Bath time with Adia and then some...

Our dearest friends, Shirley and Adia, came to visit all the way from Pasadena this week! It was so wonderful to have Hannah and Adia back together again, they just loved having their old playmates around. Shirley and I loved having our old playmates around again, too. Bath time was one of the most fun time of our day, except for poor Hannah, who was so overwhelmed and exhausted from all of the excitement that she would completely melt down and barely be able to participate in the bath experience at all. So, all three girls started out in the bath together but Hannah had to come out quickly because we had to put her right to bed. We also discovered that Shiloah thinks Adia is HILARIOUS! That laugh is so contagious. (I was with Hannah, putting her pj's on, drying her hair, etc. Poor thing.)

Hannah's newest thing is to "be" someone else. She's very creative. Today she said to me, "No, Mommy, I'm just Lisa." Lisa is the little girl on the Corduroy video we watched. Lisa happens to have pretty big teeth for a little girl and Hannah does this funny little thing with her mouth to show all of her teeth when she is Lisa. Tonight during dinner she was Apple Dumplin', not to be confused with Apple Dumpling. Very different. This little character is Strawberry Shortcake's baby sister. So, Apple Dumplin' ate her dinner, Little Mousie is taking a bath right now, and My Sweet Little Birdie will go night-night tonight. Hannah is so funny!

She's also potty-trained, by the way. Completely. It was amazing! I just decided that she was ready, after having seen her friend Amaya do her thing on the potty. We went out and bought some cute princess underwear and then... Two wet accidents the next day and she was potty trained. Number 2 has been pretty hard for her but today was a complete success! So, after just 3 days we were only wearing diapers at night, and most of them were dry the next morning. All you parents out there know exactly why this is significant enough to blog about. It has changed my days dramatically and Hannah is always very proud of what she can do in the potty.

Random tip, if you have a flat-top stove and it gets dirty all the time like mine, you can clean it with straight baking soda and a damp cloth. All the grime comes right off.

And, this second video is of Shiloah just after finishing her dinner. She finds herself quite entertaining and we think so, too. She's really good at entertaining herself all throughout the day, which is wonderful. I just can't believe she's already 10 months old!

Mommy's new haircut.

So, here's my new haircut. They took 9 inches off! I think I had enough hair for our entire family to share. I am trying to post a video of Hannah but blogger.com won't let me. I'll try again soon. Craig, Mary and Amaya are coming tonight from Long Beach, CA. Craig is Corey's boss from CRM, we're really looking forward to a good time visiting with them.

By the way, do I look 28? I don't really think so, but that might be because it's my own picture. The hair stylist thought I was 20!! What's your vote? Could I win one of those "guess your age" booths at the state fair?

Come get me, Shiloah!

Hannah LOOOOOVES it when Shiloah crawls after her and comes to get her, especially when Hannah is requesting it. You'll see them playing on this video as they do a lot now -- Hannah does something and wants Shiloah to come get her, come play in the Dora tent with her, come in the playroom with her, etc. Shiloah often will comply, but sometimes starts going in that direction and then gets on another wavelength and, much to Hannah's dismay, goes off in another direction right past her!

Shiloah learns to crawl

(I tried posting this a week ago but my efforts were halted...so here's the video, finally!)

Shiloah learned to crawl about 10 days ago. She was just a sitter that Friday when Daddy left for work, and when he returned home she was officially a crawler! She's now quite good at crawling and pulling herself up to standing, and she is also good at getting all of the things Hannah wants to play with. Hannah has been really good about saying, "No baby, don't play with ____. I'm playing with it!" However, today she was aggressive and possessive, more so than usual. Anything Shiloah played with would quickly become something Hannah did NOT want her to have and it would be snatched out of Shiloah's hands with lightning speed. So, our little angel spent a lot of time in time-out today. Her offenses included things like hitting Baby, kicking Baby, rolling on Baby instead of hitting or pushing her out of the way, grabbing giraffes from Baby, sitting on Baby, yelling "Don't touch Cindy!" at Baby. A few of these were a direct response to my statements, like "Do not yell at Baby, it's okay for her to touch Cindy." We're working on Hannah's new skill -- coming to get Mommy and asking for help with Shiloah when she is doing something Hannah doesn't like.

Hannah is also very helpful in this regard, now that she is our resident law enforcement. Shiloah manages to get her little fingers on anything and everything, especially dangerous things she finds in secret places I've not cleaned in a while. Hannah is always quick to spot these things. Usually I can intercept them before Hannah tries to. One time Hannah knocked Shiloah over in trying to get a piece of paper out of her mouth. Like I said, we're learning about how to say, "Mommy, come help with Shiloah!"

Laughing Shiloah

My mom started singing this silly little song to Hannah when she visited a while ago. Hannah thought it was so funny! Now, as you can see, Shiloah thinks it's pretty funny herself! I just LOVE those belly laughs!

NC State Fair

We went to the state fair on Saturday morning while Corey's grandparents were here. We had a wonderful visit with "Grandma Rae" and "Grandpa John." Hannah got her very first taste of funnel cake at the fair, Shiloah got her very first french fry.

Shiloah gets some camera time!

I realized that all of our videos are about Hannah, except for the brief shot of Shiloah in the bath tub. So, here's some footage of our sweet Shiloah. As you can see she is very close to crawling. She swivels around on her tummy and will scoot herself all around on our wood floor, sometimes she even does downward dog (a yoga pose where you stand on your hands and feet, bum up in the air). She has reached a point of frustration in her little life of 8 months -- she doesn't really want to eat pureed food anymore, she wants to eat big girl food. She can't crawl yet but really wants to be walking. Her poor little body is just not fast enough for her ever-expanding mind! It doesn't help that big sister Hannah can do so many fun things that Shiloah can't do! Soon enough...but I am glad for these days where Shiloah can't get into everything. It certainly makes my life simpler!

It's fun to be naughty!

Hannah sometimes enjoys being naughty, and, honestly, don't we all? I could go on with some theological, moral and pragmatic (not to mention boring) expositions on the subject but I think I'd rather just watch some cute videos, wouldn't you?

I will often tell her to be quiet if Shiloah is sleeping, which is exactly when she decides that it is the best time of day to yell, usually right outside the door of the room in which Shiloah is sleeping. Sometimes it's so frustrating, other times it's just funny. Today it was funny.

Oops

Yes, I'm still learning this whole blog thing. Apparently you can't just go back and edit your post, or else you'll do something silly like put the same exact post on twice. Oops!

Dora's Musica

Hannah's favorite video this week has been Dora's Move to the Music. There's a little song that the characters sing as they march along on their way to freedom, she is imitating it in this video. It goes, "I play the flute, dee dee dee dee dee. You play the flute, dee dee dee dee dee.." And so on for each different instrument. Here she's doing the bam bams, I'm doing the crasha's and Bernie is doing the shakas.

Bathtime Beauties

Here's bath time from last night! And, on an unrelated note, after a week of letting Shiloah cry for differing amounts of time at night, she is finally sleeping until 7 a.m.!!! Yay, Shishew!

JJ Doing the "Ditar"

Still workin' on it...

I'm still trying to post the video of Hannah painting, for some reason it's not letting me. I also fixed the settings so that anyone can comment, sorry Lauren and Melissa! :)

Ashes

Hannah has a lot of fun by getting other smaller kids to do what she refers to as "ashes" with her. It's very sweet and Shiloah seems to enjoy it as well!

A Very Dirty Birthday

On Corey's birthday we three girls went to pick him up from work. He was very dirty from laying tile and back board and Hannah picked up on this. She has been very particular about being messy or dirty lately.
Later on that day we got Corey's presents laid out in the playroom for a "Happy Birthday Daddy Surprise," which Hannah was very excited about. She talked about his birthday all day.
Sometime that evening she was singing Happy Birthday to her little doll, Cindy, when she got slightly upset for what seemed like no reason at all. Well, she told me that she didn't want Cindy to get dirty for her birthday like Daddy did! She apparently was under the impression that people have to get dirty for their birthdays! It was so sweet. I'm not sure she's completely convinced otherwise, yet.

The girls have also been practicing their driving skills in the basement. Shiloah and Hannah can actually fit in the car together, that is, if Hannah didn't try to push Shiloah out! She spent some time in time out for that one.

Hannah Hiding

Hannah the Tiger

Here is the scariest Tiger you've ever seen!