16 months old

Hannah turned 16 months old this week. Keeping up with her is more and more challenging these days. She is a very active little girl, but we're loving every minute! Some of what she's been up to:

*She is a drama queen! If we do something that she doesn't like, or hurts her feelings, she will find the nearest wall, step, or anything else that she can put her head against, puts her hands up to her face and cries until she's picked up.

*She is becoming a little monkey. She's very good at climbing up and down the steps. In fact, the other day when we were downstairs she left the room that I was in for a minute. I thought she was just around the corner in the familiy room, but when I went to get her, she was almost to the top of the stairs!!

*She's starting to try to copy what we're saying. The sounds don't come out exactly as words but she definitely is trying. She particularly does this when we're counting with her. Maybe she'll be an engineer like us :-)

*She LOVES to play in the sand. After seeing how occupied she was at the beach, we're seriously thinking about getting a sandbox.

*She is understanding and doing more and more of what we ask - picking up and putting away her toys, getting her shoes, going where asked.

*She is getting more and more independent. If we take her hand to go in a direction that she doesn't want to go, she will sit down and cry.

*Her distinguishable vocabulary is gradually increasing, now including all done (ah duh), duck (duh), and grandpa (papa).

*Her hair is getting long and looking more ragamuffin-ish everyday. I just haven't been able to bring myself to actually get it cut. It looks so cute in pigtails and barrettes, if she'd only leave them in. Plus, she's getting curls in the back that are so darn cute. Yes, though, she does need a haircut!

Little stinker just won't leave those cute barrettes in her hair...

We are loving this stage in Hannah's life right now and can't wait to teach her even more new things.

Church picnic

Earlier this week, we attended our church's annual picnic. We've made it for the last 3 or 4 years, and they're always fun. We met up with our friends Eric and Jill and their little girl Claire, who is 6 months older than Hannah. Needless to say, between 2 toddlers, we were all very busy!


Checking out all of the activities.


Hannah LOVED her first taste of cotton candy


Hannah's going to be Grandpa Cramer's little point guard. She's already trying to dribble! (Don't you just love those curls!?!).


More sugar - LOVED her first snow cone!


Yes, life is good!

Mad

Our little swimmer not happy that Mama interruped her fun in her indoor swimming pool (JJ's water bowl).

I love West Michigan

Since we didn't spend much time at the beach yesterday, we made up for it today. After church, we headed out to Grand Haven to enjoy another beautiful summer day. This is one of the things I truly love about living in West Michigan. Only 30 minutes, and we're at an amazing beach on one of the world's most beautiful bodies of water. Awesome!


Our Coppertone baby (or little exhibitionist!)


Hannah would only wear her hat her way. What a goof!


Daddy and Hannah playing in the sand. She absolutely loves the beach!

Being adamant about Hannah wearing sunscreen whenever she's out in the sun, I must say that I've actually been really good about wearing it myself this summer as well. Unfortunately, even with the sunscreen, the few times I've been out in the sun this summer I've gotten some really odd tan lines. Normally, I'm not too concerned, but I am in my good friend's wedding in a couple of months, where I will get to wear a beautiful strapless dress. I really don't want to look like I'm wearing a tank top as I walk down the aisle! Today, I was determined to "fill in" my tank top tan by doing a genius thing and NOT wearing sunscreen in the tank top zone. Well, let's just say, I now have one of the most RIDICULOUS looking sunburns I have ever had! Not surprisingly, some sunscreen did spill over into the tank top zone, so I have areas of nice tan (where I had it originally) and beat red sunburn with occassional splotches of white. Lesson learned - ALWAYS WEAR SUNSCREEN EVERYWHERE!!!!!

After we'd had enough, we gathered up our things and then walked the along the boardwalk back into town. All of the sun and sand wore Hannah right out. Our little girl, who is normally an acute observer of all things when riding in her stroller even during naptimes, actually fell asleep on the walk back.


Beach dreams

Sand and sea

Jason and I fell in love with Pentwater a few weeks back when we had his boat photographed. Ever since, we've been itching to get back up there. With it only being an hour and 15 minutes from our house, it's the perfect day trip getaway. With the forecast calling for sunny skies and warm temperatures, we packed up the boat and all headed up for the day.

First on the agenda was boating on Pentwater Lake. Hannah's been doing really well going for rides in Daddy's boats this summer, and today was no exception.

Our happy little skipper

It just so happened that today was also the day of the Pentwater Art Fair. Normally, I'm not too big on those sort of events, but there really were a lot of unique items to browse. We actually came even came home with a couple of new purchases.

Our original intent was to go to the beach after boating, but the Art Fair took up so much of our time that we didn't truly make it a beach day. However, we did walk down to the beach for a bit. The beach on Lake Michigan is just a beautiful setting, with dunes all along the lakeshore. We will definitely be back to spend more time there in the future.

Hannah absolutely LOVED playing in the sand!

On our way back home, we made a side trip to Silver Lake. Since the weather was so perfect and we were in the neighborhood, we decided to take Hannah on her first dune ride!

Waiting for our dune ride

Stretching our legs along the lakeshore

Hannah's first Mac Woods dune ride

Our sandblasted family

Of course, a trip to Silver Lake would not be complete with stopping at Whippy Dip to have ice cream for dinner!

Amazingly enough, even with all of our day's acitvities, Hannah did not sleep at all on the way home. She's been down for about 40 minutes, and I think (hope!) she's just finally fallen asleep. Must have been winding down from all of the excitement of the day, or perhaps the ice cream sugar buzz has finally worn off!

Fireworks

What would the Fourth of July be without the obligatory fireworks viewing? We put Hannah to bed at her regular time, and got her up shortly before the show was to start downtown.


Hannah waiting for the show to start in her pj's.


Aw, you have to love tired baby snuggles.


Mesmerized by the fireworks.

Turned out that watching the fireworks in her pajamas worked out perfectly. Our normal 5-minute drive from downtown took us nearly an hour. Hannah zonked out in the back and didn't wake up until the next morning.

Look alikes

So maybe these cousins aren't exactly two of a kind, but I still think they're pretty darn cute in the matching dresses that Grandma bought them :-)



Hannah was very interested in checking out Kara...

tongue...


yup, nice, round head....


and a check of the vision.


Future heartbreakers