I've Been . . .

Hanging out with my best buddy Elijah-- rockin' out and dancing!

Playing more dress up! (I finally got a hat picture!)

Cuddling my bunny and my new teddy bear! (This is how she sleeps. She loves her stuffed animals so much!)

Trying to do somersaults and refining my dance moves!

Loving on my buddy Elijah! I love him so much! (Notice how pleased Elijah is with Hannah's new habit of kissing him.) :)

Hannah has also tried to climb our Japanese Maple this week from the top of her little picnic table. She actually succeeded but scared herself pretty good with her success! She hasn't tried it since. :) Playing in our pool is another new favorite activity as well as spending atleast 20 minutes every morning at her art table working with her crayons and playdough or paints!

(Thanks Kristen for the idea for this post from your June 18th blog!)

We're headed off to Chicago to see Shawn's family for a week. I'm so excited to share Hannah with them and get to see them all! I'll be back with lots of fun pictures from our time, I'm sure. Have a happy fourth of July, everyone and thanks for checking in on us!

Happy Father's Day

Just wanted to say thanks to two of the best daddies I know.

The father of my child:

Thank you Shawn-- first of all for even agreeing to become a daddy. I can't thank you enough for sharing that dream with me-- it's given me two of my biggest gifts in life; our daughter, and sharing the journey of parenting her with you.

I chose the picture above because it symbolizes one of my favorite ways you are such an amazing father. You are Hannah's protector and yet facilitator of adventure! You naturally and gently enable her to explore and fulfill her curiosity in ways she would never be able to otherwise without the knowledge of your protection and presence. Somehow she feels so safe with you and will even brave the big, powerful ocean wrapped up in her Daddy's arms.

You have such a beautiful chemistry with our daughter. She laughs more with you than with anyone else. You smile your truest smiles when you are watching her play. It has been such a blessing to me to watch you two fall in love. Thank you for being such an invested daddy.

Thank you for taking time to read to her, to sing to her, to wrestle with her, to play your instruments for her, for taking walks with her. Thank you for being a consistent part of her bedtime routine. Thank you for praying a blessing over her every night.

I am so blessed to be married to you and to parent with you. I deeply appreciate your unwavering support in the way that I mother Hannah and the fact that you are so involved in our parenting choices.

I am so grateful for you! I honor you and the way you father our child. Thank you!

And my daddy:

Here my father is holding one of my Grandpa's (his daddy's) old tools passed onto him. I find this picture appropriate because my grandpa was a wise, godly, wonderful, loving father and my daddy has wielded these tools of fatherhood passed onto him with much skill and care-- with a great measure of hilarity and spontaneity thrown in!

Thank you Daddy for all the ways you have invested in me.

Thank you for the confident assurance you have given me by always telling me you are proud of me, for playing with me all growing up, for displaying my drawings in your office, for reading books to me in silly voices, for making up nicknames and singing crazy songs, for writing me poems on my birthdays, and for sending long emails full of much needed advice and love when we've been separated by continents and oceans.

Thank you for taking the time to do Bible studies with me before my baptism, for listening to and praying with me about teenage troubles, for always having time to think about and pray about faith questions and life struggles.

Thank you for performing my wedding, for accepting my husband as your son and loving him so deeply (though how could you not) :), for loving my daughter so much and for taking time to hold Hannah and play with her, read to her, and snuggle her when you visit. That means so much to me.

You mean so much to me. I honor you and am so grateful for you. I love you Daddy!

Happy (albeit belated) Father's Day!

Fancy Hannah

I promised some pictures of Hannah playing "dress up" so here they are! She loves these turquoise socks of mine and this brown belt! She also tries on hats but takes them off before I can get a picture! I keep a box of hats and the belt in my closet and she enjoys playing with them while I get dressed, etc. in the morning. I also have an empty makeup container and make up brush for her to pretend with too. She brushes her face with the brush so carefully and deliberately after tapping it in the container-- its so cute!

The model pose.

Happy as can be in her belt and socks!

She loves to stand on this stool and look out the window. Here she is watching the garbage truck and saying "Ooooh!"

My sweet, sweet baby girl.

Pictures of our time with Rachel and Corban!

Two Weeks of what I (almost) Wish Life Was Like

Except for the HUGE flaw that our respective husbands were absent half the time.

The last two weeks of May I was blessed to spend with my best friend and sister Rachel and my adorable, silly, smiley, cutest-ever little nephew Corban. I had so looked forward to this time together that I'm still getting over my "after-family visit" depression. Every morning when I make my hot cereal I'm thinking "A week and a half ago Rachel and I were . . . ." and I want to immediately call her up on the phone. However, since Hannah wakes up at 6:00am and Corban doesn't until at least 8:00 I have to wait and just eat my cereal without her companionship. It's so much easier being a mom when you have your sister to share the everyday delights, challenges, chores and surprises of raising a child and a running a home. Especially since my sister is one of the most amazing, wise, compassionate, hilarious, beautiful, and Godly women and mothers that I know.

The purpose of our two week get-together besides just being together was to provide Rachel with time for her to study for her Marriage and Family Therapy licensing boards while I took care of Corban. We spent the first week at my house then flew up together to Nebraska for the last week. (She took the test two days after I left. She won't know if she passed until the end of June-- I already know she did. :) )


Our days took on a rhythm of eating breakfast together, then she would go study while I watched the kids until lunch time. We'd put the kids down for their naps and then we'd hang out for about an hour after which, if Corban was still asleep she would study some more and I would get to rest. Our afternoons were full of playing, reading to the kids, being outside, running errands, doing chores, getting dinner on the table and enjoying each other's company. After the kids were in bed we'd talk, watch girl movies, or read and study some more.

When we were at Rachel's house Bryan had his last day of teaching a few days after we got home and my brother was visiting as well so I had help with watching Corban. At my house it was just me and the kids. I had so much fun getting to know Corban better. He is an amazing little boy-- so eager to make you laugh, affectionate, cheerful, observant, and smart as a whip. He is incredibly aware of all the conversation around him and picks up on vocabulary that you would never have guessed he understood such as "combination move" or "indention." He then repeats these words with pride and often with a huge smile on his face as he tries to pronounce them correctly! He loves to laugh and laugh and be silly. Some of my favorite memories include watching him and Rachel be so silly together they had us all in fits of giggles.

Rachel and I found it fascinating to observe the differences in our children. They are SO different-- where Hannah is reckless, Corban is cautious. Hannah sleeps like a dream, Corban still wakes up at least once or twice a night. Corban eats finger and adult food with gusto, (having refused pureed food almost right away) whereas Hannah still prefers pureed food. Corban's voice carries throughout the whole house and he uses it with gusto-- Hannah is quiet. Hannah approaches life with serious contemplation and observation--focused on figuring things out, and exploring every nook and cranny. Corban is much more interested in the social aspects of life and would rather be interacting with someone than figuring out a toy. He has such an infectious, bright eyed smile it's hard not to be interacting with him!

Did I mention that Hannah wants to explore? And explore . . .and explore. Take her to a playground and after she's climbed every step and slid down every slide, it's not long before she's off and running across the open field behind it! Corban also definitely likes to explore but his circle of adventures more tightly orbits his mother. Hannah just assumes I'm following after her-- with probably a little sliver of independent and adventurous hope that I'm not!

Favorite memories from our time together--

• Watching Hannah and Corban kiss and hug.
• Putting together a toddler table and managing to mess it up twice, resulting in fits of laughter. (Hey-- you try getting something right the first time with two toddlers attempting to help!)
• Blowing bubbles with the kids-- Corban carefully trying to catch them on his wand and being SO delighted when I blew him a big one, while Hannah was running around batting at bubbles, repeating "Pop! Pop!" everytime she got one.
• Story time at the library and then quoting Trashy Town to the kids all week, watching them do the actions to "dump it in, smash it down, drive around the trashy town" with such exuberance.
• Watching Juno with Rachel and James during nap time and getting teary eyed together. (Yes, my brother actually likes chic flicks.)
• My birthday celebration: I actually got to sleep in! Rachel and I had a successful shoe shopping outing in the afternoon-- then we met up with Kristen for dinner. After a misadventure which included a closed (favorite) restaurant, walking the wrong direction twice and making a bad turn into a greasy pizza joint, we finally ended up at a perfect french soup and sandwich cafe, where, even though they were out of what we originally wanted to order we still all ended up with a delicious meal! All this time Bart and Shawn were taking care of the three kids. We returned home for chocolate cake that Rachel had made for me which turned out to be one of the most delicious I have ever tasted! Thank you Rachel, Shawn and the Normans for such a sweet and special birthday-- and thankyou kids for sharing your parents with me!
• My mother's day card and birthday card from Rachel.
• A picture perfect after-rain walk complete with wading and splashing (or "whooshing" as Corban put it) in a huge rain puddle.
• Corban's obsession with the airport and airplanes. Every time we got in the car he wanted to go to the airport!
• In all the hustle and bustle of getting seated and situated on the plane, glancing over and seeing that Corban had managed to unwrap one of Rachel and I's hamburgers and taken a big bite of his first junk food burgers! He was so satisfied!
• Watching Corban become enamored with Uncle Shawn and Hannah with Uncle Bryan.
• Snapping peas out on the stoop while our kids played in the sand box at Rachel's house.
• Bryan's "Yeah! School's Out" dinner celebration and making smores on the --oh, was that supposed to be a fire?
• 11:00pm cereal snacks and sister heart-to-hearts before bed
• Corban's birthday party complete with soccer field cake and his adorable, elated face aglow with delight as we sang him "Happy Birthday to you!" (Or as he so aptly sings it-- "Happy to You!" It was also so gratifying to see him play contentedly with his new cars and airplanes on his transportation mat following the party.
• Waking up every morning knowing that whatever the day held I was going to get to face it with my sister's incredible common sense, humor, and kindred-spirit companionship. (I don't know whose idea it was to create a society where we raise our children sequestered away in "single family homes" all alone-- but I don't think I can ever forgive them!) :)

So yes, if my life were how I would manage it, I would live right around the corner and a stone's throw away from my sister and her family. No one "gets" me quite like her-- I am one of those blessed women to have my best friend also be my sister. (Thank you ,God!)

Enjoy the slide show of our time together! (above)

May Updates

Whew! May was such a busy month! I have not had the energy to use what little time I've had recently to update the blog. Life is moving back to it's normal routine again-- at least for now so I will attempt to get caught up.

I think I'll start out with some Hannah news first and them move onto family life news. (I won't get to that tonight-- but I know everyone who visits here really comes just to see pictures of Hannah anyway. :)

Hannah is now a full fledged toddler. She is full of movement, exploration, intense curiosity, spontaneous affection, self discovery, assertiveness . . . she soaks up language like a sponge and constantly amazes me with her insatiable capacity to learn and experience life to the fullest.

Here she is delighted at playing in a warm late spring rain. She stayed out in it for at least 15 minutes before she decided to come back inside! She walked all around the patio touching different plants, stood with her mouth wide open trying to taste the rain, and clapped and bounced in happiness!

I try and give Hannah as many sensory and art experiences as we can fit into one week. She usually plays with water and sand every day that we are home all day-- sometimes I mix the water up with cornstarch or give her some cold spaghetti noodles to play with instead just for variety! She loves to explore all these activities to the fullest! No longer content to just play with the water with her hands she has to get in it!

In May I introduced finger painting and painting with a brush! What at little artist!


Of course just being outside is a sensory experience in itself-- there's mulch and dirt, leaves and wind, bird song and bugs to wonder at and explore.

Play dough has brought Hannah a lot of fun-- scraping, poking, and especially squeezing the play dough as well as tearing it into pieces are all ways she explores with it so far. Recently I've been giving her sticks to poke in it and this she does with great concentration and purpose. Below is Hannah's first play dough experience-- of course it involved a taste test.

May also brought about changes in Hannah's diet. She is finally showing more interest in finger foods and the food that adults eat! This in large part is due to Corban's influence. (More to come on that later.) Here is Hannah's first chips and salsa! Yum, Yum!
Hannah's growing desire and capacity to pretend is a source of great delight and fun for me. She loves to mimic all kinds of our daily activities and pretends/mimics talking on the phone, cooking, combing hair, taking a bath, feeding her baby dolls and stuffed animals, and cleaning. She just recently started "playing dress up". I will definitely be posting some pictures of that in the near future as it is too cute! :)

Below Hannah talks on the phone just like Mamma! She says "Hello!" everytime she puts a phone (or remote control) to her ear.

That's all I have in me for tonight! I'll be back with more hopefully Friday!