I'm Awake!!

Jasper's seven weeks old and he is really starting to wake up now. I wish the rest of us in this household were as bright eyed! He's really responding to our faces and smiles back at us when we make goofy faces at him, which Pearl gets quite a kick out of.

We're tired....

...But still having fun!

 

A Perfect Mother's Day

                                          

 We couldn't have had more beautiful weather in Wisconsin for Mother's Day weekend. We took full advantage, sharing the day with close friends at Harrington State Park on the beaches of Lake Michigan. We spent a good part of the day enjoying excellent burgers on the grill, playing in the sand with the kids, and just relaxing and soaking up the sun.

Jasper's clearly enjoying his chill time

 

 

Pearl and friends hard at work digging holes. They would have happily done this for a week had we let them.

    

Hello Again!

We've been occupied with a toddler, but it's time to dust off the keyboard and fire up the blog to share with you all our newest addition to our family . . . .

Introducing Jasper George Hanna.
Born April 13, 2012 at 8:12am weighing 8lbs 2oz and 20" in length.
We are all doing fantastic! We made it home yesterday and enjoying getting to know our new family member. Here are a few photos over the last couple of days.

few minutes after . . .

On his way to his first wash . . .

Jasper prefers to sing opera while being bathed.

Pearl's first introduction to her new brother.

Pearl approved. First words "I love my new baby brother"

Amy getting Jasper ready for his trip home.

Getting ready for his first car ride.

Check out the paws.

Pearl is giving Jasper the low down on the house rules.

"Shhh daddy, Jasper's sleeping"

Big sister love.

"no comment"

A special gift from Pearl's best bud.

Already goofing off together.

Time for rest. Its been an amazingly eventful weekend. We'll be back soon.

Ken, Amy, Pearl and Jasper.

She's a walker!

We never thought the day would come, but here it is, Pearl's sixteenth month day and she is officially walking all on her own! Over the course of the last week she went from hesitantly taking a few steps back and forth between mom and dad (last monday), and now today, she can confidently sprint across the room with ease (well, maybe sprint isn't the most appropriate word to describe it. I think toddle is what I meant to say). We have to dramatically re-evaluate our world now that she can move around with such speed and get into exponentially more trouble than ever before...



Here are a few clips that illustrate the evolution of Pearl.




She's been crawling at a good clip for about 6 months now, but it has been only recently that she has grown frustrated with this mode of transportation, wishing she could join the rest of us bipeds.



Since about mid-November Pearl has enjoyed walking along furniture and scooting around the house with the help of her little wagon, but it doesn't take corners too well and she tends to get hung up on furniture.



And here she goes! taking her first few steps without any support (besides the encouragement from her kitty)



Making it look so easy, here Pearl demonstrates her new skill of standing up on her own and going directly into walking mode. She's pretty proud of herself.

Back Again

This time we don't have the holidays as an excuse for not being better bloggers, but as Pearl has now officially entered toddlerhood, we find it hard to do much else besides stand in the wake of our little Tasmanian devil, in awe of her capacity to seek and destroy. And she isn't even walking yet!

Pearl has the unique ability to sculpt her hair into amazing formations in her sleep. Here's a recent example of one of her creations, a nod to Flock of Seagulls.

She loves to bang on the piano keys, but won't let go of her favorite toy (her spoon) for anything.

As you can see, these two are becoming fast friends. Pearl loves to give the cat big hugs and kisses. The cat would be long gone if he could only escape from the weight of Pearl's head.
There's a video of her giving hugs to her buddy at the end of the blog post.


Ken's parents came out for a visit Valentine's week and Pearl enjoyed spending time with her Papa and Nana. She's looking a little dazed in this photo because she was under the weather for most of the visit. She had an ear infection and was pretty sleepy but very cuddly the whole time they were here. She still enjoyed the visit so much and LOVED sitting down with Nana and Papa to read stories.

She's obsessed with books right now and has developed quite a vocabulary. Her favorite things to say are usually animal-based. Kitty, puppy, moo (when she sees a cow), quack quack (when she sees a duck), birdie when she sees birds outside, neigh for horse, baaa for lamb, and 'cockadoodoo' for rooster.


We've had a lot of snowy weather the last few months, but enjoy getting out for some snowshoes or walks in it. Pearl is warming up to the idea of snow at this point. Especially when it's from the comfort of her backpack carrier.

Ken plopped her down in a big fresh snow bank.

She enjoyed this for about a minute.

Then the novelty wore off.

Goodbye 2010....

With the holidays, family visits, and vacations filling our recent weeks, I realize that it's been almost two months since I last logged on. I thought I'd squeak one last post onto the blog before 2010 was behind us. Here are quite a few photos from our recent adventures. We hope you had a wonderful Holiday and are ringing in the New Year right!

It's my Birthday!!

In early November, my sisters Megan and Karri came to visit to help celebrate Pearl's birthday. It was so nice for Pearl to get plenty of play time with her aunties. We went for a chilly walk around a nearby lake, drank plenty of hot chocolate, and watched Pearl open some first birthday presents.

For Thanksgiving, my parents came to visit again this year. Pearl learned how to say "Nonie and Pop-Pops" very quickly, and Nonie taught her "Patty Cakes", which is now Pearl's favorite Nursery Rhyme to sing, taking the top spot over "Row Row Row your Boat," which she used to ask for by name. Now she can do the motions of Patty Cakes with her hands, which makes her very proud. We had fun making a thanksgiving feast, and Pearl LOVED the turkey. She loved it so much, she rubbed turkey juice all over her head. As you can see in the photo below, she's just used it as hair gel.


Pearl loved to walk around the house with Nonie and Pop-pops. Still not walking on her own, but she just likes the help.

Hoping to get a chance to play outside in the fresh snow....

After Thanksgiving dinner, we trekked out to the Christmas Tree farm to cut a tree. Took us a while to find the perfect one....Nonie's prepared with saw in hand...

Found it! (Pop-pops did the actual cutting when it came time to take care of business)

Pearl was not quite so amused with the whole endeavor, but once we lugged the tree to the car, out of the cold, and got it into the house, it was a whole other story...

She loved putting ornaments on the tree (as did Pop-pops, by the look of the above photo). Now Pearl points to her favorite ornaments and has given many of them names. Her favorite ornaments are miniature nutcrackers. She likes to stick her fingers in their mouths or try to feed them bits of food. (I think we'll be keeping the tree up through March if it's still alive by then.)


No, this is not Ken, Pearl and I taking a swim in Lake Michigan in December.....We snuck away for a week to Aruba in mid December, beating the holiday rush and missing out on a huge Wisconsin snow storm (good timing!). On our first day there, the front page of the Aruban newspaper had a photo of the snowstorm that hit the midwest. It felt kind of good....

Pearl was a little under the weather while we were in Aruba. I think she may have gotten a stomach bug. She didn't eat much and the above photo generally describes her mood for much of the trip: sad and sleepy, with a far off gaze. But we still found ways to have fun despite the projectile vomiting and her spirits picked up toward the end of the week.

Ken building a massive sand castle for Pearl to enjoy once she was done with her snooze. (I personally think he built it for himself though....)

Last night in Aruba, we ate at this nice little restaurant that had tables right on the water's edge on the beach. You could dip your toes in the water while you sipped on a cocktail. Very nice....

Back home on Christmas morning, Pearl was very surprised by the arrival of Santa Claus and all of the fun gifts he left for her.

Here she is doing the happy dance in front of the tree.

And getting some very good practice opening gifts...

One of her favorites was this wheelie lady bug that her Auntie and cousins from Canada got her. she loves scooting around the house on it. We hope you all made many fun memories over the holidays too!