Point of view

When he's bored, full or otherwise disinterested, Matthew starts rubbing his food into his hair. He had just had a shower with me the other morning and starting mashing cottage cheese into his clean hair two bites into breakfast. I groaned and Hannah laughed. I said, "It's not funny, Hannah. He needs to eat his breakfast. He just had a shower (etc.)" She said, "It looks funny to me!"

Cut out for supervisory work

In preparation to move on to the next activity, I asked Hannah and her friend Daniel to pick up the toys that they had finished playing with. Daniel started helpfully and Hannah stood by without helping. I asked her to pick up and she said, "I'll be the watcher."

She busted that one out again when she was in the kitchen with me helping make a cheesecake. I asked if she wanted to help with crushing the graham cracker crumbs and she said, "No. It's your turn. I'll be the watcher."

Swing Low, Sweet Chariot

Matthew was fussing in his highchair before breakfast the other day and Hannah pulled her chair toward him. She said, "I'm gonna comfort him a little bit." And then she proceeded to sing "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" to him. Sweet!

At nap time today, Hannah was picking her nose as I was singing to her. I improvised, "Swing low, sweet chariot, don't pick your nose..." She thought this was hilarious and we sang it over and over but she wouldn't stop picking her nose. When I asked her to stop, she said, "Well can you pick your nose and I'll sing it to you?"

Early altruism

Shae brought home some (more) Target dog stuffed animals from the annual nat'l sales meeting. Before growing our collection, I suggested to Hannah that we go through her MANY stuffed animals and choose some to share with kids that don't have any. She was very receptive to the idea and immediately went to get one to share. She was kind of amazed that there are some kids who don't have toys. She said quizzically, "But Taylor Beth (neighbor friend) has toys." Then she asked, "Can we go in the car to take the toys to them?" She ended up parting with about a third of her stash. A good start.

I hope I can teach her about giving half as well as my mom taught us.

Nasal consonants

As I was putting Hannah to bed last week or so, I was humming some of the words to a lullaby to her. She asked if I knew the words and I said, "I don't know all of them, but I do know the tune." She was quiet for a few moments and then said, "Jesus was in the tune!"

Then the explanation of TUNE and TOMB. :)

Fun with Gpa and Gma and Cousin Becky

Grandpa and Grandma McCowen took Hannah and her cousin Becky on our light rail train recently. As she told me about it, Hannah said, "We were knocking on the doors. Grandma had a good idea. We went to sit somewhere else."

Grandma filled in the cracks: apparently the girls (maybe just Hannah? :)) were pressing the emergency alarm button and the conductor came on to see if it was really an emergency or not. And I can just hear Grandma saying, "I have a good idea..." Thanks, Mom and Dad, for this special outing!!

Breakfast at Matthew's

Back to the Blog: Part II

+ Matthew has a new Animal board book with real photos of animals. There's a shot of a male kangaroo and Hannah exclaimed, "Look, that kangaroo is going poopy!"

+ More potty training anecdotes: Hannah has taken to saying, "Just a minute, Matthew. I need some privacy." She then closes the door and proceeds with her business.

+ After finishing her popsicle (all fruit, of course :)), Hannah's hands were sticky and Daddy advised her to lick her hands and wipe them off. She obediently licked them off and then wiped them on Daddy shorts. Nice call, Daddy. :)

+ We've been talking about table manners lately and it's definitely registering... I asked Hannah if she wanted a banana or some berries and she didn't answer.
Growing impatient, I asked again. She smiled and said, "My mouth is full, Mommy."

Back to the Blog

Here we are again after a long hiatus... life doesn't seem to slow down... ever.

Anyway, we've been saving up all kinds of great sayings for you:

Big news in our house: Hannah is in underwear! From the potty training front lines:

When we went to the bathroom together, Hannah patted my thigh as I was using the potty and said, "Good job, Mommy!" Nothing like a little encouragement when on the john.

We're big into rewards with potty time and Hannah came up to me with a small toy yesterday exclaiming, "Mommy, if you go to the potty you get this!" And after I used the bathroom next, she proudly presented me with my prize.

Matthew is awake with me as I write, so I will have to write more later... his fascination with the dresser is waning.