A post for my fellow Twilight fans...

As I was reviewing pictures from our recent trip to the north Georgia mountains, I noticed how vibrant and green some of the trees and scenery looked. It instantly reminded me of what Forks, WA might look like (except without the rain). So girls, just picture yourself climbing through the trees with Edward :)

You should also note that we are just 113 days from the release of New Moon!!!! And enjoy the Twilight music to go along with this blog post. Okay, I'm done obsessing...for tonight.

Impromptu trip

We didn't have any plans today, so we decided to pack up and head to the north Georgia mountains and find something to do. The highlight was going to Anna Ruby Falls. Hannah loved the short 1/2 mile hike and the "wawa-fall" at the end. She did great! She was all about posing for the camera and even managed to give me a "real" smile!

A few of my favorites

And a few pictures of the scenery

Chuck E Cheese

Last weekend we took Hannah to Chuck E Cheese for the first time with her little boyfriend, Bo! Bo was a pro at the rides and games and wasn't scared of anything, so I think it helped Hannah not be quite as hesitant as I thought she would be. As soon as we got there, she wanted to get on this bicycle thing that you peddle really fast and it lifts you up toward the ceiling. After she watched Bo show her how to do it, she was all about it! Her favorites were riding any of the car-like rides and playing in the car of the play-place tunnels!

Forget the games...just give her the tickets!

Being silly with Daddy

I'm glad Mark was such a good sport about going up in the tunnels with Hannah. That thing is not made for people above four feet tall and it KILLS your knees! I gave it a go to get a few pics, but after that I decided to stay on the ground. This mom is getting too old :(

The Very Busy Spider

The other night Hannah read her very first book to me! And by "read" I mean that she memorized what was on each page based on the pictures. It was so sweet! Before she started the story, she handed me her night-night and told me to hush. She positioned herself across from me and held the book with the pictures facing out so that I could see them (probably the way her teachers read to her class at school).

She went through each page of The Very Busy Spider and ended with a great, big "THE END!"

...ing

Just a quick entry for the baby book I still haven't started...

Out of no where, Hannah has started adding "ing" to the ends of words. I'm not sure if this is something she should have been doing for a while, but it just sounds so grown up in comparison to how she was talking before. Her favorites are: coming, going, talking, jumping, and moving.

Rock-a-bye...

Every night the last thing I do before putting Hannah in bed is sing 'Rock-a-bye Baby.' With all the emphasis we've been putting on being a big girl lately, Hannah does NOT want to be called "baby." So, tonight she request that I sing "Rock-a-bye Big Girl!" I just love the things she comes up with!

What the...

So last week the huge oak tree behind our house got struck by lightning. At first I thought the house got struck, since I heard a huge bang on the chimney. But the bang wasn't the house getting it. No. It was the sound you hear when nearly every brand-new, high-end piece of electronic equipment gets struck by lightning. We lost our 40" LCD flat screen and Mark's three-week-old blu-ray player, which I gave him for Father's Day. It wasn't until the next day that we realized it also took out our freezer and garage door opener.

The TV is getting fixed under warranty! The customer service people were totally cool about it. We told them we thought it was struck by lightning, but they said it could just be a coincidence that it stopped working the same day. They told us to take it to a certified shop and that all labor and repairs would be free. Sweet! It was pretty much the same deal for the blu-ray. We just had to mail it back to Samsung and they would fix it or send us a new one. Now, to get to the real point of this post...

Here is what we received back from Samsung today:

Did they SERIOUSLY think that this is an appropriate way to ship a very expensive elctronic? I was livid...I'm still livid! Samsung is going to get a piece of my mind once I cool down a bit. That is the most poorly packed item I have EVER received (and that says a lot...I'm an avid online shopper)! By some miracle of God, the blu-ray survived a less-than-gentle trip from New Jersey to Georgia and it actually works! We'll see how long it lasts...

I haven't felt this fired up in a long time...y'all better watch out!

Bad influence?

Some days I wonder whether I have been a bad influence on Hannah. I can be a bit OCD when it comes to neatness and cleanliness. I really don't want Hannah to be that way unless SHE wants to be that way. Nearly everyday when I get home from work, she asks me to wash her night-night..."Mommy, clean this? Wash now!" Sometimes the child is FANATICAL about cleanliness. I guess that's not always a bad thing, but I wonder if that is really normal for a 2 year old? I always thought little kids didn't care about that kind of stuff...

Oh, and if there is a crumb on the table...forget it! The child won't eat until the table has been scrubbed down. Same goes for a piece of fuzz on the carpet, a speck of dirt on her feet, or a hair in the bathtub. Silly girl!

Here kitty kitty!

Hmmm...what should I do with this bucket of water?

Tigger is awfully dirty. Let's give him a bath!

AWESOME!

Independence Day!

***Disclaimer: if you do not wish to read about the bodily functions of a toddler, do not read this post***

We celebrated Independence Day a little differently in the Malueg household this year. We celebrated Hannah's independence by throwing away all of her diapers and started potty training! This was the real deal...no more sitting on the potty every now and then just to see what happens. Hannah has been showing a lot of interest in the potty for the past couple months, but I was not ready to dedicate the time needed for potty training. I also felt like she was still a little young and diapers are just so easy. With 3 days off from work, I decided to try the 3-day potty training method. While it was good in theory and provided a great basic structure for potty training, we had to make quite a few modifications to the plan to better fit Hannah and her personality.

We started out by telling Hannah that she is a big girl now and that she needed to pack up all her diapers to give to the babies at school. She didn't hesitate at all and gladly threw them in a bag. We put on her first pair of panties...Dora, of course! And about 10 minutes later, I was on my knees cleaning the carpet. By the end of the first day, I had a full load of laundry ready to go and I was about ready to give up. If my mom hadn't been around to help, I probably would have given up.

The first 36 hours were pretty rough. I really questioned my decision to potty train her at 27 months. We had some positive moments and that helped me keep going...I was committed to give it my very best shot for the first 3 days before determining whether or not I had made the right decision. She stayed dry through her naps and finally went potty all by herself without any prompting! By the end of day 2 she really started to catch on. She went from 9 accidents on day 1 to 5 accidents on day 2. Day 3 was great...no major accidents at all, just a few dribbles.

She did pretty well yesterday at daycare...just a few accidents. And today she had one half-accident! I know she is making progress when she can wear the same outfit all day!

She is so proud of herself and so am I!! I'm not ready to say that she is officially potty trained. In fact, I'm not even sure what that means. We have a lot more to accomplish, specifically night-time dryness. After changing wet sheets the first couple nights, I decided that it's too early to expect her to stay dry for 11-12 hours. She's able to stay dry the first 10 hours, but won't wake up in time to make it to the potty. At night she is in a pullup (hopefully that wasn't a huge mistake!) and we'll tackle night-time training a little later. Other than taking Hannah to daycare, we have not been away from home yet. I'm starting to go a little stir crazy! Maybe this weekend we'll give it a try.

I thought these pictures were too cute not to share! Hopefully there aren't any weirdos out there looking at them inappropriately...

I am one proud mommy!!!

GO HANNAH!!!