What?!?

I may have mentioned before that I have 2 little girls- if you missed that now you are all caught up.

I also may have mentioned before that I sometimes a lot of the time let my girls watch movies and listen to gratuitous amounts of books on tape. We also read a lot of fairy tale books. So now you're caught up there, too.

Also, they're precocious, and mixed in with this, both girls have a bit of a flair for the dramatic. There is no way they got that from me. Honest.

Bernadette is still developing her extensive verbal skills, so for this post, I will just focus on some real gems I've heard Naomi say in the past few weeks, which gems exhibit this flair most aptly.

Exhibit A:

We woke up at our regular early hour one morning and went into the play room, where I laid on the couch to get a few more minutes of shut eye before Bernadette woke up (you know, because I'm a good mom). Sitting down to play, Naomi picked up a toy dog and immediately jumped into character, narrating some sort of scene betweeen that dog and another animal.

I went ahead and opened my eyes when I heard her say:

"'No,' said the dog, in an indignant sort of way..."

"Did you just say indignant?" I asked. To which she replied that she had. Then she went ahead and cited the various books and movies where she'd heard it, as if that alone might account for why she, a mere three-year-old, was correctly using the word.

---

Next exhibit:

While driving in the car Naomi was having a conversation with herself, as she is often wont to do. And again, my ears perked up when I heard her say:

"It was awful! They ruined all of my best laid plans!"
 I didn't even ask about this one. Sometimes it's better not to.

---

And another:
Naomi and Bernadette were engaging in a round of pretend fairyland play, a very normal thing here. I walked passed their room where Naomi was laying on the floor with her eyes closed, but still shouting to her sister:

"BERNADETTE! COME HERE AND GIVE ME LOVE'S FIRST KISS!"

Obviously she's seen a few princess films. I don't know if Bernadette yielded to her sister's wishes.

---

Last exhibit, before Bernadette starts to feel slighted:

This morning as I was getting some things done downstairs and the girls were off in their pretend worlds playing, I heard Naomi say (in her most dramatic voice):

"No! Please! Let mercy take the place of justice!"

I could not contain the volume of my laughter at this one, so she repeated it quite a few more times for her mother's enjoyment- she's a bit of a ham.

Too bitter to blog?

Perhaps, but I will try to repress my ever present frustration with THE ANGRIEST TODDLER IN THE WORLD (whose name starts with B and ends with ernadette), and with the fact that I am only just entering the 3rd trimester of this pregnancy and, well, I already feel like I have been pregnant f o r e v e r, and the fact that I feel like someone took something like one of those industrial strength leaf suckers and used it instead to suck every single ounce of energy from my body... but I will try to push those things aside and focus on some positives. You're welcome.

---

This weekend held many things for us at the Hahn home, among them was a much begged for trip to the history museum.
Starting to feel like your 3-year-olds aren't as smart/cultured as mine? Well, stop.
She only begs to go 70 times an hour because of the following:

From the top: Bernadette cooks fish for the 3 of us; While mother waits in tipi for her food; Naomi in a dunce cap that fits all too well; Naomi in another hat+apron; more fish cooking; a feast fit for a pregnant queen; Naomi studies; trading post; end with more fish cooking

More fun than you can handle, for real.

Next positive:
This morning the eldest tyrant in the home decided to sleep until... wait for it... SEVEN o'clock.
You have no idea how unprecedented this is, and how rested I should be feeling.

This of course meant that I had no excuse whatsoever to skip our morning exercises/walk around the block.

Which then brings me to the 3rd happy happening of the morning:  I walked for our enitre allotted amount of time WITHOUT feeling like I was going to pee my pants right there on the ground at any point (thousand exclamation points) And also meant we could stop to see the always asked for "crazy man" aka inflatable, flopping, cigarette man outside of the tobacco store near our home.

And all parties were happy, content and dry.
Have yourself a pleasant Monday.

Tea Time

I know I promised no more grainy pictures, but I guess I lied.

The thing is that these should not be so grainy, but our camera that should be taking decent quality pictures did not do come through yesterday, so I figured I'd just give these the "antique" effect and it would look intentional anyways. 

---

Meet Henrietta and Georgiana.

We had a lovely tea party during a thunderstorm to make up for the fact that I promised to take them to the mall play place, but knowing my own weakness and level of hunger mixed with the plethora of delicious food court food varieties, I chose to stay home- thus not fulfilling my promise at all. Fail, but not a total fail:

Henrietta

Georgiana

There was a 3rd member of the tea party named George Fifflefaf (chosen by Naomi, but originating with her aunt, I think), but he/she was too awkward in all the pictures to be shown-- something about the large red feathered hat not fitting properly on her/his over sized head... and being too pregnant....

Naomi called us all by our tea party names for at least a full hour afterwards, so I'll call this broken promise a success.

Have a lovely day.

Adventures with Naomi

Naomi's newest thing is to beg Mike and me to tell her some of our "best adventure stories." She plops down on her stomach with her hands under her chin (as cute and cheesy as it sounds), and asks us to tell her about anything exciting that has ever happened to us. We're trying hard to think of different things every day, and attempting to make all our of travels abroad sound like crazy adventures, but we're running out of stories to tell.

So today, instead of Naomi begging for and getting a story from me, she decided to sit down on the floor and tell me some of her own adventures. This is how it went.

Naomi: Mommy, would you like to hear some of *my* best adventure stories?!?!?

Me: Um, YES, please!!

Naomi: Ok, did you know that one time I went to college?

Me: You did? What did you do there?

Naomi: Yes, I did, and I worked and worked and worked, and I couldn't even come home until Monday!

Then when I did try to come home I went to "Curb Street" [a completely made up street] but our home wasn't on Curb Street and I went farther and farther away from our home and I couldn't find you!

Then I got chased by a huge, big, enormous bee and it stung me on the neck and I was running and running and then I called you and asked you if I could have your car to drive home.

So you came and picked me up and gave me the car and you rode your bike home and I drove home [why am I riding my bike home?].

Then I ran and ran into the house and slammed the door because the big, huge, enormous bee was still behind me. But we got away.

Me: Wow. You win. That beats all of my best adventure stories.

Naomi: Yeah

Me: Can I go post this on my blog?

Naomi: Yeah, sure!! Bernadette, mommy is gonna go post my adventures on her blog.


This is pretty much word for word how this just went down.

Now go try and have more exciting day than her, just try.

How long can a dead bee keep a family happy?

A few days ago Mike was outside playing with the girls and I was wasting time being productive inside reading blogs cleaning, of course. I went out to find Mike with Naomi and Bernadette hunched over a little red shovel while he talked in a high pitched voice. They were more intensely entertained than I have ever seen them (except during certain Disney movies, but that says a lot).

I asked what was going on and Naomi explained that they were looking at Quincy the bee, then Quincy spoke, or Mike spoke for Quincy, and Naomi talked back to him like they were long time friends. Naomi requested several times that we get a jar to keep him in, I figured as far as pets go, a dead bee would be the most low maintenance, but Mike wasn't as in to his idea.

But the girls loved Quincy. Every time we went outside they would go over to the little red shovel where he sat and Bernadette would make very intense curious faces at him and Naomi would chat for a long time with him. It was even better when Mike was there, just see for yourself:
Then yesterday, the inevitable happened, we had to send Quincy home (it was only a matter of time before one of the girls ate him). Mike threw him somewhere and said he was "flying away back to his family". No sooner had the girls and Mike sent Quincy home, when Naomi came into the house, sat down in the at her xylophone in the playroom, and sang a song for him:

"Quincy we love you, Quincy we miss you, Quincy come back to us!" 

Soon after the tribute was sung, Quincy called on Naomi's fake cell phone to give an update of how things were going, which softened the blow of his departure immensly.

So the answer to the title question is: at least 2 1/2 days. 

Naomi the comedian

For all of my griping and complaining about her sleep and "high spirited-ness", I do not think that I give due attention to Naomi the comedian. Along with her high spirit comes way more humor and hilarity than I ever thought I would get in a child (also more tantrums, but that is not what this post is about).

 Here are some gems I have managed to remembered from the last few weeks:

 Naomi in the car while out for some errands after sitting and thinking about something for a while:

"Mom, I think we should have a baby camel instead..."

Then ensued a long conversation explaining why it is that human mothers can only have human babies. Then in Old Navy about an hour later, in front of plenty of people, she gives in:

"Ok mom, I guess we can have a human baby". Thanks for the permission, Naomi.

 While sitting with one of her stuffed dogs on the couch Naomi exclaims:

“Oh no, he went German doops everywhere!" (doops is our work for poop, go ahead, poke fun). I asked her what on earth "German doops" was and she answered:

"It means that he ate too many German pancakes and now it is all over the floor”

Me: "ok"

While eating at a pretend restaurant with me and Bernadette in the living room, Naomi suddenly shouts: “Oh no, this restaurant is terrible! There are dinosaurs and gorillas everywhere and they are going to eat us, let’s get out of here!” And runs away.

Last night before bed I walked in her room, Naomi looks at me, chuckles, then in her lowest, fattest voice she sticks out her belly and says:

"Mommy, do you have a big huge belly?"

Me:"yes, I do"

Take it or leave it, quick style.

In an attempt to make up for a week of blog absence while traveling, I will go ahead and bore you with excessive details about our trip and other things:

1) My beautiful sister-in-law got married and it went swimmingly, that is, they are married. It was beautiful. 

Picture stolen from facebook, I took ZERO. She married the one on the right (her left).

2) Mike and I had a bit of a scare on Wednesday evening after our arrival in Steubenville when we realized that my tent of a bridesmaid's dress and Mike's spandex suit had been left in South Bend. (Mike's suit ended up not fitting anyways, lesson learned-- always try on suit in store when picking it up, also don't trust suit salespeople).

Utterly embarrassing photo of me for poof that we acquired our wedding attire. Photo also stolen from facebook

One of the bridesmaids lives here in SB and we were able to get her into our house and into our closet in order that we would be clothed at the ceremony, we were very grateful.

3) The old MOH speech went off without a hitch, or at least I didn't say anything incriminating or too embarrassing.

4) The remainder of our visit looked something like this:

super blurry picture of Naomi in a life jacket about to board the USS paddle boat= cutest thing ever

Lot's of fun in the sun with Nana and Papa at the Hahn cabin on a lake

 5) And this:

LOADS of fun at Grammy and Gramp's house complete with many tractor rides. I even took them for a ride- too bad we did not capture that, huh?

6) Tuesday was intended to be another super fun Hahn family day but Bernadette's stomach had other plans for us. She woke up that morning utterly exhausted and out of it and before I could say "vomit," she went ahead and and did just that. Many, many times. I had just read Grace's post the day before and thought to myself "I am so glad we haven't had to deal with vomiting children in a while"... solidarity be mine.

7) Last but not least and not in the least bit connected to the rest, just for fun. I am trying to decide whether or not to cut Bernadette straggling hairs/rat tail. When they are curly they generally look fine and even cute:

cute

fine?

When they are straight they all too similar to this:

Straight haired Bernadette is nick-named "Vernon." Growing up in Mingo Junction, I knew many a Vernon with a rat tail. No seriously, I knew several.

 To cut or not to cut? That is the question.

Now we are back in South Bend and ready for some nice weather to come back to us. It is June and the heat actually kicked on in our house today. Redic.

Go the Jen and many others for some fab quick takes.
Happy Friday!

Why mornings sometimes suck

We've been blessed with a wonderfully spirited first born who, for the better part of her life, has awoken no later than 6 and probably for half of her life, has greeted us and her day even earlier.

I almost called this post "Sometimes I want to say the "F" word"but I thought it could cause scandal. But for real, there is little in the world that makes me want to yell expletives more than waking before the clock starts with a 6. I HATE waking up before 6. Strike that, I hate waking up before 8, but I will take 6 and hug and kiss it and give it flowers if I could get it.

Here is what my mental dialogue looks like when I have to wake up during the 5 o'clock hour, like I did this morning (mind you this is only in my head, and I do not condone the usage if this vulgar word):

Naomi is standing next to my bed, in my face, it is still dark out, I look at the clock, 5:10: "F"

She explains she is soaked and needs a new pullup, pants, and a new sheet: "F"

I fulfill all her needs, put her back in bed explaining that it is still "the middle of the night and she needs to go back to bed (lies), I lay back in my bed, the clock now says 5:23: "F"

I roll over at 5:40, I still haven't fallen back asleep. I even toy with the idea of getting up and cleaning and starting my day before the girls, I look at the clock again: "F it, I am just going to lay here"

I start to fall back asleep when I am awoken again by noises, I look at the door and there is light streaming in, there were no lights on before: "F, she's up again"

By this point it is past 6, I go out to find her under the dining room table, I tell her that she needs to lay back in bed until 7, that she hasn't gotten enough sleep so she complies. I go back to bed seriously hoping now that my intense fatigue resulting not only from the stupid early wake time and the fact that I did not go to sleep early enough to make this a good night sleep, but also from the fact that even even if I had gotten 8 hours of sleep and woken up at 7, I would be completely exhausted because I'm pregnant- please don't tell me all the energy will come back w a few weeks. It will not. It never does. I will be exhausted for the next 5 months and then many more after, that is the way this goes. I am not complaining, wait yes I am, but mostly I am just showcasing why many of my mornings are a prescription for bad words in my head. Also, I am not very pious. I mean, if I were, I would offer up these mornings much more readily for people who have real difficulties. I usually try to remember to do that, after I have shouted 27 expletives in my head.

While getting breakfast together and after getting yogurt on my hand "F", and spilling flour all over myself "F", I thought maybe I should put on some rap music in order to get myself motivated to get some stuff done in preparation for our trip, but then I figured that the only reason I even wanted to do that is because of the vocabulary already filling my head and that just maybe Ludacris and Jay-Z would most likely just exacerbate it.

So unless I can find some G rated Kanye, I will likely be listening to my rosary and chaplet on repeat for the rest of the day in reparation for being a terrible person.



*A note to the scandalized reader: the "F" words going through my head have never actually left my head and the letter "F" is often used internally in place of the actual foul word. My children have never heard this word, at least not from me.

Sweaty sweet summer

 Enjoying a nice 90 degree day here in the Bend,

 filled with several 20 minute outdoor spurts for the girls,

 (I am a little hyper paranoid about sun burn)

 And putting Mike to work on our dinner.

He worked hard on perfecting his grilled chicken today putting together a crazy brine to soak it in prior to grilling

I have to say that this was honestly the BEST chicken I have ever tasted in my entire life. Mike was pretty proud -rightly so- and showed it by asking me a few questions while eating, like: "Did you know that chicken could be juicy?" and "Is it possible that chicken can be too juicy?".

It may be the case I am notoriously the very worst cooker of chicken on the earth, it usually ends up being something like the consistency of a dog bone and all parties are chewing on it just about as long as a dog would a bone. This, on the other hand, had more flavor than I ever thought it was possible for chicken to have, and I am advertising for no one, except my culinary genius of a husband.

Maybe one day I will share is secret, but I must consult the master first.
Happy Sunday!

Children at play

Mike finished his last paper of his last year of course work for the rest of his life last night, or this morning, at around 3:30. YEEEHAW. This happened after a bed time of 4:30 the previous night working on the same said paper. His wifey (me), on the other hand, has been sporting wake times all too close to my husband's bed times due to a certain scary 3-year-old who, now that she can open her door, runs into my room at the ripe hour of 5:30 a.m. ready to start her day. Every. Single. Morning. Almost.

I am supposed to be napping right now while Mike gallivants all over town with both girls, but I couldn't sleep and my mother always said "when you can't sleep, blog". Lies, she probably still doesn't know quite what a blog is.

So as a result of the insanely early mornings, our morning play time often consist of something like this:

In case you can can't tell from at least a couple of these pictures, Bernadette is not actually tired since she sleeps until a reasonable hour of 7:30-ish as opposed to her wannabe nocturnal sister who is really completely exhausted:

I could write many tales of this difficult sleeper, but I will instead give you a little sneak peek at our babe in utero who was engaging in her/his own play time during an afternoon ultrasound (I don't know how much one can "play" inside a uterus)

The ultrasound tech put "yoga baby" on the top picture since the baby's foot is on top of the head (I love this tech, she is awesome)- so the baby was actually playing, sort of.

Also, we may or may not (MAY) have found out the gender of this baby today, but since this was only a 16 week ultrasound, I will hold off until the next one confirms what we pretty much know and then I will bust it out into the blogosphere.

I know you are all dying, literally dying to know, but I think you'll make it.

Love Hates

Joining Hallie over here for some quick takes and keeping Jen in my prayers today.

1) Hate: as recently mentioned my 3 year old figured out how to escape from her room which has been a source of much frustration and fear this past week and has generally been causing more sleep loss than my pregnant little big body can handle. Most nights it was sleep loss due to sheer fear of seeing her in the doorway with her blanket draped over her head like a ghost, which is her preferred way to exit the room. Great. I am working on the irrational fear.

2) Love: that last night was a vast improvement and found me waking this morning without being on the verge of tears because of how tired I was. Thank you over-the-counter sleep aid that made me too tired to think.

3) Hate: my new pregnancy diet. I think fat and happy is the way to be, but since I am sure my doctor will disagree, I will push through.

nasty and nasty's brother

4) Love: my recent reception if these:

from my sweet mother-in-law

and a starbucks gift card from my mom for mother's day. Best moms ever.

5) Hate: that while I began a super fun sewing project this week, my brand spanking new sewing machine is already not working. I JUST took it out of the box. Grrrr.

6) Love: that I figured out how to block my troll this week, thanks to all who helped me out on the old FB, always a faithful help in times of need.

7) Love/dislike (because it just didn't seem right to start and end with a hate): I am super duper excited that I can feel new baby nubbins moving all around, and there is ALOT of moving going on. This brings me to my dislike, which is that the kick boxing session was the only thing that actually kept me up last night despite my medicated efforts to sleep. It is worth it, for now.

That is all for now, have a splendid Friday!!

Monumentals

Yesterday marked some rather ground breaking things in a few different, sort of related, arenas.

1) I went to the doc for my 16 week appointment and found out that, since Christmas, I have already gained back HALF of the weight that I lost last year (if you read the post where I mentioned how much I lost you can do the math, if you didn't I will not divulge it now). Isn't that amazing!?!?! Personally, I am impressed with myself- also a little disgusted- but mostly impressed. If you read this post a while back you know about my preoccupation.

before

after

And back again. Bad lighting+awkward smile=typical ana pregnancy picture

and

2) I participated in the first form of exercise since being about 6 weeks pregnant- a 10 week break from working out and I went from having this as my daily workout routine 4 short months ago:

to barely being able to jog 1/4 mile. Also impressive.

Now I will give myself some credit here and say I had NEVER been that skinny/in shape ever in my life before, so I was bound to regress at some point AND I am actually ahead of the game in terms of where I was weight wise when I was pregnant with Bernadette- so I am feeling good.

But with all that said, I am beginning my pregnancy diet/workout regiment to attempt to not gain an average of 8 pounds every doctor's appointment. This plan really just means:

• no more daily fast food, for every meal
• no more mid-morning hot dog snacks
• no more nightly reeses cups (sniff)
• not more middle of the night confetti cake 
• do anything at all by way of physical activity. I think I will try some of Dwija's tricks.
• maybe try to eat every 3 hours instead of every 2

It's gonna be rough people, I am not gonna lie, but I think I can do it.

3) Unrelated, but watch out, I am sewing again.

And it is going to rock your world

4) And the last monumental thing that's been happening recently worth noting:

The girls are finally deciding to both smile for pictures together (yes that is a smile for Bernadette there) and it is making for some better pictures. 

Here's to changes on many fronts!

Sometimes your kids scare you

I have been living in a temporary dream world for the last 6 or so months.
Soon after Naomi was put into, and then figured out how to get out of, her normal bed, attempts were made and made successfully to keep her bound to her toddler cage of a room. I am not one of those sweet mothers who willingly invites my children into my room (let alone my bed) in the night time/wee morning hours. Once their allotted time spent there for the first few months of life is up I am all too eager to get the little out and into her own room, since by this time she is generally beginning to disrupt the peace and harmony that is sleep time for myself and Mike.

So as soon as Naomi decided that staying in her room after bed time or during nap time was not an option for her, a battle of wills began and was won (only temporarily) by myself (and Mike, but really I credit myself for the strategy). After some serious prodding, I finally got Mike to give in and let me put a child proof door knob cover over the knob on the inside of her room and BAM, I won, just like that.

She only cried a little and fell asleep on the floor next to the door every night for only a few months. But we slept, and she slept. And nobody (nobody being ME) was awakened with every noise in the middle of the night waiting for a creeping 2-year-old to be standing in the door way, or at your feet, or in your face looking something like this:

Seriously, it freaks me out when a kid is standing in my room and I didn't know they were there. I indulged in the gratuitous watching of one too many horror films during my high school and college days and the remnants of these videos still made themselves known during these night time appearances of the Nomes.

So the dreaded moment came last night when, after she was put in her room for the night, it happened. The door opened. I asked Mike immediately if he took the cover off of the door since he had done that one night to see what would happen, of course that night Naomi was found under the dining room table shortly after bed time. The cover was promptly put back on. But he answered "no" and the reality set in that she had figured it out. The contraption is not complicated, you just have to squeeze the door knob in the 2 holes on the sides of the thing and turn, but I had hoped against hope that she would never figure this out.

So this morning when my bladder woke me up at the ripe hour of 5:40, I laid back down to try to finagle another hour of sleep before the awakening, and unsuccessful was I. At every single little noise I was convinced that she was opening the door, so I would hop up to try get to her room before she got into our room (to avoid appearances like the above image, of course!) And because of my irrational fears, an hour of sleep was lost and little angel Naomi did not open the door until her reasonable 7 a.m. wake time.

You win, Naomi, you always do.

Things you should know about

  

1. I finally finished an insane clothing organization project this past week, resulting in my drawers finally closing and many bags of clothing (dating back to high school) being given and thrown away.
2. Mike has been reading "Little House on the Prairie" to Naomi every evening, which I was pretty sure she was not entirely absorbing, if at all, since she is only just 3 and usually looks pretty spaced out while he is reading. Then, a few days ago, I walked into the restroom with her, and she looked at our plunger in the holder and asked, "Is that a butter churn?" I said "no" and begged her never to try churning butter with it. At least I know Mike's reading is not totally futile.

3. My sister came to visit on Thursday with her Beau, and we got to make lots of great food and go visit my favorite SB hot spot: the history museum, because we're cool and exciting.

4. One of the recipes we made is definitely worth sharing: THIS ONE by the Pioneer Woman. I am still drooling like a teething baby thinking about them, and I am having to restrain myself from going into the kitchen and polishing off the plate of leftovers. I cannot take any credit for actually making them, since my sister did all the work (I was making my first crab bisque), but I did do a bang up job eating them.

Picture from the cookbook because we ate them too quickly to take a picture of our own finished product.

5. Mike spotted these awesome glass canisters at the best thrift store in the world a few days ago and I went back the next day to buy them in order to organize my crazy pantry. AND since no one will see or care about this because it took place inside a pantry that pretty much only I open, I decided to force you to enjoy the glorious results with me:

before

after

I think the total for all four canisters was $6. Best. thrift. store. ever. Also shown: my ingenious idea for storing our borrowed library books on tape. I could sit and stare at these pictures all day.

6. And last but not least (I have to stop at six so it doesn't look like I'm trying to do 7 quick takes on a Saturday- never!), I know what you'll probably think when you see that I've posted youtube videos--"oh, it's just a youtube video that she thinks is funny and I don't have time to look at videos other people enjoy, besides she probably has no sense of humor, and I have a life." But seriously, do yourself a favor and watch these, but IN ORDER--the first one is an actual real music video that people apparently like, and the second is a parody. This will ensure that you laugh today. (Warning: there is at least one bleeped out F bomb in the second video that they do a terrible job of actually bleeping out, so perhaps this is not good to watch around young children.)