Countdown to 18-months!

Hannah turns 18-months this coming Sunday!!!
We're 5 days away...and counting down...
it's a big milestone! (which reminds me I haven't scheduled her 18-month check-up).

The exciting thing is that she gets to attend nursery during church! Yay! I'm sure Elder's Quorum is is excited so that they can actually listen to the lesson without Hannah wandering around making toddler noises on the podium. Daddy's excited too b/c he won't have to watch her all through the block of church - since mommy's usually doing something in Primary.

Developmentally she's where she needs to be and is like a huge sponge. It always amazes me how much she's learned and can understand! Just off the top of my head:

She loves going over body parts (her own & other people's)...and gets really excited. She has down eyes, ears, mouth, nose, head, hair, elbow, hand, fingers, toes, belly button, knees. Though on knees she still sometimes wants to point to her ankles. Today we went over eyebrows and ankles and reviewed all the other ones. If we go over too many though, I think she just gets excited and starts pointing to all different parts all over the place.

Her comprehension of directions is there - it's all a matter of if she wants to follow or not. She can get things for us that we ask for (fetch), she loves to play ball. She'll sit, stand, lay down, dance. (At this stage they really are akin to dogs/pets in terms of obedience & following directions.) lol.

She's been singing. Yes. Singing. And with RHYTHM. Mostly different sounds & stuff that she makes up. But... Saturday morning Isaac was humming the theme of "In Hall of the Mountain King" from Edvard Grieg's Peer Gynt Suite. Later we noticed Hannah humming the same rhythm walking around the house. We were both like, "is she really humming what we think she's humming?" And sure enough she was! Isaac looked for the Grieg CD and we put the music on in the car for Hannah's enjoyment. We still find her humming the same theme around the house.

She also loves "drumming." She'll drum on her little wood table with her hands, and she keeps the beat with whatever music is on. She's actually quite good at keeping the beat. Of course she still loves "dancing" - she wiggles her body back and forth to the music. Really cute. She also continues her "vogue-ing" thing with her arms and hands (which I really can't figure out where she got it from). We sometimes will blast the music in her room and dance around. She still likes to spin around and around too.

She's gotten a lot better at falling asleep quickly on her own. Daddy's been putting her down more and more (since mommy's also been working more). Except for last week, we regressed a little since we were travelling. Daddy was out of town - out east. Hannah & I went to Austin. We visited friends and I attended a seminar (read post here).
Basically Hannah ended up sleeping with me all week (or I ended up sleeping with Hannah all week).

Potty training and weaning basically AREN'T happening. With all the stuff that's been going on in my life, I haven't been very diligent with pushing the issue on those two items. Hannah KNOWS she's supposed to sit on the toilet to pee and poop. She will poop on the toilet if I remember to take her (sometimes fighting it though by running away). But mostly she knows and refuses to go head to the bathroom when she needs to pee and poop.

She knows to get her own sippy or ask for a drink when she's thirsty by signing and making the drink noise. She knows to ask to nurse by signing and saying "ne, ne." She knows to ask for food my signing and making sounds. She shakes her head furiously when she doesn't want something. She signs "done" when she wants to stop whatever she's doing. She understands when it's bathtime and she'll sign for bath and walk towards the bathroom. She knows to get her diaper and lay down to put it on. She knows she needs toilet paper & wet wipes to wipe. She loves taking pieces of toilet paper and wiping (even when she hasn't gone potty.) This girl KNOWS. BUT when it comes to the potty...basically she's not wanting to. She'll eventually sit when I take her to the bathroom, but she's just not vountarily going to the toilet. I haven't been pushing the issue too much (comparatively).

Other things she's OBSESSED over now (since our Houston & Austin trips):
keys & locks, doorknobs (opening & closing doors), light switches, shoes.

In Houston she discovered the novelty of keys and locks with a filing cabinet. She has really great dexterity. She can put the key in, turn it, take it out, etc. In Austin, Chaliese told me that Hannah went with her to the mailbox, observed, then when she had a chance to get the keys, found the exact golden key, and put it in the correct mail box.

In Austin at Julia's, Hannah discovered she could open door knobs. Julia has the long handle doorknobs. Hannah was on her tippy-toes and reached up and realized she could open and close the doors. It made for a noisy night b/c she refused to stop. She kept on opening and closing the bedroom door where we were staying. She also did it with the bathroom door and the closet door (the layout had them all facing each other)...and it continued into the next day.

Of course there's the light switches. She loves turning them on and off. In Austin she wanted me to hold her so she can turn them on and off - got tiring and old - she's not light anymore (haha light). At home, I've given her the stool and let her climb up to turn on/off the lights in the studio to her little hearts content. At first she fussed to play with the bathroom switches. I let her, but then she was playing with the water too, so that didn't last long - we changed locations.

Oh..and shoes...she still loves shoes. what kid doesn't? She will put on all sorts of shoes and walk around. She especially loves her shiny black Sunday shoes. She likes to put them on in the house. New shoes are her next favorite. Anything new to her, she wants to put it on. She always wants to go outside too. After putting on shoes, she wants to go outside. And what kid her age doesn't like strollers? She loves pushing them. She also enjoys riding in them. She likes bikes... the neighborhood kids have a couple of small bikes that she likes to ride on. There are also play electric cars she likes to ride and wagon cars.

She says "Thank you!" I didn't realize that's what Hannah was saying until Chaliese pointed it out. I started to pay more attention, and SURE ENOUGH, she says it after you give her something or at other times when "Thank You" is appropriate (her's sounds like "deau diu"). I guess all of our "thank you Hannah" after she does something for us has been paying off.

Last thing before I close this super long post. She put peas down her shirt the other day. Random. She was just dropping peas down the front of her onesie faster than she was eating them. For some reason she was fascinated by it. Hopefully it's not going to become a habit.