The Rodda 3: 15 months

Hannah is our little director! She thrives on routine and repetition. Her mind and hands are constantly busy. Here are a few cute examples:

From the moment alarm clock Hannah awakes us in the morning (7ish), she is directing our steps. Step one is to drop Riga and paci back in the crib upon us picking her up. Step two is to direct us by a point or point/whine combination (depending on the mood) to the kitchen where she expects to receive a warm bottle of milk complete with a her daily does of Prevacid.

Miss Helen, the director of childcare where Hannah stays on weekday mornings, lovingly gives stickers to all of the kids when they leave each day. Recently, she asked Hannah if she wanted a sticker. One time. That's all it took for Hannah to be hooked. Now she points to the sticker box and says "dit" every time we leave. Miss Helen showers Hannah with stickers, which end up on me/the carseat/the garage floor, rarely making it into the house.

Hannah definitely loves socks and shoes and has said "shoe"on a few occasions. She also loves to try to put them on. Bless her heart--she waves the socks over her feet and rubs the shoes on her sole, but friction alone won't put the sock/shoe on. It takes mommy or daddy's special skills. One day, Hannah, one day.

Daniel and I thought we really had something special when Hannah would not only dump out her lego bucket/picnic basket/toy chest/etc, but one by one, put everything back. A child who picks up her own toys! While Hannah still loves to dump, the pick up enthusiasm has waned.

Do. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat again. This is how Hannah plays. Most recently, she's taken a liking to our half bath downstairs. She loves to take Daddy on field trips in there, but she'll also do it alone. She crawls in, closes the door, and waits there until we open the door for her. She never makes a sound, but then again we've never left her in there for more than 20 seconds. We'll open the door, she'll crawl out, and then go right back in. Repeat. Daniel brought up a good point that she's probably mimicking us. Afterall, we go in, close the door, and come out happy. But we also do something while we're in there. For me, it's enjoy 20 seconds to myself. But, I digress.

Another cute moment that comes to mind when I think of repetition happened one morning while I was getting ready for the day. Hannah frequently plays with bottles under my cabinet, but on this particular morning, she took each item, one by one and placed it in the wet shower. I had a collection of damp bottles, hairbrushes, make up, and feminine hygiene products, swollen with water, in my shower.

Even though Hannah usually hears the garage door open when Daniel comes home, she still seems surprised when he walks through the door. She'll immediately stop what she's doing, charge for me, as if to say, "Can you believe it Mommy? He's home!" then crawl as fast as possible to Daddy. And, boy, it that a huge hug!

She loves her puzzles and will remove each piece, one at a time. She's been known to even line the pieces up in a row. She can match every piece to it's rightful place, but if it won't go in with 5 seconds of struggle or less, we have a problem. We've gently encouraged her to move from whining/flapping arms/throwing the piece to her handing the piece to us to complete for her. Now we give it back to her with the sweet "you can do it." If she can't she'll move on and come back to it later--like a good math student! We still have plenty of whining/flapping/throwing sessions though--I saw a few of those in my math teaching days, too.

A few notable, baby-bookish moments: Friday, February 17 - BOOM! Hannah fell out of her crib. No observable damage to the floor. Hannah's OK, too.
Sunday, February 19 - Hannah takes 4 steps from Daddy to Mommy!

Best of all, Hannah gives awesome hugs! It makes the drool/snot mixture at our knees or on our shoulders well worth it!