Thursday Thirteen

I have always been amazed at the new things Hannah can do but recently it has become very apparent to me that my "baby" isn't such a baby anymore.

13 New Big Girl Things:

1. She is potty trained. No more accidents, no more issues, she just still sleeps with a diaper on "just in case".

2. She can dress and undress herself completely. I'm not saying she always does it, but she usually does. She just learned buttons. She also tries to brush her hair and teeth by herself.

3. She no longer talks in sentences, she talks in paragraphs. Non-stop. I think Rob thinks it's funny and that I'm getting a daughter who is just like me. She also uses descriptions like "that's beautiful", "that smells good", etc and thinks things are funny, sad, etc. She definitely like to tell you how she feels.

4. She has opinions. And she voices them. Often. We were at the store the other day looking for a sweater to go over her Easter dress and she found a dress she liked. She took it off the rack, brought it to me, and said "oh Mommy I LOVE this dress."

5. I just had to buy her some 4T jeans. Yep, my not even 3 year old is in 4T pants (by the way, Carters outlet has their girl jeans at 60% off). She has been in 4T shirts for a few months now.

6. She likes her hair styled and tries to put on my make-up while I am fixing her hair in the morning. She also wants me to put mousse in her hair, which is good because it actually helps keep her fine hair from having so many fly-aways.

7. She has turned into a big helper. She helps set the table, load and unload the laundry, put away the dishes, sweep, etc. I actually found her in the kitchen a few weeks ago trying to unload the dishes by herself. She was doing a pretty impressive job.

8. She talks to other kids. I know this doesn't seem like a big deal but she no longer talks at them, she actually has conversations with them. There was a little girl about her age in the play area with her Daddy and the little girl said something like "that's my Daddy" and Hannah said "my Daddy is at work." She is also becoming more out-going, which is nice to see since she was a bit on the shy side up to this point.

9. She understands how to play a real game. It's Hi-Ho Cherry-O and I do get a little sick of playing it but she understands the rules and plays the game correctly. She can sort of play Memory but Chutes and Ladders and CandyLand are a little above her (mostly they take too long to play and she loses interest).

10. She remembers things from months ago. We saw a horse the other day and she told Rob "do you remember when we went to the pumpkin patch and I rode the horse." Yes, he does, but we're shocked she does. That was back in the middle of October!

11. She tries to negotiate. Sometimes it works, usually it doesn't, but it's still funny to hear. We went to her big siblings class last week and she was going to get to go to McDonald's to play afterwards. As we passed the McD's that has the play area, she said "Mommy I want to go to McDonald's first." Since the class was about to start in 20 minutes, I tried to explain this to her, and she just kept saying "Mommy, let's talk. McDonald's first, then my big sibling class." She does follow through on agreements when we do negotiate, which is nice.

12. She is starting to get a grasp on money. I'm not saying she truly understands it or anything but she was trying to convince Rob to put some donuts in the shopping cart. He asked her "do you have any money to pay for them?" (which obviously he knows she doesn't because it's not like we do an allowance or anything yet) and she said "no" and then put them back on her own without arguing.

13. She is learning social skills. She says "please", "thank you", "excuse me", covers her mouth with she coughs or sneezes, etc.