15 months

Well, here we are at 15 months and it seems that I never stopped writing this blog!  I am going back through the long letter I have been writing to my daughter to remember some of the milestones we have hit.  It is all running together and each day has its little surprises and new learning experiences.  I wish I could remember each special moment forever (but I'm hard pressed to remember what all we did yesterday let alone each moment I want to remember!).

Our bug is growing like a little weed.  The doctor measured her at 31 1/2 inches and she weighs in at 22 lbs 14oz.  She is doing really well.  We are up to 6 teeth all together and 3 more that are working their way out.  To this date she has not been sick at all with the exception of a slight reaction to the flu shots which both lasted 2 days.  She has taken a few spills and the most painful one to watch was the tumble down the basement steps where she landed face first on the concrete floor.  The poor thing just flew down those steps and landed like a little rag doll!  Dave and I were both horrified but she made it out no worse for the wear, Thank you Lord!  She has been doing quite a bit of running with me as I sell Avon, ran the Adopt a Family program for our area and have been taking Grandma to a few Dr. appointments.  What a champ she has been, too!  We pack some toys and snacks and away we go.  Her most impressive day was 14 hours we spent traveling and waiting in the hospital waiting rooms for some tests to get completed.  We left the house at 7:45 am and returned home to have dinner at 9:15 pm.  She slept all of 20 minutes that afternoon and got cranky for about 10 minutes when she woke up and other than that, just went with the program....whatever that was!

She is still doing well with the food category and has added Clementines, stuffing, Turkey, radishes, red bell pepper, hash browns and Wendy's chicken tenders (which she disliked and mommy ate).  She loves her fruit... apples, pears, grapes grapes grapes, blueberries, and mango.  She loves broccoli trees and Cauliflower with cheese sauce and has even had chili.  She like scrambled eggs with cheese and spinach over plain scrambled eggs and likes cheddar cheese over any other at this point.

We have taken her to a few more Blue Jackets games, she loves music, is working puzzles well, knows her shapes very well and will select correct colors when she's in the mood!  She is weilding a crayon and a marker with skill and loves to paint with the big brush.  Fascinated by Magna Doodles, loves the playground and her greatest love is books.  We take them everywhere and she will sit with them all stripped off the shelf just pouring over the pages.  She is going through her developmental paces very well and with precision.  She is climbing some now and walking really well.  She loves to help Mom clean and play drums with Dad.  Her and Dad especially have a great time playing hide and seek and have been able to spend some quality time together over the last week without Mom which has helped greatly. 

She has a winning smile and just makes everyone melt when she is out and about.  She has quite a fan club and Dad and I have come to realize that we are now "Hannah's parents" and get invited out more to chauffeur our star than to actually visit with folks!  Lol

But we are fast approaching our 2nd Christmas and she is loving the two trees, was scared of Santa but will point him out in all the pictures and ornaments, loves angels and knows which characters are which in the nativity...she will even point to it and say "jjsshh", which I can only assume is Jesus just like "Mmmmmmmm" is for Moosey moose in one of our stories.  She clearly says Dada and sometimes says Mum mum.  She says "ga" for eGG, "gunk" for skunk, Jed and sock.  I know there are a few more but they escape me.  Her favorite characters are Minnie Mouse, Mickey Mouse and Peter Pan, Wendy and Tinkerbell and last but certainly not least, she loves to watch Ballet and Ice Skating and then tries to momick what she sees!  Wonder where that will take us!  That's all for this year, thanks for sharing with us and see you all in 2011!

One Year Milestone

Well, today marks the 365th day of Hannah's life here on earth (outside the womb)! I sang her Happy Birthday this morning when she woke up and she looked at me very curiously as it is obviously NOT one of the usual wake up songs we sing daily. I thought back to the year ago today day as I was doing my devotions and remembered with fondness what my last day as an childless individual started out as. I was just getting used to signing my name as Mrs. S when I had to adjust all over to the beginning of her life. The morning was warm and a bit sultry. The fog burned off quickly and the dew was exceptionally heavy. I took a picture of a single rose blooming on my rather energetic climbing rose off the deck and watched as my husband loaded the bags and double checked the car seat before we took one last look at my house and hoped to remember what life was like before life began all over again. My close friend instructed to me take a long hard look at my house and life before I left that morning since my life would never be the same again after that day.

And here she is...one whole year later. Amazing! She has not been to the doctor except for the usual check ups and not even had so much as the sniffles yet. God has blessed us with good health all around. Her two toes that had no toe nails still are nail-less and her head is still sort of hair-less! lol She now has 3 little teeth - two on the bottom and one on the top but that doesn't stop her from eating whatever she likes. She is getting long and thinning out the busier she gets. She has been trying to move the wheelbarrow with her free hand while holding one of her favorite balls in the other. She loves the balls and carries them everywhere and tries to put them into and on top of everything. One day I am sure I will find a ball in the toilet but that has not been accomplished yet. She has the cutest little Kermit the Frog grin now that stretches her mouth out thin and wide and pushes her little cheeks back all full and fat and shows just the littlest bit of her two bottom teeth. Her fine motor skills are excellent as she can screw a lid on a bottle and knows to turn the cap a certain direction in her hand to be able to accomplish the task.

She loves her tricycle even more now and is really into her books. She looks at them and unstacks them and turns all the pages constantly. She recognizes people in photographs and individual characters like Minnie, Mickie and Peter Rabbit. She has mastered the art of discarding one item out of her mouth when she has a whole mouthful of food and it is almost impossible not to laugh out loud when she opens her mouth and out rolls the rejected morsel with a clear "Blah!" to follow and then she continues on with the rest of the bite. She likes cake, ice cream and sherbet ( who doesn't) and I have introduced honey and cows milk and real maple syrup to the staples. We got her some Mega Blocks for her birthday with a wagon to go along with them and she just loves to fill it up and dump it out. She will put the blocks together if really prompted but especially likes to tear down what Mom and Dad build for her.

Tomorrow we go to the pediatrician to see height and weight and all that and so I will add that tomorrow afternoon. We spent today at the library, outside playing in the yard with the tricycle and at the playground. She has been very funny today. She used her hairbrush today by herself (in reverse mode) and we have been using her new toothbrush to polish up those new little chicklets and she likes the feel of that on her gums very well. She has a great sense of humor and a beautiful smile. She had a wonderful time at her birthday party with everyone and was even taking people around the house with her....whoever would hold her little hands and listen as she yammered away and plodded from room to room.

Grandma will be over this afternoon also to see her "pretty girl" as she says. We are truly blessed by Hannah's life and are very grateful for all of you who have laughed, cried and generally encouraged and supported us through this first year of parenthood together. God Bless and we will update you again soon.

It has started getting more and more difficult to keep track of

Milestones Keep on Rollin'

Here we are at the 11th month! What a blessing she has been thus far and what a beautiful little person she is becoming. She is giving Daddy and Grandma kisses now...those sweet little open mouth kisses... and just can't seem to get enough from her Dad sometimes. I can see how the little girls work their way into Daddy's heart! She gets really excited and squeals when Daddy comes home now and is learning about the different voices on the phone. She has started climbing stairs with a purpose now, too. If she is tired and I have not gotten her up the stairs for a nap yet or if she has a dirty diaper, she will start up the stairs all by herself and then squeal and try to climb faster when I catch up with her. She laughs during group conversation as though she knows what is funny, chatters away when she wakes up and when she is playing. She is starting to carry items with her when she travels from one place to another....like from room to room. She knows the people in the mirror and is not too impressed with all that. Her fine motor skills are great and she has started scribbling with crayons once in a while.

There are two little teeth on the bottom and one tooth starting on the top. She gives the funniest grins now! I'm not sure that there are any new foods for her at this point other than homemade ice cream! (and sho doesn't love that!) We took her catfishing and she petted the fish (which were all as large as she is) and did not even flinch. She laughed when they growled at her! She looks wonderful in bright greens and oranges and her hair is starting to come in in curls in the back and a little darker, too. We think she may be an auburn girl in the end but time will tell:)

She has started a couple things that are in the midst of being corrected. First, she screams when she can't get something to go the way she wants it to and rather than working harder or walking away, she just screams in anger and frustration. The second is that she will bang her head on the floor or the back of her chair if she is mad that your not giving her something. These things don't happen all the time but we are nipping them in the bud.

She's been great in church and is working hard on the walking thing, too. Aunt Beth brought a little tricycle that she loves to push and ride on and she can climb off her rocking zebra by herself. She is starting to climb in general and the other day she actually climbed up onto the door of the dishwasher while I had my back turned! I just had to laugh to turn around and see her just sitting there and looking down at the floor in amazement!

Lastly, she has a habit of pointing to everything that she sees and waiting for you to tell her what it is called and then moves onto the next item. Pretty neat to watch her absorb it all and then we go back around and say the item and she will look right at it almost everytime. One of her favorite things are deer mounts. No matter where we go, if there is a deer head on the wall she will pick it right out immediately and then points, squeals and giggles. Yes, Daddy is proud!!

One Two Everything New....

Three -Four learning more, Five-Six lots of Pics, Seven-Eight growing great! Nine - Ten Can we do it again?! So fast and so big!

10 Months old! We have been fairly busy this last month working on collecting fruits and veggies as they are coming available. Our first venture was picking strawberries and what a trip that was! The stroller was a mere decoration which was parked at our starting point of picking as she would not stay in it but rather preferred to squat at my feet as I picked, which was quite a hinderance!! I finally was able to pry her little fingers loose from my shoes and socks and then sat her beside the box of strawberries. As I turned with a deep breath to pick as quickly as I could before the peacefulness ceased, I saw her look intently in the box of berries and then move aside some smaller berries for the largest strawberry of all! It was a berry bigger than her one little hand and she took both hands and thrust it right into her mouth and proceeded to cover herself in fresh berry goodness.....none happier! So we have picked peaches, blueberries and strawberries. The garden is starting to produce and we are eating lettuces, eggplant and zucchini so far.

She has recieved her first musical instruments which is a set of moraccas, drumsticks, a tamborine and a recorder all enclosed in a drum! She loves them and is experimenting with them a little more every day. She claps along to music now and recognizes songs right in the beginning. She stands up on her own in the crib now, ate mulberries off our Grandma Darby's tree, went to the Water Park with Daddy for Father's Day, has begun waving bye, watched in amazement as the concrete truck spewed concrete for the new garage floor. No fear of any animal or machine yet. We spent a day with cousin Keeton and painted in the yard.

She's eating peaches, radishes, watermelon, cantaloupe, cottage cheese, colby jack, pepper jack, egg salad sandciches, and cilantro. We've been to the Zoo twice this month and once to another water park for Mommy's birthday. We went to four different firework displays and never flinched even once! She was hanging out the car window looking at them and practically oooing and ahhhing.

She is beginning to open cabinets and drawers and knows how to remove things from them, now to reverse the process! She squeals at the dogs when they jump around and get excited and has fallen in love with the neighbors baby kitten. We've taken her to the lake and christened her in the water and she loves it!! Enough that she fell asleep in her floaty Aunt Beth got her while in the lake.

So over all she is just doing great and learning by leaps and bounds. She shows no fear and must have a fairly decent pain tolerance, too. We are thrilled as she learns to do different things and is really starting to look to us for more learning potential. The whole family is enjoying watching her grow. More at the 11 month mark!!

Super Eight!

This month has flown by and when I look back at some of the accomplishments it seems already that she has been doing some of them for months! Strange how the first few months seemed to last forever and now they are catapalting past me! While I'm living in the moment it seems to linger and when I look back it seems hardly a blip on my radar.

We started the month going from our belly to a sitting position at which point Dave and I decided we had better lower the crib two notches right off the bat! Quite a good decision on our part, too. Four days later she figured out how to slide off the couch and the bed backwards onto the floor even though she hadn't figured out what to do after her little feet touched down. One week later she figured out how to get all four appendages going in the same direction and she crawls with her eyes looking up at you the whole time all excited and grunting the whole way to let you know she's coming.....don't worry! Three days past that mark she figured she could try and pull herself up and we looked at each other and laughed because we know we are in trouble! By the end of this month she is crawling speedily to destinations and really starting to discover things. Opening drawers and cabinets, crawling under things and learning Mom's new favorite word "No!".

She is doing great with the concept of sharing so far. She will give you something if you ask for it and is learning that you can pass an item back and forth more than once also but not always. She is really starting to enjoy story time more and more and Mommy needs to settle down and read more consistently every day rather than skipping time here and there. She goes through her pile of books on her own and looks at them and laughs while she tells the story in her head, I guess! Good pretender. We went to the Strawberry Festival with Mom and Dad. She is really starting to participate with things in the house and around by imitating what we are doing. She pulls at the grass when we are weeding, tries to eat the mulch when we are in the perennial beds and even has successfully scooted on her bottom across the kitchen floor pushing the dust mop!

We went to our first Garden Center to shop with Grandma Nancy over at Wilson's and had lots of fun looking at all the neat stuff they had, went to pick strawberries twice and then "helped" make strawberry rhubarb jam and pie and freeze the rest of the berries. Helped mommy make a vegetable garden and tried to eat the rocks she pulled out of the dirt! We had a visit from Sue and she brought her granddaughters, visited with Bob and Gladys and had fun and went to the lake with Mommy and Daddy and spent the day with Keeton (who is really a riot), Sydney and Shelby and loved watching them play ball. Then her and Daddy played in the lake and then in the sand and on the swings and the slide. What a busy day it was! There were adults there too but she liked playing with the kids best! lol

Doctor visit puts her at 28" long, 19.5 lbs and a 17c head. She is doing great. All her numbers are where they should be! Her food list is expanded to include Venison, salmon, Chicken, rhubarb, cantaloupe, watermelon and spaghetti squash. Last but not least her biggest feats are she knows how to give kisses now, wave, clap and play ball! So we're doing really well and the summer is fast approaching!

Sizing up the 7th month

Here we are almost to the 9th month and I haven't even posted for the 7th month. We had some computer difficulties (our hard drive was completely fried) and that took some time to repair. So here we are and what an amazing month it was!

It is so much fun to track all the first's as they come along! Everything is so new to her and each day she realizes something else. Such bright blue eyes so full of wonder and sense of accomplishment and at the same time looking for reassurance and approval from those closest to her. Unfortunately, I wrote about some of the 7th month happenings in the last post so we'll have to see what we can come up with for this one.

We are VERY proud to annouce that Hannah has successfully completed her first morrel muchroom hunting season. It was not a very successful hunt for us as we would have hoped for, but we had fun anyway:) She has learned to play with bubbles in the tub and loves to splash. She is so funny to watch as she splashes and then jumps when the water hits her
little face. She hasn't quite figured out why she can't catch the bubbles but she's not far from figuring it out. We accomplished our first joint cooking feat making some brownies for our Party Lite party. What an enjoyable day with good food, good friends and a good baby!

We took a ride down the road and met our neighbor who also has a daughter. Olivia is about 2 years old. She is quite adorable and the neighbor seems very nice as well!

Hannah has discovered that she can squeak her little giraffe from Aunt Beth all by herself and was just so pleased to be doing it!! Dave and I were both busying around, Dave painting in the hallway and me in the kitchen cooking dinner and all the sudden in the background of my thoughts I hear this little "Squeak". Then I heard it again, this time with a little more assurance, "SQUEAK"! When I turned around she was holding that little giraffe so tight I thought it's sewn on eyes would pop off his head. Her eyes were sparkling with accomplishment and new found fun and her little cheeks were all aglow around her opened mouth smile with the joyful drool stringing down her tiny chin! So we played along for a while as whe squeaked away and we acted all surprised.

We also had our first Mother's Day and had a wonderful day with my Mother-In -Law and the three of us. Nice dinner, good fun and conversation and joined by Scott and Beth with their grandson and her parents for delicious dessert.

Hannah has helped me make salsa and more brownies. We've been to the chiropractor and she was a real champ as we were there for 2 hours! We had our first playdate!! We meet two other ladies who have girls about2 years old and play at the local playground once a week. She loves the swing and the slides. The last first for this month was that we took out our first library books and what fun it was to pick them out. She loves books and I am glad about that.

Food firsts include kiwi, cauliflower, swiss cheese and cheddar cheese and apple juice. So that sums it up for this month and I'll see you all inn about a week or so for the 8 month update!! TA TA!

Springing into the 7th Month!

What a great month and how fast it went! Someone asked me how old she was and I had to catch myself when I realized that she was only two days away from 7 months old. So this month was our first Easter and as each month passes, the switches keep flipping. All the sudden she does so much more.

She has begun catching herself when she topples over, which doesn't happen too often as she seems to have very good balance! She is suddenly more active and getting a little frustrated that she can't go with you when you leave a room, which will inspire her to crawl no doubt. She has figured out that she can roll across the living room from one side to the other to reach things or just to keep herself busy. She is really enjoying her Easter bucket where she can unload the toys and put them back in. Sometimes I fill it with water and she "catches" whatever is floating in the bucket.

We have been spending a significant amount of time outside as we have been working religiously on the yard. So I set her up in a little patch of shade with a selection of toys each day and she does different things with them every day. The bucket is a classic example. She has a little activity table that makes all kind of musical sounds and then says words if you flip the page and she just loves that! Her little eyes light right up whenever she gets it really going. She got a little bit of sunburn on her bald head so we headed out the next day to get sunblock for her. We have tried the sippy cup and it started out badly but now is going along like a champ.

She is responding to familiar faces very well and starting with a bit of shyness. She spent an evening with Uncle Scott and Aunt Beth and really had a blast. Her and Scott watched cartoons on the computer and Beth took lots of pictures! She will be easier to send off for awhile with folks as she gets more accustomed to the sippy cup. She also spent an afternoon with Grandma Nancy while her Dad and I celebrated our anniversary and everyone survived with no ill effects! She is very long and lean right now. It's been commented that she is a bit chunky but right now she has no belly to speak of, just big cheeks. I measured her at approxiamately 26.5 ". We'll see what the doctor says next month. She is wearing 9 month clothes just fine, too. We did her first headband and rabbit ears for Easter and she was a doll. Also, her first bath in the BIG DUCK tub. Pretty fun and cute!

Lastly, food. We have expanded horizons to include Tomato, Potato, Cheddar Cheese, Yogurt, Grapes, Corn, Leek, Onion, Garlic, Rosemary, Sage, Thyme and Dry Hydrangea flowers. Yes, you read it right! She tried to devour one while in my arms and succeeded in part with no ill affects.

Some new things have already transpired in this first week of her seventh month, but you'll have to stay tuned for those:) I am beginning to enjoy this Mommy thing a little more now.

Hannah's Half Birthday

March 14 was her 6 month mark. Just so hard to believe that she is already half way to a year. I sit and watch her change every day and still I feel like I haven't seen enough!

Her facial features have started changing dramatically in the last couple weeks and her jaw line is preparing for the ever anticipated TEETHING episodes to begin. She is sitting in her stroller and her high chair with no assistance and loves to hang in her Pack and Play with her musical bird. She grabs at things with high concentration and has wonderful finger dexterity.

We took her to the Columbus Home and Garden show and she was a champ for the whole 7 hours we were there! From there we went to a dinner at Dave's boss' house and still not a complaint. She is getting better at church and we even took our first trip to the library together. She really enjoyed that because they had puzzles and a huge Cat in the Hat doll that she just loved.

We went to look at some daycare operations and were scared right out of a Goddard school, which disappointed me as I know their reputation. They are, however, a franchise and this particular location smelled like a vet office, was unorganized and the staff looked and dressed unkempt. So so disappointing. Hannah smiled and reached out her hand and touched two of the other little girls and they didn't even respond....no smile, no expressions, just blank stares. So the Kindercare we went to was wonderful. Smelled clean, great staff, all the kids pretty happy, rooms clean and organized (except for the mayhem that was lunch when we got there!). That gives me some hope and perhaps now I can find a job!!! lol

We added broccoli, blueberries and plums to the food list with great success. We also tried to do some formula. She took one bottle and would have nothing to do with the second one. Hopefully we will be adding in some juice soon. All in due time. She is very social and interactive even with people she doesn't know. Our friends Becky, Scott and son Samuel stopped in last weekend and she really enjoyed the interaction with Samuel, who is 10 I believe. That Sunday we had other friends who had a three year old and a teen ager come visit and she watched carefully at all what was going on.

We are into the 6-9 month box of clothes now and are continuing to be grateful to Kathy Sutton for all the clothes she saved for us! We have been taking walks out to the pond every day, watching the dogs run (which is great entertainment) and doing plenty of dancing with our Playschool sing along CD. We even spent a little time on the blanket in the not quite dry yard yesterday.

Our 6 month check up put her at 16.4 lbs and 25 1/2 inches long. Moving along nicely! Now Mom needs to save up for some cool stuff like puzzles for our house and some board books, since all our are a little more advanced!

Five Month Foodie!

So we are tooling along through the ever so white month of February and I find myself curious if the bland whiteness will dull Hannah's love of color! Not really, but I'm tired of the white and can't wait to start showing her all the great stuff outside...other than snow:)

We had a landmark day a week and a half ago and she not only managed to get A foot in her little mouth, but BOTH feet at once! She is just chattering away to the baby in the crib mirror when she wakes from her naps, tries to lick everything and concentrates with great seriousness when she is trying to grab for something and make all little fingers work in the same direction.

Hannah is pulling at objects now to pull them either closer to her or out of someone's hand, or even off a toy bar. She is very strong. She loves to stand and is sitting very well on her own, though the weeble still wobbles and will fall down if you aren't paying attention!

So our culinary repetoire is extended to pears, apples, banana, whole grain cereal, carrots, parsnips, bok choy, turnips, sweet potatoes and peas. By the end of this week we will be adding some rutabaga in there and mango. She is a really good eater, eating about 4 ounces or better at a sitting and eats real food twice a day. Her gums are swelling up and her chews on all her fingers.

She's watching Daddy raptly and finds him much more entertaining than Mommy at the moment. He is a proud father as she held her first drumstick this weekend! (I need to find a decent job so I can purchase a piano or good keyborad for those long fingers:)) Hannah is not a consistent giggler at this point. She seems so serious. Pleasant but serious. the same thing will not make her giggle twice in a row. She smiles and has a peaceful look on her face more than big smiles and giggling all the time. I hope she gets a little happier as time wears on (of course I'll be happy with her just the way she is, too!!) .

Other than that, she is doing great and our 6 month check up is in two weeks!

Five Months Old

Hannah is Five months old this Valentines Day! She is growing like a little weed. Her hands are so ig already. She loves to put her hand up flat against mine. She enjoys watching me act like I'm directing music with my hands and singing in my "church" voice. She vibrates her lips like a little motor boat and whispers to see if anyone is listening. We are anxiously awaiting the first official word!
She reaches for her links and tests everything with her tongue. Toys, stuffed animals, live animals and people.
We have tried sweet potatoes, apples, bananas, carrots and even turnips with no opposition. She seems to be shaping up to be a good eater! I worry just that she may become constipated and don't want to have to do that suppository action.
She can roll over from her belly to her back but doesn't do it very often. She smiles at her favorite toys which happen to be a bouncy Tigger and a Meercat stuffed animal that Grandma Nancy got for her. She loves the Tony Tiger arm puppet, too.
She is sleeping through the night on a regular basis and sits for church pretty well.
At four months she was 24" (100%), 15 lbs (100%). She is doing great!