Stay at home days with Hannah

With Audrey going to school every day now and Eli napping for almost the entire time she is gone, Hannah and I have had some amazing quality time lately.  This is definitely a special period.  Hannah as the middle child right now has never gotten such consistent one on one time with mommy beyond those newborn years.  She hasn't seemed to mind, but she definitely seems to love the idea of no one else around but us two for a few hours everyday.  It has given me the chance to notice some things about her, her talents and interests.  The chance to tune in to just Hannah.

We have done a lot of fun stuff- preschool, projects, chores and things like that.  Her favorite thing though has been baking!

Everyday when we are walking home from dropping Audrey off and I ask Hannah was we should do when we get home and she says without hesitation: "Bake."  Our new first day of school tradition is to make pumpkin bread for our after-school snack and that is where it started.  Every day since then that is what Hannah wants to do.  I love it.  

On days that we don't bake we do preschool things.  I have the week broken down to give me some direction in making the most of this one on one time with her.  Last year I had tried to put together a whole preschool curriculum to do with my girls everyday but it was too big a task.  What I've been doing now has been working much better, it's more flexible and low maintenance just to help me remember to do something good with her in those few hours.  Here is our light weekly plan:

• Monday- Preschool Folders Day (these awesome folders my mom makes and gives to us to help work on numbers, letters, colors, sequencing, all the preschool things)
• Tuesday- Baking and Reading Day (while our bake is in the oven we read about 7 or 8 of the hundred books we get from the library every week)
• Wednesday- Writing Day (practice writing her letters and drawing pictures in her little notebook)
• Thursday- Numbers Day (usually recognizing numbers and playing with counting with veggie straws or something)
• Friday- Singing Time (early day for Audrey so Eli is awake on Fridays during school time.  The three of us do preschool CDs with actions, games, and folders on Fridays) 

I like this little system because it just gives me an idea of what to do everyday.  Nothing is rigid or planned.  In the beginning we did really well for a few weeks.  Now I'd say we stick to it about half the time, combined with errands, my own school work, and some random activities.  

Basically though, this Hannah time has been magical and quite precious to us both.  She is an intense little girl sometimes but surprisingly she is also quite low maintenance.  Audrey and Eli seem to have similar personalities to each other.  In the show Avonlea, Janet says that Felix and Felicity are like squeaky wheels, but Cecily doesn't ask for a thing.  Right now Audrey and Eli are our squeaky wheels (not in a bad way)- talkative, curious, enthusiastic.  And Hannah is our Cecily, content to do her own thing most of the time.  It makes this time with her even more special because she is not demanding it from me.  

These pictures are gold to me!

Here is a perfect example of the unmatchable focus and steadiness of this girl.  She sat here by the little basketball hoop for a long long time.  When I finally came over to see what she was doing I had to laugh.  She was trying to balance this tiny Katerina Kitty doll in the net- and she would not rest until she had done it.  She didn't even care that I was taking pictures of her.  She just gets in the zone when she sets herself a task!

And then look at this face once she succeeded in her ever task!  It was so important to her and accomplishing it made her SO happy!

One of the random activities we did was a little fairy garden!  One reason Hannah is a great companion is because she sticks right with me through the planning and setting up phase of an activity.  We gathered some fairy size things around our house, got some dirt from our big flower pot, and put it all together.  The best part was the fairy house from Uncle Ross for Christmas a few years ago and the little furniture from other gifts gone by as well!  

It made for a magical time for us.

And then she went off with it and played and played and played!  I played a little too.  But mostly I just watched her perfect little magical childhood-ness in the bright green grass.

Happy days at home with this Hannah girl.