Ramping up for Halloween and our annual trip to Weber's

Our neighbors up the street hung a skeleton from the second story window and put their pumpkins on the sidewalk toward the end of September, much to Hannah's delight. She'd stop and stare and ask questions and then tell us that it's time for us to put up our Halloween decorations, so on the last Saturday in September, Eric pulled the big ol' Halloween box from the attic.

The two of them ransacked the costumes, strewing them all about the floor upstairs, and then came downstairs, Hannah in my old mermaid costume sucking on a pacifier from the year that my friends and I dressed up like the seniors from Dazed and Confused and Eric in some overalls, funny glasses, and an alien hat (?? no clue why that's in the costume box).

After hanging a light-up spider web from the window, stringing some other kind of spider web on the screen door, and hanging some skeletons from the trees out front, we took the festivity up a notch and headed to Weber's Farm to pick out a pumpkin.

I thought that I was less snap happy this year because we have plenty of pics from last year and the year before, but as it turns out, I still have a decent amount of pictures. The thing is, even though we do this every year, it's different every year because Hannah's interests and capabilities are always changing. This year, Hannah LOVED the maze. She ran around it giggling like a maniac for hours, long after we gave up trying to keep up with her and just stood on the bridge above watching her.

The slide was a hit too, but nowhere near as much of a hit as it was last year--the maze definitely took the cake this year.

We also stuffed our first scarecrow!   

Hannah insisted he have lips, so I painstakingly cut lips to fit around the mouth she had already picked out and glued on.

She also insisted on blue plaid fabric for hair and this funny hat.

After we took our "finished" pictures, Hannah traded the yellow hat for a green one, and after we got home, Eric did a little bending of the hat to make it look normal. He also gave the scarecrow some boots, gloves, and a walking stick.

Amy drove up from DC that afternoon, and our neighbors happened to be outside at the same time that we were admiring our scarecrow, and Hannah insisted that I take a picture of the gang, so here it is, a pic of the gang.

And another with Hannah showing off the dollar Nate gave her.

She went inside then with Amy and since all the Halloween costumes were still strewn about the hallway floor, she picked out some items for her and Amy before coming back out. This time Amy donned the mermaid costume and pacifier, and Hannah found some witchy stuff.

The kid is totally obsessed with Halloween this year. We're reading Halloween books non-stop (her favorite is Bone Soup), she's asking for Halloween shows, she wants to talk about witches and ghosts...obsessed. I'm looking forward to taking her out to The Avenue to see all the costumes on Halloween. I don't think we'll trick-or-treat, but we'll at least walk around. This was always my favorite holiday too so I'm loving her enthusiasm.

Random dress-up pics and a penguin

If I were a more regular blogger and not always so backlogged, I would upload one or two random pics here and there as they were taken and be happy for a short post, but I'm more of a procrastinator, so I end up with a bunch of random pics just sitting around for a couple of months, and since they aren't timely any more, I'm lumping them into one random and miscellaneous post.

Most of you are aware of Hannah's pension for dress-up. One of her philosophies is that the more clothing and accessories, the better. Another thing she likes to do is pick a color theme and stick to it, so all blue one day and all pink on another.  She also has a thing for princess costumes. She has two friends with princess costumes, and every time we're at their house, it's the first thing she goes for, so toward the end of the summer, when we were racing past (not through) the toy section at Target, her very sharp eyes spotted this blue Merida princess dress, and I relented a bought it. I like that it's blue and also that Merida is pretty awesome as far as princesses go.

One evening she donned her Merida dress, neon sunglasses, rainbow bug umbrella, and roller skates and skated around the house striking poses. I think this is my favorite Hannah ensemble ever.

 

I may have already posted this one, but if not...BabyLegs on her arms and legs were a phase as well.

 Grammy came across some princess/ballerina dresses at Sam's Club one day and scooped up two. They came with a headband and fake ballet slippers AND were cheaper than the Merida dress....There was no blue so she picked out purple and pink and shipped them off to Baltimore along with a really great Olivia book.

Hannah likes to stand on her tip toes and dance. She also INSISTS that these are ballerina costumes, not princess costumes. She insists this when she spies another princess costume that she wants and I remind her that she has plenty (she picked out a Belle one at the consignment shop two weeks ago). She then reminds me that she only has two because two are ballerina dresses. Sheesh. She's had her eyes on the Melissa and Doug princess costume for the past few weeks and asks for it every time we're at Whole Foods. It's $30 though!! No thank you! I almost feel like I should buy it and save it for Christmas though because she asks for it even when we aren't at the store.

This last pic is not a dress-up pic, but I do love the fact that she matched up her rainbow leggings with an unrelated rainbow dress. We ended up at the zoo one random morning before it got cold, and got to meet Winnie, the penguin ambassador. She's so cute!! It's the closest we've ever been to a penguin and was super cool.

I don't know how to wrap up such a miscellaneous post, except to say that I feel relieved to "clean out" these random pics. Next up is our trip to Weber's Farm earlier this month, pics from Hannah's first dance class, then pics from the Renaissance Festival yesterday, and from Black Cherry Puppet Theater today....Let's see if I can get them posted before it's Christmas!

Another trip to DC

Hannah was off school for Yom Kippur so her and I took the train to DC that Wednesday to visit Amy and the museums, starting with the Air and Space Museum. We weren't sure Hannah would be interested in much there, but we gave it a go anyway. They have a whole kid section that we hit up first, and Hannah enjoyed running around pushing the buttons and test-driving the plane. She didn't get any of the science experiments that were linked to the button pushing, but then again, neither did I.

We walked around for a bit looking at the planes and shuttles and tried to figure out how astronauts poop in space. Hannah had to poop while we were there and while she was going, this thought occurred to her. I have talked to her about gravity but I don't think she really grasps that so my guess is that her question had more to do with "where's the bathroom" than "how do they poop." We walked through the model shuttle but couldn't see the bathroom. We never did find an answer to our question...

We walked around the gift shop next and Hannah picked out a space kitty and refused to put it down no matter how many interesting things I handed her. It's not that I'm opposed to this astronaut Hello Kitty doll, it's just that we have stuffed animals out the wazoo, and there are only so many that can be snuggled at a time. I'd love for her to have toys that she can do something with other than snuggle and cuddle. I found two books that looked really good, You Can't Do that Amelia! and Violet the Pilot. Neither were more exciting than the kitty though, so I gave up, bought her the kitty, and added those books to my Amazon wish list.

After the Air and Space Museum we walked over to the sculpture garden, ordered lunch at the cafe, and hung out near the fountain.

After lunch we went into the National Gallery of Art. 

We scoped out the dancer paintings they had by Degas and then realized that if we wanted to chill out in front of an Imax, we needed to book it over the National History museum. I was hoping to see the polar bear movie, but the only one that fit our window was the one about the coral reef. It was a good one. Next time I want to see the butterfly one! It wasn't released yet when we were there.

Speaking of butterflies, after the Imax, we checked out the gemstones and then went to the butterfly garden, even though we went there the last time we visited DC. It's so cool that we can't get enough. I heard that there is an even bigger and better butterfly garden somewhere in the DC area. When I Google it, the only thing that comes up is Brookside Gardens in Bethesda. My guess is that this is the place, but there's a thing on the website that says the Wings of Fancy Live Butterfly exhibit ended in September....so it looks like we missed it, but it also lists a butterfly garden in their list of gardens, so who knows, maybe there's always some sort of butterfly garden there. If anybody reading this knows anything about this place, leave a comment please!

In the meantime, the little garden in the museum is nice. Hannah sat very still hoping one would land on her.

The woman working there kept bringing one over and trying to get it to stay on her shirt, but they all fluttered away upon landing.

All except the green one, it stuck around for a while. These butterflies must be chill because it's the same one that landed on me last time we were there.

When Hannah got tired of it, she shooed it away, and we left. We checked out the model of the giant snake built based on the bones they found to the biggest snake ever, then swung through the dinosaur bones exhibit before heading back to Union Station.

We kept a pretty leisurely pace the whole day (except when we were running to catch the Imax), but we still covered a lot of ground and were totally exhausted by the end of the day and stayed that way for the next two days. I suppose exhaustion is a natural result of a really fun day.

Hanging out in Hagerstown

School must have made Hannah feel pretty independent because on the night of her second day, after I had read her two books and turned out her light, she casually mentioned that it had been a while since she'd spent the night at Grammy's. I agreed and asked her if she'd like to do that again soon, and she launched into a full-on tale of what happens at Grammy's (or what happened the one time that she had stayed there). Most importantly, since the bedrooms are on the first floor, Hannah is allowed to watch TV after her bath. This is a huge pro for Hannah who had been requesting TV after her bath earlier that evening. I suppose my answer of "no" is what spurred this desire to go to Grammy's more so than a newfound feeling of independence.  She also mentioned hanging out with Winnie (my mom's miniature chihuahua), going shopping for toys, and playing with the toys at Grammy's house. Then she said that Grammy's bath toy selection is lacking. Hannah decided she would have to bring her own next time.

Since we were planning a trip back for that Saturday to spend time with my dad whose birthday was earlier that week, I called Grammy to see if she wanted an overnight house guest, and of course, she did.

That morning Hannah attempted to shove all the toys on her shelves into her backpack and finally settled on just bringing a car, Lila, and all of Lila's accessories. Then she put on her backpack and gave Lila a shoulder ride to the car. Ready for a slumber party!

We drove to Uncle Chip's that morning and spent the day wrestling, swinging on the tire swing, riding bikes, climbing trees, and just hanging out. I was feeling lazy so I didn't take too many pics, and most of the ones I did take are blurry because of my anti-flash ways/poor photography skills...but I'm not going to let the fact that the pics are bad stop me from posting a few.

Chip and Clay wrestle a lot, but it's not something Hannah does so watching her was hysterical. She jumped in at first just because Uncle Chip had Clay pinned and she wanted to rescue her cousin. Clay returned the favor when Chip pinned Hannah, and then the two took turns rescuing each other.

 

My dad and Sondra came over after lunch, and Pappy and the kids wrestled in the yard. Wrestling was one of mine and Chip's favorite thing to do with our dad when we were growing up so it was fun watching Hannah get put in the scissor hold, a hold in which I spent much of my childhood.

Hannah was also obsessed with setting up a pretend camp fire pretty far from the actual fire pit. We played there in the morning, and then she dragged Sondra over there in the afternoon, and eventually, she dragged over the rest of us as well to join in the pretend game of weenie and marshmallow roasting (and eating).

Hannah needed quiet time at about the same time that Mason did so she hung out inside watching the TV with Uncle Chip.

I had my mom up Hannah at Chip's, that way she was leaving me rather than me leaving her. She hopped right into Grammy's car and left me standing there feeling a little forlorn. I drove back to Baltimore alone feeling like I was missing a limb. The first time she stayed with my mom, Eric and I went out in Hagerstown and then stayed with a friend so we didn't have too much of an opportunity to miss h er. This is the first time that we've ever been in the house without Hannah overnight, and it was weird! We enjoyed it though. I was coming down with cold (probably as a result of Hannah being sick earlier in the week) so we took advantage of the opportunity to lay around the couch and watch what we wanted on TV. It'd have been nice to have done something cooler like go on a date, but we were both exhausted so we ordered in sushi, watched Snow White and the Huntsman, and  went to bed early.

The next day was the worst day of my cold so we skipped the farmer's market and yoga and just laid on the couch some more...so lazy. I don't feel guilty though--the one thing I miss about the pre-parenthood life is the ability to just veg out on the couch for unhealthy periods of time when feeling under the weather so it was nice to be able to do that.

Hannah came home after lunch with a bunch of loot. Grammy had taken her shopping and she picked out an outfit, a soft robe, heart-shaped glasses, and a talking baby pony. She is such a sucker for any toy that is a baby and especially one that makes noise/moves/has a bottle it can suck on. (Other obnoxious baby toys that she has include the FurReal baby kitty and chipmunk.) I don't love these toys and always try to talk into her something else, but I do love that she has a huge mothering instinct and am happy to allow her to fulfill that.

Here she is in her snuggly new robe. I should note that the little diva did not approve of this photo and insisted I take a few more until I took one she was happy with. I like this one though.

 

Eric and I enjoyed the break, especially since we get so few, but we were really happy to have her back. The house is so quiet and empty without her!

Hannah's second day of school!

Montessori phases in the kids slowly so that the newest and youngest kids start last after the veterans have a chance to get their routine in swing. As such, Hannah was the last one in her class to start school this year with a scheduled start day of September 17. She didn't make it until that Wednesday though because on the night of Brandy's wedding (September 15), Hannah woke up at midnight coughing and gasping for breath. We let her sit on the couch for a while thinking that being upright would help with the wheezing, but it didn't. I rubbed a home-made imitation vapo-rub on her chest and back, but that didn't help either. We gave her the homeopathic cough and cold medicine we have, but still nothing changed. Finally we took her to bed with us, plugged in the cool mist thing and attempted to sleep. Every so often the pause after an exhale would last a little longer than seemed okay, and Eric and I would bolt upright and shake her until she started breathing again. On three different occasions I dressed for the emergency room, but each time we decided to wait a little longer.

At 6:30 that Sunday morning we took her in I put my foot down and said it was time to go. It turned out to be a pointless trip though. The doctor said she had an upper respiratory infection and x-rayed her chest to confirm the absence of pneumonia. They gave her some Tylenol and were dismayed when her temperature rose after that, but they let us go home anyway. They did nothing for her breathing and assured us that it was fine, that once the antibiotics kicked in, it would go back to normal.

She slept in our bed again on Sunday night so we could continue to supervise her inhaling, and when there were still no improvements on Monday morning, I took her in to her pediatrician who gave her a nebulizer, steroids, and an inhaler. Her breathing normalized within a few hours. This doctor, when I told her that the ER did not seem at all alarmed, said that Hannah's breathing was so bad that her first thought was to send us back to the ER (a different one with a pediatric ward), but she opted to start with the neb and steroids. If those hadn't kicked in within the few hours that they did, we'd have been back in the ER, but fortunately that's all it took.

Hannah's fever was low on Monday night and gone by Tuesday morning so we took one more lazy day and then started school that Wednesday. With all the hustle to get out of the house much earlier than we're used to, I forgot to get a picture of her, and I couldn't get one when we got back home because she spent the entire car ride home screaming bloody murder about wanting to eat in the car. I didn't bring her a snack because I knew I was going to give her lunch as soon as she got home. Sue me!!

So there's no picture of Hannah on her first day of school, but here she is on the morning of her second day of school. Yes, she's crying again, this time because you can't see her kitty shirt with her jacket on....Sheesh! Who is this diva??? I assured her that she could remove the jacket once at school, but this didn't seem to make her feel better.

In spite of tears on the first few days, she is loving school and even said tonight that she missed her teacher, Ms. Vicky. I love hearing her stories every day (though I have to pull them out of her rather painfully), and Eric and I are already noticing a lot of maturation in her.

It was an exhausting first week of school which I suppose is to be expected when you've got a kid who is both recovering from a severe infection AND doing something huge like starting school. As a result, we had a super cranky kid on our hands most afternoons and evenings. On Friday I took her swimming after school, and that was the icing on the wipe-out cake. She actually passed out in the car on the 10 minute drive home. This kid never passes out in the car! Certainly not on a ride that short.

Then she did something even crazier: she stayed asleep while I carried her from the car to the house. I am not exaggerating when I say that she has NEVER EVER made that transition in her entire life. Even as an infant in the infant seat, the second I would pick up that seat, she would wake up, and if I didn't remove her from the confines of that seat within seconds, she was screaming about it. 

I laid her down on the couch and let her rest for about an hour before I woke her.

We've bumped up bedtime by half an hour, and she's less cranky now, though it's still obvious that school is taking a lot of her. I was a little leery about her going to school 5 days a week at the age of 3, but I think it's good for her. I think she was getting bored with our routine and wasn't being stimulated enough. I'm loving the changes I'm seeing in her and am so happy that we chose Montessori!