Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Monday, January 30, 2012

At the ends of our strings...

Day number 6,234 of Winter/Summer Vacation:





Our "Little Tiny Tom Cruise" continues to get more goofy with each passing day...and so do I...with each passing day of the World's Longest Summer/Winter Preschool Vacation.

ps. I made those checkered pants for him, and he loves them, and that makes my heart sing.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

The best part of my day...

Was listening to Sam explain to Peter, while laying on our bed, comforting him after a slip and fall, that when he was little (like yesterday?!) that he didn't know not to run in the house either, "but I had to learn the hard way Petey and you will, too...and when you are a bigger boy like me you will walk and you will not get hurt, of course." Because "of course" is what he says at the end of every sentence now, because, duh, of course that is what you say when you're four, about to be a dad and have it all figure out. When will those babies learn, Sam?

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Overheard:

Sam: "Pete, do you know we're going to be dad's soon?!"

Pete (with a mouthful of noodles): "ess!"

Sam: "See we've got hair on our arms like Dad, that means we're turning into dads! Pete we're going to be best friends forever."

Sunday, January 22, 2012

6 Years



Paul, if you'd have told me on our wedding day that I'd be eating Lebanese food with you in Brazil, on our sixth wedding anniversary, pregnant with our third child.....I might have believed you. Happy six years and one day. Thank you for always believing, together, with me, that all of our dreams can come true. To a lifetime more of love and adventure.

Elise

ETA: For posterity and for those interested, we did, again this year, after much toiling, gift a spin on the traditional anniversary gift as we have done for the past 6 years. This years gift: Iron. I gave Paul a new iron (ours just broke) and Paul gave me an Iron and Wine cd. Together, the romance is just more than we can take...neatly ironed clothes, chill new music, hold me back. No one ever said love had to be impractical.

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Next Christmas


The other morning at breakfast (don't ask why there was a Coke can on the table at breakfast), Sam blurts out, "Daddy! I know what we need to leave for Santa Claus next year instead of milk and cookies!"

"What?"

"Beer!"

After Santa flew all the way down to Brazil from the North Pole, I'm guessing a beer would be welcome.

On another note, these kids don't miss a thing...!

Thursday, January 12, 2012

T-rex saves the day!

This morning Sam was a little grumpy as he sat pouting at the kitchen table with a plate of scrambled eggs and pao de queijo in front of him. I had noticed and remarked, trying to lighten up the mood, that one of the pao de queijo that had its top cracked off looked a bit like an egg...but everything that looks like an egg here is a dinosaur egg. He was still grumpy. In a desperate attempt to get him to smile, I snuck away amidst the whining in to the playroom and slipped a tiny plastic T-Rex in the pocket of my hoodie. I walked casually back in, sat back down and pulled an "Oh my gosh look over there at that big bug" trick that everyone always falls for. Sam looked away and with just enough time I slipped the T-Rex into the dinosaur queijo. When he turned back around and saw it he jumped out of his chair and like a 16 year old kid in disbelief shouted "Oh Whoa, No WAY!" I think he thought at first it was the big bug I had distracted him with, then a real, but tiny hatching dinosaur...equally as frightening! When he figured out what it was he laughed. Bad mood...cured. We all laughed...mostly at his reaction and the rest of the morning went on without a hitch.



Over lunch the same dinosaur, still lingering at the kitchen table turned a tired Pete into yogurt eating machine and the tiny T-Rex into spoon. Pete ate his entire yogurt off of the upper body and disproportionately small arms of the bitsy T-Rex.





Our maid looked on in disbelief, but this is what being a little boy is all about...and if they eat...willingly...off the stunted arms of a plastic T-Rex, I'm all for it. In fact, I'm considering doing away with all our silverware and replacing it with tiny dinosaurs. Always an interesting meal at the Hanna house!

Monday, January 9, 2012

Brotherly Love

Sam said to me the other night, while sharing a tiny bowl of ice cream with Peter, "Mom, this little boy has the sweetest voice I've ever heard." "Pete, keep talking to me."

...and this is Sam and Petey:



Yes, you read that correctly. Sam and the giraffe he received from his aunts and uncles, Cameron, Zanne and Mark for Christmas, he named after his brother, "because I like that name, a lot Mom."

Friday, January 6, 2012

Sprinkled



Thursday, January 5, 2012

Baby Girl: 31 weeks

I haven't been the best about documenting the day to day growth and happenings of this pregnancy. I find myself feeling guilty about it, but I remind myself I know more now, I am older and this is our third baby. I know what is on the other side of pregnancy and that those moments are the journal entries that matter. I know now that the important things are not in the day-to-day notes in the margins documenting what I craved or how I felt. Instead it comes in the body, the days we weave together as a family.

This pregnancy has been different for me, for us. Instead of eagerly awaiting my prize at the end of the journey, I've just become thankful for each day and all the moments with my family just as it is now. Three months of nausea, six weeks of bed rest, a baby girl. Strangely different cravings, a sense of calm and peace about the change that is about to come. We've also learned to appreciate through sharing in the loss of our good friends baby at 28 weeks, the delicate process of creating a life and the reality that the finish line is never the same for every race. We are thankful for each kick and after that, each day.

I am surprised to find that just knowing the sex of this baby girl makes me even more in tune to her and I can actually feel my heart strings reaching down and grabbing on to her more tightly each day. Perhaps my pension for needing "to know" and of "hating surprises," are dictated by my visual connection to the world, photography, a photographic memory, I've never been more sure it starts in the daydreaming.

We've always thought it crazy to find out the sex of ones babe at 20 weeks, but for logistic purposes, here in Brazil, we threw our beliefs aside. Never say never. We also thought people were loony that named their babies before they were born, but her name has been the only one we've ever discussed. We don't speak her name out loud, not until we see her tiny face ourselves and introduce her to the world.

Sam and Peter already have more love for their little sister than I thought possible. Though Peter is not but a month or two older than Sam when he arrived, Peter leads either in his brothers example, feeling her kick...seeing her kick or watching my belly grow. Pete puts his mouth right up to my stomach and shouts, "You in der?" "You 'ear me?"

Sam talks to her and reminds her, "It's Sam! Your big brother!" It has been such a wake up call to witness the differences in Sam and his awareness and insight into the changes that my belly, our baby and our lives are undergoing this time in comparison to when I was pregnant with Peter. He wants to be part of it and wants to daydream with us. I watch him observe my friend Morgan's new baby and later overhear him tell Peter, car-seat to car-seat that, "Pete, do you know our baby will only have a little bit of hair when she comes out?" "Pete, do you know baby will only drink milk?" I want to wrap them both up in big bows and give them to her when she arrives, marked, "The greatest gifts you'll ever receive."

Even Paul has a more calm and confident air about him knowing she is with us. As we build our little nest for her he seems already just slightly smitten with the idea of another girl to love.

We all know are lives are about to change again, in the best of ways, which has become a welcome feeling.

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Hooligans



Tiny Lego Playground


Elise channelling her inner Phill Loosli.