Babies Galore!

Well, it's been a while since I posted something Hannah-related, so I figured I'd better do so. :) Today we had 3 other moms and their babies over for a playdate. It was a lot of fun, and all of them were pre-walkers, so Hannah fit right in. It is amazing, though, how different each baby is--even if they are the exact same age! All of them were at different stages of crawling, and Hannah was the only one pushing her little push toy around--I'm bragging a bit, but that's okay, right? ;)
The moms were all so nice & friendly; it's just been really wonderful to get to know some other moms with babies about Hannah's age. Now you may be wondering how I met all these women & babies...or maybe you're not wondering, but I'm going to tell you anyway...These are the options of how I did this:

A) Online
B) Standing in the mall play area with a sign that said "Need Other Moms to Play With!"
C) Using Telepathy
D) Waiting around for other people I know to have babies

Well, the answer is...A! I went to Meetup.com (which is a great website, by the way) and filled out a profile. Then all you do is choose which groups you want to belong to. You kind of "apply" via a message on the website, and then the organizers contact you if you've been "chosen." It's a very thorough process....just kidding; my guess is as long as you have a picture of yourself holding a child, you're in. :) After a 30-day trial period in the group (and you can be in more than one) you pay a nominal annual fee (anywhere from $6-$10; it's the best money I'll ever spend!) and then you're a member. Then it's just a matter of choosing the events you want to attend or hosting your own. There is a range of activities, some of which have costs associated--but you don't have to go to any of those if you don't want to! It's very cool. I've managed to fill up the last couple weeks pretty nicely with an activity every other day, and it works out well for both Hannah & I!
Anyway, that's what I've been doing, post-vampires. :) (I'm done with the third book and waiting anxiously for the fourth--coming out Aug 2nd!)
Hope you are all well!

Vampires are SOOO cool!

Well, this title may seem really weird, but if you have read (or are currently reading) the "Twilight" series books, you will know what I mean. :) Afton recommended these literary "drugs" to me, and she even supplied them to me! I have finished the second of the three-part series, and I am "thirsting" for more. :) Haha. Okay, enough with the metaphors and on to a more detailed description of why I am seriously considering becoming a vampire. ;)
First of all, let me tell you that I am NOT a science-fiction-genre type of girl. I thrive on living & reading about reality, or about things that could possibly happen in real life. I watch reality TV (or at least The Office, which is close) and I read books that either take place in the current time period, or at least very good historical fiction. When Afton first told me about these books, she raved...but I was skeptical.
Upon reading the first page (the preface--not even the first actual page of the chapter) I was totally hooked! For the next 24 hours I read every chance I got--and with a 10-month-old, you'd think that would be impossible, but obviously, I found time. (Ask my husband, who, at various times would try to distract me with silly questions about dinner or something.) During the novel, I kept feeling compelled to ask myself "How could this EVER be possible?" or "Oh yeah, like that could really happen." But as soon as I stopped trying to explain or reason away every part of the story, I REALLY got into it, and all of a sudden I realized I believed what I was reading. At a couple points, my heart was actually pounding as if I was watching the scene unfold--I couldn't turn the pages fast enough!
Now, please don't get me wrong--I do not really think vampires are real, nor do I really want to be one (I mean, who wants to drink blood--yuck!) What I am saying is that this book is written very well and I would highly recommend it. Not only is the portrayal of a particular clan of vampires very interesting & fun to read, there is a beautiful unrequited romance that develops that literally brought tears to my eyes. I have to run--I need to start the last book...and wait for the movie to come out in December. :)

Sissy's Home!

Well, this is a test to see how fast Senia responds now that she is HOME! :) I am so glad that she is back from college for the summer, especially since she happens to attend a college that is about a million miles away (she should know--she and my brother drove home from MN Thursday & got home last night.) Anyway, I am thrilled that she ended up coming home, and I am excited for all the fun stuff we will be doing throughout the next few months (namely, hanging out at home, going for walks/swims/runs(?)/classes at the gym, going to the mall or Target just to browse, going to the beach, spending time outside with Hannah, watching Hannah splash around in a wading pool, talking, drinking coffee, watching The Office, watching The Cosby Show, watching movies, talking some more, laughing, having Senia overnight, etc. etc.) (Did I miss anything, Sen?

Anyway, it is good to have her back nearby. Beyond that, I'm just really thankful that we have the kind of close relationship where we WANT to hang out endlessly with each other. That is worth more to me than even SHE knows. :)

Ahhh...I know it's sappy, but I don't care. That's my prerogative.

The Smile

I love this little cheesy grin Hannah has been showing off lately. She scrunches up her nose, squints her eyes, and shows her two teeth by giving an open-mouth smile. It makes me laugh every time, and she knows everyone likes it! :) She's already a social butterfly. What I love more than the smile itself, though, is the reaction that she can get out of people--even the most surly & grumpy. In the last couple of days, in particular, I've found how fun it is to watch & see how Hannah tries so hard to interact with everyone, and if they don't look at her or don't notice her, she just sits there & smiles at them until they DO look! This is especially fun when her target is someone of a particularly grumpy nature and one who seems to not have anything to smile about. The other day, the clerk at the DOL was kind of a pouty woman, and it seemed like she wanted to be anywhere but there. As soon as Hannah flashed her grin, though, that woman melted & became a baby-talking, gushing queen! :) Then yesterday when Hannah and I were waiting in line at the Dr's office, the receptionist was a bit the same way, and once Hannah showed that little wrinkled nose & scrunched-up eyes, the woman couldn't look away! :) I think this phenomenon is truly a gift from God--it's a way to brighten someone's day and help each person remember that there are still innocent, young minds in this world that just want attention & love--and then they are perfectly content & happy! This thought has been on mind these last few days, and it really makes me happy to know that my little one can bring a little bit of sunshine to someone's day, just by smiling a silly little grin. :)

*On a more selfish side note, it also wins people over very quickly, which can be handy if you want an extra plate from Starbucks, a cup of water from any food vendor, or a blank check. ;)

New thoughts on being a mom

Okay, now that Hannah has just turned 10 months (yesterday), I thought I'd do some updates to my previous posting about "Things I've Learned about being a Mom" (or whatever that title was.)
For those of you that don't know, Hannah started crawling a couple weeks ago while her girlfriend, Kayla, was over. It was almost as if she'd known how all along, and then she finally decided "Well, if Kayla's going to do it, I can too!" Since then, we've discovered that out of necessity, we have to vacuum/sweep/mop MUCH more often because otherwise Hannah will be eating all sorts of edible & non-edible snacks throughout the day. Last night I remarked to Keith that I don't even want to think how dusty & gross our carpet & linoleum was at our apartment, since Hannah wasn't crawling there and, well, let's face it...weeks go by without doing it! :) Oh well, new house, new rules.
So that's my thought on the crawling business.
Also interesting is how the level of stress & busy-ness in regards to parenting is all relative. A busy day for me consists of a trip to the gym in the morning, an appointment in the mid-afternoon, and maybe having someone over for dinner or coffee. Then my friend Molly came over with her three boys, with whom she stays home 3 out of 5 days a week. After a rousing visit of puzzles, cookies, screaming kids, and a couple tantrums thrown in here & there, I asked her what her daily schedule is like. She kind of laughed and said "This." :) After they left, both Hannah & I seemed fairly relaxed--and I was thinking twice about having any other kids (just kidding...that kind of thought is always fleeting!) :)
Lastly, I noticed something yesterday that I've heard of moms doing, and never really thought about me doing it until then. In the late afternoon, after Hannah had taken a fairly short nap, I decided that we would go to the mall for a while to kill some time before dinner. Keith wasn't going to be home until later, as he had night class, and Hannah was a little cranky, so I figured it was either that or start to really resent not being in a lecture for 4 hours. ;) I felt better as soon as we got to the mall, not just because we were able to get out of the house, but also because there were people to observe, kids for Hannah to watch, and--this is the kicker--all sorts of adults that I might talk to! Seriously, the whole time we were there, I was making eye contact & conversation with anyone who happened to look my way (which was easy, since I had a baby with me, and everyone wants to talk to babies!) I spent about 15 minutes in a candy store discussing what to buy with the clerk, and I went over & interrupted an old neighbor simply to say "Hi." What is with me? Oh, that's right, it's the old "I've-been-talking-to-my-baby-daughter-for-the-last-few-hours-and-am-craving-some-adult-conversation." Like I said, I've heard of it happening, but it hadn't hit me until yesterday. What's even weirder is that I had had two other adult encounters earlier in the day, so it's almost as if I was on a roll and needed to continue that pattern. Hey, at least I've found an outlet--talking to anyone who glances our way, whether they want to or not!
Anyway, this is a really long post suddenly, so I think that's all I'm going to write. Let me know if any of you have had this experience! Ooopps, there's an adult at the door--gotta run!

Our Open House

We had a great time at our open house yesterday! It was so fun having people over to OUR PLACE and knowing that we had the room to have 30+ guests at once! :) It was really great to see a bunch of our dear friends & family, and fun to show off the house--especially the pantry; definitely the highlight of every guest's tour. ;) I felt like we had a nice spread of snacks & goodies, and everyone seemed to have a pretty good time. I was really excited that we received a number of plants--some things to add to our yard--yeah!
Incidentally, I have to say that as much as I have hated weeding in the past, I have a secret...it wasn't SO bad when I was doing it in our flower beds. :)
Anyway, we had a wonderful time yesterday and I also discovered (or maybe rediscovered) how much I enjoy having big groups over. Of course, it's always a relief when the party is over because then you can have the peace & quiet, but then I always start thinking a little bit about the next time to have a get together!
Well, that's all for now. Time to kick back & enjoy my morning coffee--along with a leftover goodie from yesterday! :)

How it feels to have a piano in my possesion again...

Taking Senia's advice, I decided to start this post with this sentence. I figured it was time to give my faithful readers (all 3 of them) a new post.

First of all, I absolutely love having the piano here. I've found myself itching to play it, which is ironic since most of the years I was taking lessons, I had to force myself (or my mom had to force me) to play--or at least to practice. I think I've always enjoyed playing the "fun stuff" (performance repertoire, classical, Broadway, etc) but it was hard to tackle the technique practice & the theory. Again, now I'd sort of like to audit a theory class because I've lost some of the ability to immediately notice chord progression, key signatures, etc. (This probably sounds like mumbo-jumbo to some of you, but that's okay.)

Anyway, the piano arrived just a couple weeks ago, when Keith's parents came for Easter. It was pretty momentous, especially since Patrick drove the piano here in his small Mazda truck all the way from Washtucna. I was a little worried that the piano might end up here in pieces, but he had tied it down & it was safe the whole way. :) When they got it to the house, Keith & the guys had decided to move it in through the back door (across the yard & deck, since there were only 2 stairs), but once Patrick got stuck in the mud (it was of course raining), they realized they had to take it up our front steps (about 5 of them.) Fortunately for them, I was in Hannah's room this whole time, otherwise I probably would've been out there trying to direct something I knew nothing about. :) This piano is very heavy (I've heard) and it took 4 guys to heft it up. (It probably could've used 6 guys, but we were short on people.) Our kind neighbor, who we've already enlisted a couple of times, helped the guys. All I heard from upstairs was a lot of loud bangs & bumps, some laughter & a few grunts & groans. When I got downstairs, the piano was there and even in a playable key! :) Now that it's been sitting there for a few weeks, it still sounds pretty good. Although I don't have perfect pitch or anything, I feel like it's actually in pretty good tune for being moved 200 miles & lifted up stairs.

Anyway, I'm thrilled to have it. At some point I'd like to have it finished, as it's pretty scratched up (what do you get for having it in a household of 6+ kids for 25 years?), but for now, I'm really enjoying just playing it & remembering why I was so intent on starting lessons 20 years ago--whoa, that's a long time! :)