Summer Developments

I haven't blogged for about three weeks, and I could probably write about two months worth of stories. Both kids have hit some big developmental milestones in the past two weeks.

I will start with Hannah. She has come full board into toddlerhood. On the upside, she walks everywhere, like she's been doing it for years. On the downside of toddlerhood, she now is in the temper tantrum phase. She has become increasingly independent and impatient. So if she doesn't get what she wants, when she wants it, watch out. She will throw herself on the floor and scream like someone just told her Santa isn't real. All that said, she is still my adorable little baby girl. She toddles around and looks at me and gives me her scrunchy smile, that just melts my heart. Whenever she sees Matt, she yells, "Daaa! Daaa!" And then she will tilt her head to the side and grin. She is just so sweet. She is quite the cuddle bug. She loves to nestle into the crook of my or Matt's neck and cuddle when she's tired. Which brings me to yet another development. She is NOT sleeping in her own bed anymore. We have tried just nearly everything to get her back in there. Hannah has been a champion sleeper until now. It was an overnight change. She had a dr appointment this week, and the dr said that she is teething pretty good. But we have even given her ibuprofen, so I'm not sure what else we can do other than just tough it out. Her dr appointment went pretty well. She is much smaller than Laura was at this age. She is only in the 32% in weight and the 45% in height. Laura was in the 90's% in both. So it looks as though Hannha takes after Matt's dad and my mom.

Laura has also made some major strides. She is now finally sleeping her in own room consistently. She did it before, but not very regularly, just once in a while. Well now she has done it two full weeks in a row, by herself. She has a little routine she follows. It has been so AWESOME!!! And I am so proud of her. (Yes, I know we traded one kid for the other, but I will take it!) She is so grown up, which makes me a little sad. Time just moves so quickly. She has been getting bored in daycare. She is ready for the next room, which is the preschool room. She was really ready for it last fall, but that's another story for another time. Anyway, we are trying to get her involved in some additional activities at school this summer. They have two programs called Tap and Tumble and Stretch and Grow. I think we are going to enroll her in one or both of them for the summer, just to change things up a bit. I feel bad that she has to go to school five days a week, all year long. I have such fond memories of my summers as a child, and I wish that she could have that too. But life is what it is. She loves being a big sister to Hannah. She is always trying to carry Hannah around the house, which ends up being dragging Hannah around the house. She has also started feeding the cat for me. Bonus!

She has had a some fun summer "times" this month. She got to play with her friend, Maddie and her friend, Avery. We had ice cream with Maddie, and she got to swim in Avery's blow up pool. She LOVES both of them. They are her two favorite friends. Last week we also went to our parish festival, and she made fast friends with two little girls there. She jumped in the bounce house a few dozen times and had a great time. Little Hannah so wants to be with her sister, but she's just too little for some of those activities yet. She watched outside the bounce house longingly. Hannah did walk up to a little boy about her size and "talked" to him. So sweet. She is not a shy one. And then this week, I had Friday off, so we picked the kids up early and went to the zoo. They love the zoo. We spent a couple of hours there, and then we had pizza with Ellen and Tyler. Laura loves Aunt Ellen's house too! We were supposed to be in Iowa this weekend for a family reunion, but we decided not to go since my parents couldn't go. That was a little disappointing, but otherwise summer is starting off fun!!

Laura has a little boy at school that is infatuated with her. His name is Julian, and Daddy is struggling with this one! Laura says in the morning, "I want to dress pretty for Julian." "Julian is my prince." Well, Matt finally met Julian and his dad last week at daycare. Apparently, Julian talks non-stop at home about Laura. He even has a bear that he named Laura. Kinda weird. I don't know what we are going to do when she's a teenager!!

Sydney is at our house right now, and Laura and she are watching a movie from the movie pile (Netflix). They are watching a thumbelina movie. Hannah is playing quietly; hence, I have a few minutes to write this posting!