26 Months Old

Sweet Hannah,

Another month has come and gone and I am more in love with you than ever before!  I can't put into words how special you are...oh how I wish I could capture who you are at this exact moment and bottle it up to remember forever.  Here is my attempt at doing just that....

In the beginning of this month we spent a lot of time outside, enjoying the beautiful Spring weather and playing on your new swing set and picnic table.  Mommy took you on daily walks around the neighborhood (LONG walks!) and you loved it.  Some days we stopped at the neighborhood playground for 30-45 minutes of playing, but other days we just walked and you were okay with that.  You usually had a snack while we walked and were content to sit in the double jogging stroller the whole time.  Unfortunately by mid-month we were having temperatures in the high 80s and 90s, which made being outside a bit unbearable.  Hopefully we will be able to spend more time outside in the coming weeks before Emma's arrival because I know how much you love it out there! 

You are so excited for your baby sister to get here!  When we ask you what you are going to do with Emma you say, "Hold Emma, ride in the strollie, take a bath together, read a story, play with toys".  You love to play in her room and look at all of her baby clothes and toys.  You also love to lay on her changing table and pretend that you are a baby.  I am hopeful that this excitement will carry over once she actually arrives.  Only time will tell.  I'm just not sure that you really realize how permanent of a change this will be! 

Your favorite place to go these days is the grocery store (Publix to be exact), only because that's where you get a cookie!  Every time we say we are going to the store you say, "I get a cookie?"  No matter what store we are going to, you want a cookie.  Good thing I only make one trip to Publix per week.

This month your sleep was still a mess!  You took nearly 2 hours to fall asleep some nights, sometimes crying and sometimes just singing and talking.  At the beginning of the month you were also waking 1-2 times in the night, crying.  If we had to go in you would complain that your hands and/or feet were cold...same as last month.  Then despite the late bedtime you still woke up somewhere between 6:30-7am.  So you were averaging 10 hours of sleep each night and about 1 hour of daytime sleep.  These new sleeping patterns came at a bad time because mommy has been exhausted lately.  Being 30-34 weeks pregnant is exhausting!  Hopefully you will be back to good sleep before Emma comes.  I certainly don't want to have to be up in the night with both of you!

Every night before bed you request that Mommy and Daddy sing with you.  We start with the Barney theme song ("I Love You") and then sing "Lullaby and Goodnight".  You always sing along with us and it's precious!  At the end of the month you started requesting "the Hannah song" which I figured out is "Goodnight Sweetheart" which I sang to you every night since you were born, but have recently stopped because of your love of the other two songs.  Now you have learned all the words to that song as well and love to sing along.  Each night after we tuck you in and leave the room you continue singing until you fall asleep....precious!  You are very musical, which I love!  There are even mornings where you wake up singing.  The most adorable sound I've ever heard!

You got to spend a weekend alone with Grandma and Grandpa Vaccaro this month.  Mommy and Daddy went to a wedding in Raleigh, NC and you were home with Grandma and Grandpa for 4 days and 3 nights.  You had a blast and they were sure to spoil you, as only Grandparents can. :-)  We also took a road trip to another wedding in NC (for mommy's cousins, Lauren).  You did such a great job on the ride there (5.5 hours) and the whole weekend.  Your routine was completely off (late naps and very late bedtimes), but you handled it all like a champ.  Unfortunately we weren't as lucky on the ride home, as you had a major meltdown (screaming and crying for 45+ minutes, then falling asleep for 30 minutes, and then waking up to start all over again).  Mommy was a bit flustered and needless to say I don't want to go on a long car ride with you anytime in the near future!

Your favorite color right now is definitely pink!  You love everything pink - clothes, hair bows, toys...if it's pink you are happy!  Thankfully you haven't gotten to the point of refusing to wear something if it's not pink, but I'm afraid that might be coming soon.

You have been much more interested in the potty this month.  I had the idea of telling you that if you sat on the potty and tried to go you could have a piece of candy (a chocolate chip).  You liked this idea and sat right down (a HUGE accomplishment since you were scared to death of that thing last month).  You haven't actually gone on the potty yet, but just sitting on it willingly is a step in the right direction (I have since changed the rule that you don't get a piece of candy unless you actually go and you are okay with that).  You have also become very vocal about when you go potty in your diaper.  You often get confused with poop and pee and will say, "I have poopy" when really it's just pee.  You have started to want me to change you after every time you pee (which I refuse as I don't want to waste that many diapers), but I think that is a good sign of getting closer to being ready to potty train!  You did have one successful night on the potty this month!  You were getting ready for bed with Daddy and you told him that you needed to go poop.  He asked you if you wanted to sit on the potty and you did.  You immediately pooped but as soon as you got off the potty you started crying hysterically and shaking.  You were SO scared!  This happened once before when you pooped in the potty, so it wasn't a complete shock, but it was still so hard to see.  It took a good 10-15 minutes to calm you down and nothing we said made it better.  I did finally manage to give you two pieces of candy (chocolate chips) for going poopy on the potty, which you liked.  But you definitely didn't want to talk about it at all after that.  Since that happened (2 days ago) you have not pooped at all.  You even woke up that night in the middle of the night, crying and shaking.  I held you for a few minutes and you saw the potty in your room and insisted that we take it out.  It broke my heart that you were so upset about even seeing the potty.  Needless to say, I think we will have to wait a little longer to start the potty training process.

Some of your latest sayings are: "I'm sorry" (melts my heart), "Oh boy!" (with such enthusiasm), "Wow Mommy!  Good job!" (when I pee on the potty or when I do something you are impressed with), "That's pretty Mommy" (when I get dressed), "Wow Mommy, that is so pretty!" (as you look at my painted toe nails), and "I have a seekey (secret)....I yuv (love) you" (Daddy started this with you).

Your appetite has increased again this month, but it's still down from where it was a few months ago.  Your favorite food is still "yogi" (yogurt) and you request it at every meal.  We limit you to one container per day, but you would definitely eat more if we let you.  Some other favorites this month were cheese, frozen blueberries (you only wanted the "cold ones"), milk (still not much overall), beans, cottage cheese, dried apricots, raisins, applesauce, steak, corn on the cob, Daddy's grilled chicken, peas, cold Buddy Fruits, and all carbs.

This month you started wanting to say your own prayer before bed.  It is precious!  First we talk about what or who we want to pray for.  Usually you say one of your friends (or all of them) or one of your toys or your food...pretty much whatever was last on your mind.  Then you say, "my turn" and start mumbling a few things usually with some recognizable words or names thrown in and then say "Amen".  LOVE this!!  Then we pray with you and you are sure to remind us if we forget something we talked about earlier.  Definitely my favorite part of the day!

You now know most of your colors (a huge accomplishment this month!).  You don't have them all  down perfectly, but you are getting much better at identifying them!  You also know several different letters of the alphabet - H, E, D, M, and O for sure, but there are others that you know randomly.

This month you definitely started testing the waters as far as behavior goes.  Your new favorite word is "No" and you are sure to use it often.  You aren't necessarily rude about it or extremely defiant...it's more of a game to you.  But we are desperately trying to reign that in so it doesn't get out of control.  The thing we are working on the most is getting you to listen the first time!  Not easy.  The phrase we find ourselves saying over and over is, "How many times does Mommy (or Daddy) ask?" and you will always say, "One time."  It definitely doesn't guarantee first time compliance, but we are hopeful that drilling it into you will help down the road.  We are still trying to be consistent with the "Yes Mommy/Daddy" rule and you are pretty good about it, but the eye contact is not always present.  We definitely need to crack down on that more too!  Another struggle we have had this month has been with sharing.  I know this is a very difficult concept for this age group to grasp, but it's so hard because the rest of your friends seem to get it, while you don't.  When we are playing with your friends you tend to hoard all the toys you want to play with (mostly the baby dolls) and when someone tries to take one (even if you have 5) you go nuts!  You have a complete meltdown with big crocodile tears and everything.  You say, "That's my baby" (even when we are at a friend's house and it's truly not yours at all!).  You have no desire to share and when you are forced to the result is a complete meltdown.  I hope this stage is short lived because it's a bit embarrassing when your child is the only one that melts down every five minutes during playgroup. 

Something else we are working on right now is getting you to clean up what you are playing with before you take out something else.  You tend to be a tornado with your toys if we let you....leaving a massive mess if left to your own devices.  You are fairly good at cleaning up the mess as long as I am right there with you, instructing you on what to clean next.  You know where everything goes (pretty much) and once we are done you love to say, "Look at my payroom (playroom) Mommy." - with a big smile on your face.  You love how it looks when it's all clean!  I'm hoping that my love for cleaning and organizing will transfer to you!

Other 26 Month Stats:
- You still wear size 2T or 3T clothes.
- You still wear size 7 or 8 shoes, but the 7s are getting small.
- We had to move you into size 6 overnight diapers (the largest they sell) because you were consistently waking up soaking wet!  And surprisingly you still wake up wet some mornings in a size 6!  I don't know what our next option is?!
- Once we run out of size 5 daytime diapers, you will be in size 6 all the time.
- I'm not sure how much you weigh or how tall you are because I didn't measure you this month.

We love you "little" peanut and can't wait for you to be a big sister!  We know that you will be the best big sister ever!  But we also want you to know just how special YOU are!  Even though our lives are about to change drastically with the addition of another family member, you will always be special to us.  We love you more than you can ever imagine, even if we get completely wrapped up in the transition to being a family of 4.  Never forget that you are our little miracle!  You changed our lives the moment you were born and life has never been the same....we couldn't be happier about that!