and try it again. I think I opened a can of worms though, because now every time Hannah goes in her closet, she excitedly points to the jumper and wants to play in it. Eventually she will get to big for this, but for now, she still fits nicely in it. I did check online though to see what the weight limit was on the jumper and it was 24lbs. When we took to the doc last week for her ear infection she weighed 22lbs with her clothes and shoes on, so she is still well within the limit.

We have not gotten any better with teething yet. Another molar broke through last Sat. and one barely broke through this morning. There is still at least one more coming....ICK! I will take Hannah to the library and the museum later today just to keep her occupied. As long as she is on the go she does not think about it much, but once she stops then the crying starts.

On the napping front, we have gotten much better. Today she has slept a little over 2 hours so far and is still going. Most days she takes about 1.5-2 hour naps, but they are getting progressively longer every few days. So, we will keep working on it. I know this girl needs her sleep though.

Our new best friend this week...

...happens to be a bag of frozen peas!


I heard from a friend and fellow mom (thanks Lynn!!!) that frozen peas can be quite helpful with teething babies. So, we gave it a shot. Well, it went over very well with Hannah and we have had frozen peas for a snack every day this week. Hannah is close to cutting 2 more molers so she loves to chew on the peas while they are still firm and cold. They really are perfect for her. She continues to have a low grade fever with the teething and has developed a minor ear infection. The only good thing about getting 4+ teeth in 3 weeks is that at least it will be over quicker. So, we are trying to stay occupied to keep her mind off of her teeth.

We went on Friday night to a place here called Jumping Party...it was a blast. I am pretty sure that Jason and I had more fun than Hannah, but she enjoyed it too. It is a huge warehouse full of inflatable slides, obstacle courses, and bounce houses. It was great! Just FYI - I did not take these pictures, these are off of the website....I didn't take my camera with us.

They had a toddler area with a small bounce house full of colorful balls and other things, but we didn't spend much time in there, the big kid area was MUCH more fun.

We started out with some small slides and we would ride down with Hannah in our lap. Then we got brave and decided to send her down by herself! I know, we are crazy parents, but she loved it! Let me back up and say that in the last few weeks she has begun going down the slides at the park all by herself. She can walk up to the top, sit down, and slide down all by herself. She is getting SO big! Anyway, that is why we didn't have a problem sending her down by herself.

However, this BIG slide was a bit much...at first. Both Jason and I went down it with Hannah and it was much faster than we anticipated. The people told us that they armor all the slides so they are faster! Can you believe that?!?! Trust me, they were fast! Anyway, after the little slides, Hannah kept going back to the big slide and wanting to go on it. So, at the prompting of her Daddy, we let Hannah go down by herself! She LOVED it! Let me tell you that this kid was made for sliding. We didn't actually let her climb up by herself, but we took her to the top, got her situated and then let her go. It really was funny and cute to watch. Anyway, our little baby is not so little anymore and is starting to enjoy some big kid things. I have a feeling that we will enjoy Jumping Party much more in the years to come! Fun, fun!!!

On to animals

Hannah's new favorite thing (besides climbing and Molly) is animal books. She loves to look at the books and pictures and point out the animals. I went and checked out an animal DVD this week at the library and she loves to point out all the animals on the video. Interstingly enough her favorite animal on the video is the meercat, which we obviously don't see in most animal books. She must think they are so cool by her reaction.

Anyway here she is pointing out all the animals in her book. As a bonus feature on this video, you will also hear her read some Berenstein Bears....very much worth listening to.

She really is a monkey...

We are REALLY enjoying climing into chairs these days. I caught Hanah climbing into 4 different chairs at the house yesterday...including the counter height chairs (YIKES!). Anyway, not only is she enjoying climbing into chairs, but also tables and into her dresser cabinet. I guess we need to start giving this girl some good outdoor climbing opportunities.

In summary

This video actually gives a pretty good summary of what life looks like around here lately. We have done lots of reading. Hannah loves reading now more than ever, which is a blessing to this mom who misses teaching desperately! While reading she loves to grab our fingers and make us point to pictures. She is so curious and wants us to tell her the names of each and every thing on the pages.

She has also started to shake her head no when you are not doing things like she wants them done. She also does this when you ask her a question like "are you ready for a nap?" "are you all done with your bath?" She definitely is learning how to express her opinion. She knows how to shake her head yes too, but she does not do this very often...we're working on that.

Sorry for the lack of posting. I wish I could blame it on hurricane Ike, but seeing that we only got about 1/8 inch of rain and some wind, I guess that won't work.
Things are fine around here. Hannah is back to her normal self (mostly) and is continuing to make us laugh with her antics. I have some fun videos that I will try and post in the next two days that show some of the things we have been up to. She is full of new words and new tricks every day. I love this stage of development!
Anyway, I will put up pictures and videos tomorrow.

A bit better

Today was 'a bit' better than the past few days. Hannah is definitely down to one nap a day, but we are now working on making that nap longer than 50 minutes (which is how long she slept today). Let's hope that corrects itself when the teething subsides.

Anyway, on to more fun topics, here was Hannah at bath time today. She LOVES baths!

The spout is fascinating to Hannah. I am sure she wishes that I would leave it on until the tub overflows. She always gets sad when I turn it off and one of these days I am sure she will figure out how to turn in back on.
Her new favorite thing to do is lay down in the tub. She will occasionally stick her face underwater too.

Testing the water just to see how it tastes.

From bad to worse

Oh yes, if things could have gotten worse around here, they have. As if napping and teething issues were not enough! Hannah is really having a hard time with these molars and it has caused her much discomfort. She has always gotten really stuffed up and congested when teeth are breaking through so last night she woke up crying about 4-5 times because she was struggling to breathe. Since she sucks her thumb at night she will not breathe through her mouth, so the congestion wakes her up every time. Needless, to say, we are ALL tired now.

Today has has its ups and downs (mostly downs) where Hannah just cries out of pain and frustration. It is just really hard to watch her sometimes knowing that there is just not a whole lot I can do for her. I guess I have always taken my teeth for granted and obviously not realized until now how difficult teething is on everyone.

In some of our up moments today, we played with stickers. I got them in the mail yesterday for some advertisement, so Hannah played with them for the first time. She was quite fascinated by them and enjoyed sticking them on herself.

A half a smile in one of our happier moments today. I am praying we have more of these moments very soon!!!

Can we have some cheese

to go along with our whine?!?!
Oh, yes, we have had a ROUGH day today. My poor baby is in pain and tired and is not a happy camper. We have gone back to teething tablets today to hopefully help the problem. The molar is only about 5% through the gum, so I am guessing it will be a rough couple of days.
I hate that Hannah is in pain! Needless to say, this has caused much whining and crying today (by Hannah, not by me!). I am hoping that tomorrow is better.

One molar down...

...7 to go!!! Geez, we have just barely started! Anyway, Hannah has not had a new tooth break through since the end of April. Well, that all ended on Monday of this past week when she finally got her fourth tooth on the botoom. You can tell in the picture below that she only has 3 on the bottom. The fourth is actually there, but you can't really see it in pictures yet. On Thursday of this past week I noticed (or felt rather) a HUGE swollen part on her gums and by Sat. I could see the white coming through the gums. So, we are done with one molar for now. She has 3 more swollen spots on her gums where more are certainly coming soon. I guess we lived for several months with no new teeth and this is what we get for it.
Anyway, she has actually been relatively happy this past week. I certainly can't complain. She even was a champ with us while we watched the Auburn game on Sat. War Eagle!!!
This picture was taken on our way to Lowe's this weekend while she was enjoying a box of raisins in the car. Can you tell how much she loves raisins?!?!
Man, I LOVE this kid!!!!

Goodbye morning nap...hello molers

We officially (I think) said goodbye to our morning nap today. *sniff, sniff* I was a bit saddened by this and wish it could have lasted longer. Anyway, Hannah sat in her bed for about 40 minutes yesterday morning before finally taking a short morning nap. She then sat in her bed for about 1.5 hours yesterday afternoon before finally taking an even shorter afternoon nap. I tried to do a morning nap again today...it was no use. So, we played, read, played, ate, walked, laughed, and got bored all before the afternoon nap time. Oh my goodness, someone please give me hope that we can both make it with 1 nap time a day. I am sure it will get easier, but it was bit rough today.
To top all of that off, just today I realized that there are HUGE bumps on 3 of Hannah's back gums...so, yep, she's got molers coming! Lovely!
So, what did our time look like this morning before the nap.
She found my shoes and really enjoyed playing with them. They matched her outfit too.
It was pretty comical to see her try and walk around with the shoes on...and believe me, she tried.

We made fish faces at eat other. Hannah makes a pretty mean fish face too!
And she opened and closed the door 10,000 times. You know it is fun for her EACH and EVERY time even though it gets harder and harder for me to act surprised by the 50th time she did it. Kids crack me up like that. Sometimes it even gets funnier to them the more they do it...oh, to be a carefree kid again!
Anyway, I am hoping this nap thing becomes easier and we get into a good rhythm again. AND, that these molars come in quickly!!!!

All by myself...

While Hannah can't quite say this yet, it is quite obvious that she is thinking it...often! She loves to try and do things all by herself. She will watch each and every time I do things and then she wants to try on her own, down to the last detail. This is one determined kid. That is one of the many things I love about her!

This reminds me of something my dad used to say all the time when we were kids. He would begin a task or project with us and we would begin by all working together. Then, after watching him do it a few times, he would promptly say "your turn" and let us have at it. It didn't matter if it was using a tool, fixing something, or painting. He always gave us the freedom to try it on our own for awhile. As a kid, and even as an adult, I loved that. Well, even though I have not specifically told Hannah "your turn" yet, she seems to understand the concept.

Hannah is also starting to repeat more words as we say them. Last night as we were getting ready for bed I told her that she needed to say "night night" to her daddy and she turned to him and clearly said "nigh nigh." I wish I had the video camera out...it was adorable. Anyway, here she is saying "bye."

Princess Lea

I tried out a new hairdo yesterday and we ended up with Princess Lea. At first I thought it was cute, but after awhile it had to be done away with. Oh well, as her hair grows I will have to try some new do's.

We are back from our family adventures. We managed to see tons of family here in TX and it was great! Things got much more interesting on Sat. night on the car ride home when our 4 legged child had diarrhea...in her crate...while we were still 30+ minutes from home...at 10:00pm at night! Yah, it was not fun at all! Poor thing is still sick too. We will be off to the vet tomorrow.

Anyway, we loved spending time with Kacy, Josiah, Halee, and Skyler and can't wait to see them all again. Love you guys!