My boy

Hudson is such a HAPPY boy! I am blessed with his easy going attitude, his gorgeous gaze that pulls you in, and his contagious laugh. We've been practicing all sorts of new tricks. (I feel like I'm talking about a dog!) How big is Hudson? SO BIG! He puts his hands up on his ears... He's been working on waving, and today he started waving to strangers. First, the women behind us in line, and then Hudson started waving like crazy to the lady behind the counter. Luckily, she responded in kind, so they waved back and forth and laughed at each other. Today was a huge day for Hudson. He said DA, he waved, and he sat up by himself. He has been saying consanants: M, G, B, L, W, and even a TH type of sound. Da Da Da Da finally got added to the list! I don't think he associates it with Daddy yet, but at least he can say it when he's ready! On the way to VBS, he and Hannah cracked each other up in the car. He laughs so hard, it is almost a cackle. He is super ticklish -- on the back, booty, thighs, underarms, and neck. He also anticipates my tickles, and laughs when I say, "I'm gonna get your sugars," even when I don't reach in for the tickle. He'll laugh at all sorts of things (even his sister's tantrums)! My very favorite thing Hudson does: in the middle of a very dramatic screaming cry with huge tears, I'll pick him up or take him from his daddy (or whoever has him). He stops mid-sob, puts his head on my shoulder and smiles. Nothing feels better than that love. I love my momma's boy!

Rules to live by

I regularly read that kids need structure, limitations, and rules. I am the worst at structure -- bedtime last night was 7:30; tonight it will be 8:30 or 9. I am regaining strength on limitations. The first 6-8 weeks of Hudson's life, Hannah got by with things because I was either nursing, tired, or just couldn't think of a reason to not give in. (Yes! We are paying the price royally now that we are trying to put limits back in place!) But rules, those I get -- and, boy, does Hannah. Hannah overheard me saying "butt," and said, "Excuse me, Mommy," in her craziest voice. "We don't say butt." She saw a guy standing on the roof of a house he was building, and she said, "We don't stand on houses." One day, out of the blue, she asked "Are you rich?" First, I thought she said a word that rhymes with rich. But, once I figured out what she was saying, I was confused on where she even heard the word. Turns out, she was quoting Cars, and didn't know what the word meant just knew that "Lightning McQueen asks Sally that." So, I explain what rich means, the best you can to a 2-year-old. Then, tell her that it's really not a very nice question to ask people. When we watched Cars next, she told me that Lightning made a bad choice by asking Sally that question. (Her memory scares me because it'd been a month since we watched the movie and had the conversation.) We were watching men's figure skating that I recorded last night, and she was concerned with two things: 1. "Did his buttons break?" Huh? "His shirt is open. Did his shirt tear?" and 2. "We are not supposed to twirl like that. We can get dizzy." Well, they took lessons to learn how to spin without getting dizzy, so it's okay for them. It's cute... Until her friends come over, and she tells them, or worse, comes and tells me in front of their parents, "Johnny was jumping off the fireplace. We don't jump off the fireplace." So, now I try not to give her rules with we. I stress that these are her rules, but they may not be the rules for everyone. Of course, now that she's almost 3, she is trying to test those rules occasionally. But, most of all she seems to really like the rules -- especially if she can boss someone else around and give them the same rules! :-)

Imagination at work

Hannah's imagination is going crazy these days! A few weeks ago at dinner with Mimi and Pawpaw, she told us that Mimi couldn't drink her diet coke because Na-Na-Naa was in her drink. I can't remember now if that was our first visit with Na-Na-Naa or not, but she was serious that her friend was there. I finally found out that sometimes Na-Na-Naa is a green squirrel, sometimes a panda bear, and sometimes an elephant. Na-Na-Naa can fit in the palm of her hand (or a cup) and works a lot of hours away from us. One morning, Marty the Zebra (yes, she stole this from Madagascar) joined Na-Na-Naa when Hannah woke up and has been with him ever since. Her most recent addition was Cody Masters, who is a boy in an older class at her school that she talks about from time to time. Now, he goes swimming, takes naps, eats dinner and hangs out with us regularly. I did have to draw the line on Cody Masters showering with us. Na-Na-Naa and Marty shower with us, but Cody Masters has caused us to have talks about privacy! Ha Ha! While we were in San Antonio this weekend, Hannah noticed a building across the riverwalk from us with vines growing on it. She said, "Yook (Look)! That building is dressed up like a tree." I love her outlook on things! She goes from being very imaginative to being pretty practical, though. One of her favorite questions this weekend became, "Can a (insert animal here) talk?" She's asked about an elephant, a monster, a robot, a lion, a cow, etc. I ask her what sounds those animals make and explain that is their talking, but they don't talk in the way that people talk unless they're pretend like on TV or in books.

Hannahisms

The first trimester of this pregnancy, we ruined Hannah's bedtime habits because I laid down with her every night. Usually, at some point in the night, Dave would come in and move her to her room. I did not want to lay down with Hannah last night, so I told her I had to do some laundry and that I'd be right down the hall. Within minutes, she was crying. I went in and quoted one of her favorite books "Llama llama what a tizzy. Sometimes momma's very busy. Please stop all this llama drama and [go to sleep for your momma]." (The actual story says "and be patient with your momma.") I barely got the words out before Hannah was saying, "That's not how it goes." I thought I was busted for changing the words, but NO. She quoted back to me another part of the story -- which was very appropriate to how she was feeling. "Llama llama red pajama feels alone without his momma." She had me there, so I gave in and laid down with her. I'm such a sucker! Some of Hannah's latest thoughts and statements that make me laugh, smile, and sometimes scratch my head:

• "Marty said 'Ummm, excuse me. You're biting my butt." We haven't watched Madagascar in weeks, and she's never quoted that line before. Plus, she calls it a "booty" not a "butt."
• "Mommy, I want to watch the freakin' Backyardigans." (I had ignored her the first several times she told me she wanted to watch "The Backyardigans" because she didn't need to watch TV right then. I couldn't ignore that request -- but I sure didn't give in with the word freakin' thrown in there. I was impressed that she used it correctly, though.) The funniest part of her statement is that she had most recently heard the word from her Mimi not me or Dave because Mimi had been looking for her "freakin' phone" a couple of days before.
• If I'm going to throw Mimi under the bus here, then I should probably mention that she also said "Damn Damnit" thinking she was quoting Pawpaw saying GD. She was frustrated because she kept dropping the phone because she was so tired. Hannah tried to put Pawpaw in time out for that one.

Grover

Dave and I are expecting #2 in December, and we're trying to keep Hannah involved and excited about having a baby brother or sister. Hannah is not very interested yet in naming things. When Aunt Jo got her a Beta fish for her birthday, it took us a week for her to come up with "Blue" as its name. When we asked what do you want to name it, she came up with "Boopsy" (her name for herself) and "Aaaggh!" (which is her go to name for fish, dolls, etc.), but finally did throw out "Blue."

Well, Dave and I told Hannah the story about her name while she was in Mommy's tummy. We called her "Cooper" because she was all cooped up in there. The day Dave and I realized we were having a baby, I rode down to Granbury with him on his work. We had been throwing out all sorts of names on the drive down and then we passed Cooper's Hardware Store. It seemed fitting. That was day 1 of the pregnancy.

After a couple of weeks this time, I realized that we hadn't named the baby while it's in Mommy's tummy. I have a hard time saying "It," and I really don't like saying "He/She." So we enlisted Hannah to help. Again, she took a few days. I thought "Frog" had finally stuck, until Hannah piped up with "Grover." Grover was the one to stick.

I have been keeping her updated. This week -- Grover is the size of a kumkwat. That is as greek to her as it is to me, so I need to figure out what size that means Gvoer is. She gives hugs and kisses to Grover daily and started telling secrets the other night. I think she overheard me say that I was having nightmares about having a blue, furry baby, so she told Grover a secret a couple of days ago: "I hope you're blue, Grover. I love you." I'm not telling her secrets -- I'm not allowed to listen. She repeated it to me right after she told my tummy!

It's so cool to see how excited she is about being a big sister. She thinks she is having a baby brother. I guess time will tell.

A star is born

As a typical 2-year-old, Hannah was testing her independence while riding from school to Half-Price Books. Usually, she wants to (and I encourage her to) take off her shoes when I pick her up from school. She seems more relaxed with her shoes off, and I know I love to kick off my shoes after a long day. Well, yesterday, I asked her not to take her shoes and socks off. I didn't want to re-dress her. So, when one shoe hit me in the head, I asked her to please make a good choice and leave the other shoe on, and then to please leave the socks on. Needless to say, that did not happen. Hannah and I communicate via the vanity mirror, but I sometimes forget. As I was fuming and making angry face contortions to keep from saying something that I would hear repeated back to me a thousand times, Hannah said, "You mad, mommy?" No. I'm not mad, just disappointed. "Are you sad, mommy?" Yes. I am upset that you made that choice. "Cry, mommy. Make a tear." I chortled and said, I can't just make a tear... Wait a second. Can you? At which point, she jutted that bottom lip out and started moaning. As a tear formed in the corner of her eye, I burst out laughing. Are you kidding me? Very few people I know can "make a tear." She must be destined for stardom. Either that or for turning on those tears to pull on mommy's heart strings. (Once I started laughing, though, she did, too. She did that I'm-trying-not-to-smile smile and continued to attempt crying, but it was all over at that point.)

I don't know what the future holds...

Hannah is 2!! I can hardly believe it. We went to the doctor for a check-up, and she did great. No tears were involved, but she was very shy with the doctor and nurses. She is still in the 90th percentile of height and weight. I just took a height predictor on www.babycenter.com, which predicts her height at 18 will be 5'9" (give or take a couple of inches) -- even with my whopping 5' and Dave's 5'7" in the mix. Wouldn't that be crazy? It's so strange to think of her in the future. I know she'll have a sense of humor -- not just because her daddy is hilarious, but she's also pretty darn funny, too. The BACKGROUND: We have a regular waitress, who is like a friend to us, at our favorite restaurant. Since Hannah's known and listed names, she's included Iris in her list of names. Iris always takes special care of Hannah -- bringing beans, tortillas, rice specially for Hannah. The FUNNY: So, last week Mimi had made chicken and rice for Hannah. She asked if she wanted more rice, and Hannah looked at her and retorted, "No, Iris, I don't want more rice." She paused a second, and then started her laugh that is her "I crack myself up" laugh.