Day 687

Life is full of little joyful and humorous moments, each perhaps too small to share here. We thought we would present an entire day of Hannah's life. This is Hannah's Sunday, 20 September, 2009.

7:00: Beautiful, sleepy, darkness. Somewhere outside my head someone's chanting. "Baabaaseep! Bahseep! Mama: sing seep!" Hannah's awake, and so therefore is the house. Stephanie sings Bah, Bah, Black Sheep many, many times while we try to wake. I wonder about the story's economics: Two-thirds taxation seems hyperbolic. On the other hand, how does the boy down the lane deserve the same share as the local lord? It's a puzzlement.

7:05: Hannah invites Max up onto the bed and then climbs up with a giant stuffed husky to inform us brightly that the stuffed dog has a tail. She wags it. "Tail!" Then does the same to Max. Max makes a noise of patient disgruntlement.

7:20: Time to wash the dishes. Hannah's hands-down, favorite activity is Dishes. This involves a blue step ladder, a sink with various containers, a slowly running tap, and a lot of squealing. It goes like this: catch water in a small container (like a bottle) until it's full, then pour that into a larger container (like a dog bowl). Once it's full, tump it out and declare it "clean". Then proceed with the next container within reach. She would rather do this than anything else. This is The Best Thing On Earth.

9:10: Hannah has been shoving the blue kitchen step ladder around so she can reach the light switches. Mashing them, she announces, "Light!" and "Dark!" followed by a self-satisfied cackle. There's enough natural light that the brightness doesn't change much. Still, she's satisfied.

9:48: Hannah comes into my office wearing Stephanie's swimsuit and a diaper. She exclaims, "Water!", then turns and shuffles out, her diaper showing through the suit's open back. A moment later she comes back in and points to a poster, "What's dat?" "That's a dragon," ominously. "Stop!" she says to the dragon, holding her hand palm-out and backing away from the poster." Who knew it was so easy to prevent dragon attack?

9:55: We all head out to the pool. There's a mantis! "Big bug!" Hannah's fascinated with the chlorine test kit and she plays "dishes" dunking the clear plastic measuring tube in the water. After a few minutes there's an, "Uh, oh!" and the beaker disappears into the depths. Hannah claps when it is retrieved with a pool net. The mantis does not care.

10:40: Sleepy after playing in the pool, it's time for milk and Dora. Dora is her favorite show. She excitedly announces each of the characters as they appear during the theme song and plays the call and response of the show. At the end she dances along with the "We Did It" song.

11:12: Grandma Cindy calls to chat. Hannah has learned how to unlock an iPhone by sliding the lock control. Cringe. It's one thing to child-proof a house, but another to child-proof the gateway to one's online house. I'll save that topic for another post.

11:30 Hannah's having elevenses (cereal) on the coffee table. "Frokan!" she announces, nay, demands. "Frokan!" We don't know that word. "Show us, Hannah." She walks off and returns with a guitar controller. "Oh, Rock Band!" "Frockban!", she shouts. The guitar is for me; she wants to drum. We play though a Duran Duran tune and Stephanie comes to join us. She can't resist Duran Duran. Half way through the second song, Hannah tires of drumming and goes back to her cereal. Seconds later, it's on her and on the couch — and right in the middle of the guitar solo!

12:10: It's lunch time. Stephanie's making enchiladas and corn. "Whad's dat?" "That's an enchilada." "LADA!" For dessert there's chocolate pudding. Hannah rejects it, "No pudding!" "That's 300 calories of enchilada she just ate," Stephanie tells me.

Hannah jumps off her seat and proceeds to her coloring book. We bought her a giant, artist-sized (20x30 inches?) blank book. "Siddown!" she requests of Stephanie. Then she hands over an orange crayon and points to spots on the blank page "Dere!" Stephanie makes a mark. Hannah circles and dots the line with her green crayon, and then "Dere!", another spot. They do this about twenty times.

12:50: She's exhausted but won't nap. She's too fascinated by a pair of faux patent-leather, velcro-close shoes she was given. By 1:30 it's clear she's back to operational speed and we go downstairs. We read for a while, and kick the ball around. Hannah asks for a wipe and spends a good twenty minutes wiping windows, furniture, chairs, and Max.

2:15: Stephanie's father calls during apple-and-peanut-butter time.

2:45: We're off to look at "big girl" beds for Hannah.

3:30: Forty-five minutes later we're out the door. Initially, she has trouble with the ladders, but before long is climbing fervently. Several have slides (!). These are smaller and less intimidating than the playground slides, and they're an instant hit. Other children come to watch her slide. Before we leave she's confidently climbing up the slides — eschewing ladders entirely. We have such a good time we can't make a decision before they close at five.

5:01: She makes it about two blocks before falling deeply asleep.

7:30: We decide to wake her so she's not up all night. She is not happy.

9:15: Time to sleep. It's been a full day. With a warm bottle and a few verses of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and she's back to sleep. G'night.