Happy Birthday, Hannah!

Photos to post in the near future. Have compassion...we ARE mid-move!

My baby baby turned SIX today!!! She entered our lives as a completely happy surprise, and she's never stopped being surprising. We just love her to pieces! Her first surprise (besides conception WITHOUT fertility drugs)--coming home FROM her birth with canker sores in her throat. Not little ones, but some of the biggest our pediatrician had ever seen. Nice start, Hannah!

Other surprises: At the doctor's office, and we were frequent visitors, when the nurse would ask, "why are we seeing you today?" I would say something witty like, "she's not sleeping" or "she's not eating" SO SOMETHING MUST BE WRONG. They'd look at me like I'd recently escaped from the mental hospital. Then the doctor would come in, and sure enough, she'd have something wrong. AND he validated MY own internet medical degree (ok, not really the medical degree thing) because he'd usually say something like, "we always trust the Mommy's intuition." JUST LOVE DR. JONES!!! We miss him so much (nothing's wrong with him; we moved).

More surprising: Hannah learned to write her name (and many other letters of the alphabet) without any help! Just copied what she saw her brother doing. When Toph was little, we'd give him to the count of 3 to do/not do something, and soon we had to change that because I'd say "one" and Hannah would finish the series, "two, three!" So we started counting to 10 or counting backward. I was SHOCKED when she wrote her name for me one day--we'd NEVER done anything like it together and there she was writing her name! Same thing with counting and colors and shapes and and and and I could go on and on, but what would be the point?

Sort of independent? Nah, not Hannah! I think she may have been born saying "I do it myself." Most often now we have this battle over her choice of clothes (either things that don't go together or clothes not appropriate for our weather) and her decision to do her own hair in whatever style she chooses. Let me just remind you that she HAS cut her own hair TWICE. She's independent in most aspects of her life.

Hannah has a surprising wit and vocabulary. I'm always getting told that she's said something funny or used words that are advanced for her age. She's a BIG kid (the size of many 2nd graders), but when people realize that she is just (today) 6, it takes on a new perspective. At the park this week, she was telling the adults that her brother was "being distracted" about something. Always cracking us up.

Hannah is a nudist at heart, I swear. As a baby, she'd strip as often as she could figure out how. She HATED to wear shoes and socks and would take those off as fast as possible. She'd unzip her blanket sleepers and be naked so often that we had to put a diaper pin across the zipper, so she couldn't get it unzipped. I lived in fear that she'd strip in Church one week when I had my attention focused on something else for a fraction of a second. When we'd pick her up from her Primary class and her teacher would start the sentence with, "Hannah was so funny/entertaining this week...." I'd silently be thinking, "Oh please don't have the teacher tell me she took off her clothes!" Her tendency toward nudity has lessened somewhat, but I think she's really a nudist at heart.

Hannah is also a GIRLIE GIRL! She LOVES the frilly and girlie things of this world. As a young child even, she loved to shop! Not genetic from me, that's for sure. She spent at least a year when she wouldn't go anywhere without a purse and some bling--sunglasses, bracelets, necklaces, etc. Often she'd have to have a hat too. She was very definite about which shoes she wanted to wear (when she would wear them). So funny!

Our lives are NEVER dull with the resident DRAMA QUEEN. She can summon a tear at the drop of a hat. She fully experiences all feelings--sometimes all within 20 seconds. I think she's going to be the type of person who lives life to the fullest. She's exuberant and excited and fun to be around. She is a constant source of entertainment for us all. And we wouldn't have it any other way. I can't imagine how our lives would be without this bundle of energy.

Hannah finally got to start school this year. She's been wanting to go since before we started taking Toph. She even cried every time we'd have to leave Toph AT school the year he started (and sometimes even last year). She excels at school as she does in any other area she's determined to excel in. Hannah loves school and loves most everything about school. She's even gotten in trouble for being TOO helpful. Yes, the teacher is not happy when the student is "teaching" her whole table how to do the assignment--the wrong way. She likes to mother others--and sometimes smother them. She's a good friend and a fierce friend. And doesn't like to share her friends with any other person--so watch out if she's decided that you are her friend! Hannah loves to love others too. She loves boys already (giving me more gray hair) and makes me nervous about what our future holds.

Hannah has never met a stranger either. She has gone up to other kids at the park, doctor's office, or store and declared them to be her new friend and asked them to cone have a play date with her at our home--or she's invited herself to their homes. When she was newly potty trained, she'd tell anyone she met about how she could "go potty in the potty chair and she didn't fall in because she'd just spread her legs wide." She LOVED to tell that to strangers on elevators all over Utah. The day that Toph started 1st grade, as we were leaving the school, we saw a group of parents that we knew, and Hannah proudly announced to the group, "I have High School Musical panties. Wanna see?" AS she was pulling up her skirt to show them! She is fun loving and makes our lives fun too.

Some favorites:

Color: used to be pink or purple, but now it's BLUE and "all of the other colors--especially if they're sparkly"
Thing: depends on the day--stuffed animals
TV: Wordworld, Sponge Bob, sometimes Dora, and Curious George (which she never watches)
Dinner: Cheese Noodles (aka: Mac and cheese) or pancakes
Dessert: dirt cups (pudding with crushed oreos and gummy worms) or cookies
On her wish list: everything, especially if it's in a commercial
Thing to do: play with friends, Barbies, Littlest Pet Shoppe, Art/Drawing
Place to go: going to the beach
Thing to be called: Elizabeth (her middle name) Hannah doesn't like her first name, and has often asked us to call her by other names: Princess, Ariel, Rapunzel, and lately, Elizabeth.

Hannah, you've spiced up our lives. I can't imagine our life without your energy. I am so blessed to be able to call you my daughter. Happy Birthday, Girlie! I love you!