Dis and Dat

While not Hannah's first Autumn experience - she is after all a bit older than a year - this was the first one when she had a full fledged personality! In anticipation of the costuming for the season, Hannah had a couple of practice runs at potential ensembles with daddy one evening after her bath. While we loved the pink and green (hey what can we say - Wade and I are still preppy throw backs) - the show of skin was a wee bit too excessive for us :)

On Halloween, Hannah was in rare form. We had dinner - Daddy, Nana, Mommy, Olivia and Hannah (ok - so Olivia slept) - Haden was with her mom trick or treating. Dinner time brought light to the fact that our sweet girl was a bit cranky. There was a bit of crying, some eye rubbing, some more crying - and Daddy and Mommy exchanging a look of "seriously?" We live in a great new neighborhood - on a cul de sac - where each Halloween the neighbors set up a buffet - of candy for the trick or treaters and of food and beverage for the neighbors. Wade and I wanted to mingle with our new neighbors, knowing that Olivia would only sleep for Nana for a bit and that Hannah was hankering for bed time.

So we headed out for what was sure to be a short evening - Hannah in her Ariel costume and Daddy ready to walk her through the neigborhood while Mommy sat with the neighbors and enjoyed a glass of wine (oh the sweet victory of no longer being pregnant!) A good, if not short, time was had by all.

Hannah is now heading into 14 months. She's not walking yet - but she can cruise furniture and crawl so quickly that you can't turn your head for a minute or she's into something that she shouldn't be into. She's a good little sleeper now as well (gone are the harrowing days when I would hold my breath to see if she would stay down!) - we put her down between 8:00 and 9:00 and she sleeps solidly until about 7:00 in the morning. When she wakes up, she can entertain herself for a bit of time with the stuffed animals and books in her bed. We often come in to get her in the morning to find her quietly "reading" her books. She says "Daddy," "DeeDee," (for Haden), "Up," (to indicate that she wants to climb the stairs) and her most favorite and prolific word "Dat," which indicates everything she wants us to label - most especially the food on our plates that she wants to eat.

Hannah loves on her stuffed animals and in fact we have a ritual that she kisses each of her stuffed animals goodnight each night. She still loves her milk, but she loves to drink water from our grown up glasses. Yes, it's messy and yes we get back wash - but it's pretty darn cute. She still doesn't like juice - but will eat just about anything served for the adults. We all watched in amazement as she scarfed down sauteed mushrooms then a few days later enjoyed some sauerkraut.

Daddy is working with her to learn her colors and Nana is trying to teach her to say spoon. I look forward to when her vocabulary will expand to include "Mommy" (oh the happy day that will be!) and have a decrease in the use of "Dat."

For more photos of our little miss - feel free to take a gander!

Hannah and dressing up