Hannah*

Well, when the toddler commissioner wants to put Hannah in the Toddler Hall of Fame, any records she holds will be followed with an asterisk (*). She can no longer say that she is steroid free. Yesterday, during the day, she had a croup attack (you know, the barking cough that kids sometimes get at night). We had already talked to a nurse at her pediatric office once and got some good tips (we knew it was coming based on her voice - hoarse - and coughing), but when she woke up from her nap she was really struggling to breath. So... we went to see the doctor. The Dr. was mainly concerned because croup is a nighttime illness, so if Hannah was struggling during the day, night would be really bad. To head it off, Hannah was prescribed oral steroids, which worked pretty good -- last night she coughed a little bit, but never woke up or struggled to breath.

The long and the short of it is, just like Barry, Hannah is a user. Now we'll see if she can hit any home runs today!

The picture looks a bit fuzzy because of the steam in the bathroom (steam is a common cure for croup and the dr. had us do it before her bedtime). The steam also gave Hannah some wild curls! The picture cannot come close to showing how curly her hair got. You should also note just how sick Hannah looks -- yeah right! The girl feels fine, just can't breath!

Hannah vs. Abby

Well, I'm hoping that you can help me figure out what I think I am just too close to the situation to see -- does Abby look like Hannah? To help you decide, I've got some comparison pictures for you to see. (I think they are about the same age based on my fuzzy memory and the amount of double chins that they both have....) Hannah is the top picture, followed by a similar one of Abby, then Hannah again, then Abby, so and so forth. :)

Please leave a comment with your opinion and also make sure you vote in the poll! :)

Either way you cut it, I think I've got two cute girls!

(And yes, I know that Hannah has more hair than Abby!)

More Pictures on Snapfish

Instead of posting an update on this, I decided to update my Snapfish album with tons of pictures from the last part of December. Go to the snapfish link in the bottom right corner to check out all the cute new pictures of the girls! Here are just two pictures that you will find in the girls' winter album.

Christmas Reflections

I promised to write some today about our Christmas morning, mostly because I figure Grandmothers will be checking to see pictures of the girls enjoying their presents. :) Kevin and I have now spent 6 Christmases married and both of us admit that this one might go down as our favorite so far. I think that is because, for the first time really, we got to enjoy it through our children. Last year Hannah had fun, but really didn't get it -- the commercial and the religious significances. This year, we've had a month of her proclaiming "Go tell it on the mountain that Jesus Christ is born!" and "we wish you a merry Christmas... and bring us dinner!" (We don't know where that part came from, maybe a rebellion against figgy pudding or maybe because the whole month of November people were bring us dinners?) At any rate, yesterday morning, when Hannah took off the last chain on our paper chain counter, she was ready for it to be Christmas. We were thankful that she didn't want to dive into the presents, rather we took our time, had a nice breakfast, fed Abby and then started on the presents -- a good 2 hours after Hannah woke us up! Somewhere, my mom is thinking that there is no justice in the world!

A good photo opportunity came when I was feeding Abby and Hannah was amusing herself. She has recently taken to putting her dolls in Abby's bouncer, swing, play mat, etc. to help them have fun. Well, she decided that they all needed to be out for Christmas and to help pass the time, she read them a story. She chose my favorite nativity story, A Child Was Born, to read to them. She can pretty much tell you the whole nativity story, although I am sure there are some gaps in her version, but nothing of pressing theological importance. :)

After her make-shift story time, it was time for presents! Hannah pretty much opened every package there was, regardless of who it was for. If you told her that you wanted to open your own present, she replied, "okay, I help you." Talk about selective hearing! She especially liked helping out Abby, mostly because Abby never tried to take her present away from Hannah.

One of the cutest moments came when she opened up her Elmo doll. She was so excited! I had an internal battle over which Sesame Street doll to get her (Abby was easy, she got Abby Cadabby). My favorite is Cookie Monster and Elmo is so... annoying! However, Hannah loves Elmo so she got Elmo -- I thought it was one of those generous mom moments when I put Elmo up on the check out. I'm very glad that I chose Elmo, especially since the one we got can't talk (or tickle). After she got Elmo, he had to help her open her other presents...

Now, I am just going to post several pictures of Hannah enjoying her presents (because describing each one would take WAY too long!)

Abby enjoyed Christmas in a different way than Hannah, a more relaxed, sleepy way....

Well, after the excitement of the morning, the girls took good naps while Kevin made his fabulous ham and scalloped potatoes (I made my chocolate mint mousse the day before -- it was a tasty experiment!). When it came time to dress nice for Christmas dinner, Hannah pretty much refused to wear her outfit or sit for any pictures, so, here is one last picture of Abby and Kevin.

Holiday Preparations

So, I am totally going to back track a day and do the post I should have done yesterday but was too tired to do. I wanted to do one that included all the different things we did with the girls leading up to Christmas. And, of course, include the pictures from those different activities (what people really want). Tomorrow, I will do a Christmas day post and include pictures from today (that gives me a day to get everything organized).


This year, Kevin and I decided to get rid of our fake tree that we bought our first year at Princeton and go chop down a real tree. Being from Washington, Kevin has always been rather embarrassed by our fake tree. We didn't want Hannah starting her Christmas memories with a tree made of plastic (maybe too many Charlie Brown Christmas Specials). So, this year, we googled tree farms and went to the one that seemed close. It was pretty much a tree farm in someones backyard, but it worked just fine for us (nothing like either of Kevin or mine memories of tree farms). Hannah supervised as Kevin chopped and Abby and I just watched from a distances. :)



We weren't sure if we were going to do sitting on Santa's lap this year, mainly because we don't want Santa to be the focus of the holiday. However, Hannah was very excited to and we thought it would be a good photo opportunity. She was so happy to see him, just beamed when she climbed on his lap. I was thankful that she doesn't have the greedy concept yet, because she just asked for one present (which is all she got from him) and made sure to tell him what Abby wanted too. She was much more excited about buying presents for us and Abby than she was about plotting what she wanted. We'll see what next year is like.

Her school had a Christmas caroling event that was... okay. It was bit too busy for Hannah to get really involved in it, even though she knew several of the songs. But, here is a picture of her and Kennan (her buddy/neighbor) as little elves.

Hannah and Abby got Elmo and Abby Cadaby respectively for Christmas from their Great-Grandparents Lind, so we went to Sesame Place to buy them. While we there, we of course had to say hi to Elmo, Cookie Monster and Zoe. Elmo, for some reason, really liked Abby (and Kevin). It was a little... strange. Kevin said he was a bit uncomfortable. It was pretty funny for me to see! :) Hannah was a little reluctant, which is why the cute picture included Kevin -- she wouldn't do it by herself. However, she did love the Elmo that she got today and he had to help her unwrap her presents, but more about that in the next post!

Kevin and Hannah made a gingerbread house, which was a gooey experience. We got the gingerbread house at a white elephant gift exchange. The funny thing about the house was that it was originally a haunted house gingerbread house, intended for Halloween. Kevin threw the candy corn away and made white icing to make it Christmas-y. I really admire how good Kevin does with those types of projects, he doesn't mind how messy it gets or how Hannah's enthusiastic help sometimes hinders it. He just goes with the flow, where I try to micromanage it. Lucky for Hannah she has a laid back Daddy to make up for her perfectionist Mommy!

However, Mommy tries to overcome her micromanaging and perfectionism, so Hannah and I made cookies together on Christmas Eve. (I hope that with enough experiences like that I will become more like Kevin!) Santa had told Hannah that his favorite kind were Chocolate Chip, which Kevin heartily agreed with! We made our family's recipe of Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies, which is really the only cookie (with two or three exceptions) I think are worth making. Kevin would have to disagree.... But hey, that is another post altogether! The cookies turned out great and Santa ate both (and didn't offer to share either!) When Kevin told Hannah that we were going to make cookies for Santa, she said "Yeah for Santa! Santa is excited!" which we thought was pretty cute!

Sunday night we invited Hannah's buddy Katie over for a viewing of Elmo's Christmas Special (both kids are Sesame Street junkies). The picture below is very misleading, because in it they are both glued to the TV -- however that lasted only five minutes and then they were running around the house! So, the parents sat and watched Elmo's Christmas Special and Hannah and Katie ran wild. Oh well, the point was for them to have fun, which happened, and really, I never complain when my kid is too active for TV watching.

On Christmas Eve, after the baking, we went to our church's Christmas Eve service. It was the family service which meant that it was packed with kids. To make the kids engage with the scripture reading they had puppets read the scriptures. Now, I was a bit unsure of this at first, but I can tell you that Hannah listened intently (except when she was asking what type of animal the puppet was) and was great during the whole service (as was Abby).

Well, I will finally be done with this post. It has been rather long (as I am sure you noticed). I would like to promise that tomorrow's will be shorter, but I doubt it. It will probably be just as long seeings that it will include all of our Christmas day festivities. However, after that, it will be shorter! Hope you enjoyed the cute pictures!

Talkative already?

Abby has been impressing us with her vocal abilities -- she will lay in her bed and talk forever to her bear mobile (as long as it is going-it turns off and she just watches it till somebody turns it back on). She is also quite the conversationalist, if you find her in the right mood she will coo an answer to every question you have. We went to a Christmas party last week and Abby held a conversation with our friend Matt (until she decided she was done with him and cried).

As impressed as we are with her vocal stylings, they make us a bit worried. Hannah at two months was not cooing up a storm --- and Hannah is the biggest little chatter box! (Kevin blames me for some reason.) Hannah will talk to herself, or her dolls, for her whole nap time (2 hours) and frequently talks herself to sleep (Kevin says I do the same to him....). So, my question is, if Abby is talking more than Hannah was talking at two months, how much will Abby be talking at two years? Scary thoughts that keep Kevin up at night!

Abby also showed off her good behavior today at church. Our church is an hour away, which can be quite a drive with two girls. However, today they both were great -- Hannah snacked on goldfish and talked nonstop and Abby just watched Hannah till she fell asleep. Then, in church, Abby was wide awake (Hannah went to the nursery after a bit), just watching. She was completely alert for the whole service, yet never cried or fussed. It was WONDERFUL! :) I am not expecting a repeat performance at tomorrow night's Christmas Eve service, but I will accept today's behavior as a great bonus. Of course, this evening she gave a bit of extra fussing, but that is a trade off I can handle, especially from a girl who is usually so good natured.

It is definitely interesting getting to know Abby as an individual that is not Hannah. I have to keep reminding myself she is not just a mini-Hannah. She helps me out by just being not a mini-Hannah! So far, Kevin and I would say that Abby is a more laid back child, but I am not sure I always remember what Hannah was like as a baby -- her vibrant personality now overshadows a lot of fuzzy memories. Only time will tell who exactly Abby is -- much like her eye color, which seems to be always shifting (another way she is different than Hannah because by now Hannah had dark brown eyes).

Stocking

Today I (Alisa) made a Christmas stocking for Abby. It was a long process, much like putting a puzzle together, but very meaningful. Last year I had gone shopping for some Christmas fabric for a door hanger (which I still haven't made-oops!) and while I was there I bought some extra holiday fabric. At that point Abby was in the planning stages -- we knew that we wanted to start trying for a second child soon and buying the fabric for that second child made her just a bit more real than a thought in our heads. Good thing I bought it because a month and a half later we found out that she was on her way! It is such a blessing to have her here for this Christmas, to have just one more member of our family to celebrate with. Making her stocking also made me think about how when I made Hannah's two years ago, I cut out some extra pieces, pieces that I wouldn't need till the next stocking. Today, I did the same thing, cutting out an extra piece. Now I know I don't plan on making a stocking next year (or the next!), but it was neat to do a little part of a future child's stocking.

I must add that it was also very nice to have a whole morning to myself to do something fun, without any girls under foot, while Kevin took them out. I haven't done that since Abby was born because of his hetetic schedule, but maybe, just maybe, now that it is break time, I will have a bit of time to myself. We'll see!

Hmmm... trying something new

Every once and awhile I get the urge to try something new, just to see what it is like. For awhile now I've been hearing about friends blogging, sharing details with friends and family far away. Has always sounded like a good idea, I just never got around to actually trying it. But, it has sounded like a better idea as we have had friends move away and blogging has been a way to keep informed on jobs, kids, pregnancies... Knowing that we will also be moving in a half a year (!), and now having one more cute girl to tell funny stories of, the time has come to try this latest fad (okay, so I'm a couple years behind on the latest part-I blame Hannah!). So, here we go!

(Now, the trick is, how good will I be at keeping this up to date?)