Hannah is Three!

Our baby girl is three today! It is hard to imagine, but we are loving this next phase with our daughter. Well, most of the time! :-) Here are some highlights of Hannah's life right now.

Check-up: At Hannah's 3 year check up, she weighed in at 31 lbs. (60th percentile) and is 37 in. (40th percentile). She continues to be a healthy little girl who has rarely gotten sick.

Friends: We have really enjoyed watching Hannah interact with various friends in her life. Whether it's at the babysitter's house, gymnastics, church, small group, play groups and others, she loves hanging out with friends! Whenever we tell her that she has friends coming over or we are going somewhere to meet her friends, she always asks, "What friends names?" I love her caring personality and her openess with others. She is definitely learning how to be a good friend.

Eating: Hannah is still pretty good at eating a variety of food. She usually says, "Mommy, I like this" which is for both likes and doesn't like depending on what she is doing with her head. She does pretty good at eating meals, but also has developed a sense of snacking. She also continues to have a sweet tooth (like her Mommy) and is usually bargaining for a "treat" or "candy" either after a certain number of bites or after naptime. She seems to be growing well regardless!

Sleeping: Hannah is such a good sleeper still, even though her patterns have changed some. Most mornings, she is up around 5:30 or 6:00 and crawls in bed with us to watch "Tartoons." This isn't bad, except I wish she would figure out the difference between weekdays and weekends! :-) She still takes a nap that ranges from 2 1/2 hours to 3 hours each day. She can skip them if needed, but not for too many days in a row. She then heads to bed anywhere between 7:30 and 8:30 depending on that days events.

Speech: Well, for sometime my Mommy gut has told me that Hannah was not quite talking like I thought she should. After a few different evaluations, it's been determined that she has a slight delay in her expressive vocabulary and some articulation issues, some bigger and some smaller. She will start speech at Mascoutah Elementary School this coming week. She will have two 30 minute sessions a week in a small preschool group of three. I've heard that some speech issues are genetic, so she must take after her momma. We look forward to watching her progess in this area as she goes through speech therapy.

Independence: I know it comes with the terrority of being three, but we definitely have an independent daughter on our hands! We hear "By myself!" multiple times a day whether it's going to the bathroom (and now even the stall), putting on clothing items, reading her books, putting puzzles together and so much more! These are the times we love! Watching her grow and change in this way is so fun. Then there are times that stretch our patience and parenting. Again, while not as fun, it's something we are getting through and we make strides with each situation.

Fun Stuff: Hannah is just a fun, happy little girl! Yes, she has her moments where we are praying to God to help us parent her in the right way. But the majority of the time, things are going well. She is a great big sister to Cameron and we love watching them play together and interact (he LOVES his big sister!) She loves all things physical, especially gymnastics. She has recently moved up to the "big girl class" where she goes by herself and is doing great! Hannah likes to show off her moves at home any chance she gets! We have also loved watching her grow and learn at church each week. This fall, she officially started in the Awana program as a Cubbie and is doing so well! We read through her book and practice her memory verse and she is doing great! I love that every night we have to read a Bible story and she is starting to want to pray by herself. That makes this momma's heart smile! We love our spirited daughter and can't wait to see what the next year of life brings!