Swimming Lessons

Hannah started swimming lessons last week and absolutely loves it! I have noticed over the past couple of months that she is much more comfortable in the water (at least the bath), so I decided it was time to try out the pool again. She hasn't really enjoyed the pool all that much in the past, but I was pretty sure that things would be different this time...and it is different! Unfortunately, I am not able to get any pictures of her in the middle of the action, because I am in the pool with her. I am really excited about her last two lessons because our family will be in town for Hannah's birthday, so we should be able to get some good shots then!

In the mean time, here are some before and after shots. This one being an after, you can tell that she is worn out. The lessons are from 11:30-noon and Hannah usually goes down for a nap at noon, so she's already tire to begin with...plus then, she is working hard during her lesson which makes her extra sleepy, so you are just going to have to trust me that she's really enjoying herself!
See, this is the before, "super-excited-because-that-is-the-biggest-bath-I've-ever-seen" face! Before her second lesson...she was very ready to get into the bath (aka. the pool)!

Here, she was really sad to have to leave...she was sitting on her towel in protest.

About five minutes after the lesson was over, and about ten minutes before the next picture.

And she's toast. We were barely out of the parking lot when she started to fall asleep. Also, swim days are great because she usually wants to sleep for an extra half hour or more than normal. That makes her afternoon nap 2 1/2-3 hours and she's still tired at bedtime! Beautiful!

Pinball and Ski Ball and Air Hockey, oh My!

There's a great place in Manitou that is called "Penny Arcades" (I think that's the official name anyway). And it is just that...they have a ton of old fashioned penny, nickel, and dime pinball machines, rides for the kiddos for anywhere from 10-50 cents each, air hockey, pool, and my favorite, 25 cent ski ball! You can easily go with five or ten bucks and stay for hours! Hannah like to sit on the rides, but did NOT like them when we turned them on! That was fine with me because that made her a cheap date! She really had a great time though, plus our friends from Laramie were in town so she ate up all of the attention.
Also, do you notice her sweet double-tight action? I put her brown tights on and she decided that she needed to add more stripes to her outfit with her pink and red baby legs.

Notice her sweet Wyoming dress! That came from our friends and I think Hannah sports it well! Go Pokes!

Ski ball, ah ski ball! Apparently, love of ski ball is innate because Hannah took to ski ball like a champ. Now she couldn't actually get the ball anywhere close to the end where the points are scored, but she didn't care and neither did I! Again, cheap date! She "helped" both Jon and me with our games and squealed with delight every time she rolled/threw the balls.

"More? More?" One of Hannah's "signs" is "more." She puts her hands together like this and says, "More? More, pease!" The game was over and we were out of quarters, hence the request for more balls to throw!

Zombie Hannah

Hannah ws being nice and quiet one morning while I was getting ready. Now I know that this is a red flag, but it never hits me until it is too late...apparently I had dropped my blush on the floor but never heard it hit the ground because it fell into Hannah's lap. By the time I realized that she was being awfully good, which is uncharacteristic of her in the mornings, this is what I found. Scared the crap out of me at first! I thought she had hurt herself or something terrible because she looked like a zombie...it was only after a closer look that I noticed it was my make-up! Of course when I tried to clean it off with a wet wipe she was ticked off about it...she kept saying, "No Mama, pretty!!" It was so stinkin funny that I gave up and she went to daycare with a little on her eyes!

Are you seeing the zombie-like resemblance in this one especially??

You are my sun-cow, cow cow cow cow cow...

sorry the video is sideways...i don't know how to turn it! i captured this while i was in the car today. this is her usual routine in the car wheb she gets board. she just starts singing to herself! i just flipped my phone around and was thrilled to find that it actually got her on the screen for most of it! we definitely have a little singer on our hands! enjoy!

New Phone; New Pictures

Sorry for the lack of blogging lately. I had a blog post going in my head to go along with some cute pictures that I had taken. All I needed to do was to upload the pictures, but I lost my phone at Walmart. So I had to get a new phone, then I had to figure out how it works and stuff, and take more pictures! So that's why you haven't gotten a post lately. I've been busy! I really like my new phone because it takes WAY better pictures than my old one and because I have the internet on it now too. This means that I will probably keep facebook more updated than the blog now because it's in the palm of my hand! I apologize in advance! Anyway, here are a few pictures from he park this afternoon. We frequent the park for several reasons: 1. I have started running again and it's about a mile from our house which is perfect for my running and Hannah's sitting in the stroller. 2. It's actually less than a mile from our house (I just make it a mile for my running's sake), so within about 15 minutes time we can be outside playing which makes Hannah really happy. 3. It's finally starting to get nice enough to be outside and that makes me really happy. I love being outside. I don't have trouble committing to exercise outside because it's outside and I love feeling the warm sun on my skin. So, we are headed into a really active time for our family. I love summer especially summers here because the weather is just perfect and the evenings are cool. We will spend a great deal of time outside these next six or seven months. I am so ready to shut the heater off and open the windows. It will probably be at least another month if not longer before the heater gets turned off, but I am just excited that it is sooner now than later! I say all of this because there will probably be an onslaught of pictures of outdoor activities coming up, so beware!

I love that Hannah puts her sunglasses on top of her head like a headband. I don't know where she figured this out, because I don't do that with mine. Never the less, it was quite hysterical to me today when she did this for the first time. I asked her if she wanted me to hold onto them for her and she said no. I would glance over from time to time and she would have them down on her eyes at times and up on her head at other times. I guess she knew that she was planning to use them! Funny girl! She has taken to swinging like it's her a new passion. She wants to spend the majority of her time swinging and sliding at the park, and she does not want my help! This was another funny thing that she did today. She put her "baby" on the swing and pushed her. As the "baby" was swinging, Hannah said, "Wee, wee, wee baby! Wee!" So stinkin cute!

Taking a water break and having a snack on one of the benches. See, sunglasses on!

And her she is pushing them back up! I just cannot get enough of this little girl! She is becoming more and more verbal and independent everyday and I love it! I am pretty sure that for me the toddler stage is the best yet. Now don't get me wrong it's incredibly frustrating at times and it seems like a tornado has blown through my house at other times, but all of that aside, my kid is just so stinkin cool right now! She's happy and enthusiastic about everything and wants to help us with anything and everything that we do! Some may say that she's even obsessive about things, but I prefer passionate--she is passionate about dogs, babies, bubbles, fish, books, and more! That list seems to grow daily which I just think is great! I have to get back to studying while Hannah's napping, but Happy spring to you all! Bloom flowers bloom!

Ordinary and Extraordinary

I was going to post a blog in the next day or two about Hannah learning to swing. She has always hated the swings and just as soon as I put her in one (the baby swings that are at most parks), she wants out. Saturday was no exception. When we arrived at the park she ran to the swings first, asked to get up, and as soon as I pushed it ever so lightly, she freaked out and said "No, no, no! Need Help!" That is, she needed help getting out of the swing. I am pretty used to this reaction so I pulled her out and she immediately took off running elsewhere. It never seems to bother her after she's out and she doesn't really seem to feel like she's missing anything. On Saturday, after playing for a long while, she made her way back to the swings, except this time she went to the "big" swings. I thought she might like them if she sat on my lap and she decided to test out the theory...not so much! Off within seconds. She walked over to the swing next to me and started trying to climb on it before looking at me and saying "need help!" So I thought why not? I was going to stay really close just in case she fell, so why not give it a shot. What we got was the best part of the whole park day...she was successful. She swung herself and was very sturdy and of course held on tight! She was so happy to be doing it all by herself. Can't you see the pride on her face??

While that's cute and all, that's not why I am blogging tonight. That was the ordinary, believe it or not...just another day at the park, trying out new things, testing our limits...no! Tonight I am blogging about something far more extraordinary...can you guess what that might be??
Oh yes! My sweet little girl peed in her potty tonight! I have been kind of a chicken about potty training because I don't love the idea of cleaning human poop off of my floors, particularly off the carpet! I kind of had a plan going...she is going to be moved to a different classroom in a couple of months at her new daycare. Word on the street is that they offer "potty privileges" to all the kids in the next class up, even if the parents haven't really started working on it. In my little Utopian society, Hannah would learn how to go to the bathroom there, and then request the toilet at home once she was confident there. Idealistic? Yeah, I know. Big load of crap and totally a cop out way of teaching my kid to use the toilet? Fine. What, a girl can't dream anymore??? Well, anyway, when I was picking Hannah up at daycare one day, one of the mom's was talking about the "magic" that occurred the evening before. Another teacher and I were talking and she asked if Hannah had shown any interest. I told her the story above and she said, "maybe you should just get a little potty and let her sit on it...she may be interested or she may not!" I knew she was right, but I was still wishing that I could cop out and just have them teach her. I was secretly hoping that she wouldn't be interested, hence delaying the inevitable...possibly for a few more months. The first day she wasn't interested at all...that could be because I had the potty set up wrong though! The next day, I tried it out after she got out of her bath. I realized how silly that was because she had probably just relieved herself in the bathtub! Duh! So nothing. Then tonight, she was in the tub and was tooting up a storm. She thinks it's hilarious when she toots in the tub because it makes bubbles...and it's way louder than it would normally be! She and I were having another one of our battle of wills at the end of the bath because she didn't want to put her toys away...I was close to giving in though because I really didn't want her pooping in the tub...I hate tub pooping! Anyway, so she finally put her toys away after about a 10-15 minute standoff and I immediately put her on her little potty. She was cold so I got her a t-shirt and then covered her up with the towel while she was sitting. She didn't want to sit long, so I knew I could by some time with a book, so I snagged "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See" off the bathroom counter and sat on the floor next to her. We read the book and she made all of the sounds, just like we always do. I am not sure what happened, but suddenly Hannah was up, running, and saying, "Ewww! Eww!" I look in the potty and she had peed! So I grabbed some toilet paper to wipe her off which seemed to appease her, until I had her look inside the potty. I was going to say, "look Hannah! Pee in the potty! Good girl!", but what came out instead was "NO!" She, of course because Hannah has always been a little gross like this, reaches down to put her hand in it! I yelled no to keep her from putting her hand in there, after which she immediately began crying and ran to her dad! I tried to sooth her and of course apologized 15 times, but she wanted nothing to do with me! Poor girl! She finally let me put a diaper on her because there was definitely no way she was sitting back down on that thing with me sitting there...she wouldn't have it! She isn't mad anymore and even wanted to snuggle before bed, but the poor kid really will probably be the one kid that wears diapers in kindergarten because she doesn't want to go in the toilet for fear of being yelled at! Hopefully I haven't caused any permanent damage! Anyway, we will give it another whirl tomorrow morning to see how it goes! I just had to share the news hot off the presses because I knew you would want to hear it! I will keep you posted on any future potty training excitement that goes on! By the way, in case I didn't say this earlier...that was definitely the extraordinary part of this post...perhaps the end of diapers is near!

Valentine's Day Weekend

We had a great Valentine's weekend this year. First, we went to a place called Jake & Telly's in Old Colorado City...it's a Greek restaurant that has "saganaki" which is flaming Greek cheese. We had it in New York when we were there for Jon's grandparent's anniversary and Jon's Uncle Doug and I actually ordered a second serving (it's an appetizer) because it was so good. Needless to say, we haven't forgotten about Saganaki! This was good, but not as good as the stuff we had in New York. We figured out a couple of things that we could do differently with the cheese to make it better. We will definitely visit Jake & Telly's again though...the rest of our food was unbelievably good...Hannah even liked it, which is impressive since she's never really eaten Greek food before. And, Jake & Telly's is in Old Colorado City which is cute and quaint. We can't wait to go back when it's warmer to sit on the balcony! We drove around kind of aimlessly for a while looking for a bakery that we knew wouldn't be open and that we really didn't know the name of either. While we were driving, Jon suddenly remembered a fun place to go and we were close. It's called Squeak and it's a soda pop shop that makes a bazillion different flavors. So we walked in and they had a wall of candy, sodas, AND ice cream! It's like the perfect place for me and Hannah!

Hannah picked out smarties while we waited for our drinks and ice cream. Jon made her sssttteeetcchhh to get them out of his hand. It was quite amusing to everyone involved.
Waiting patiently for the goods!

The weather has been amazing, especially compared to the single digit highs that we have been having. So, we decided to get outside to enjoy the 50's by goin on a hike, but first we went to Panera for breakfast.

I finally found something that Hannah likes at Panera...she's not a big fan of muffins or eggs, so Panera is a little tough. She loves cream cheese, so I don't know why I didn't think of it earlier but she had a bagel with cream cheese. Hanging out and content after our breakfast while figuring out which hike to go on.

We chose a place called "the Crags" which is south of Garden of the Gods, but has similar rock formations and sandstone. It was amazing!

Hannah got tired during our hike, so she was resting her head on Jon's neck. Apparently, riding on Daddy's back on a hike is really tiring.

And she eventually passed out. Isn't this so sweet??

Still sleeping on our way back to our car after a nice long hike! I even got a little bit of a sun tan while we were out...beautiful! I just hope this nice weather sticks around because I am now officially ready for spring!

And last but certainly not least, Hannah with her new monkey. He's so nice and convenient because his hands have velcro which allows him to hang around her neck. It's hands-free monkey time and she hasn't left him at home once since she got him!