Still here & doing fine

We arrived at 4pm local time, which corresponded to 1am Pacific Time (which was what we were coming from). We had slept some on the plane, but we were tired enough to come in, eat food, and crash. It was a wrestless night sleep and we were all up and about by around 7am (times from here on out will refer to local time). We explored a bit and met some people. We were supposed to go out to dinner with some of said people, but Hannah fell asleep around 4pm and was obviously down for the night. Needless to say, she was up around 2am. So that made for a fun second full day. We managed a fairly reasonable night from 8pm to 6am-ish last night without too many disturbances, so maybe we're close to being adjusted.

Mighty Kraxaws head east again...

Believe / Remember it or not, this thing started out as a travel log. Here we go again!

With 2 additional Kraxaws in tow this time, and we actually flew west to get to the east.

The first airplane (which actually went north) was a Disney plane, on the outside and in (but I only got pictures of the inside):

The second plane had the strangest safety information presentation I've seen in a while -- at least since the last trip east. Presented as a video:

The hotel has a nice complementary breakfast next to a lovely garden area

And it's close to a Domino's with a special spot for kids to watch the "Dough Show"

All things considered, we're holding together pretty well. A bit run down and disoriented, but nothing more than one would expect!

Hannah is 4.06, Sylvia is 6.95, and Mommy is SLOW

I just logged in to create a late post for Hannah's 4th birthday, only to see that I totally missed Sylvia's 6th last year! I guess I'll have to do a 2-year catch up when she turns 7 in a few weeks...

So, Hannah is 4!

   

In the past year, Hannah has lost her curls, picked up a bunch of words (some of which we can even understand), and has grown (this is just an estimate) about 15 inches.

She changed schools last September -- a change which coincided with her becoming somewhat more shy and reserved, but most of the time she's still our little ball of enthusiasum.










Her classic Hannah enthusiasum may be most pronounced in the gymnastics classes she's been taking since September. I first signed her up for the 'Beginner' class, but after the very first class the teacher suggested she should move up to the more advanced group. Then, 7 months later, she moved her up again -- but that move was unofficial because she wasn't technically old enough for the next class. So for the last several weeks of the spring session, she was in class with 4-7 year olds, and fully holding her own.

She's an epic thrower of tantrums, but also a fabulous giver of hugs, so I suppose it balances out.

       And did I mention about her hair?

Hannah is THREE

I spent much of last weekend watching Hannah and savoring her last days as a two-year-old. I observed her sweetness, her curiosity, her cleverness... and her temper! And just how much she had changed in just the last few months. It's a cliché because it's true: They grow up so fast!

My uncle, aunt, and cousin were visiting on Saturday, and we all took a trip to the Museum of Science where Hannah made friends with a baby chick.

After the exhaustion from the day, Hannah fell asleep on my shoulder, and I got to re-visit the joy of relaxing while snuggling my sleeping baby. These days, she is usually far too busy.

    

Here are some things about Hannah:

• Hannah has lived in Massachusetts for more than 2/3 of her life. So I shouldn't have been surprised when she began speaking full sentences -- with a Boston accent. She rides in a "cah". She plays at the "pahk." Which park? The one "ovah deh-uh". It's pretty cute.
• Hannah can recognize the letters 'H' and 'S' and thinks that, respectively, they always stand for 'Hannah' and 'Sylvia'. Anything with an 'H' is, therefore, Hannah's. (Things with an 'S' are sometimes Sylvia's...)
•  Hannah loves school. She's in the 'Stomper Room', and is exceedingly proud of that. She's always excited in the morning to get in the "cah" and go to "ghool" and see her teachers and friends. In the fall I'd ask her what she did every day what she did, and she'd just announce "I Dom-per!"  But now she actually tells me in some detail what they did and who she played with. (And she can pronounce "Stomper".)
• Very recently, she reached 2 milestones that we'd begun to think would never come: She recognizes and names colors accurately, and she can say "Sylvia". We kind of miss "Sivia" and "See-uh". But it's nice to actually know what she means when she says "da gween one".

Fractionally older

Last week we had about 2-3/4 days home from school, courtesy of Juno. The first full snow day happened to coincide with Sylvia's half birthday. That's right, my first born is 5-1/2! Since we were home for the day anyway, we celebrated with scones for breakfast, a half-birthday crown, a chair picture, and - of course - a lot of snow.

At 5-1/2, Sylvia loves to do art, write stories, and put on "shows". Her favorite activities in school are recess and library. She does not care for gym. We're sort of amazed at the work that she brings home from kindergarten sometimes. At home, she loves to play "school" and "family" with her sister and their dolls. Mom & Dad aren't very good at these games, but she makes due.

Hannah's half-birthday went unnoticed in December, but we took a moment last week to acknowledge that she was turning, roughly, 2-60/97. At 2-1/2(rounding down now), Hannah is talking more and more, engaging in more conversations, fully playing along with Sylvia's pretend games, putting on her own pants & shoes (correctly at least 1/3 of the time), and trying to put on her own shirts & socks (100% failure rate so far). She is also widely recognized as having a great smile, great curls, and epic tantrums. Seriously, they are something to behold.

Sylvia is 5!

We had planned to celebrate Sylvia's birthday with a party on the actual big day, but the forecast said rain, so we celebrated a day early. Fortunately, most of her school friends were still able to come, and a grand time was had by all. We may have gone overboard with the Mickey / Minnie Mouse theme she requested, but it was great to have our backyard filled with laughing children.

Having the party on Saturday morning was nice, too, because we had the rest of the weekend to relax and celebrate as a family. We ran out to Build-A-Bear on Saturday afternoon so Sylvia could spend her birthday money on a new doghouse for her stuffed puppy Hearts, had a nice dinner at the Cheesecake Factory, and Sylvia and I went out for a mommy-daughter birthday haircut.

This past year was a big one for Sylvia. Memories from Santa Barbara still linger for her and bring a mixture of pleasant nostalgia and feelings of loss. She's been very excited about turning 5 and starting kindergarten, but obviously also nervous about the changes on the horizon. On Saturday, I told her excitedly it was her last day being 4. Her face fell, and she began to cry. She said that she didn't want it to be her last day being 4, because she was used to it. She likes new beginnings, but doesn't like it when things come to an end. We're coming up on the last few weeks at her current school, and I expect that to be a very difficult good-bye.

Anyway, look what happened:

Hannah is TWO

In these past 6 months, our sweet little baby girl has gone from that "toddler-baby" (as her sister would say) to this beautiful little girl, complete with golden locks, a sweet little voice, and a stubborn streak matched by extreme friendliness. Her teachers at day care frequently say to us, "It's a good thing she's so cute," and give us tales of her trouble-making

In the last few weeks, she has gone through a verbal explosion. She had a decent vocabulary before, but she generally just made one-word utterances and common phrases like "tank-oo", "aw-done", and "where-go?" Her vocabulary has probably tripled, and she's putting together and understanding more and more complicated sentences.

Yesterday, she shared a Frozen-themed birthday party with her cousin. Even above the presents and cake, I think she most enjoyed the kiddie pool.

 

She had an adventure the other week. She had a bad case of croup and ended up receiving oral steroids at the pediatrician's office and then taking a little ride in an ambulance to receive breathing treatments. In a case of extremely terrible timing, I didn't have my cell phone on me, which added a little drama to the ordeal and meant that I couldn't take any pictures, but the EMT did take & send this one, which he captioned:

"Patient of the Year"

We're just so proud of our little person.