10/31/10

Snow White and Wonder Woman

...

Some day I will have time to blog....

Love, Sam

Sea World

On Saturday (5/29) we went to Sea World. My Sister-in-law and niece and nephew are in town from Chicago so it was a great way to spend the entire day together. We hit no traffic both ways, saw lots and lots of animals, got soaked by Shamu (5 times!!!), ate some good food, and best of all we spent a great day all together!

Had to wake up the beauties from their slumber to go. Wanted to get on the road early!

Ready to see some fish!! Check out my new stroller! Im in love!

Sea World has an area Sesame Street themed. The girls loved it. Hannah found Elmo. She calls him Melmo. so cute!

Hannah chasing birds, as usual.

Uncle Chris with the kiddies on some rope thing...

Gracie helping Hannah.

Cutie patootie!

Gracie and Elijah in some bouncy thing.

Cousins!

Elmo fish ride, just like Dumbo at Dland.

Aaahhhhh!

Melisa and Natalya

my pretty girl

dolphin show

Sea Otter

Flamingo

Pretty Natalya

Brothers

They wanted to hold Elijah's hands all day. What a great little guy he is!

I love this!

All his grandchildren! Great pic!

These girlies are too cute!

Sea stars. The kids touched them, but it was chaotic at the tide pools so I didn't get a good pic.

popsicle break.

A cat nap for Natalya.

So excited to see Shamu! We were in the 8th row, the "Soak Zone". And we did get soaked! Couldn't get a pic of us actually getting soaked. We were doing all we could to keep our phones dry!

After the show, and after the shower of sea water we all got. The darn whale splashed us not once, but FIVE times, one right after the other. He had it out for our side of the arena or something. After the 2nd splash all 4 kids were crying, and there was no where to go. They kept telling us to stay in our seats. Hard to do when the kids were crying. We felt so helpless. But it was all in good fun. We are still laughing about it, and have some great memories! This is Gracie soaked.

Hannah soaked.

My Father in Law soaked.

End of a long day.

Trying to find the exit.

What a fantastic day! The End!

16 Months

Our little love turned 16 months on 4/10. Her two top eye teeth came in (FINALLY)! She now has a total of 6 teeth!! She is sleeping 12 hours at night and taking a 2 hour nap during the day. Thank you all who prayed for her, and me. I basically had to retrain her how to go to sleep on her own. After 10 long days of crying at nap time (5 of those days crying for the full 2 hours), she started sleeping!! She now sleeps for the full 2 hours in the afternoon. PRAISE!!! I actually get some time to myself!! I love those girls to death, but I need a little down time each day. So now that Hannah is sleeping, she is SO MUCH happier! No more dark eyes, no more whining ALL the time. YAY!! Happy 16 month Hannah banana!

Disney Princess

Gracie is now fully interested in ALL the Disney Princess' . We discovered a website that is JUST Disney princess'. You can dress them, print out coloring pages, and play games too. She just loves it. She is still learning how to master the mouse, but she is learning quickly. I love my little princess!!

15 months

Little Miss Hannah turned 15 months on March 10th. Man is the time flying by with her. She is an absolute joy to watch grow. She is very bright and quick. She understand sooo much, its really amazing to watch her. Probably because she has an older sister that helps her catch on. She will go put something in the trash if you tell her to, she will turn on the tv, let the doggies out, go upstairs, downstairs, understand kick and throw, time for a bath, time to brush teeth, goes to her booster when its time to eat, gets in the car all by herself, and so many other things Im sure Im forgetting. She will even go to the potty, lift up the seat, and climb on when I tell her to go pee pee in the potty. She has never gone pee pee in the potty, but one day she will, and Mama will be very happy. :)

She is eating just about everything these days except meat. She will spit out any type of meat I give her. Im not too worried, I seem to remember Gracie going through a faze like that too. She is taking a couple bottles a day of whole milk, and still breastfeeding a couple times a day too. Not sure how to wean her off of that... Im at a bit of a dilemma bc Gracie stopped nursing on her own at 14 months, but Hannah doesn't take a pacifier, so Im having bit of a struggle weaning her.

She loves to play. And really loves her stuffed animals. She will just carry them around, hold them, and kiss them. So cute to see!

She also loves TV, which Gracie did not at this age. She loves Sesame Street and Mickey Mouse.

She loves to sing. She knows most of the ABC's and the Elmo's World song. She loves my Lady Antebellum CD and sings her own words to that. Sweetie pie!!

This girl is by far our strong willed child. If she doesnt like something, man you will know it. This is challenging because Gracie was SO easy, and so easy going. But we are learning.

She loves to cuddle. If Im sitting on the ground playing with them, she will just dive into my lap. Or if Gracie is on my lap, she will push her out of the way.

We have discovered that Hannah LOVES animals, ALL ANIMALS! Anytime she sees, a bird, dog, cat, you name it, she shreeks with delight and goes running toward it. Gracie on the other hand, not too big of a fan of any animal. People always think Gracie wants to pet their dog, but she usually pushes Hannah in front of her to pet the dog because she is uneasy about it. Hannah loves it.

As far as sleeping goes...now this quite the problem in our house. Hannah has never been a fan of sleeping. She just started sleeping though the night at 12 months of age. She was taking a 2 hour nap in the afternoon, and sleeping about 11 hours at night straight, for about 2 months. LIFE WAS GREAT!!!! And then at 14 months she decided she didn't want to nap AT ALL, and wanted to sleep 9 hours at night. WHAT?!?!? Well this threw me for a loop. To be honest Im not sure what happened, but Iv'e come to the conclusion the problem was me, not her. even though I really wanted it to be her problem. Between working the night shift, and being up at night with her, and her not napping at all, I was ready to jump off a cliff!!. She would scream if I held her and only wanted to breastfeed, and then if she did fall asleep, she would wake the second I put her in her crib. Im sorry, but I can't do that, especially if I need to work that night, and take a nap myself. I was ready jump off a cliff!! Did I say that already?? Over the last couple weeks, I have been advised by some other moms, that I just need to retrain her how to sleep. So, I am currently in the process of doing that. She is sleeping better at night, about 10-11 hours straight through, but the naps are still the problem. She will nap 45min to an hour and then wake up screaming. I have decided to give her 2 hours. If she wants to sleep GREAT! If she wants to cry/scream for 2 hours, thats what she is gonna do. I am praying she will learn, that 1-3 or 2-4 is nap time, and she will be in her crib for that long. May sound bad, but she needs to learn. And she needs to nap, I refuse to believe she isn't tired. She has dark circles under her eyes. She needs the sleep. I am praying God will help her, and praying this wont take too long. It is really hard. Its times like these that I really wish she took a pacifier. Oh well. I know this will pass. I can't have 2 easy kids. How and when would I learn to be a better mommy?? God is helping me to learn how to be patient with her. Some of the best advice I got was from Dan's Aunt, and she said, letting them cry, learning to put themselves to sleep, is the first form of discipline. I believe it. She is old enough to know and learn, she cant always get what she wants. I know she is capable of taking a good nap. So I feel confident in this whole thing.

On to better news. Miss Hannah is learning so many new words. She is talking so much now, which is so GREAT. I love hearing her sweet little voice! She says.....

please

thank you

hi

bye bye

no

yes

dog

cat

up

down

eye

apple

woof woof

mama

dada

Teta (Dans Mom)

Elmo

yeah

shoes

ball

book

tootles (on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse)

pee pee

sissy

baba

more

milk

banana

strawberry

cheese (when she sees the camera)

shhhh (holds her finger to her mouth when the dogs bark)

cookie

cracker

teeth

besides talking well, she is moving like crazy. She runs and is almost jumping. She is so active, its amazing she is even on the growth chart. I love how petite she is. She is supper strong, and super quick. I think she is gonna be the soccer player in the family! :)

I think that wraps it up about Hannah. She is such a pleasure to take care of, even if she is more challenging. I thank God for her beauty and strong personality. What a blessing she is. We are so lucky to have her.