Dear Hannah, Newsletter #5 November 26, 2007
Posted by Emily in : Daily Life, Family, Friends, Islands, My Former Dog Children, My Handsome Husband, Princess Hannah, Texas, Thoughts , trackbackDear Hannah,
You are now 16 months old. You are growing and changing so fast, I can’t keep up! You are my favorite child, and I can honestly say that because you are my only child. You are such a happy baby. It seems the most common question I get from other people is, “is she always this happy?” I have to say, “YES”. You are so happy to be alive and play with your hand-me-down-Saba-toys. You love life, and I guess, what kid wouldn’t be happy to wake up on a beautiful island every day?
You love your sleep. Let me rephrase; you LOVE, LOVE, LOVE your beauty rest. And I love that you love it! You are like clock work. You go to bed at 6:30 PM, you’re up at 6:00 AM, you go back down for your morning nap at 8:00 AM (for one hour), then you take your afternoon nap at 12:30 for two and half hours. Your dad and I read a book that taught us how to teach you how to go to sleep, stay asleep, and wake up happy. I always know when it is exactly 6:00 AM, and not because the sun is rising. You wake up singing, talking, or jumping in your crib. Ah, if we could all wake up with such energy and happiness. You love to sing “daddy, daddy, daddy!” I love it too because that obviously means that you need your daddy not your mommy to go into the room and get you. On the few occasions I go in to get you (sometimes you sing “mommy!”), I can bet you will say one of three things. You will say, “hi!”, “shoes!”, or “side!” because you want to put on your shoes to go outside! Sometimes, you will meet me with a huge grin and you will be signing the word “cookie”. You are one smart cookie yourself. You know I have to reward you when you sign words correctly. It’s a good thing I have convinced you that Fig Newtons are cookies.
You LOVE to go outside and you LOVE your shoes. Both bring you equal joy. You have equated going outside with needing shoes, so the two certainly go together. This is very obvious to us because it is the first thing you think about in the morning. You will repeatedly say, “shoes!” until I put them on you. When I am changing your overnight diaper, I have to assure you that I plan to put your shoes on as soon as you your diaper is changed. We can’t have you running around naked! The neighbors already think you’re an early bird; running around the patio pushing your stroller (your most prized possession) at 6:03 AM. I don’t need you flashing them as well!
Your dad and I aren’t always ready to “rise and shine” at 6:00 AM, so after you run a few laps around the patio, we pull you back into the house and we all watch “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”. I love this show so much, I could watch it everyday. This is why we selected this movie. It helps all of us get the day started off right.
Your friends consist of our dogs, the neighbor’s kitty and your friend Deya. You learned how to say “dog” at 11 months old and everyday for the past five months, you have dutifully pointed out to to the dogs that they are in fact dogs. You walk right up to them and point at them square between the eyes and tell them, “DOG!” so they know exactly who they are and where they stand. They are most certainly clear on the fact that you are the “island princess” and they are the “island princess’ pets”. There is no question in their minds. You love the neighbor’s kitty, Marley. I think you mostly like to torture him, and he is small enough for you to pick up and chuck across the patio. The more you torture the kitty, the more you squeal. It’s kind of sick when you think about it. I don’t know why he keeps coming around.
You LOVE music. Anytime you hear music, you are compelled to dance. If you are sad (which happens when you fall down and get a BONK!) I can turn on some music and you can’t help but shake your thang. You are a great at moving your bootie and you are a great head banger. One of the grocery stores we go to, Big Rock, likes to blast music for all the shoppers. It used to annoy me because I couldn’t think over the loud noise, but now I love it because you love it so much! Everyone at that store knows you by name, and I mean everyone. You are greeted by every employee at that store and when the music is really loud, you don’t pay any attention to them because you are head banging in the shopping cart! All your fans are just waiting for your autograph, and all you can do is jam out to the music.
You also LOVE to sing. You would think that I, your mother, sing and dance ALL DAY LONG because that’s what you do! When you learn a new word, you try it out by singing it to your own tune. You sing it again, and again, and again. It is darling, but sometimes I wish you could sing two or three words! You are a doll and I LOVE how happy you are ALL THE TIME.
You love grapes. Actually, you LOVE, LOVE, LOOOOOVE grapes. You would eat them all day, for every meal if you could. You learned the ASL sign for grapes and you use it all the time since you don’t say grapes. You also LOVE apple juice, and you sign for it whenever you want a drink. When I give you milk, you are fine. But when I pull out the apple juice, you start to hyperventilate like I just pulled out the GOOD STUFF! You also like olives. Notice the word “like” isn’t the same as “love”. You are a doll when you eat them off your fingers though. You will eat almost anything except meat, and mashed potatoes. You now have your four top teeth, two bottom teeth, and three molars. Maybe you will like meat when your fourth little molar comes in.
You started walking at 11 months old. I remember on the fourth of July, you took four steps. You were quite the accomplished walker at 12 months, and at 13 months, you were running laps around the patio. You can walk the treacherous hills on Saba unaided. Your dad makes lets you walk up our STEEP driveway, (which is very steep) and I will have you walk up the steep walkway. It has been nice to not carry you all the time. It was starting to take a toll on my back.
At 11 months old, you started talking. In fact, you talk too much, I can’t really remember a time when you didn’t talk. I think you were born talking. You speak very clearly and articulately. Meaning, you don’t speak “baby”. Other adults, kids and strangers know exactly what you are saying. You speak that clearly. At 12 months you said, “oh wow!” and “hi!” ALL the time. And by ALL THE TIME, I mean like 80,000 times a day. You would say “hi” repeatedly, from the time you woke up in the morning, until you talked yourself to sleep at night. I could call Grandma P or Jenn and tell them, “Hey, Hannah says hi” and I was being very literal! You say the following words very clearly: hot, bug, uh oh, oh wow, hi, thank you, outside, side, tree, dog, moon, side, plane, boat, night night, bye, mommy, daddy, shoes, book, chair, hat, out, food, and bear. Notice how you don’t say the word “NO!” yet. Thank goodness! Your dad and I have really tried hard to use other words besides “No!” because neither one of us wanted to hear you saying that word all day, everyday. You can sign the following words using proper ASL: cookie, grapes, apple juice, milk, more, shoes, outside, light, brush teeth, finished and food. You also know all the actions to the song “Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree”. You can positively identify your eyes, cheeks, nose, teeth, hair, shoes, hands, and tongue. You are so stinkin’ cute!
What is the indicator that we are leaving the house, to go somewhere? No, not the car keys. Not shoes, or my purse in my hand either. These things that would indicate to someone else that we were heading out the door mean nothing to you. It is when I put on my sunglasses that you come running and you know we are going somewhere! You grab your hat and out the door we go! Because I wear sunglasses, you have decided that you too like to wear your sunglasses. You look like a “Rock Star Baby” when you put yours on. Too dang cute.
Living right by an airport has really piqued your interest in airplanes. The plane takes off five times a day, and you better bet that every time you hear that plane engine start you drop everything and anything you are doing (including drinking apple juice which you never give up without a fight) to go out on the patio and watch the plane take off. You reach both arms up with your palms facing each other to any adult (and I mean any adult) in the house. Paul, who is in our Branch, learned quite quickly what to do when you extended your arms to him (he was the closest adult) in need of his assistance to watch the plane take off!
You have had a busy five months. Your Aunt Lydia and Uncle Daniel came to visit you. Lydia even tried to fit you in her suitcase to take you home! It was so fun to have them here. You showed them all around Saba, and took them to the top of Mount Scenery. They loved you so much, they decided to have a baby of their very own! You will now have a new friend to play with next year.
In September, you traveled with me to California to visit your favorite Aunt Jenn and her family. You had such a great time with your cousins Ike and Zack. They followed you up and down the staircase ALL DAY LONG. They were such great babysitters!
We then went to Utah to visit both sets of your grandparents and to Texas to visit Daniel and Lydia. We left your dad alone on Saba for five weeks. He missed us so much! He said I can’t take you to the states for that long again. It was too hard for him. I can only imagine how he felt. We love you so much!
Comments»
She is SOOOO beautiful!! I can’t decide who she looks more like!! What a cutie-pie!!
She is just beautiful! And has gotten so big. That was a great post. I feel like I now know Princess Hannah!
the sudsy pic is adorable! she really is too cute!