Happy Thanksgiving

Our two little turkeys, modeling their matching dresses from Mammie.

Blocks!

Who knew a few colored blocks could be so exciting?

Pinkalicious, The Musical

Last Saturday, Lauren, Aunt Stephanie and I had a very special girls only outing. (Mammie was planning to come, but because of Papa's knee injury she was unable to make it) We saw Pinkalicious, The Musical!!!!


Meeting the cast and getting autographs after the show. Lauren wanted to meet the characters, but when it was her turn to take a photo or talk to them, she clammed up.


So happy to be spending time with Aunt Stephanie in the big city!

Two Little Monkeys

We had so much fun celebrating Halloween with Aunt Stephanie!

Daddy and Lauren went trick-or-treating, while Mommy, Annie and Aunt Stephanie stayed home to pass out candy.



Last week we had a surprise visit by Mammie and Papa on a Tuesday evening. They were on their way to South Dakota and delivered Lauren's big bed to us. What a better way to spend a Tuesday evening than carving pumpkins with Mammie and Papa!



Annie was already in bed when we carved pumpkins that Tuesday evening, so she and Mommy had a special carving Sunday afternoon while Lauren was still napping. Annie sure loved holding onto the big spoon and pumpkin.



Monkey See


Monkey Do

Highwood's Pumpkinfest 2011

What a beautiful weekend we had for Highwood's Pumpkinfest.


Boxes and boxes of pumpkins just waiting to be carved.


Lauren carved three pumpkins. One with Mommy and two with Daddy.



The main pumpkin wall.

There were pumpkin walls all throughout town holding a total of over 31,000 jack-o-lanterns!!! The word throughout town is that the world record was broken and the title is now held by Highwood.


Watching all the volunteers light thousands of pumpkins.

Thank you Highwood for such a fun family filled weekend!

Annie Update

Annie loves putting beads and necklaces on herself, just like Lauren used to.

WOW, has our little one grown leaps and bounds the past month. Annie waves hi and bye now, crawls all around, and even blows kisses sometimes. Wilma gets the credit for inspiring Annie to crawl around. Before she stayed with us, Annie was moving around a bit, but clearly Annie's interest in Wilma was just the encouragement she needed to become a master crawler.

She calls Geoff, "Da Da" regularly, tries really hard to say "doggie" whenever Wilma is around. She even calls me "Ma Ma" more and more each day. Annie loves sitting up on her knees and trying to pull herself up on things like the train table, jump-a-roo, and coffee table.

Our music class on Thursday mornings has been wonderful. I really enjoy my time spent with just Annie. It's amazing how much she has changed since the beginning of class. She loves the shakers and is just fascinated with the teacher. Annie's big brown eyes just study and stare at the teacher. She really takes everything in.





Oh and notice, Annie's hair is getting thicker.


For about the past month though, Annie has had a really tough time sleeping through the night. She started with a cold, which caused her to wake up in the night, coughing and coughing. About two weeks ago she was diagnosed with her first ear infection. Last Monday, after many more nights of lack of sleep around the Hanson household, I took Annie back to the doctor, where she was diagnosed with an ear infection in her other ear. She is currently on stronger medicine and the doctor even told me a small amount of Benadryl before bed would be ok. So after three nights of Benadryl, a new antibiotic, a humidifier in Annie's room and complete sleep for everyone, we might be on the road to recovery.

Annie still refuses to eat any solid food unless it's a grain. She loves Puffs, crackers, and bread, but won't eat any soft textured food unless it's pureed like baby food. Even if I try to put a small bit of banana in with her baby food, she will find it and spit it out. Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated!

Annie sure loves her big sister, Lauren! She wants to be everywhere Lauren is and play with everything Lauren is playing with. If Lauren claps, Annie will copy her. Lauren is a great teacher and for the most part, is extremely patient with Annie. Of course, she doesn't always like to share everything with her, but loves helping as much as any three year old should be expected to. Watching the two girls bond and grow together is a wonderful bonus to motherhood!



Lauren wanted to have a picnic for snack time today. After Annie tried to swipe Lauren's snack a few times, I realized I should get her a snack too. So Annie enjoyed her Puffs and Lauren was able finish her trail mix. Oh and we do call Annie Swipper all the time because she is so quick to grab everything! It's really appropriate because she enjoys Dora as much as Lauren.



PS...I forgot to add that Annie loves turning pages when we read books and is doing very well with her baby signs. We even thought she might have called Lauren, "La La." yesterday.

Pinkalicious

As a reading teacher, I can't even begin to express my excitement when Lauren started reading this book to us the other day. She loves reading so much, I knew it was coming, I just didn't expect it so soon. Let's hope her love of reading continues for many, many years to come.

Pinkalicious was one of Lauren's birthday presents from Mammie and Papa and as you can tell it was a hit.

I love the inflection in her voice. Enjoy!