A hand for Hampden

This hand, situated in the bed of Steve's truck in March when I took these pictures, will soon be part of a sweet new playground currently being built a few blocks south of us. Since the playground is the brainchild of Steve, I have high expectations and no doubt that it will exceed those expectations. Really, just the hand is enough to make the space a huge hit; the fact that there will be more is just a party bonus. What kid doesn't want to sit in the palm of a giant hand and climb up the fingers?? I kinda want to sit on it too...

After a week of awesomely amazing 70-degree temperatures, it's hard to look at these pictures of Hannah bundled up in her winter gear and come to terms with the fact that this really wasn't that long ago. Sure, I'm behind on the blog, but I'm not THAT behind....am I?? It's funny how a dramatic change in weather can warp my sense of time and make a month feel like a year.

Random 'nuggles

I haven't forgotten about a proper birthday post for Jacob, but it'll have to happen on a night that I don't work. Tonight I'll just post a few pics that have been collecting dust in my cell phone gallery.

In the last month Jacob has taken to laying down with Hannah at bedtime and listening to a story rather than trying to tear the book out of the hands of the reader and then whack all readers in the face with it. I'm a big fan of this development.

Jacob spends a lot of his downtime time on the step ladder, and on this particular day, he slipped off it and landed pretty hard on the wood floor. He cried for a long time and snuggled with me for even longer. I kept worrying that he had a concussion but Eric assured me that he did not. He's more of an expert on that stuff than me so I took his word for it.

We miss having Zoey next door and loved running around Cylburn with her on one of those random warm days in March that made the snow on the ground seem like something from a sci-fi movie.

This next one was taken on a day that I THOUGHT was warm but was actually pretty darn freezing, hence the reason that we are the only ones on the playground. We didn't last long. 

Wheeeee! Love at first slide

We took advantage of the awesome warm weather today and sloshed over to the playground. The second it came into sight, Jacob started bouncing excitedly in his seat and tried to stand up out of his tricycle. He had his eyes on the slide and didn't give up until Eric reluctantly used his sleeve to absorb most of the rain that had fallen on it an hour earlier. Jacob happily dried the rest of it with his fleecy butt, going up and down over and over again, until we grew tired and sloshed home again.

He remembered the slide from our visit to the playground a couple of weeks ago when we had those two 40ish degree days. It was love at first slide, and now he's hooked. These pics are from that first visit (there'd be a lot of slushy snow on the ground if they were from today).

A random summer afternoon in the 'hood in which Jacob gets his swing on for the first time

I'm going on a blogging rampage starting tonight. I have two big posts pending (our visit to the DC zoo and our vacation), and I have all these miscellaneous photos floating around that aren't terribly exciting but that I want to share anyway. First up: Jacob's first swinging adventure during a trip to the playground with his big sister and two of her favorite friends from the neighborhood. (If you're feeling nostalgic, here's a link showcasing pics from Hannah's first trip to the playground.)

He might still be a little young for it, but we plopped him in the swing anyway.

When Hannah was a baby, she shared the swing with her friends (see above link). She's a bit big for that now...

Hopefully his sister and her friends will always want to help out and lend a hand when he needs a little push.

Hannah is far more entertained by this tree on the edge of the playground than she is by the playground equipment. I can get behind that.

And there you have it: one random summer afternoon in Hampden.

Hannah and Liam

Hannah has become great friends with Liam, an almost 5-year-old who lives a few blocks south of us. They play together really sweetly, and since our schedules are similar and his mom and I get along well, we've been hanging out pretty much weekly for the last few months. This week we took advantage of Tuesday's warm, sunny weather and met at the Linkwood playground. I'd have loved to have gone on a hike somewhere but I pulled a muscle in my rib cage/back (I think the serratus anterior) and can't be on my feet for more than about 15 minutes at a time without encountering more back pain than I'm interested in enduring, so I suggested a spot with plenty of benches.

The great thing about Linkwood is that there's a ton of wide open space with trees, a trail, and a stream. Sometimes we get distracted throwing sticks and rocks in the stream and don't even make it all the way to the playground.  This time we beelined for the equipment and surrounding benches, but eventually they tired of the playground and we meandered around, playing hide-and-seek with Atticus in a giant pile of branches that had been cut from a tree and then traipsing around in the leaves and trees by the stream. I sat down when I could and then herded Hannah to the car when I couldn't take it anymore.

Back by the cars, Liam and Hannah used the wall as a balance beam and then sat down to rest together (or maybe inspect something? I actually have no clue what they're doing) having no idea how cute they looked from behind. Thanks to Liam's mom for sharing this photo and letting me post it publicly!!

Photo courtesy of Jeanne Stafford (Liam's mom)

The Playground...On Thursday, Not Friday

As soon as I turned off my computer last night I realized the giant error in my last post, which was that although we had a great weekend, we did not go to the playground on Friday. The "great" part of the weekend was on pause from Thursday night at 9:00 until 7:00 a.m. Saturday morning.  Friday was the day that I was dead to the world and confined to my room/the bathroom with a crazy stomach bug.  (And Saturday was Eric's day with the bug...)  We did, however, go to the playground on Thursday afternoon when Eric got home from work.  The weather was amazingly spring-like, so we really had no choice but to get out, and since we have no yard, hello playground! I took the camera because I wanted to compare our first trip to the playground this year with her very first trip ever in April of last year.  She was so little then!!!

Feeding the Ducks with Pappy

We drove to Hagerstown today so Eric could help my mom out with some broken things around her house. I dropped him off and then Hannah and I headed straight for Pangborn Park to meet Pappy. She doesn't do well being strapped into a car seat for long periods so giving her a place to immediately stretch out and run was a priority.  I've always loved Pangborn. It's got great tree coverage, a nice pond, and is a perfect not-too-big-and-not-too-small size.  As a bonus, this is also the park where my dad works so of course he keeps it clean and beautiful!

So, in addition to the previously mentioned bonus points for Pangborn Park, there was one unknown bonus: ducks that are sort of trained.  I was heading for a trash can with an apple core in my hand when my dad suggested we feed it to the ducks. We started with the closest ducks, but they took off so he suggested we go feed the trained ducks.  Trained ducks?? Whaaaaat?  So we started walking over to where this group of ducks was all huddled down beneath a tree. When they noticed us, they all stood up and and quickly waddled to us. I guess they're trained to know that the animals who walk on two legs typically have food. Anyway, when they got close, my dad held up his hand in the air, and the ducks stopped where they were and just waited for us to approach them!! How crazy is that! He's like Dr. Doolittle or something. Then he took out his pocket knife and started cutting up small pieces of the apple for Hannah to feed to them. Those ducks were eating right out of her hand!! It was crazy and awesome and definitely the highlight of our week!! 

After they'd eaten most of the apple, they jumped in the pond for a swim. Hannah thought this was a fantastic idea and tried to follow them.  She was none too happy about being held back. 

After a couple of attempts to jump in, and a number of fits verging on temper tantrums, we decided distraction was our best bet.  Lucky for us, Pappy brought a yellow bouncy ball which we took to the opposite end of the park.  Then Pappy taught Hannah how to kick the ball.

After an hour or so at the park we headed back to my dad's house for lunch and a nap. I wasn't sure how the nap thing would work and figured I had two options: 1) put her in a playpen and sit by that playpen while she screamed for up to an hour until finally falling asleep, 2) lay down with her, latch her on, and cross my fingers that she nursed until she passed out. I opted for option 2, and surprisingly she passed right out and stayed that way for an hour and a half. She would have slept longer but I woke up after about 45 minutes and was getting bored, thirsty, and antsy so once I knew she'd met her 90-minute sleep cycle, I took back my boob which woke her.

Dad brought out a big basket of toys then and we played on the floor for a bit.  At one point, Hannah tucked her lips in, hummed, and leaned in for a kiss. I miraculously had the camera in my hand and, knowing what that humming and lip pursing meant, stole a picture.  She really gives the best kisses. I'm glad Pappy got to experience a Hannah kiss.

Tickle fest.

 

Hannah found this book in the basket, handed it to Pappy, and then laid down on the floor to listen to a story.  After one read through, she started signing "more", and I caught it!! See in the photo below how she's signing more?  How fun is that! 

After a little more playtime we headed over to Grammy's to see how her and Daddy were doing and to get in a little QT with Grammy before heading out. For some reason I didn't pick up my camera there...But Hannah had fun playing with the teeny tiny dog who growled at her, jumping up and down and rolling around in the crib, and crawling in and out of the empty upstairs closet.

It was a fun trip, but I'm not motivated to make it any more often.  Hannah spent much of the car ride yelling and fussing and screaming and trying to get out of her car seat, which just stresses me out and makes me tense and makes the whole ride difficult for me. Eric sat in the back on the way there which helped her a bit I think, but I still stressed when she screamed. I got stuck in the back with her on our way back to Baltimore which, given my propensity for any kind of motion sickness, made it more miserable for me. I had to juggle being car sick with entertaining a very frustrated baby.  Not fun. I called my mom during a particularly bad crying spree (her, not me) in an attempt to prove to her that I have a good reason for never driving back there, but she didn't sympathize, just said lots of people had kids and still found ways to travel, like how she used to get us up at 4:00 a.m. for road trips because then we would still be sleepy and would sleep in the car so she wouldn't have to hear our mouths....I don't see me getting up at 4:00 a.m. any time soon. I do, however, see me continuing along on my current path of refusing to go anyplace that requires us to be in the car for more than 25 minutes.  

Baltimore's Best Playground

City Paper was right, Stadium Playground is by far the coolest playground in all of Baltimore, probably in all of Maryland.  We drove over after nap time today to see what all the fuss was about.  There's a separate section for littler kids with a play train, a miniature street scape, and lots of cool places to crawl through and explore.  The bigger kid section has a puppet theater, tire swings, a big boat shaped structure with musical pipes, and tons of other cool stuff. The whole thing is made out of that Trex stuff, the ground is that soft recycled rubber stuff, and there are bright paintings everywhere. I snapped a couple of shots with my phone while Hannah was swinging, but of course the phone doesn't do the playground justice.  There are a couple more pics on the website that are much better.

Fall Fashion Show

Fall kicked in late Wednesday evening after a few days in the 90s.  This morning it was only in the 60s when we woke up so I had to dress Hannah in cool weather clothes for the first time.  (Last fall/winter I kept her in those footed pajama-type outfits because they seemed so warm and comfy.) She ended up looking like such a big girl that I felt obliged to go a teeny bit mamarazzi. While snapping, I had a momentary flash forward to what her first day of school might be like....Crazy how fast it all happens.

(The tie-dye socks and vegetable onesie are much loved gifts from Jessica; the hoodie and pants are hand-me-downs maybe from Libby?? Not sure...)

We walked Hannah to the elementary school around the corner this past weekend to play on the jungle gym. It's not set up for babies, and there are no swings, but it's still fun and is way closer than the other two playgrounds.  She commandeered this big wheel from a gal who was waaaaaay big to be riding it, but was kind enough to share for a bit. Hannah threw quite the fit when the gal wanted it back. Looks like there will be a big wheel in Hannah's future! (The phone in this Blackerry is really coming in handy.)

Hannah Pushes the Stroller...All the Way Home

My dad came to visit yesterday afternoon while Sondra attended an event at Camden Yards.  Since it's been eons since we'd spent any daddy/daughter time together, Eric offered to hang back when I suggested that we all walk to the playground.  Since the playground is seven blocks away, we got plenty of time to talk and catch up on the way there, and once there, he transitioned from Dad to very happy Grandpap, and I transitioned from daughter to trigger-happy mamarazzi.  Unfortunately, most of my photos, including those on the swing and sliding board, are extremely overexposed.  Here's what I could salvage:

I'm pretty sure I mentioned Hannah's pension for pushing her stroller around the house.  She also likes to push it around the playground.  Yesterday, rather than put her back in the stroller for the walk home, I steered her up off the mulch and onto the sidewalk in the direction of home, figuring I'd let her exercise her legs until she got tired.  Well, she didn't get tired. She pushed that stroller the whole way home.  She tripped a couple of times and landed on her knees, but refused the snuggle and comfort Pappy tried to provide, forcefully squiggling her way out of his arms and back to her position behind the stroller.  At green lights I held up her sippy cup so she could drink from it without removing her hands from the stroller. Her cheeks were flushed when we got home, but she seemed as alert as ever in spite of having walked seven blocks.  Seven! I think that's crazy.  And amazing. Maybe she'll grow up to be a super hero like Wonder Woman or something.

Last Weekend (Not In A Nutshell)

As promised, the plethora of pictures from our long Memorial Day weekend:

On Saturday, Grammy came down for a visit because earlier in the week I'd begged her to.  What can I say, I was missing my mommy.  She brought a nice, wooden xylophone for Hannah and showed her how to make some noise.

After music time, we walked down to The Avenue to the yarn shop there. I want to crochet a dress for Hannah from this really cute pattern that I found and was hoping to find some good yarn locally, but I didn't find the colors I was looking for so I walked out empty handed.  From there we headed to the playground. I didn't have my camera but Grammy brought hers.  She took the next three pictures.

On Sunday afternoon we packed up the bathing suits and headed out to Jess's and Todd's in Ellicott City for a  Memorial Day BBQ/party.  Although I took my camera, I didn't end up using it much.  Hannah kept trying to wear it around her neck and was dropping it in the process so I hid it in the garage.  Anyway, I'm never totally comfortable being my Mamarazzi self in large crowds where I don't know everyone well...

This is Hannah charging the slip and slide.

I think Eric might have been the only grown up to brave the 3 foot pool that day. Although it was as hot as Hades outside, that water was just tad on the nippy side.  

Eric coined a new sport in which you volley a baby over a net instead of a ball.  Nobody else seemed too into playing.

This is a very water logged Brody. I wish I had a picture of Hannah and Brody's little sis, Addison.  They were squealing and smiling at each other like crazy and grabbing hands. It was really cute!  They haven't played together since just before Erin's maternity leave ended and Addison was still pretty infantile then and not really doing much playing.  She was born in December so her and Hannah are the same age. Fortunately, Erin works at a school and school is just about up for the year so  I'll have another stay-at-home mom to play with for a couple of months, and Hannah will have another playmate. 

I brought some bread for the car ride home both to keep her from having a melt down and also to keep her awake....There were no meltdowns...

On Monday, Kylie invited Hannah over to play in the pool she got for her birthday.  Eric and I went along to supervise and sit in the sprinkler.

That bath toy is awesome. I think we're gonna try to find one for Hannah...

Hannah is a real bull dozer.  She kept grabbing onto Kylie and either trying to pull Kylie down or use Kylie to propel herself up; I'm not sure which.  She even bit Kylie's butt at one point!  Lucky for Hannah, Kylie is pretty laid back and tolerant, though Kylie did swat her on the head a few times by the end.

That was our weekend, not in a nutshell. Let's be honest, nutshells are not my thing.