Big ole' turnips!!

Hannah says she's a "country girl"...especially when she helps Pop farm. Last fall, she "helped" Pop plant his turnip patch, and she worried about them getting enough rain so they could grow. She even ate them...with ketchup just like her Mama and Mimi.

Now that the frost has killed off most of the greens, it was time for Pop to pull his prize roots that he'd been watching for some time.

And here they are...

The biggest one weighed in at 8 1/2 pounds and measured 27" around...about the size of a basketball. Pop says it would've weighed more a couple of weeks ago before it got dried out. Even so, that's probably the biggest turnip root I've ever seen!! And Hannah kept patting them the whole time we were taking her picture...she was so proud!

Wii are addicted...

Sometimes mama and daddy need to cut loose and have a little fun, too. So for our New Year's Eve blast, we visited some friends and had the best time ever playing with Anna's Wii Fit. Some friends (that would kill me if I mentioned by name...but you know who you are) had a tad bit of difficulty mastering some of the balance and aerobic skills -- but did a GREAT job of entertaining us all.




Here's Jason "helping" me ski...

We enjoyed it so much that we planned a "wii" party for my birthday last weekend. Of course, since we didn't actually have a Wii, we asked Anna to bring hers. Then, Jason and Hannah surprised me Friday night with a Wii of my very own...and a Fit to go with it. I wonder who it was really for, though, because Jason and Hannah have spent a lot more time with it than me. Hannah is the Bowling and running champion, and Jason (surprisingly enough) is the best at step aerobics and yoga. Who knew?

Hannah is so darn cute when she plays it. Her bowling form is awful (but darling), and somehow she manages to get strike after strike. When she runs, she chases the Wii dog and calls him Snoopy. Friday night, after chasing Wii Snoopy for 2 miles, she wasn't even out of breath! She said, "Mama...look at my hair under here. It's wet!" And it was! The poor little thing had sweated so much her hair was soaking wet!

The best Christmas ever (so far)

A few Christmas pics...
Me and my two peas.

All smiles.

She looks totally overwhelmed. But she persisted and got through them all. Notice the "morning hair"...we tell her it looks like a rat slept in it.

Givin' Daddy some lovin' after all the gifts were opened.

Taking his new car for a "taste" drive.

Christmas has taken on a whole new meaning since Hannah has come into our lives. She has brought back the magic that adults tend to lose as time goes by.

This year, Hannah asked Santa for a gas station and play 'puter (pronounced "pewter"). She said that's all she wanted because Santa needed room in his sleigh to bring presents to the other boys and girls. (ain't that sweet??)

A few holiday highlights:

• Even though this was Carter's first Christmas, we were unable to locate "first Christmas" attire for him (aside from a bib) because apparently they don't make "first Christmas" clothes in 18 months. I guess they figure a child that size would've already had a Christmas.


• As we were riding in the car a week or so before Christmas, Carter was craning his little neck to try and see Hannah's portable DVD player she was holding. She noticed him and matter-of-factly told him, "You shoulda asked Santa for a DVD player."


• One of her favorite gifts from Santa was a pair of hot pink Hello Kitty bedroom slippers. (Or "flippers," as she calls them.) She put them on first thing and wore them ALL day Christmas day...to Maw Maw & Paw Paw's house, Mimi & Pop's house, etc. She spent the night with Mimi and Pop, and Pop said that during the wee hours of the morning she woke up and realized they had come off. So she woke him up and had him put them back on her.


• Because Carter was way more interested in the paper than the gifts, Hannah helped him open his gifts. The problem? She lays claim to every gift she opens. So even though she opened something that was obviously for Carter, she took it.

Of course, Santa went overboard and brought much more than she asked for. She hasn't even played with some of it. And Carter is NOT interested in toys right now. Give him a power cord or a piece of paper and he's a happy camper.

Other gifts Hannah loved:

• A white bird house from Santa. Jason put it on her play house Christmas afternoon, and the birds had moved in by the next afternoon.
• A bird feeder shaped like a church. (She asked for this months ago after seeing it in the feed store with Pop.)
• Littlest Pet Shop house and pets. She LOVED this and sleeps with it sometimes.
• A cute little plush beehive with little bees. The bees have numbers on their tummys and you match them with their holes with the same number. It has also been deemed worthy to sleep in her bed with her and is a permanent fixture in her backpack. I can't believe she can stuff that whole thing in there! Miss Cat is the BEST for giving it to her!!
• A Dora tent and tunnel.
• New DVD player for the car. (One that doesn't blank out)
• Magnetic dress-up doll...picture a paper doll made of wood.
• Water slide for the tub (supposed to be a "shared" toy with Carter, but she hasn't let him touch it yet)

Carter's gifts (the ones to which he gives a passing glance):

• DVD player for the car. So far he's only watched Barney (once in Spanish), but he's more interested in ripping it down than actually watching it. Once I noticed him smiling at it when there were real children talking and singing.
• Crawling Pooh that talks and sings. It says "Hello Baby" and "Crawl with Me." Pooh better watch out...he don't know who he's dealing with.
• Busy ball popper that Hannah got her arm stuck in yesterday. I thought we were going to have to take it apart to get her out.
• Tonka cars

In all, we had a wonderful holiday. We were fortunate to spend time with all our family, and we've been blessed with good health and physical blessings beyond measure. I'm so thankful for the joy we shared over the season, and I hope 2009 brings even more happiness and blessings for my family.

The "almost" perfect pic

Tried my hand at taking my own Christmas photos of my little peas. It just didn't turn out the way I'd hoped...

Carter...

Carter is into EVERYTHING! Now that he's mobile (crawling and pulling up), he has the run of the house. And nothing is safe from his busy little hands. He's not picky about what he puts in his mouth (paper, dirt, socks -- he LOVES socks --buttons, rocks, power cords -- those are his favorite --bugs, leaves, etc., etc.), so we have to be EXTRA careful about what we leave within his reach. Which, by the way, is the longest reach of any baby I've ever seen.

He started crawling and pulling up at the same time, not giving me time to properly Carter-proof the house. He can even climb the step from our new sewing/playroom into the living room. I can already tell such a big difference in him and Hannah...which worries me to a great extent. Hannah is so much like me it's scary. But Carter is so much like Jason it's terrifying!

He's also adding to his vocabulary. I was SURE that Ma-Ma would come first. I was wrong. Da-da won that one. So I was certain that ma-ma would be next. Nope. But I shouldn't be surprised because that boy loves his big sister...han-nah-nah is so proud that her brother yells for her non-stop. I think he accidentally called out for me the other night as a last resort for somebody (anybody) to come get him out of bed. At least it sounded like ma-ma-ma. And there have been a few times that he said ba-ba, which is also no big shock because that boy loves his groceries the most. And I'm pretty sure that he says his own version of "hey there" which also comes as no surprise because I probably say that to him at least 100 times a day. He also says "bye". Not the baby version (bye-bye)...just Bye. So cute!

I guess my worries that he wouldn't talk (because he would have a certain somebody to talk for him) were unfounded. He's definitely interested in making his presence known. He has the absolute loudest voice I've ever heard on a boy that small. In fact, at daycare he has to sleep upstairs in the farthest room of the house away from the other kids because he's so loud at nap time that he wakes everybody up. I guess that loud voice will come in handy at some point. With his above-average size, I guess it would be strange if he had a soft little voice.

Random updates

Since it's been a while since my last post, I'll give some brief updates on our peas:

Carter now has both bottom front teeth, and don't think he doesn't know what to do with them. He'll eat anything he's offered...I'm ready to do away with baby food and get to the good stuff!

Last night at bathtime Hannah refused to come to the tub. Carter was already in there, happily splashing away, and I kept calling her..."Hannnnnnaaaaaahhhh....come get in the tuuuuuubbbb..." to no avail. Finally I guess she'd had enough and my sweet child yelled at me, "I'M COMIN'!! I NOT GONNA TOLD YOU AGAIN!" Oh my! I'm so glad I was in another room. After I got over the shock that she'd actually said that (and a fit of laughter she need not know about), I had to put on my Mommy-mean-face and get on to her. Then she stood outside the bathroom door with her hands on her hips and said, "I'm not gonna take my clothes off. I'm not comin' in there. I'm not doin' ANYTHING." OK...pushin' it young lady. Not so cute any more. And THEN, after I'd coaxed her with my sweetest little voice, she says, "You're not my friend any more. I don't want to see you any more." And that was the icing on the cake. I didn't say a word, but she knew she'd said too much. Geesh! I can only imagine what the teenage years have in store for us!

Leave it to Hannah to see the beauty in everything. Now that the Christmas lights have come out in full force, Hannah'll say, "Look at those beautiful lights!" But they don't have to be Christmas lights...they can be street lights, store lights, reflectors on the highway, 18-weelers, etc. The other morning Mama was taking her and Carter to daycare when they got behind a garbage truck. My child says, "MIMI...look at that BEAUTIFUL truck!" (She meant the flashing lights on the back of it...I hope.)

I can already see the difference between girls and boys (or at least my two). Hannah hated the walker. She'd rather scoot around on the floor or play quietly on her pallet. But Carter gets in the bull dozer (aka walker) and tears up anything in his path. He's become so adept at maneuvering it that he can get into just about any space in the house. Last weekend I was in my sewing room with one french door open and the other closed, making a hard right turn for a little guy in a walker. So here comes Carter...plows into the open door, mutters a little "uh" and backs up and pulls up until he makes his way inside. Then, just to make sure Mommy noticed him, he looked up at me and grunted. I even watched him push a bouncy ball all over the house...kinda like polo but with a walker instead of a horse. I can't wait to see what will happen when the Christmas tree goes up. Anybody have a baby fence I can borrow??

Hannah loves her movies. This week, her movie of choice is Stuart Little 2. Now that I've convinced her his name is "Stuart Little" and not "Chicken Little" (I can see where she'd be confused), she and Stuart are big buds. She loves the part where Stuart is scooping out some jelly and falls down beside the jar and the part at the end where the falcon falls into the garbage can and the cat says "thank you." I know that doesn't make sense to those of you who haven't seen the movie 489 times like I have, but trust me -- those two scenes put Hannah in stitches.

All he wants for Christmas is his two front teeth...

After much ado, Carter's first little tooth finally peeked through today. Boy are we glad! I've been expecting it for months because of all the slobbering (he literally soaks through 3 or 4 vinyl-backed bibs every day!), and now it's here. Now he's one step closer to that cheeseburger he's been eyeing!

I guess now he'll only have to wish for the other three front teeth for Christmas this year!

It's amazing how those little teeth pop in. I checked his gums just this morning and no tooth, so he must've done a heap of chewing today for it to break through. Dr. Baldwin predicted on Friday that he would have two teeth in 3 or 4 days...guess she knows her stuff, huh? (Well, her prediction is half true so far.)

Poor little guy...he's had the earache, a flu shot and apparently sore gums since last week. Maybe now that we've got him some meds and a new tooth to try out he'll start feeling more like himself. And Mommy's hoping he gets some sleep tonight...