Hannah is still trying to potty

Hannah has been trying to use the potty a few times a day the past couple of days. She hasn't actually gone on it again, though. She just gets me to take her diaper off so she can sit on the potty. Then after sitting for a short time, she stands up and tears off some toilet paper, wipes, and flushes it down the big potty. At least she's interested, I guess. I'm not trying to potty train her yet. She's also been starting to try to say new words and is doing a few more signs. She says necklace now, "na na" with a short a sound. She says some other things, but I can't think of what else she says right now.

Hannah went pee pee on the potty at 16 months old.

This evening just after Brian got home from work, Hannah went into the bathroom and started pulling at her diaper and was saying "po po" with a short "o" sound. So, I grabbed the potty chair that was stored under the bathroom sink out and took her diaper off. When I sat her on the potty chair, she went! She went again on the potty before she went to bed. I don't know if she's really ready to seriously potty train yet, though. I don't think she can really have the muscle control that she needs to potty train yet. She has been, for the past couple of months, frequently going over to stand against the wall when she goes poop, so I think she knows when she has to go. Then, she will sometimes afterwards come over to me and go "ewwwww" and she shows me her diaper. I usually say "ewwwww stinky diaper" when I change her poopy diapers, so that's why I think she's saying "ewww" after she goes poop. Anyway, I think she's becoming more aware of when she needs to go and she's been really interested in the potty lately, so who knows... maybe. My mom told me that the lady who took care of her when she was little in Ethiopia potty trained her when she was only about 18 months old. I guess we will just have to see, but I wouldn't be surprised if she didn't go on the potty again for another month or more.

Hannah put a view master disk in the dvd player today.

When Heidi was really little, I bought a view master thing from a garage sale. You know, the toy that you put a little paper disk in with pictures that rotate as you pull the lever on the side. When I bought it, it only came with one disk, a Diego disk. Heidi was never really that interested in it, so I never bought any other disks (and haven't seen any at any garage sales at a price that I wanted to pay), so we only have that one disk. Well, Hannah has been playing with the view master a lot the past couple of days. Today, she even took the disk out of the top of the view master and took it into the family room (where our tv is). Then, she put it into the dvd player. I guess it is round like a dvd and it does have cartoon pictures on it. She must have thought it would have worked just like our dvd's do.

Last week, I let Heidi check a movie out from the library and it just happened to be a Go Diego movie, so after Hannah tried to put her Go Diego view master disk in the dvd player, I turned Heidi's Go Diego library dvd on for her to watch. She watched it for a little while before getting distracted and going on to do something else. She usually really only watches Signing Time. Oh, later on, she actually brought me a Signing Time dvd box and waved/said bye bye to Diego on the tv, so then I put one on for her to watch.

Hannah is picking up Heidi's bad habit

Heidi is gone this week (at Grandma Sylvia's). Usually, when Hannah wakes up in the morning, I bring her into my room and we usually talk/play for a little while (usually until Heidi wakes up). Then, Heidi comes into my room and we all usually go downstairs together every morning. Heidi usually gets upset with me because I carry Hannah down the stairs and not her. Heidi is usually grumpy most mornings. When we get downstairs, it's usually kind of cold, so I cover the couch with a big blanket for the girls to sit on because the leather is always really cold. A lot of mornings, Heidi usually whines and complains in a really grouchy voice for me to cover the couch just as soon as we get downstairs. This is usually the first thing I do after I get downstairs, but Heidi still likes to be grouchy and demand in an annoying way for me to cover the couch (even as I am getting the blanket to throw over the couch).

This morning, after Hannah and I came downstairs, Hannah took her baby blanket and was trying to cover the couch with it (as I went to go get a big blanket for the couch)... and she was complaining in a grouchy voice just like Heidi does every morning. I thought it was funny. Hannah is picking up Heidi's bad habit.

Hannahs Newer Words

Hannah has gotten the "ch" sound down now, so now she is saying:
- says "ch" for cheese (and uses the cheese sign)
- says "choo-sss" or "chsssss" for juice (and uses the sign for thirsty/drink)
- says "ch" for chicken

She also:
- says "ma/mu" mouse (and uses the sign for mouse)
- says "ma/mu/mun" for chipmunk
- says "b's" or "p's" for grapes
- says "obble obble" or "obba obba" for the turkey sound, "gobble gobble"
- does the zebra sign
- tries to do the signs for grandma and grandpa, but they look the same when she does them
- says "ma" for grandma
- says "pa" for grandpa
- says the signs for cat and dog (She's been doing the sign for dog for a while. She only does the sign for cat with one hand... and sometimes it's closer to the middle of her face instead of on the side, but she's trying).

I think she's saying a few other words too, but this is all I can think of right now.

Just a quick note

Tomorrow is Heidi's preschool graduation party. She has to go back to preschool again next year, so she'll have another graduation next year, too. She's pretty excited about it. Her class is meeting at a super jump house place where the kids will sing some songs and get to jump on a bunch of jump house things. There's even a HUGE bouncy slide. I'm going to try to take pictures, but my camera is SLLLLOOOWWWWWW... so we'll see how they turn out. I'm not sure that they will be that great because I'm sure Heidi will be moving pretty fast. It may be hard to get some good pictures.

Hannah is learning new things everyday. She does the sign for snail now, says "na" for snail, says "do" (w/a short o sound) for "dog," and says "bu biiiiii" (w/short u and long i) for "surprise." She loves hiding behind the big Huggies diaper box in her bedroom and popping out to say either "surprise" or "peek-a-boo" over and over again. She also loves taking baths. We have a lot of bath toys (including 3 mermaids, a couple of rubber duckies, 2 boats, foam alphabet letters, and some misc. other rubber/plastic water animals. When she was taking a bath last night, though, the toy that she was most interested in was the shampoo bottle that I had just finished using the last of. She spent so much time just putting the lid on and taking it off... and just trying to figure out how to screw/unscrew it. Hannah may not be as verbal as Heidi was at this age, but I think she is pretty good and figuring out how things work.

Sick Girls

Heidi and Hannah have been sick. Yesterday morning after I woke Heidi up to get ready for preschool, she told me that her stomach didn't feel good. We walked downstairs and I gave her some apple juice (which I probably should not have done), and after a couple of sips, she looked like she was about to throw-up, so I ran for the trash can and just barely made it to her in time. She threw up about 6 or so times through the day. She didn't eat anything all day yesterday and she stayed on the couch all day, laying down and watching movies. I thought she was finished throwing up by the time I put her to bed that night, but when she woke up this morning, she told me that she threw up in her trash can last night (that I put next to her bed with some washcloths closeby to wipe her mouth off with). I hope she's going to get better soon. This morning she wanted something to eat and she didn't want plain toast, so I gave her some chicken noodle soup.

Hannah has also had a fever since yesterday. She's also really grouchy. I know she doesn't feel good.

I just hope they get better soon. I need to get to the grocery store and buy more milk and a few other things (basics). I also have a couple of books that came in at the library that I had on hold that are going to go back into the system if I don't go pick them up today, but I am not sure if I will be able to go get them. Anyway, that's what's going on with us right now...

Peek-a-boo

Hannah is saying "boo-pa" now for "peek-a-boo." She is also saying what sounds like "neck" when she points to my neck. She has known where the neck was for a while now, but now she is saying it, too.

Smoothies And A Movie

Tonight we all watched a movie together! With Brian working so many hours and so many projects that have needed to be done around here, it is not always easy to find time to do something as a family... but tonight we watched Alice In Wonderland together. It was a little weird/creepy. Heidi says that the part where Alice was fighting the Jabberwocky (sp?) was scary. Hannah even sat on the couch with us most of the time (with a lot of tickling and playing to keep her entertained). It was a fun night. I don't think we've ever even done this before together. I also made smoothies for dessert with blueberries, strawberries, and bananas. They were yummy. :) I just thought I would write about our night since it is not very often that we get to do things together.

Heidi's Rock and Roll Song

Tonight has been a grouchy night for the girls, so they were both in bed by 6:35pm. We usually sing songs before I put the girls to bed everynight. We usually sing songs like Little Twinkle Twinkle Little Star or Frere Jacques (sp?). Sometimes Heidi likes to make up her own songs to sing. Tonight she made up a rock star song. I just happened to have a piece of paper and a pen closeby, so I wrote the words to her song down. Here it is:

She calls her song: Rock and Roll Team

You can't go to bed before you do rock and roll
The mom's downstairs
and you get out of bed
Then you do your rock and roll
and then you scream
then the mom hears
and she walks in the room
and then she runs in the hall
she sees her not in bed
and then the kids sees her mom
Then she holds her mouth open like this (0)
Then her mom says "Get in bed!"
Then in the morning you just get out of bed and scream and do your rock and roll
(do splits on the ground with one finger/arm pointing up in the air)
Then the mom hears and she is angry and says "You can never do that again!"
Then she finds her team
and they do ballet until they fall into the sea
Then a shark eats them
The end.

Heidi says: "It's called Rock and Roll Team because she just imaginates that she has a rock and roll team."

Heidi: Dentist & Witch

Today Heidi had her second dentist appointment (cleaning/check-up). She was great for the dentist! Then on the way out, she got a goodie bag with a new Snow White toothbrush, toothpaste, two princess flossers, floss, and toothpaste... plus 3 coins to get junk out of the coin machines in the lobby that she used to get a beaded bracelet, a plastic puppy, and a ring. It was a great visit for Heidi! Hannah, on the other hand, was not so happy. She was tired and grouchy because it was her naptime, so she was a little difficult.

Oh, we also wrote in Heidi's diary/journal again today. I won't write everything she said on here, but here's a little part of what she wrote:

"Everybody thinks Hannah's prettier than me 'cause everybody loves her better and they don't love me. They call her princess and they call me witch."

Well, this is not true. Nobody, as far as I know, has ever called her witch. She does get upset whenever somebody says something like "Oh, she's so cute." ... like when we're at the grocery store or out doing something. I often tell Heidi that she's pretty and that she's a princess. I think she is just still a little upset that she's not the center of attention anymore. I did think it was a little funny, though, when she said that people call her witch.