Hannah-isms: Tomato soup and how to wear a summer dress in the winter time

Hannah's latest obsession is tomato soup. She eats it at least once a day, sometimes even for breakfast. The funny thing is that she HATES tomatoes, so much so that she won't even eat red peppers because they dare to resemble tomatoes if only in color. I had no intention of pointing out the link between the much hated and the much adored, and as it turns out, I didn't need to. She put it together herself, but just long enough to totally discredit the link. It happened while she was talking to Amy on the phone last week. After letting her bestie bestest know that she was about to eat some tomato soup, she then imparted Amy with following wisdom: "Tomato soup isn't made from tomatoes. It's just called that because it's the same color." Riiiiight....

Since nobody likes a post without a pic, I'm dropping in this random one from our trip to Port Discovery with Brody and Addison a few weeks ago. Hannah dressed herself in what was by far the most jaw-droppingly uncoordinated outfit ever. First, some black leggings with polka dots followed by this pink flowery/paisley shirt that Eric picked up at REI and is meant to be worn as a bottom layer, and then, to top it off, her ladybug dress. Totally awesome. This is her thing lately--pick out a long-sleeve shirt and some pants and then throw a summer dress over the whole thing. I think my little fashionista is onto something....It doesn't hurt that she hangs out with such a stylish crowd too.

Feasting and nesting over Thanksgiving weekend

I may be slacking with blogging, but I've been pretty productive on the home front. Eric says I'm nesting. My mom asked if I was doing the the opposite. I say I'm purging. I think purging is nesting. I mean, nesting means making room, right? Not just accumulating crap. The crap is already accumulated. What I'm doing is purging this house of as much of it as humanly possible. It's driving me nuts, and there's no room for an extra body at the moment. Well, we could fit the extra body, just not all the necessary crap that comes along with an extra body, especially when that extra body is a baby that comes with it's own set of miniature furniture and play things.

Anyway, I've been annoyed with the house for eons and feeling like we've just been leaving it as is because we're in limbo and keep thinking we'll move, and THEN we'll settle in and have the house set up the way we want it. Living like that stinks. And it's stupid. So I've decided to make the house work for us right now. So far I'm mostly revamping the basement, but I have plans for every room in this house.Most of the plans just require extreme purging.

So that's what we did over the Thanksgiving weekend, after the big feast, of course.....

My mom and brother and his two munchkins arrived late on Wednesday afternoon. Clay and Hannah spent an hour or two adjusting to each other which basically means that they alternated between running around excitedly together and arguing over something. Hannah took a couple of self-imposed alone times in her room to help her adjust to the chaos of a full house, and eventually, we tossed them both in the tub to wind down.

Clay was going to sleep on a mattress on the floor in Hannah's room but since he napped in the car on the way here, that was a no go. I read them both bedtime stories and then Clay went down to the basement and fell asleep watching Shrek on the air mattress we had set up for Chip.

The next morning I got busy in the kitchen and Eric camped out on the floor with the kiddos, helping them glue images clipped from magazines to a shoe box. That along with a few other crafts kept them engaged and in one place for a surprisingly long period of time.

When their energy threatened to burst the seams of the house we bundled them up and walked to the playground. Hannah showed Clay her favorite climbing tree, and he scurried up with his dad's help.

As expected, everybody was a little calmer after some sunshine and fresh air. I finished up the feast, and we chowed down. I'm not really into pictures of food so there are none...but I suppose a family shot would have been nice. Oh well, there's always next year.

After lunch Clay and Hannah helped me whip the cream. I let them play with the mixer a little too long though and we ended up with a hybrid between whipped cream and butter...Not ideal for a pumpkin pie topping, but not totally terrible either.

They both seemed to enjoy the fruits of their labor! Honestly, Hannah probably would have liked it more if I had let it turn the whole way into butter. I swear that kid would eat butter by the stick if I let her. 

And that's it. That's all the pics I took. Not very exciting, I know. The older Hannah gets, the less of a mamarazzi I become. I suppose that's normal. There are far fewer first times these days, and how many pictures do you need of the same ol' activity?  

I wonder if I'll resume mamarazzi habits after the new baby comes. There's all kinds of stuff instructing you to do the same with the second as you did with the first, which makes sense--obviously the second kid should be ogled equally--but life isn't fair and people don't do things just because they should (although I often do--this compulsion is a recurring topic with me and my therapist). If I had to wager on it, I'd guess that the mamarazzi pension will return with a vengeance when the baby shows up and that this blog will be plastered with pics of him and his big sister.

A Montessori Thanksgiving

Hannah's classroom had a Thanksgiving feast on Tuesday morning, and I was one of the parents who volunteered to help set up and tear down the feast, which means I got to snap a couple of pics with my phone. I didn't want to be too obtrusive or annoying so when I say a couple, I mean literally, two. One of the other moms took a lot and said she'd share her shots so if that happens, I'll come back and edit this later. (She's one of the class moms, and as such, I think it's probably more acceptable for her to take a lot of photos. As a newbie, I'm still trying to lay low.)

Here's a shot of Hannah in her little pilgrim girl bonnet chowing down. (I tried to crop out the faces of the other children in the class in case their parents aren't as comfortable as I am having their child splashed across the internet.)

This is what Hannah's place at the table looked like. They dined on turkey, sweet potato fries, pumpkin bread, popcorn, cranberry whip, and also some cornbread and butter that they had made the day before in class. While they ate, the parents continuously refilled favorite foods, allowing them to gorge on as much as they want. Hannah asked for more turkey, popcorn, cornbread, and apple cider. I had a few kids who must have eaten like five servings of popcorn--I've never seen kids get so excited about popcorn!  If it were me, I'd have been going back for the pumpkin bread.

After eating their fill, they ran it off on the playground while the parent volunteers cleaned up, and then we all headed home to start our long holiday break, with one feast already under our belts.

I loved being there to meet some of the other children in the class and having the opportunity to watch Hannah interact with her classmates. On this day of gratitude, I am grateful to be able to be both a stay-at-home mom and a working mom. I know I say that a lot, but seriously, being able to work whatever hours I want and work them from home is a huge luxury. 

And of course, I'm grateful that I get to be Hannah's mom and take part in her life. Lucky me!

(Photos and stories from our family feast today forthcoming.)

Hannah's first official tooth cleaning

I forgot about Hannah's first dentist appointment last week until today at lunch when Erin mentioned going to her dentist at The Rotunda. I can't remember why she was telling me that because I immediately interrupted to ask which dentist (there are two there, one on either side of the elevator), and then, when realizing that we share the same dentist and the same dental hygienist, we went on a tangent about how ridiculously awesome our hygienist is.

Beth, our hygienist, is seriously the best tooth cleaner ever. Yeah, sometimes it hurts, but I come out of there with the cleanest mouth EVER because she is thorough, and she's good. She gets ever last bit of yuck and leaves me with the smoothest teeth ever. She's also really fun to talk to, although I try to mostly just listen because it's difficult to talk when your mouth is full of fingers and sharp objects .

I searched around a bit this summer for a "kid" dentist to take Hannah to but when I couldn't find one that took our insurance, I said forget it and made her an appointment with Beth and Dr. Chen. This turned out to be a fantastic idea for a few reasons. The first is that I brought Hannah with me to my last two dental appointments so she has met Beth before and seen me lounging around in the dentist chair with the light in my face and the tools in my mouth.

Another reason is that Dr. Chen and Associates turned out to be a really kid friendly establishment. Beth had promptly outfitted Hannah in a pair of green star-shaped shades to block the glaring light and chatted comfortingly, explaining exactly what she was doing or about to do the whole time I was in there.

The crazy thing is that I wasn't in there the whole time. We got there late so I hung back in the waiting room to fill out paperwork, and Hannah just followed Beth back with no hesitation and no backward glances at me.

I snuck back with my phone to snap some pics as soon as I had checked all the appropriate boxes, and my dad and Sondra snuck back for some pics too. They were off work for Veteran's Day and showed up at the house a few minutes before Hannah got home from school, so they got to tag along for Hannah's first dentist appointment. (The Hannah fan club cleared out when the dentist came in to give him a bit of breathing room.)

They even had paste in Hannah's favorite flavor: blueberry. Too bad Toms of Maine doesn't carry that one!

After the polish, Beth handed Hannah the spit-sucker thing and taught her how to use it. She was a little confused by it, but honestly, so am I, and I've had a lot more practice.  I don't get it--is it supposed to just suck up your spit? Because I don't think it does a great job; I feel like you actually need to spit into it to get it to empty out your mouth. Is that normal?

After the exam Beth let Hannah pick out a new toothbrush and then stuffed a mask and some rubber gloves in the to-go bag so Hannah could play dentist at home. (Beth doesn't wear the mask with kids because it tends to freak them out, but she showed it to Hannah in the beginning and explained that she normally wears it so Hannah wasn't worried when Dr. Chen came in donning one.)

After filling up the goodie bag, Beth led Hannah to a cardboard treasure chest and told her she could pick a piece of treasure to take with her. Hannah picked a blue bracelet. On the way out, she found the giant plastic teeth and toothbrush and took some time to polish up those bad boys like Beth had taught her.

And then we walked home! Have I mentioned that I LOVE being able to walk to the dentist?? I don't think it's something many people can claim. City life has its perks.

Everyone gets a weekend away

Eric and I took a whole weekend off, our first one since Hannah was born, and hid out in the mountains indulging ourselves. It was partially a belated celebration of our 4th anniversary (October 24) and partially just an overdue need to get some grown-up quality time. We don't date much--I'm too tired by the time I get her to bed and don't have a huge interest in doing traditional date activities like dinner, drinks, and movies--so quality time is scarce.

We are also figuring that since there's another bun in the oven, it will most likely be another 3 years before we can take our second weekend away. I'm not much of a pumper, and I nursed Hannah for 2 years and intend to the do the same with the second, so if you're nursing and not pumping, it means you're pretty much chained to the kid. It's fine though. I've come to trust Grammy with Hannah since I know she'll follow my rules, even if she doesn't agree with them, but I like to keep my babies close while they're babies so I imagine that like his sister, he'll be at least 2, if not older before I leave him overnight. We'll see though; maybe he'll take after his dad and be more laid back than his super high-maintenance sister, and who knows, maybe I'll be more laid back than I was with Hannah! Hah! Unlikely, but anything is possible.

Eric originally suggested we go to a bed and breakfast in Hagerstown but I nixed this idea immediately. First of all, I don't like the idea of a bed and breakfast. I'll try one someday, but for now, I'd rather have the autonomy of a hotel. Second, just having breakfast means we have to eat the rest of our meals out, and I have yet to find a restaurant in Hagerstown that I like. Anyway, who wants to vacation in the town where they grew up?? Not me. So I suggested that hotel near Chesapeake Beach that has a spa because if we're going to do this, I want to do it right, and doing it right means I also get a massage. Then Eric reminded me of the Rocky Gap Resort and Lodge. Perfect! We booked a room and a massage before he left for Germany.

After picking up Hannah from school on Friday, we drove straight to Hagerstown. Grammy met us at the outlets because they're right off the highway, and because, as usual, she wanted to take Hannah shopping. Fortunately saying goodbye is harder for us than for Hannah who waved distractedly and then gave the obliging kiss when requested.

We hopped back in the car and drove a little farther west. At check-in, Eric asked if they happened to have any suites available (all were booked when we made the reservations and we weren't holding anything back on this weekend away--it's too rare a thing for us, and anyway, he had extra per diem money from his trip to Germany). They did have one open so we went and checked it out along with the room our reservations were for. The suite was an additional $80 a night, and the main reason I wanted it was for the garden tub with jets. I knew I wouldn't be taking advantage of the hot tub due to the baby in the belly, and I was craving being submerged in hot, bubbly water. We splurged and took the suite.

It had two rooms with a connecting balcony overlooking the lake. The first room had an electric fireplace that made a great backdrop for our Saturday evening Rummy game.

The other room had a king bed with these giant Roman-type pillar/posts. I love king beds. It's the only way you can sleep with another person and sleep like you're sleeping alone which is critical for a very light sleeper like myself. I hope to someday own a king-sized bed.

After we settled in to our room on Friday, we donned our hiking shoes and went exploring. We found this super cool, old graveyard.

We also found a lot of trees that had been gnawed on by beavers.

The white stripe around the bottom of these trees is the beaver damage. Every single tree in that section had been gnawed on. I don't know if takes beavers a few days to fell a tree or if they just got discouraged and gave up and moved to the next one over and over and over again.

Here's a view of the lake from this small corner.

 Then we abandoned that part of the lakeside trail and hiked out to this overlook to admire the view.

As the sun dropped lower in the sky, we made our way back to the lodge. This is a pic of the beach in the distance (on the other side of the lake from where we had been exploring).

That night we took advantage of the seafood buffet, gorging ourselves on way more food than we should have eaten, then we rolled our fat bellies back to our room and crashed.

We had wanted to hike the whole way around the lake the next morning, a nearly 6 mile hike, but it didn't work out. The guy at the adventure booth let us know that the junior hunters were on the other side of the lake today so we should wear bright colors. Eric wasn't thrilled with going anywhere near the junior hunters, and really, I couldn't blame him. It was a good deterrent. Anyway, my massage was at 1:00 that afternoon, and we couldn't move it and didn't think we had enough time for the full hike since we'd lollygagged around that morning. Instead we hiked partially around the lake, starting on the opposite side of the beaver-damaged area. We walked by the beach and made it all the way around to the campground.

After scoping out the campground, which we plan to take advantage of next summer (if this baby is easier than Hannah), we started our trek back. A mile marker let us know that the total hike would be more than 4 miles. Pre-pregnant Terri would not have been phased by this, but pregnant Terri had some super sore feet and legs before we'd even made it out of the campground and my hands were swelling and tingling. The massage was awesome. So was the garden tub, which I took full advantage of all weekend.

Hannah didn't seem to miss us at all though she did call to say good night on Friday night and tell us about her new pajamas (one pair pictured below). She also picked out a long-sleeve red shirt to complete her Ladybug Girl outfit, some new shoes (a $10 pair of bright blue Adidas), and her new boots which were not on sale and not cheap, but she insisted and Grammy seems to have a hard time telling her granddaughter no when it comes to shopping. She was wearing her new boots when we went to pick her up on Sunday and had apparently had not take them off much since getting them. She says they look like mine, and indeed, they do. She also picked out an Etch-a-Sketch and figurines of the family from the Olivia series.

(Grammy gets credit for the rest of the photos in the blog.)

On Saturday they went to play with Clay and spent much of the morning throwing leaves on each other in the backyard. I'm glad she got to participate in this classic fall activity because it's not something she can do at home in the city since we have no yard.

After hanging with Clay and Mason and Uncle Chip, Grammy and Hannah met Aunt Pam at the toy store. Pam had sent Hannah a gift card for her birthday, but there is no Toys R Us near us in Baltimore so we sent it back with Hannah and she picked out a present this weekend. Grammy convinced her to look at everything in the store before settling on something, but it was all over after Hannah found the FurReal toys. She picked up a puppy that barks and throws itself around obnoxiously and refused to put it down. Given her previous toy choices, this one did not surprise me.

They also went to the library for books and movies and to the grocery store to pick out meals. Throughout it all, Hannah was just eager to get back to Grammy's. She likes to hole up there, I guess.

Before Grammy went to bed on Saturday, she emailed me some Hannah-isms which had me and Eric cracking up:

• As she drops her pants while brushing her teeth this morning - "Sorry, I'm just a little naked." 
• "You're washing dishes, your hands will be soo smooth."
• From the bathtub -"Close your eyes so my robe can't see you."
• In the grocery store as we pass the donut case - "I think I'd really like a donut. Can you get me a healthy one?" (We got her favorite coconut 'ice cream' instead)
• While playing with little toys (and making them talk) - "Without wallpaper, we wouldn't have anywhere to sit!"
• "Your floor is a little cold" (me: "put your socks back on.") "No, I wore them all day and they make my feet tired." 

I really like the next to last one about wallpaper and would like to know the context of this sentence...I would also like to know why she was dropping her pants and brushing her teeth at the same time--Grammy?? Also, I should note that Eric and I high-fived at the thought of our daughter not knowing what a donut was. Grammy left that part out, but when she relayed the story to us, it began by walking by the donut case and Hannah asking what those were. I take great pride in the fact that she knows what kale is but not donuts. 

I wish I could say she was thrilled to see us when we showed up on Sunday, but she was actually a little bummed because we came when she was just about finished with lunch, and Grammy had promised her some of her coconut sorbet when lunch was over. I think she thought that since I was there, I'd put a halt to that, or maybe drag her out before she could eat her sorbet. Once I assured her that she could still eat her sorbet, she simmered down and gave us a big hug and a smile and started showing us all the loot she'd made out with.

Later when I asked what her favorite part of the weekend was she got a big grin on her face and said "eating ice cream!" What can I say, she may recognize kale over a donut, but she's still a typical kid who is easily won over by cold, sugary treats.

It's a boy!

In case you haven't heard yet, this one is a boy. We had the sonogram last Tuesday. Eric has been grinning ear-to-ear since the sonogram tech pointed to the space between the baby's legs and asked what we thought that was. Prior to pointing out his little penis, the tech asked Hannah if she wanted a brother or a sister. Hannah had the same answer as usual: sister. In spite of that, she wasn't upset by the news that she'd be having a brother. She is still very excited for us to have a baby.

I am also excited in many ways and incredibly intimidated in others. It'll be nice to have the opportunity to have a hand in raising someone who I hope will turn out to be a totally awesome, well-adjusted, emotionally stable, compassionate, and intelligent man. At the same time, I have a brother, and being his sister from the time he was about 13 until he was mid twenties while he battled severe drug and alcohol addiction was brutal; I can't even imagine how much harder it must have been to be his mother. Really, I don't know a lot of men who don't have addictions or haven't had an addiction at some point in their lives (though none as drastic as my brother). Even a lot of the guys I know who are totally put together, fully functioning members of society drink waaaaaaay too much a little too often. And yeah, I realize that addiction has nothing to do with gender (and yes, I remember my own own days of over-partying and drinking way too much way too many nights out of the week) and that Hannah has every bit as much chance of ending up with a problem as the little boy in the belly, especially given all the genes for alcoholism that are coming at these kids from both my side and Eric's side; I know that logically, but emotionally, I'm carrying a bit of childhood baggage. Don't worry, I'm working it out with my therapist, and in spite of that un-realistic and unfound paranoia, I am looking forward to a new challenge and to learning as much as I can about raising a boy.

Mmmmkay, enough of my ranting and public worrying. Without further adieu, here are the first pics of the little guy.

He's yawning in this next one. Cute, huh?

 

These next pics are a little weird, and really, I don't understand how they did it and wish they would have asked prior to doing it because it seems to me that it can't be healthy for the baby, but I don't really know, maybe it's no different than the other kind of sonogram. Anyone know?

I wasn't surprised when she said it was a boy though. This pregnancy has seemed a lot harder than the first. I'm not sure if it's just because I also have a 3-year-old and take no naps (I napped daily when pregnant with Hannah), or if it really is worse, but it definitely feels a lot more brutal. Even now, when the food aversions and the first trimester sicky-sick feelings are long gone, I still have no energy. I get winded going up the stairs and my quads burn when I get to the top. Pathetic. Yesterday I went on a measly 4-mile hike, and today I have sore legs and shin splints. Who am I??  Being pregnant with Hannah didn't slow me down at all--I was still making it to a couple of spin classes a week and a couple of Body Pump classes too. These days, I'm lucky if I make it to the gym twice a week, and I'm barely making it through my usual Pilates/barre workout.  I hate feeling so weak. I'm trying to be kind to myself and patient and compassionate, I really am, but it's hard. It's hard to be incapable of things I've always been more than capable of.

On that note, it's off to bed with me. That hike yesterday seriously took it out of me, and my eyes are beyond heavy.

Updated 11/12/12:
I forgot a pic yesterday! I took this one of Hannah while we were waiting and waiting and waiting in the waiting room for our sonogram tech who was running late. Grammy folded a newspaper into a funny little hat, and then Hannah made a funny face.

Hannah's first field trip

I chaperoned Hannah's first class field trip on Monday. We rode the school bus (Hannah's first bus ride!) to Rodgers' Farm which is just a few miles west of the school. Hannah and I visited this farm last year (I can't find that post though or I'd link to it), and although we enjoyed it, we think Weber's is a lot more fun.

We started our tour in front of the giant corn maze where our guide explained in far more detail than was necessary for a group of 3- and 4-year-olds all of the various uses for corn and how many food products it's found in. He held up a box of Trix, which I know Hannah has never seen before, and a bottle of corn syrup explaining that although the kids might not know what it is, it's in all the sweet stuff they eat. The other mom's and I kept exchanging smiling/shocked glances. Parts of his presentation were far too advanced for that age group (even I was bored) and parts just did not apply to a lot of the kids at the school, and certainly not my kid who doesn't even get the multi-grain O's cereal more than every couple months (the boxes go stale in our cupboard).  Everyone had a good sense of humor about it, but it was definitely not tailored to the Montessori lesson plan. Toward the end of the corn presentation, prior to taking the kids in to the first checkpoint of the maze, he asked that the little boys all remember not to run. Someone yelled out "and girls!" and he corrected his comment to include girls. If he'd seen how insanely quickly Hannah ran through the other mazes we've taken her to, he wouldn't have singled out the boys on that one.

We traipsed through a bit of the corn maze and then headed over to the animals. The cow walked right over to the fence to wait for the pumpkin the guide threw over for it snack on. Prior to that, Hannah tried to feed it an ink pen that she'd pulled out of the dirt when we first arrived. I pocketed the pen.

I'm not really sure what was said about the animals; it was absolutely freezing outside, and we were losing interest.

After the animals we walked into the pumpkin patch and the kids all picked a small pumpkin to take home. On our way to the tractor ride, Hannah hopped behind the wooden corn cob and asked me to take a picture.

After the tractor ride it was play time, and this, obviously, was the highlight of the visit. Hannah ran and jumped all over the stacked up hay bales, and then came home and continued jumping off of things, like our bed. Eric cautioned her about jumping from so high up, and she replied "It's okay, I'm a good jumper."

While watching her run around the hay bales, one of the other moms in her classroom said that she was in the classroom the other day helping with a craft and Hannah was cracking her up. This mom has a young baby, and Hannah clung to that information and talked a lot about it and also about the baby in my belly. At one point, she even told the mom "You can just sit here and relax, and I'll take care of the kids." I think I got that quote right; if not, I'm close. Anyway, the mom said she had to stifle her laughter and was thinking to herself, "aren't you the youngest kid in the class?" Hannah is not actually the youngest--there is one other girl who is 4 days younger than her--but she's close. That sounds like Hannah though. She's incredibly caring and articulate, and also a bit bossy. She gets that from her mama.

Anyway, I'm really grateful to have a flexible job that enables me to take off on a Monday morning to chaperone field trips with Hannah and her class, and I'm looking forward to continue being as  involved as possible in her classroom life.

The BSO, a Greek festival, and trick-or-treating on The Ave

After a very long 2 weeks away, Eric is home again, and he made it back in time for a really fun weekend. On Saturday morning we had tickets to Wizards and Wands, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's first family concert of the season.  I had only bought two tickets since Eric's original flight had him arriving home on Saturday evening rather than Friday evening, but I was able to purchase a third ticket online on the morning of the performance for a seat directly behind the other two--perfectly serendipitous!

The highlight of the show was the performance put on by the Enchantment Theatre Company while the orchestra played Paul Dukas' Sorcerer's Apprentice, and fortunately, this performance followed the playing of Baba Yaga which the conductor, Ken Lam, introduced as a song written about a wicked old woman who kidnapped children and ate them. I cringed when he said that knowing that Hannah, sitting in the row in front of me with Eric, was no longer enjoying the show as a result of that comment. I thought we'd have to leave early but she made it through that song, and then the next one had actors from the theater company dressed up as enchanted broomsticks dancing around being silly, and that saved the day so we made it through the whole performance after all.

After the performance we walked across the street to the Greek festival for lunch. Earlier that morning Demetrios let me know that if I could resist the food vendors in the tent, the really good stuff was in the basement of the church, so we made straight for the church and chowed down on all Athenian shrimp and braised leg of lamb and dolmas (my favorite) and spanakopita and all sorts of other yumminess.

Since I didn't get a pic at the BSO, I busted out the camera phone at lunch and captured the fam striking a most attitude-laden pose.

After lunch I beelined for the honey puffs. Super yum. Hannah was happy with her little shortbread tart, which was good because it meant more honey puffs for me. 

We snuggled on the couch in front of a movie when we got home and then putzed around until it was time to trick-or-treat at the various merchants on The Avenue. Hannah decided to dress as Merida again, and Kylie came over dressed as Sleeping Beauty.

I wish I could remember the name of this store...it's been there forever and always has the best window dressings. The girls stopped to admire the various body parts, some skeleton, some mannequin, some unknown.

The chairs in front of Atomic Books were also a big hit. The comic book "treats" that the store gave out were a big hit with me since I was already wondering what we were going to do with all the candy we collected. A few of the comics were even age appropriate and were read multiple times today.

After ransacking every store for everything they had, we trudged home with cold noses and a heavy bag of candy. Hannah loved her first trick-or-treating experience and never even asked for any of the candy. I thought about letting her have a piece, but since she didn't ask, I figured why offer? Eric will take it to work with him tomorrow and share it with his sailors, and I will sleep well knowing that I let Hannah participate in a quirky, fun, traditional American activity without having to sacrifice her health in the process. Everybody wins.

It was really fun-filled day, and although Hannah and I would have had fun no matter what, I'm glad Eric made it back the night before because him being there doubled the awesomeness of the day.