Adorable from head to ankle!

Not a common phrase, huh? Should be Head to Toe, right? Well in this case, toes are not so adorable!!! Well, maybe in a kinda not-so-cute sort of way!



Of course this little face is sweet, adorable and oh, so loveable

And her eyes...they just make you melt!



But these feet and toes, not so much. (don't you love the sandal tan marks?)

I mean, seriously, should such a cute little girl have such a LARGE big toe??

And the toes curl downward


Now, granted, feet aren't that pretty on anyone, but they're certainly not Hannah's best feature!!

Ok, now that I've picked on her, I've got to brag about the breakthrough she had today!!! Hannah woke up this morning and her first words to me were, "Mommy, I don't like to go on the potty". At least she knew where we were headed!!! Then today at daycare, she started to tinkle in her pants, but stopped it after just a very little bit and then told Val she needed to go potty and then did right away!!! She did that twice!!! No accidents today. When I picked her up and we went to change her back into her shorts, she asked to go again - and did!! We got home and she told me she had to poop...AND DID in the potty!! (this time, in the big toilet - yeah for me for being able to flush and not clean the potty chair out!) Then during her bath tonight, she told me she had to tinkle, so we took her out and put her on the potty - and she did!!!! Then I asked her if she needed to go before going to bed, and she gladly and very willingly said yes, sat on the potty and went!!! I'm so proud of her! She's also preferring to just go on the big potty with no ring. She holds herself up on it and has only almost fallen in once!!! Whew, I think we're over the hump!! Now for the fun of getting to go visit every restroom that exists!!!

She fibs too

Ok, so yesterday's post explained that Hannah is an actress, a whiner and a tattletale. Today, I add "liar" - well fibber sounds less harsh - to her list of attributes.
Today on the way home from work, she told me she had a boo-boo on her knee. I asked how she got it and she told me that she hit it on the door at Kendal and John's house. Since we haven't been to their house since Mother's Day in May (we need to do a better job at visits), I asked her when did she get the boo-boo. Her answer was "this morning". OK, so I thought she was just talking and not making much sense of her story, but she proceeded to tell the same story (fib) three times during the ride home! She's something else!

OK, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to document the potty progress - yes, I did say progress! This morning at home, she pooped in her potty again!! YAY for Hannah!! She didn't have such a good morning at Val's house though. She totally cries when she has to sit on the potty and Val's husband, Graham, convinced Val (the expert in this area) that Hannah was being "tortured" by the process and to just let her get off. Within minutes, there was pee all over the carpet. OK, Graham, you may have won over Hannah, but you both lose from now on!!! She also had a small poop accident at Val's, but it was sort of OK because as soon as she went, she told Val that she needed her diaper changed. Val tried explaining that she wasn't wearing a diaper, etc and Hannah started to cry. When asked why she was crying she said because she needed changed. Val then realized what happened and commended her for telling her, but reminded her that she needed to tell someone she had to go before she went in her pants.
Tonight at home was all success! She went on the potty twice and had no accidents!!!
Val confirmed (very strongly) what we already know about little Miss Hannah - she is Extremely Stubborn!!! Wonder where that comes from?????

Not all Potty-Talk

So I realize that this potty training stuff isn't the most exciting stuff to read about, so I thought I'd share a couple of other things fun about Hannah lately.

Last week she was on her way to daycare with Tony in the morning and she told him that the sky was pretty and blue and her mommy painted it that way!! I loved knowing that in her mind, I'm the one who makes her world go round!!! I'll be sure this is documented to remind her of it when she's about 13!!

Then on Friday we were on our way home from work and she pinched her finger in her sunglasses. She reacted in typical Hannah-fashion and if you wouldn't have known better, you'd have thought she cut her finger off! I promised her that I would get a band-aid for her when we got home in a few minutes (there was no blood by the way). When we got home, she did remember she needed a band-aid, so we went to get one. When I had it out and ready to put on her, I asked where the boo-boo was. She looked at both hands and said, "Ummmmm...." and then pointed to her right knee, "right here". I confirmed with her that her knee needed the band-aid and she agreed, so as I put it on, she winced away "in pain". She even went so far as to limp on her "injured leg" as she walked away!!! I couldn't believe the acting skills....I wish we lived closer to Hollywood!!

Hannah has started to tattle! This past weekend she told on me to Daddy when I did something she didn't like, which was pretty much all weekend. She would tell on me that I turned off her show or took away her stool. As if the whining wasn't annoying enough, now I have a tattletale too!! Thank goodness I love her to pieces!!

Now for the potty update: I woke Hannah up early this morning to allow plenty of time to go potty before we had to leave. She never went. I had to put a pull up on her on the way so she didn't wreck the carseat. She got to Daycare still dry. They put her in panties right away and she only had one accident all day long and Val blamed herself for it. She let Hannah be done after just a wee little bit because she was crying even though she knew better. But other than that, she made it to the potty ALL DAY LONG!! Yeah Hannah. She went twice at home tonight too. She cries pretty much the entire time, but once she stops crying, she goes and then all is well in the world!!! If things keep going this way, I suppose the torture this weekend will be worth it!!

The big weekend is here!

It's here - our big potty training weekend event!




We started as soon as we got home from work Friday night. We switched from a diaper into panties - see above modeling! Each time she sat on the potty, nothing. Just before we were getting ready to eat dinner, she said, "Mommy, I'm wet" We ran up to the potty and she had gone a little in her pants, but nothing on the potty. After dinner, we tried again - nothing. As she was playing, she put her hand down there which I've quickly learned is the high sign for "I'm wet" - we ran up to the potty, but it was too late. She had pretty much gone all the way in her panties.
So Friday's results were completely unsuccessful, but that's OK.

Saturday morning, I went into Hannah's room around 7:45. She was awake and DRY!! We went into the bathroom and had a success!!!! She got to have a piece of candy (a smarty) and then she ate breakfast. After breakfast, we went up again and another success!!!! She got another smarty and by 9:00 we were in the same dry panties and had two times of going on the potty!!! I take that as "going well so far" although Hannah is protesting ALL the way!!!!

Which of course didn't last long. Around 11 I was on the phone and she was in the kitchen with me playing on the step stool. I looked and saw what appeared to be footprints and then saw her puzzled look - we had an accident. I quickly got off the phone and ran her to the potty, but by then, she had pretty much gone all the way. She wanted to have a picnic outside for lunch, so we did that and then she took a nap.

She woke up dry after nap and I got her to go a wee little bit. I knew she would have to go more so I had intended on taking her back up a little while later, but I was too late...she had another accident on the carpet! The rest of the day went pretty much the same - another accident on the couch later in the evening and then during dinner (and a storm starting) she wet her booster chair. I realized then that I would have to just take her and make her try to go a little more often than we had been doing all day. Before bedtime, she did go a little in the potty! No number 2 all day, so not quite sure how that's going to go!! I bought pull ups for bedtime since they go on more like panties and I'm also out of diapers!


Sunday started similar. She woke up dry and went in the potty, but was crying almost the entire time. It's hard to not throw in the towel, but I'm sure in a few more days this won't be so painful (at least I hope!). She had breakfast and then went one more time. I was working harder today to try to take her up at least once or twice an hour to try to get her to go.

I went grocery shopping and Tony took Hannah out to play and she had another accident while playing on her slide. They came back in and had lunch. She was complaining about her tummy hurting - probably has to poop - so tony put a diaper on her to try to allow her to go, but she didn't. While I was out, I bought her a new potty chair. She had been just using the ring that goes on the regular toilet. I'll now have both for her to choose which way she wants to go until we start getting the hang of it.


Hannah woke up from her nap dry again and luckily slept through most of the thunderstorm. I ended up waking her and took her to her new potty chair. She tinkled a little, but I just knew there was more in there! I told her that we could bake cookies, so we were in the kitchen starting to put cookies on the baking sheet and she started peeing. We ran up to try going on the potty with no luck....back to cookies again and then came the release of the entire bladder on the stool in the kitchen. I was completely aggravated and she was upset and crying as I washed her off in the tub. Oh how easy it would be to give up, but that would only mean we go through this again in another month or two or whenever, so I guess we bite the bullet now and deal with it! We felt bad for Hannah too because she really isn't having fun, but again, she'll be fine and we'll get through this rough part soon.


Around 4:30 Hannah asked to watch a video. I had a funny feeling about something, so I brought her potty chair down and asked her to sit on it while she watched her video. Good thing because she POOPED in the potty!!! I was so excited for her and we made a huge fuss and she got TWO smarties!!! It made the last 3 panty changes so worth it!!! I'll call it progress for now.


The rest of Sunday evening was a toss up. She wet a couple pair of panties, but also had 2 more successes in her potty chair as long as we had it downstairs by the TV.

All in all, this pretty much sucks - for all of us I think. Tony got serious cabin fever, Hannah is learning to pretty much hate the potty and I'm just plain old tired (of this process, doing laundry and spending most of my weekend sitting on the bathroom floor reading books and begging her to go tinkle!) I hope things improve as the week goes on and Val gets to do most of the work!!! (gotta love having a babysitter at times like this).

Father's Day Weekend

What a great weekend! Well, it didn't start so great. We had some real good thunderstorms roll through here Friday night and Hannah is TERRIFIED of them! It started during dinner and she completely lost her appetite and clung to one of us like glue. We tried to make light of it and distract her, but she really is so afraid of the thunder and loud rain. Luckily, they all blew over pretty quickly.

Saturday started off kind of typical. Clean up the house sort of stuff. We went to Evan's 1st birthday party at 3. It was so hot out by then. Hannah had a real good time playing with all the kids. We came home and I blew up her pool and let her playin it for a little bit. She was freezing by the time I took her in kicking and screaming.



Sunday morning was Father's Day. Hannah and I made Daddy waffles for breakfast.


Then he opened his presents. I made him an photo album of every picture of the two of them together since Hannah was born. It was fantastic and he really liked it too! (Here's the link to view it: http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AZM2jNq1ctWGo&emid=sharpbview&linkid=link2



Then he opened the box with an Indians T-Shirt and tickets to the game today.



(Sorry for the terrible pictures - the sun was way too bright behind them on the couch!)

It was our first attempt to take Hannah. We took Dad and Julia too. We all headed to the ballpark and got our seats. As we were walking in, I realized I'm an idiot!!! I bought an extra ticket! I was so worried about whether or not to buy Hannah a seat when I ordered them that for some stupid reason, I ended up getting 6 tickets - there were only 5 of us that went! You're Welcome, Cleveland Indians, for my donation!!!





When they all went to get lunch, Hannah and I got to see Slider!! She loved him!!



Unfortuantely, Hannah was over the baseball game by the 3rd inning (it was naptime you know), so she tried like heck to snuggle up on my lap for a nap, but it was just too hot and sunny and she couldn't get comfortable. Thank goodness for Grandma's!!! Grandma went to seek shade and ended up at Kidland for the rest of the game. Hannah had a blast and Grandma got a workout! Dad, Tony and I all got a little too much sun, but got to see an Indians win!! It was a great day!