It's been a little bit since I wrote just about Hannah despite the fact that her personality is exploding right now.
1.) That accent.
Every time that I post a video the first thing that people comment on is the kids' accents. The days where I pretended that having two American parents was going to coerce the children into sounding like us are gone and I've accepted that in this area we are the low man on the totem pole.
Actually the other day Jayce and Hannah teamed up on me and both started mocking me. I said something about crafts, and Hannah said, "No mommy, not cray-yafts. Crofts."
Me: I said crafts!
Jayce, with a small smile: No mom. Crofts.
I'm used to them occasionally making fun of Chris' slight southern accent, but not used to them both making fun of my American accent! Come on, guys!
Also the other day Hannah told me that she didn't want her Cherios because they were "ill colored." What three year old says that?!
I laughed. They were the same color as the other ones in the box, but still.
School is obviously playing an enormous role in this, and when she sang me this new song a few weeks ago that she learned in class, I realized that since she is learning in an English accent, when she repeats them it is in full force. Listen to this 18 second clip where all of her "ar"s have melted away into "o"s.
2.) Hannah owns Chris.
When Chris gets home from work Hannah wants to keep full tabs on him. Not necessarily that she wants him to be playing with her, but she just wants to know exactly where he is, and he had better not try to slip out to take out the trash without her.
She LOVES to go for little trips with him to get milk from the corner store, to pick up take out at the local Noodle Bar, or get doughnuts on Saturday mornings. She just wanders along beside him, holding his hand and chatting away, observing every little thing that she sees along the way.
The other day Chris left for some reason while Hannah was playing in the living room. As soon as she heard the door close, she ran over to the door, muttering "Oh no! Oh no!" to herself as she went. Then she stopped at the door and with both arms at her sides yelled, "HEY!! Open up that door!!" which he did. We don't normally take orders from our three year old, but she was so adamant and really we just thought it was funny. But yep, that's Hannah.
3.) We've been having trouble these last few weeks with (what we think is) night terrors. She wakes up sobbing and even when we are holding her, downstairs, with the lights and cartoons on, she is still crying, asking me to snuggle her, and writhing in my arms. It's really sad and I'm not really sure what to do about it, if there is anything to be done other than snuggle her until she calms down and seems to feel better. She isn't nervous when we put her to bed and is totally calm and happy at bedtime, she just wakes up a few hours later in a completely different state. If anyone has any tips for this sort of thing, please let me know, I'd love to hear them!!
That accent is so adorable! We are Americans living our whole lives in america but my son watched a lot of Thomas the tank engine when he was three. He brought me a broken toy once and asked if it could be "mended". Still one of my favorite quotes from him. He is almost 15 now and we don't get much more than grunts from him these days. As for night terrors, I've heard that they can be from over tiredness. Maybe try getting her to bed earlier? My own 3 yr old is wavering between napping and not napping anymore. When she doesn't nap she goes to sleep easily and early but she wakes a lot during the night. I'm a pretty new follower and really enjoy your blog by the way
ReplyDeleteLOVE the video and the accent! Darling! Miss Hannah sounds hilarious!
ReplyDeleteAlso, Burke has night terrors. They happen when we're staying into a new place, when he is sick, when he is extra tired, and sometimes for no reason that we can pinpoint at all. They seem to happen in some seasons more than others. If we really need to wake him, getting him to walk around and take a sip of water usually works, though, we don't try any more unless we are on an airplane or something. It's awful to watch, right? When I talked to our pediatrician about it, she said that it's a startle response to the body shifting modes of sleep and that he doesn't see terrible pictures like you do with nightmares, which was reassuring to my anxious mama heart. Hopefully it's a phase that dwindles!
Oh my, she is so sweet. I'm really sorry to hear that she has night terrors and don't have any advice regarding this. However, for the British accent: That's so cool. I mean, everybody has an American accent - even us Europeans are closer to the American pronounciation than the British one. So, just be proud that your kids are "special" and enjoy it. It sounds so cool!
ReplyDeleteMy boy has night terrors occasionally - just had one yesterday. He looks like he's awake - his eyes are open, he's crying and talking in jibberish, he'll even get up and walk around if I don't get to him fast enough - but he's actually still sleeping, or maybe something in between awake and asleep - totally out of it. I've found, for him at least, it works if I keep him in bed and just try to get him to say anything that makes even a little bit of sense and then I just agree agree agree (example: "But it's my turn!" For what? Who knows - doesn't matter - I just agree - "Yes! It IS your turn! When you wake up you'll get your turn!"). Or if that's not working I start asking him questions to get him concentrating on something (example from yesterday: "Do you like Grammy's new train? If you could pick out a new engine, what color would it be? How many cars would it pull?...") and when his brain makes that switch back over I can actually see and feel the change in him and he goes right back to sleep and doesn't remember anything about it. Anyway...that's a lot of rambling and no idea if what works for us would work for you but wanted to share in case it helps!
ReplyDeleteYou may want to ave his pediatrician check his iron levels if the night terrors continue.
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