Sick?? And Zenning Out on the Chimes

The munchkin seems to have a bit of a cold...Her left nostril had a pretty steady stream of snot most of the day yesterday and she was a little more clingy than usual.  I thought maybe it was from teething or something....That happens, right? That babies get cold symptoms when teething?  I feel like I read that somewhere...So, I'm going to be honest here....don't judge.  I'm a little bummed because I thought we were going to make it through the first year with no colds which seemed an impossible feat given that the babies and kids I know have all been sick at least once this year, so I was getting all gung ho on my look-how-healthy-my-baby-is platform and was even drafting parts of her 1-year birthday post to include how amazing it is that she made it through her first year of life with no illness to speak of and how she is clearly this super human specimen of awesome healthiness destined for an awesomely healthy life. It's possible that I was a little TOO proud and a little TOO gung ho and was in need of a smack down. Fortunately, the smack down came in the form of something very light, so light that I'm still in a bit of denial as to whether or not she is actually sick.  Yesterday it was a steady stream of snot and a little extra cling; this morning she coughed a couple of raspy coughs, only like 3, but they sounded phlegmy.  I haven't heard any coughing since then, and the snot isn't flowing so freely, so...I guess I'm saying it's about as minor of a cold as you can get, just enough to knock me off my high ground and ruin my 1-year-poster-child-of-health blog post, but not enough to make Hannah too miserable or make us worry much.

We're trying to figure out where she picked up this monster germ that was able to penetrate the chain mail we use to protect her immune system.  Eric is blaming it on the pool.  Our neighborhood public pool opened this weekend, and we were there both days splashing around with the other Hampdenites, many of whom thought Hannah was sooooo cute and were all up in her face petting her and stuff.  I figure that's a good guess though I'd think that the chlorine would kill off most stuff....Speaking of the pool, it is so flippin cool. I mean, the kid part is, the adult part is just a pool, but the kid part has these squirty fountain things everywhere and in the middle, where it's deepest (2 feet) there's this giant, colorful whirlygig contraption that spews and dumps water all over the place. It's like something you'd see at an amusement park.  I've never seen anything like it at any other pool, and definitely not at a public pool that only costs $1.50/day. That's another point for Hampden! We love this neighborhood, even if we are desperately craving a grassy space to call our own.

Warning: Huge topic change with no transition.  Hannah learned how to hold a mallet and knock out some tunes on my Zen chimes a few weeks ago. I've been trying to get video of it, but every time she sees that camera kick on, she tosses the mallet and beelines for the camera.  I finally managed though.

Why We Need a Dog

Last Wednesday, the day after we went to North Beach, we needed another day trip because that's the day the plumbers came, and it was an all day job.  Since Autumn was planning on heading back to Hagerstown that day anyway, Hannah and I took her part of the part.  We drove to New Market to Jenn's house to visit and meet the new little man in her life, Oliver. I forget how old she said he was...not more than a few weeks...suffice it to say that he is itty bitty.  When Hannah wasn't trying to get Jenn to put down Oliver and pick her up, she was playing with Luna, their Golden Doodle, and loving it.

I think Luna is the sweetest, most kid-friendly dog I've ever met.  She loved playing with Hannah as much as Hannah loved playing with her, which worked out well for Hannah since not all dogs are comfortable getting a periodontal exam from a baby....It really made me want a dog.  Eric has been wanting one for a while but won't let us get one until we move to a place with some sort of a yard.  I can get behind that kind of logic, and anyway, as much as I'd love to have a dog, I'm in no rush to deal with the responsibility of a dog like introducing said dog to our very persnickety cat who will probably start peeing everywhere out of anger, or in potty training a dog and then simultaneously or shortly thereafter having to potty train a toddler, or being forced to set up a dog walking routine in addition to the baby routine that is constantly changing and that I'm still trying to get used to revolving around...So no dog for now.

Here's Jenn with Oliver and Luna, and if you look closely, that bit of pink and white fabric below Luna, that's Hannah. She's standing over there trying to crawl onto Jenn's lap.

Autumn relaxing on the front porch of Jenn's super cool treehouse-like house.

After Jenn's we drove another 10 or so miles west to Frederick to check out my mom's new office and have lunch.  The little bakery we went to didn't have high chairs or booster seats....

After lunch we walked around town, stopped by a thrift store to get Hannah her own handbag (since she keeps stealing my friends' bags), perused the contents of a toy store, and then promenaded on the promenade and dipped our toes in the fountain.  Well, Hannah dipped her toes.  Grammy and Mommy kept their toes dry inside their shoes.

Hannah and I drove home then and hung out next door at MC's for an hour and a half while the plumbers finished their thing.  We are loving having the use of our upstairs bathroom and washing machine again! Whew!  Trying to bathe Hannah in the stand-up shower in the basement was a soaking wet job for all parties.

Real Time in the Herb Garden

Hannah took her truck with her when we went out to water the plants this morning.  I pulled up some weeds while Eric grabbed the hose, and Hannah joined me in the dirt.

North Beach Baby!

Autumn flew into town on a red eye flight Saturday night and stayed with us until Wednesday so we spent the first part of this week enjoying her company.  On Monday we all went over to Shannon's with some baby stuff that Hannah isn't using anymore and ended up planning a beach trip for the following day. I thought that Eric had a plumber lined up to come on Tuesday and since fixing that pipe required a full day of work and shutting off the water to the house, we needed to get out of dodge. A beach trip with the girls seemed a dang fine way to spend the day.  However, on Tuesday morning he finally heard back from the other plumber we were waiting to hear from who offered to do the job for $600 (the other two plumbers, including the one we were going with had quoted $1,000).  The catch was that the cheap plumber couldn't come until Wednesday.  That's a pretty heavy chunk of change so Eric canceled the Tuesday plumber.  We kept our beach plans anyway since Shannon had to work on Wednesday and Autumn was planning on heading to Hagerstown.

Destination: North Beach in Calvert County.  It's a little over an hour away which was supposed to give Hannah a decent nap but since she didn't fall asleep until the last 15 minutes of the drive, that didn't work out as planned.  It's a pretty small beach and pretty small town (like 2 or 3 blocks), and it's pretty dang cute.  I took some scenic pics so you could see how cute it is.  Here's the dock.  Non-Calvert County residents have to check in at this little stand and pay $8 to get onto the beach.  That seemed a bit steep to me, but whatever.

This is a random view of the sidewalk/boardwalk.

It was sunny as all get out, and I'm not that tech savvy with my camera (or anything else for that matter) so a lot of these pics are bleached out beyond my photo editing skills...This is a pic of one side of the beach. We ended up hanging out on the other side of the dock because there were fewer people on that side.

 This is the antique shop in town.  See what I mean about cute?

Yes, again with the murky water.  It's Maryland people!!!  Autumn had just gotten back from the Virgin Islands so she was a little grossed out. Since this was our second swimming excursion into the murky bay water, we were pretty used to it.  This part of the bay had some waves every once in a while, probably from the boats, that freaked out Hannah at first but she got used to it.

Hannah liked standing on Shannon's belly. I'm thinking she was trying to tell her future friend, Atticus, to hurry on up and get out here to play.

She dumped the blueberries within minutes of being offered them...I kept wiping the sand off of them and putting them back, but she kept dumping them again.  Shannon ended up putting the clean berries directly into Hannah's mouth because Hannah's hands were covered in sand so even if I cleaned the berries, they were coated again the second she picked them up. 

Hanging with her aunties.

After a while we took a walk to the end of the dock, just to check out the view.  I took a couple of pics of the beach from there but none are particularly interesting. How cute is Shannon's belly??? I have come to really love the pregnant belly and kind of miss it, oddly enough.  

Hannah laid her head on Shannon's belly for a bit but picked it up as soon as Autumn grabbed the camera. 

Hannah Houses Some Berries

Eric parked his Jeep at my dad's house a couple of months ago so he could store the stuff out back in our very small garage while building our very cool deck.  Since his tags are about to expire, we drove to my dad's house this past Sunday to pick it up.  That it was also Father's Day was a convenient coincidence for me--it's rare that I celebrate a holiday on the actual day.  Hannah and I baked some cookies the day before and she gave half to her dad and I gave half to mine. I think that'll be a nice a tradition to stick with.  I also splurged and got Eric a Father's Day gift. That's not a tradition I intend to keep--after all, he's not my dad--but I had a good idea for a present and needed a reason to give it to him and since his birthday gets stuck in the Christmas jumble, I need another reason to celebrate Eric in the year, you know, like an un-birthday, or Father's Day.  I had this great idea for a present--guitar lessons--and executed it flawlessly. I got him a gift certificate for two guitar lessons with a guy who lives a couple blocks down.  Eric loved it and is psyched to start.

So Sunday... as usual, I'll illustrate the events of the day.  First we ate some lunch, and Hannah had fun feeding the dogs.

Then we suited Hannah up and let her play in the pool.  After a couple of minutes Eric snuck off to lovingly bathe his Jeep.

Dad and I put Hannah in the swing.

It was decided that we should trek around through the woods behind my dad's house and find some berries.  Eric dropped the sponge and came along with us.  In this pic, Hannah has already sampled a few.

Here's my dad doing all the berry picking work while we stand back and watch.

I love this one--it seems so post-card-y.

Here's my dad and Hannah inspecting their booty.

Hannah was eager to get another quality test in.

Then Chip and Clay came sauntering out of the woods and Pappy snuggled both his grand babies. 

More pool time was the logical next step.

Hannah caught a glimpse of the berry bucket and left the pool to eat some berries....

Just a few more...

Mmmmmmm....berries....

The grandparents started echoing each other with fears of an imminent belly ache which I ignored for quite a bit.  Then I started thinking about the poop those things were gonna bring on and pulled Hannah away from her fruity drug of choice, plopped her back in the pool, and rinsed the remnants from her face and hands.

Eric's first Father's Day pic with his baby girl.

Rock, my dad's dog, getting some shade.

And back to the swings again...

Hannah and I had a good Father's Day with our dads and hope everyone else did too.

The Grammy Jungle Gym

We have a pretty major plumbing problem that has rendered the upstairs bathroom and laundry room unusable.  I mean, we could use it, but since the drain pipe is busted, using it means water pours into the wall....So we stopped using it.  On Saturday, I helped Eric demolish some very pretty walls that I feel like we JUST put up; the paint was still fresh.  We cut a hole in the bathroom wall, one in the kitchen ceiling, and took out the majority of the chimney that runs through the dining room. Totally sucks.  We've gotten two estimates so far, both saying it's gonna cost $1,000.  Not cool.  Anyway, fortunately for us, we have MC as a neighbor. She took Hannah for a walk on Saturday and got her out of the house for an hour so that I could help Eric.  He was pretty bummed about having to tear out walls he just put up so having me as company and clean up crew made it a bit easier I think.

Shortly after we finished sweeping up the plaster and drywall pieces, MC and Hannah returned, and shortly after that, Grammy showed up.  We had a nice visit.  I took the sequence of pics below before lunch.  Tonight Laura said something about how Hannah uses us as jungle gyms, and I couldn't agree more!! Hannah was using Grammy as a jungle gym on Saturday.  It makes holding her very difficult.

Look at those muscles!!! She's like She-ra.  (No clue why my mom looks like she's being possessed by something....)