While I may not post with any relative frequency these days (something about being pregnant, raising a toddler, having two furry children who still get love and attention and three walks a day, and both parents working full time and navigating the wilds of the DC metro area) - I am continually drafting posts in my head. And tonight, I don't want to let these little things get away!
I don't think I can truly describe all the ways in which I adore my sweet daughter - Hannah's personality and quirks and beautiful spirit shine through more and more each day. (She is now 22 months old). But there are certain constants that I absolutely love about her and am so thrilled are foundations of her personality:
1) She's kind. My deepest, most heartfelt prayer from the very beginning of my pregnancy was that Hannah be a sweet and kind person. And oh my goodness, she is! She is snuggly, generously affectionate, very distressed when she accidentally hurts me or Daniel, and so enthusiastic when she gets to see me or Daniel.
I also pretty much can't mention "Lily the Baby" without Hannah crawling into my lap, pulling up my shirt, and diving in to kiss and snuggle my belly! She's wanted to from day one - but now she even tries to blow raspberries and snuggles my tummy.
I don't think I can truly describe all the ways in which I adore my sweet daughter - Hannah's personality and quirks and beautiful spirit shine through more and more each day. (She is now 22 months old). But there are certain constants that I absolutely love about her and am so thrilled are foundations of her personality:
1) She's kind. My deepest, most heartfelt prayer from the very beginning of my pregnancy was that Hannah be a sweet and kind person. And oh my goodness, she is! She is snuggly, generously affectionate, very distressed when she accidentally hurts me or Daniel, and so enthusiastic when she gets to see me or Daniel.
I also pretty much can't mention "Lily the Baby" without Hannah crawling into my lap, pulling up my shirt, and diving in to kiss and snuggle my belly! She's wanted to from day one - but now she even tries to blow raspberries and snuggles my tummy.
2) She is charismatic. Maybe it's just me. I mean, I am sure I am completely biased. But she is amazing at steadily interacting with all of the different people in a room and delighting in each interaction. She melted all of our hearts when we were visiting family in New Jersey and she would actively seek out my grandfather (her great grandfather) to play with her - even if it was just little taps and tugs and smiles. It was so beautiful.
3) She is eager to laugh. ...While we certainly provide her certain routines and securities in her life and I would not consider her to feel like she has instability at all, at the same time - we keep her guessing! Daniel is the absolute best at it - continually mixing things up as they interact, sneaking up on her, startling her, doing what she would not expect as they interact. But whenever she is caught off guard - whether it's by her daddy, if she slips and falls down, etc., there's that moment when you can see her decide - "do I cry? am I startled? do I pout? do I laugh?" and she always chooses to laugh and embraces the surprise with delight, an eager grin, and generous giggles - eager to giggle again and again. I would love to think that we have "taught" her this - and I am sure we model it some - but it speaks volumes to her temperament and her personality and I am so so so deeply grateful and thrilled that her natural reaction is to laugh!
Her favorite things lately?
We are continually trying to keep screen time in check. She has a beautifully long attention span and it would be very easy for us to be complicit with just handing her an iPad. We really do try to strike a balance and also try to sit with her and have conversations about what she is doing when she plays games as well. Top faves - She loves the Sago Mini apps, Metamorphabet (a really neat interactive alphabet app), Meek-a-Moo (an app that has 30ish different animals and the sounds they make), adores watching Daniel Tiger on Netflix, and loves surfing kids youtube for videos about puppies on slides, cute sing a long nursery rhymes, and different videos in which they open toy eggs and find prizes inside.
Aside from that (and I assure you, that is not all she does!), she loves playing with the kitchen she got for Christmas - and has a set of Daniel Tiger figurines that travel from the oven to the fridge to the cabinets (?), loves to play with a set of velcro-pieced-together-food that she can cut with a toy knife and then put back together, loves playing with me and an alphabet set as we steadily go over the letters of the alphabet (she can tell you that M is for mommy, D is for Daddy, G is for Grandma, Grandpa, and her cousin; C is for Chance, H is for Hannah, and L is for Lily the Baby) - it's awesome! She also loves playing with her toy broom, her mega blocks, Rody, and her baby doll. ...There's more, but those are some of the latest "faves" in the cycle.
The past week or two she has been obsessed with colors and it is seeming more and more like her favorite color is pink. She emphatically points it out in everything!
Most evenings after we have gotten ready for bed, we take a moment to read 1-3 books. Lately, she has transitioned from wanting to sit in my lap and have me read, to wanting to sit in the rocking recliner chair by herself and read herself the books with my help - while I sit on the yoga ball beside her. What has been so fun about this is that practically nightly, she picks a different thing to "focus on" as she reads Goodnight Moon and/or Goodnight Gorilla (which had become the required bedtime staples). One night she wanted to look for letters and point them out - looking at the cover of Goodnight Moon and excitedly pointing to M and exclaiming "Mommy!" or pointing to the "H" and shouting "MINE!" (for Hannah). Another night she went page by page and pointed out anything that was the color blue in Goodnight Gorilla. Tonight, she wanted to identify anything in both books that was "PINK!" and also went page by page through Goodnight Gorilla looking for the balloon that was tucked somewhere in the illustration. So sweet, so exciting, and so much fun! :)
And one last sweetness - as I tuck her in at night and sing to her, most nights she likes to end the good night process by grabbing my hand, pulling it to her face, kissing my hand, and snuggling it under her chin until I leave.
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