Emily’s Musings

Dear Hannah,

You are now 26 months old.  We have entered the world of Disney movies, and honestly, I’m not sure how you survived before being introduced to The Twelve Dancing Princesses.  YOU LOVE IT.  YOU HAVE TO WATCH IT.  IT IS AS IMPORTANT TO YOU AS FOOD, OR TOYS, OR YOU KNOW, SLEEP.  Not only do you request to watch this show, but you HAVE to wear your ballet shoes and put a skirt on while you watch it.  However, it doesn’t stop there.  You also request that grandma and I (and daddy and grandpa if they are around) also put on a skirt and our ballet shoes (which we don’t own).  Obviously, we can’t dance along to the movie and twirl appropriately without being dressed properly.  Inevitably, you sucker us in and we dress up like princesses too.  You are very persuasive.  I’ve mentioned this before, but it is your secret talent.



We are still living in Utah near family and you have loved every second of it.  You especially love your aunt Rachelle and cousin Katie. They love to spend time with you and often tell me they need a “Hannah fix.”  This means they are addicted to you.  You are that cute you know.



You have latched on to the idea of “getting married” from your favorite ballet movie, The Twelve Dancing Princesses.  You talk about getting married, and you can positively identify married relationships.  Like you know that daddy and I are married, and both sets of grandparents, and you know who isn’t married to each other .  .   . like uncle Brian (my twin) and I are not married.  Did I mention you’re only two?  With this kind of observation, we have high hopes that you’ll be able to solve the economy crisis in the future.



Lately, your questions consist of: “Who’s that?” and “What’s that?” and “What’s your name?”  You also like to point out the obvious and say, “Somebody’s _____ (fill in the blank here).



The very sad day has come where you don’t call your cousin “FADANNA” anymore.  You actually call her Savannah, and you say it very clearly.  As much as I love your articulate speech, I miss your baby talk.  I still love the way you say el-fa-nants (elephants) and med-sin-nin (medicine). 

Some of my other favorite phrases and words are:

Watch your toes!  Watch your hands!  Watch your feet!
Ecker-sizing (exercising)

For never and never and never (for ever and ever and ever)

Handsome Prince! (You are into Disney movies now)

Put your ballet shoes on!

Go shopping please?

Watch ballet please?

Put church on!  (put a church dress on)

‘Mantic!  (Romantic)

Nutter one (another one)

Dallin crying!

Dallin all better!

Straw-brary (Strawberry)



You are very polite.  Maybe too polite.  You walk around the house saying, “be careful!” and “I’m sorry!” and “excuse me!” in the correct context.  Every time you say one of these phrases, it plants a big smile on my face.



You are extremely observant and listen very intently to which instruments are playing when you hear music.  We listen to classical music in the car (it’s a coping measure for me to neutralize Dallin’s screaming, but I also love listening to classical music) and you are always pointing out when a flute, violin, piano, or guitar is playing.  I have found myself stopping and listening very closely to the music to hear what you hear, and sure enough you are right!  You are one clever little listener.  You are so intrigued with music.  You love to see people playing instruments, and you love to listen to it (and of course shake what your mama gave ya).  You are most interested in the violin, cello, and guitar.  You have so many interests, I don’t know how we’ll decide which lessons to enroll you in!



Did I mention you are obsessed with Dora?  BECAUSE YOU ARE.  A few days ago you threw a little stink about getting in the car to go over to grandma and grandpa Probst’s house and when I mentioned that we would take your Dora backpack and Dora fork and spoon, you were all, DORA?  MY DORA STUFF?  Suddenly, your attitude changed and lickety split, we were in the car and off the see my parents.



I’m pretty sure you’re totally confused about your size.  Every day, you are told you are either too small (for things like going to the playground unsupervised) or too big (like when you want to take a bath in Dallin’s infant bath) or too heavy (like when you request to be carried all the time) or too small (like when you want to sit in the front seat of the car).  You often refer to yourself as “too heavy” or “too small.”  These two phrases must be said to you more often than not.  I would like to set the record straight right now:  You are perfect just the way you are;  You just might be too big or too small for some of things you want to do.



I have learned that toddler fashion has nothing to do with season specific style, fit, or trend.  All you care about is WHAT’S ON IT.  If your clothing has Dora, or Winnie the Pooh on it, YOU WILL WEAR IT.  My primary goal when buying your wardrobe is finding you clothing that has stuff on it. While I don’t think silk screen shirts are the cutest, what matters is that you WILL WEAR them without making a fuss.  And honestly, the point of clothing is to cover your body, and well, you’re wearing clothes.  Mission accomplished.



You are very opinionated about what you wear.  You LOVE to wear shorts, and demand to wear them every day, even when it’s cold outside.  I’m sure you’re wondering why we want you to wear pants.  Living in the Caribbean, you didn’t even own a pair of long pants, and now we suggest you wear them every day. I know you’re thinking, why pants?  Why now?  Why ever?  The answer is BECAUSE.  As you get older, you will find out that more often than not, the answer to most things parents suggest is BECAUSE.  Which roughly translates to: I don’t think you’ll understand;  I can’t put it into words; and I don’t know why.



You love to wear your pajamas.  I can’t blame you.  If I could get away with wearing them all day (like in public) I would too.  Unfortunately, moms are looked at as “dumpy” if they wear them all day, everyday, but kids are thought of as “cute” and this unpardonable sin as an adult is very easily overlooked and forgiven as a child.  Live it up now because you won’t be able to get away with this forever.



Have I mentioned how darling you are?  Your nature is so sweet and genuine.  EVERYONE that meets you is absolutely in love with you.  I used to think I had something to do with your mild disposition, but after having Dallin, I’m positive you just came as one easy going kid and I don’t know the first thing about parenting.



You are so loving to Dallin, you are an excellent big sister.  He is very lucky to have you, and so are we.  We love you!

Love,

Mommy

I realized I had forgotten my wallet while standing in line at Walmart.  I’d like to say this has never happened to me before, but it has.  I’m always transferring purses for practicality reasons (one bag for both kids, a different bag if I’m just taking one kid, and a purse if I go somewhere alone.  I wish I was swapping them out for stylish reasons, but that was in my previous life) and during the throw-a-diaper-and-keys-into-my-purse-swap, I missed one very important item.  My wallet.

I desperately needed to buy some things today (or maybe I was just desperate to get out of the house) and you can imagine how thrilled I was to find out at the register that I had no money to pay for the goods which I had wasted good time on scouring the store to find.  Hannah was equally upset because she wanted to take her new Dora big girl panties, and Thomas the Train toothpaste home right away.  She didn’t understand why I didn’t have money, and really, I couldn’t believe my oversight either.  I remembered to pack Hannah her purse, put stuff in it (it doesn’t matter what is in her purse, it just needs to have stuff in it ) find her doll, find her doll’s hat, and pack her a drink.

I remembered these things because they were important to her.  I wish someone would pack the important things in my bag for me!

What a waste of time.

Unfortunately, I still needed the stuff!  So I drove back down to Walmart, picked up the exact items I needed, (it was faster the second time around) and came home with this lovely item:



Buying an eye mask was the most important item on my list.  It works just as expected.

Many of you might remember this picture I posted in my website a couple of years ago.  This is Hannah, sporting an eye mask of her own.  We put this on her for practicality reasons as well, (many people thought we were just trying to be funny . . . stage a photo or something . . . but we used this eye mask a lot.) because the sun was SO DANG BRIGHT when we lived on Saba (the tiny island down in the Caribbean where we lived for 2 1/2 years)



Do you notice one little teeny, tiny, difference between the photos?  Okay, maybe the sleeping arrangements?  Hannah likes to sleep on her back, in her own bed.  Dallin likes to sleep on my body, and in my bed.

It was worth driving to Walmart twice in one hour to buy this eye mask. 

There are 10 kids in my family, all from the same two parents (yes, that means no step or half siblings) who will celebrate their 48th wedding anniversary next month.  We are all married with children, except for Brian, my twin.  Getting all of us together is a huge undertaking since we all have families of our own, and some members of the family live out of the state of Utah.

Two of my sisters, Rachelle and Ang, planned a family reunion up at Bear Lake which is on the Utah/Idaho state line.  Originally, David and I hadn’t planned to attend, but our schedules were worked around and we were able to go.  This only posed a tiny problem . . .

See, my very organized sister Rachelle, rented a Lake House that would accommodate all the families that planned to attend the reunion.  And since David and I kind of decided to attend at the last minute . . . well . . . let’s just say that we were one bedroom shy of perfect accommodations.

My mom rented another condo down the street for my family to stay in so we would have a nice place to sleep.  On the afternoon of our arrival, she checked in to the condo for us and brought back the key.  With a very stressed out look on her face, she proceeded to tell me about the condo.  The unfinished furniture . . . uncomfortable chairs, tiny room, nasty wall paper, etc.  Knowing full well that I might have a gasping-for-air moment the second I stepped foot into the condo, she was positive we couldn’t stay there.  (I totally agreed.  If she thought it was bad, then so would I.  The apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree.)

In an effort to accommodate us, she asked my bachelor twin if he would give up his room and take the condo instead.  He graciously agreed. I owe him BIG time for that.



(this is my twin, Brian, making his very late grand arrival to the lake)

Poor Brian, the bed was so terrible and nasty, he slept on the couch, which was also nasty.  David mentioned how the place must have really been sub-par if a single guy wouldn’t sleep on the bed.  But then I had to remind him that this was Brian we were talking about.  You see, Brian isn’t just any old bachelor.  This is a guy who is more persnickety than I am.  He lives in Provo’s version of high-rise downtown condos, drives a black BMW, and his condo looks like a model home.  He even took the time to change all the lights in his condo to soft lighting.  It’s the artist in him.  It’s things like this that make the chicks dig him.

Aside from the sleeping arrangement drama, we had a wonderful time at the reunion.  I have 22 nieces and nephews, so the house was certainly busy with activity.  Hannah LOVED every second of it.  She mostly loves kids (of all ages) and all of her cousins were vying for her attention.



This is the Bear Lake in Idaho.  The silhouettes in the picture are my sister’s-in-law and some nieces and nephews.



This is my sister Rachelle playing with Hannah.  Hannah LOVES Rachelle and Rachelle LOVES Hannah. She tells me all the time that she needs a “Hannah Fix.”  I’m sure glad she played with Hannah in the mud because heaven knows I WOULD NOT BE ABLE TO DO THAT.



This is Hannah with her cousin Becky (who is now 18) and Ammon.



Rachelle and Brent brought their sail boat.  I didn’t sail, but David said it was awesome.



This is my brother Ben.  This is one of his classic looks.  You may not be able to tell here, but he is actually having a great time.  He brought up a boat for our enjoyment.  David went water-skiing, and said it was awesome, but kind of like skiing on the ocean.



This of course is Hannah.  She thinks she is the same size as all the big kids.  She tried really, really, hard to boogie board, but her only success was looking cute while trying.

We had a great time and we wish we could do things like this more often as a family.  Our time in Utah is running short, and it was so nice to squeeze in some family vacation time.

Thanks Rachelle and Ang for organizing this, and working out all the details for all 32 of us.

Thank you mom for understanding my standards and making other sleeping arrangements.

Thank you Brian for taking the bullet.  I owe you.  If I made you a cake, would that make it up to you?

This house is located just down the street from my parents (like eight houses away) and I have ALWAYS loved it.  I point it out to David every time we pass it on the way to visit my parents.  Once, David said, “Oh really?  You like that house?  I totally couldn’t tell because you haven’t pointed it out to me like a million times over the last 11 years.”

See, I’m not the only sassy one in this relationship.



I want this house.  Not this exact house, but you know, the plans to this house.



And on a random note:



This is the entrance to the Cirque Lodge.  You know, the rehab center where celebs like Lindsay Lohan, Kristen Dunst, Mary-Kate Olsen, and Eva Mendes shelled out $30,000 a month to fix their lives.  It is conveniently located in a neighborhood, on the same street as the house I love, which is right next to my parents house.



This is the actual building.  It used to be “Osmond Studios” when I was growing up, and the movie Dumb and Dumber was filmed here.  I remember seeing the carpeted vans parked outside.  I can’t help but take a walk down memory lane as I drive around my parents neighborhood.  It has been nice to be back, even if it is for a short while.