Haircut

While we were in Colorado for Thanksgiving, Kyle threatened to take the scissors to Hannah's hair if I didn't cut it. I have know for a long time that she needed a trim, but I was too scared to do it for fear of giving her an awful haircut! I know nothing about cutting hair, so I asked my mom to trim it up. Hannah was great and sat there the entire time.

Before

After: So much better!

Cheyenne Mountain Zoo

Yesterday my mom and I took Hannah to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. It is amazing! I have been there many times but not in the past 10 years or so. They have totally redone the zoo and have many, many hands on exhibits that Hannah LOVED! When I asked Hannah if she was ready to go to the zoo she said, "Roarrrrr." I think that meant yes! She had such a great time and slept soundly all the way home!

One of the best parts of this zoo is that you can feed the giraffes. They just come right up and you can feed them crackers and pet them. Hannah wasn't too sure about them at first!

These are life-size giraffe statues. What you can't feel in these pictures is how hard Hannah is pulling my hair because she is afraid of them. Not afraid of the real thing, just the statue!

As we were leaving the zoo, we walked back by the giraffes. Hannah immediately did the sign for "eat" and said, "Eat." (She is really starting to put words with her signs a lot these days!). How can you not let her feed them one more time? So...we bought her 3 more crackers! All of the giraffes at the front exhibit were full and were not coming up to eat the crackers so we went to an exhibit a little farther back. The only down side was that their cages weren't as open and we had to feed them through the wire. This time Hannah was not afraid at all!

Hannah's favorite animal, the lion, was sleeping when we went to see it. As we were looking at it I told her, "The lion went night-night." A little while later we went to see the gorilla, who was also sleeping. Hannah looked at me and did the sign for "night-night." She is SO cute, I could just eat her up!

So curious!

She loved every minute of it!

We got to pet a baby albino wallaby.

In the bird house we got a seed stick and this bird flew right to us!

I love her face in this picture!

She loved playing in the water!

I LOVE the zoo!

Hello Chicken!

She had no problem putting her arm through the fences. Don't tell dad, I'll surely have my zoo chaperoning privileges taken away!
The elephants were eating so she did the "eat" sign!
In heaven!

Cake!

About a month before Hannah's birthday we got a coupon in the mail for a 1st Birthday cake. If we bought a cake from Safeway, they would give us the baby cake for free. It sounded like a good deal to me since I could have easily made a cake (from a box of course) but decorating it would have been another story! I was grocery shopping the Saturday before Hannah's party (scheduled for the following Saturday) so I decided to go ahead and order the two cakes. I went up to the baker and showed her the coupon. She immediately launched into a series of questions in broken English. I was expecting her to, you know, show me a book with some pretty little cakes and I would happily choose one and be on my merry way. This is the conversation I had with her:
Me: I would like to order a cake.
Baker: White Dark? (talking 90 miles an hour)
Me: Um...white.
Baker: What kind frosting?
Me: Um...what are the choices?
Baker: Butter cream, cream cheese, (other kinds I don't remember).
Me: I'll have cream cheese.
Baker: What decoration?
Me: This is where I froze. I started thinking, "Wait, aren't you going to show me your little book of the choices I have? I said, "Excuse me?"
Baker: What decoration? Balloon?
Me: Um...Sure
Baker: Ok, bye.
Me: Um...I would like to pick it up on Saturday.
Baker: Ok, bye

Hmmm...That is how the cake ordering went. For those of you who know me well, you know I have ZERO creativity. When I am asked how I want a cake decorated, I need options!! I can't just come up with something off the top of my head!! As I walked away from the Baker I told Kim, "Well, this cake may be ugly so good thing it is her first birthday and she won't remember it!"

Fast forward to Wednesday of that week. At this point I decided to pick the cake up on Friday because we were leaning towards having the party on Friday instead of Saturday. I called the bakery and this is the conversation that I had with the baker (yet again...talking 90 miles an hour in broken English).

Me: Yes, I ordered a cake to be picked up on Saturday and I would like to pick it up on Friday instead.
Baker: Oh, when you order?
Me: Saturday
Baker: NO...WHEN YOU ORDER?
Me: Saturday
Baker: WHEN YOU ORDER?
Me: Last Saturday (calmly!)
Baker: What you name?
Me: Alexis Peterson
Baker: Ok, I look for it.
Me: Ok, thanks
Baker: (after about 5 minutes) What you name?
Me: Alexis Peterson
Baker: I not find order for cake for Alexis. When you order?
Me: Last Saturday
Baker: Ok, Happy Birthday Alexis?
Me: No...MY name is Alexis. The cake should say "Happy Birthday Hannah"
It is for my daughter.
Baker: Why you not tell me that?
Me: Um...you asked for my name, not what the cake said.
Baker: When you pick up?
Me: Friday at 12:00
Baker: OK, it be ready.

So...not only was a predicting an ugly cake, I was predicting it to say "Happy Birthday Alexis" as well. I told my dad this story and he insisted on going to Safeway to pick up the cakes just to see what happened if they were wrong. I don't know what he thought I would do. I'm pretty even tempered about these types of things, so I would have just sent my mom over to deal with them. My sweet mom can be quite demanding when push comes to shove!

This is what we got:
Not the prettiest cake I have ever seen, but not really ugly either. I was satisfied with the outcome. It was much better than I expected.



Hannah's Cake!
It was a big hit!

Hannah and Grammy in the hat that Grammy made!

Grammy Visits!

Grammy came to visit this weekend and we had so much fun! Hannah enjoyed reading stories and going to the swings. My mom brought a few books that I loved when I was little and read them to Hannah. It is amazing how she will sit and listen to a story at such a young age, especially since she won't sit still for anything else. We went to Arlington Cemetery since my mom had never been there and we saw Eunice Kennedy Shriver (JFK's sister), some of her children, and her two grand daughters. They were there placing flowers at the Kennedy family grave site. There was quite a scene when their cars got blocked in by a tour bus. The family members didn't seem to mind, but the security guards were running around saying..."Move, move, move...these are VIPs!" Of course, Hannah loved all of the hustle and bustle.

I love my Grammy.

If I could just remember to move my feet I could probably walk with this thing!