Fall Fun ~ A Trip to the Pumpkin Patch!

Sunday afternoon Hannah and I bundled up and met our friends Liz and Ava at a local pumpkin patch for some adventures on the farm!

The first stop was the barn where there were many animals to see, pat and feed.  Hannah was in her glory!  She’s braver than her mother when it comes to animals.  I’m happy to stay behind the camera and capture the memories from there.

This cow sleeping with the chickens on his back just made me giggle.

Hannah enjoyed talking with and imitating the little chickens and she even found some food to feed them.

Every time I look at her Hannah seems to be growing up and maturing.  Slow down sweetie…slow down!  (And yes, we’re at the ‘I don’t want to look at the camera’ stage and if she does then coaxing out a smile is near impossible!)

You want us to sit on these pumpkins and pose for a picture?  Yah, that’s not going to happen!

Future farmer?

I think she was a little confused between this week on a tractor and our trip to Wonderland a couple of weeks ago.

Catching a wagon ride out to the pumpkin patch.

Mom, I found the perfect pumpkin but it’s almost as big as I am!

Little Miss Casual with her pumpkin

Posing with the pumpkins until…

oops!  Humpty Dumpty!

The girls picked some corn up from the floor of the corn maze.  Hannah wasn’t a huge fan of the maze but sure enjoyed pretending to eat the corn she found.

Annual pumpkin pic 2011

2010

Thanks for a great visit to the pumpkin patch Liz and Ava!

A Little Snip Here and A Little Cut There!

You would think Hannah won the lottery tonight!  For the first time ever she was given some little scissors to use and oh, the squeals of glee!  Before they were in her hand we had a talk about what she is able to cut: )Paper and only paper mommy says is ‘okay.’   Hopefully she remembers that for a very long time but I’m sure she’ll accomplish that right of passage someday and mommy will find little wisps (I hope it’s only wisps!) of beautiful black hair somewhere other than on her head.  Oye!  Already dreading that!

But for tonight, it was construction paper at the ready and an independent little girl with her own scissor style.  Picking my battles, it was easier just to let her have fun tonight with her own creative way of holding the scissors.

Hannah enjoyed this activity for well over half an hour and just kept snipping away and talking about how proud everyone would be of her!  She can’t wait to show her new skill to all her loved ones so if you see us within the next week or so, be prepared to be wowed with some awesome scissor skills!

This pic makes me giggle as does the video after it.  As I watched her cut away I noticed that most times her little tongue went in and out with each little snip.  So cute!

Cutting is exhausting work!

We had a few minutes after the paper play before it was time for bed so Hannah pulled out her Duplo blocks.  What fun to build a tower with her!  We haven’t played with these for a month or so and I was totally impressed with how her skills had changed and improved even in that very short amount of time!

Way to go Hannah XiaoFen!!  Awesome tower!

Sorting, Colours and Using Chopsticks!

I found another great activity for Hannah to try and she had a lot of fun with it.  I switched it up a bit and made it using small tin pie plates with construction paper discs in them, pompoms and chopsticks. 
I just let Hannah go as I was interested to see how she chose to do this.  It was cute to see how she chose one of each pompom colour and put them in their corresponding containers. 
Her colours are coming along much better in the past month or so and she knows most of them although often calls pink, purple.  She’s also at the point where she will tease and when asked the colour of something she purposefully says a different colour until I say a wrong colour too and then she quickly corrects me.  Oh yes, she is a clever bunny!
Two handed chopstick style. 
Picking up pompoms takes great concentration
I love how she has her little feet tucked under her
A video of my little lamb working on her project.  Before I went over she was chattering away to herself which she does often and it was oh so cute!  You hear a little bit of it at the beginning.  Heh…she is her mother’s daughter!

While she continued playing I checked some emails.  When I peeked back around the couch I had to laugh.  I think her neat little bowls of pompoms had decided to throw themselves all over the floor!
Tidying up is something that still needs lots of encouragement and mommy’s participation but we’re getting there.  Today when it was time we made quick work of cleaning up the pompoms together.
Hannah enjoyed this sorting game for over 20 minutes so I know it’s an activity we’ll be doing again.
On another note, we’re trying an experiment and it’s going pretty well.  Hannah has learned the difference between ‘stop’ and ‘go’ and with all the craft and activity supplies we’re accumulating I made signs for this bin and began to store things in there.
The green ‘go’ drawers mean she’s welcome to take out the things in there and play with them at anytime she wants.  In those drawers are crayons, paper, pompoms, pipe cleaners, stickers and we’ll be adding more things as time goes on.  The red ‘stop’ drawers contain things she can play with but must ask Mommy first, mainly so that I know she’s got those items out.  In the ‘stop’ drawers are play-doh, glue, markers and eventually will be scissors but right now those stay up where I can give them to her and watch carefully err a piggy be removed!
I have been finding lots of great activities for Hannah on Pinterest and will be sharing more of those here.  It’s wonderful how much fun this website has added to the time we share together.

My Sweet Little Girl…

….is beautiful inside and out and she continues to take my breath away!

As Hannah grows and her talking is flourishing it is wonderful to see her personality shine forth!  She has the sweetest responses to things and yet at the same time she knows how to hold her own too. 

Monday we were at my parent’s place and my brother jumped out at Hannah and said ‘Boo!’  She looked up at him from her little 37” to his almost 6’ and said with her fisted hands planted firmly on her hips, ‘Hey!  Dat not nice!  Say sowwy me!’ Heh…and he did!  Way to go Hannah!

Here are just a few pics from a recent Sunday afternoon.  We’ve had a glorious fall and are enjoying our extended time outdoors.

Playing with water. A favourite pastime.

Bubbles

Making play-doh with Mommy

Oh Hannah!  I love you so much and treasure all the moments we share together!

Love, Mommy  xoxo

A Lesson in Obedience and A Lesson in Gravity

Blog posts are sadly lacking.  Sorry!  I’m working on a project in the evenings that has to be done by Monday so after that I’ll get back into the swing of things.  I have lots of pictures and stories to share with you once time permits.  Until then, here’s a little post about a moment in our day yesterday.  I love that this blog allows me to capture the tiny moments that otherwise would get lost in time. 

When it’s time for Hannah to leave daycare we’ve been working on her listening and being ready to go.  Ange and I normally chat at the door for a few minutes and during that time I remind Hannah that it will soon be time to leave.  Unfortunately when this time comes Hannah thinks it hilarious to run away and wants me to run and chase her.  I just can’t do this and I also want her to know that it’s important that she obey me when I ask something of her.  (This is a common lesson we’re working on right now.) 

Anyway, Tuesday she was distraught when I took her little car snack away when she didn’t come when it was time to leave.  I called her - she looked at me and then proceeded to run the other way.  I reminded her that it was time to go and she needed to obey.  She called out ‘no’ and kept running around.  I explained that she would not get her car snack if she didn’t come immediately and she just looked at me and then ran the other way.  Ugh!  Follow through is key so I told her she’d lost her car snack for that night.  That’s when the switch flipped and she came running up saying ‘Sowwy Mommy!  Sowwy!’ and asking for her snack.  I explained that she’d lost her snack for that night and that she could try again the following night. 

Oh the tears!   Big huge alligator tears and many  cries of ‘I’m sowwy mommy’.  We made our way to the car and her snack remained closed on the seat.  She was not impressed to say the least!

Fast forward to the next day.  When I entered the house Hannah came running up and said, ‘I listen mommy!  I’ll put my shoes on.’  Oh yes!  As hard as it was to discipline her and take her snack away, consistency and follow through are key!  We left quickly and Hannah enjoyed her little car snack on the way home.

When we arrived home she had 2 little jelly beans in her hands.  I had begun to unpack my lunch bah when she came running up to me and said that one of her jelly beans was missing.  I asked if she knew where it was and she said, ‘Outside Mommy.’

Outside?  I’d just locked the screen door moments before so how could it possibly be outside?

I asked her to show me and sure enough, outside it was!  I quickly realized what had happened and it made me giggle at my wonderful girl and her adventurous curiosity.

I grabbed the camera and asked her to point to where her jelly bean was.  (Yes, Hannah is tall!!  Many have commented on this and I hear it in person all the time through.  At 2 1/2 years old she is now 37 1/4” tall!)

I looked outside and sure enough, there it was!

Even though I’d quickly figured it out it was cute when Hannah showed me how the jelly bean had made it’s way onto the front porch.

The little culprit was rescued and within moments she was enjoying it….after posing for one last picture.

To most this picture looks like a little girl holding a jelly bean.

To me when I look at this picture I see a little girl who is absolutely amazing!  A little girl who took to heart the lesson we’d talked about Tuesday and applied it Wednesday with a huge smile on her face and a sense of accomplishment.  Oh how I praised her when she came to me, even before I called her!  And tonight?  Tonight Grandma picked her up at daycare and she ran to her too.  Oh yes Hannah, you are amazing and we love you!

And…thank you for obeying!