Hannah's Potty Training Update and Other Fun

Dear Nathan and Hannah, 

We spent pretty much all of Wednesday through Saturday at home (except for a short trip to the grocery store on Friday), but surprisingly, it was a good break from the hustle and bustle of our regular weekly schedule. It was nice to be able to lounge around in our pjs all day if we wanted to and just relax. 

Well, Hannah is currently about 65% potty trained. In the mornings, you can keep your undies dry if I make sure you go potty every 45 - 60 mins. You will wet your undies just a bit, but realize it and stop your stream and exclaim, "pee pee in the potty!" when you feel the urge to go. You are pretty good about announcing when you have to go number 2, so we haven't had to clean up one of those messes in a long time. 

It's still early, but you have your accidents when you are doing something really fun or you are in the middle of eating, so I usually have you go potty before you eat. 

In the afternoon, your "schedule" is a bit more sporatic. Sometimes you go 45 minutes between having to go, but then, sometime its more like 15 minutes. So in the afternoon, you have accidents more often. Nathan was the same way for awhile, but I think you are still just learning this process. This is on the young side, but you were showing the signs, so I decided to give it a try, thinking that maybe it won't work, but I'd call it a success. 

 Day 1: We focused on keeping your undies dry. I had chocolate chips, cookies, and water on hand to give you when you wanted them. Every so often, I would ask if your undies were dry, and if they were, I would give you a treat. You were having accidents, not realizing that you were going, and I was cleaning up messes allday. However, when I put you on the potty, you would empty as much as you could.

Day 2: I upped the ante and brought out more treats and JUICE! This got you drinking more, and peeing more as well. I kept things up, alternating between, letting you tell me when you need to go, and me just putting you on the potty. Things were still not very encouraging. You were starting to realize when you were going, but you could not stop your stream.

Day 3: We had a play group over our house, so I was a bit more conservative and brought you to the potty every 45 minutes or so. You did just fine. After lunch, we even braved the grocery store in undies and you got to pick out more treats (yogurt covered pretzels). At this point, I've pretty much given up letting you tell us when you need to go, and simply just take you every 45 minutes or so.

Day 4: You slept in that morning, like an hour and half past when you normally wake up, so I'm thinking that you had some sort of mental leap that night. When we were home, I let you decide when to go potty, but when we were out, I would just take you when it was time. You were actually showing some progress with your control.

Since Nathan just recently became completely potty trained at over 3.5 years, I'll take where you are at. We can go through a day with 1 or 2 very small accidents, and plus you can now put your undies on by yourself. In fact, you can also put on your own swim suits. You grabbed this one today as we were playing and slipped it over your regular clothes (there is a denim skirt underneath that suit).

On Sunday, while I was at a derby scrimmage, Daddy took you two to a friend's 3rd birthday party. She's pretty much right in between the two of you in age, so both of you had lots of fun at the party. 

 On Tuesday, we had a small play date/potluck at another one of our friends' house. Here's the little kids' table.

 And the big kids' table.

 At one point, when some of the kids were not letting another kid play, I overheard Nathan tell the "mean" kids that they weren't being nice and then he invited the other kid to play with him. [Heart melts] I had a talk with you about this once, and you remembered!

After being spoiled with all the fun crafts that Auntie Momo did, quiet time is now a bit different. We are deviating from the schedule and doing more things like science experiments and art projects. We are both really excited about this project below, inspired from a book that we recently read. We'll be working on this for a few days and I'll be sure to post the final product next week.

 Storms derailed our plans this morning to go to the wildflower center. Instead, I cleaned out the car, while you guys played in the rain.

 I also took out some shaving cream for you guys to play with. It was all fun and exciting, until Hannah, you decided to touch your face (maybe you had an itch?) and landed a big glob of shaving cream around your mouth.

Hannah is speaking more 2-3 word phrases (mostly in English), and I can see a lot of what you say are things that Nathan says. You can sing the ABC song, count to 10 in both chinese and english, you know about 10 animals, along with their sounds, and a few colors, although, you don't know them really well, just yet. You love to sing twinkle twinkle little stars in both english and chinese, and your favorite books are Hop on Pop and Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do you See? . 

Well, that's it for this week! Until next week, 

Love, 

Mommy

Hannah is 23 months!

Dear Kids,
 Last week I didn't get to make a post because I was up in North Dakota all by myself for almost a week. Initially, I thought it was going to be glorious, peaceful and pretty much amazing, but just after my first flight out, while sitting at the airport food court, I realized how much joy and interest you two bring to my life. I never thought I'd miss the constant stream of questions from Nathan and Hannah's whiny screams; but, I did.

Auntie Momo came and played with you guys while I was away and you guys did pretty much what we normally do. Auntie Momo did lots of crafts with Nathan and she learned a lot about the temper tantrums of a toddler.

I think overall, you guys adjusted pretty well, with Hannah asking for me every so often. We got to skype and when I walked through the front door, both of you had this "I can't believe its Mommy" look frozen on your face for a moment, and then you two shrieked as you ran towards me for a big hug.

While I was away, Hannah picked up even more multi-word phrases. "Read this," "Play with me." "What is that?"

Nathan hasn't changed too much, but yesterday, you were able to do a flip in the pool. You held my hand, climbed up my trunk with your feet and flipped backwards in the pool! I was amazed! And then you went to the ledge at the edge of the pool and did a front flip in the water! You only did each once. I'm not sure if you got water in your nose or anything, but they were pretty cool tricks.

Today, I'm officially starting the potty training process with Hannah. We've had 3 accidents so far, with the last one right before nap time, and you announcing "pee-pee" moments before you started to "go." Progress. I'll post next week about how it all worked out.

Well, I can't believe it that this week Hannah is about the same age as Nathan when our family went from 3.5 - 4.5. Daddy and I both feel like Nathan was more mature, but looking back at the blog, you guys are pretty much parallel, except Hannah is speaking a bit more.

We are probably not going to do a big birthday party for you guys this year, just a small one with family. Still trying to figure out whether or not to celebrate every odd birthday with a big party for each of you, or just stagger it so that there is a party every year, but a big one for each, every other year. This year Hannah, next year, Nathan, etc. I really like planning parties, but Daddy and I both feel like we don't need to go big every year.

Well, I appologize for no pictures this week. We'll make up for it next week.

Love,
Mommy.

4th of July Funsies

Dear Nathan, 

This 4th of July was full of new experiences and fun. What was initially a very disappointing night of fireworks, became a late night of awesome fun. Here are a few pictures of your favorite part of this weekend. 

That evening we had planned to drive to the local mall to watch the fireworks downtown. We found a good spot, lit up a few glow sticks and sat ontop of our car and waited. When 9:30 rolled around, we were utterly disappointed at the fireworks. They were so far away that they seemed so small and not very impressive, so we jetted out early and came home. We saw our neighbors shooting off fireworks and decided to go watch them because what they were doing was far more exciting that what we had seen earlier that night.  They were nice enough to let you try a few sparklers and a few snappers. By 11:00 you were in bed, the latest you've ever stayed up. 

Earlier in the morning, we participated in our neighborhood parade. We were all on wheels as we weaved through the crowds, Daddy and I, constantly reminding you to look forward and making sure you didn't crash into anyone else.  

 After the parade, we went over to a friends house for a pool party. While we were getting everything ready, Hannah excitedly grabbed the floaty and started to run around the house yelling "swimming! swimming! splashy! splashy!

Hannah has really been into picking out outfits. You are constantly asking for "piao piao" which means pretty, which refers to a skirt, which I know you are specifically referring to the tutu bathing suit that you have. 

The pool party was fun. We all splashed around, had bbq and hung out with some new friends too. 

 Swim lessons are also going well. As of yesterday, Nathan, you are able to swim 3 strokes and then turn around on your back to breathe. Hannah, on the other hand is a mess. We found 2 new molars in your lower row of teeth this week and so I think you have equated coach rachael with the pain that you felt in your mouth because everytime she gets close to you, you squirm and cry. Hannah will be taking a break from classes for awhile, and Nathan will continue.

 While Nathan was able to swim last year, your skills were simply stuck in survival mode. This year, Coach rachel is able to help you refine your skills and become even more controlled and comfortable in the water.

 Hannah is pretty content just sitting by the side of the pool, watching everyone. Hopefully in a few weeks, we can try again.

Julyhas arrived and temps are just now reaching 100 in the afternoon. Nice cold watermelon is always a nice refreshing treat. I took these adorable pictures to capture both of your cuteness right now. Hannah, you are pretty much addicted to watermelon, as the first thing you ask for after you wake up is "yi-da" (xigua) which means watermelon. 

Dear Hannah, 

You've been quite difficult lately. Extra clingy, very volatile, and you still can't make up your mind. It almost seems like you are impulsive and will simply answer "No" for every question that I ask you and then you think about it afterwards. You are also very particular with doing things yourself and wanting all the "da" (big) things. I sure hope this is a phase and will pass soon, because I don't know how much of this I can take for much longer. 

Next week, I'll be in North Dakota for a teacher training so it'll be the first time that I leave you guys overnight and in this case, it'll be for a week! I'm nervous, mostly about missing you guys, but I'm sure you will have lots of fun with Daddy and Auntie Momo. Perhaps this will be just what you need to overcome this separation anxiety. 

Well, tomorrow, we get to meet curious george. We'll see how it goes. I'm pretty excited about it.

Until next week!
Love,
Mommy