The Big TWO!

 So here I sit this morning, at the kitchen table and looking out at the sunrise which is greeting the day of my daughters birth.  The shades of orange and purple melt across the horizon and seem to be almost frosted by the coolness of the gray foggy mist settled just above the tops of the soybean fields.  It is hard for me to believe that she has been in my life for two whole years already.  I never thought I would say it, but I look forward to her little smile each morning and just can't wait to see what we will experience today.  On a side note, I started a job this week and will miss spending the day with my treasure.  She will, however, be making people smile as she travels around with Grandma today and celebrates her special day. 

I hear they will be traveling to a special firehouse where Grandma has a friend who will be letting her sit in the fire truck!  It will be a highlight for sure.  I can almost see her eyes lighting up when they pull in the parking lot!  I think they will probably go to the playground and then have some  "ice" (ice cream) at some point.  Grandma will make it a special day whatever they do.  I am so sad not to spend the day with her. My husband asked me why I looked so upset and I tearfully tried to relay to him what all was in my heart and did so unsuccessfully.  In his own frustration at my emotions he plainly stated, "This is what people do every day.  Shuffle their kids off to wherever and go to work."  As is par for the course, I don't want to be part of the norm (whatever that is)!

Hannah is growing so tall.  Her eyes are so smart and she has the cutest little blonde curls around her face.  She likes to dress up and she likes to play in puddles.  She'll serve you a wonderful cup of tea with a fancy hat or bring you the most fearless presentation of a bug you have ever seen.  She loves to dig with a shovel and is hands on with everything we allow her to be.  She even climbed the extension ladder so high I could only reach to her knees.  She loves tractors, school buses, and big trucks.  She gets excited when there are motorcycles and 4-wheelers on the road.  She loves horses, cows, sheep, kitty cats and dogs and has 2 goldfish in her bedroom.  She is well behaved, adaptable, funny, smart and talented. I don't know why but she colors less now and we have been out of paints for awhile so she hasn't been painting anymore even though she loves to.  She loves fruit and is begining to be a great eater.  Her teeth are all coming in very well and despite the trips and tumbles we've had the past few months, is no worse for the wear.  She is fearless in  alot of ways and loves to be swung and thrown on the couch.  She balances herself on the edges of things and is begining to really climb now.  She has a great love for books and will sit on the potty and tap the floor in front of her telling you  "sit! sit!" so you will sit and read while she is concentrating.  Her language skills are developing nicely and her words are becoming more clear every day.  Like a typical 2 year old, she is haveing some fits when she doesn't understand why she can't do it her way but that is not really anything new.  Now that she is spending more days at the babysitter, she is spending some time with some other children and she is enjoying to go there.  Our sitter and friend has several children of her own and is a good Christian home so we have  no worries about those types of influences.  I thank God for that.  She is growing up fast, just like they all do, but at least I know I have tried hard to be sure she is getting to be a child and to let her know how much I love her each and every day. 

I hope you enjoy this short rhetoric and will stay in touch with us to see how she grows.

Not for the Faint of Heart



Such an angel, right?! lol



Well, twenty-one months!  I thought I should write an update because there is so much that has happened in the last few months.  Hannah is growing into a very pleasant little girl.  She is so accommodating and fairly even keeled...even for an almost 2 year old!  If you ask her how old she is, she will hold up one finger.  If you ask her who made her so special, she will say God!  She follows instructions pretty well, even if she has to think about whether or not she wants to comply with your wishes.  I've been told that I spead to fast to her but she understands me just fine.  We never have spoken to her in baby talk so she has adapted to adult conversation.  She is not speaking audible words very well and has, in fact, lost some of her vocabulary.  However, she babbles along with the appropriate fluctuation as if she were speaking complete sentences.  She is running now, jumping off things, climbs really well and is starting to submerse herself in a supine position on her own in the tub.  We went through open heart surgery with my Mother-in-law and spent a couple weeks going to either the hospital or the nursing home every day for the majority of the day and she was a real champ.  We packed toys and snacks for every day and the nurses and volunteers chatted with her, waved to her and walked with her every day.  We now own a collection of little animals the volunteers at Riverside make for children who come to the hospital even though we insisted we already had at least one.  How can you say "no" to a sweet faced volunteer who just wants to see your little girl smile?!  She has discovered the fun of mud puddles, learned how to blow a dandelion puff, likes to eat sweet violets and sweet peas from the garden, has learned how to smell the flowers and has figured out that even though Bumble bees look really friendly in a story, they are not so friendly in person!

A friend of mine told me to reiterate a particular day for the sake of those who have not yet decided if they want children and for those who have already raised their children but would like a refresher.  We started out tired this particular day because we were up for about 2 hours in the night.  So we started our day with milk, as we always do, and then progressed to oatmeal.  Oatmeal is a usual favorite but happened to wind up all over the tray and she tried to hide some on her seat.  Mom tried to multi-task and clean the kitchen floor while Peanut was in her chair and contained.  That was not acceptable so Peanut had to be released.  Typically, Peanut will go and play in the living room while Mom cleans in the kitchen, so when she disappeared Mom thought nothing of it.  As it turned out, she was emptying the water bottles Mom and Dad had left on the end table the night before all over the carpet and the couch.  It is amazing how far a little water can go.  Mom cleaned that up, brought Peanut out in the kitchen and then let her go out in the mud room with the dogs after Peanut wiped out on the wet floor twice.  Mom put the dogs outside and went to mop the hall outside the kitchen and the Bugger got hold of a fertilizer we thought was out of reach.  She proceeded to dump it all over the floor, fill the dogs food bowl with it and then paint the wall with it.  Next, she decided to announce that she had done this by traipsing through the clean kitchen floors and down the hall to the bathroom where I was rinsing out a rag.  She came into the room saying "Uh-oh mum mum".  At which point she took my hand and led me back to the scene of the crime.  I took a deep breath, grabbed her container of chalk and some sunscreen and took her outside.  I left the door open so I could see her and talk to her and proceeded to clean up the floor, and the bowls and the wall and the kitchen floor and the hallway...again.  Everything was going along famously and when I went into the kitchen to rinse the mop, she tripped on the stone steps and wacked the front of her head and scraped her chin.  (sigh)  Calmed her down, got ice, read a book.  She was content at this point to sit in the living room for a little while as I continued to finish cleaning.  By now it's time for lunch and she is showing signs of sleepy.  I gave her some yogurt, which is a popular choice, and some fruit and a piece of peanut butter bread.  This is the day she discovered that if you squeeze the yogurt container really hard you can project the contents all over...yes, you guessed it, the clean floors.  (Sigh)  Time for sleeping after I get all that cleaned up and the baby in the tub to be hosed off.  Peace at last!  Nap time was not the normal 2 hours, of course.  I got about a half hour and then hear her screaming on the monitor.  I go up and open the door to see a major diaper malfunction...all over the bed, the wall, the baby, the stuffed animal.....(SiGH!)  No chance of returning to blissful sleeping so off we go to the gardens outside.  We were working planting some flowers right out front and as I was digging the hole, she was placing the plant in the hole.  Going along fine, I thought.  Next thing I know, she's popping out the plants that I had just put in.  (hmmph!)  New plan, I open the door to the craft room, which is right by the garden and she likes to go in and look at shells, and feel the material, play with stickers and some of her toys that are in there.  I continue planting and can see her through the window.  I plant a few plants and check on her, everything is fine.  Plant a few plants, check on her...what is that on her arm?  Looks really dark.  Hmmmm.  I get closer and see she has this dark something all over her hand and her arm.  Now entering the doorway....OH MY!!! What did you do?!!!!  Emptied an entire jar of John Deere Green ENAMEL model plane paint.  On her brand new shoes, the carpet, my cherry bench, her hair, face, hands, arms, legs and outfit.  I go to pick her up and don't know what to do with her.  Can't put that in the tub, right?  So down to the basement to the utility sink and I look desparately for the paint thinner.  I tell her not to touch anything.  She decides that she should pull on the pipes to the sink and rock back and forth, at which point I scream..."DON"T TOUCH ANYTHING!!!!" and she starts to cry.  Do you know what happens with enamel paint when it mixes with water (or tears)?!  It gets hard and glue like.  So as she cries she rubs her nose with her hand, pushing paint up her little nose.  I finally see some lamp oil and decide I should use that to see if it will clean up this paint.  It does.  So now I have a very happy baby covered in lamp oil with a green hulk like hue to her skin.  It is now time for dinner.  The rest of the day proceeded along just fine but I can tell you, i lost a bunch of hair that day!!!  Parenting is not for the faint of heart or uncreative.







Brand new sandals after she trapsed through the garden after the dog.

18 months and counting!

We've hit our 18 month birthday with breakneck speed and are gaining on month 19 with a voracious pace.  Hannah has moved up in the world of toddlers as she learns new things every day.  We suffered some illness over these past few months with a wicked cold right after Christmas, then Mom had flu, Hannah had light flue, Dad had flu and then Dad had some other gastro bug again. 

         Hannah had some tummy discomfort with cutting teeth and then ran a fever which inspired us to trek off the the pediatrician who discovered an ear infection which prompted the first application of antibiotics in her little body.  She was a champ and never fought the

meds except for the very first application.  This has been a fun stretch as she is defining who she is more and more with each  passing day.  She discovers things on her own and has started coming over to me when she wants a participant and pulls on my pant leg or pats on my leg to get my attention.  She has a fine personality for a tea party and hosts very well.  She shares with "Caroline" the bear very well and  makes sure everyone is well fed with all the same spoon:)  She is running now as well as climbing and hopping a little bit.  She can put her socks on when she really really concentrates and still has a fondness for books.  She has begun to look at cookbooks and books with pictures of live animals rather than animated ones and does a fabulous job of identifying those animals when you ask her.  She loves balls of all kinds and if it looks like a ball at all, she will attempt to carry it off.  She loves tools and machines and is a great help in the kitchen (no, really she is!).  She helps unload the silverware from the dishwasher and put dishes in the sink and as I cut things up she will put them in the pot or bowl, too.  She loves to help crack eggs and does pretty well for her age with a wisk and rubber spatula! She can mop the floor with two mops....one in front and one behind, fingerpaint or brush paint and helped Dad paint the walls in the dining room.  She has figured out that she can see herself in hats in the mirror and then kisses the beautiful baby:)  She also discovered that if she looks around in the mirror she can see what is going on behind her.  She is pretty handy with her spoon now and is a pro at food moving (moving items from where they began to another spot.  ie:  mashed potatoes on top of her broccoli).  She is learning to use the camera and musically she loves her keyboard from Uncle Doug and just figured out how to make the recorder sing by saying "Whoooo" in the mouthpiece like an owl.  She has a fabulous apron and chef hat she wears when we cook and now knows how to imitate Mom putting on lipstick. 

When we travel places she is really recognizing where we are when we get there now, too.  The Library, the Playground and Grandma's house seem to be favorites.  She identifies everyone in the pictures we have on the walls when you ask her and will talk to the pics in her room when she first wakes up.  We had relocated her into the office for a few weeks while we worked on some things in her room and she enjoyed waking up and looking at the big 75 gallon fish tank that houses our 20 year old Pirana "Fred".  So we had decided that we put a 10 gallon tank in her room here in the near future.  Lastly, we took a virgin ride in a "Car Cart" at the grocery.  You know the one with the car on the front end of it?  It was like going from a Toyota to a Box truck for Mommy but she just loved it!  She turned the wheel and beeped the horns the whole way.

Her last check up put her at 35" long, 23 lbs 12 oz.  She is cutting 2 eye teeth and 4 molars all at once right now but for the most part you would never know it.  She is a very pleasant child though not overly excitable.  She is very confident in trying new things and loves to watch and play alongside other kids.  Her motor skills are all developing great and to Dad's pride she is definately a Columbus Blue Jackets fan!

She has been tolerating adult surroundings very well as we have continued with some doctor visits with Grandma here lately and will be at the hospital on the 6th of April for open heart surgery with Grandma, too.  The Lord shines through this little one and brings many people joy and I feel honored to sit by and see it happen.  She makes so many people at the hospital smile whenever we are there and the nurses love her.  One nurse even gave her a little cat the last time we were there, which is right up her alley!  Hannah loves kitty cats and stalks the neighbors cats whenever she can:)  Anyhow, I suppose that's enough to share for now.  We are enjoying our time together and watching and learning from her as she watches and learns about the world around her.  So to all you reading  this, keep in touch and we'll update again soon!