25 months old

It seems like just in the last month, Hannah has made the leap from the last little bit of baby to true toddler. She acts like such a big girls now. We've even started seeing some shades of the terrible two's. Here's a glimpse:

*She has had a word explosion in the last month. She is now regularly saying lots of phrases and tons of words. She can pretty well communicate with us just what she wants.

*She refers to herself as Hannah, saying things like "Hannah chair", "Hannah bite", "Hannah milk", etc.

*When we ask her a question and she doesn't know the answer, she'll say "no know" (don't know) while holding her hands out and shrugging her shoulders, or else she'll say "umm.." like she's thinking really hard about it.

*Once she makes up her mind, it can be very difficult to change it. Very often, she will say "Mama (or Daddy) hand" when walking and will throw a fit if the "wrong" one of us takes her hand instead.

*She now tells us when she wants to walk or when she wants up to be carried.

*She loves daddy's "boat boat", as she calls it.

*She is really good at putting her shoes on her feet all by herself. If we tell her she has them on the wrong feet, she will take them off and switch them.

*We may be getting closer to potty training(?). She's still not actually going, but she now tears off toilet paper and then sits on her potty and "wipes" herself. Unfortunately, this has also caused us to go through a tremendous amount of toilet paper!

*She's finally getting more interested in coloring, sidewalk chalk, etc. She loves to put stickers in her coloring books, too.

*She started tiny tot gymnastics class last week. She really wasn't interested in paying attention to the teacher, but she loves doing the obstacle course that the teachers had set up. Her favorite activities so far have been jumping on the trampoline, rolling down the hill, and crawling through the tunnel. (I will have to post about it after Jason can finally make a class and I can get some pictures. It's exhausting by yourself!).

*She is obsessed with the Mickey Mouse Club, thanks to Grandpa Cramer. Since we don't have the Disney channel, we watch episodes on You Tube. We'll frequently here her yelling "Oh Toodles" and asking to watch "Mit-y" (Mickey). It is now an occasional treat to watch at the end of the day before bed.

*She's also in love with the Lazy Town clips on You Tube. Her favorite is the Twenty Times Time song, which is all about brushing teeth. Anything that makes teeth brushing time fun is ok with us!

I am really loving this age. Although we definitely have begun to have some power struggles, she just so much fun to play and interact with. She does things daily that just crack us up. Total joy!