Cootie & Almost Two

Had to laugh at Ethan this morning...we were getting ready to play a quick game before I got ready to go to work and Ethan said, "Mama, look the Cootie bug game fell on the floor!" It's not just Cootie at our house, it's called Cootie Bug!

Well in less than two weeks, the Diva will turn two! I am amazed at how big she is getting and her vocabulary! Here favorite phrases right now are....

"Hannie Rasssss"

"No, Me!"

"All done Mama"

Another cute thing happening right now at Team Rass is every night for the past few weeks, Ethan will come up stairs with me when I put Hannah down for bed and sing, "Twinkle, Twinkle Wittle Star" and "Rock-A-Bye Hannah" to her. The exchange ends with a "Ga NaNa" - translated in Hannah speak, "Thank you Ethan" and the give each other a kiss! Priceless! That always leaves me with a smile and a memory I will cherish forever!!!

I can't believe how far I am behind in my blogging...trust me it isn't for a lack of content! Time would be the culprit. Again, one of my New Year's Resolutions is to blog more frequently...here are a few great Ethan and Hannah moments that I don't want to forget that happened over the past few months:

Hannah kept playing with Ethan's juice, I told her not to touch it and she kept sticking her fingers in the cup. I told her "No" again and she picked it up and dumped the cup of juice on the floor and just smiled at me. I told her she had to go to time out. When she was sitting there, I said, "Hannah do you know why you are in time out?" she said smiling from ear to ear, "Yep, juice, floor!"

Ethan was watching the Charlie Brown Christmas special and came running into the kitchen to ask me who the yellow guy was? I didn't know who he was talking about and thought he was talking about one of the characters who had blond hair, so I said, "Sally or Schroder?" He was frustrated and said, "No, Mama, the yellow bird who is with Snoofee, he is a bad bird!" LOVE IT!

Long Overdue!

I can't believe it has been almost six months since I have updated this blog....I need to get back in gear! So much has happened over the past few months...lets see what is new and exciting with Team Rass....

• I have a new job that I love, however adjusting to a new schedule, new industry, longer commute, etc. has definitely taken a while to get into a groove.


• Ethan is officially potty trained and started preschool.
  
• Hannah is now a talking, walking toddler who is into EVERYTHING!
  

There is so much that has happened over the past few months that definitely warrant pictures, stories and updates, so I will try to "back-fill" some of the key ones!! Like our day out with Thomas the Train; trip to Frankenmuth, apple picking with Papa, Ethan's 3rd birthday, Hannah's first haircut, the list could go on and on.

I promise to be more diligent at posting, so if nothing else, Ethan and Hannah will have something to look back at and laugh!

Ethan's Twist on Easter and We have an Almost Walker....

I am behind in posting "Princess Party" pictures, but in the meantime, couldn't let these two items pass me by. First and foremost, we potentially have a walker on our hands! Brave little Hannie is taking 7-8 steps at a time now, so I would anticipate she will be walking (knowing her, running) in a manner of days! She is so proud of herself and enjoys walking to who ever will coax her along. Stay tuned....

As for sweet Ethan, Lisa just called to tell me that he was telling her that the Eastern Bunny is going to bring him a specific Thomas station toy that he wants. Hmmm, can you tell he is definitely our child...with the whole Eastern connection!! Priceless!!!

Happy Birthday Princess Hannah

I can't believe how fast this past year flew by, or that my beautiful baby girl is a year old. Her presence has made our family complete! She has brought so much joy, laughter and love to our home and our family. Happy Birthday Hannie!!!

Crabby German

One morning a few weeks ago, we were in the midst of our morning routine when Hannah got extremely crabby, as she wasn't getting her way. Ethan turned to me and said, "Mama, Hannah is a crabby German!" We have no idea where he got this from or how he put crabby and German together, but we both thought it was pretty funny. So now when someone is crabby at the rass house, they aren't just crabby, they are a "Crabby German!"

Merry Christmas...1 1/2 months late!!

I can't believe how far behind I am in updating this blog! We made it through the holidays with so much fun and excitement. I tried to document the 25 days of Christmas, taking pictures or writing down things each day to scrapbook....good intentions, indeed. However, it is mid-February and all of my photos, scraps of paper, etc are sitting in a file...some day!! Just to recap...we had a wonderful holiday with family and friends! We adopted a child again this year from Opearation Good Cheer, something that Eric and I have done for the past four years now, so I am hoping we can continue this tradition with Ethan and Hannah. We introduced Ethan to the advent calendar and all of the traditional Christmas classics, Ruldolf, Frosty and Chalie Brown's Christmas. We made three treks to the mall to see Santa Claus, finally being able to see him on our third visit! Two other exciting things happened during the 25 days....Hannah slept all night for the first time...EVER and our new nanny Lisa started. She has been an absolute blessing and we are so lucky to have found her and have the kids bond with her the way that they have. All in all, we had a great 25 days of Christmas...however the following week, weren't so great with all of us having the flu in some form or another. Not the best way to end 2009, but we survived!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Here are two pictures of our two little pilgrams! They made the trek all the way down to Tennessee to celebrate Thanksgiving with Papa Ken and Grandma Charlotte. They enjoyed their visit and playing with Prissy!!

And She Stands....

We are big stuff at our house...Hannah has been standing for a few weeks now, a little wobbly at first and now she is a pro. The thing that cracks me up is she will be crusing with the little crawl she does, she will stop and sit up in mid-crawl and then put her two hands on the floor lift her butt up and just stand. She gives herself quite the workout and I am convinced is already doing some sort of yoga poses in her whole standing routine. My mom thinks she will be walking by Christmas...we shall see.

Happy Halloween

Here is our little bat and cat! Hannah was supposed to be a pink poodle and wanted nothing to do with her costume. We tried two separate times to put her in and no dice...she was not going to wear it. So she wore her cute little cat hat, which she loved!!!

State Fair

Over the Labor Day weekend, we decided to take Ethan and Hannah to the Michigan State Fair, as it was the last one....after 160 years. The Michigan State Fair was the first of its kind. We had a great time and Ethan loved feeding the animals and his first corn dog. We walked around all of the barns and exhibits and then went through the Midway and played a few games, winning a few cheap animals, that we consider junk, but Ethan adores them. Hannah even got a stuffed banana, so all was well! It's a shame that this long standing tradition is ending, but I am happy that when Ethan and Hannah are older we can tell them that they went to the last one.

Hannah's Bikini Pics

Aunt Michlle bought Hannah her first bikini...here are a few pics....

Chicklets

Here is a great photo of Hannah showing off her little chicklet teeth! She is a riot trying to chew whatever she can get her little hands on. She is still teething as she is a drooling machine!!!

Six Months Old....

I can't believe my sweet baby is already six months old. She is growing up so fast, it amazes me how fast time has flown! It seems like just yesterday we brought her home from the hospital. She has had quite a few milestones in the past week...including cutting her first two teeth and almost crawling. She is rocking back and forth on all fours and then throws herself forward! I would anticipate her crawling within the next week or so. Next week is her six month check-up, so I am anxious to see how much she has grown, officially!

Big Stuff in the Bumbo

Hannah has a new love...her bumbo chair. Actually, it is a hand-me-down from Ethan, but when Auntie Lisa was here last week, she bought Hannah a tray for the Bumbo. She loves to sit in her chair with all of her teethers and rattles and throw them off one by one. Squealing and throwing toys off the tray is big fun in the bumbo!

Beverly Hills 48025

Well, we have officially lived in our house for one year!! One year ago today, we moved in! It is hard to imagine that we lived anywhere else, as our house truly does feel like a home. We have done so much in the past year, even before we moved in. To look back at pictures from the day we closed on the house to now, it definitely looks like a different house. Obviously, there is a lot more we would like to do, but that all takes time and money. Slowly but surely we will get there. Since we bought the house we have cut down and trimmed the forest we had growing on our property, so now we can see the deer as they make their way through the neighborhood. The deck has been refinished and Eric has redone all of the backyard landscaping. We have painted the kitchen, hallway, Ethan's room, Hannah's room and the laundry room. New carpet up the stairs and in Hannah's room, a new floor in the kitchen and laundry room. The lower level bathroom has been completely redone and we have two new front doors. It's amazing, we moved in a family of three with a baby who was not yet walking and now a year later we have a toddler and another baby who is not yet walking!

Rolling, Rolling, Rolling...

Hannah has discovered big fun and a love for tummy time! She now can roll over both ways and squeals with delight every time she flips over! She hasn't quite mastered getting her whole body over her one arm, but each day she is getting better and better at it!! By the way, bananas are a hit!!! Still working on the whole concept of eating, but we can now add bananas to the list! Next thing to try, peas...surely that will make for a great photo!

No Hip-Click for Hannah Kicks....

Little Hannah Kicksters had her ultrasound yesterday to see if she had hip-click. She did so well, she was happy, smiling and rolling around on the examining table. Apparently, hip-click is common with first-born girls who are breech and are delivered c-section, none of which Hannah was. It is also common if the fetus doesn't have enough room, I believe this was Hannah's claim! She kicked constantly...that and the fact that she was 21 inches long when she was born. She continues to kick all the time, hence he nick name....little Hannah Kicksters!!! She is going to be a tall girl, already 26 inches long at four months! Thanks to Dr. O'Shea for her email yesterday, telling us that the tests were normal!!!

P-Bar and Rice Ceral...the breakfast of Champions!

Well, peanut butter is the new favorite at our house. I am so glad that Ethan likes p-bar as he calls it. It is funny, I love peanut butter and when he was a baby I would call him my little peanut butter. He has asked for p-bar every day this week, for breakfast, dinner and snacks. He woke up yesterday saying, "P-bar Mama, P-bar!" No peanut allergies and a love for peanut butter just like his Mom! I love it!

Rice cereal, not a hit! I was so excited to introduce Hannah to rice cereal, in hopes that it would buy a few more minutes of sleep at night. Not so much! At first, I thought she loved it as she was trying to shove the whole spoon into her mouth, then after a few bites, I noticed she was not digging it at all. She started blowing raspberries and gaging on it. Maybe it was too thick for her, or just the strange sensation of having a spoon in her mouth. Whatever it was, we will try it again tonight. She is also free to start fruits and vegetables, but I want to get the cereal thing locked down and then we will go from there!!!

Three Shots, bloodwork and lots of band-aids!!

Yesterday we had Ethan's two year check up and Hannah's four month check up. I thought I would be ambitious and schedule them both at once, since the time was so close to have their vaccines! Note to self, it wasn't ambitious, it was crazy. Never again, will I schedule two office visits at the same time! Thankfully, Eric and I both went. What an adventure it was!

Ethan was first, he wasn't really into answering any of Dr. O'Shea's questions...all questions I may add, he answers for Eric and I and anyone else willing to listen on a daily basis. He warmed up after he was weighed and measured. That lasted about two minutes, when the nurse began to prep him for his blood work, he went ballistic. My poor little peanut, apparently is still remembering his experience earlier this year when he was in the hospital for rotavirus. Unfortunately, he has my veins and the nurse wasn't able to draw blood in his arms, so she had to use his big toe. He cried and screamed, "No Way, No". Eric had to hold him down. Needless to say, some time later, she was able to get enough blood for the two tests needed. Thankfully she was done, as he was hyperventilating near the end and wouldn't even look at all of the Batman band aids he had. He weighed 26 pounds and was 33 1/4 inches long. Dr. O'Shea said he is growing consistent with how he always has grown.

As if that wasn't enough, we still had to have Hannah have her vaccines. The first one was oral, so she was okay with that. Then she had to have two shots. Not a happy camper, but she was pretty resilient and bounced back after I held her, as she kicked her little Hello Kitty band-aid covered legs around. Unfortunately, the rest of her check-up wasn't seamless, Dr. O'Shea wants her to have an ultrasound on her hips, as they were loose and clicking. She said it was not uncommon for little girls to have this. So next week, we will be venturing to Beaumont for a hip ultrasound. Hannah weighed 14. 9 pounds and was 26 inches long. She is a tall little thing and just may surpass her brother in height!!

One hour later, the Rass family departed from Dr. O'Shea's office a little battered and worn out.