No way will that happen with MY child

Hannah is still not completely potty-trained. I never thought I'd be the mother who had the 3 1/2 year old up on the changing table in a public restroom changing her poo diaper (which are actually pull-ups, because she is too big for the largest size diaper now, and is even starting to outgrow the largest size pull-up as well). What's ironic is that while I was still pregnant with her, I saw a mother in a public restroom one day with her preschooler up on the changing table, legs dangling off, and arrogantly thought, "Hmph. I can't believe her son is still in diapers at that age. No way will that happen with MY child." Dun dun dun! Surprise!

I have tried everything I can think of to get her over that last little hump of going in restrooms other than home, and always initiating it while at home (I have to stay on top of her or she will wait too long and not make it to the potty). I even tried the "Potty Train your Child in Just One Day" method, which the author guarantees will work, though I admit, I didn't follow her instructions 100%. Maybe I should check that book out again from the library and give it another go, though I'm not sure how it would work with the fact that Hannah is already using the potty, she just isn't initiating it 99% of the time.

I know she'll eventually get it, but it is starting to cause problems. When she is in Sunday School at church, for example, she is the only one in the class who doesn't use the potty while there. And then there is the size issue. When she outgrows the pull-ups, which will be soon, we will either have to order a larger size online (assuming they have them), or switch to "Underjams," which is special disposable nightime underwear for older kids who are bed-wetters. Can you say, "Ka-ching!"?

Hopefully it won't be long and I'll be posting  about our, "No more diapers" party we throw for us-- I mean-- her.

She was quiet, and nothing was wrong

I think my daughter is entering a new phase of maturity. Today she got real quiet while in her bedroom, and usually that means she's up to something, but when I went to check on her, she was playing happily with her little horse and a couple of stuffed animals. A little while later, she was still quiet, so I went to check on her a second time and she was still "just playing." Then yet a third time, she was uncharacteristically quiet, and this time I fully expected "something" to be wrong, but no, she was just lying in her chair with her little horse in one hand, gazing out the window. Hmmm. This is the first time she has ever gone that long playing alone in her bedroom quietly for so long, without something being wrong. I guess it means she's growing up. Doesn't she know she's not allowed to do that? Sigh. :-)

Of course tonight, she reminded me just how much of a three-year-old she still is. She was at the kitchen table with a red marker and a piece of paper, both of which she had acquired all on her own, and was hitting the marker on the page to make dots and little splats. Occasionally she would actually draw... er..uh.. scribble a line or two. I went to the bathroom, and when I came back, Hannah was gone and in her place sat a little Navajo Indian girl. She had used the red marker to "color" all over her face, chest, arms, and hands. I wasn't too happy with her at first, but then I couldn't help but laugh at how big of a mess she had made herself. Oh the creativeness of a three-year-old.

Is that a monkey on my back?

Sometimes Hannah's creative imagination gets her into trouble. Today while I was bending down searching through the clothes in the dryer to find her an outfit for her to wear, she tried to jump up on my back, but of course it was too high for her to do so. She kept trying, though, and saying, "It's too high!" Next thing I knew, she got real quiet and I figured she had given up and went to find something else to do. Meanwhile, I was still frantically searching through the clothes in the dryer for a matching outfit. I finally found one and was just about to stand back up, when all of the sudden I saw something out of the corner of my eye and "Uhh!" Hannah lands on my back. Well, almost. She didn't quite make it, and slid off. She had worked out in her little mind that if she stood on top of the toilet with the lid down, she could jump on my back from there (our washer and dryer are in one of our bathrooms). But she fell just short of her lofty goal, and crash landed on the floor, flailing backward and hitting her back on the toilet in the process. Thankfully, after some tears were shed and mama hugs and cuddles were given, my sweet little monkey was just fine.

She's had her share of getting hurt this week. This past weekend, she was playing with a dog and got bit twice, neither of which broke the skin, but one of which left a nice bruise next to her eye. Then on Sunday during Sunday School, she got bit hard on the arm by a boy in her class that also left a nice round bruise. On Monday, she was opening a big entrance door to the mall and the bottom corner of the door scraped and bruised her big toe, to the point of bleeding. Then there was the monkey-jump-gone-bad incident today. Hopefully that was the last of it for awhile, though I have a feeling it won't be. She is becoming quite the bold and adventurous little girl.

My blog has come back to life! Yay, I finally did it! This time, I hope to keep each entry a little shorter and to the point, to make it easier for any readers who may happen to find this blog interesting (and if you don't, please don't waste your time reading it, haha!). I will also more likely post an entry on a more regular basis if I know it will be short.

Hannah is now three years and seven months old, going on thirteen! She already acts like a teenager in so many ways. Stares at herself in her full-length mirror, even does the whole butt-check thing. And of course has the attitude to match. When asked once where her favorite place to live would be, her answer was, "The mall."

Her latest obsession is with dogs and babies. When she's in dog-mode, she'll get down on all fours, stick her tongue out as far as it will go, start panting, open her eyes wide, then say, "I'm a dog." Sometimes she will just stand there and stick her long tongue out and look at you with "puppy-dog eyes" and expect you to know she is now "a dog." Yesterday, a friend of mine, who makes animal costumes and realized how much Hannah liked imitating dogs, gave her a big, thick, "dog tail," which was actually red with a white tip. Hannah immediately got down on all fours, put the "tail" behind her, and started wiggling her butt to "wag" the tail.

When in baby-mode, Hannah will find her doll's tiny pacifier or some other object that resembles a pacifier and stick it in her mouth (or a real pacifier, if one is available, say... from her 21-month old cousin's mouth), find something to use as a bib and tie it around her neck, then walk around saying, "I'm a baaaay-bee." She has quite the imagination. The other day she brought me one of her barbie doll's tiny little boots and a crooked pipe cleaner and said, "Let's play ball." She gave me the barbie boot and held the pipe cleaner up like a bat, so I threw the boot to her and she tried to hit it with the pipe cleaner. What a riot she is.