Reflections on 18 Months

Sam and I have just completed our first 24 hours alone since having Mia thanks to Lisa and David who have offered to take Mia over night so Sam and I could celebrate our 6th anniversary before we become a family of 4. We had a great time and really enjoyed some time by ourselves but realized how empty the house is without Mia in it. We complain about never being able to sleep past 7am (note I was making coffee at 7:20 this morning child free) and the constant responsibility when you don’t have family in the state to help out but we wouldn’t change a thing. We can only imagine what it is like to be empty nesters after 20 years of having children in the house and suddenly they are all in college. The quiet is a little strange.

I admit to being behind on blogging. We have had a lot going on here in August and as with every year our busyness will extend into September. This September is our 6th wedding anniversary, Sam turns 33, and I turn 30 and we have several house guests coming through to help celebrate. Mia is starting “preschool” this week on Wednesdays and Fridays 9:30-1pm. I admit to looking forward to the time to actually get some things done around here without interruption but I am also looking forward to her becoming more independent of mom and dad and realizing that she can have great fun and learning experiences away from home with other adults. As I picked her up from her orientation last week (1 hour to meet her teachers and classmates), she looked at me all teary and sucking her thumb then turned to a bulletin board with apples on it, pointed and said “look at this!.” Our little girl is growing up and talking up a storm with mini sentences these days.

To catch you up on the month of August, we found out that we are having a baby boy who is thankfully very healthy. It took us a few days to adjust to the fact that we would not be dealing with dresses and hair bows any longer but we are very excited to welcome baby boy Cooper to our family. We have already started working on his room and Mia is currently deciding if she wants to move in who knew she would love his décor so much! We had a quick visit from both Melissa and Fran which was wonderful.

Mid-August we took what has become our annual trip to Ocean Creek in Myrtle Beach, SC. Auntie Erin came along and we had a wonderful time. The weather was perfect and Mia LOVED the beach and the ocean. When it comes to water she has no fear. She went right into the waves, followed hermit crabs, and just plain loved getting her and anyone else in her path sandy.

Mia took her first carousel ride. She loved it for the first 5 revolutions then didn't understand where daddy was going everytime we passed him and got a little upset.

Reunited with Daddy after the carousel.

We also took a trip to the aquarium which she LOVED.

But by the time we left I am not sure if the fish were her favorite or the moving side walk that took you through a tunnel tank. Mia thought this was the most interesting invention ever. She would get on and look down, turn backwards and look down, get off and watch daddy float away run down the side to catch up with him and jump back on. It was really cute to watch.

In her own private pool which daddy dug for her:

We also had a visit from Marion, Mike, and Sammie David who were on vacation at Lake Lure. Mia loved having Sammie around to play with her and slept really hard that night!

Cooper at 21 weeks!

For those who haven’t seen Mia in a while, she is a full blown 18 month old now. She is a mini-adult running around with serious opinions and words to match those opinions. It’s really fun but at the same time we know for real that we are leaving her babyhood behind and looking at a little toddler.

Mia on the morning of her preschool orientation.

We have over 200 new pictures to download. Hopefully Sam will get those up online by the end of the weekend. Last weekend we had the upstairs painted and we are putting together Mia's big girl room, Cooper's new bedroom, and moving the guest room so we have been a little busy!

Have a good holiday weekend!

Such Much Excitement

Sam came down from putting Mia to bed last night and said "I"m in love with another woman!"...and I said "is she younger ;-) ?". I think that best describes the last couple of weeks for Sam and me. Mia is changing so quickly and in so many ways. She is talking up a storm...sometimes with real words other times just babbling like crazy to you. She is climbing and doing so many things by herself. Not to mention that she is about the most affectionate little girl that most people have seen her age. It's just so much fun....and I admit we are in love!

Mia loves summer because it means being outside most of the time regardless of the temperature. A few of Mia's favorite past times are:

Her lobster sandbox with pink sand.



The sprinkler in the backyard....and her favorite activity is drinking from the sprinkler. And I don't have a picture of this but along the same line, Mia loves the spray ground at the YMCA pool. I think if she had her way, we would go every day.

This week between virus plagues that hit our household, Mia went to Lazy 5 Ranch with her friends Nick, Madelyn, Corbin, and Henry. They had a great time on the horse drawn wagon which brought them through zebra, ostrich, water buffalo, rhino, giraffes, and several other kinds of animals. They would come right up to the wagon (with the exception of the rhino) and you could feed them. Pretty cool. I have to admit my favorite part was the giraffe. Such gentle animals and so beautiful up close. It really was a unique experience and I'm sure we will go many times in the future.

Mia and her friends. From left to right, Corbin, Mia, Henry, Nick, and Madelyn below.

This is what the bottom of our fridge looks like. Mia loves to stand there and look at all of her favorite people and sometimes take them off the fridge and give them hugs and kisses. Hands down though, my favorite is when she tries to feed Auntie Lisa bread. Lisa- she obviously thinks you need more carbs in your diet!

This week was a sad week for us because my good friend Maggie and her daughter Gabby moved to St. Louis. Maggie- you will be dearly missed but I am so happy to have met you....thank you Lloyd! We wish you the best of luck in St. Louis.

Gabby and Mia sharing a goodbye snack at the park:

Lastly, it is with great excitement that we announce that the Hanna family will be a family of 4 in early January. I am expecting again and am 14 weeks. Below is my first belly shot. Mia is very excited to be a big sister and we are sure she will be a great one! Have a good week everyone.

Mia is 15 Months!

Where did the last 15 months go???? We have been busy the last few weeks. We took a car trip to DC to visit Mia's great, great, grandmother and our friends Jim and Theresa. Mia did great in the car thanks to her brand new DVD player. We took the opportunity to visit the National Zoo while we were there. Mia thought it was great to see all of the animals in her books close up.

Mia and great great grandmother had matching rides and enjoyed the first row viewing benefits that came with it. For those who don't know my 98 year old great grandmother well....this took alot of convincing by my mother to get her to take the wheel chair!

Mia had a ball playing at great great grandma's and took her first shot at playing the piano. If you haven't been to visit the new videos definitely check out the one of Mia playing the piano. You would expect a toddler to bash the keys....not Mia...it's like she knew how to play. There might be piano lessons in our future.

Two weeks ago Mia ended up with an ear infection in both ears while popping through 2 of her premolars....the poor thing. But by the end of the week she was feeling better and had 11 teeth!

Mia's been really into helping around the house. She is a very good duster, in fact I am thinking about getting her to help with the baseboards this week since those are more her height. :-) In all seriousness, she loves doing whatever we do...cleaning the floor...sweeping. It's pretty neat to watch.

Last weekend, Mia helped daddy wash the car. She LOVED this activity. Thankfully the water ban is over so we can do this and use the sprinkler more often.

This week we went to visit Dr. Richter for her 15 month appointment. She checked out great and weighed in at 19 pounds 6 ounces and 31 inches tall. So she still is a tall and slender girl. Maybe some day she will be able to turn around in the car seat (20 pound limit).

My favorite update from this week is that she is now saying "mommy" and "daddy" instead of mama and dada. It is sooooo cute to hear. :-)

Catch up

I have been a delinquent poster....sorry. Mia is keeping me super busy. To catch you up....we spent Mother's day weekend at Ocean Creek (Myrtle Beach). Mia LOVED the ocean and playing in the sand. It made us really look forward to our trip this summer seeing how much fun she had. We literally spent all of her awake time at the beach.

Some people would describe Mia as timid sometimes but she continues to show us that she is mommy and daddies little dare devil. All I can say is daddy better learn to swim because Mia would have gone straight into the waves if we had let her.

Over the last couple of weeks, Mia has spent tons of time playing with her friends. Last week she showed off her new water table and showed Mr. Nick how much fun it is to splash in the water instead of just play with toys in the water...sorry Holly.

Most of my month has looked like this....

An insistent "ahhh" accompanies this gesture which translates to "mommy will you read me this book?". Mia LOVES books right now. Most kids at this age love to flip through books but Mia wants every book in the house read to her....kids books and adult books. I am hoping all of this reading will eventually lead to an explosion of new words.

Mia loves to "help" around the house these days. The other day she "helped" me dust the baseboards. Yesterday, she "helped" daddy realign her swing....yup she climbed up there herself.


For those who know Sam well, you know he has a passion for geography. Mia has recently taken to both the globe and the atlas....we all know that Sam is thrilled by this and it is only the beginning.

Today we bought a watermelon. Mia quickly learned that this interesting ball was a little heavier than other balls she has seen. She tried to poke it with her fork and that didn't work either. Eventually, she realized that rolling it along the kitchen floor was probably her best bet! We'll see what she thinks of the actual watermelon once she gets up from her nap.

Happy Memorial Day weekend everyone!

Our baby became a toddler today

So Mia has been walking for exactly one week. All of last week she was practicing walking but preferring the speed of crawling not to mention that she could not get up after falling without the assistance of something to hold on to. Today, she woke up from her 9am nap refreshed and ready to take on the world. The first thing she did was get up on her own and then practice that over and over again. She didn't stop moving the rest of the day. She was like "I have places to walk, get out of my way!". All of the sudden our little baby became a toddler which is both a happy and sad thing. So go Mia, the world is waiting for you to conquer it!

This afternoon, Mia tried out her new water table for the first time given that it was so hot. She loved it and note to self...next time take the clothes off and wear just the diaper.

Thanks to our neighborhood yardsale on Saturday, Mia has her very own rocking chair which she is in love with. She is also in love with standing on it.....not good...so we'll have to work on that.

In other notes, this week we drove to Raleigh to visit Fran, AJ, and new baby Zaira. Thanks to Kristin (actually Kristin's mom), we had a portable dvd player in the car for the first time and it was a godsend. I would never do a long trip without one again because it made a usually irritable Mia very happy. We had a great visit and Mia really enjoyed baby Zaira's little feet. It was very cute. We had the added bonus of seeing Melissa and Erin who were visiting from Boston so that was great too.

For those who don't know this is the week of my families annual St. John vacation...which I am obviously not on so I must go so we can have a tasty beverage on our porch in the 90 degree heat and pretend we hear the ocean.

Yes, this is actually St. John....ahhhhhh.

We Are Walking!!!!!!!

It's been a big weekend in the Hanna household. Yesterday, we went to the Kids In Motion festival where there were many fun things to do but Mia's favorite activity was chasing the Chick Fil A cow around...but she got a free coupon for a kids meal because of it (yes, I am training her early).

Then we watched our friend Charlie take a pony ride.

After lunch at Chick Fil-A and a good nap, we talked grandma and grandpa on the webcam then headed out to the drive way to drive our car. This is Mia's favorite thing to do outside.

This morning daddy hung Mia's birthday swing.

And Mia got her first ride...

This afternoon....after pushing our car, Mia took her first large quantity of steps in the drive way. We think the downward incline of the drivewary helped with the momentum ;-) ! And she has been practicing ever since. Hope you all had a good weekend

Happy Easter!

I didn't realize I was so behind on the blog....sorry. Here's a quick synopsis of the last couple of weeks.

We started using everything for it's actual use....phones, remotes, brushes...

Uncle Meelad came to visit Mia for her birthday and we had lots of fun until Mia got that horrid stomach virus going around and we all learned what "throw up" actually looks like....thanks Meelad you were a trooper!

We had our kitchen cabinets painted which was very entertaining to Mia.

Mia went to her first parade (St. Patty's day) and came home and slept for 2.5 hours.....so we think she liked it!

Mia and mommy went to visit grandma and grandpa for a week. Mia started to take 5-6 steps at a time alone....but we still are not officially "walking".

Mia's vocabulary is quickly expanding....she now says "good girl", "cracker", "door", "ball", "ta da", of course "bubble", and then her version of "dog" and a few other things that are evolving.

Yesterday, Auntie Lisa and Uncle David were married. When David finished his vows Mia said "ta da"! It was very cute. Pictures to come of that later on.

I think that brings you up to date. Happy Easter and don't eat too much ham!

Love,
The Hannas