Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Quiet weekend, not so quiet baby

UPDATE:  I counted over the weekend and Hannah has a vocabulary of 23 words!

Hannah is almost 15 months and is just chatting and babbling all of the time.  Last weekend we spent our time at home for the first time in a while.  Friday night we went to Tot Shabbat, Saturday morning we went to the bookstore, and Sunday morning we went to the park, but other than that we were at home all weekend.  We played, A LOT, and had a cranky, napless Sunday (yikes!).  Hannah is so fun right now, cranky or not.  She is responsive to questions and will say "da" for yes or "no" for no.  Some other words she is saying now: "ni ni" for night night or go to sleep, bye, hey, "na no" for all gone, ball, "wa wa" for water, tee tee, baby, of course doggie dada&  mommy, and there are probably others I can't think of right now.  Also, if you ask her what sound a cow makes she moos!  We are amazed at how smart she is, and she picks up on things so quickly.

A few blogs that I read are private or plan to go private soon.  I am considering this, but kind of want some feedback.  You would have to subscribe to my blog by giving me your email address.  If you do not give me your email address you will not be able to view the blog.  I know that my friends and family look at the blog, but I also know that some friends of friends look at it, too.  I don't mind if people that I don't really know read my blog, as long as I know your connection to me.  So, if you feel strongly about me going private or staying public please let me know!

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Aahh... finally, a trip to the beach!

This past weekend was packed with travel, holidays, birthdays and fun.  On Thursday afternoon we headed down to Mobile for Passover.  Hannah slept most of the way, so Jason got to listen to his book on tape while I read with Dooley sitting in my lap.  We got there and Nana was getting dinner ready.  Hannah played outside with Aunt Mara, Uncle Phillip, Uncle Robert and the three doggies.  She was having so much fun running around the patio.  Later we sat down to a nice seder, and Hannah did ok.  She lost patience towards the end, but overall did well.  We had a yummy meal of gefilte fish, matzo ball soup, brisket, spinach casserole, potato casserole (my all time fav), apple casserole, and cheesecake and chocolate cake for dessert.  Needless to say we were all stuffed!  Friday morning we hung out with the fam and then got in the car to head to New Orleans.  We had lunch at Lucy's in New Orleans and then met Gigi and Pops at their hotel.  Jason, Hannah, Gigi and I walked down to Jackson Square to let Hannah run around, drank yummy daiquiris, and went back to the hotel.  We took a cab to the Pat O'Brien's on the River where the party was taking place.  We were the first to arrive, so Hannah got to run around and play with all of the balloons (by far her favorite part of the evening).  Scott showed up around 8:30 and was "surprised" to see all of his friends and family gathered for a 30th birthday party.  We left the party around 10pm and got in the car (again... ugh) to drive down to the beach.  I fought to stay awake, but didn't even make it to Slidell before I fell asleep.  We got to the condo around 1:15am and got the car packed and Hannah back down to sleep.  Sunday morning we woke up to a gorgeous day!  Jason walked over to the beach to get our tent and chairs set up while I fed Hannah breakfast and got her greased up with suntan lotion.  We walked over to the beach around 9am.  Keep in mind this was Hannah's first sand experience.  We went to the beach last year but never took her to the sand, only the pool.  As soon as we walked off of the stairs and into the sand she started crying; and I was holding her!  I think she was crying because she saw the water, and, thanks to her swimming lessons, is now afraid of all water (bath, pool, gulf, etc.).  So I carried her down to where our tent was set up and sat down in her tent with her.  I played with her bucket and shovel, and after about 10 minutes she was having a great time.  She loved making Mommy and Daddy fill her bucket up with water and now says wawa.  She would walk about halfway to the water, the safe zone, and dance with excitement while she waited for the return of her bucket.  She had so much fun, and it was so fun to watch.  We spent about 2 1/2 hours out there before we headed back for lunch.  Just as we were coming back to the condo Nana arrived with Dooley to spend the afternoon with us.  She took us to a delicious lunch at Cobalt, and then spent the afternoon with me on the porch while Hannah napped and Jason went back to the beach.  Hannah woke up around 3:30 and played with Nana for a little bit before she had to head back to Mobile.  That afternoon we went back over to the beach for a little bit more sand and sun, and then came back to cook dinner.  Sunday morning was beautiful so we thought we were going to get another great day at the beach.  Unfortunately, it was ridiculously windy, so we could only stand to be out there for an hour before we gave up.  We went back and cleaned up, packed up and had lunch before leaving to head back to Birmingham.  We stopped at the Strawberry Festival on the way home... total waste of time, and made it back to Birmingham around 6:30pm.  Although busy, we had a great weekend full of fun and lasting memories.  Below are a few pictures.  I do have more on my video camera so I will upload those later.

Hannah and her Pop on the balcony at Pat O'Brien's on the River.

Hannah met the Easter Bunny at Uncle Scott's birthday party!  Despite the look on her face she was actually not scared.  She wanted to touch the bunny's nose.
Enjoying a beautiful afternoon at Jackson Square.
Of course, she looks at the camera when I'm not in the picture!
My cutie-pie!
Aunt Mara taught Hannah how to throw ice at the dogs.
Hannah wanted to get in the doggie cage.  She cried when I took her out!
Hannah was marching around Jackson Square.  This is the little walk/dance move she does when she is really happy and/or we let her roam free.
Jason found himself a hiding spot when we were playing in Jackson Square.  This picture is actually taken from pretty far away!

I took the picture above on our way out of the parking lot in New Orleans.  She fell asleep immediately and slept the entire car ride to the beach.



Daddy's empty beer bottle makes a great toy!  I took this one for you Jason!
It was so windy on Sunday that Hannah couldn't walk straight!  You can tell by her hair that the wind was blowing!

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Wordle, part 2

Last weekend Hannah accompanied me on a business trip to Mobile.  We, of course, stayed with Nana, Papa and Robert, who were more than happy to babysit Hannah while I was in meetings.  Friday afternoon Adrianne and Mason came over to play.  It was so fun to get our two little ones together, and they played really well together.  Saturday we went to visit The Cole's and to meet baby Mattie.  Hannah slept during most of the visit, but really wanted to stay and play with Meredith.  Big girl toys are so much more fun!

I'm still kind of wowed by the wordle website.  I have created another one for Hannah.  This time I put in my own words rather than pulling from the 
website and this is what is wordled!

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Our little fishy

Hannah has now taken two swim lessons with Coach Rebecca.  The first one was in the afternoon, so Jason and I were both able to attend.  We watched as our poor baby screamed, floated, kicked, and got dunked (this was painful).  By the end of the first lesson she was able to pull herself up on the side of the pool and turn around to sit on her behind.  All of this, of course, is caught on video, on my camera that does not speak to my computer.

For the second lesson I was trying to be sneaky.  It was scheduled for 1pm, so Coach Rebecca was just going  to pick Hannah up from her classroom and take her over to the pool.  I was supposed to be sitting in the background, watching from a distance.  But when 1:15 rolled around and there was no Hannah/Coach Rebecca, so I had to go down to Hannah's classroom to get her and page Coach Rebecca.  As soon as we walked int
o the pool area Hannah started crying... she knew what was coming.  I sat on the si
de as Hannah floated back and forth down the pool.  She SCREAMED the whole time I was there, but turned her head and waved when she passed by me, all the while still screaming!  Here are some pictures from her second lesson.