November

Hannah and her daddy:

I got a pedicure. Hannah asked to see it, so I unveiled a foot to show her the color. “Pretty!” she said. “What color is the other foot?”

Me: Hannah, how do you want to wear your hair today?

Hannah: Blonde.

Hannah: I want to be a grown up so bad!

Me: Why?

Hannah: So I can be a mom and have kids.

Me: Why?

Hannah: So I can spank them.

While helping out in Hannah’s kindergarten class, I overheard one of her boyfriends giving her attitude. He ended his sassy phrase with, “Got it, dude?” She stuck a hand on her hip and used her “duh” voice. “If you want to call a girl that,” she said before walking away, “it’s dudette.”

As Hannah was leaving the doctor’s office, the receptionist offered her a coloring book. She excitedly took it. While driving out of the parking lot, I heard her say, “Hey! This isn’t a coloring book! This is something that makes me learn!”

After looking all over town for a little girl's sling, I came up empty handed. Hannah's Aunt Kelli blinged this sling for her. She loved it!

We had someone dropping off garage sale donations one evening. It was cold outside as we were helping him unload his lifted truck. A few minutes into it, Abby complained that she was too cold. I heard Hannah call, “It’s warm over here!” I glanced over to see her warming her hands and face with the exhaust of the idling car.

The girls with their cousin Molly:

November 1^st, the day after Halloween, found me alone with two delicious bags of candy. Seven hours alone, two bags of candy, and very little willpower. Three days later, with the candy disappearing at a very rapid rate, I asked Mike to hide the bags. He did, bringing them out when he got home from work. We would each have a few pieces after dinner, and he would hide them again. The girls also hid a bag of candy from me. It worked well. With the candy out of sight, I wasn’t tempted.

After a week of this, Mike asked if I’d found the candy yet. My answer was the same when he asked me each evening for the next week. “No, I haven’t even looked for it.” I was confused by his snickering. Two weeks later, he could not keep his hiding place a secret anymore. “I hid it with the cleaning products,” he admitted. “I knew that once you cleaned, you would find it, but you never cleaned!” We’re not on speaking terms anymore.

When that candy was gone, I asked the girls to get the bag that they had hid from me. Two beautiful deer-in-the-headlight faces peered back at me. “We hid it in our backpacks and ate a piece for lunch every day, because you don’t pack dessert with our lunches!”

October

We were at the park, and the girls were on the monkey bars. Usually, Hannah gets to the fourth or fifth rung and screams for help. I lift her down, and she tries again. She could do this all day if I'd let her. This particular day, Friday, Mike and I told her that she needed to drop down by herself. (We've seen her do this dozens of times.) She got to the fourth rung and yelled for help, then dropped down. After the fifth cycle, she dropped down and began crying. I scooped her up, and when she wouldn't stop crying, we headed home for aspirin and an ice pack. She fussed off and on that evening. In the morning, she said it hurt a little, but she was well enough to go to a swim party. She swam for two hours. But on Sunday morning, she cried about it again, and I decided to take her to the ER. Her sweet little arm was broken in two places. She now tells the story with, "I told my mom I needed help!" I am up for mother-of-the-year award, so be sure to cast your ballots now.



In the ER, the nurses needed to take Hannah from her room to the x-ray room. They prepped a wheelchair for her, but I told them that she would be fine walking. Hannah gave me a dirty look and requested the wheelchair. They gingerly placed Hannah in, then wheeled her to the x-ray room - right next door. After the x-rays, she again got in the wheelchair and was transported back to her room - next door.




I found this in Hannah's room. "It's for God," she explained.

Mike was in Cambodia during the World Series, and I wasn’t watching the games. One night, the girls started pressuring me. They wanted to watch the Rangers. Everyone else at school got to watch the Rangers except them. Abby was upset because a friend said, "Did you see it when so-and-so hit that home run?" And of course, she hadn't. So we watched half of the game with some friends. We told the girls when to cheer. We taught them how to chant Na-po-li. Abby saw the players spitting. She kept yelling, "Go Rangers!" Hannah kept saying, "Go Texans!" Abby was disappointed that they weren't hitting a ball that was thrown RIGHT to them! She said if she were the pitcher, she wouldn't throw it right at the batter, she'd throw it over to the side so they'd never be able to get it. Abby wanted something to talk about in school the next day, so when we saw a double play in the fourth, we came up with her line. "Did you see that double play in the fourth inning?"

The next morning, I checked before school to see who won. I told the girls, "Okay, the Rangers won." Abby cheered. Hannah asked how the Texans did.

Me- Abby, do you remember what to say?
Abby- (Sounding totally scripted) Did you see the double play in the fourth ending?
Me- Inning.
Abby- Inning?
Me- Like "in" - "ning."
Abby- Inning.

The girls get ready for the school carnival. You can really see their different personalities in this picture:

Hannah was washing her hands when coming home from school one warm day. I watched her wash and dry, then rub each armpit with the dish towel before placing it back for others to use.

“Hannah! Why are you rubbing your armpits with the towel?

“They were wet!”