First Date Day with Hannah

For the last fifteen months, Meghan and I have been doing scheduled one-on-one date days with the kids. We switched off between Joshua and Clara and with the two of us to ensure that each kid gets dedicated special time with each parent on a regular basis. Hannah was just a tiny baby when this started, but we recently decided she was old enough to be thrown into the mix. So today was Hannah's first date day, and it was with me. Here she is enjoying a breakfast of bananas and Mulit-Grain Cheerios, which has been a long-time staple in our house, along with some Berry Berry Kix, which has been a recent addition.

The first part of our date was to go to Blockfest. I'm now a grizzled veteran of Blockfest, as I've been there with just Joshua, with Joshua and Clara, with Clara and Hannah, and now today with just Hannah.  I guess I'm a just-with-Clara and a Joshua-and-Hannah away from hitting for the Blockfest cycle.  She liked it a fair amount.  Like most kids that age, she mostly likes knocking down towers/stacks and occasionally throwing, though she did do some simple stacking, which was good to see.

For our main event, I wanted to do something that would encourage her continued verbal development as well as give her space to walk, since she's now doing a lot of walking, as it's a recent skill.  I decided the best place to do this was Walmart.  There are plenty of open aisles, and there are a million things in the store to see and discuss.  Sometimes we walked around hand-in-hand, but other times I would let her walk on her own if the surroundings allowed for it.

We walked all over the store, and I encouraged her to point out things.  She found everything from apples and bananas ("ahpoo" and "nana") to bikes and balls.  She really liked both bikes and balls, and we spend a lot of time in that back sporting goods corner.  Her voice is so cute, as most things she says have a hint of concern in her voice, even if she doesn't have concern.  She liked saying "bike" and "ball" repeatedly as she saw different ones, and even said "touch it" for a lot of things.  It's good for her tactile development to feel different textures, so I always granted those requests.

It was soon lunchtime, so we went to McDonald's for some food. She loves Chicken McNuggets, and I actually do too.  The over-processed, semi-gelatinous, tastes-nothing-like-chicken fried blobs are delicious, especially when paired with one of the sauces (I always chose Sweet and Sour as a kid, but now they have better options like Habanero Ranch).  So we shared a 20-piece and some fries, which she devoured.  We also got an Oreo McFlurry for dessert.  I told her it was called "ice cream" and the extreme deliciousness apparently drove her to instantly learn a new word and said "ice cream" as a request for more after every single bite.  It was really fun to spend some one-on-one time with my littlest baby girl, and I'm excited to now be able to do these with her in addition to the other two going forward.