hana learns that she does not walk on water

jon got a flip mino hd for christmas. that means that taking video of hana is now easier than ever (although uploading it to the blog is still painstakingly long... as is evidenced by the delay in posting).


i'm not sure if that's good news or bad news in the blogosphere. but we have some cute video of her singing (sheepishly) into her new microphone among countless other selections.







one day while we were on vacation, we took hana to the park/beach at lake chabot. the weather was nice and since i'd been sick, hana had been a little house bound the previous couple of days. around the shore of the lake is a little man-made beach where hana likes to make "cupcakes". in truth, hana will make a cupcake out of anything at anytime: sand, dirt, blocks, pure air... what was especially endearing was how she would make her cupcake and then sing happy birthday. the first time she did this was the week before, at home with a cupcake made from thin air. it was so sweet, both jon and i were a little misty.



also at this trip to the park, hana and jon made several trips to the water's edge to get buckets of water and wetter sand for the cupcake operation.




the water was pretty calm and glassy that day so hana thought she would go darting out on it... that is until she she realized that she can't walk on water. she fell in face first to about 6" or so of water. hana was freaked (as were we all) but fine. of course, we didn't bring an extra change of clothes so we had to strip her down to warm her up, which left her wearing nothing but her diaper and her jacket, which she'd fortunately shed before the incident. needless to say, that ended our day at the park. jon did a post-splash interview once we got back to the car where hana discussed lessons learned.

"aaall done cwib" - hana at 25 months

hana has unceremoniously let us know she is ready to move on from her crib. you see, she has been physcially able to climb out of her crib for many months now. she's just not be been terribly interested in it. now that she's all into "i do it 'self" - doing things herself - she would prefer to determine on her own, when it is time for her to go to sleep.

for a little background, i'll explain that sometimes on a weekend night, when it's getting close to bed time, instead of the usual routine, she's allowed to pick a movie and have "quiet time" on the couch before bed. she calls it going "night night couch". specifically, she expresses "no wan' it night night cwib. i wanna go night night couch". generally, she asks for this at every sleep opportortunity. i however, do not consider her chillin' on the couch to be any sort of night night time becuase, at best, she will usually watch the entire movie and not fall alseep at all. at worst, as most frequently, she waits until mommy falls asleep (because it's hard to be riveted to the 13,oooth showing of "madagascar") and she gets up and runs around getting into stuff. she's still watching the movie, but it's not "quiet time" and there is no rest involved (well, at least not for her).

so one day last week, after failing her requisite campaign to have "night night couch", jon put her down for her nap in her crib. she resisted quite a bit and cried about it for about 15 minutes. and she settled down, as she usually does and just kept herself enterained in her crib, talking to herself, playing with her furry friends, singing to herself... this went on for another, say 45 minutes. then it grew quiet and we assumed she fell asleep.

after some suspicious clunking, we opened her door to find her out of her crib, with her hair smoothed down with a half a bottle of leave-in conditioner which she had personally applied. i suppose she thought she was "helping" since she likes to "help" put in the product when i style her hair in the mornings... but this was really ridiculous. we tried feebly to stifle our laughs but eventually, we couldn't help it. we know we were sending the wrong message, but if it's any consulation to you she did have to have an immediate bath which she found most unpleasant.

this crib hopping has become a thing for her and we've decided that until we get the bed set up for her, we're going to try and facilitate her getting in and out of the crib less perilously. of course, she won't do it herself when it's convenient for us... you know, it would really be ok for me if in the mornings when she calls out:"moooooooooommyyyyy, i wake up! all done cwib!" she then just got herself out of bed and met me half way. when i encourage her to do that, she claims she needs "help up". yeah right.

so i think we are going to set a bed up for her in the next couple of weeks. in the meantime, we need to keep her form marauding the house in some way that doesn't involve her being locked in (like the literature from our pediatrician says to do!). ironically, what seems to be the most effective is leaving the door open. that way she can hear what's going on in the house and we can hear her and check on her more easily. we'll see how long that lasts...

"i'm TWOOOOO!" - hana at 2 years

we are a little late on this but this year, we held hana's birthday party at gymboree again. it was a great party again this year. sadly, i forgot to do things like make goody bags or have party favors of any kind, but hopefully, the kids didn't miss it. the party was a lot bigger this year since there were 15 kids this time, compared to last year's 5. there were a mixture of the cousins, a couple of mom's group friends and quite a few friends from ms. leona's, and a few various and sundry others. the kids really had a great time... so much so that there was a collective meltdown at the end becuase they didn't want to go - hana included. when it's your child, you're embarrased and irritated. but when it's everyone's child - then it's just plain funny. i mean what are you gonna do?

hana didn't take long to start really showing us her terrible twos. she has suddenly decided that things she was totally into one day, she's utterly against the next. for example, bath time, grilled cheese sandwhiches, wearing her white sneakers, sitting on the potty, eating large and complete meals were all things that she willingly, if not gleefully, participated in. now, not so much. we are instead greeted with responses ranging from "um, no." to the more whiney "no waaan' it" to full on you-won't-take-me-alive style temper tantrums that include such gems as "'top it!" (for stop it) and "let go!" and then she has the audacity to insist on occaision "say sorry, mommy" for putting her through the torture of a diaper change. it's especially fun when she's whining "'top it, let go mommy!" in the grocery store, as if to suggest to the general public that i am somehow endangering her by putting her in the shopping cart.

she is also getting quite good at her fake cry: scrunched up face, pathetic wail... no tears. and then i remind her, "uh oh hana, there's no tears coming out. you've got to squeeze harder!" although she is clearly not amused by this, she often stops to ponder this, as if to say "oh yeah, tears!" and sometimes, she just moves on to the next thing.

fortunately, she is pretty easy to redirect if we grown ups are not super tired. she can often be plied with a chastisement whilst being cuddled. sometimes, singing one of her favorite songs ("row, row, row your boat", "the wheels on the bus", "if you're happy and you know it..." or "jingle bells") will change her mind about just how commited she is to having a tantrum. another strategy that seems to work sometimes is if i pick up one of her toys - say, this new awesome microphone that she got for christmas - and start playing with is as if it is the best toy in the house. and then she insists "that's MINE!" and i hand it to her (after i make her say please) and then she's all about playing with that toy. i don't know how long that trick will last but everytime i do it, i feel like i have won one for the mommies.