Fall Fun and a REALLY Long Dinner

My sister was in town last weekend. She came up to go to the Buckeye's game on Saturday with my dad. Since she was in town, we got together on Sunday.

We went to lunch first and then headed out to Patterson's Farm for their fall festival. Tony and I took Hannah there last year. It's so much fun - tons of stuff to do and definitely worth the trip. It was a bit cold for the day- I think it maybe hit 49, but the sun kept trying to peek out, but at least no rain.

Hannah loved the straw barn and the slides.

Aunt Susan went with her at first, but then Hannah kindly advised everyone that "she didn't need our help".

She practiced her gymnastics skills on a beam walk

She got to take a pony ride

and then we all went through the corn maze.

She ended the day in the straw barn with straw all tucked into her hair and braids that I couldn't get it all out!

I thought for sure she'd be out as soon as we got the car, but she was too busy playing with Aunt Susan's camera, however, as soon as I dropped them all off at their car, it took all of about 2 minutes for the eyes to shut and for Hannah to catch a quick nap on the rest of the way home.

I went home and made dinner. I was so sad to see that Tony's fall yard cleanup made it official that summer is over - he put all of our deck furniture away....SO SAD!!! I had to comb out Hannah's hair before her bath to get the rest of the straw out and she was in bed by 8:15.

We had gymnastics Monday night and Tuesday, Tony worked late so it was just Hannah and I for dinner. She wanted to have school time at home after dinner, so we sat down together to do some pages in the new workbooks I got her. She loves learning and we're working on phonics now to prep her for reading.

Last night was supposed to be story time night at the library. We didn't make it....here's why. I made pot roast in the crock pot for dinner. During the day, Tony and I were emailing back and forth and we decided that we should start making Hannah eat the dinners I make and not make her a separate meal if it's something that she won't eat. I don't do that a lot, but I've done that pretty much when I make meat meals - other than ground beef. She's a terrible meat eater, she just chews and chews. We decided that she'd better start getting used to eating the ONE dinner I make. So on the way home, she asked what was for dinner. I told her pot roast and then she asked what was she going to have. (she's on to us) I told her pot roast. Then she asked "what did that look like?" see, she has this thing - that I swear I didn't teach her - but if it looks like she won't like it, she doesn't want to try it. We have a rule that she's not allowed to say she doesn't like something until she's tried it first. It's sometimes a battle, but we stick to that rule. So anyway, we got home and the house smelled great from that cooking all day, but not to Hannah! We sat down around 6:00 and she took one look at it and it was all downhill from there! She didn't want to say grace that night, I had to. She ate her applesauce first and then she took a bite of a potato. It took her between 10-15 minutes to swallow that first bite. Then a bite of a carrot. Another 10-15 minutes later, she finally got that down. Now mind you, she's gagged and cried and has tears and snot all over the place and we realize, this wasn't going well. But we stuck to it and made her keep eating as we ate. Then she took a bite of the meat. She just chewed and chewed - for like another 15 minutes (and more tears and snot). We were finished eating by 6:45 and she had eaten like 3 bites. We got up and cleaned up the kitchen and told her that she had to stay there until she finished eating. She asked for bread and for cheese, but I told her if she can't swallow her food anymore then she wouldn't be able to swallow bread or cheese, so she didn't get any. By 7:00, I went to change my clothes for the night since story time starts at 7 and we obviously weren't going. We sat back down with her to try to help her count her chews and get her to swallow. She'd swallow, but not the food - that stayed tucked in her cheeks. Tony was getting grossed out and we all were a bit frustrated. I felt bad for her, but we had to make the point. She finally got the "five bites to go" and by around 7:30 she had her last bite in her mouth of meat and she said she had to go potty. I told her that if she didn't get it swallowed while she went potty, she'd have to come back to the table to finish. Luckily, she got it down and we were finally done with dinner. I told her how proud I was of her to finish eating and we all then agreed it wasn't so bad after all. The rest of the night was fine - not scarred!!!

So then the topper to this whole story was that Tony dropped her off at daycare this morning and told Val the story. She thought it was funny because guess what they had for lunch yesterday? BEEF STEW!!! And she said Hannah ate all of it and was actually the first one finished. Now seriously, dinty-moore beef stew is pretty similar to pot roast (although I'm sure mine tasted better!). I talked to Val again tonight about it and they said that they have to make Hannah eat the part she doesn't like best first - the meat and then she's usually fine. I guess this is just our new habit to break with her and get over this phase. I'm sure we'll get there!

The Angel (on my shoulder)

So Hannah's been like my little conscious the past few days. So far, now, she's caught me doing things that haven't been "wrong", but to her, I should have made a different decision - and she's probably right! She has no problem telling me so too, and I suppose that's just fine.

Monday night, I was running late to pick her up after work. We have gymnastics at 6:00 and I had agreed to stop and pick Tony up on our way, so I was running about 10 minutes late. Anyway, after I picked her up from daycare, we were going down the one street out of our babysitter's development and I sort of "rolled a stop sign" really, not thinking a thing of it until:

Hannah: "Mommy, you didn't stop at that stop sign"

Me: (stuttering because she was right) "Well, I slowed down, but you're right, I didn't stop all the way. I'm sorry."

Hannah: "That's OK, Mommy. That's OK"

Just about 500 feet ahead, there's another stop sign and I made "a complete stop"

Hannah: (sounding so proud) "That's better Mommy. You did it right this time!"

Me: "Oh, good! Thank you for noticing" (laughing!!!)

And then this morning, as she was going potty, I started brushing my teeth. I turned on the water to wet my brush and then was squeezing the toothpaste on my brush when:

Hannah: "Mommy, you're not saving the Earth"

Me: "What do you mean?"

Hannah: "You need to shut off the water when you brush your teeth. If you let it run, you will ruin the Earth. You have to save the water to save the Earth, Mommy."

Me: (turning off the water) "Thank you for telling me, I'm sorry"

Hannah: "That's OK, Mommy. That's OK. Just remember to shut it off when you're not using it"

I'm so glad that I work hard to set a good example for her because it's clearly obvious, SHE'S WATCHING!!!

Here's a latest picture of my dear little angel

Big Sister

Hannah's going to be such a great Big Sister! Not only does she talk about taking care of her baby when it comes, but she also loves this sibling already!!!

She asked me if she could hug the baby last week and then gave by belly the sweetest kiss. I had Tony get the camera and had her do it again.

She's going to be such a good helper too! She's been starting to help more around the house - with laundry and now she helps set the table. I just know she's going to be so much help when the baby comes!

Wiggle Worm

This little baby is quite the Wiggle-Worm!!!

We have good news to report. We had our mid-way (20 week), full anatomy ultrasound this morning. My appointment was first thing this morning. The ultrasound tech sort of sighed as she started. She went on to tell us that her first patient on Monday morning seems to set the tone for the week for her. She signed because this wasn't an easy ultrasound to perform because the baby didn't stop moving!!!! She thought for sure I must have eaten breakfast to give it such a boost, but I hadn't - just a crazy baby! I'm afraid we're in trouble!

So the first answer is NO!!!! We didn't find out if it is a boy or a girl - despite Tony's many, many tries to get it out of her.

The next answer (probably should be the first question), but everything looks good! Everything seems to be well developed and where it's supposed to be. Brain, Spine, Heart & other organs, arms & legs -all seem perfect! Baby measured right where we thought, 19 weeks 3 days and is about 10 ounces - "just over a stick of butter" as the tech described it!

It was so fun to see this little thing! It has a pointy chin like Hannah and looks to have big eyes like her too. The tech said it had a little button nose, but I'm not sure a button nose is possible with mine & Tony's genes!!!

We didn't get great pictures because she had such a hard time capturing anything with constant movement, but we definitely saw lots during the 1/2 hour. We saw hands waving, feet kicking and even here....a yawn!!! Sort of looks like a bad "Scream" pic, but that's just our baby yawning!

And this one is just a shot of it's face. Big eyes like I mentioned and the chin and nose. And then part of it's tummy.

This profile is a little better. It's looking up and the scan is hard to see, but there are 4 little dots that are the tops of it's fingers.

And then this one was our best picture. Another profile shot, but here we have the head and nose pointing up. You can see the cheek and jaw bones, some ribs near it's back and then there is a leg bent with it's little knee up in the air! Isn't the baby so cute???

One really nice thing that I didn't get with my pregnancy with Hannah was that these pictures are actual 4x6 prints on glossy photo paper. I just had the thermal paper pictures before, so I'm not sure if that's new technology or just a newer/better machine. I like it though!

I tried showing Hannah the pictures of her baby tonight. I'm not so sure she really saw the baby in them! I suppose it's hard to see for a 3-year old since it's usually hard to see for most adults!

So anyway, this day started so great seeing this little person! Sure makes me even more anxious to meet him or her!!

In other news, Tony went to Detroit last Friday for the Kiss concert and he's downtown Cleveland again tonight for another one. I'm so happy for him that he gets to see them again - he truly loves it! I just also secretly hope (and out loud I guess) that their tour keeps them out of this area for a while! This gets expensive fast!!! He hates when I say that, but it's true! Oh, well - makes him happy!

Story Time

Hannah went to her first week of Story Time at the Library Wednesday night. It was so much fun. I'm sorry that I forgot to take my camera, but she was so good and had a great time!

This week's story time was all about elephants and hippos. The read two stories, did a few songs and dances and then read the story while listening to the song "I want a hippopotamus for Christmas". Next week is all about opposites. She's supposed to wear her clothes either backwards or inside out next week.....she's not so keen on that so far, but we'll work on it. This is a week session and we intend on taking her every week if we can!

There were about 15 kids there and I'm proud to say, Hannah was about one of 3 kids that sat still, listened and was non-disruptive to the class. I realize more and more just how well behaved she is and how she loves to learn.

She is learning so much and we get nothing but positive remarks about how she does in school time at daycare. She's progressing further and faster than the two 4-year-olds. One amazing thing (I think) is that she can now also spell her last name - all 12 letters!!!! It's amazing enough that she can pronounce it, but now she can spell it out loud and write it too!!! Her Spanish vocabulary is quite impressive too. She counts to 100 and up and backwards to 100 by 10's. She's gets most opposites and she continues to work on rhyming.

She has settled into her new room quite nicely. She loves her new bed and I so far love that her toys are now all up there and not in our living room and family room. She still brings them down to play, which is fine, but then puts everything away before bedtime. Works for me!

So I think I've made up my mind about Tony's little deal for Monday's ultrasound.....I am saying "No Deal" and I will lose out on naming a boy Nathan....I'd rather wait for the surprise until the baby is born. So as long as I can help it, we'll be waiting until the baby is born to know whether its a boy or a girl! One more thing that I'd like to express my joy about is that my good friend Maggie is pregnant too!!!! After lots of trying and lots of heartbreak, she is progressing very well so far and had a healthy looking ultrasound to mark 12 weeks last Friday. Not only is it so cool that she is finally getting this wonderful miracle of her own, but it's so cool for me that I shared my first pregnancy with my good friend Erin and now this one with my other good friend Maggie. Wow - how blessed am I?!?