Birthday Party!

Hannah had an absolutely wonderful birthday party this year. I can certainly say that #2 was so much more fun than #1. Although Hannah's first birthday was a milestone in her life and it certainly reminded Jon and me of how far she'd come in her first year, she really wasn't all that into her birthday last year....she ate some cake, she checked out her presents, and played a little, but that was about it. This year....this year was different.

Hannah's wonderful babysitter, Lisa, made her birthday cake. We'd been talking about her birthday during the week, and when the Elmo cake came into the house on Friday afternoon, she went nuts. All she could talk about was her "Elmo cake" and "Hannah's birthday". It was so much fun to watch. We scheduled her party for Saturday afternoon so she'd be refreshed from her nap and our family from out-of town could make it, since no one from my side of the family was able to make it to her first birthday party. We decorated during her nap, so she woke up to a few Elmo decorations hanging from the ceiling, and Elmo plates & cups sitting out on the counter. She LOVED it!! She is now a pro at opening presents and wanted to play with each new toy as she opened it. We had a hard time convincing her to move on to the next gift! After presents we had City BBQ for dinner, which was very yummy and it meant that no one had to cook. We ended the night with a very, very yummy cake.

It was a great day for everyone - we had a houseful of family and a few friends. Hannah is really developing her own personality and it is so much fun to watch her grow up and become more independent. After Hannah went to bed we managed to visit for a little bit before everyone left. I love it when our house is full of family and friends enjoying each other's company.

Enjoy the pictures!

Hannah's cake

Hannah's new play dough

(until now, we only had the homemade kind!)

Books & Puzzles - What Fun!!

Jaidyn is so excited about the presents that she forgets that she's only 7 months old...this little turkey is trying to walk!!

Hannah's friend Jake brings her a present

(and Hannah is wearing the new Elmo backpack from Grandma Folger...she didn't want to take it off all evening!)

Cousin Gavin likes the wrapping paper!
Gavin's other love -- Hannah's car!!
Hannah wasn't too sure about the lit candles in front of her or everyone singing...and she really didn't want anything to do with blowing out the candles, either.
However, she was interested in licking the Elmo sugar cubes that were helping to decorate the cake....
She may have been on sugar overload after the Elmo sugar cube because she really didn't want much cake, and was actually asking me to go upstairs for her bath/bedtime.
Grandma Folger introduces Jaidyn to the "birthday cake" song.....and like the rest of us, Jaidyn isn't too sure about it.....

"Help, what is this lady doing singing...."

In the end, Jaidyn thinks the song is funny....as did everyone else. Mom used to use it in her kindergarten classroom and every now and then she'll break it out and sing it at a birthday party. The first time I remember it was for my Grandpap Catney when he turned 75...it garnered some laughs then, and still does!

Susan reads to the kids
"okay guys - show me your teeth!"

Uncle Josh meets Jake's new sister, Megan, who attended her first party at 10 days old!

As usual, Hannah begged for a bath with Jake, so we did bathtime together.

After Susan's story about "teeth" Hannah keeps pointing to Jake's teeth!

A very excited girl at the end of her big party day!

In the weeks since Hannah's party, she has frequently asked about having an Elmo cake and presents. Apparently, it's difficult to explain to a child that you only have one birthday a year. I think that having her birthday less than a month from Christmas (which we celebrated twice) has made her think that every time we have people coming to the house that she's getting an Elmo cake and presents.

Hannah is 2!!!

Our girl is two years old. Wow. I've been diligently working on her baby book recently, and it amazes me how far she has come in two short years. I hardly recognize the little 1580 gram (3lbs, 8oz) baby that is in those early pictures....even the one year old from last year seems so little and so much like a baby to me compared to the girl I know now.

What we've got now is a toddler...a little lady with an opinion and an ever-increasing vocabulary that is becoming quite the communicator. If we don't know what she's trying to say, she just keeps talking louder until she is yelling the word and pointing until we understand. It's so funny to watch her finally nod with an "okay" and smile when we get it right! Sometime after Thanksgiving she had a "word explosion." Hannah was previously diagnosed with a delay in speech and wasn't using too many words, but the words just started coming one day and now she is mimicking everything and is saying a new word (or ten) every day. Of course, her latest favorite word is "no," but isn't that the case with every toddler?

Hannah has a real sense of humor and wants to help with everything. She tries to tickle us, wants to jump on the bed, loves splashing in the tub, and enjoys telling Abby to "come" and go "in" her cage. Abby doesn't listen at all, but that doesn't stop Hannah from issuing directions. Hannah loves Abby and gives her a hug and kiss goodnight when she goes to bed. It's just too cute. She also loves to kiss her Daddy to snag a Reece Pieces or any other snack that Daddy has around. Hannah has recently figured out how to take off her pants (and her diaper) - she loves to run around naked and laugh. She'll also demand that I give her a bath and put her to bed. She's a good sleeper, which is so nice - she's down for about 12 hours at night and we can count on a 2-hour nap every afternoon. We're really fortunate in that regard, maybe since she tortured me for 2 solid months as a baby wanting to nurse every 30-90 minutes around the clock! Maybe she sleeps so well because she is so very active - our kid is a monkey. Just the other night Hannah was standing on the edge of the couch telling us "watch Mommy," "Hannah jump" and jumping off the edge - if she'd fall, she'd just laugh hysterically on the floor and climb back up again. She climbs onto chairs, the stairs, ladders, and has started up a bookcase or two...she has NO FEAR. She also loves to stir when we're cooking, enjoys "washing" the dishes, offers to take stuff to the trash (diapers, napkins, anything that resembles trash), and is (relatively) good about putting away her toys.

Hannah loves her baby doll and tries to wipe and change it...and feed it...and stroll it through the house. She also LOVES the kitchen she got for Christmas from Uncle Daniel and is constantly offering to make us food or offering us hot dogs or something to drink. She's getting better at coloring with crayons and is starting to request her crayons from the shelf. She also loves books and reading. She's starting to recognize what comes next in some of her books and will call out what is coming up and she definitely has favorites. It's so much fun to watch her personality develop!

As far as her physical stats go, she is 23 1/2 pounds - the 10th percentile. Since she broke out of the 3rd percentile a few doctors' appointments ago, she's been holding steady at 10th, and we're quite okay with that. However, her height is an entirely different story. Hannah is 36" tall....the 95th percentile. Boy, does she take after her Daddy! She had a huge growth spurt between her 18 and 24 month appointments and blew through two clothing sizes in only 6 months (of course, the problem now is that pants that are long enough don't stay up!). It will be interesting to see where she is in July. Our pediatrician was really happy with her development and thinks she is a great little girl, and we do too!

Hannah on her birthday (1/21/10) at dinner
looking out at the world with the eyes of a 2-year old for the first time (since she officially turned 2 at 10:21pm, she was only 1 when she went to bed) My 2-year old is all ready to go!

Happy Birthday, Hannah!!!!

(I love this picture!)

Hannah's New Room

We moved Hannah into her big-girl room over Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend. Originally, I'd planned to have her new room all ready to go on Thursday night, so we'd have 4 days to adjust to the change (in case she was up at night) before having to go back to work. As usual, things didn't go as planned. I worked late on Thursday, so I was still moving stuff around on Friday.

During Hannah's nap on Friday afternoon, I finished moving everything around - mind you, I was home alone moving a queen-sized bed out, twin in, and a rocking chair, dressers around, etc. Moving furniture is sometimes like therapy to me -- get all of your frustrations out with the pushing and pulling of heavy stuff!

We had painted the guest room a light green during my first trimester with Hannah, and the color ended up working out to be Hannah's new room. I never did a real nursery for her since I went into the hospital before we even knew for sure that we were having a girl....and the nursery isn't for the baby anyway, right? As a result, Hannah's "nursery" was done in primary colors and was the same theme the 3-year old boy who used to live in our house had. We did have some flowery sheets for the crib, but that was it. So, her "big girl" room would be my first chance to decorate for my girl, and to me it was more fun to do it now that I know her personality and can see her experience it for the first time. My sister-in-law, Danila, and I found the bedding at the Pottery Barn Kids outlet for WAY CHEAP. I'd had my eye on a different pattern, but cheapskates can't be choosy - especially when the price is right. So, we found this adorable polka-dot pattern that worked with the current wall color and a theme was born. I ordered her wall art of of Etsy and found some really cute stuff!

When Hannah woke up from her nap I took her to show off her new room. Hannah was thrilled!!! She kept running through the room saying "Hannah's room" and "my room" and "Hannah's bed" and checking everything out. It was so much fun and she was so genuinely excited. I loved it. Here are the pictures (sorry there are so many, but I wanted to include her excitement over the room without doing another post!):

Hannah climbed into her chair right away and asked me to read books!
Then, she ran over to her bed and started to jump on it like they monkeys in the book....it was hilarious!

This is what the finished room looks like. Her bed is just a box spring and mattress on the floor (so we don't have to worry about rails or anything like that yet). I didn't have the wall art up when we first moved her in, but it is up now.

Wall art over the bed
(the pictures that show an "H" are from when I had the template taped up to test where I wanted to put the final product)

Monkey Pictures

After I ordered these I found animals that had polka dots around the edge in the exact colors of her bedding (from the same artist) and I thought I wanted to use them instead. However, once I got both sets, Jon said he really preferred the monkeys, especially since Hannah is such a climber. Hannah actually likes the monkeys too -- she kept saying "Mommy, Monkeys!" when I hung them up and she tells them "good night monkey" every night.

Hannah cuddling with her blankie and bear
(really her room doesn't need anything, as long as she has that blankie and bear to tuck under her belly when she sleeps)

Hannah seems like such a big girl now that she's in her "big girl" room. Her diapering supplies are in a dresser drawer, and she gets out what she needs when she needs a "change" and lays down on the floor....she wants to pick out her own clothes, and tells you what books you'll read at night. She tells me who she wants to pray for (usually Abby, Daddy, Lisa, Emma, Brandon, and Aunt D...not Mommy....although recently she has started to include Grandma and Pap-pop (at least that what I think she says) and some other friends and relatives. She tells me to turn of the light so it is dark in her room, and when I tell her "goodnight" she tells me to "sleep tight" and "I luff you"....which melts my heart. She is growing up so very fast!

"Working"

Hannah is "working"....a reminder of how much kids pick up just by observation. She loves to type on my work BlackBerry.

One of my New Year's resolutions was to not be on the computer on days that I work from whenever I get home until after she goes to bed - if I am only home for 2 hours before she goes to bed on the 4 days a week that I work, I certainly don't need to spend them on a laptop. So far so good.

I'll admit that Fridays are a different story because although I don't have to go downtown to work and I'm technically "off," clients still have needs and sometimes I have to tend to them. I do try to keep BlackBerry checking to a minimum and at set times and then work only during naptime, but sometimes life isn't always that neat and easy. The last big deal I did, I had the laptop set up at the kitchen counter and I was on and off of conference calls all day on a Friday (oh and not to mention on the BlackBerry at the Rec Center's indoor pool with a friend watching both of our kids while I tried to find an email from a banker that someone at work needed "immediately")....but that's life. And I'll take a crazy Friday every now and then to have that extra day at home with my kiddo!

This girl loves bubble wrap!

A sheet of bubble wrap can keep Hannah entertained for 15 minutes -- probably the longest amount of time any one activity can hold her attention. She'll examine it and dance all over it. She finds it hilarious that it pops!