"i wanna ho'd a punkin" : hana at 22 months

at 22 months, hana has just finished a massive growth spurt. she started wearing 3T clothing over the summer but it started fitting her well this month, rendering all of her 2T clothing, just plain ridiculous. well... except for some of the dresses which i make work by putting leggings or jeans under them. and by the way, leggings are the ONLY reason to enjoy the return of the 80's... the rest is just sad and i fear this new generation of fashonistas will look back in horror as we did. but i guess we all live and learn, right? i digress.

her grandma beppy (elizabeth in L.A.: she is simone and noelle's mom, my 2 oldest friends) made this dress for her. it's so cute on her. while it's pretty long on her (which is a rarity in her wardrobe) and the sizing is pretty generous, she can wear it now, and probably well into next year. she loves this dress, and twirls around in it when she has it on. to give her something to do for this picture, i asked her to hold a little pumpkin. now nearly everyday she requests: "i wanna ho'd a punkin" and she'll carry it around for a good 15-20 minutes like it was her purse or something.

september was safety month at daycare. ms. leona arranged for a guy from the railroads to come in and talk about train track safety and this began an obsession with "choo choos". she doesn't have a train set herself, but cousin cole has thomas trains does and there are trains at grandma glenda's (both are the kind with those little wooden tracks), so when she's not running around chasing the cousins, she's playing with the trains.

during safety month, hana also had visits from the police and the local fire fighters. the firefighters were a big hit. they showed up in their big truck and they they talked to them about fire safety and gave out stickers and these clever hats (which makes a mighty fine addition to the basket of dress up hats here at home) and the kids got to climb on to the big truck. apparently, hana had a blast (and that there are pictures but i have not yet seen them). in fact, i'm told that hana may well be as big a fan of firemen as her mama.

also as part of safety month, ms. leona annually invites a dentist to come in and talk to the kids and give brushing and flossing demonstrations and stuff. it seems like a stretch of the safety theme but whatever...hana was into it. after the dentist came, the quality and interest in tooth brushing went up noticably. during his visit, the dentist showed a video about visiting the dentist office to prepare them for what to expect. i think that was genious really, because i'm wondering if he takes our insurance. i suppose that guy's no fool because i know i'm not the only parent who has plans to call him at the number he left on the free toothbrush that hana got her dental goody bag.

hana modeling her fire hat on the catwalk