Meeting Auntie J

Anthony meeting Jami for the first time.

More presents! Thank you for the thoughtful gifts!

This past weekend we headed up north for a much anticipated visited from Auntie Jami! Mark's sister lives in Lake Tahoe and, unfortunately, we don't always get to see her as much as we would like. Anthony has been practicing saying Auntie Jami for over a month now and was all set to really put on a show for her. That he definitely did! Whether it was saying her name repeatedly, screaming at supper, staring at her or going upstairs to see where she was at he was all about getting to know and spend time with this new auntie. Thank you for coming home, Jami!

Hanson family shot! As you can see Anthony really wasn't into getting his picture taken that morning. This, unfortunately, was the best out of the bunch.

He was, however, fascinated by her bracelet and needed to check it out.

"Anthony's Expanding Vocabulary -

New words seem to fly out of his mouth everyday" is officially being retired from blogland. Honestly, Mark and I just cannot keep up with the amount of new words he knows and the stories he's constantly sharing lately.
Just tonight it took awhile to go to bed because he had to recap the day at Renae's house with all of his friends, what the cat's did and the toys he played with. Then he started to talk about what he did this weekend and got stuck on happy birthday. He still believes it was Auntie Manda's and Uncle Damon's birthday. He had to tell me how we went to Papa Willie's basketball game and then we went out for nummies with Auntie Manda, Uncle Damon, Grandma Kathy, Papa Willie, Uncle Erik (it's so cute how he says this), mommy and Anthony. Then he explained that we sang happy birthday. (And then we had to sing happy birthday again tonight. When I sang "Auntie Manda" he once again had to add in Uncle Damon too!)
It's amazing how much he remembers and his ability to recall with accuracy. Just a few months ago this would not have happened at all!

There have been some favorite conversations with Anthony in the last couple of weeks that I will probably always remember and start laughing once again.

A: Mom, my butt hurts.
M: Why? What's wrong?
A: My butt hurts! (He's now standing up in his chair pointing to his butt.) Kiss it, Mom!
M: (Giggling) Sweetheart, I'm not going to kiss your butt.
A: KISS IT! (Then lots of tears)

One day Anthony started to play a game of pointing to a body part and then I would have to kiss it. All was well until he called out his penis.
A: Kiss my pee pee.
M: That's inappropriate. We don't kiss pee pees.
A: KISS MY PEE PEE, MOM!

Then there was the drive home from daycare today. I had the radio off and we were talking about his day at Renae's. Then he started to play a game of "Mommy is a ____" and then I would have to moo or oink or whatever. I kept playing even when he had stopped until he finally said...
A: No, Mom.
M: What? You don't want to play anymore?
A: Turn on the music.
Is it even possible for a two year old to want to listen to music more than talking with his mommy? I thought that behavior was reserved for the teenagers years, but I guess not. I tried to continuing talking and all I heard from the back seat was MUSIC!!!
Yikes!

In just eleven months all of this language and conversation and stories has transpired out of A. What a beautiful gift! I can't wait to see what he comes up with as he continues to grow and learn. I'm sure we'll be in for a wild ride.

Fishing on Sylvan

This past weekend Anthony and I headed up north to help out on my parent's house while Mark stayed home and, unfortunately, got sick. Saturday and Sunday we were busy staining and varnishing while A spent some quality time with Grandma and Papa Hanson. (Thank you again for helping out!) Every evening we had supper together as a family, which is pretty rare these days, but a lot of fun too! Especially when I start thinking about what could have happened last July... Unfortunately, I didn't get any photos of the progress that has been made on mom and dad's house. The great news is they are close to being done and moving back in. Maybe the next photos will be of a house warming party?!
Monday morning before heading back home Auntie Manda and Uncle Damon took us ice fishing out on Sylvan Bay. It was a lot of fun and something I haven't done in a long time. Anthony did enjoy it - the holes with water, "shark bait" the minnow, the Rhino, Auntie scorching her hair, and needing to know where Uncle Damon was at all times. It really wasn't a surprise that he didn't last too long before starting to cry and wanting to get off of the ice. We stayed out for a couple of hours, but didn't catch a thing. (He probably would have lasted longer if fish would have been coming through those fun holes that were too irresistible to NOT play in!) I think I had a little nibble, but didn't do the right thing to "hook" it. Maybe next time we'll have better luck. Overall, it was a good weekend up north and ice fishing was a great way to top it off!

Auntie and A hoping to get lucky!

Just hanging out in the fish house.

Hope

Regardless of your beliefs or political views today is a historic day for all of us. There have been several times throughout the day that I have been moved, chilled and filled with a great hope for the future. I'll be the first to admit that politics is not something I'm super passionate about nor do I always know all of the facts. However, this election process was very different for me. I started to take a greater interest, got involved in thought provoking conversations and even got excited about the possibilities.
Today was one of those shining moments I was thankful to be a part of young people's lives on a daily basis. Once again I was blessed to be with the same group of students during the inauguration as I was on September 11th. We had a discussion about what this day means as well as tying it to our previous unit - The Watsons go to Birmingham and Civil Rights. They made great connections between a fictional text, segregation of the past, Martin Luther King, Jr.'s I Have a Dream speech and the giant leap we have made today as a nation. The discussion was rich, authentic and, most importantly, heartfelt. After the discussion we turned on CNN and watched as Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of our country. As the crowd in DC was asked to stand so did all of my students in my classroom without any prompting by me. They watched totally engaged and afterwards clapped and cheered with such enthusiasm. I was filled with chills and tears and pride for this group of students who truly get it. They have the ability to see beyond all of the politics and somehow know what this day truly means. Afterwards a student asked, "I wonder what Daniel Watson would say if he were here today?" What great connections they made!
The events of today fill me with a great optimism for our future not just for me, but for my students and my precious A. What a great day!

Staying Warm

On a cold day and night like today the Hanson boys stay warm with a fire, sweatshirts, lots of blankets and some cartoons on tv. We had a great day off from school and daycare, but it got even better - as always - when daddy came home from work!

Back on course?

Hopefully!
Monday morning I got a call that Anthony was throwing up at daycare. I quickly got everything prepared for a sub and spent the rest of the day taking care of him. Thankfully he only puked once when we got home, which was all over me and the floor. For the most part we had a low-key, mellow day of reading books, watching Cars/Monsters/cartoons and cuddling. Later on that evening I started feeling sick too. What a joy it was to be puking and having my two year old cry each time for mommy. Ugh. On top of everything, it took Mark almost four hours to get home that night. Needless to say, when he finally walked through the door I was in tears -- tears of happiness and oh-my-god-I-think-I'm-dying.
Yesterday all three of us stayed home. Luckily, Anthony was feeling much better; however, I wasn't. I'm so thankful Mark took the day off because I don't know how I would have managed with just the two of us.
I finally kicked whatever bug I had late last night and am feeling much better this morning.
However, Anthony has been up five times throughout the night crying "owie" and "hurt". I'm hoping we'll be able to get through the day and that we are truly back on course.
My fingers are crossed...
(Hopefully this super kick-your-butt bug doesn't come visit you. YUCK!)

Nick's First Birthday

Rockin' the party hat!

Lovin' the cupcake!

Crusin' with his balloon!

Cute, cute, cute!

On Saturday we traveled to Farmington to celebrate Nick's FIRST birthday! (How is that possible???) It was a great day of friends, fun and even a game of Scrabble with Erin and Emily! Yahoo! (It's been awhile.) The best part was spending time with my "oldest" friend and her two kids. It's amazing to see the differences between CJ and Nick and take time just to be with them.
It was fun to hang out at the Lefebvre's house and spend the whole day with them. Our wish would be to be able to see them more often. Luckily, we always have the months of January, May and August to get together for the kids' birthdays. Hopefully this year we'll be able to find other times to get together too.
Happy birthday, Nick!
We love you!