Heidi thinks there should be potties in cars that just pop up in your seat when you need to go.

Not long ago, maybe a week or so ago, I was at the Dollar Tree looking to buy some craft-making items. While we were there, Heidi found for sale those horse-on-a-stick things. I'm not sure what they're called. We really don't need anymore toys, so I didn't buy her one (even though they were only a dollar). Anyway, today she asked me if she could use a sock and glue some googly eyes on it and draw a smile for a mouth... and then put it on the end of a broom stick, so she could pretend that she had a horse. I thought it was a fun idea, so I gave her an old, odd, pink baby sock (that Hannah has outgrown anyway) and she made her pretend horse. She likes making crafty things. I think it was a cute idea.

She was also telling me yesterday that she thinks the people who make cars should start putting potties in them, so when kids need to go, they will just pop up in their seats and they should even have toilet paper on the tops of the potties. She wrote about this in her diary/journal yesterday, too. I think it is funny, the things that 4-year-olds think about.

Hannah is growing up...

I guess Hannah is growing up and trying to become an independent person. After I had already dressed her in a cute short and shirt outfit, she decided that she wanted to wear something else. She opened the middle drawer in her changing table and took out her froggie pajama pants and a cute hot pink top with a flower on the front that has a tutu attached. She held these two items of clothing to her body and made complaining noises until I finally agreed to put them on her. Her face was beaming with a huge smile as she rubbed the flower on her tummy and looked down at herself with her froggie pajama pants and her pink tutu shirt/skirt combo.

It's also 11:32am and she has had a dry diaper all day so far! She has told me twice that she has needed to use the potty by using the "potty" sign, saying "po po" w/a short "o" sound, and trying to take her clothes off. Both times that she did this, she went pee pee in the potty and got mini stickers as rewards on her hands. Heidi reminded me that we still had some stickers that we used with her for potty rewards when she potty trained a couple of years ago. Heidi was pretty easy to potty train. I'm thinking Hannah might be also. Hannah is still only 17 months old. The first time she used the potty, she was 16 months old. I'm not trying to potty train her. She just wants to go on her own. I think it is because she sees me and Heidi using the potty and she wants to do what we are doing. I guess we will see.

She has also been using a lot of new signs now for the past month or two... I'll try to list as many of the new ones as I can remember (not including some that I have already mentioned on past blogs).

hot
cold
thank you
please
gorilla
monkey
play
snail (not sure if I've mentioned that one yet or not)... she also tries to say it
candy (& says "na na" w/a short a sound, like in "candy")b/c Brian sometimes give her some
zebra
tiger
goat
bat
bear
baby
elephant (and makes a sound like the elephant does when it lifts its trunk)
cat (may have already mentioned this one a few months ago, not sure)... also does "dog"
drink/thirsty
more (has been using this one for a long not, not sure if i've mentioned it, though)
hurt
airplane

There are probably more, but I just can't think of them right now.

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.