New video

The "new" playhouse

Well, actually it's not "new" at all, but it's new to us!  I found this at a garage sale for $10, which I thought was a great deal.  It's been raining a lot lately, so we haven't been able to play with it since I got it cleaned up and assembled.  So, after playing in the pool and sand, we headed to the backyard to play in the house.  Hannah was pretty excited to find it sitting there in her backyard (I don't think she had noticed it yet.)  She kept going in & out of the door, and opening and closing the windows.  

Fun in the sun

Today was a beautiful day, and we were all itching to get outside after working on stuff for hours at the church, so we pulled out Hannah's sand & water table that she got for her b-day. Then, since she was soaking wet anyway, we decided to blow up her kiddie pool and have some more fun!  It was a little cold, so we ended up draining the pool, but she still had fun climbing in & out of it.  She's actually getting a little bit braver in the water - she kept putting her face in it today!

As you can tell, she had a blast!

Same old toy...

brand new fun!  

This is Hannah's exersaucer, which she hasn't played with in months.  We finally folded it up and had it set out to be put in the attic.  But she's decided she loves it now, in its newly folded condition.  She kept crawling in and out of it the other day.  It was really funny to me that she had that much fun with it.  I think the best part was that she could get out of it by herself.

another video of Hannah walking

As you can tell, she's got this whole walking thing down pretty well.  And the word "uh-oh"!  We heard that so many times on Saturday while we were hiking, right BEFORE she dropped something!

What a great Saturday!

We had a great day yesterday as a family!  When Hannah got up from her morning nap, we packed up lunch and headed to a state park nearby.  It has several Indian mounds, and lots of walking trails, and we intended to explore!  First we had a picnic lunch under a pavilion.

Then we got all of our stuff together and packed up.  I also found a great backpack carrier at a garage sale recently, so we decided to try it out with Hannah.  It took us a little while to get it all situated, but we finally got everyone comfortable.

Then we checked out the trail map and headed on our way. There were several huge mounds.  The tallest was 72 feet high!  We took the stairs to the top.  Hannah did pretty well in the carrier, as long as we kept moving.  But after a while, she got tired of it and wanted to get down and walk.  There was also a boardwalk area that we went on, so that was fun for her because it was easier to walk on that than the rough ground.  We thought some of those pictures were funny because we're walking along with her, or carrying her, but we have that big backpack thing on our backs!  Oh well! :)

Then we headed back home for an afternoon nap (for all of us!)  That evening we had a staff "get-together" at the Bruce's.  Hannah had tons of fun jumping on the trampoline!

New toy

This is Hannah's newest toy that I found at a garage sale. She loves it!  I thought it was really cute, and it's a lot of fun.  I realize that this isn't the best picture to illustrate that, since she's sitting next to it, but playing with her dad's shoe, but...   

The little door opens and she can crawl through.  One side is like the outside of the house (shown) and the other side is like the inside, with a clock and radio, etc.  The funniest thing about it is that it speaks in a British accent!!  :)  The lady I bought it from said she bought it from Germany because she loved it so much, so I guess that's why.  We just think it'll be funny if Hannah grows up saying "post box" instead of "mail box," etc.

Walking

She's gotten better at catching herself and regaining her balance since then.  She's really walking everywhere now...down the hall, to her bedroom, from the living room into the kitchen and back... It's a little weird to see her just come walking into the room, peeking her head around the corner, grinning at ya.  Such a big girl!!

Today she started trying to run, though, which didn't work out so well.  We had lots of crashes today because she would go faster than she could really handle, and then just wipe out!  I guess that's how you learn, though, huh?  Isn't that how we all do things sometimes, get caught up in things, taking on more than we can handle, and sometimes we hurt ourselves in the process.  Hopefully we learn something in the midst of that though...

Welcome to Toddlerville

Well, I guess it's official -- we are now in the next stage of life...toddlerville!!  :)

Hannah started walking Saturday!!  It's been a little crazy around our house this week, that's for sure! She had been taking some steps for a while now, but I came home Saturday morning from going to garage sales and she came walking out to me.  Rob said that he had worked with her the whole time I was gone, basically just making her let go of his hand, and it worked!  We knew she could walk on her own, she just didn't want to let go.  Now she wants to walk everywhere we go!  Unfortunately, our camera died and I just got it recharged, so I don't have any video to post of her walking really well, but I do have one from a few days before that.  I'll try to figure out how to post video...

It's been beautiful weather here, and we've been spending a lot of time outside.  As soon as Hannah sees her stroller, she's throwing a fit to get in it and go!  She starts saying "doe" over and over again.  We're convinced she's trying to say "go."

She can also give you a high five now!  That's fun!  And everything that happens is a good reason to say "uh oh" in Hannah's world.  It's so fun to see how quickly she is learning and changing.

Our azaleas bloomed beautifully this year, so we tried to get a few pics of Hannah next to them.  None of them turned out really cute because she was too busy pulling the flowers off and tearing them into little bitty bits!  Oh well.