Playing With Plastic

Sorry for the post double-up (2 in 1 day!! eek)  but I just snapped some pics of Hannah after she crawled into the plastic container cupboard and got stuck and had to share them.

After the below pic she managed to stand up but then found herself stuck and started in on the "EHHHH! EHHH!" ing so I had to drop the camera and don the Supergirl cape.

Fortunately, getting stuck doesn't jade her--once freed, she went right back to playing.

Figuring Out Facebook

It took me a couple weeks, but I finally figured out how to link Mamarazzi to Facebook.  If you haven't seen it yet, on the lower right sidebar of this screen is a new widget called "Networked Blogs".  I kept noticing that widget on other blogs and finally stopped wondering what it was and just Googled it. Turns out it's a Facebook thing that links up the blogs you follow to your Facebook. I'm not exactly sure how it works yet.  See, I'm one of the two followers on Mamarazzi right now as a test, and all of my posts are going directly to my Facebook wall, but I'm also a follower of a couple of other blogs and those are not going to my wall, soooooo....The only way for me to see the other blogs was to create a new tab at the top of my page and choose "blogs".  Now when I click that tab, I see the others blogs I picked to follow.

So yeah, I'm more of a technophobe than not and am EXTREMELY slow in figuring stuff out. If anyone can enlighten me, please do. In the meantime, I'm learning as I go.....

Of course, from what I can tell so far (and in my humble opinion) Google Reader is definitely an easier way to keep up with your blogs.

Signs That It's Time To Up the Signing

This morning after breakfast Hannah was playing around the Jeep rather than in it and somehow managed to get stuck underneath it. Although I was sitting on the floor next to her, watching the whole thing unravel, I really have no idea how it happened.  She looked like she knew what she was doing and was deliberately trying to get underneath the vehicle, probably to check the oil or something, but she went from deliberate to mad in 0.002 seconds.  I helped her crawl out, and she stood up and resumed her under-the-hood check.

It occurred to me that I should learn the sign for help (though even if she knew it, she probably wouldn't have had the space to execute it in the above scenario) along with a couple of other crucial signs (e.g., bread) for those times when I'm unable to interpret "EHHHH!!"    We've been practicing the signs for eat, drink, and more pretty constantly since she was about 3 months old, and we also practice the signs for mommy, daddy, book, and all done though with less frequency.  From what I read in Baby Signs, 8 months is the earliest that babies are able to start communicating through signs, and it takes most till at least 10 months (of course it goes without saying that all babies are different).  She's coming up on her 9th month, is saying "mamamamama" with more frequency, and seems to WANT to talk (though maybe I'm projecting this?), so I think it's time for me to start learning and using more signs when I communicate with her.  Although the book I read has a list of baby signs in the back, I prefer to start by using ASL signs and then if she needs to modify them to something easier, so be it.  I found this great website called ASL Pro (also linked in the left sidebar of this site under the Links heading) that has a section for babies, which basically just means that they narrowed down their super huge dictionary to the few that they think babies would use.  I couldn't find bathroom signs in there though so I had to delve into the main dictionary.  The cool thing about this site is that there are videos of the person doing the sign so you don't have to interpret pictures. I hate trying to interpret pictures of movement.

For those of you not familiar with baby signing, studies have shown that babies are able to understand you and are eager to communicate well before their vocal cords are developed enough to actually speak. Gesturing is much easier for them to learn.  Whenever I'm tooting the benefits of baby signing (which I had to do last week to a very skeptical Aunt Amy), I use this story that I pulled from the book linked above:

Andrew, fourteen months old, wakes up in a fright, wailing loudly for Laura, his mom,  As she stumbles into his room asking, "Whats the matter, sweetie? Don't you feel well?" Andrew furiously pats his chest. "Oh, you're scared!" answers Laura, as she swoops him up out of his crib and hugs him close.  "What is it, honey? Did you have a bad dream?" she asks.  Andrew's response is to pat his nose repeatedly, looking with wide eyes at his mother.  "Oh. It's that clown that Grandma bought. You don't like it so close at night.  That's OK, sweetie. Let's take it away for tonight so you can get back to sleep."  As Laura settles him back down in his crib, Andrew moves his thumb to his lips, tipping it up and down. "And you want a drink? OK, I'll be right back with some water."


After removing the clown, delivering the water, and giving him one last kiss, Laura returns to her own bed, the crisis quickly and successfully resolved.

How cool is that??  What's really cool is that he not only knew the signs for objects (clown, drink) but also for his emotions. I feel like that's pretty awesome.

Of course, if she's anything like her momma, she'll have control of those vocal cords pretty early on....

Posts I Keep Starting In My Head

I keep starting posts in my head but then never sitting down to write them.  Yesterday's went like this:

"Let the record show that on this rainy Monday in late April, I cleaned the entire house, including the hardwood floors on the first floor."

That's a lie though because I didn't really clean the entire house, but I did clean the entire first floor, and, more importantly, I cleaned the floors; that part is not a lie.  I actually mopped the floors, and they look amazing as a result, and yes I am deriving great pleasure in this small menial task. So much pleasure in fact that it kinda makes me want to be one of those neat freak moms who wipes the kids face after every bite and refuses to let her hold the spoon lest she fling it onto the nice, clean floor and splatter beets everywhere...again. But I am proud to say that although I now cringe when the spoon hits the floor, I am still letting Hannah have her fun.  I have decided to do a much more thorough clean up after each meal though. Where I used to let the beets lay where they fell, I am, for the time being anyway, wiping them up AND sweeping the copious amounts of bread crumbs that fall by the wayside during EVERY dang meal.  I'm clinging to that "just been cleaned" feeling for as long as possible because once it goes, well, that's when I let it all go and the beets start becoming part of the natural floor pattern....

Another post I started in my head went like this:

"For some reason I thought it would be fun to teach Hannah to crawl up stairs, but now that she can do so by herself, I'm thinking this was not such a bright idea."

Not much to say about that except that she is shaping up to be quite the climber, and we will most likely have to start thinking about baby proofing the house soon.  That or watch her like a hawk. On that note, I just came across the funniest post from Backpacking Dad.  Love it!

Yet another post I began drafting in my head went like this:

"Finally a food that competes with bread: lasagna."

We made a big pan of lasagna on Sunday and have been eating the leftovers as often as possible since then. Yesterday we were starving by 4:00 so we had an early dinner (a "supper" I suppose is what you call it when you eat with the early birds).  We put Hannah in her chair with some bread and sat down next to her with our lasagna.  Since I am hoping beyond all hope that she is not a picky eater (my BIGGEST PET PEEVE), and since she is old enough now that she can eat most foods, I put a little lasagna on my fork (yes, I said FORK) and gave it to Hannah who licked the fork tentatively before gobbling it down.  She spent the rest of the time going "ehhhhh, ehhhh!!!" and reaching in the direction of my plate, so I kept feeding her.  She'll be taking after her daddy if lasagna is her favorite meal.

And finally, the most recent post:

We had a playdate with Asa and Libby this morning! Since both the babies were napping when she got there at 10:30 (hers in the car), we sat on the stoop and indulged in some girl talk until the babes woke up.  Once they were both up, I was like the paparazzi with the camera--I don't know what's wrong with me but sometimes I just can't put the thing down, and other times I'm too lazy to even locate its whereabouts. Sigh.

They sat next to each other really cute-ly for like 5 seconds before Hannah took off in a blur.

Asa was really funny in the Jeep because he can walk so he just sorta stood up in the thing and walked, dragging the Jeep along with him.  Handsome, ain't he?

Notice the fabulously clean floor beneath this ornery little bitty? Please do. I am now seeking praise and frequent head patting for things like cleaning the floor.

After lunch, we tossed the kiddies into their respective strollers and headed off to the park.

They are so cute. I love it!  And at the end of the visit, Asa hugged Hannah and Hannah patted him on the back.

Baby Pee = Fine; Ant Invasion = Not Fine

Today I realized that I haven't been doing much writing on the blog recently which is my sign that I am much happier these days.  I tend to write more when I'm stressed and depressed.  Me not writing means that life is a lot more boring (in a good way) and that I am a lot more sane after two weeks as a stay-at-home mom than I was as a SAHM working at a toxic job during every nap time.  Of course, this also means that I need to start finding ways to self-motivate my writing muscles.

My other sign of happiness is that I'm more patient with Hannah.  Her diaper changing acrobatics were getting really frustrating there for a while, and then one day I realized that I cannot control her and that if I was going to keep trying, I was only going to make life miserable for both of us.  I could spend the rest of motherhood constantly butting my stubborn head up against hers, but a better use of my energy would be spent trying to keep up with her. Of course, there have to be some boundaries and it will be a challenge figuring out which boundaries I want to impose, and which I'm okay with blurring.  Sleep is one I impose, but trying to pin her down while I change her diaper the way Steve Irwin (RIP) used to pin down crocodiles is one I'm good with blurring.  Of course it helps that I'm not constantly worrying about how I'm going to get my 20 hours of work in for the week. Yesterday she was more squirmy than usual so I gave up trying and brought her downstairs buck naked to nurse her.  Of course she peed all over me soon after nursing, but whatever, it dried.  (Don't judge, it's just baby pee which is not even really pee in my head--is this a byproduct of motherhood or does everyone agree??)  After that I figured we had some time before the next pee and were safe to hang out but Eric had had enough so he grabbed the diaper and clothes I brought down and wriggled her into them.

Surprisingly, I am the laid back one when it comes to Hannah messes.  (Where I'm uptight is when it comes to  what she eats and when she sleeps.) Take feeding for instance: in the beginning, Eric was very careful not to make a mess when feeding her, but me, I always let her play in her food and get as messy as she can.  (He does that now too.)  Those of you who know me and my very anal retentive habits may find this shocking; heck, I'm shocked myself.  You know what else? We don't use bibs anymore.  She gets so messy, that she would need a full body bib to protect her.  We pretty much plan on having to change her outfit after each meal and just don't bother.  That and she learned how to pull the bibs off and does so within seconds of having one on.  We run out of clothes a lot these days and the floor is constantly covered in a variety of food products, most recently, polenta--she's quite the fan of polenta!

On the food-on-the-floor note, have I mentioned how frustrating it is to hear women with grown children tell you that their best advice is to let the house go because all of them wish they'd worried less about a clean house and more about having fun with their kids? I guess this is the Donna Reed generation who felt obliged to do things like iron their husband's "slacks." (Hey, I put together a healthy breakfast and lunch for my hubby to take to work with him because eating healthy is a priority, but he can iron his own dang pants).  I'm pretty sure I've vented about this before so I apologize for the repeat vent, but I just need to revisit it.   One woman told me that I have the rest of my life to clean house if that's what I want to do but I should enjoy the my little bitty while she's a little bitty.  It's great advice really, not just for moms but for everyone trying to suck the life out of life, and I totally agree, AND my house SHOWS my agreement, but the problem with this advice is twofold: 1) I have a crawler on my hands now.  She wants to crawl all over my floor that hasn't been cleaned since before Christmas (and needs to be swept after every meal but maybe gets swept twice a week).  2) We have an ant invasion.  They mostly stay around the kitchen counters but I see them on the floor sometimes too crawling in and out of the gaping cracks between the heart of pine planks that have run from the front door to the back for over 100 years.  These cracks catch everything (including cat puke) and are impossible to clean.  This place is ant heaven.

We also had a huge outbreak in the bathroom last week. I finally discovered that they were after the jellybeans inside the plastic Easter egg that was sitting on the counter because Hannah had been playing with it in the bath.  (I taped the egg shut to create a fun shaker toy for Hannah not thinking that some creature would be small enough to crawl in there and enjoy the feast.)  I pitched the jelly beans and the egg, laid down traps, and got rid of the bathroom ants, but no matter how clean I keep the kitchen counters, there are always a few snooping around for a stray crumb (and keeping the crumbs cleaned up now that we're making a loaf of bread EVERY DAY to keep up with Hannah's bread eating habits is IMPOSSIBLE).  Furthermore, Hannah has found the ant traps on two occasions and had them halfway to her mouth before I could run interception.  For all of you would-be advice givers, it's important to remember that the problem with hindsight is that it's so often cloaked in butterflies and jelly beans rather than ant attacks.

I should probably stop blogging and go clean, but I don't really feel like it. I would feel a bigger sense of satisfaction if I continued on with my paperwork so paperwork it is!!  Ooooo. WRONG. Nap time is over, back to the baby.

Finally.....

I have two "finallys" today.  First, I finally snapped out of my camera slumber and snapped a couple pics of Hannah playing with her Uncle Joel a couple hours before he flew back to Seattle (yesterday).

And second, we finally finished our will/power of attorney/living will paperwork and all the other jazz that goes into the here's-what-you-should-do-if-I (or we)-die bucket.   This item was put on the to do list back when I was still preggo....And finally, it is complete. We had our meeting with the Judge Advocate General this morning to go over everything and have it signed and notarized!  And since Eric's in the military, it was free!! Can't beat that price.   All we had to do was wake up early, drive to Fort Meade through rush hour, feed Hannah breakfast in the car, nurse her in "the back office", and keep her happy the whole time she was supposed to be napping.  NO SWEAT!!!

(No seriously, we were dreading it, but it wasn't that bad at all, and Hannah remained in surprisingly happy spirits despite her growing and obvious exhaustion.)

So now we're both sitting here going, "whew!"  It feels good to have those very important documents complete.

The Diva and The Onion Skin

I've been lazy lately....I need to get on it and get some good pics of Hannah with her Uncle Joel before he leaves again! In the meantime, Laura took some pics on Sunday and posted them to her blog.  I stole a couple and reposted here.

Hannah got a piece of onion skin stuck in her throat about an hour before the pic below was taken and was having a hard time coughing it up so feeding her was difficult because she just kept choking on everything.  It was terrible! Note to self: onions are not good play things in the grocery store (duh!!)...Since she was having a hard time eating with that onion skin in the way, Amy held her and managed to spoon in some avocado.  And Hannah coughed up the onion skin the next morning.  It was pretty big...not sure how she slept through the night with that thing there.

In the pic below Hannah is attempting to monkey her way from Amy's arms to mine while I transfer my first "light wheat" loaf of bread from the mixer to the bowl I use to let bread rise. I figure if Hannah is going to be housing bread, I should learn how to make something with more nutritional content than just white bread.  I know light wheat isn't that much more healthy, but it was the next step up in difficulty. Baby steps people.

And now for the "in other news" segment (my suave way of transitioning topics): inspired by Libby, I ordered a Diva Cup from Amazon and am trying it out for the first time today.  EARMUFFS: So far so good. It's a little awkward to get in and I'm a little worried about getting it out--my waxer said she had trouble with that part and therefore doesn't use it anymore--but I'm guessing I'll get the hang of it just like anything else.  And anyway, you only need to empty it twice a day so I won't have to deal with getting it in and out constantly.  Hello next step in 1) financial savings, and 2) less environmental waste. 

First Trip to the Playground!

Hannah's friend (and neighbor), Kylie, invited her to the playground today where the two shared a swing and played together at the bottom of the slide.  Hannah loved the swing and spent the first few minutes shrieking and cheesing. It was pretty dang cute which made me happy that I'd remembered to toss the camera into the bottom of the stroller before leaving.

There were like five in this pose that I ended up liking....I barely managed to narrow to two.

 

I like how Hannah has her hand on Kylie's back in this one, like their old chums.

Prior to the park, I snapped a shot of Hannah chowing down on her new favorite food: bread.  I break off hunks of the stuff me and Eric make, and it keeps her occupied for eons.

After lunch we sat on the couch and read library books and looked out the front window.

And then, after the playground and afternoon nap, we hung out on the couch again eating, er, I mean, reading, library books.  This was particularly fun because it is VERY rare that Hannah just sits still and hangs out.  

Today was either full of photo ops or I was just annoyingly trigger happy. You can be the judge of that.

Visitors From All Over

We've been busy enjoying visitors this week so my posting has gone from just a teeny bit too excessive to something closer to normal. I'm guessing there are no complaints about this return to normalcy especially for those who like to keep up, but don't have all dang day every day which is what's required when I'm feeling verbose and posting 12 times a day.

Last Thursday one of Eric's best friends from Michigan stopped by with his wife and two young children.  They had road tripped to South Carolina and stopped in Baltimore on their way back home.  I was amazed that they were traveling that far with kids ages 2-1/2 and 11 months...Can you imagine??? I couldn't. I stress about taking one kid to Trader Joe's which is only about 12 miles away.  I asked their secret to success thinking I could gain some tips to use for our upcoming road trip which we've pushed from May to August.  The answer: they drove through the night.  Unfortunately, that's not really a tip I can use.  There is no way in H-E-double-hockey-sticks that I'm driving through the night. No way, no how.  Yes, I've been known to pull the occasional, okay, okay, frequent, all nighter in my pre-Hannah life, but no matter how much fun I'd had while doing so, I almost always spent the next day wishing I hadn't.  At least then I could spend the day after on the couch in front of the TV watching cheesy movies and stupid stuff on MTV while napping and recovering.  Life sans baby allowed for such recoveries; life with baby does not and I am not a nice person when I don't sleep.

Maybe some of you are saying, "Easy, have Eric drive while you sleep."  Nope.  That won't work either.  I am a very, very light sleeper and am incapable of getting a good night's rest anywhere except my own bed.  Yes I realize how annoying that is, and before you attribute it to me getting old let me assure you that although I am quickly approaching the dirty thirty, I have ALWAYS been this way. Ask anyone.  Here's a specific example of something that happened all the time in high school (once I reached driving age and owned a car): I had gone to Shannon's house to spend the night with a couple of other girls. After staying up till nearly 4:00 a.m. talking and doing high school girl stuff, we all started getting ready for bed.  While changing into my pajamas I decided that really there was no reason for me to not just drive home and sleep in my own bed. I mean, what was I going to miss?  The fun part was over. So I drove home.  I was NEVER one of those laid back people who could just pass out on someone's couch or floor and sleep soundly.  So even if Eric opted to stay up all night and drive so I could sleep, it would be fitful interrupted sleep because I wouldn't be in a nice, comfy bed which would mean that we'd both be zombies next day and we can't be zombies the next day because we have a baby (see first point).

I'm pretty sure that Eric's friends are super human and if there were an award for being amazing enough to drive through the night and still be fun to be around the next day (which they were), I would give them that award.  But I don't ever expect to see that award reciprocated back to me.

Our next visitor was Amy who is in the states on vacation for 2 weeks--wahooooo!!! She took a couple of days to recover in Hagerstown and then drove up to snuggle her favorite psuedo-niece on Tuesday around lunch time.  She brought more presents from abroad for Hannah, but this time the presents are from the Middle East (they were from Africa last time). I forget exactly where she said she bought the lantern (shown below)....but I know I got a mirror from Jordan and I think that might be where Hannah's little mirror (not pictured yet) is from too.

Amy left around lunchtime on Wednesday, and a few hours later we had a knock on the door from an unrecognizable man with a grizzly beard who was decked out in motorcycle gear from head to toe.  Eric opened the door and said "Can I help you?"  Joel's laugh at not being recognized by his own brother gave his identity away.  He rode his bike all the way from Seattle for a surprise visit!!  Hannah's a little unsure of the beard, but is otherwise happy to see her uncle.

They left a couple minutes ago to pull a permit for our deck which I think is going to end up getting started (maybe finished??) this weekend.  Joel said if it weren't for permits and inspectors and stuff, he could have that deck built in 2 days.  I'm getting REALLY excited!!! Our current deck is metal and rusted through in some spots with a couple of sizable (not to mention dangerous) holes.  Our new deck is supposed to cover the whole patio which will make it bigger than our living room! Wahooooo!!!  It'll be nice to have some where other than the front sidewalk to hang out with Hannah.

It's crazy that we've had all these visits from people we love a ton but rarely see because they live so far away!! I'm loving it.

Tulips and Tidbits

It's so pretty today that we decided to walk over to Sherwood Gardens to check out the tulips.  The walk was longer than I anticipated so both Eric and Hannah were cursing me on the way back, but we got some good pics out of the trip and nobody lost a leg so I told 'em to pipe it!

I had a hard time picking favorites so brace yourself for a bombardment of photos....

I start my first week as a stay-at-home unemployed mom tomorrow.  I'm relieved and looking forward to having this clean slate to start with, but I'm also a teeny, tiny bit freaked out.  After all, there's a lot of pressure with a clean slate...Not to mention the fact that we'll have to get more meticulous with our budget now.  But I don't regret it. I went back in to the office on Friday and was near tears within 24 minutes of being there.  Not because I missed Hannah--I actually think that working 2 days a week out of the house would be good for both me and Hannah--but because I feel terrible in that building! It's just not a nice place to work.  So I'm going to take some time to focus on being a mom and when I feel like I want to take on something else, I'm going to look into getting my yoga teacher certification and also into picking up some freelance writing work.

In other news, I finally got around to setting up a college savings account for Hannah.  I opted for the Coverdell IRA instead of the popular 529 because the Coverdell does not have a yearly fee or a required monthly deposit.  We wanted a place to put the money that people give her as gifts, but we didn't want to be required to add to that account ourselves.  (We want to take things out of the budget right now, not add things in.)  Another perk of the Coverdell is that you can use it for any education; it's not limited to just being used for college.  Not that we plan on using private schools, but hey, you never know.

Yesterday's Lunch Date

Libby took a pic of the lunch date with her super cool iPhone.  Cute, eh??

Why This Week Has Rocked

1.  Sleeping is easier than ever.  She seems to have settled into a pattern--FINALLY!  At nap time, I change her, close the blinds, turn on the fan, read her a story, lay her down, and leave.  She fusses for like 30 seconds and then she's quiet.  It's crazy. Bed time is crazier.  Ever since I started curbing her nursing to 12 minutes/boob, things have been smooooooooth sailing!  After I lay her down she fusses a little longer than nap time, but not much.  And get this, she actually let me rock her to sleep a couple times!!!! This is a first for her.  See, I would totally ignore the Sleep Lady's advice of laying her down awake but drowsy if rocking her would calm her and stop the crying, but it never has.  The only thing that ever stopped the screaming was taking her out of her room, preferably back downstairs to hang out and play.  On Saturday we were driving back from Home Depot and for some reason I was remembering bedtime with the boys I used to babysit and how that was my favorite time of day. When Sam was a baby, I held him, walking, swaying, and bouncing him around the room while singing No Woman No Cry.  If I moved to put him down before he was fully asleep, he cried so I'd keep going.  Although I sometimes grew tired (this could take up to an hour sometimes), I enjoyed it. I loved snuggling and holding him.  So I was thinking of that and for a second, I felt guilty that I don't do that with Hannah but then it occurred to me that, I totally WOULD do that with Hannah. I would have done that instinctively, but she wouldn't have it.  She just screamed and screamed and screamed and bucked herself away from me, always clawing her way out of my arms and toward the door.

But that very same night, Saturday night, she stayed in my arms drowsy but awake and scooted herself sideways so that her head was in the crook of my arm and she laid there peacefully while I swayed with her and softly sang No Woman No Cry. After about 10 minutes, she reached for her crib so I laid her down and tip-toed out.  All was quiet and perfect.  It was the best bedtime ever!

2.  This is a big one:  Hannah communicated with me today and I caught it!  I was feeding her lunch and she grabbed the spoon out of my hand.  Then she got this ornery glint in her eye and flashed her toothy grin and held the spoon out toward me.  I don't know why I thought she was trying to tell me something, I guess it was the look on her face or something, but I paused for a minute and then had a eureka and it was right on. Sometimes when I'm wiping her face, she grabs the rag and I get silly and say "gimme that" while tugging playfully on the rag it.  I don't play that game often because it occurred to me that it might teach her bad a habit of swiping things rudely from other kids.  Anyway, I deduced that that's what she was wanting so I reached out and tugged the spoon playfully and said "gimme that!" and she started cracking up laughing! I swear that's exactly what she wanted.  It was such a cool moment.

3.  Asa and Hannah went on a date yesterday (with Libby and I as chaperons).  I forgot my camera at lunch but took the above pic of Asa when we got back home). Libby got a side of Goldenwest Cafe's delicious sweet potato fries and shared some with the babies. I tried to give Hannah sweet potato fries when we took her to Miss Shirley's for lunch about a month ago but she wasn't interested.  This time though, she grabbed those fries in her fist and started chowing down.  It was really cool!!! I missed dinner last night because I had an appointment with my trainer, but I asked Eric to put some steamed peas and carrots on her tray for her to feed herself in addition to pureeing them to spoon feed her.  She was still gnawing on a carrot she'd been hoarding in her fist when I got home.  I love it!

4. In general, she has been incredibly happy all week, smiling her huge toothy grin with nose scrunched up almost constantly.  I am loving being around her and dreading having to leave her all day on Friday.

Frilly Pink Girly Girl Pics (AKA Belated Easter Pics)

I was going to give my dear readers a respite from my incessant blogging as of late, but then I got an email with Easter pics that my dad's girlfriend took....Of course I have to share the shots of Hannah being all super girl-er-ific and adorable!!

I know exactly how he feels; it's like when I find my missing ice cube trays in the pantry with the pasta after hours of looking for them.

I think Clay has better things to do than root through bushes for plastic eggs full of candy that no one will let him eat.    

There were no eggs in the gutter, but Hannah took advantage of the opportunity to show off her biceps and her super strength with a couple of chin ups.  

Hannah took a break from searching for eggs to give her dad a much-needed lesson about where purple eggs come from (purple chickens, duh).

The full frontal--I told ya she was all decked out super girly style.  I think she wears it well though.

Ring, ding, dong, ringa, ding ding ding dong.