POP! (Or: A Sad Day for a Judah-Pudah)

 

These are the remnants of a big pink bouncy ball.

I was at Target with Hannah two days ago, and she simply REFUSED to leave without it. "Ball! Ball! BALLLLL!" She kept saying (and signing!) until Mommy caved in. She was so excited, she carried it around the store showing everyone who would listen "Ball! BALL!". She held on to it in her carseat all the way home "Ball! Ball! Ball!" At this point I am beginning to worry she will never say any other words ever again.

We got home and she played with it, rolling it in the hallways, kicking it like a soccer ball, patting it and even hugging it.

Then.....her big brothers came home.

Jude really really REALLY wanted to take the ball out in the yard and play with Eden. I told him he had to be extra careful because it was Hannah's ball, and we didn't want it to pop. So we all went out in the front yard. The boys tossed it back and forth, rolled it down the hill, even rolled it to Hannah who shrieked with delight when it bounced off her front. Eden tossed it to Jude, but he didn't catch it and it rolled down one side of our yard in to the neighbors yard....where large prickly pinecones loomed,sinister and sharp, just waiting for the opportunity to pop something. Jude ran after it as fast as he could, but when he caught up with it and tried to pick it up it went "POP!"

Jude picked up two sad,floppy pink pieces, and started wailing. Hannah, on the other hand, started laughing and clapping as if she had never seen such a great trick. The ball had become flat! Awesome! Jude ran over to me and crumbled in to my lap, a heap of tears and sobs "I...didn't.... MEAN TO....mommmy!!!" I told him it was ok, it was an accident, and we would get another ball another day. Hannah, meanwhile, is shaking the big piece of what was once her ball, and laughing hysterically.

We collected ourselves and what was left of the ball, and went inside. Jude insisted that we could not throw the ball away, because he said "Mommy, I want to remember this really special ball FOREVER!" I told him it was no good now, it was trash, and we couldn't keep it. But we compromised by taking his photo with it, so he could remember those glorious five minutes when this ball was a part of his life. That made him very happy.

Table and Chairs (Or: My baby knows sign language!)

 

 

This is Hannah's brand new table and chairs.

The reason they came to be is that Hannah is a very tiny person, who had no place that was Hannah-sized to sit. She could sit in her highchair of course, but she really doesn't like to unless she is eating and even then the second she is done she wants to get down. Since she is now 16 months old (today!)I realized that perhaps she would like to start doing more big-kid things, like coloring and playdough or maybe even painting. She is getting kind of bored with the "baby" toys, and is ready to move on.

I ordered this table from childrenstablesandchairs.com. A very creative name for a website......which sells children's tables and, you guessed it, chairs! They had lots of cute stuff, and not as expensive as I had found on other websites for wooden tables and chairs. They also had a very nice table that happened to match the top of Hannah's crib. On top of that, it only took 3 days from the time I ordered it for it to arrive! I was so excited that I decided to attmept to assemble them myself, in spite of the fact that I am seriously tool impaired. But the chairs went together very easily with an Allen wrench that was included. The table was a bit more challenging because it required a real screwdriver, and the top screws on a couple of the legs didn't want to go in all the way. I did get out Dean's power drill, but after staring at it for about 10 minutes hoping it would reveal its mysteries to me, I realized I still had no clue how to work it. So I just tightened all the screws as much as I could with a normal screwdriver. The table does stand, and its not wobbly, so I think it will survive until Dean gets home and can fix it up right.

So, Hannah seemed really happy to have it all set up in her room. She will come up to me now and say "Table? Table? Chair? Chair?" The really cool part about this is while she is saying table table chair chair she is simultaneously doing the SIGN for table and chair in sign language. Why? Because she learned how from her Baby Einsteins video about sign language. She can do so many signs, its amazing. Besides table and chair she knows the signs for blanket, bed, clock, flower, cup, bowl, puzzle, blocks, ball, piano, computer, and bear, and "change" for when her diaper is dirty, but I taught her that one myself! They aren't perfect of course, shes not quite that coordinated, but they are really close. In the top picture you can actually see her doing the sign for chair. We go to her room and I sit her in her chair and she repeats the words and signs several times and then wants to get down. She is unfortunately still a bit too small to get in and out of even these small chairs on her own, but soon I am sure she will be able to manage. We have colored a picture while sitting at the table, but that took some convincing. Mostly she just likes to talk about the table rather then use it but thats ok. I am sure she will get the idea soon enough.