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.