A Family Dinner Out

We do not go out to eat often, but when we do the kids eat for free.

Josie was unimpressed with the dinner conversation so read the book she brought along.

There was a football game on but Hannah's team wasn't playing.

Tripping Over Milestones

Hannah's first birthday is fast approaching and she is working hard on standing and cruising. I think her goal is to walk into her party. Wouldn't that be impressive? All of the guests would be standing around asking "Where is the birthday girl?" and in saunters Hannah. She would need theme music, though.

On Friday I caught Hannah experiencing several new firsts. She realized that the curio cabinet has a door that can open. Fortunately, I was there and she did not actually get into any of the breakables. I slid the couch over to block the door as a temporary solution. Chris made a slightly more permanent solution by tying a string around the curio cabinet.

Next, Hannah realized that she can take off her own bib. And she did so with much enthusiasm. Repeatedly. With velcro bibs and snap bibs. And would then quickly throw the bib on the floor. I was rather exasperated  at the time but have since figured out that if she is really hungry, she will be distracted with food. 

Also on Friday, Hannah figured out how to unzip jackets. Namely, the jacket she was wearing. I kept finding her with the jacket of her outfit hanging open. I hoped it was a fluke at first but finally caught her ripping it open. It's not a big deal over all, she was just so persistent with keeping it unzipped!

Today we had the fun of opening the file cabinets. Except it was followed by the agony of closing the cabinets on her little fingers. She never closed it hard, but it was still enough for her to get a look of surprise followed by a wilted expression and then tears and sobbing. The solution to that was to stick a dowel rod down through the handles. Which reminds me, we need about three more rods for other drawers that I am sure will catch her attention soon.

Finally, I realized today that she has more teeth than I thought. Hannah's front four teeth have been in for a while. The top and bottom to the left have come in. The ones on the right are popping through. But earlier I had to fish something out of her mouth (seriously, where does she find all of this dirt to eat?) and wondered what she had further back in her mouth. Yeah, it was a molar. No wonder she keeps trying to chew on all of her toys.

The Outtakes

We managed to salvage a couple decent pictures during our 'holiday shoot' for the children earlier in December. Besides the whole lighting and focus and composition problem, we were trying to organize three young children in nice clothes. I have no idea how professional photographers do it (you know, besides the years of training).

One thing that helped was taking a large, open box and wrapping paper around it. Hannah was able to sit and stand in that without getting away or grabbing her siblings. Though it wasn't perfect....

Chris tried making them laugh but I kept catching him in the shot.

The box didn't work so well on the bed. Hannah never actually fell over but it did not look good.