Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Behind Her Back

Behind her back is a carefully drawn map.  Sometimes it is used to go on a treasure hunt.  Other times it is used to drive her stuffed animals to the correct movie theater.  And when she really wants to make her sister laugh, she says it is a map to show Colin (Leah's crush) how to get to our house. 

I love watching her create.  With her steady left hand, she draws pictures of our family, all five with smiling faces.  She colors pictures of dinosaurs in her many dino coloring books.  She is careful to add eyelashes and lipstick to each one.  She has learned about shadows and color from her Daddy and is careful to use them.  I think I see a budding artist in her.

When she doesn't have any toys readily available (like when waiting to be seated at a restaurant), her hands become spiders that run and play chase and talk in different silly voices to each other.

She loves to dance, but gets embarrassed when anyone watches too closely.  So I've learned to act like I'm not watching, and to steal long glances when she doesn't think I'm looking. 

She can become just about any animal you ask her to become.  Jaguar?  Puppy? T Rex?  Shark?  She can imitate their sounds and movements with a lot of accuracy and full abandon!

She is always curious about words.  I don't think a day goes by when she doesn't ask me what a word means.  Just today she has asked about the meaning of the words "vocabulary", "almost", and "stampede".  She loves to learn new things.

I love watching her grow and change.  She challenges me to be more curious, creative, and passionate about life.  And she tests my patience too, but I know that she is only making me into a better parent.  Thank you, Hannah, for being exactly who God made you to be.

3 comments:

affectioknit said...

Sweet! Scout used to love treasure maps too - drawing them and following them...

Jacquelyn said...

Thank you Hannah for for bringing a smile to my face everytime I see you! Thank you Emily or this great post. :)

P.S. I had a dream last night that Lucas is the size he is now but he could talk. And I had to keep changing his diaper over and over and over. Weird. I think he looked sort of like a mix of Zachary and Lucas (also weird) but I kept calling him Lucas. And you were in the other room.

Anonymous said...

I absolutely adore this post on sweet Hannah!! <3