Happy Anniversary

Yesterday was our 10th anniversary, so we went out to a local fondue restaurant. Very decadent! Hannah stayed with JoJo and Clint for the evening. It was a beautiful evening, and we ate on their little balcony and then walked around to some of the little shops nearby. It was relaxing to just be able to sit and sip wine and not worry about entertaining Hannah, because she was spending time with her cousins, which she loves to do. (Of course, they really are more like an aunt and uncle, they're so much older than she is.) Hannah would have enjoyed dipping fruit into the chocolate fondue, but after a few minutes she would have required more active entertainment!

Hannah looks and acts more mature every day. Well, I guess "mature" is a relative term. She is going through a whiny period right now, but we don't pay attention to her when she whines and I think she is getting the idea.






Happy Anniversary to my wonderful husband and friend! It's hard to believe it's been ten years already. And our lives now are so different from what they were back then.

First Day of Summer

After explaining to Hannah that summer starts after her last day of preschool, today I had to explain that there is another first day of summer, a "reaL" one. She accepted it without comment, but she had that look on her face, "Oh, yeah...here's another one of those grown-up explanations that make no sense...I guess I'll just roll with it."




So on Saturday we packed a picnic lunch (using our new picnic basket and coordinating picnic blanket we got at Target for 50% off - Thanks, Kathy!) and went to America the Beautiful Park which is near downtown. It started off sunny, then got cloudy and sprinkled a little. Hannah got soaked, but not from the rain. She was playing in the fountain with all the other kids when suddenly she decided to sit down in the water. We knew that was the end of the picnic becase we didn't bring a change of clothes and it was getting chilly out. She had to strip down to her underwear and wrapped the picnic blanket around her on the way to the car to keep warm. She pretended she was a princess and the blanket was her train.




It was so nice to just sit around and eat sandwiches and grapes and carrots under a tree. Hannah, of course, was making friends with the other kids. When they kicked water on her, she kicked right back at them. We are going to start carrying an extra swimsuit and a towel in the car just in case we run into another fountain she wants to play in!



When we went to the pool at the Y she decided she had a new trick. "Look at this, Mom and Dad!" and dunked her head all the way under the water. She was so proud of herself that she kept doing it again and again. She starts swim lessons (without Mommy) on June 30, so we have been practicing different swimming skills. But dunking her head she came up with all by herself.

More Hannah-isms

Since Hannah's pronuncia-tion is so clear now, and she is so good at pronounc-ing words, there aren't as many of the old "Hannah-isms" (like "stwaw-babies" for "strawberries"). But there are new "Hannah-isms", which don't rely on mispronunciations as much as the old ones. Sometimes it's Hannah telling me things she has heard me say. Sometimes it's Hannah making connections in her head that she hadn't made before.

On the weekends, Hannah gets me up as early as she does during the week. But since Lindsey's here, he can take care of her while I take a nap after he gets out of bed. So today, Hannah and Lindsey came to wake me up. Hannah got on the bed with me, and said, "Mom, get up and let's have lunch. I have some fortune cookies for dessert. But you have to eat your lunch before you can have dessert. Is it a deal?"

Last night, I was tucking her in bed and doing our bedtime ritual. She has been concerned about monsters for several months now. I hit upon the bright idea of telling her that monsters are afraid of tigers (one of her favorite stuffed animals is her tiger, "Raja"), and that when they see her tiger on her bed, the monsters just run away. That has satisfied her (although she has tried to figure out other ways to make me sleep with her!). But last night, after we said finished our kisses, songs and poems that we do every night, she said very seriously, "Mommy, monsters aren't afraid of my tiger." I said, "Oh, sure they are." She replied, "No they aren't because my stuffed animals aren't real animals." I said, "But the monsters don't know that!" She's starting to put things together!

Check back because I'm going to add more as I think of them.

I Bet You Wonder What We Do All Day!

No, eating is not all we ever do...it's just all we take pictures of!





Oh, yeah...we also go to carnivals!

Words of Wisdom from Mei-Mei

Hannah with her Chinese school class and teacher, Ms. Lu


Hannah, with her Daddy, hiding behind a balloon






Every couple of days or so, Hannah comes up with some words of wisdom that really need to be shared.

Last night after dinner, while she was having a chat with her dad, Lindsey was telling her how sweet he was. This is a private joke in our family: Lindsey will call out to Hannah, "Hey, I'm being sweet again!" and Hannah and I will look at each other and laugh. Then Hannah will invariably tell him he's not sweet, he's silly. So last night, when Lindsey told her he was being sweet, she asked him why he was sweet. Lindsey told her he was born sweet. Hannahe looked at him very seriously. Then, as if she had been thinking about it for a while, she said, "Daddy, you were boring [born] silly. You always say you were boring sweet and it makes me tired." As anyone who has heard Lindsey's self-proclamations of "sweetness" can attest, it makes us ALL tired!

Just a little while ago, she asked me what we were having for dinner. I told her chicken enchiladas, and she said, "I don't like enchiladas...I told you a millyong millyong [million] times I don't like them."