Spring "Break"

Our friend Catey came over to hang out with us on Monday and Tuesday during her Spring Break from school. She was a big help to me, and Hannah loved having a big sister/playmate for a couple of days. She even let her dress her up in scarves.

then and now...

October 11, 2006

sharing because the mommies said to


March 23, 2008

sharing willingly

Easter Fun

opening her treats

rockin' with grandaddy

sweet hugs

Hannah "won" the egg scramble...

Juliana had just hunted for eggs with her other cousins and was more interested in the goldfish.

sharing

running around the empty, carpet-less master bedroom...
the girls loved how it echoed

All dolled up for Easter

fun time

Hannah decided Larry needed some core-strength training. Notice that Hannah is using the beach ball because it's just her size.


Then she decided Daddy needed some exercise, too:

This video will be priceless some day. I wonder what ever happened to the old slides my parents took of us when we were this little....

where'd she get THAT idea?

Those of you who know me know that I am somewhat organizationally challenged. However, J and I have made some attempts to teach Hannah to clean up her toys, even if Mommy's room looks like a tornado went through it, as is usually the case. Apparently our efforts have not been in vain.

Hannah and I were headed to run errands, and a few minutes before we left I had reminded her that she would need to try to go potty before we went to the post office (which as anyone knows includes getting a free lollipop for the kid).

I was finally ready to go, but there was that one last thing we needed to take care of.

"What did I ask you to do before we go for a ride in the car?"

"Pick up my toys." Bear replied.

Funny, I didn't recall asking that, but it wasn't a bad idea. So I let her finish picking up her toys and helped her to the potty.

photos of the week

Past attempts to put a ponytail in Hannah's hair have been futile. She has pulled them out almost immediately, after minutes of struggle to get them in. I had stopped trying. She barely keeps bows in her hair, so who was I to think ponytails would survive?

Never underestimate the power of marketing to kids. Or Grandmas. Grandma had sent a Valentine's package home with Daddy a few weeks ago, and the package included a set of "Sesame Street" ponytail holders. They are in the bright colors of some favorite SS characters and have little eyes shaped like the characters eyes on them.

Yesterday, Hannah insisted that I "put a tail in her hair". She handed me the package of scrunchies and picked out the green set with Oscar the grouch eyes. As you can see from the pics above, she liked cookie monster's eyes, too. She didn't care about the cowlick of curls that would not stay back, as you can tell from her cheesy smile turned Elvis impersonation shot.


Here's the raincoat grandma found at our favorite consignment store in Cordova. Plenty of room to grow.

BIG girl bed!!!!

Grandaddy brought us an extra bed that's no longer needed, and the transition toward sharing a room has begun. It did not take long for Hannah to test out her mattress:


I think we'll let her pick out sheets for herself, but I scraped something together. And I have to admit, I like how Great Gramma's quilt looks on the bed...
It wasn't complete without her blankies...
This pic makes her look small!

rainy day

The rain let up enough so that Hannah was able to play outside for a few minutes today. When it began to drizzle, she asked for her umbrella. Of course, I was lucky to get a couple of shots with it actually above her head.

growing up

hannah bear has begun calling me "mom" sometime in the past week. not just mama or mommy, but "mom". it makes me a little sad.

she's using simile's...
for example, her grape she is "eating" rolls "like a ball"
she'll see a colored object, and say it's "yellow like a banana" (for example)

yesterday at the garden center, she correctly identified flats of tulips which are not yet in bloom because she recognized their shape. i may be grooming her to be a botanist or florist.

possesive hoarder

baby bear has taken to putting everything into big piles. big, messy piles. and if you have some thing she wants, watch out. "mY brown blanket! MY big ball (referring to the exercise ball that is as big as she. that's MINE!" you get the idea...

almost Spring

Our 1st daffodils of 2008...

Cooler weather is supposed to be coming back, but we enjoyed our warm, sunny weekend. She was excited about watering the flowers with Mommy today, then the excitement shifted to watering the rocks and seeing how much mulch and how many pieces of chalk would fit into her watering can. She also enjoyed having a special treat on the front porch... a popsicle. Which reminds me that I need to find the plastic freezer-pop makers so I can make 100% juice pops instead of just giving her the not-so-healthy ones in their plastic sleeves.

ready for church at Grandma's

This was taken after I brushed her hair, believe it or not.... we had a crazy curl day. :)

i'm not sure who to feel more sorry for...

Hannah, whose affections are hissed at, or Princess, Gramma's cat who does not appreciate the extra lovin'.

Wordless Wednesday

cuteness

Our little bundle of energy jumps up from her seat on the couch upon hearing the garage door go up and feeling it vibrate underneath us.

Hannah: "Daddy, YAY!!"
Mommy; "Do you love Daddy?"
Hannah: "Mmm hmm. He's so CUTE!"

terrible two's or teething?

whatever the cause, our little girl has been quite troublesome this week.

i turned my back on her in the bath for about 2 minutes... when i returned, the bathroom was flooded. thankfully i caught it before it spread to the carpet in the hall. bath time ended abruptly and someone got a time-out in her towel. we've had conversations about not-dumping water out of the tub on several occasions. she'd better be glad she didn't pee on the carpet while she was in time out.

"no!" is quickly becoming one of her favorite words, especially when asked to do something she doesn't want to do.. like go downstairs, etc.

it took her over an hour to go own for a nap on saturday... and i needed one too, so i was not happy.

she dumped her little people airplane and market on her daddy's head today. and there's not point in picking up her piles because she re builds them immediately. (not that her mommy is much more organized).

in all fairness, she is chewing on her hands and drooling a lot. that can't be fun. i can't remember the last time i had to change a poopy diaper, because she at least does #2 in the toilet. she is using fewer diapers and wetting fewer training pants and undies. and sometimes she tells us when she needs to pee, even if 1 minute later she refuses to sit on the potty.

This is one of the less annoying songs from the big cuddly dinosaur that Hannah likes to watch on videos that were handed down to her. And whenever we put her in a "spaghetti bib", (adult t-shirt), she thinks she's got butterfly wings.

you guessed it...

more potty progress

On Wednesday, after I dropped Hannah off in the nursery, her teacher, Shelly told her to let her know if she needed to go potty. Shelly is a Mom of 2 toddlers and knows we've been working on it at home. Apparently when she was changing another child's diaper, she asked Hannah if she needed to be change, and Hannah stated, "I go potty." With some help getting her diaper off and pants down, that's exactly what she did!

Yesterday and today she stayed dry during her nap, wearing her training pants! She also asked to go potty after Music class, but then she refused to sit on the big potty and held it until we got home.

Ever since we moved her little potty up to the bonus room, she has been better about not having accidents. The past couple of days, she has told us several times that she needs to go pee pee.

The hello kitty and dora underpants she got from Gramma for valentine's day are coming in handy!

conversation

Daddy: "Who made Hannah?"
Hannah: "God made Hannah."
Mommy: "Who made the animals?"
Hannah: "God made the whole world."


Diana Beach, the director of the preschool at our church ,has put several of the Westminster Shorter Catechism questions to music and recorded them on a CD, Ask Me Whooo???. This is Hannah's favorite CD, and if it's not playing in the car when we start it, she immediately asks one (or both) of us to "push the button". Her favorite songs are the first two: Who Made You? and How Can You (Glorify God)? She would listen to them over and over and over and over and over.... you get the picture.

At least the message of the music seems to be sinking in.

potty progress, cont'd

cousin juliana was a good influence on hannah this weekend, even if she made her use the little potty instead of the big seat. (it doesn't sound like hannah cared, anyway.)

hannah didn't have a single accident before nap time (2:30) today. we even went to the library, wal-mart and smoothie king after lunch, and she stayed dry the whole time, earning herself a lollipop. i did put a diaper on her for her nap, just in case, but it looks like those new hello kitty and dora undies which gramma sent over are going to be put to good use! i'm seriously considering refusing to buy another box of diapers when this one runs out... but that might mean i'll have more wet beds to clean up than i want to deal with. so we'll see.

while mommy and daddy were away....

hannah went to cousin juliana's to play





I stole the video from Aunt Becca's blog.

overheard

Hannah to her toy phone, as she set it next to the closed door to my mommy & daddy' room (a common corner used for her own "time out":

"You go in time out. Think about it."

Apparently the phone ate too many of her raisins at lunch, I don't know....

coming along...

we went to the post office today.
bear wore her training pants, and kept them dry.
the dum-dum lollipop from ms. sharon at the PO was apparently a good incentive for her.

snapshots of life

refusing to pose for a sunday picture...

mealtime smiles

there were toys in both of those crates

this is where many of the toys ended up
(and wet bunny was wrapped in the towels at the bottom of the pile)

playing outside today

take my picture! closer!

when mommy's back is turned and it gets quiet....

look in the bathroom...

bath time with bunny

somebody snuck a friend into the bathtub with her...

grandparent time

no pics, unless grandaddy got some today. while mommy was at her doctor's appointment making sure her boo-boo is all better (actually, hearing baby's heartbeat, but the first thing hannah said when i walked in the door was "mommy's boo-boo all better!"), granwendy and grandaddy came to see me. i was so excited about them coming! i talked about it all day. and i didn't cry when mommy and daddy left this time! we played outside a little, i tried to talk granwendy into giving me lots of milk and juice, but we were almost completely out. she told me mommy would be bringing some more when she came home, and she was right!

they stayed for dinner. i loved the 5-grain italian bread from publix- mommy thinks i hate 3 or 4 pieces. i was also very excited about eating mommy's homemade beef and veggie soup. i wore one of her old t-shirts instead of a bib; she says there are some battles that aren't worth fighting. but i was on my best behavior and did a pretty good job of using my spoon.

toward the end of the meal, i got a kick out of continuously calling my parents by their first names.

"that's war-en!"
"that's joel!"

i was doing pretty well with grandma wendy and grandpa tom's first name's, too... then i pointed to grandaddy/grandpa tom and said, "that's grandpa thomas!" it might get a little confusing when both grandpa's are in the same room, since one's first name and one's last name sound the same.

contrary to popular belief

our little girl does not eat EVERYTHING.

she refused the tuna sandwich i made for lunch

A new trick- all by myself!!!

Hannah has been doing assisted flips for months, perhaps a year. Tonight she figured out how to do somersaults all by herself... with a little "hogwarts" action thrown in there.

"pet" names

cow kitty= calico kitty

silliness

Upon viewing photos of the animals on the Halleyville ranch, Hannah exclaimed...
"puppy's inside mommy's belly!"

oh, dear...

corky's

we went out to dinner with some of daddy's co-workers, and lilly kate! in fact, when daddy arrived i was so excited i asked where lilly kate was. i also made a couple of new friends... one human, and one concrete.

more adventures in potty training

i gave in and moved the little potty upstairs. hannah has been resisting going downstairs to the bathroom, and i have grown weary of the upstairs "accidents".

wouldn't you know that about 30 minutes after moving the potty upstairs (with a towel underneath it just in case), she walked over to it, asked for help getting it open and pulling down her pants, and went pee-pee. dumping the pot of pee is sooo much easier than cleaning upholstery.

she had been doing well with going down when told, but she had taken a step backwards by not wanting to go and then having accidents, so i hope this may actually help her go on her own initiative again.

Something I will not take for granted...

while today has been filled with one toddler challenge after another, I just finished reading Caroline's blog, and how she is STILL fighting the whole sleep thing. I think Emmy and Maddie must be sending some tricks her way, much to Steph an Ashley's chagrin...

and that brings me to this. While my dear friend is hoping #2 will be the polar opposite in sleep patterns of her firstborn, I am hoping that my second child will be just like his/her big sister in the sleep department.

sigh...

When we put Hannah to bed tonight, we found a book in her bed.... with 2 pages ripped out of it.
She didn't press us when we told her we would not rock with her or snuggle extra, so I think she realized she was in trouble. Daddy is promising to move the bookshelf to the guest room if she does it again...

adventures in potty learning continued

So, Hannah has been wearing her training pants and underwear around the house lately. Usually she tries to go potty when told, and occasionally she has told us when she needs to go.

This morning, she had a nice big leak on the couch/throw pillow. Thankfully the throw pillow got the brunt of the wetness (it was twice as heavy as normal), so I took it downstairs to the washer (we're about to find out how washable it is). When I came back upstairs, she was spraying the other pillow with the carpet/upholstery cleaner. The one she didn't pee on. We now have 2 pillows in the wash.

At least she wasn't spraying the stuff in her mouth... she was so proud of herself, too. But that'll teach me to leave cleaning supplies in her reach for a second.

"I cleaning pee!" she exclaimed.
*******
As she ate her snack a little while later, I heard a familiar, "uh-oh, i leaking!"
Sure enough, the puddle was making its way to the floor. So I scooped her up, set her on the potty (better late than never), took off the booster seat and put it in my bathtub. It was in need of a good scrubbing anyway. Hannah heard the noise and made her way from her bathroom to mine, wanting to get into the tub with her booster....

I did let her take a bath in her tub, and as she played with her toys, she asked for her booster. While I'm sure that might have been a fun addition to her bath, she did not get what she asked for.

I'm not too happy with the effect of grape juice on her bladder. She had been doing sooo well lately...