kate

Hannah sleeps in a toddler bed in her room, we put her down and shut her door and she rolls around chatting in her bed for an hour or so and eventually falls asleep. Then when Adam comes to bed later he opens her door, so she can come get us in the morning when she gets up. Recently she’s started coming into our room and standing next to one of us yelling “Uh BON!!!” which is Hannah speak for “Come on!”, since she wants us to go with her to the kitchen to get her breakfast. Neither Adam nor myself find this to be the most pleasant way to wake-up, so we’re trying to train her to come in and either sit in our bed and read for a few if it’s early, or play by herself in her room. She doesn’t like this deal at all.

This morning she came in at 6am and announced she needs to pee on the potty.  That’s not a request we tend to ignore. So her and I wandered through the dark house to find a potty, she sat and gleefully announced she had peed. She didn’t, but it was a very effective way to get me out of bed at 6am. Well played tiny friend.

Tonight she didn’t want dinner, so we put it aside for her. Then we went and cleaned the garage, she helped by jumping on her trampoline and teaching a set of colanders about, “God’s word”, which in this case happened to be a copy of “super baby food”. Then when we came in right at bedtime, she said she was hungry. So she got offered the same plate from dinner, and spent 30 minutes eating all of it. Delaying her bedtime an extra half hour. Well played Hannah, well played.

On another note I’m 37 weeks along with Sam, so I’m now considered full term and the doctor says he’s welcome anytime.

Here is a link to the online gallery of our maternity photo shoot, you just have to enter your name and e-mail:   http://amandalsmithphotography.zenfolio.com/p56055345

Hannah’s been using the potty fairly consistently at home. She’s only done it a few times out in public, but I’m not good about offering it since public bathrooms skeeze me out.

Right now she’s strutting around wearing regular pants and undies, though a majority of the time they are around her ankles. She peed in her little potty in the living room and waddled over (hard to walk with pants around you ankles) to get her new Micky from christmas, and drag him over to the potty to show him her accomplishment.

Hannah: “Look Mickey, pee pee in the potty, YAY!!!!!”

This went on for several minutes, with much clapping and cheering. Hilarious.

Hannah’s been sleeping in her toddler bed consistently at night for a couple of weeks, she’s been moved to the crib for a couple of naps that she just couldn’t calm down and stay in her bed for, but at night she’s been doing great. When I go to bed I check on her and cover her up with her blankets, and when Adam comes to bed he opens the doors to our room and her room so when she wakes up she wanders into our room saying “goodt mooorning!” It’s pretty much the cutest thing ever.

Last night I went in to check on her and noticed she’d unzipped her footed pjs. Then I looked a little closer and realized her diaper was missing. I had to go get Adam so we could both have a good laugh at the nudey sleeping. Then the best part was how she slept through me flipping her back and forth for the re-diapering. Funny funny girl.

Adam is helping me switch computers for photo uploading, so currently the photos are stuck on my phone, but hopefully soon they’ll be uploaded for sharing. =)

Hannah was playing train outside the bathroom this morning and started asking to use the potty. I told her she could in a minute when I was done and she said, “soon..okay?” too funny. She super entertaining now that she’s putting words together, and they’re words she’s hearing from us.

She’s currently walking around the house in 2 different socks, that she picked out from the laundry pile and pulled on herself (with a little help on one) and those funny thick training underpants, and nothing else.

Today our goals are to clean the house, and then she’ll hang with Adam at lunch while I see a counseling client, and my mom this afternoon while I see 2 more. =)

Th 4th Becker will be joining us in April. =)

A few favorites from the week:

When I was grossed out by hannah drinking her bath water I asked Adam, “Babe could you please bring us some milk” and Hannah kept repeating,  ”Babe! Milk!” it made us giggle.

There is a big and little toilet in the nursery bathroom, and many of the kids are recently potty trained, so they use the toilet with the door open and a staff standing nearby, while all the pre-potty kids stand around watching. Hannah was so excited by all this tiny toilet fun she asked to use the potty, and wanting to humor her I took off her diaper and out her on it. And SHE PEED!!!! I don’t think she had any idea what she’d done, but she was definitly delighted by my cheering, and finally getting to pull some tp off the roll, and use the step stool to wash her hands like the big kids.

I volunteered at a consignment sale that happens twice a year here. Since I volunteered I got to shop early and snagged some amazing bargains.

Elmo costume (hambone not included) $2

Coat $5 (retail $34.95) Overalls $5 (retail $30+) Bathrobe $3, hat & gloves $1

pink boots $3, white boots $5 (retail $20+), converse $2, red sparkle shoes $2, potty Elmo $2.50, Eggs $5, Piano $8 (retail $30+), baseball game $2 (retail $20), doodle pad $1 (retail $18), tools $2 (retail $12), books $2 (retail $12)

swing $9 (retail $24)

Though the best part of the swing is still Adam climbing up into our giant tree to hang it and tying rope like the Boyscout (sorry, Eagle Scout!) he is. =)

I knew you were all very worried Yoshi may need a kitty eye transplant, and I appreciate all the donor offers, but she’s all better. I’d feel bad for her with all the “love” she gets from hannah, but she could run away, and she doesn’t. So she must like it. Right?

I was reading that toddlers at 20 months learn a new word everyday. Today’s word’s are “safety” in reference to the “safety tree” that we evacuate the kids to at church, and “fire” since we were having a fire drill. Though she may now associate fire with cookies, as she got a cookie during each of the 3 fire drills, so be careful yelling fire around Hannah as she may run towards it in search of cookies.

Evey once in a while she wakes up in the morning or from nap crying. Usually it means she’s still tired, but she won’t go back to sleep, so we just try and do what it takes to make her happy and help her adjust to being awake slowly. She woke up really sad from her nap this afternoon and our exchange went like this:
me: “It’s okay Hannie, Mommy’s here” and I picked her up
H: pointed back into her crib, “Lubie”
me: “Okay, you want your lovie, I’ll get it”
H: Again pointing into crib, “Mow Mow”
me: “and you want your kitty, okay, we’ve got it” and we walk towards the living room
H: “mouse” pointing at tv
me: “you want to watch a show about a mouse? I don’t know if we have any shows about a mouse, but maybe we can find something….”
H: “Micky Mouse”
me: “ah, gotcha, you want to watch Micky Mouse, well alright.”

While it’s probably not developmentally appropriate that she watches enough tv to know a particular show to ask for (okay, okay, my degree in child development confirms it is not) it makes her happy. I was pretty excited that she was able to tell me everything she needed with any frustration, a huge accomplishment in our house.

Yesterday we went to Build A Bear for the first time with Hannah to use a coupon. She picked the same cat Adam and I made there maybe 5 years back. We tried to convince her to pick something new, but that was a no-go.

The stuffing machine was really loud, she it scared her and she wouldn’t push the step that makes it go.

Then it took much convincing that she didn’t need the $5 heart that actually makes a heartbeat sound. and even more convincing that she couldn’t put 12 hearts into te bear, or even take them home.

Then she enjoyed brushing the kitty

and saw something shiny and abandoned the poor kitty

and she proudly dragged her kitty in it’s box through the mall, much to our enjoyment.

The best part was that we didn’t have to spend $40 dressing the bear since she’s still young enough to be distracted out of the store without extra bling, haha

I need one of those signs that says,

“my house was clean yesterday, sorry you missed it!”

Though maybe it should say, “My kitchen was clean 10 minutes ago, then I went to clean the living room and this tiny tornado trashed the kitchen, then trashed the living room while I picked the kitchen up, so nevermind, it’s never been fully clean. Oh, and don’t mind the dog hair piles, they don’t bite.”

This weeks news is that Hannah has been telling me when she’s got poo in her pants, which is one of the potty training readiness signs, so that’s neat. She doesn’t really have any other readiness signs, so we’re not going full steam ahead with the training until she shows more interest. Yesterday she came and said, “poopy” but there wasn’t anything in her pants, so I stripped her and put her on her potty. She stood up and peed next to it. so I put her diaper back on and she pooped in it. I think she was just trying to help me work up the motivation to mop. Such a helper! At least she helped clean it up. =)

She’s been uber fussy in the evenings, not sure if maybe she’s cutting her 2-year molars or growing, or what. Hopefully it passes quickly.

Yoshi was feeling it’s been too long since her last round of theatrics, for a reminder here is a photo from last fall when she refused to eat and we got to tube feed her for 2 months.

So last week her left eye kept drooping, and eventually was fully closed. So I took her to the vet and she has an eye ulcer. gross. She got to wear a fun kitty collar, very regal. and get antibiotic eyedrops. We’re going in tomorrow for a follow-up, which hopefully will show she’s healed and not requiring kitty eye transplant surgery or anything else that would add to our current kitty debt.

It’s been super hot, but Hannah doesn’t seem to care and still wants to play in the backyard. She bounces her little heart out no matter the temperature.

The dogs are kind enough to share their pool when she’s ready to cool down.

This week Hannah has added “sit!” to her vocabulary. She’ll come find me and authoritatively state, “sit!” and point where she wants me to sit, usually so I can read her a book or look at a toy with her. She learns a new words at least everyday, which is really fun, though she still spends a fair amount of time babbling paragraphs I understand none of.

We got Hannah’s Halloween costume at costco this week and she’s very excited about her new ability to be a “mow”

I thought it would take a lot longer before she had the hand strength to do this. Guess not. =)