3/12/13

Last month began with a special treat for Hannah.  Our local Chick-fil-a hosts a Daddy Daughter Date Night in February for Valentine's Day.   Next year both girls can go since Abigail will have enough teeth to eat with.  =)  This year there was a photographer that brought props and took a picture of each dad with his "date."  LOVE this!

In last months post I wrote about Hannah memorizing Colossians 3:16 and posted a video link.  We also posted that link on Facebook and it was shared by LOTS of people.  It got sent to our pastor and they watched it in staff meeting.  They contacted us and asked if they could show the video in the service.  We said yes and they showed it in both services on Feb 24!  They showed the video within the first 15 minutes of the service so Nathan brought her in to see it and then took her back to her classroom.  She seemed to think it was neat.  Definitely a proud parenting moment!

I'm almost afraid to say it, but sleep issues have finally taken a turn for the better!  Hannah will occasionally wake up to potty in the middle of the night, but it's not every night.  And she's been doing better going to sleep as well.  We were constantly trying new tricks or rewards to get her to go right to sleep and not play or come out of her room 52 times.  Hannah has 2 or 3 stuffed animals that "sleep" on the big bed in her room since she still sleeps in a toddler bed.  One night Nathan took one of the animals and set him up on the dresser.  He told Hannah that Wrinkles was going to watch her and see if she could go right to sleep.  For some reason that worked, so Wrinkles now watches every night.  =) We'll see how long it lasts.

We made a Fruit Loop necklace with Grammy a few weeks ago.  Hannah wasn't sure at first, but then had lots of fun.  She enjoyed modeling her necklace when she as done, and it's also been a great snack.  Gotta love those fun activities that also work on fine motor skills.  Shh don't tell!  Here's some cute pictures!

Hannah enjoys letters so much that we've slowly started working on writing.  We thought we'd start with the letters in her name, since she can tell you how to spell it.  She figured out capital H all by herself.  A friend of mine teaches kindergarten and recommended not teaching your child to write their name in all capital letters. So I showed her the rest of the letters in lower case.  She can finally write them all.  Hannah still needs help knowing where on the page to write the letters (she wants to write them all over or on top of each other), but with a little help she can write her name.  Go Hannah!

And enjoy one of my favorite pics!
 

Fourteen Months

It is so much fun to watch Abigail learn and discover her world.  And her personality is definitely different than Hannah.  She is MUCH more determined and not nearly as cautious.  She has no problem taking off to the back of the house to play to the toilet, or pull her night light out of the wall, etc.  Hannah only ever wanted to play in the same room as us.  Abigail not so much!


Abigail is a firm believer in the "what's mine is mine and what's yours is mine." philosophy!  She always wants whatever Hannah is playing with and will scream, cry, and lay her head on the floor in a mini fit if she doesn't get it.  Hannah is SO sweet and passive she usually just gives Abigail whatever she wants.  We are working on making Abigail say please before Hannah gives her the toy.  The other day we were listening to music and Hannah was shaking a maraca to the beat, we have two maracas so I got one for Abigail too.  Abigail shook hers for a few minutes and then tried to take Hannah's. We told Hannah not to give it to her because she already had one.  Abigail got VERY mad and we just let her throw a fit.  After about 5 minutes Hannah decided she was done so she gave her maraca to Abigail.  The crying stopped, she shook the maraca, crawled across the room to get other one.  She shook both maracas and got a really big smile on her face.  I think we may be in trouble with this one.  =)

She can say  hi, baby, bow, yeah, ah duh (all done), doh (door), ba (ball), no no (and shake her head), ni ni (night night) and she tries to say peak-a-boo and sticker.  She makes a roaring sound at the lion from the play zoo.  Hannah laid on the floor (on her back) the other day and Abigail got all excited.  She said something that sounded like "tickle" and wiggled her fingers on her own tummy.  Then she crawled over to Hannah and tried to tickle her.  She still doesn't totally get tickling another person, but she tickles herself all the time.  Funny! 

Abigail can also point to her head, her ear, and her belly.  And she recently discovered her belly button.  =)  She can "help" brush her hair and turn off the light switch if you hold her up to it.  We've recently started brushing Abigail's teeth (and gums since she only has two teeth).  Every time we go in the bathroom Abigail says "eee'' and puts her finger in her mouth like she's brushing.


Both girls have always loved music and bounce and dance when they listen.  Hannah asked me the other day to sing the Hokey Pokey.  Abigail stopped what she was playing with, got up on her knees, stuck her arms out, and moved from side to side like she as trying to turn around.  She even clapped her hands when I sang "that's what it's all about."  So adorable!


Still not walking yet, but really wants to.  She will happily stand up and sit down all day long.  If she's really motivated she'll take one or two steps, but then she sits back down and crawls.  And she LOVES to hold your finger and walk around the room.  She's just not quite secure enough to let go and do it by herself.  Just in the last few days she has just started taking more steps.  Yeah!