Hannah's "Me Doll"

The month of September at Hannah's pre-school they are studying the human body and learning all about themselves. So our first official school project was to make a doll that looked like Hannah. Last week we were sent home with a blank paper doll cut out about 1 1/2 feet high and told to be creative and have our little one's take the lead in decorating it. So finally last night we got down to working on it and Hannah was so proud of it this morning:



She helped me with all the gluing, pulling of her pom pom strings to help create her own mini pom poms and gluing of that, she layed out all the letters on her shirt and put the stamps on her hands & feet. We also had to attach a card about Hannah so this is what she told me:



This morning we also brought the sunflower seeds from our huge sunflower in the backyard and pictures of how it grew bigger then our house this summer to share with the class so Hannah was in heaven showing everything to her teachers this morning. When the teachers all saw her "Me Doll" they all agreed the Aggie theme was very appropriate for Hannah.

Late nights all around!

We had such a busy weekend but a fun one. Hannah was up until 11pm on Saturday night and 10pm last night...her latest times to date! She had a lot of fun but the poor thing is tired! On Saturday we went to the first Aggie football home game of the season and the first night game in the new stadium, since they just added lights this last year. In addition the game started at 7pm b/c it was being televised so they pushed back the start time. We made sure Hannah took a late nap that day. The game was great! Not only did the Aggies win 38 - 24 against Portland State but there were also some really great plays. Andy and Laura joined Adam, Tara, Jenny, Hannah & I as season ticket holders this year and since Andy & Laura were watching their niece Lily (who is only 3 months younger then Hannah) she came along too. Hannah and Lily got along great as they always do when they get together and both of the girls did really well. Both enjoyed the game and stayed awake until it was over at 10:30pm without too much fussing. Of course we did give them ice cream, popcorn, and other snacks that helped them stay awake but I was still really surprised at how well both of them did. Here are some cute pictures of Lily & Hannah at the game:

Hannah & Lily cheering on the Band-Uh before the game:



At around 9pm the girls were getting a little antsy so we took them for a stroll around the stadium, which turned into a little job sometimes chasing after them...where they got there energy at that time of night I don't know! Oh yeah...possibly the sugar from the ice cream. :) Anyway we stopped at the Aggie Firetruck for the girls to check it out:



And here are the girls back in their seats towards the end of the game...see how much fun they are having that late at night!



The next day Hannah didn't get up until 8:15am which helped her catch up on some sleep. In the afternoon we headed off to Kathryn's house...a classmates of Hannah's since the infant room for a BBQ with her parents and two of Hannah's other classmates, Sydney & Gabby and their parents. Kathryn's house is a beautiful house in South Davis with a pool and of course toys that are like brand new to the the visiting girls. We had a great time swimming there, picking fresh tomatoes from their very large vegetable garden, having a wonderful dinner, and of course playing, playing and more playing. Those 4 girls get along great and so they have so much fun together. And of course the parents have a good time together too and we actually get to talk b/c the girls keep themselves quite occupied with each other. Here is a picture from the pool:



Hannah & Kathryn being silly:



We left Kathryn's house around 8:45pm and Hannah cried practically the whole way home and pretty much from the time we got in the car that she missed her friends and she wanted to go back and spend the night there. It did not help to try and explain to her that she was going to be seeing all her friends the very next day at school. Because she was so sad she didn't go to bed until after 10pm and was just so tired. Poor girl...what we won't do for fun. Adam says she woke up around 8am this morning...so again she got a little caught up on sleep but she is still tired. Adam has a Masonic even tonight so Hannah and I plan to have a relaxed evening and watch and early movie and have an early bed time.

My Daddy's a Fireman!

This week at Hannah's school they have been talking about "Community Helpers" and so they asked Adam if he could come in and talk about being a volunteer fireman and maybe get dressed up in his outfit for the kids. So Adam arranged to come talk to the kids at their afternoon circle time yesterday. Hannah was so excited all week that she was going to be her Daddy's special helper that day and yesterday morning when I dropped her off everyone was so excited that Hannah's Daddy the fireman was going to be coming by in the afternoon and Hannah was just glowing!

I of course went along to take pictures and I am so glad I did not miss this. When we got there all the kids ran up to Adam saying "Are you a fireman?"...he was like a celebrity! All the kids (from both preschool classrooms!)gathered around in a circle and Hannah and Adam were the center of attention. Now usually in circle Hannah is pretty quiet and reserved and I usually have to encourage her to answer questions if I am there for circle time...but not yesterday! Her teacher Miss Naomi started off by thanking Hannah for sharing her Daddy with the class and Hannah quickly cuts in "And my Mommy & baby too!". Here are a few pictures at the beginning when Adam still was not dressed up and just talking to the kids...you can just tell how proud Hannah is...she just kept squeezing Adam's arm, hugging him and smiling (the lighting was bad in the room and I think my batteries were low on my camera which doesn't make for the best pics):








Adam asked the kids if they knew what a firefighter did and he got some pretty standard answers...they put out fires, they rescue cats from trees...but my favorite was...if lock your kids in the car they help get them out...hopefully that kid was not speaking from personal experience!

As Adam started to slowly put on each piece of his fireman outfit he described to the kids why he wears each piece and the whole time Hannah was either reminding him not to forget this piece or that or just looking at him so happily.



At one point when Adam was almost finished Hannah jumped up and gave Adam a big hug and then hugged his arm...I just have never seen her like this...it was just too cute.



After Adam was done telling kids how a volunteer firefighter is different from a regular firefighter and how not to be scared of a fully masked firefighter if he comes to help you in a fire and giving them some important safety tips, I helped Hannah pass out some firefighter badges (stickers) to all the kids and the presentation was done. It was a huge success and Hannah has not stopped talking about it.

So Cute

This morning Hannah asked if we could pull out the baby's bath tub from behind her crib (it has been stored behind there since we last used it for Hannah about 2 1/2 years ago :)) and get it ready so her baby could come. I thought how sweet...she is excited to meet her baby sister. But I told her that her baby still had a lot of growing to do in Mommy's belly and reminded her she had to wait until around Christmas. She then pulled out a blanket and wanted to get it ready so that her baby could come. Again I told her that was really nice but we needed to let her baby do some more growing in my belly. So then she asked if she could look at her baby...she lifted up my shirt and rubbed my belly, gave it a hug, and said "awww". It was so cute!!! Hannah is just going to be the best big sister and I sincerely hope she continues to be this excited about "her baby" after she comes. :)

Fun with my Uncle (Strejda Misa)

This past weekend we went down to Marin to visit with my brother, Misa, who had just come back from a month in Alabama in summer time for Air Force Officer training school...fun times! He lives in Alaska and is use to cool weather so Alabama in the summer was a real treat. :) There were 380 other officers in training there and believe it or not...for those of you that know my brother...he received the highest award of best trainee (rated on physical/mental and overall ability) out of the 380 others there! I was quite shocked but I was really proud of him.

Saturday we decided to torture my brother with playing in the park and after nap time a trip to the Oakland Zoo. My brother really isn't in to all this kid entertainment stuff but he was a trooper and sucked it up and spent the day with us. Here he is in the morning with Hannah on the slide at the park:



As for the Oakland Zoo..my camera died in the beginning (I forgot to charge my battery) so I relied on my dad with his fancy camera for pictures...I now also have to wait for him to send me pictures, so I only a few a none with animals yet. I can't say I was too thrilled with the Oakland Zoo..especially the layout...you had to keep backtracking because there were so many dead ends and I wasn't impressed at all with the animal exhibits. The SF Zoo is much better for that. After checking out many empty animal exhibits we went over to the "amusement park" area. My mom, Hannah & I waited in line for 30 minutes to ride the train! And after that long wait we only saw fake animals along the train route...although Hannah was mildly entertained by it. We of course hit the carousel and volunteered my brother for the ride with her:



But after the carousel we convinced the operators that Hannah was 36 inches (she is like 1/2 inch too short) and they allowed her on the tiger roller coaster ride. When I saw the thick bar come down on this ride I was a little bit concerned that maybe she is too small to be on the ride so I am yelling to my brother to please hang on to her. Another mom was covering her eyes for me as if to say "Oh my god she is too little!" and I thought maybe she shouldn't be on the ride but it was too late, plus I knew my little dare devil loves roller coasters. Right when it took off Hannah started laughing like crazy...I couldn't hear her b/c the ride was so loud and it was the fastest "kid's" roller coaster I have ever seen but her expressions were priceless and my brother was cracking up as well so I knew she was just going crazy. Here is a shot of the two roller coaster riders:



She had such a great time that when she got off the ride she still stood there laughing with her head thrown back in laughter. It was hilarious! That definitely made the trip better and then she even got a piggy back ride to the car from her Strejda Misa (Strejda is Czech for Uncle).



It was quite the busy weekend b/c both on Friday & Saturday she was up until about 9:45pm which is unheard of for her...she is usually in bed by 7:30pm. But it was a good visit and when I get more pictures back from the zoo from my dad I will post them.

Tadpole Swim Class

Hannah was approved to be in the Tadpole swim class this week which is for 3 year olds and even though she turns 3 in a couple of months it took an act of congress with the City of Davis to get her in even though her previous instructor approved her for it. I guess that is just how the City works.

When Adam took her on the first day of class we found out that we don't have to be in the water with her and it is a private lesson!!! SWEET!! I can't tell you how relaxing it is to just sit on the grass and observe her lesson rather then be involved in it...this is the first class of its type that we have been a part of. Well of course since I don't have to participate it gave me plenty of opportunity to take pictures. So here they are:

Hannah and her instructor "Ada" sitting on the edge of the pool waiting for their safety lesson for the day:



Hannah practicing her kicking:


Hannah practicing using her arms to swim (she is the little dot in the middle of the picture:


There is always some play time involved..I think she was making some Mac & Cheese here...her favorite:


And here is Hannah & Ada going off the diving board together! Hannah was all excited about it but after the first jump she wasn't so sure. But she was brave enough to try it again...but the jury is still out on if she truly enjoyed it:


And round #2:




The color is a little off in the picture above...I can't seem to get it to touch up the picture in iPhoto...hmmm.

Anyway, Hannah's teacher Ada told me yesterday that she has already learned all her "Tadpole Skills" and that she could advance to being a Turtle, but that is for 4 year olds and her attention span b/c of her age might be a little too short for that. No worries b/c the City of Davis only has one more week of swim lessons to offer and so we are just going to put her straight into either the Davis Athletic Club or Swim America lessons for the Fall & Winter to keep up her swimming skills. I hope to have her be able to swim on her own by next summer so that I don't have to worry too much about her in the pool since I will have a baby to look after as well!

Cousin Time

Hannah is very lucky to have such great cousins and that they all get along so well. In the past Hannah's girl cousins Kathryn (11) and and Krystina (8) have frequently come to visit and the 3 girls are like 3 peas in a pod. They are so excited to see each other and they all get along so well. Hannah also has a boy cousin Joey (6) that she doesn't get to see as often but luckily this past weekend he came to visit with Adam's mom, "Nali" b/c it was her birthday on Saturday and she was watching Joey for the week. Hannah was so excited to see Joey and those two were like peas in a pod also. It was "monkey see monkey do" with those two. Every noise or action one did the other copied. We had a super busy weekend but super fun at the same time so lets see if I can quickly recap it here:

First on Friday Joey & Nali picked Hannah up from school, did lots of playing and then we created a bed for Joey so he could sleep in Hannah's room with her...here is a picture just before bedtime stories:



On Saturday Hannah and Joey got up around 6:45am and I listened to about a 20 minute conversation between the 2 on the monitor...that was hilarious. The two did some more playing and running around. We took Tulip for a walk and as you can see here the kids went crazy running in the field




We also stopped at the park briefly for some slide fun before heading home to head off to Hannah's gymnastics.



Then it was off to gymnastics where normally Hannah has tons of energy but she was already fading by now. Then we went to the Farmer's Market where Hannah and Joey rode the Merry-Go-Round:







After some more playing at the park there it was off to home to take a nap (for both Hannah & I). After a 3 hour nap for Hannah and a 2 hour nap for me we woke up and all went to the pool. By now Adam's aunt had come up to visit for Adam's mom's birthday (her sister) and so we had quite the group heading off to the pool.





After some late afternoon swimming we all went out to dinner to Bistro 33 to celebrate Nali's birthday and afterwards there was a band there so of course there was some dancing to be done:



After dinner to was back home for some birthday pie and presents and the kids finally went to sleep around 9pm! The whole gang spent the night.

On Sunday we all went to the Yolo County Fair to have fun and say hi to Adam who was working the beer booth for the West Plainfield Station Fire Dept. Joey & Hannah were really excited to be going...here they are with their excited smiling faces headed to the fair:



When we got there we of course first stopped by to say hi to Adam in his beer booth:



When we got there the rides had not yet opened up so we looked at some animals:



Joey & Hannah were dying for the rides to open at noon and when they finally did here is Hannah's face filled with excitement when she saw them start working:





Now they say this is the only "free" fair left in the state...yeah well it is free to get in but then they get you on the rides and everything else. We spent about $65 on all the rides b/c of the two kids and the fact that most of the rides an adult had to accompany them. I of course was not that adult thanks to this sign on every ride:



Even though I couldn't go on any rides...which I was pissed about...Adam's mom & aunt went and had a great time and even Adam got away from his beer booth for one ride...so here is what we spent $65 on:

Merry-Go-Round:



Dragon Spinning tea cup like thing:



Whale spinning up and down thing (Hannah loves this one!):




Dragon Roller Coaster:



Really slow train ride but Hannah enjoyed being in the engine and "driving" everyone around the track (by the way that is Adam's aunt on the ride with her):



Caterpillar Roller Coaster:



Truck "roller coaster"...


Hannah saw Joey on this ride so of course she had to go too:


There were a few more but my camera ran out of batteries and so was I in a sense. We were there until 2pm and we were tired!! Even though everyone was tired Hannah still cried on the way out that she wanted to go back.

We got home said good-bye to Adam's mom, Adam's aunt & Joey and went down for a nap. But still when she woke up she woke up crying that she missed her Joey & Nali and it was hard to console her b/c she had such a good time with them. Both on Sunday & last night Hannah cries out "JOEY!!" as she is laying in her crib b/c she misses him and wants him sleeping with her in her room again. Poor thing! At least they had a lot of fun and got to spend a lot of great time together. As I said Hannah is very lucky to have such great cousins she gets along with...it is fun to watch her have all that fun with them b/c I never experienced that. :(