Hannah, our storyteller

I used to think that you needed a lot of words and a good command of the language (for us English) to tell a story. I'm quickly learning from my 17 month old daughter that isn't true. Now Hannah has a fairly large vocabulary, but it is still relatively simple... basic nouns, some verbs, but no sentences. Despite that, in the last week, she has told several stories.

We (Hannah and I) made a last minute trip to Atlanta last week to surprise my dad for his 60th birthday (more details and pictures to come). As I was preparing for the trip, I was telling Hannah that we would be flying in an airplane and then we would see Nana and Poppi. Hannah told this story to anyone who would listen in Hannahese... "Hannah... ssshhhhh (with airplane sign)... Nana... Poppi." Translated: Hannah is going in an airplane to see Nana and Poppi. At the end of our visit, she told the story this way... "Hannah... ssshhhh (with airplane sign)... Da Da." Same story, but this time she would see her daddy.

The next story she told, mom and I overheard while she was in her carseat chattering away. In between the Hannah chatter we heard, "Nana... come... boo.... ahhhhh." It took me a moment, but I realized that she was telling the story of when she left the room her Nana was in to "hide." Mom (aka Nana) realized she was too quiet and went to look for her. Hannah stepped out and yelled "boo," which startled Nana and she shouted. We all started laughing which caused Hannah to continue to yell boo.

The final story was a little more traumatic for the family, but she seems to have recovered enough to tell it over and over again. We were walking home from church on Sunday. Daryl was carrying Hannah and we were talking. He was distracted and turned his ankle on a rough patch of sidewalk. He fell, taking Hannah with him. He scraped his wrist pretty badly and we thought he had protected Hannah from the fall and she was just crying because she was scared. It turned out that she must have hit something too, because she had a goose egg on her head and some scraps. Anyway, she has reminded us of this each day since then by saying "Daddy... boom... ouchie... Hannah... boom... ouchie." Poor girl, but what a memory!

So there you have it... a storyteller already! Must be an Olson!