Not for the Faint of Heart



Such an angel, right?! lol



Well, twenty-one months!  I thought I should write an update because there is so much that has happened in the last few months.  Hannah is growing into a very pleasant little girl.  She is so accommodating and fairly even keeled...even for an almost 2 year old!  If you ask her how old she is, she will hold up one finger.  If you ask her who made her so special, she will say God!  She follows instructions pretty well, even if she has to think about whether or not she wants to comply with your wishes.  I've been told that I spead to fast to her but she understands me just fine.  We never have spoken to her in baby talk so she has adapted to adult conversation.  She is not speaking audible words very well and has, in fact, lost some of her vocabulary.  However, she babbles along with the appropriate fluctuation as if she were speaking complete sentences.  She is running now, jumping off things, climbs really well and is starting to submerse herself in a supine position on her own in the tub.  We went through open heart surgery with my Mother-in-law and spent a couple weeks going to either the hospital or the nursing home every day for the majority of the day and she was a real champ.  We packed toys and snacks for every day and the nurses and volunteers chatted with her, waved to her and walked with her every day.  We now own a collection of little animals the volunteers at Riverside make for children who come to the hospital even though we insisted we already had at least one.  How can you say "no" to a sweet faced volunteer who just wants to see your little girl smile?!  She has discovered the fun of mud puddles, learned how to blow a dandelion puff, likes to eat sweet violets and sweet peas from the garden, has learned how to smell the flowers and has figured out that even though Bumble bees look really friendly in a story, they are not so friendly in person!

A friend of mine told me to reiterate a particular day for the sake of those who have not yet decided if they want children and for those who have already raised their children but would like a refresher.  We started out tired this particular day because we were up for about 2 hours in the night.  So we started our day with milk, as we always do, and then progressed to oatmeal.  Oatmeal is a usual favorite but happened to wind up all over the tray and she tried to hide some on her seat.  Mom tried to multi-task and clean the kitchen floor while Peanut was in her chair and contained.  That was not acceptable so Peanut had to be released.  Typically, Peanut will go and play in the living room while Mom cleans in the kitchen, so when she disappeared Mom thought nothing of it.  As it turned out, she was emptying the water bottles Mom and Dad had left on the end table the night before all over the carpet and the couch.  It is amazing how far a little water can go.  Mom cleaned that up, brought Peanut out in the kitchen and then let her go out in the mud room with the dogs after Peanut wiped out on the wet floor twice.  Mom put the dogs outside and went to mop the hall outside the kitchen and the Bugger got hold of a fertilizer we thought was out of reach.  She proceeded to dump it all over the floor, fill the dogs food bowl with it and then paint the wall with it.  Next, she decided to announce that she had done this by traipsing through the clean kitchen floors and down the hall to the bathroom where I was rinsing out a rag.  She came into the room saying "Uh-oh mum mum".  At which point she took my hand and led me back to the scene of the crime.  I took a deep breath, grabbed her container of chalk and some sunscreen and took her outside.  I left the door open so I could see her and talk to her and proceeded to clean up the floor, and the bowls and the wall and the kitchen floor and the hallway...again.  Everything was going along famously and when I went into the kitchen to rinse the mop, she tripped on the stone steps and wacked the front of her head and scraped her chin.  (sigh)  Calmed her down, got ice, read a book.  She was content at this point to sit in the living room for a little while as I continued to finish cleaning.  By now it's time for lunch and she is showing signs of sleepy.  I gave her some yogurt, which is a popular choice, and some fruit and a piece of peanut butter bread.  This is the day she discovered that if you squeeze the yogurt container really hard you can project the contents all over...yes, you guessed it, the clean floors.  (Sigh)  Time for sleeping after I get all that cleaned up and the baby in the tub to be hosed off.  Peace at last!  Nap time was not the normal 2 hours, of course.  I got about a half hour and then hear her screaming on the monitor.  I go up and open the door to see a major diaper malfunction...all over the bed, the wall, the baby, the stuffed animal.....(SiGH!)  No chance of returning to blissful sleeping so off we go to the gardens outside.  We were working planting some flowers right out front and as I was digging the hole, she was placing the plant in the hole.  Going along fine, I thought.  Next thing I know, she's popping out the plants that I had just put in.  (hmmph!)  New plan, I open the door to the craft room, which is right by the garden and she likes to go in and look at shells, and feel the material, play with stickers and some of her toys that are in there.  I continue planting and can see her through the window.  I plant a few plants and check on her, everything is fine.  Plant a few plants, check on her...what is that on her arm?  Looks really dark.  Hmmmm.  I get closer and see she has this dark something all over her hand and her arm.  Now entering the doorway....OH MY!!! What did you do?!!!!  Emptied an entire jar of John Deere Green ENAMEL model plane paint.  On her brand new shoes, the carpet, my cherry bench, her hair, face, hands, arms, legs and outfit.  I go to pick her up and don't know what to do with her.  Can't put that in the tub, right?  So down to the basement to the utility sink and I look desparately for the paint thinner.  I tell her not to touch anything.  She decides that she should pull on the pipes to the sink and rock back and forth, at which point I scream..."DON"T TOUCH ANYTHING!!!!" and she starts to cry.  Do you know what happens with enamel paint when it mixes with water (or tears)?!  It gets hard and glue like.  So as she cries she rubs her nose with her hand, pushing paint up her little nose.  I finally see some lamp oil and decide I should use that to see if it will clean up this paint.  It does.  So now I have a very happy baby covered in lamp oil with a green hulk like hue to her skin.  It is now time for dinner.  The rest of the day proceeded along just fine but I can tell you, i lost a bunch of hair that day!!!  Parenting is not for the faint of heart or uncreative.







Brand new sandals after she trapsed through the garden after the dog.

18 months and counting!

We've hit our 18 month birthday with breakneck speed and are gaining on month 19 with a voracious pace.  Hannah has moved up in the world of toddlers as she learns new things every day.  We suffered some illness over these past few months with a wicked cold right after Christmas, then Mom had flu, Hannah had light flue, Dad had flu and then Dad had some other gastro bug again. 

         Hannah had some tummy discomfort with cutting teeth and then ran a fever which inspired us to trek off the the pediatrician who discovered an ear infection which prompted the first application of antibiotics in her little body.  She was a champ and never fought the

meds except for the very first application.  This has been a fun stretch as she is defining who she is more and more with each  passing day.  She discovers things on her own and has started coming over to me when she wants a participant and pulls on my pant leg or pats on my leg to get my attention.  She has a fine personality for a tea party and hosts very well.  She shares with "Caroline" the bear very well and  makes sure everyone is well fed with all the same spoon:)  She is running now as well as climbing and hopping a little bit.  She can put her socks on when she really really concentrates and still has a fondness for books.  She has begun to look at cookbooks and books with pictures of live animals rather than animated ones and does a fabulous job of identifying those animals when you ask her.  She loves balls of all kinds and if it looks like a ball at all, she will attempt to carry it off.  She loves tools and machines and is a great help in the kitchen (no, really she is!).  She helps unload the silverware from the dishwasher and put dishes in the sink and as I cut things up she will put them in the pot or bowl, too.  She loves to help crack eggs and does pretty well for her age with a wisk and rubber spatula! She can mop the floor with two mops....one in front and one behind, fingerpaint or brush paint and helped Dad paint the walls in the dining room.  She has figured out that she can see herself in hats in the mirror and then kisses the beautiful baby:)  She also discovered that if she looks around in the mirror she can see what is going on behind her.  She is pretty handy with her spoon now and is a pro at food moving (moving items from where they began to another spot.  ie:  mashed potatoes on top of her broccoli).  She is learning to use the camera and musically she loves her keyboard from Uncle Doug and just figured out how to make the recorder sing by saying "Whoooo" in the mouthpiece like an owl.  She has a fabulous apron and chef hat she wears when we cook and now knows how to imitate Mom putting on lipstick. 

When we travel places she is really recognizing where we are when we get there now, too.  The Library, the Playground and Grandma's house seem to be favorites.  She identifies everyone in the pictures we have on the walls when you ask her and will talk to the pics in her room when she first wakes up.  We had relocated her into the office for a few weeks while we worked on some things in her room and she enjoyed waking up and looking at the big 75 gallon fish tank that houses our 20 year old Pirana "Fred".  So we had decided that we put a 10 gallon tank in her room here in the near future.  Lastly, we took a virgin ride in a "Car Cart" at the grocery.  You know the one with the car on the front end of it?  It was like going from a Toyota to a Box truck for Mommy but she just loved it!  She turned the wheel and beeped the horns the whole way.

Her last check up put her at 35" long, 23 lbs 12 oz.  She is cutting 2 eye teeth and 4 molars all at once right now but for the most part you would never know it.  She is a very pleasant child though not overly excitable.  She is very confident in trying new things and loves to watch and play alongside other kids.  Her motor skills are all developing great and to Dad's pride she is definately a Columbus Blue Jackets fan!

She has been tolerating adult surroundings very well as we have continued with some doctor visits with Grandma here lately and will be at the hospital on the 6th of April for open heart surgery with Grandma, too.  The Lord shines through this little one and brings many people joy and I feel honored to sit by and see it happen.  She makes so many people at the hospital smile whenever we are there and the nurses love her.  One nurse even gave her a little cat the last time we were there, which is right up her alley!  Hannah loves kitty cats and stalks the neighbors cats whenever she can:)  Anyhow, I suppose that's enough to share for now.  We are enjoying our time together and watching and learning from her as she watches and learns about the world around her.  So to all you reading  this, keep in touch and we'll update again soon!

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!