"happy peater" - part 1

in order to get ready for "happy peater" - on of the many ways "happy easter" comes out of hana- on the saturday before easter, nadia, paul and cole had the kids (jack, charlotte, tony and hana) over for easter egg dying. hana got very into painting the eggs as well as dying and stamping them. she is still learning about the delicate touch that eggs require so many eggs were cracked in the making of this easter.





after breaking this egg and realizing that it wasn't so easy to stamp the whites, she decided to just eat this one... and then stamp it some more.

all of this egg dying was in preparation for the big annual easter egg hunt at grandma glenda's and grandpa dan's house. glenda and nadia stuffed easter eggs with candy and coins to add to the real eggs that would be hidden. glenda really got into the spirit of things with her fashionable head gear...after the eggs were dyed, the kids had a blast playing in nadia and paul's back yard. the kids got to play in the mud in what cole calls his "outdoor kitchen" which is really to big clay pots with dirt and a nearby water source (not the pool). many mud pies made in that kitchen... they say that messy play is good for a child's development. well, i would say all of the kids developed A LOT that day...

in this picture, hana seems so small. but that's just the angle at which she's being shot... it seems that hana started a growth spurt a few weeks ago and hasn't really stopped yet. those are not shorts. those are sized 3T capris! admittedly, they had a slightly higher hemline than some of her other capris, but those don't even pretend to be capris anymore. she can still wear a few of her 3T clothes, but for the spring, we've had to buy her 4T clothes. and her feet are sized 9 - 9.5, which is the same size that tony, who's nearly 4, and a boy, wears. she's still pretty lean and has good muscle tone. so even though we buy her 4T clothing, if the waist does not adjust, they just don't stay up. in fact there are many 3T pants and skirts that she's grown out of in length, but if you don't cinch them way in, they are around her ankles in seconds. for those of you familiar with the adjustable waists on clothing, she is frequently on the 5th button-hole on each side and we still have to tell her to pull her pants up all the time. thankfully, her diaper helps protect us from the peek-a-boo crack scenario, but with any luck, we won't have that for long... hana is also wearing one of her favorite shirts. it's a tinkerbell shirt that cole and tony brought back from disneyland. she asks for it often (but we don't do laundry that much so she's frequently dissapointed).here is jack riding around. had easter egg dye, mud, strawberry and chocolate all over his face and hands. we tossed him a towel to wipe his hands and face and it landed on his head. he just sat there for a few minutes like... "uh guys..." and peered at us giggling adults sideways, almost humorlessly, until someone mercifully pulled the towel off his head and handed it to him. note how filthy his hands are...that level of filth is pretty much how all of the kids looked. although they're clothes were way worse than jack's. so we threw them all in the shower for a hose down and they all borrowed some of cole's pajamas for the ride home. hana was really into cole's dinosaur pjs and wants a pair of her own.

hana had so much fun that day that she, and all the kids, had a collective meltdown upon leaving... a situation compounded by all of them being totally nap-free. so hana was in a pretty foul mood when she got in the car (which jon thought was pretty cute so he mocked her by taking her picture).i'm swooping in here for a little attitude adjustment... there isn't much an attack of the smooches won't take care of.
returning smooches to mommy. she's into that now and i LOVE it! "mommy, i wanna kiss yo' face" and then "mommy, i wanna kiss yo' otha face" (meaning turn the other cheek). good times. i love this phase!

telling jokes now... looking a lot like jon here...

and speaking of jokes... hana is starting to tell jokes. well, she has the one joke done several ways. it usually begins with "knock knock". you say "who's there?" she says "me" we say "me who?" and then she's say "hana!" - as if to say "duh!" but then start laughing. or she will also say "come on in" followed by some giggles. but the funniest version of this joke is when she uses the set up to ask for something that she wants. for example, it'll go: "knock knock" , "who's there" , "me", "me who", "please have shark cup hot" (which is her short hand for asking for warm milk in her favorite shark sippy cup).

yes, i get that's not really funny, but she's trying to be clever and mix it up. she doesn't quite get the whole notion of a punch line yet... and how they are supposed to be funny in unexpected and ironic ways (well, i supposed it's unexpected to ask for milk as the end of a knock knock joke...). but it's funny that she tries.

anyway, back to easter:

easter sunday, we went to church in berkeley and they had an easter egg hunt after church. hana loved her "pwincess dress" that her great aunt dee dee made and she got many compliments on it all day. she's also into wearing her sunglasses when it's bright out and the weather was beautiful on easter. these butterfly sunglasses have a bit of a retro look to them. here's hana searching for easter eggs.

...and demonstrating the fruits of her labor. but since she was going to another easter party after this, we re-hid the eggs so the other kids could find them. hana liked doing this as much as finding them, but it was impossible to stop her from tossing the eggs into their new hiding places. we're still working on the gentle handling of eggs...

a better look that the diva shades...