To get little Hannah to smile at us, all of us worked our butts off: singing, story telling, games, hugs, kisses, artificial flights ... you name it.
One person - Daddy - seems to be particularly favored by Miss Popular. He barely needs to exert any effort to get the girl to giggle to no ends.
Daddy is actually not very good with kids (by nature anyway). For the first couple of months of Hannah's life, he couldn't come up with anything to say to the baby even when Mommy specifically asked that he do it.
But Hannah makes it easy for Dad - just about any noise he makes will get a smile out of her. We are all so envious!
Hannah now knows how to swim doggie style! Mommy and auntie cheered and celebrated like she just won her 9th Olympic gold medal.
Seriously, Mommy wasn't this excited watching Phelps swam in Beijing.
On the way back to Keelung, Mommy broke the news to Daddy: "Hannah can swim doggie style now! I taped it!! You want to watch it??"
As soon as Mom and Dad got home ... "You want to watch Hannah swim doggie style??"
"Okay, but I will take a shower first."
As soon as Daddy got out of the shower ... "You want to watch Hannah swim doggie style??"
Daddy couldn't help but broke out in laughter: "Yes. Is it really that good?"
"Yes." Mommy replied in all seriousness and played the clip.
Daddy almost laughed his head off after watching the video.
"What's so funny??!"
"YOU are so funny. Hannah just crawled around in water a bit and you girls went nuts. It's not that special. I'd be impressed if she can do the dishes for me right now."
...
Hey! Enjoy this opportunity to be subjective when you can. There won't be a shortage of days when Hannah will be "objectively" compared to others ... grades, activities, abilities ... you name it. It gets a lot harder to impress when you grow up. So have a little fun for now :) ...
... But then again, to teach Hannah humbleness and good work ethic, mommy knows she will have to tune down her subjective pride at some point .
For now though (and for fun), Mommy declares without any bias what-so-ever: "Hannah is the best doggie style swimmer in the world!"
hahaha.
Attached please also see Grandpa's conversation with Hannah after her 'amazing' feat... He's making an appointment with her to swim across the Taiwan Strait and ... the Pacific Ocean(!!) one day.
Here is another example of how Hannah's magic has turned everyone in the family into 3 year olds. Sometimes Mommy is not sure if maybe some of us have indeed become more childish than Hannah is. Alas, we've found the fountain of youth.
Now, Hannah waves her chubby little arms and legs like normal babies do. Grandma fantasized that the little one was actually driving... which Mommy thought was already a brilliant interpretation that's hard to beat.
But then Auntie Ruby came over and saw Hannah kicking air with her feet (stepping on gas ... according to Grandma) and decided that all our previous analyses were wrong.
Hannah was actually asking us to play Whack a Mole with her.
Auntie Ruby quickly obliged and covered Hannah's chubby legs with a towel - making them moles to be whacked. Then, Auntie Ruby and Auntie Xuanxuan commenced on an exciting night of whacking Hannah's legs when the little one kick them up.
Environmentally conscious Grandma and Grandpa use solar power to heat water for their household need. They even recycle their water to water their roof top garden.
Brutal Taiwanese summer heat means an excess of solar power and higher watering needs from the garden at Grandma and Grandpa's house. All these make an excellent excuse for Hannah to enjoy a daily warm water "swimming" experience at Grandma and Grandpa's place.
Hannah loves swimming! It's an exhausting sport - prompting her to nap and drink a huge bottle of milk afterwards. But you hear no complaints from her - unlike her tummy time protests.
Hannah is now much more persistent during her neck muscle workout during her tummy time. However, lazy mommy has yet to capture a video of Hannah lifting her head up high (even though she has done it several times already).
For now, a video from 2-3 weeks back will suffice - at least mommy captured her effort!
