Girly Girl Day

Thursday was one of those days you wish you could relive over and over again. Hannah was completely engaged in the crafts I had planned for us to do together for the morning. I thought they would keep her busy for about a half an hour, but she stamped and made Valentine hearts for over 2 hours! Guess she did get something from her mommy :)

She was a fast learner with the gluing.

After a couple of hours of crafts we needed a dancing break to get our wiggles out. One of our friends handed us down this ballet dress and Hannah really enjoys dressing up in it.

After the dancing queen was all tired out, we had a quiet tea party in her new room (I will post pictures of it when it i completed). Barney really enjoyed his tea and cakes. He commented that they were, "Super dee douper!"

All of the fun was followed by a nap--yes! she napped!--and I got a little free time to do some cleaning and laundry.

Loved, loved, loved this day. I'm hoping to do some more planning ahead for crafts at least once a week. I'd also like to start letter of the week activities with her, too. What a fun age! Hannah's such a sweet little girl!

Potty Training Update

Hannah's still doing incredible with potty training!  She didn't have any accidents over the weekend and she's only had one accident so far this week!  I'm pretty sure the only reason she had the accident was because she was at the very top of a play structure at Castaway Cafe and couldn't get down in time.  Thankfully she was in pull-ups!

The only challenge we face now is that as soon as she clicked with the potty training she forgot how to sleep!!!  We've been struggling with naps for a while now, but every since she started potty training she's having a hard time getting to sleep at night.  Bedtime routine is out of control and Hannah's giving us a run for our money!  She's wanting to go potty several times before we say goodnight, which is understandable, but then she starts playing games with her animals, covers, and/or anything she can think of to procrastinate.  We've tried letting her cry it out and that didn't work out so well....both times we ended up going in there at about 11pm and staying with her until she fell asleep.

She's staying dry during naps and overnight; however, she gets up several times at night to go potty and can't get back to sleep for hours.  I think she gets confused about the time of night and her sleep rhythms are off kilter.

I'm hoping that she's just readjusting everything with this new milestone.  Hopefully she'll be back on track soon and sleeping through the night again! We are so, so proud of her for going on the potty!

Potty Training

It's potty training boot camp this week!

Day One (Monday):   I decided to try day one in pull-ups since we were having a playdate in the morning and I wasn't sure how interested Hannah would be.  She didn't seem bothered by wetting the pull-up so I kind of used it as a day of instructing.  She has a baby doll that tinkles when you give her a bottle (gross, I know), but she absolutely loved giving her the bottle and observing how baby went on the potty :)

Day Two (Tuesday):  Hannah wore underwear all day.  She had several accidents in the morning and didn't seem to care that she was wet.  I tried not to make it a big deal, but she got a good enough understanding of the word accident to be able to use it every time she had one.  She was dry from about 10am-4pm.  I kept thinking she would have to go at some point so we spent most of the day on the potty.  I figured once she experienced a successful event that she would have the motivation to do it more than once.  She finally went (on the potty) at about 4.  She got a little Dora figurine, a sticker on her chart, and a hershey kiss.

Day Three (Wednesday):  Hannah had a few accidents first thing in the morning, but was very interested in sitting and sitting and sitting on the potty.  She went successfully twice but I think it was more a coincidence that she was sitting on the potty than a "I have to go; I better go to the potty" kind of a thing.  By late afternoon, she would start screaming "Tinkle!  Potty!" when she was going.  I would immediately pick her up and run to the potty, even though she had already gone.  I felt like she was making progress.  Caleb said she had a hard time getting to bed and I think it was because she was confused about having a diaper on again.

Day Four (Thursday):  Do I dare say that Hannah is fully potty trained?!?!  She just got it this morning!  When she woke up the first thing we did was sit on the potty.  And she went!  Oh, I should mention that every time she goes she says, "It worked!  Mommy very happy."  Too cute.  She used the word "potty" when she had to go each time today and successfully made it on time!  EIGHT times!  She even went #2!!!!  She got extra chocolates and a special toy for that one!  We made it through the day with ZERO accidents.  She even went potty right before bed.  She has been dry during nap time the last few days and I'm predicting she'll be dry in the morning if I get her to the potty right away when she wakes up.  Success!  This was WAY easier than I could have ever imagined!  I'm definitely expecting accidents along the way, but I really feel like she's grasped the concept.  She's not at all interested in her diapers and with so many successes today I think she's got it.  Yay Hannah!

On another note, she figured out very quickly that she could go a little bit, get a chocolate and a sticker, and then go a little more and repeat over and over again so that she could maximize her rewards.

Also, I am amazed at her ability to use the potty as a stall tactic for rest time and bed time already.  How do they learn that so fast!!!  She must have asked to go to the potty about 5 times before bed!  But the last time she went and we were so happy about that because she'll have a better chance of being dry in the morning :)

Let it Snow!

We had our first substantial amount of snow here in Brighton at the beginning of January. The timing was perfect for us to go out and play in the white stuff when Caleb got home from work because the plows hadn't come through yet.



































"Mommy, I don't want to go inside!!!"

Night Terrors

On New Year's Eve we went to a kid-friendly party. It was so much fun! Hannah loved doing the crafts that our friend, Melissa, planned for the kids. She also enjoyed throwing confetti off of their deck at 8:00 p.m. (don't tell her our little secret that it wasn't even close to midnight...haha).

That night we got home a little later than usual, about 9:30. Hannah was in bed by 10 o'clock, but by 5am the terrors began. Hannah's had nightmares before, but this was different. She kept crying out for me, but when I came to her side she only thrashed and screamed bloody murder. I had read about night terrors before so Caleb and I worked her through it and tried to get her to fall back asleep.

We had no such luck. We brought her into bed with us out of desperation, but she was wide awake and wanting to play wrestle-mania. Then, all of a sudden, it was like a switch flipped and she started panicking. She thought the blankets were trying to get her. She clung to our necks and screamed her lungs out.

We tried to remain calm and reassure Hannah that we would protect her from whatever she was seeing--because she was definitely seeing something! She never seemed to get a grip. We brought her downstairs, thinking that a change in environment would do some good. She continued to be afraid of the floor and under the furniture. Her eyes darted around constantly. When we tried to put her down she only held on tighter and kept asking to get higher and higher (wanting to sit on our shoulders, etc). It was the strangest behavior we've ever seen from our fairly normal 2-yr-old.

After several hours of this we started to get pretty worried. She seemed to be paranoid and having panic attacks. The carpet seemed to be a little worse than the hardwood floors, but she did not want her feet touching the ground. That's when she started saying things like, "What's in the tunnel?" and "What's that noise?."

We called the after hours nurse and she sent us directly to the after hours pediatrician. Since Hannah was not having hallucinations due to a fever she was very concerned that she had some kind of underlying condition.

The doctor said that she most likely had a night terror and couldn't differentiate between the dream and reality. When children wake up in the middle of night terrors they sometimes have a hard time transitioning. He said she would be back to normal in a few days.

Hannah continued to have nightmares (not any more terrors) for several days. After doing some more research we found out that they can be triggered by sleep deprivation. Since our little peanut won't nap during rest time we KNEW she was overtired. So, we moved her bedtime from 8:00/8:30 to 7:30. After a few days of adjustments, Hannah's been doing great. The extra hour or so of sleep at night seems to prevent the nightmares. I'd prefer that she take a nap during the day, but I'll take what I can get and count my blessings that she's fabulous at sleeping through the night!!!

Thank you so much to everyone who prayed for our family during this confusing time for Hannah (and us!). We are so happy that she's back to her spunky self!

Little Drummer Girl

Thanks for the drum, JuJu and PaPa!

Christmas with the Deibels

This Christmas we were able to visit with my family for a little over a week.  We first drove to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, to see the Kronwalls (my mom's side of the family).  It was nice to see Great-Grandma and all of our aunts, uncles, and cousins.

Hannah was a trooper in the car.  I used a lot of the same successful tricks from our trip to NY for Thanksgiving.  On the drive from Wisconsin to St. Louis, Hannah had all of the attention she could possibly handle from Aunt Lauren and Grandma.  It was fabulous to have the entertainment for her!  The weather conditions were terrible and the roads were extremely icy.  We were so thankful to make it to St. Louis safely!

Aunt Lauren ADORES Hannah and, likewise, Hannah adores Aunt Lauren.  She gave Hannah this dolly (above) that she's had since she was a child.  She has curly hair just like Hannah.  Unfortunately, we couldn't fit it in the car for the trip home.  Hopefully next time!

Hannah loved sleeping in her princess sleeping bag.  She even took a nap every day in St. Louis!  (Maybe because she had a cold and was on Benadryl for several days.)

 Great Aunt Sandy and Uncle Dixie got Hannah this cute and very stylish leopard print jacket and headband.  Doesn't she look so adorable?!

 Mommy and daddy got to spend some quality time with Hannah banana, too.











By the end of the week, Hannah really grew to love the big doggies.  Thankfully, she's not asking for one yet!

It was so sad to leave.  We wish we lived closer to both of our families.  Hannah loves and talks about all of our family members.  We are very thankful for the technology that allows us to keep in touch with e-mails, photos, and this blog, but it's just not the same.