Week 25: Sitting up, Rolling Over, Growing Up

Dear Hannah and Nathan,
Slow down! You're growing up too fast. This week Nathan has been super independent in wanting to do things on his own. He will even tell me or Daddy to stay while he goes and does something on his own. A few things he's done this week include, smearing the jelly on his sesame seed butter and jelly sandwich:

Pushing the step stool into the bathroom so he can wash his hands. 

 He's also now strong enough to open the fridge. So new-found strength + step stool = Oh no!

 Nathan really wanted a cake so we made a chocolate zucchini one, one afternoon. He was able to retrieve the ingredients from the pantry all by himself. He told me to stay where I was.

Meanwhile, Hannah is happily playing with her toy. 

 Hannah really enjoys watching Nathan play. We've been going outside every afternoon. We've blown bubbles, our driveway is filled with chalk drawings, and we've traversed the sidewalks for many afternoon scooter/stroller rides. Sorry folks up north, but the weather has been in the high 70's lately...

But whatever Nathan is doing, Hannah just loves watching him. Sometimes I will see her crane her neck towards Nathan in her carseat so that she can see what Nathan is up to. 

And Nathan still loves his little sister so dearly. He loves to show off to Hannah. 

Recently, a phrase that Nathan likes to use is "perfect." He will do something and then turn around and ask us, "perfect?" I have no idea where he got that from because I don't think I say that to him when he completes something. We've been telling Nathan that things don't have to be perfect all the time.

We are in charge of organizing a fundraiser for a local pregnancy resource center at a church and we kicked of the fundraiser this past Sunday. Nathan did a great job handing out baby bottles for people to take home and put money into. He was so adorable that several people said that he was so cute that they just couldn't refuse. Nathan is definitely not shy when it comes to approaching people. I'm pretty sure we can say Nathan made the fundraiser more successful. 

Hannah has gone through another leap recently. Just in the afternoon after I made my blog post last week, she started to roll over from her back to her tummy. She will pull her legs in towards her tummy and roll over to her side. Then she swings her arm to the floor and that pulls her down to her tummy. Nathan likes to flip her back over and encourage her to do it again. 

Hannah can also sit up for about 10-15 seconds. She gets really excited when she does it and then she topples over. 

Hannah loves to pull herself to standing. She gets the biggest grin on her face after she pulls herself up from sitting. (I'm pulling her a bit as well). She also likes to be tossed in the air. Sometimes when you toss her a bit higher, she gets a startled look on her face, but when you put her feet down, she squirms like she wants more. 

Hannah recently got a cold as well, so we've been sucking her nose with the Nose Frida. Nathan used to scream whenever we would use it on him, but Hannah is happy as a cucumber and will even happily coo while I am sucking her snot out (gross, I know). 

Things are going really well at the Havlir house. I was able to go to a book club meeting a few days ago and Steve was able to go out and sing Karaoke this past weekend. It's going to be an exciting next few weeks because we will have many birthday parties coming up and I know someone who loves parties!
[Nathan: I do, I do!]

Oh, and Nathan has been able to go many mornings and afternoons just wearing undies and no diapers. This afternoon he was able to realize that he had to go and ran to the potty by himself. He's also now preferring to sit on the big potty without his potty seat adapter, which is nice, because now I won't have to lug around a potty seat when we go somewhere (for now).

One thing, Nathan: You have recently started to be very dramatic and will pretend to hurt yourself when you are not getting your way, or when you need more attention. For example, in the most serious case, you made yourself fall down a few stairs when I refused to carry you down the stairs. Or you will fall backwards and hit your head on the back of the sofa and say "Oww!" Sometimes you'll even blame us for something we didn't do. We've been calling you out on it and it seems like you are doing it less. But please, don't cry wolf. In fact, I'm going to find that story and we'll read it together this afternoon.

At home we are working on alphabet letter identification and lacing (fine motor skills). When the weather gets a bit warmer, maybe we'll do some wet and messy things before it starts to get too hot. With Hannah starting to sit up, I feel like things are just going to get more fun!

Love,
Mommy