Hannah & Zoe

We don't actually know if it's going to be a boy or a girl, but looks like (if luck is with us) Hannah will get a new sibling right around Halloween. Actual due date is November 1st, which also happens to be my brother Eric's birthday, so that would be a cool (and handy) coincidence! Of course, Jon and I think these 3D images are a bit bizarro (Hannah's seemed to show horns coming out of her head, which makes sense since she is a bit devilish, but we're glad they retracted...). Here, it looks like our little bun is missing feet, but as the following snapshots reveal, looks like (s)he will be able to hang ten after all. Besides his/her cute button nose, kinda looks like (s)he is smiling at us, dontcha think??

Hang ten, dude!

"Hello everybodieeeee!.... No cameras please."

Hannah, one thing is for sure, you LOVE to read! Currently, your shelves are bursting with books, but you have your favorites that you love to read over and over again, and only on occasion do you want to read a new book. we sneak them in the rotation when we can, and gradually, your reading list has grown. Here are some of the covers of your favorite books to read. Your favorite book to take to bed is Richard Scarry's Best Word Book Ever.

Then there are the fifteen Sesame Street books which Dad bought at the Salvation Army Store for $1 each. Several of these became instant hits and jumped to the front of the line in your reading list mostly because you love watching Sesame Street and learning about what your Muppet Friends like to do. These books are great! They were published in the early 1980's, more than 30 years ago, and they are all out-of-print hardcovers. You love hardcover books because they are easy to hold and they don't bend in your hands (and sometimes they make great fans when you want to make a breeze). The pictures are done by artists who love to tell stories and draw pictures - artists who took the time to add in lots of funny little details that you have fun pointing out. You have memorized virtually every word and every image on every page, and you love to help point out the big letters in each sentence as you follow along with Mommy and Daddy.

This was one of your first favorites - I Can Do It Myself. Ernie, Rubber Duckie, Bert, Big Bird & Little Bird, Prairie Dawn, Oscar the Grouch, Betty Lou, Barkley, Roosevelt Franklin, Cookie Monster, Grover and Rodeo Rosie are some of your favorite characters.

Fix it, Please

is a story about Luis and all his friends on Sesame Street. All he wants to do is fix his broken clock, but he gets too busy fixing everybody else's broken stuff and runs out of time. This is definitely one of your favorites.

And you LOVE reading about Molly, who moves to Sesame Street and plays hide and seek with all her new neighbors - Ernie, Bert, Cookie, Grover, the Count, and Big Bird - and has a little grouchy run-in with Oscar - before getting a snack at Hooper's store...

You think

Grover

is cute and fuzzy, but you really like reading about Oscar the Grouch and his best friend Slimey the Worm even more. They have some fun adventures!

And way back when you were just turning two, many moons ago, you would read Follow the Leader again and again. Pretty soon after, when walking outside with Mom or Dad, you would say, "Up the hill, down the hill, just like Cookie Monster and Big Bird!"

Don't Forget the Oatmeal is tied with The Case of the Missing Duckie for your current favorite book. You have memorized all the grocery items on Ernie & Bert's grocery list, and you know exactly what kind of trouble Cookie Monster gets into down the Bakery aisle...

You love pointing to Sherlock Hemlock

and waiting for him to discover the missing, the missing... now what was he looking for? A dubby nuckie, a rubber guppy, a... A RUBBER DUCKIE!

Hannah, reading with you is so much fun, I hope this is the beginning of a lifetime of reading stories together!