The scene: Lunchtime. We are discussing the fact that she got up really early.
Mom: Hannah got up really early today. I think she needs to get a nap today.
Hannah: Why do I need a nap?
Dad: Because you got up really early and will end up being really tired later.
Hannah: Aww come on man!
Mom and Dad both try very hard not to laugh.
Dad, Hannah and I all agree that this has been the best Christmas ever. No question, no contest. 
Hannah has been excited for Christmas for awhile now, putting magnetic ornaments on her Countdown to Christmas calendar, reading Christmas stories and dancing to Jingle Bells every night since the first of the month. However, the fun really started yesterday, when we all went to Navy Pier to Winter Wonderfest. We went a couple of years ago, when Hannah was two, but couldn’t go last year because the weather on Christmas Eve was bad. This year, it was just rainy, so we drove downtown to check it out. This time was SO FUN because Hannah is big enough now to ride most of the rides, and she loved that! I took her on her first Ferris wheel ride, which she loved, and she rode lots of other rides, too. We all loved looking at the Christmas trees and the lights, and spending time together. There were so many fun things to do there, and it was just perfect for little kids. Hannah insisted on wearing her Santa hat the whole time.
After we came home, we made cookies for Santa, and then some friends came over to drop off some gifts, so we got to visit with them for awhile. They have a son Hannah’s age, so the two of them were having a great time. They’re both super-smart, so it was fun listening to them talk to each other. After they left, we had our traditional “snack dinner”; every year on Christmas Eve, we eat snacks for dinner and play games. This year, Hannah was big enough to play the games, too, so we played Kids of Carcassonne and Horton Hears A Who while we ate chips and guacamole, stuffed celery, pizza, and cheese and crackers.
Hannah finally got to bed after 9:00 (it had been a very big, very exciting day). Sometime around 10:00, when I was wrapping her last gift (we got behind on wrapping this year, and didn’t get any of hers done ahead of time), we heard her talking in her room. Dad went to check on her and was gone for quite awhile. When he came back, he was chuckling…he said he’d gone into her room to find her up and out of bed, with her Santa hat on. She said, “Is it morning yet? I looked outside, and it looks pretty bright out there to me!” We both thought it was the sweetest thing – the perfect story about a little girl completely beside herself with Christmas excitement. Dad did convince her to go back to bed, but it’s a good thing Santa didn’t come early last night or he might have run into Hannah!
This morning, I woke up to the sounds of a little girl padding down the hallway…at 6:18 a.m. Who knows how long she was up before that – I imagine she waited about as long as she could possibly stand! At any rate, she was just quietly standing in the doorway to our bedroom when I whispered, “Merry Christmas, Hannah,” and then she RAN into the room giggling and shouting, “Merry Christmas!” She was wearing her Santa hat and was VERY excited. She managed to wait for me and Dad to get up, which took awhile because it was really early. She was thrilled to see Santa had eaten all the cookies and drunk all the milk she’d left for him, and that the reindeer had eaten all their carrots.
Hannah must have been very good this year, because Santa brought her lots of fun gifts. I think her favorite gift from Santa is her “bouncy ball,” which is one of those plastic balls with a handle that little kids can sit on and bounce. She bounced all over the house on that today. A close second would probably be her dinosaur Legos, followed by the big dinosaur play mat with lots of plastic dinosaurs and pterosaurs.
I think her favorite thing from us was her “tying shoes”…she’s been really wanting shoes with shoelaces, so we got her some and told her she could practice learning to tie them. She put them right on and wore them around with her pajamas all day. She was just so excited about everything, and couldn’t figure out what to do first or do anything for very long. It was wonderful to watch…it just made us think that this is one of the best things that Christmas is about: a little girl, happy and excited and so joyful! Hannah even gave us a present that she’d made and wrapped at school, and she even kept it a secret! It’s a photo of her with “Happy Holidays, Love, Hannah” written around it, and she drew a picture on the back of the three of us and the cats. It is awesome.
We spent the day in our pajamas playing with Christmas presents…Hannah had gotten lots of fun toys, of course, plus Dad got a Nintendo DS and I got new games for the Wii, so there were plenty of things for us to do. It was just so much fun watching Hannah…she was excited about every single thing that happened today!
Such an awesome day…and now, I’m looking forward to getting some sleep. It was an EARLY day, too!
Mom
Tonight Hannah had some ice water to drink while she was watching Frosty the Snowman. (No idea why she wanted ice water when it’s freezing cold outside, but whatever.) When she finished the water, I asked her to go put her cup by the sink, and she said, “But I don’t want it [the ice] to melt!” I told her that was okay, and that she could go put it in the refrigerator so it wouldn’t melt as fast.
Well, hours later, after tucking Hannah into bed, I went to get a drink from the fridge, and what did I find? A little, half-melted ice cube, sitting on the top shelf! She had put her cup by the sink, just like I asked, and put the ice cube in the fridge. I guess I should have been more specific that “it” was the CUP with the ice cube in it.
I thought it was really adorable. I put the ice cube back in the freezer…
Mom
Sorry for the lack of updates in pictures and stories lately. It’s been more than a bit chaotic around here lately.
So anyway, I did have a funny story that happened when I was tucking Hannah in tonight that I wanted to share.
The scene: Hannah has been pretending to be a pteranodon from the show Dinosaur Train for like the last week. Tonight I go into Hannah’s room to tuck her in after mom has read a story and given hugs and kisses. Hannah is sitting on her bed with 2 of her stuffed dinosaurs.
Dad: Hey! There are 3 dinosaurs on the bed!
Hannah: No, dad. I’m a pteranodon. Pteranodons are NOT dinosaurs.
Dad, feeling a little sheepish: Oh yeah. I guess you’re right.
Hannah: They’re pterosaurs.
Dad: You’re absolutely right. I guess there are only 2 dinosaurs on the bed.
The scene: Driving home from dinner
Hannah: I have an animal store, Mommy. You need to buy some animals.
Mom: Okay. Can I have a fluffy polar bear?
Hannah: Nope, we’re all out. Sorry.
Mom: Oh. Well what do you have then?
Hannah: I have fish, swimming dinos, and scary velociraptors.
Mom: Can I have a scary velociraptor?
Hannah: Sorry, I’m all out.
Mom: You’re all out?! But you just said you had some!
Hannah: I only had one and someone took it already!
A couple evenings ago, we were in the car on our way out to dinner. Hannah randomly said, “Mackinac Island!” from the backseat, which was odd because we haven’t talked about Mackinac Island in a long time. Dad said, “Where did that come from?” And Hannah said, “It came from my mouth!”
And then we all laughed.
Mom
Hannah was very excited this morning because she was wearing new socks with Hello Kitty and stripes on them. She told me she wanted to show all her friends when she got to school. Well, when I opened the door to the classroom, Hannah made this big entrance and flopped on the floor to take her shoes off! I said, “Oh, Hannah’s very excited to show everyone her new socks.”
So she kicked out her feet and showed the two friends who were there her socks, and she said, “See? These are my socks! They have stripes on them!”
And the following discussion ensued:
Teacher: Is that Hello Kitty on your socks, too?
Hannah: YEAH!
Little Girl 1: Hey! I have a Hello Kitty T-shirt!
Little Girl 2: I have a Hello Kitty T-shirt, too!
LG1: I have a Hello Kitty T-shirt AND Hello Kitty socks!
LG2: I have Hello Kitty UNDERWEAR!!
Hannah: Hey! I have Hello Kitty underwear, too!
LG2: You have Hello Kitty underwear AND Hello Kitty socks?
Hannah: YEAH!
And that’s when I left, because Hannah had completely forgotten I was there. It was a hilarious way to start the day.
Mom
I took Hannah out to look at the stars last night since she was up a little later than normal (well, at least the few stars we can see living where we do).
Hannah: They’re so sparkly! Hey! Can we see a shooting star?
Dad: I don’t think we’ll see a shooting star tonight. Sorry.
Hannah: Shooting stars mean you get your wishes.
Dad: Yep, that’s what Thomas said. Hey look, there’s an airplane too.
Hannah: Oh no! That airplane is going to crash into that star!! *Hannah giggles to herself* I’m just kidding you, daddy!
We took Hannah to see Up today. All I can say about it is that everything you might have read about it is true: it’s just wonderful! Dad and I agreed it’s pretty deep for an animated movie – no pun intended, but the characters really have a lot of dimension. They’re not just one-note cartoon characters…they have flaws and issues. It’s the most grown-up of the Pixar movies, I think. It’s also a very sweet, but sad and emotional too. The genius of it is that all the sad, emotional stuff sailed right over Hannah’s head – I was sitting there crying, but she was just happy to be eating popcorn. I’m telling you, the people who made this movie are brilliant.
Anyway, you’ve probably read that the story centers around an old guy named Carl, who’s recently lost the love of his life, Ellie, after probably 50 years of marriage. If you cry at movies (like I do), bring tissue because the montage of their life together will have you crying within the first 15 minutes. (And you’ll cry at least two other times before the movie is over.) They always wanted to go on a grand adventure, but they never got the chance to do it. At the same time, evil developers (dudes in suits) are trying to force Carl out of his and Ellie’s house so they can tear it down and put up high-rise buildings. He refuses, ties a bunch of balloons to the thing and floats…UP…away to have the adventure he and Ellie never had. Carl gets an unintended traveling companion in Russell, a round little kid who happens to be standing on the porch at the wrong time. All of this exposition meant nothing to Hannah, who just laughed and laughed when the balloons went up.
Dad and I both loved this movie – it’s that great movie that works for grown-ups and kids. It is rated PG, and there were a couple of sort-of-scary parts for very little kids. Hannah didn’t like the scene with the thunderstorm, but it didn’t seem to leave a lasting effect. She said she really liked the movie.
So…here’s her synopsis, completely not in chronological order:
“He tied a bunch of balloons to his house! There were lots of bad dogs who tried to get the good dog. The bad dogs flew in planes to try to get the good dog. There was a big bird! The guy flew his house!”
I think you could take any kid over the age of 4 to this movie…and you should, because it’s terrific.
Mom
The scene: Sitting at the table eating dinner.
Hannah says quietly to me, “Daddy, I want to tell you something.”
I lean in closer, thinking she might tell me something interesting that happened at school. “What is it, Hannah?”
Hannah grins a little and replies, “Birds poop when they fly.”
At that point, I burst into uncontrollable laughter.
-Dad
Date: 01/22/2007