Hannah Supriyah Age 3

I'm THREE!

Hannah is feeling so grown up these days now that she is officially three. She told me today, "After this I will be four, then five, then six, then SEVEN!! Seven is the age that all our children currently aspire to, as none of them have quite reached it yet. =)

If you saw the previous blog post with Hannah's birthday interview, you know a lot of what she's into these days. She's quite the little character, that's for sure! She's both sweet and stubborn, happy and whiny, compliant and willful. She notices everything, wants to be a part of everything, wants to be in control of everything, wants everyone to notice her and laugh at her and with her. As I said, she's a character, and we love her!

Hannah is our happy, affectionate, mischievous, fun-loving, curious, imaginative little girl. It's such fun to watch her explore her world and learn and grow!

Sharing a coconut with Daniel

She is definitely growing up and leaving baby-hood further and further behind. Bittersweet for this mama who is very happy to be diaper free and have three increasingly independent children. Not that I wish independence on them too quickly, but it is definitely nice to see them gradually become less dependent on Mom. Hannah still needs help with some things like taking shirts off and brushing teeth, but she is learning to make her bed, and is getting to be a little more helpful in cleaning up. Even so, there is a measure of sadness to see her "littleness" slipping away. Thankfully she's still my cuddly one though. I'll enjoy that while it lasts!

Enjoying a favorite book with Grandma

Since June, our family has been learning the Kannada language, beginning with reading and writing. Hannah picks up a lot just from listening, and she can recognize most of the 15 vowels and can count to ten. She will also say much of the rest of the alphabet when the rest of us are saying it with her. She knows the colors and a smattering of other random vocabulary including some vegetables and body parts.

Our little Indian

In English, Hannah continues to learn to recognize the letters and their sounds. She will often sit and "read" books to herself from memory, and appears quite proud of herself. One of her current aspirations is to "do real school like Rebekah and Daniel." She and I do lots of little fun learning activities here and there, and she loves to play educational games on the computer. She learned how to operate the mouse on her own several months ago, so she greatly enjoys her "supervised independence" on the computer.

Little miss personality

Hannah LOVES to color, and is pretty good at staying inside the lines when she wants to. Her favorite thing though is writing with colored pens in her own little notebook. I think it makes her feel big. =) She will spend quite a while "writing," trying to imitate what she sees Rebekah doing. She's learned to write the letters H, A, and N, the three letters in her name, and will sometimes fill an entire page with dozens of Hs! She really wants to learn to write her name, and has gotten all the letters in the right order a couple of times. Usually though, it comes out, HHAANN. She's got all the right letters there though!

Hannah has always had great coordination, and that hasn't changed. One of her favorite things to do these days is to throw a ball back and forth. She's really good at both throwing and catching, and gets such a kick out of it - especially when she does better than her big brother!

She loves her big brother (and sister)!

 Hannah loves people (at least the people she knows), and loves hanging out with her friends. Most of her "friends" are more like older siblings to her, but she doesn't seem to mind that. She loves older kids! One little girl who comes to our new church is just a few months younger than Hannah, but she is painfully shy and very attached to her Daddy. Last Sunday Hannah went up to her and tried to give her a hug, and the little girl started screaming! So Hannah is content to enjoy the older kids, and they love her too.

With her good buddy Beulah, a fellow MK

Before church one Sunday morning with the pastor's kids - some of our kids' best friends

As for strangers, unless they are strangers who have been "talked up" in our house and Rebekah and Daniel are excited about seeing them, Hannah usually won't give them the time of day. Indians love babies and small children, so Hannah, being a tiny little girl (she can finally wear 2-year-old clothes!) and being a minority (a cute white red-head) gets lots of attention from people she doesn't know. People will very often come up to her saying, "Hello baby!" That is an instant turn-off for her, and she will firmly (if not angrily) respond, "I'm not a baby!"  

She still loves helping me in the kitchen. Our child-safe knives have been wonderful for her as she wants to "help cut" every time she sees me chopping vegetables.

Licking is the best part of helping!

Hannah loves to play act these days. We will read a story or watch a movie one day, and the next day she and Daniel are those characters, acting out the story or possibly their own story with those characters. Some days Hannah takes several identities at once. She is particularly into princesses these days (it must be the age because Rebekah was the same way at this age), and will sometimes tell us, "My name is Cinderella-Rapunzel-Belle-etc." Some days there are five or six names on the list! And most of the time she would prefer not to be called Hannah, as she says she doesn't like that name any more. Rebekah and Daniel are the only ones who humor her there!

Cuddling up together with a story = one of the best parts of every day

My two little princesses

In conjunction with the princess theme, Hannah has decided that she should wear dresses and leave her hair down every day. That's apparently what a princess does.

Goofy girl

Hannah is our little clown. She definitely has a temper, but she also loves to make people laugh. Last week in church we were singing a song she knew, and she was belting it out, much to the amusement of those around her. She whispered to me, "I'm going to sing louder and louder until I make the kids laugh." Yes, she's quite the dichotomy, as she can be very shy in certain situations (when she doesn't know people or is out of her comfort zone), but also quite the extrovert when she's on her own turf.

The "I'm-feigning-innocence-because-I-don't-want-to-do-what-you're-asking-me-to-do" face

Gotta love her!

Ah yes, we love our girl. Her extremely strong will makes her quite the challenge to train - she gives us many reasons to constantly seek God's help in "instructing her in righteousness." Yet it is also a joy to hear her talk about how she loves God and wants to be with Him in heaven. She's a pro at memorizing Scripture, and we pray that the verses she hides in her heart at this young age (even the ones she does not  yet fully understand) will stay with her as she grows. She could do great things for God someday if her temperament and talents are channeled in the right direction. We are praying that God will continue to draw her heart to Himself, that she will understand her own sinfulness, and accept God's forgiveness.

We are so thankful for our sweet Hannah and for how she is learning and growing. She adds life and excitement to every day!