20 Months + 2 Weeks Praying for Patience.

Dear Hannah, 

The Lord must be using you to refine my patience, because this week has been a doozie. One thing is that you want to do everything, EVERYTHING on your own. Which I guess is a good thing, but when you can't make up your mind, or rather keep changing it, things get a bit [sigh] tough. I've been trying my best to try to communicate that I understand what you are trying to convey, but sometimes, I have to put my foot down and say,"No" 

Sometimes, things like peeling your own tangerines are fine. Sure, you get juice everywhere and occasionally, you eat a bit of the peel, but that's no biggie. 

 Or how today, you refused to eat your lunch and while bawling uncontrollably, kept pointing to the avocados on the counter. I would give you the plate, you would push it away and then I would take it away, and then you would point to it again. When I finally put the avocado cubes and cheese into the empty avocado shell, that was finally good enough for you.

 Some times you want to do things that are not too safe, like wanting to sit in Nathan's big boy carseat instead of your own medium-sized carseat. It's a struggle to get you strapped in most days. And other times where you refuse to sit in the grocery store basket, but when I put you up front, you were happy as a clam. (You do pretty well holding on.) But then you say "all done." I stop, let you step up and you point to the cart. I put you in the cart and you point to the ground. All this is happening as other shoppers are walking by, staring sympathetically. Can you say frustrating?

 I guess it's mostly with food preferences and seating arrangements where you are particularly picky.

And here's a picture of you after eating a Popsicle. I don't know, but I love to take pictures of you guys eating. Adorable.

Since you've been showing interest in using the potty, I decided to try potty training you. So we stayed home for 2 days and did the no pants thing. You got pretty good at using the potty, but I think you are still not able to hold it long enough to go sans diaper. 

 The one thing that we accomplished is that now you are able to tell us before you go number 2, which is super helpful with cloth diapering because no one likes to scrape poop off of a diaper.

 For now, we'll stick to cloth diapers, but I'm going to try my best to change you as soon as you get wet, so you don't get used to the wet diaper feeling and be ok with it. I think that's where we went wrong with Nathan.

On Friday, we had a MOPS steering team meeting and due to childcare personnel falling through, I got a chance to hang out with you guys and some other friends. We had a great exploration session with rhino beetles.

 And then you guys had snacks, again, eating pictures...

 Another day this week, we visited Daddy at work. Hannah proved yourself to be pretty good at bowling. Lots of strikes and pins down!

 During Hannah's nap time, we are always looking for fun stuff to do, especially when Hannah takes a longer than usual nap, which has been happening a lot lately. Nathan has gotten pretty good with helping me switch out my wheels.

 On days when Nathan attends school, I try to do something fun with Hannah. On Monday, we went to the Thinkery and had lots of fun in the water room. I usually don't go in there with both of you, but Hannah had a great chance to manipulate water in an aquatic environment. Today, we took advantage of Chick-fil-a's free breakfast day and had a nice breakfast. Thanks, Chick-fil-a!

 After breakfast, we went to Nathan's school, where they had a Mother's Luau planned for us. We made visors, ate snacks and took pictures.

The weather has been nice. Allergens are lower, but the mosquitoes are out in full force. Nathan has really enjoyed running around with the older kid neighbors, following them around as they chase and fight dinosaurs. They make Hannah the general and it's so cute how they report to her and protect her on some of the missions. Both of you guys really love playing with the older kids and we will miss them when some of them move away this summer.