Two and a Half!

Sweet Hannah Lee, 

You are 2.5 years old today!!  I can't believe it.  Neither can your Daddy.  You are now officially closer to 3 which is crazy.  

You, my sweet girl are hilarious.  You make us laugh every single day.  You remember EVERYTHING you hear, even things we didn't realize you heard.  You just listen and store it in your brain and bring it out when we least expect it.  Daddy has always put your hooded towels on his head and started slowly clapping for you and then he comes and gets you for bath time.  Now anytime we clap you say "it's not bath time yet!"  It's so funny, no one can clap without you thinking about getting a bath.

You are such a big girl and you FINALLY have hair!!  You weigh about 30 lbs and are 35 inches tall.  I think both are about 50% for your age.  You wear a size 7-7.5 shoe so you will not have tiny feet like your Mommy, that's for sure!  I think you're going to pass me up in height before you reach middle school most likely.  You still wear a size 4 diaper/2T pull up during the day and a size 5 night time diaper for bedtime.   

Speaking of diapers.....you have ZERO interest in potty training at home.  ZERO.  At school you use the potty ALL DAY LONG like a big girl but at home you act like we are asking you to do something terrible.  It's fun...  We've tried bribing you with candy or stickers and you could care less.  We've tried just about everything.  I'm going to bite the bullet soon and we're going to spend a weekend just sticking with it and hopefully you will be fully potty trained after that.  The thing is, I don't even mind that you're still in pull ups/diapers but I think you're ready since you use the potty at school so it's time.  

Part of the potty training I think has to do with you're a TAD bit stubborn....  Haha.  This is new to us.  Sweet Hannah, you were one of the easiest babies I have ever seen.  We know how lucky we got the first two years and we are so thankful for that.  About 2-3 months ago you've changed a bit in that area.  You, of course are still SO sweet and lovable but you have DEFINITELY found your voice!  Haha.  Your voice almost always says "NNNNO!"  Those terrible twos everyone talks about?  Yeah, we get it now.  You are such a sweet and caring little girl but when you don't want to do something, wow, you let it be known.  You now say NO often and find yourself sitting in time out.  You have started throwing fits when you don't want to do something and find yourself sitting in time out.  So, time out is pretty common around here.  It seems to work in the moment though because you do not like it one bit.  You also do not like it when people aren't happy so if you know that your fit throwing makes us sad you usually get upset and want to make everyone happy again.  You are just so sweet.  

You still sleep like a rock star.  We usually get in bed about 7:15 and say our prayers and read a book or two then you're almost always out by 8pm.  We wake you up at 6am on the weekdays and you usually wake up on your own around 7:30 on the weekends.  You get to stay up until around 8pm on the weekends.  You've been doing great with your naps at school but we're down to usually just one nap on the weekends.  You still spend time resting in your bed during nap time but one day you won't fall asleep.  You are so good about never getting out of your bed.  You have gotten out ONCE in the last six months since moving to your big girl bed and that was because you heard us and wanted to see what was going on.  You just lay in your bed or play until we come and get you.  Once your Daddy was out of town on the weekend and I was still asleep and at 8am I hear "HELLO?!" through the monitor.  I guess you had been up and playing for awhile and finally wanted to know if I was coming to get you.  It was so funny.  You recently have started what we are hoping is a phase by wanting us to lay down with you every night until you fall asleep.  It's so sweet because you will wrap your arms around our necks or hold on to our arm, you just need to make sure you are touching some part of us to know we are still there.  It's harder for Mommy than Daddy because you really really want Mommy to lay down with you.  We lay down with you for a little while and then leave the room so you will fall asleep on your own because we don't want that to become a habit that is hard to break.

You are super smart!  Your teachers tell us and we see it for ourselves everyday.  You can count to 20 and say your ABCs on your own.  You LOVE to "read" books.  Your awesome memory really helps you out with books because you memorize them pretty quickly.  Certain books we can just hand to you and you will "read" them line for line.  You know every word to every page.  It's amazing because they aren't super short books.  

You love to dance!  You dance all the time and your teachers say you're the only kid in class who watches their feet and tries to dance like they do.  You are very good at mimicking people.  You have seen the "Let It Go" video from Frozen a lot and you mimic Elsa's movements and sing with her, it's so cute!  The Winter Olympics are happening right now and you LOVE ice skating!  We already have several videos of you ice skating in the living room along with the skaters on TV, it's adorable.  You started gymnastics in January and you look forward to it every week!  I don't know if your Daddy and I are having more fun watching you or if you're having more fun.  It is a blast to watch you running around and having so much fun!  You are really good at following direction and you love the balance beam the most.  It's so cute to watch!   

Your favorites right now are Sofia the First, Cinderella, anything princess, Doc McStuffins, playing outside, cuddling with Mommy in the mornings and Jake and the Neverland Pirates.  You are in a HUGE princess phase right now.  Mickey and Minnie are things of the past (sad Mommy) and you only watch Elmo if I put in a DVD in the car.  You talk about Sofia and her friends and family all the time.  You will be quietly eating dinner while Daddy and I eat and talk and you will suddenly start talking about James (Sofia's step brother) or Baileywick like they are real people.  It's like you were just recapping your day and thinking about what they did.  

Your dislikes right now are probably right before you take a bath (as soon as you get in the bath you're super happy) you say you don't want to take a bath.  I'm pretty sure it's because you know bedtime is soon to follow.  You will randomly tell us you don't like something on your plate that you love 99% of the time so some days you don't eat your normal foods.  You really dislike us trying to make you go potty at home.  Fun times.

Hannah, you are our sweet, silly, happy, funny little girl and we can't believe you are already two and a half!  You are the best part of our day and make us so happy.  You make us laugh so much and are just the most lovable little girl.  You love giving hugs and you love everyone!  People tell me all the time what a sweet girl you are and it warms my heart so much to hear.

Happy half birthday sweet girl!