Hannah Fun Bettinger

Within weeks of Hannah's birth we realized that we struck gold in giving her the middle name Joy. We also quickly realized that we could have appropriately given her "Fun" as a middle name because she's been so fun right from the beginning. I remember when she was just a couple weeks old asking my mom, "is it too early to say that she's an extrovert?" She was flashing huge, drooly grins to anyone who remotely looked at her by 4 weeks old.
I'm full of thankfulness for my little family. They are my favorite people to be around. I was going to an exercise class last night (which deserves a blog all of its own - it's awesome to have a place for women to exercise!) and I realized just before I walked out the door that I already couldn't wait to get home to hang out with them again.
I was sitting with Hannah this afternoon, sipping cold R.C. cola (a special treat for both of us) and playing Princess Go Fish and just feeling nostalgic or something. I tend to think ahead but God just blessed me with a moment of present-mindedness and I looked at that darling pale-skinned, big-blue-eyed, contagious smiling face and felt soooo blessed that I get to have Hannah as a daughter. She's just so fun. We had been swimming this morning at the pool and I was just marveling at her lack of fear and busy-ness. She was constantly alternating between swimming all over the place, jumping in, figuring out new things to do with her floaty toy and searching for treasures (which in this case was composed of various leaves and a dead cockroach she found floating in the pool - yeah, she even wanted to take "him" home). We just played charades with her the other night for the first time and she was so good at it! We briefly told her how to play and she just jumped in. She's always up for a new game (or making up a new one herself), always looking for an adventure, always wanting to create something. She's even old enough to go to the bozor with me or on special visits. She's just so much fun.
I think this is all extra sweet to me because from about age 2 - 3 1/2 parenting her was so darn difficult. I had a number of moments where I truly thought that I wouldn't survive parenting her. That I would never get to enjoy an adult relationship with her because the stress of parenting her would have already done me in. I know it's over-dramatic but if you've ever had a strong-willed toddler/preschooler I'm sure you can relate. If you can't relate, be thankful that your kids are/were on the slightly more compliant end of the spectrum. It seemed that no matter how consistent and loving I was and how conscientious I was to not create power-struggles and such - nothing was working. She'd say, "Can we go outside?" and I say, "sure, let's put on our shoes and go out." She would proceed to scream that she did NOT want to go out and would NOT put on her shoes. It seemed that everything had to be a fight for her and 95% of our requests were met with absolute refusal. I felt some days that all I did that day was deal with discipline. It really wore me out. But something started to happen around 3 1/2 and has continued to happen. If you had told me then what kind of kid she'd be now, I would not have believed it. But she's grown in so many areas (so have I) and she's so helpful and thoughtful and kind. And just so much fun.
Here are a couple pics in honor of my delightful 5 yr old girl.

She loves climbing rocks.

With friends, Hannah & Nadiyah, a few weeks ago.

We love this expressive face!

She's constantly climbing something. At home, it's the walls and doorframes.