January 2016

This month has flown by...with Abigail's birthday, school starting, and activities starting up again. We've actually had a gradual start to all most of our activities which has been nice.  Still can't believe the month is over though.  My mom and I have been putting together the girls photo books (full of 2015 pictures) so no time to actually take pictures.  Everything in today's post is from my phone.  =)

We've had a few afternoons of nice weather, but mostly it's been cold.  We bundle up in jackets, scarves, and hats/hoods while walking to school.  It's 10 minutes one way so not terrible, but I'm always glad to come back home where it's warm.  No crazy snow or ice storms though which is nice.

Speaking of cooler weather, I broke down and bought Domino two fleece shirts from an online vendor that owns sphynx cats.  I swore I wasn't going to spend money to clothe my cat...but it was cold.  And we tried sock sweaters and infant sweaters (all bought really cheap) and they were just not the right size. Thankfully I found a really good sale so I didn't have to spend an arm and a leg.  Domino still isn't sure sure that he likes them though.  =)

When it's sunny in the afternoon the window in Hannah's room is Domino's favorite place to be.

The girls are LOVING the dollhouse my dad built for Christmas.  The play with it all the time.  I enjoy doing some basic school things with Abigail while Hannah is gone.  We don't do it everyday and mix in learning games and crafts too.  Abigail surprised me with how many letters she knew how to write.

When we get home from picking up Hannah from school, we have snack and then a 30 minute quiet time in our rooms.  This gives Hannah a chance to decompress from her day and puts her in a better frame of mind to do homework and Abigail loves it too.  And Mommy has a few more minutes to get something done without being interrupted.  =)  One day I came to tell Hannah it was time to come out and found her playing "school" with her toys.  SO CUTE!  I love that her doll is raising her hand to ask a question.

September 2014

Fall is in full swing...even if it is still hot outside.  Although we have had some cooler mornings lately and our highs haven't been 100.  I was more referring to all our activities kicking off again.  =)  Preschool choir and Bible Study have started and I decided to join MOPS (Mothers Of PreSchoolers) this year.  I am also teaching a Tiny Tots, mommy and me music class, this semester.  We are busy, but my girls are enjoying having lots to do and ask every day where we are going.

At the beginning of the month my mom told me we didn't have a "cover worthy" photo of Abigail yet for her photo memory book this year.  So on Labor Day was took Abigail by herself with THREE adults to do a mini photo session while Hannah played with G-Pa.  Abigail has very strong opinions about things and can be difficult to photograph.  We told her if she cooperated she could pick out a sticker.  She was SO VERY good and we got some ADORABLE photos.  Here's just a few of my favs.







Took a break from photos to look at the turtles swimming in the water.  Love this sweet Daddy moment!


On days we are at home I am trying to be more intentional and engaged in playing with the girls.  They are getting so good at playing together it's easy to just let them play while I work on the computer or around the house.  I still do that, but my goal is two or three days a week for about 30 minutes to work and/or play with them.  I started about a month ago and it's going really well so far.  There are TONS of cute crafts, learning games, etc. out there on the internet.  I spent time over the summer gathering info, planning, and preparing stuff.  Some weeks we focus on a specific letter, other times it's fine motor practice, sorting beads, counting pom poms or domino dots.  I'm having fun and so are the girls!!  They both love to learn and so I figure it might as well capitalize on that.  =)

One final photo...Hannah was enjoying looking out my parent's kitchen window and asked my mom to take her picture with her kitty.

July 2014

The girls and I had so much fun at VBS last month that when I was asked to help out with preschool music camp, I jumped at the chance.  The camp was 4 days and went from 9-2.  Although, I was done by lunch every day except Thursday, performance day. The kids learned 6 songs and did a program for their parents at the end of the last day of camp.  Hannah and Abigail had so much fun, but it was definitely hard on Abigail to mess with her nap schedule. They laid down in her room, but she never really slept. The theme was Kids Under Construction.  Hannah's teacher accidentally wrote her name on her costume so she got to keep it.  Oops!  All in all it was a great experience and I will gladly work next year if I'm asked. =)

We were hanging out with my family on 4th of July and I asked my mom to take a few family photos.  It was hot and we didn't want to frustrate the girls so we only spent about 10 minutes.  These may not be the best shots technically speaking but I LOVE THEM!  They are real and genuine.  Hannah was not feeling the camera love that day, but Abigail was being a total flirt! These are just my 2 favs.

Lately I've tried to be more intentional in our play activities, especially with Abigail.  When Hannah was 2, I worked with her all the time to learn her letters.  Not so much this time around.  Abigail is just as smart as Hannah and the same desire to learn.  She's known about half the capital letters for quite a while (most of which she picked up on her own or from Hannah).  After a few fun learning games she now knows all but about 4 or 5.

And Hannah is reading or trying to read everything she can get her hands on.  As she told my mom the other day "Grammy my only problem with reading is that I can't stop!"  He he, so cute and VERY true!  Lots of readers in the family on both sides!  =)

A few weeks ago we decided to get out all the art supplies.  Neither of the girls really enjoy being messy and we're attempting to teach them it's OK to get dirty.  Happy to report that they both did paint and get dirty, but it was not their favorite.  Next time we will try painting with brushes.  Both thoroughly enjoyed the chalk!  Fun times!
 

March 2014

Hannah was looking at a book the other day and pointed to the word "the" and told me what it was.  She must have figured it out by herself, because I didn't teach her.  She is having so much fun finding "the" in all her books.  She hasn't yet made the connection between letter sounds and reading yet.  But she can spell phonetically like a queen.  Abigail loves letters too.  She is constantly learning new ones on her own, as well as the few I've taught her.  I thinks she knows half upper case letters now.

We've been the enjoying the few days of spring weather.  It gets so hot here in the summer we take full advantage of actual spring temperatures.  We have gone to school playgrounds and several new parks.  There are tons of parks in Plano, so we just looked at the map and picked some that weren't more than a 10 minute drive.  Hannah loves to climb (thankfully not at home on the furniture) and has enjoyed various ladders and rock walls.  Abigail has discovered the slide.  She can't climb ladders yet, but goes up the stairs and runs to the slide.  She is very brave and will do them all, even the really tall ones.  She is so tiny though that if it's a tall slide she flies down.  Someone has to stand at the bottom to stop her or she will fly off and land on the ground. We've enjoyed watching both girls become more confident and independent in their play.

We made yet another trip to the Dallas Zoo.  I think that makes 4 for the year and we decided to renew our membership for next year as well.  This time my sister got to join us since it was her last day of Spring Break.  It was chilly in the morning so there were very few people.  We got to spend lots of time looking at the giraffes and elephants up close without feeling like we needed to give someone else a turn.  Due to the cool weather the zoo moved their animal encounters indoors.  We were the only ones at the African penguin demonstration.  We learned lots of information and even got the touch the penguin.  It was really cool and we were all surprised how soft it was.

 

January 2014

Now that the girls are bigger and not doing as many new things, I'm going to start posting less often.  My goal is one post a month and give highlights on both girls.  I will probably still do individual post for birthdays.

Not too much to say this month since I just did a birthday post on Miss Abigail.  Speaking of Little Miss, she is my sneaky one.  Our couch is pushed against the wall under the breakfast bar in our living room.  It's where we keep pens, remote controls, a candy box, and various other things we'd prefer the girls not get into.  Anyway, the girls are usually really good to play by themselves while I take and shower and get ready in the morning (on days we don't go anywhere, I get ready while they sleep on other days).  Lately, Abigail has decided that while I'm in the shower she should stand on the couch and play with all the stuff on the breakfast bar.  This is the ONLY time she tries it, so I know she knows that she isn't supposed to be up there.  I've found her surrounded by pens and scratch paper she's colored on, she's turned off or on the TV before.  The other day she got into a box of Hot Tamales.  She put two in her mouth and then spit them out (according to Hannah).  I now have to trap her in the bathroom with me.  What a STINKER!

 Both my girls are so verbal.  They repeat everything I we say and most of it is correct.  I love listening to the few things that aren't right grammatically or pronounced right.  It Abigail is playing peek-a-boo, she covers her eyes and says "where are me?".  She also says "I want to hold you" when she wants to be picked up.  "Patakiller" is caterpillar, and "bafroom" is bathroom.

Hannah got her other two shots when were went in for Abigail's check up.  She surprised me by crying this time.  Thankfully she calmed down fairly quickly.  We haven't spent too much time lately working on letters and spelling with Hannah.  She knows all her sounds, but can't yet translate it into reading.  If you slowly say a word one sound at a time she can spell it.  Of course we've only talked about short vowel sounds and haven't gotten letters that make more than one sound like y, c, etc.  She was playing on her computer (old keyboard) and sending notes.  She spelled GME (Grammy) and POPO (PaPaw).  I was pretty impressed! 

I'll leave you with one photo.  This was shot for one of my mom's photo challenges.  LOVE IT!

Twenty Three Months

Watching Abigail try to keep up with Hannah is so fun.  She copies her and tries to do everything just like big sister.  Thankfully most of the time it doesn't bother Hannah.

Abigail is starting to do more pretend play with is fun to watch.  She will cook in the kitchen, feed the food to her stuffed animals.  And the other day she set up the dishes on the coffee table, brought a chair to sit in and sat down to pray before she "ate."  So cute!

Abigail has also become very interested in letters.  She knows A is for Abigail and can find in everywhere. I'm pretty sure she also knows W, and maybe S and T too. She has recently started pointing to other letters and saying "what that mommy?"  Looks like she loves to learn too.  YEAH!

Back in October my parents agreed to babysit the girls while Nathan and I saw The Lion King at Fair Park.  It was an amazing show and the girls had fun too.  It was a beautiful day so they enjoyed playing outside after nap.  Abigail was fascinated by the mini pumpkins my mom had on her front porch.  She had SO much fun playing with them.

Sweet girl LOVES her G-Pa.
 

10/12/13

When Hannah was little I used to tell people that she was shy.  She now waves, says hi, talks to, and sometimes hugs all sorts of people.  Most of them are people she sees at church on a regular basis, but she will talk to people at the grocery store too.  Usually she'll tell them her name and then make sure they know who Abigail is too. 

We've had several different friends over for play dates recently and Hannah would rather show the adults all her toys than play with her friends.  Not sure how much she actually plays with the other kids at church either.  She can tell me all about who was there and what they were doing though. =)  Hannah seems very content to play by herself and talk to her imaginary friends.  She will play with Abigail sometimes, so I'm sure things will change as she gets a little bigger.


Hannah only gets a few of her letter sounds confused now.  She comes to me all the time and says things like "Mommy toy stars with t" or "help starts with h."  She is becoming very aware of beginning letter sounds and sometimes she can tell me what she hears at the end of a word too.  If I break a word apart for her like "bu, uh, gu (bug)" she can spell it.  If she tries on her own the middle letters and often vowels get left out.  That is totally normal though.  She still amazes me with how much she is learning.  Writing letters is going much slower.  It's hard and she frustrates easily.  So we're just going slowly since we have plenty of time.

I'll leave you with a few of my favorite pictures.  Grammy bought Hannah these adorable boots and she LOVES them.  She's going to be a cowgirl for Halloween. 

We've recently done lots of baking with Grammy too.  Hannah's new favorite thing to do is lick the beaters when we're done.  Love the look on her face!

7/12/13

Hannah is having the best time swimming this summer.  She was so hesitant last year in her floaties that she didn't get the hang of things until the very end of the summer.  This year she picked up right where she left off.  She will kick her legs and "swim" from the steps to the opposite side of the shallow end.  I am so proud of her.  We also signed her up for swim lessons and those start next week.  Hopefully she'll be even more confident in the water.

We're still having issues with nap/bed time.  Some days are great, but most days it's a struggle.  She's really really good about staying in her room.  But she wants to get on the floor and play, sing, and talk by the door.  If she lays in bed quietly she will fall asleep.  Started a new sticker chart reward system a few weeks ago.  She's earned a few stickers, but not rewards yet. 

I know I've written before about Hannah's imaginary friend named Bunny.  She still plays with him (or her depending on the day) often.  Recently she has started "playing" with various characters from books or TV (Mickey Mouse Clubhouse) too.  And she tells me about her doggies and talking lawn mower.  Definitely not lacking in the imagination department. LOL!  :-)

Hannah was looking at a teaching magazine that came in the mail the other day and noticed the page of animal letter crafts.  She showed them to me and then said "Mommy B says bu."  I told her that was correct and then asked Nathan if he had told her that.  He had not and neither had I.  We talked about how R says "err" and some r words several months ago, but that's it.  Not really in a hurry to teach her letter sounds since she still has 2 full years before she starts Kindergarten.  I started asking Hannah what some of the other letters said and she got quite a few of them right.  And she was SO excited about learning something new.  Guess we'll be talking about letter sounds now.  She totally amazes me in her ability to pick things up.

I'll end with a few photos.  Hannah loves to play with a ball outside.  She is even starting to catch and kick the ball....if she remembers to open her eyes.  LOL!  And the last picture is a new fav.  Hannah threw her arms up like that spontaneously and my mom happened to catch it.  Love it!
 

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!
 

Thirty Five Months

As I mentioned in Abigail's post, we took both girls some fall festivals.  Hannah was able to walk around and put candy in her bag last year, but she didn't really get what was going on.  This year she helped me pick out her costume and couldn't wait to try it on and have Grammy take her picture.  She had seen pictures of last years festival and wanted to know when she could ride the pony.  She also knows what candy is now...so Nathan had to share her haul.  =O  She seemed to have lots of fun!  Nathan also walked with her around the block on Halloween and let her trick or treat at a few houses. Then she helped pass out candy to the whopping 15 kids that came to our house. 






I got inspired a few weeks ago to do more arts/crafts/learning activities with Hannah while Abigail is napping.  Since we aren't ready to put her in preschool or Mother Day Out yet.  We now have a box of craft items (pom poms, craft sticks, googly eyes, etc).  It's not something I plan to do every day or even every week, but the former teacher in me loves to make stuff and I think Hannah will too.  We are still working on lower case letters so I've made a few games where you pair and match the lower case letter to the capital one.  She asks to play them often so I guess she thinks they are fun.  I also plan to do some tracing and beginning handwriting practice with her as well.

We also made play-dough with Grammy a few week ago.  Hannah enjoyed helping pour in ingredients.  Her favorite thing is to use the cookie cutters on the dough.  She has a whole table full of shapes when she's done.



Hannah is famous for not finishing her sentences when she's asking a question, for example "Hannah's going to have....." So we've been trying to teach her to ask correctly (What are we going to have for dinner?).  She is very inquisitive so she has also started telling us she doesn't know what things mean or what they are, especially words from books.  Just in the last few days I've explained:  brilliant, fantastic, and amused.  I also took the girls with me to vote and tried to explain what voting is.  Love watching her little brain work!

One more Halloween story before I close.  When we went to see the pumpkins at the Arboretum, Hannah really enjoyed the pumpkins decorated like animals.  My mom decide to buy her one, Hannah picked the kitty.  Turned out to be a kit with eyes, ears, and nose.  We enjoyed having the kitty pumpkin in our house and saved the kit to decorate with again next year.  =)  And Hannah can tell you that pumpkins with faces are called jack-o-lanterns (very slow and enunciated)!

Thirty-Four Months

 Hannah's pretend play is so much fun to watch.  She takes care of all her toys and has conversations with them.  Nathan gave her an old computer keyboard, she will type and say she is taking a survey.  Nathan belongs to several on-line survey companies and takes many surveys. =)  She will also sit at the kitchen table and say she is doing her bible study (just like mommy and daddy).  I mentioned a few months ago we thought Hannah had an imaginary friend named Bunny.  He is definitely real to her!  She talks about him and to him ALL day long.  He goes everywhere Hannah goes and often wears the same clothes and eats the same food.  She also tells Bunny about her day and sings him songs.  Hannah is not lacking in imagination!

 

Hannah still LOVES learning.  She's known all her capital letters for several months and we are beginning to work on lower case letters.  She also desperately wants to spell her name.  I think the double sets of letters confuse her.  If we get out magnetic letters or are typing on the computer she can consistently spell HAN and then adds lots more N's, and H's.  She also wants to spell Bunny which usually comes out BNNNNNY.  Hannah can also write a capital H and draw a fairly recognizable happy face.

Hannah got a mild tummy bug a few weeks ago.  Thankfully the actual sick part was very short lived.  She was tired and didn't have much of an appetite for about a week though.  Poor child that doesn't like being dirty was NOT pleased when she got sick.  Abigail and I stayed healthy, but Hannah did share with Nathan. 

Hannah is starting to assert her independence more and more.  She has an opinion and is making it known!  We have had lots of whining and crying lately and Hannah has spent time in her room.  Not only do Nathan and I not want to give in to her temper fits, but Abigail is so sensitive that she starts crying right along with Hannah.  We tell Hannah she has to stay in her room until she is ready to be happy and then she can come out.  I honestly think she likes being able to let out her frustration because every so often she will ask to go to her room.



We are also struggling to keep Hannah in her bed an nap and bedtime.  She did great when we first switched to her toddler bed, but now not so much.  The problem isn't that she comes out of her room, she just gets out of bed and lays on the floor by the door and talks, sings, etc.  At first it was just for a few minutes then she would go back to bed and sleep.  Now, she'll play for hours....which results in no nap and then she's quite grumpy the rest of the day.  So we started something new the other day.  We do our normal bed/nap routine (story, kiss, turn out light, pray) then close her door.  Nathan and I will wait in the hall outside her room and listen for her to get out of bed....which is usually within 30 seconds.  =(  If she gets up we walk her back to bed with out talking to her, leave the door open, and sit outside her room long enough for her to lay still and go to sleep (usually 10-20 mins, but an hour the other day).  Hopefully this will create a good sleep pattern and we won't have to sit in the hall forever.

Hannah and I both got flu shots yesterday while we were at the doctor for Abigail's check up.  We had talked about how we were going to get shots and we didn't need to cry.  I went first and then it was Hannah's turn.  They laid her on the table, scooted down her pants and had me hold her hands.  She just laid there and didn't even flinch.  There were no tears either.  I was very proud of her and I think the nurse was super impressed!

Twenty Nine Months

Hannah is definitely TWO!  We have done our fair share of hand swatting and time outs in the last month.  Thankfully most of the time she is very compliant and wants to please.  She really is very sweet and gives lots of hugs, kisses, and smiles.  =)

I love watching Hannah learn and get exited about knowing what things are.  She knows ALL of the capital letters and can count to 19.  She still loves books and can quote most of the ones we own.  She has always loved music and we usually listen while we are playing or in the car.  A little over a month ago some friends told me about a company that sold CD's that were all scripture (http://www.seedsmusicstore.com/).  Each CD comes with 2 duplicate copies so that you can share with a friend.  So one of my friends from church and I split the cost of 5 CD's.  Hannah is learning the words to more and more songs, so we thought these CD's would be a good investment.  I also struggle with scripture memory so it helps me too.  Most of the songs have LOTS of words, but Hannah is starting to remember parts of them.  =)  And we still listen to plenty of classic tunes like Itsy Bitsy Spider and Wheels on the Bus!

Hannah also enjoys jumping, running, and playing outside.  As you can see below she can't get very far off the ground yet, but it sure is fun!  She has a tricycle too, but she's still a little too short to work the pedals.  We have pushed her around the garage a few times though.  =) 
We are SO blessed that my parents live near by and their work schedules allow for frequent visits.  The girls and I are at their house just about every week.  Hannah LOVES her Grammy and G-Pa!!  She asks just about every day if we're going to visit and when I tell her no she says "We go on Friday!"  My dad has never been one to sit still.  He is always working in the yard or working on some home project.  It means so much to me that he ALWAYS comes inside to play with my girls when we come visit.  Can you tell how much they love each other! 
  

Twenty Seven Months

Hannah is doing lots of new and fun things right now. She can count to 12, understands the concept of hard and soft, and loves learning. Here's the new letters we learned this month: D, E, F, S, V, and M. We're working on G, but still get it confused with C. She can also recognize just about all the numbers 1 through 10. I hope she is always this excited about learning! =)



Her newest and favorite phrase is "So how you doing?" She will ask multiple times a day. You would think she'd been watching Friends. =) Hannah has always loved music and can now sing several songs. Some of her favorites are: 'The B-I-B-L-E', 'Jesus Loves Me', 'Old MacDonald', and 'Bingo'. So cute!

Hannah also enjoys posing for pictures which is good since Grammy always has her camera! =} She loves looking at pictures of herself even more that having them taken. My mom makes her a photo book every year and Hannah LOVES to look at them.

Hannah is still doing lots of mimicry in her pretend play. The other day she had all her stuffed animals laying face down on the floor. She then told them "Okay it's time to practice lifting up your head." "Oh good job!" Can you tell what Abigail has been working on. =) Such a sweetie! Here's one more cute photo of both girls together.

Twenty Six Months

Hannah is really enjoying being a big sister. She LOVES to bring me things like the pacifier or burp cloth. If Abigail is crying she will gently pat her and say it's OK. She helps me burp her and requests to hold her from time to time. In the photo above she put her hand on Abigail's head all on her own. So sweet! She is still ever the mimic and it's fun to watch her pretend play. She rocks her toys, wraps them in blankets, puts them to sleep, burps them, tells them it's OK, and changes their diapers.

Hannah is fascinated with words right now. She knows they say things and will point and repeat "that say" over and over until you tell her what it says. We've decided to take advantage and begin teaching her letters. She now knows A,B,C,H,O, and X. We've shown her D once or twice, but she doesn't quite remember it yet. Ever the observer she finds these letters in books, on toys, our clothing, and many other places.

Hannah is finally getting some more teeth. The two canine teeth on the bottom have poked through the gums. Thankfully they weren't too painful and only bothered her a little. You can't see them in this picture, but it's still cute!

LOVE watching Hannah and Nathan play together. She LOVES her daddy. They play all sorts of silly games. She gets excited when he comes home from work and comes running around the corner to give him hugs.