Happy Birthday, Hannah!

Today is Hannah's birthday. I can't believe it has been four years already. She is the joy of our lives. It has been so fun to see her grow up this past year. She is definitely no longer my baby (in the physical sense); Hannah has apparently inherited the rest of my family's height genes and is much taller than most children her age. Sadly, she will likely pass me up in height much sooner than I anticipated! On the happier side, she has grown into such a sweet, funny, and wonderful 4-year-old it's hard to feel too sad about leaving her "babyhood" behind.

Some things to love about Hannah:

1. She likes to make up words. Some of her favorites include metarian, tap-a-doer, and eckerjump. The funniest thing is she remembers these words and uses them over and over as if they actually have a real meaning.

2. She also likes to use big words, such as "meticulous" and "essentially".

3. She says really funny things to me in public, such as "chuuubby little mama!" and "Hi, sweetie pants!" (that one while swatting me on the backside).

4. The way she loves her brother and gushes over him. Sometimes it's as simple as "He's such a cute little baby!" and sometimes funnier, like "Oh, Joshie, you're so righteous!"

5. She is confident and brave. She loves giving talks in Primary and bearing her testimony in sacrament meeting. She loves to pretend to perform whatever art form she's interested in at the time -- dancing, ice skating, you name it.

6. Her femininity! She is quite certain she's a princess and has refused to wear pants for the longest time, because princesses don't wear pants. Luckily, she knows that a princess is kind and obedient, and not bossy. She's also very particular about what feminine role she's taking on at a given time -- sometimes we call her princess, and she says "I'm not a princess, I'm a ballerina!" But my favorite is when she says "I'm not a princess or a ballerina, I'm just a Hannah."

Well, as further proof that "just a Hannah" is a wonderful thing to be, here are pictures from the birthday festivities this weekend.

We went to a tea shoppe yesterday for a real tea party; both children were extremely well-behaved and we were so proud of them. They had fancy hats in the ladies' room so that's what the children are wearing in the pictures (don't laugh too hard at Joshie; they didn't have any boy hats!)

Today some of our wonderful friends and neighbors came over to celebrate with Hannah by eating brownie ice-cream cones and watching her open presents. It meant so much to her to have someone there to celebrate her special day with her.

It was our neighbor Kiera's birthday today as well! So she got a special candle in her cone too.

Happy birthday Hannah! We sure love you!

A Day at the Beach

Recently the kids and I visited the tide pools with our wonderful next-door neighbors. I just wanted to share some of the cute pictures. This was the first time we have been over to the beach since we moved here, and I had to roll my eyes at the kids' reactions. I for one LOVE living by the ocean, and I thought the kids would feel the same way. But it took about ten minutes of trying to convince Hannah that the fish in the ocean were not going to bite her, and Joshua kept saying "Sharks! Sharks! Sharks!" Luckily by the time we had to go, they didn't want to leave, and now Hannah keeps asking to go to the beach (and to go surfing), so I think it's growing on them.

I guess I should have called this post "a few days at the beach." We also went to La Jolla this past weekend to see the seals. Hannah ended up wanting to take a squirrel home (they will eat right out of your hand; they are pretty cute), and Joshua just wanted to climb over the wall and join the seals. He hadn't taken a nap that day and he was so obnoxious we were about to let him!

Goodbye Couch

...hello futon!

That's right -- after many weeks of frustration, fatigue, and tantrums, we have officially moved to the living room and given the children their own rooms. Or to be more precise, loaned Hannah our bedroom until she and Joshua are both old enough to follow "sleep rules" and just go to sleep when they get in bed, by golly! So Seth and I are once again studio-ers, which is okay since we have spent about half of our married life in a similar arrangement.

Happily, Joshua is doing much better at going to sleep and has even given up throwing his bear and water out of his bed. Hannah, on the other hand, spends an increasing amount of time playing and reading in her bed after she goes down, causing her to be grumpy and uncooperative the next day, which leads me to my question: To all you parents out there of non-napping 3-or-4-year-old children, what time do your kids go to bed? And do they seem well-rested?

As an aside, Hannah has been requesting a new baby at our house, so we keep telling her that we can't have one until she and Joshua both follow their sleep rules ALL THE TIME! Which shouldn't be a difficult promise to keep, seeing as I sleep on the futon and Seth sleeps on the floor ;)

Kristen, this is for you: here are the pictures of our living room that I've been promising you for months. I don't expect you to look at it right away, though...congrats on the new baby! We can't wait to meet her.

I'm in Love...

June 20, folks! (The concert, not The Jersey Boys.) I CAN'T WAIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Too Young For This

Since the day Joshua was born, our kids have adored each other. No real jealousy, sibling rivalry, anything like that. They are very protective of each other and each one thinks the other is the greatest, funniest, cutest person in the world.

Until we get in the car.

Here are some samples of what I heard every minute we were in the car today:

J: Grumpy!
H: I'm not grumpy!
J: Grumpy!
H: I'm not grumpy!
J: Grumpy!
H: (whining, almost crying) Mommy, Joshie thinks I'm grumpy! I'm NOT GRUMPY!


J: Ben!
H: (whining again) Mommy, Joshie thinks I'm Uncle Ben!
J: Ben!
H: (still whining) Mommy, help, joshie thinks I'm Uncle Ben!...(now yelling) He's touching me!!!

J: Raining!
H: It's not raining!
J: Raining!
H: (yelling again) It's not raining!


J: No!
H: Yes!
J: No!
H: Yes!
J: Yes!
H: No!

Etc.
Etc..
Etc...

Aren't they a little too young for this?

Getting Better

Thanks for the tips, everyone. We're doing a little better now. Joshua hs been really good at napping (for the most part) this week, and I think we've narrowed down his bedtime to the right window (5:45 on a bad-nap day, 6:30 on a good one), and he and Hannah even went to bed at the same time in the same room tonight and went right to sleep! We've changed Hannah's "naptime" in Mommy's room to "quiet time" in Mommy's room, and it seems to be more restful than I thought it would be to just play by herself, even if she's not sleeping. In fact, most of the time she's not ready to come out when her hour is up! Then she's ready for a 5:45 bedtime. And they both sleep consistently until 6:45 a.m. And Mommy is happy.

Granted, Hannah was sick this week, so things may not be the way they seem...but we'll keep our fingers crossed!

Advice, anyone...

I just wanted to separate the bad stuff from the good stuff, which is why I didn't just add this to the previous post. I guess I should have done this one first to get the bad over with and end on a good note...oh well. I'll add a cute picture to make up for it :)



Believe it or not, we are having major sleeping problems at our house! Joshua has decided he would rather play than sleep and he plays in his bed (keeping himself and Hannah awake) for an hour or two after he goes to bed at night. Then he wakes up much too early (we're talking before six, sometimes even 5:15) (although with the time change, it hasn't been before 6:30 this week, thank heavens), and THEN will only sleep for an hour for nap -- assuming I can get him to quit singing/playing/counting in his bed and actually go to sleep at naptime (this can be accomplished only by lying down in the room with him -- apparently he is afraid to move if a parental unit is present -- which means Hannah has free reign of the house for the 15 minutes I am in there). Then the whole thing is repeated day after day.



Then add in Hannah, who, being almost four, won't take a nap every day, but absolutely needs one by virtue of sharing a room with Joshua at nighttime -- our sweet, obedient, compliant, and polite daughter becomes an absolute nightmare! We tried moving Hannah into our room for a few days to let Joshua work out his issues by himself, allowing her to get some sleep, but one night Hannah was woken up by me coming into the room at 10:30 (Seth was sleeping downstairs) and neither one of us went to sleep until 2 a.m.! So needless to say that wasn't working. The only way I can get Hannah to fall asleep at naptime is to lie down with her until she falls asleep, which can take up to an hour, and even that will only work a couple of times a week. So I spend ALL DAY and ALL NIGHT trying to get them to go to sleep!



This is the main reason I wish they would not have to share a room. In my opinion, children under three are too young for roommates. But, seeing as it could not be helped...SOMEONE SAVE ME! Any ideas?



















Here's the cute picture I promised. (The shiny water is covering him enough to be appropriate, isn't it??)