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Big Kid

Look at me playing with my toy!

We're back!

We're back from sunny Florida (and yikes - 36 in Boston felt chilly this afternoon when we landed!). We had a wonderful trip. The house my parents rented was beautiful and literally sat right on the beach so we were able to go back and forth to change diapers, get out of the sun, and take naps (and we took lots of long naps!). We had only one rainy day and warm temperatures which gave us lots of time for running on the beach, swimming in the pool and walking around beautiful Naples. We got to celebrate Uncle Eben's birthday and spend lots of time with Aunt Allie who finally left Hanover for a week, Aunt Sarah and Uncle Tom who joined us after spending the first part of the week in Miami with his family. Hannah and Will were in heaven with all the extra attention and were sad to say goodbye to everyone on Friday, although Hannah was awfully excited to get home and see the rest of her babies - only 'baby' and 'Wally' made the trip to Florida.

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. Sorry to post so many but there were lots and lots of good ones to share (and there may be a few more once I get video and pics from my Mom and brother!).

Playing with Papi on Day 1...

Loving the pool (and loving Hannah's post nap hair!)

Walking on the beach was a popular late afternoon activity (this is pre Will spitting up everywhere- sorry Allie!!)

By day 2 Hannah had graduated to swimming in the pool solo as long as she had her arm 'things' on. By the last day I was even letting her swim while I sat fully clothed on the side of the pool. Definitely time to start swimming lessons for this girl!

More walking and thumb sucking practice!

Hannah LOVED running in and out of the surf. The water was a little chilly for swimming (except for Uncle Eben!) but that didn't stop her from running in and out for hours at a time.

Lounging in the late afternoon....

More swimming!!

We spent one morning out on a boat and here is the happy couple practicing their smiles for the wedding and working together to remove the cover from the boat- at 8:30 in the morning we were looking for sun not shade... it was a chilly boat ride!

And we went to Red Sox spring training game. Hannah LOVED it. She loved seeing Wally as we expected, but she also really seemed to enjoy the game and in fact sat through all nine innings very happily. Guess we have a new fan!

Wally was supposed to sign hats and books for a couple innings at the beginning of the game but when went down to let Hannah say hi he was already leaving. I turned into a pushy Mom and literally chased Wally out of the ballpark shoving Hannah at him the entire way. We did manage to get her hat signed and she got to touch him. And then I spent the next hour explaining why he had to leave early....

And we went to the Naples zoo. Hannah was a little tired but has not stopped talking about seeing "George", the monkeys were apparently a hit despite her showing little interest when we were actually there!

We found a playground yesterday on our way to our hotel in Ft. Myers and Hannah was in heaven!

And we finished up our vacation with a yummy Italian feast in Ft. Myers. Hannah was covered in spaghetti by the time the meal was over - a perfect end to a fabulous vacation.

Now back to reality...

Hand Me Downs

Will hasn't had to wear very many of Hannah's clothes yet, most of what she had was pink or purple and since the only way people can tell whether infants are boys or girls is by the colors they wear, we've been sticking more with red and blue. BUT we did have a few outfits that were reusable like the one below. It has a snowman on it so I decided we had to wear it today now that winter weather appears to have returned to Boston.

Here's Hannah on Christmas 2007 (2 1/2 months) in the snowman outfit....

And here is Will today (3 months)....

This is the position Will was in when I went to get him from the backseat of the car today. Doesn't look particularly comfortable to me but he seemed happy enough. This is what he does whenever you put him in a bouncy seat now, he's working on head control I guess.

Spring!

We got a taste of spring this weekend with temperatures in the 50's. We spent as much time as we could in the warm sun outside soaking it in!

We also let Will try out his bumbo seat for the first time. He can't sit in it for long yet but he enjoys it for short periods and Hannah enjoyed reading to him!

Keeping Busy

I'm just about done with my maternity leave, I head back work on Monday. It went so quickly and as expected I'm sad thinking about leaving Will home three days a week. I'm also pretty sad to be leaving Hannah behind again. As challenging as the last couple months have been (new baby brother, big girl bed, 2 and winter all at once was a lot), we've had an awful lot of fun while I've been home. Hannah's pretty chatty these days and listening to her take care of her babies is like watching myself in a mirror. I find myself chuckling at what she says a good portion of the day and even at 5:20 in the morning, it's nice to be greeted with a good morning smile. Since Hannah doesn't have a baby book, I felt like I should document what she's like as a (almost) 2 1/2 year old and how we've passed these winter months.

I can't truly capture the amount of time that Hannah spends taking care of her babies. Wally, Emma, Jake, Baby, Other Baby, Dolly and (curious) George are each diapered, fed, burped, rocked to sleep and read to at least three times a day. I am not exaggerating when I say that Hannah spends the first hour she is awake each morning tending to her babies. And then I usually have to convince her to come to breakfast. She brings at least one just about everywhere lately - they've even been rotating and taking turns at daycare. Dolly went one day last week and Baby went this week. When we've been visiting my parents Daddy is always left to tend to those that are left behind. I tried to video Hannah tending to her brood last night but she got kind of shy when the video camera came out (sorry about the one pigtail - must have been a rough afternoon at daycare).

Wilson and I joined a gym in January which happens to have a Kids Gym. Hannah and I have gone a few times and she's turning out to be quite a gymnast. She loves hanging on the monkey bars and climbing - I think the playground is going to be more fun than ever this spring. And I think we may be looking for some gymnastics classes next winter. The funny part about the gym is that we have to walk past some windows overlooking the pool to get to it. Hannah is completely freaked out by the people in bathing caps and googles. When we went earlier today we had to walk as far as from the windows as possible and we were not allowed to stop - Hannah actually ran. I guess swimming lessons are on hold for now.

Note the lonely girl in the back of the gym. We had the entire place to ourselves!

Playing outside on the days where the temperature has permitted it. The swing set in the backyard continues to be a hit even though it doesn't have any swings on it right now!

I'll admit to taking lots of random car rides in January/February in search of drive thru caffeine. Hannah now recognizes Starbucks as "the place where Mommy gets her coffee" (we have a drive thru about 10 minutes from here and it's been a great late afternoon outing many many times). She also readily points out Dunkin' Donuts ("donuts" or "Where Mimi gets her coffee") and McDonald's ("french fries") when we're driving around. Anytime we're in a drive through line she pipes up from the back seat "Chicken nuggets and french fries, please." Ooops - I think we've created a monster!

Hannah's a big fan of the Berenstain Bears (or the 'Huggy Bears' as they're called in our house), Sid the Science Kid, Clifford and Curious George and we tend to succumb to an episode or two of TV in the late afternoon. She's pretty much given up her nap but does sit on her bed and read books for a while every afternoon. Despite the non-stop talking she does while she's up there, she comes down refreshed and ready to go again.

She's a pretty happy little girl most of the time. She loves coloring, stickers, playing in her kitchen and her little toy house that we have set up in the basement. She sings good night to all her grandparents, aunts, uncles, and friends almost every night (or instructs me to sing to them). She's adjusted pretty easily to life with a baby brother and he smiles from ear to ear when she comes over to talk to him.

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