Our little Hannah Belle is 18 months now. She has actually been 18 months for a couple of weeks, but I wanted to document some things so I will remember what she was like at this age. I really think it's one of my favorite ages.

So, in no particular order, here are some of my favorite (and a couple of not so favorite things) about Miss Belle:

- At her 18 month appointment she screamed the whole time the doctor or his assistant was anywhere near her. Maybe she remembers this.

- Her height is off the chart. When I asked the doctor what percentile it was, he said it was too high to be a percentile. I wonder if she will be taller than 6 feet when she grows up. At least I can totally blame that on her dad!

- She makes this really funny grouchy face. The first time she did it I laughed so hard and asked her to do it again. She now does it anytime I ask for her funny face. It's a little hard for her to do it though because she starts smiling.


- Surprisingly, she is pretty good at blowing her nose.

- She LOVES going outside and brings me my shoes when she wants to go outside to play.

- She really likes to throw trash away. I often see her find a piece of trash and go over to the trash can to throw it away. Remarkably, she somehow knows when something is trash because she's never thrown anything else away.

- This is a conversation we have many times a day...
Hannah: Daddy? Daddy?
Me: Daddy is at work.
Hannah: Oh

- When she's whining or crying at me, I tell her to go by the door until she's cheerful. She walks over to the front door, finishes her little fit and then often comes out smiling.

- She sucks her thumb when she is tired or sad. She is also attached to her blanket. I'm not sure what the bowl is about.


- According to the books, 18 months is the start of the terrible twos. Hannah must have read those books because almost to the day of when she turned 18 months, her two favorite things to say (or actually yell) are "mine" and "no."

- She is such a girl and already loves purses and babies. I often see her carrying Joey's doctor bag and putting her little phone and sunglasses in it.

- She says please and thank you all the time and often without prompting although it sounds more like "peas" and "dee do."

- She hardly ever watches TV, but if we watch Scooby Doo, she LOVES it. She cracks up anytime he's on the screen.

- After much coaxing, she finally says Joey's name. She calls him "Joe-Joe."

- This girl is an eater! I kid you not, she eats more breakfast than anyone in the family and sometimes eats more dinner.

Saturday was Museum Day where you get free admission to participating museums. This is our third year doing it! The first year we went to Quail Botanical Gardens, and last year Andy and Joey went to the Birch Aquarium.

This year we went down to the San Diego Air and Space Museum in Balboa Park. We got there right when it opened at 10:00 so it wasn't too crowded despite being Museum Day.



Although we didn't get many good pictures (just a lot of pictures of the back of the kids' heads), the museum was really cool. We left the museum at around 11:30 and planned to have a little picnic down in Balboa, but then Andy mentioned that there was a Padres game starting at 1:00. We have been wanting to take Joey to a game, but our last attempt failed miserably (we drove down late, got stuck in traffic, couldn't find any parking, and drove right back home).

Since we were so close to the stadium, we drove over and I hopped out of the car to see if there were any more "lawn tickets" available. In the outfield there is a section where instead of seats, there is just grass. You can buy cheap tickets, bring your own lunch, sit on the grass, and watch the game. It's very popular for families with kids. Apparently these tickets sell out very quickly, and the lady at the ticket counter was surprised that there were still some left. Hooray!

I bought two tickets for Andy and Joey, and then Hannah and I drove home so that she could take a nap. When the game was over, the boys could just take the Coaster home.

This was Joey's first baseball game, and Andy and Joey both had a great time.

Next to the lawn seats, there's a mini baseball field for the kids to play on. A Padres employee pitches to the kids so they can take turns hitting the ball and running the bases. They also get to practice fielding. Apparently Joey got a few good hits!

The Coaster ride home was another highlight for Joey. The only small glitch in the plan was that Andy didn't have enough cash for the trolley that takes you from the stadium to the Coaster station. He ended up having to walk the 1.3 miles to the station carrying Joey and the bat he got. I'm just glad they made it to the Coaster on time!
Our Saturdays are not normally so adventurous and spontaneous. I wouldn't want to be that busy every weekend, but it sure was a fun day!

As much as I love summer, I always get so excited when Fall comes. I love the cooler weather (although this summer was so cool there wasn't much of a difference) and the flavors of Fall. It gets me all in the mood to drink chai tea, make homemade applesauce, and do some baking.

One of my favorite things about Fall is that we get back in a regular routine. The organized side of me loves a routine! Joey likes a routine also, and asks me every morning what day it is and what we are doing.

I decided to make a weekly calendar for Joey so he could see what we are doing every day. I got this idea from my friend, Deb. Thanks, Deb! It would have been a lot nicer looking if I had waited and asked Andy to do it, but I was feeling inspired and didn't want to wait. The teacher in me also would really like to have these laminated, but I'll just have to get over that.

This picture is from a week ago, but this was our schedule:

Sunday-church
Monday-library and park
Tuesday-Bible study
Wednesday-Sprouts (grocery store) and Petco (the kids like looking at all the animals)
Thursday-Zoo
Friday-playdate

When Hannah has to go to the bathroom, we've got our routine down to a science. She tells me she's ready through an elaborate series of gestures and grunts. Then, after deciphering her message, I take her to the bathroom, pull down her pants, put her on the potty, and she does the rest. Although I would love to not be as involved in the process, she's only 18 months so she definitely needs some help.

Yesterday, after Hannah disappeared for a few minutes, Joey found her in the bathroom. He told me she was going potty. Since she hadn't said anything to me about it, I was a little surprised--I thought we were a team. Was our routine about to be changed forever? Was she ready to start going by all herself?

This is what I found.


She had gotten up on the potty all by herself, an accomplishment of which she was quite proud. However, she had missed one crucial step...and ended up soaking her pants. It looks like we've still got some work to do. Maybe we'll go back to running around the house naked.

Just to clarify, Hannah would go around the house naked. Not the rest of us.

For the sake of posterity, I wanted to blog about potty training.

With Joey, I started potty training at 18 months at the encouragement of both my mom and mother-in -law. Since he was my first kid and I didn't really know what I was doing, I went really slowly. I just had him run around naked when we were home and put a diaper on him if we were out. Since I use cloth diapers, it was great because he still felt the cause and effect every time he peed. Because we went so slowly, I didn't consider him potty trained until 22 months. When he turned 2, I decided to try putting him in underwear at night. He had accidents two nights in a row, and then did great.

With Hannah, Andy and I, and funny enough even Joey, were really raring to go when it came to potty training. I finally couldn't help myself and started potty training her right when she turned 16 months. By the time she turned 17 months, she was potty trained. Because she was so young, she didn't tell me when she needed to go. I would just take her every couple of hours. She was remarkable at holding it and releasing it when I put her on the potty and rarely had an accident. Pretty soon after that she would make certain gestures when she needed to go, and finally she learned the word, "pee pee." At 18 months, we tried having her wear underwear at night. She did great!

For those of you who would like to try, here's my strategy in a nutshell: When you are ready to start potty training, have the child go around the house naked (it's easier to start outside). It's helpful to pump him full of liquids so that he goes a lot. Put him on the potty every so often and say, "Pee-pee goes on the potty." If he has an accident (and he'll have lots) just take him over to the potty and say, "Pee-pee goes on the potty."

That's really all there is to it. As soon as the child starts doing well, you can get brave and take him out without a diaper. I keep a potty chair in the back of my car, and that is really helpful. Accidents will happen and they aren't really a bad thing. They just reinforce to the kid that it's uncomfortable being wet.

One last note, I think using cloth diapers really contribute to early potty training. Feeling wet all the time is not fun, and once kids realize they can go in the potty and stay dry, it's a whole new ball game. With disposable diapers, of course, kids never feel wet so I usually recommend that when you start wanting to potty train but aren't ready to go completely diaperless, just have the child wear underwear underneath the diapers. That way he will still feel the wetness, but it won't be a mess if you are out running errands.

Joey: When Jesus takes us to Heaven, does he take all of our stuff with him?
Me: No, when we get to Heaven we get all new stuff.
Joey: That's good because I need some new stuff.
A minute or so later...
Joey: Do we have to share in Heaven?

Joey gets really excited (and generous) when Hannah can do something new...
Joey: Did Hannah just say, "down"?
Me: Yeah, I think so.
Joey: Hannah...everything that is mine, is yours!

We moved to California when I was 8 months pregnant with Joey. When I was 8 1/2 months pregnant, I went with my mom to a weekend woman's retreat for her church.

For every meal at the retreat, there was a "hostess" assigned to each table, and the rest of us drew numbers to see which table we would sit at. (I know that sentence is grammatically incorrect, but "to see at which table we would sit" sounded funny. Don't judge me, internet.) It was their way of having people get to know each other. One of the table hostesses was an older lady named Margie, and I picked her table number for every single meal. It was weird. Then we realized it was just meant to be. God wanted us to be friends.

Margie was so excited to meet the new little baby in my tummy, and I still remember her calling me in the hospital to congratulate me and find out if it was a boy or a girl.

It's almost been 4 years since that retreat, and we still get together every few months. We take turns going over to each other's house for lunch. Joey especially loves it when we go over to her house because we get to see her dog, Lady, and she brings out all her special "grandkid toys."

Miss Margie, as my kids now call her, is just one of those people that was meant to be a grandmother. She has her own grandkids and great-grandkids, and she's always looking to adopt more. She just loves kids and kids love her. Including my two.

Last week, we got together again, and--in the words of the Beatles--a splendid time was guaranteed for all.

I have great memories of Sea World from my childhood, but we hadn't taken Joey because he's still pretty young, and it's very expensive. Well, a friend of mine got a great deal on a season pass, so I bought one for me and Joey.

Last week I decided to surprise Joey, and I told him that we needed to drop off Hannah at Nana's house so that we could run some errands. He seemed a little concerned that he wasn't getting to stay with Nana so I said, "Joey you really like errands." He said, "I like errands, but I don't really like errands." I assured him we would go back to Nana's house after our errand.

When we got to the entrance of Sea World, Joey asked why there were whales all over. I told him they were just decorations. Then he said, "It looks like an aquarium." Finally I spilled the beans. I told him we were going to spend the whole day at Sea World. Although I'm not sure he really knew what Sea World was, he was very pumped.

We saw sting rays, dolphins, penguins, sea turtles, sharks, starfish and more. My favorite part of Sea World is their amazing shows. We managed to go to all three of my favorite ones: the dolphin show, the sea lion show, and of course the Shamu show.

After all the shows, we ended our day at the Sesame Street kid play area. Joey loved it!

He LOVED meeting Elmo and Cookie Monster. He kept going back just to give them hugs.

This ride, Elmo's Flying Fish, was just like the Dumbo ride at Disneyland. We went on this over and over again. Yay for short lines!
There is a really cool area with nets, tunnels, bridges, etc. Joey was a little nervous at first, but he ended up having a great time.See that yellow, padded thing? Joey spent the most time on that thing. Don't ask me why, but he loved it!
See, there he is again!
We can't wait to go back, and thanks to my cousin who gave us the two free Sea World passes that she got for working at the Wild Animal Park, Andy gets to come with us twice.

We went to Phoenix for Labor Day. What a great weekend! Joey had been asking to go to Phoenix nonstop for the past month so he was pumped.

Saturday, Andy and I left the kids with Grandma and Papa J and drove down to Tempe to see our friends, Dave and Brooke. It was such a fun vacation within a vacation. We hung out in the pool, ate great food, and watched horrible sci-fi movies. Don't ask me why, but we love to watch horrible sci-fi movies. They are hilariously bad!

Sunday morning we all drove back up to the Lanzones. We didn't do much other than just hang out and relax. That's my kind of vacation!

On Monday we went to a nearby pool that actually had two big water slides. Andy, Brooke and I had so much fun going down them. I felt like a kid again. I was actually kind of nervous to go down the tube slide. Joey definitely gets his cautious side honestly.

After the pool, my mother-in-law, Brooke and I went shopping for a wedding that we are all going to in December. We didn't even think about the fact that there might be Labor Day sales going on, but I scored two great deals and got one dress for the rehearsal dinner and one dress for the wedding.

Sadly, our weekend came to an end all too soon and we drove home Monday night. As usual, I did a horrible job taking pictures. Thankfully, Papa J sent me these gems.

I love how hot, tired, and messy Joey looks. His grandparents did a good job wearing him out.