Pictures!!!!

Here are some recent pictures of Hannah. I hope you enjoy!

1) I am being brave and putting a picture of myself in my bathing suit on the web. AAAHHH! But it is a good memory for Hannah. As you can see, she liked the water as long as someone was really close. It is fun going to the beach with children because you find yourself acting like a child again (sitting the sand with the water, building sand castles, running and jumping over the waves)- you get the point.


2) Here is a picture of Hannah and I in our famous khaki and white pics. Not real close, but we are laughing really hard because Hannah kept shaking her head. Seems that she is not a big fan of the family pictures either!








3) Another picture of Hannah at the beach. Kirbo is taking her down to the water. That is after she had him bringing her pail after pail of water to fill her hole. I guess he thought it would be easier to just take her to the ocean instead of the ocean to her.
















4) Hannah's first ponytail. Her hair is finally getting long enough to put up. It is really cute, but she pulls it out so she can't wear it up to school. I am just about ready to go for the first hair cut. Her hair is always in her eyes.
















5) Ah...mischevious. Hannah really likes her new cousin, Claire. She likes to rock her in her toys, but most of all, she likes to poke her eyes out. It is really sweet to see her with Claire, because I thought she would not pay any attention to her since she doesn't do anything, but Hannah pays a lot of attention to her. I think Hannah will definitely take up for her when all the other older cousins want to get her!!!!!



Well I hope everyone enjoys the pics. I broke my camera at the beach, but I now have a new one. Hopefully, I will be able to post more pictures. Have a good weekend! Hannah is going to Alabama this weekend, so I hope all of you have an awesome time with her. She is bunches of fun!!!!!

A few new tricks!

I know I have been slacking on my blog lately, but you would understand if you saw my desk!

Last weekend we went to my brother's house to play. For those of you who don't know, he has a daughter a month older than Hannah and a 3 year old. They put out the kiddie pool and Hannah had a blast. Although she was having a good time, I was a nervous wreck. Being the independent child that Hannah is, she did not want mommy to hold her hand the whole time. So I would let go while she was still and not trying to walk all around this pool, but then splash, hannah would lose her grip and under she would go. I would catch her arm and pull her up. At first I thought she might get scared and want to get out, but no, she kept doing it. I felt like I was constantly trying to save my child from drowning, but she loved it. So if anyone wants to go swimming in a baby pool with Hannah, make sure you don't have any distractions because she is not afraid to go under!

Hannah is also starting to pick up on a lot of words I am saying and I think it is so fun! We are working on getting out of the "point at what I want and whine" phase, so I am repeating what she wants when she points to it. We can officially say cracker! Although she still doesn't use it as well as I would like, we are getting there. She also says a little something that sounds like turtle, and she will point to the turtle when she says it. We still have a lot of learning to do because my niece who is a month older than her can say Speedboat!!!

She also knows milk. When she starts getting fussy for something, I say "where's your milk?" and that usually stops the fussing while she looks for it. We always keep it in reach for that purpose. Last night we were downstairs after dinner and it was time for bath. I asked Hannah if she was ready to go and take a bath and she darts to the stairs. I was not as fast as her getting up because she usually doesn't respond when I ask her, but I guess repetition pays off. She would walk back and look at me like "Okay come on I want to take a bath." I love that she is understanding me now. It kind of blows my mind when she does things like that because I still want her to be a baby and being able to communicate is a huge sign that she is not a little baby anymore, or atleast she won't be for long.

There are also a couple of really sweet things she is doing now that I LOVE! She knows to give hugs when you ask and give kisses. Although she has been slobbing kisses for a while; she is also becoming a wonderful hugger. Also, at night before I put her down, I tell her it is time to go night night and she curls up on me and starts to fall asleep. This is awesome because Hannah hasn't always been the biggest snuggler, but she is now.

Well those are a few things that have been going on with Hannah. I am working on posting some pictures soon, so look for those.

I did good!

Clapping has become one of Hannah's greatest joys in life. She claps at everything, especially when she does something good.

We watch Wheel of Fortune at night, and she claps when they get excited. She sees herself in the mirror and she claps. She simply walks around clapping.

The best thing is when she is carrying something around and gets excited. She stops, leans down to place the object on the floor, leans back up and then claps. It is so funny, because she doesn't just let go of the object and let it drop to the floor. She very nicely places it on the floor. She also gives you a big grin when she does it, so it makes it even more cute.

It is just amazing how she knows when she has done something good. What's even better is she also knows when she has done something bad. But I have to say she is really good about not doing something when she knows its bad. Well, it is not that simple, but atleast she will get really close to doing and give me that look like "I am about to touch it, when you are going to say no." Sometimes she will still do it, but a majority of the time she will stop and onto the next thing.

I know I say this a lot, but she is just so fun. It is amazing how much she is learning every day.

Well, I hope everyone has a good weekend. Talk to you soon.

I'm Back

I know it has been a while since I posted, so don't think I forgot about all of you in Hannahland.

Hannah and I have been really busy lately, and she is getting so big. A few weeks ago, Hannah got a new high chair that allowed her to sit up a little straighter. Since we got that high chair, we have moved from putting food directly on the high chair to using bowls and silver wear. It is so nice because I just sit her in her seat and she goes to town. She is still getting used to her fork and spoon, but she's got the idea. She just picks up the food and then puts it on the spoon. She then tries to get it turned back around to go in her mouth, which sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. I place her milk in the cup holder and she picks it up to drink and places it nicely back into the cup holder. Her fine motor skills are just getting better by the day.

This won't be a big deal for anyone really but me, since I see it everyday. But Hannah just made me so happy Friday morning. When I take her to day care, she usually goes to her teacher and they hold her for a bit while I leave - to make sure the transition goes smoothly, if you know what I mean. Well, when I dropped her off on Friday, her teacher had another baby in her arms and she was putting her down to get Hannah. I went ahead and put Hannah down on the ground. My baby just walked off to the toy box, not even looking back at me or her teacher. I was so proud.

As for the weekend, we started painting our house. We only had one incident with Hannah and the paint. She was really good about not touching the walls and staying away from the paint brushes, but one time we put the paint bucket too low. The good news is that I turned around fast enough to stop her entire hand from getting into the paint. She merely decorated the ends of her fingertips.

And on a not so fun note, Hannah has another ear infection. She hasn't had one since the winter, so that is good news. She is just really fussy right now, and very clingy. But her being clingy is not much of a difference -we are still going through all of that. Hopefully the antibiotics will kick in soon and we will be good again.

Well, that should catch everyone up for a while. Hannah is growing so fast. I don't even have to carry her to the car in the mornings. She just walks out of the house herself, and when she hits an area she doesn't think she can make it around by herself, she very cutely puts up her hand for me to hold. It is really cute.

I hope everyone is having a good summer- school will be in again soon!!!!

Don't leave Mom

Sorry I have not posted in a while. Work has been really busy and I haven't had time to even think about my poor neglected blog. Oh well, busy is a good thing!

Hannah is going through a very clingy phase. I can't get 5 feet from her without her screaming, and you can forget walking to the other room without her. I asked my friend at work, who also has a child Hannah's age, what was going on. She said that babies will go through a separation anxiety phase around 18 months. Oh my goodness! We are not even 15 months yet......what am I going to do.

I sit down with her every night and give her my undivided attention - hoping this will calm her a bit. I always tell her, "Mommy will be back soon." I don't know what else to do. Any suggestions would be awesome!!!

The good thing is that when I take her to day care she seems fine. Some days she will cry when I leave, but that is usually on Mondays after we have been together all weekend. And even if she cries when I leave, it lasts 2 minutes. I know because I watched the other day at school.

She was crying when I gave her to her teacher, and by the time I got to the gate of the playground she had stopped! This makes me wonder - is it really separation anxiety or is she just SPOILED!!!!!

Well, just another adventure in parenting. I am sure as soon as I figure this one out, we will be onto the one. I do have to admit, that sometimes I like it. Especially when she runs to me with that big smile and her arms wide open - it kind of melts me inside.

Also, I know I reported last week that Hannah had a new tooth on the bottom, well the other side came in also. I believe we are up to 12 teeth!!!!

Beach Bum

We just got back from the beach yesterday and it was so much fun. Hannah did so good and it was fun to see her with all of her cousins.

The first day we went straight to the pool and Hannah did a lot like she did the first time, she curled up really close to me and acted like she was falling asleep. I finally peeled her off of me and we played motor boat and I threw her in the air a few times. She laughed at that a lot, but the thumb never came out of her mouth (I think we have discovered Hannah's safety blanket).

The next day we took Hannah to the beach for the first time. She was a little hesitant about the sand at first. I would put her on her bottom and she would lift her legs really high while sitting down so she wouldn't get the sand on her. It was funny. Eventually she got a little closer and a little more brave. She started taking the toys and filling them with sand.

On Monday, we went to the beach first thing. We pulled the chairs right on the water and sat there. Hannah liked it when her Kirbo would bring the bucket full of water and sit it in front of her. She would splash in it and then dump it out, only for someone to walk back to the water and fill it up again. I picked her up and took her into the ocean, which she liked a lot. We jumped the waves and they splashed onto us. She thought that was funny. Then we went and sat on the edge of the water and let the ocean come to us.

All in all, I think Hannah liked the pool the best. We had a floating turtle for the pool and she sat it in for a couple of hours at least on Tuesday. I was able to get some sun and she floated in the pool with Kirbo. He said she kept trying to pick up the water and feed it to him.

But the fun didn't stop at the beach, the condo was a whole other world and were the real excitement began! We had 5 children, a 5 year old, 3 year old, two 1 year olds and a 2 month old. It was fun to see them all interact. Hannah really liked to play with Claire, the 2 month old. At least she liked her toys. Claire has a bouncy seat, one like the green one that Hannah loved when she was a baby. It had an ocean theme to it and the colorful part that attached was intriguing to Hannah. She would see me bouncing Claire and come up and do it herself, except she wasn't quite as gentle. But when Claire was out of it, Hannah was trying to get in it and a few times she suceeded. We would look over and Hannah had crawled in and was just enjoying herself. Aunt Amy and Uncle Mike weren't a big fan of this, and Hannah kept getting the boot.

Hannah is also a lot stronger than I give her credit for. One time the balcony door was pretty much closed, at least Hannah couldn't slip through it. I look over and she is pushing the door open and had made it inside. This is one of those sliding doors that isn't the lightest in the world, but leave it to Hannah to get were she wants too.

So Hannah had a really good time, but I think we were both a little glad to get home. We were exhausted and ready to get back to our quiet little house. You really don't realize how quiet your home is until you have entered into that condo last weekend. Someone was always screaming!

Well that was a summary of our 4th of July. Oh yeah, Hannah loved the fireworks. They were right in front of our condo, and when the first one went off, she screamed real loud and came barrelling toward me. I took her outside and she was fine. She curled up in my lap and just watched. She would sit up every now and then and point at them. I was glad she wasn't scared.

Okay, that is a brief summary of our weekend. I am not sure if I made it sound real exciting, but I am just getting over my exhaustion and it makes me really tired again thinking about it! All that really matters, is that it was a great time and it is so awesome to know how close Hannah will be to all of her cousins. I hope they like each other because they don't really have a choice!

P.S. Hannah got another tooth on the bottom last night. A girl at my work calls her chompers because of all of her teeth!