Fearless

Well, that didn't take long. Just 8 short months ago, Hannah was taking her First Steps!!! and now she's a fearless climber. A professional would call it "exceptional large motor skills," but we just call it "exceptionally larger chance of getting hurt skills." Of course she doesn't just practice this at the playground, but also at home by climbing on the couch and the coffee table in the back room, darting up the stairs and scaling her high chair.

Now we have to face the parental struggle of striking a balance between letting her explore and keeping her neck in one piece. Watching her explore and indulge her curiosity is very fulfilling; but watching her start to lose her balance with nothing but the hardwood floor to break her fall if I don't catch her - that can't be good for my mental or physical health.

In any case she is growing up and becoming more independent every day. She even gave up her pacifier cold turkey a few days ago (so far so good). She loves having books read to her and she pays attention to entire TV programs now. She still likes to play with us, but can entertain herself with toys or books if need be; and, of course, she still knows how to show off for a crowd.

We are enjoying it while it lasts, though, as elements of the terrible two's are starting to surface at only one and a half.

This picture was courtesy of our recent guests, the Hreha's, but we ordered a new Canon PowerShot A510 from Amazon.com and it should be here in about a week. This doesn't mean I'll update the blog more often, I just won't have an excuse anymore.

The Camera is Busted

For those of you wondering why there haven't been any recent posts, our digital camera is broken. We took it on our honeymoon cruise in the Bahamas and it got salt water in it. Over the next few months, the internal circuitry corroded and it started acting funny. Finally, it stopped working completely, shortly after the last post.

We made sure that we got all the pictures on my parent's camera from our trip to Pittsburgh last weekend, but our camera is not yet fixed. Anyway, here are two of them.




This first one was taken at the family reunion. Someone brought bubbles; not just any bubbles - HUGE bubbles. Hannah could have fit inside some of these bubbles. Not only were they big, but one dip into the pan was enough to make hundreds of bubbles.

Bubble blowing technology sure has come a long way. I'm used to the old kind that you blow four of five bubbles, then the rest of the solution drips off the stick onto your hands and clothes. After 5 minutes of attempted fun, you end up sticky and frustrated.




The second picture is from my cousin's birthday party. She and her family live out in the country and a bunch of us decided to take a walk and see the neighbor's animals. On the way back, someone had the idea to make the two little kids hug.

Now, I have nothing against my daughter hugging a boy - although I would have to have a serious sit-down with him to discuss his intentions - but CLEARLY this pose was not a genuine act of kindness conceived by either of the childeren. I count four girls in the picture, plus the one behind the camera.

In any case, the kids did play well together and the girls all got their cute fix for the day.

Big Helper

I never appreciated the idea of "chores" until recently. I used to think chores were the worst thing ever. From my childhood perspective, I thought life was about playing and having fun, but now and then I had to clean my room or cut the grass. Chores were the black speck on an otherwise carefree lifestyle.

Now, as a parent, I see them in a different light. I work at least 40 hours a week and have a house and two cars to take care of. There's grass to cut and brush to clear; bills to pay and budgets to manage. It seems the wife is always doing a load or two of laundry, vacuuming, dusting, wiping, scrubbing, sweeping, mopping or grocery shopping; all of this while we're trying to raise a 16 month old.

How, then, has my perspective changed? Chores are still a black speck, but now we get to pass them on when we don't feel like doing them ourselves. "Chores" are a way to hand down some of our responsibilities, meanwhile building the character of our young'ns.

For now she likes being a big helper, but when she starts complaining, we get to pull the old, "you're part of this family and you have to help out" routine. Eventually, chores can be a punishment (not that our little angel will ever do anything bad...); I've got a basement crawlspace that needs excavated, trees that need pruning, weeds that need pulled - the possibilities are endless.

Beating the Heat

Well the heat just kept coming. We finally traded in the roasting pan for a real kiddie pool. To make it even more fun, we put her little tikes slide into the pool, too. We set it up in the shade of our nut trees. (Don't ask me what kind of nuts; we think the one is a black walnut and the other is either a pecan or butternut.) We topped it all off with cold, crisp slices of watermelon.

For a moment, we forgot that it was 95 degrees and 95% humidity! Whoever said Syracuse doesn't have a real summer was either flat out lying or has a warped definition of a "real" summer. Anyways, even though we don't have air conditioning, we still have ways to beat the heat; and Hannah knows how to enjoy every bit of it.

PS. I told you this outfit would be on here again