Showers Galore!

Hannah has had so many showers the presents have poured in! She's absolutely spoiled rotten! I don't think I'll have to buy her any clothes until she's a year old! On Saturday Myrna came to visit Hannah and she went with us to Hannah's church baby shower. It took place in a little deli and it was lots of fun. Hannah wasn't the only baby so I didn't feel as bad when she got fussy :) On Sunday we went to Mamaw and Papaw's for another shower. There were so many people there the house was bursting and both the deck and front porch were packed too! It's a good thing the weather was nice enough to be outside. Hannah was in top form and acting very cute for everyone. I do think she got a bit over stimulated though because she started to get fussy after being passed around and handled by so many different people. She has another shower today at school so all the teachers can ooh and ahhh over her :) Everyone wants a piece of our Hannah. To top everything off, packages keep arriving the mail with more clothes for her from Kyle's family. I think they might finally be done though because I can't think of a single other person who could possibly want to send her a gift! The mailman has become quite friendly with us and loves to talk to Hannah each time he delivers a package :) He's gotten friendly with the dogs too since they bark like crazy and barrel to the door every time he rings the doorbell!

Hannah's latest accomplishments are adding even more sounds to her vocabulary and turning into a chatty Cathy. All you have to do is look her in the eye and she starts gabbing away. All she really wants is an excuse to talk. A few days ago I wandered into the nursery to find Kyle singing to her and Hannah was singing right along! They were so cute :) She has a front carrier now and she likes it quite a bit. She's been helping me dust and run the sweeper that way. If I run the sweeper while she is napping in her crib she wakes up and screams, but if she rides in the carrier while I sweep she sleeps through the whole thing! Bizzare! Her head is getting really steady now and last night she was laying reclined on my knees and actually tried to sit up to get a toy. She managed to lift her head and shoulders off of my knees all by herself. She seemed quite frustrated that she couldn't get all the way up. She really wanted that monkey rattle. All of a sudden she has become much more interested in toys and she definitely has her favorites. Right now her most favorite seems to be a monkey rattle she got from her Aunt Tina on Sunday. There are 3 colored monkeys hanging from a banana. For some reason she loves that toy and even has a favorite monkey out of the 3! The green monkey right now is the tops. Who'd have known! She's also settled into a nap routine which is nice. Each day at around 10:00 and 2:00 she starts to fuss and if I rock her right then she falls asleep within 5 minutes. That has made getting things done a bit easier. It's nice that she's such a schedule oriented baby. I LOVE schedules :) Well, I think that's all I have to report at the moment. Oh, one more thing. I'm going to try to post Hannah's one month picture we had professionally taken at Target. It's not the best photo ever and the experience was harrowing (let's just say we won't be going back there), but we got the photos anyway. Enjoy!

Interesting Tidbits

Kyle has been on me to post some of the funny stories that have come about since Hannah was born and until now I have been reluctant to report them. However, Kyle has taken to telling them to people verbally in my presence which is also embarassing so I figured I had better just get them out there and be done with it. This way I can also add the one funny story I have about him as well!

First off are the monkey incidents. As many of you may know I sleep with a stuffed orangatang each night. I use it as a pillow of sorts to prop up under my shoulder and side. It also bears mentioning that the monkey is roughly the same size and shape as Hannah, only much hairyier! Anyway, on more than one occasion during our extremely sleep deprived period I mistook the monkey for Hannah and tried to feed it and change it's diaper while I was half asleep and was totally confused when I started to notice that something was wrong. For example the time I tried to feed it I carried the monkey from our bedroom into the nursery, fixed the bottle, and then tried to give the bottle to the monkey and just couldn't understand why Hannah wasn't drinking. It took me a bit to figure out that I didn't have Hannah. I then switched to the real baby and continued the feeding! On the diapering incident the monkey never did make it out of our bedroom, but I was totally confused as to why Hannah felt so hairy. I was thinking that I must be touching her head and tried to move farther down the body and hit Kyle's skin. I then tried to lift up the legs which happened to be his stomach! Eventually I figured that mistake out too and finally made my way into the nursery to change and feed Hannah.

Ok, enough about me. Now for the funny things that have to do with Kyle. My favorite happened one night while Hannah was back in the hospital. I was staying up to take the midnight feeding and Kyle was going on to bed. I had the TV on quietly, but it was too much for Kyle. He couldn't sleep so he turned on the mobile music on Hannah's crib to put him to sleep! The other funny bit has to do with music as well. I often times hear Kyle randomly singing kids songs as he goes about his day. Yesterday it was "Found a peanut," today it was "Clemintine." I have also heard him singing "On Top of Spaghetti," "Here we go Looby Loo," and "Alouette" (Spelling?)

Enough stories, here are Hannah's latest accomplishments. She has almost found her thumb (instead of her whole hand) to suck on. Her head continues to grow more steady and she is beginning to lift it up from her belly without much trouble. When being held upright she can hold it completely steady and look all around from side to side with no trouble. She continues to like her play gym and can actually use the baby activated features on her bouncer now. Her new favorite game is to watch as mommy makes her monkey (Hannah's monkey not to be confused with the previous monkey!) dance and sing around her head. She tracks the monkey 360 degrees as it goes around her and smiles and coos at it. She's talking much more and smiling and laughing a lot more as well. Her reprotoire of sounds is also growing which is exciting for us. We like to hear the new sounds she comes up with! We got a front carrier for her the other day and she is really enjoying riding around in it as I do chores around the house. As soon as she can hold her head completely steady in all positions I can face her out and I think she will like that even more since she loves to sit on my lap facing out and watch what is going on. I think that's pretty much it as far as her newest tricks. She has a big weekend coming up. Her Great Aunt Myrna is coming to visit her, she has two showers to show off at, and she gets to take her first trip to Babies 'R Us! That's a lot to cram into one weekend. We'll be sure to post the details on the blog once we recover! Well, I had one more picture to post, but blogger is being stupid and it won't let me post it. Sorry :( I'll try it later.

The Budding Socialitte

Hannah has had a steady stream of visitors and other social engagements the past few weeks. Baba (Great Grandma Spontak) and Bruno came to visit her and took her out for a walk and to dinner at a restaurant. She went to Mamaw and Papaw Like's house and got to visit with her Great Aunt Margaret and Great Uncle Russel and her Great Aunt Linda and Great Uncle Wayne. Great Aunt Jo Ellen and Terri came to visit her as did her Uncle Kevin and Emily and Aunt Tina and her cousins Ally, John, and Jessica. Hannah also went to visit her new friend Evelyn who was just born last week and is a week old today! When Kyle and I held Evelyn we couldn't believe how light she was! She weighed only 6 lbs 4 oz and it felt like we were just holding a blanket compared to Hannah! Jason and Sarah, Evelynn's parents, were quite jealous about Hannah's sleeping preferences!

Hannah is much more aware of things now than she was a few weeks ago. She has begun reaching for things she wants and can even grab ahold of them sometimes. She's found her hands and can consistently stick them (and anything she happens to be holding) right into her mouth. She's started to bat at things that are held above her and likes to lay in her play gym and hit the balls and fish that hang above her head. She's also starting to recognize Kyle and I and smiles often when we play with her. I even got a giggle out of her the other day. She's decided she most definitely does NOT like tummy time on the floor. Apparently it's just too much work! She doesn't mind tummy time on our chests or holding her head up if we put her over our shoulder, but being flat on the floor is a huge complaint of hers. She's decided that she likes being outside and loves the feel of the breeze going over her face. She has a new gadget on her crib that lights up and plays music kind of like her bouncer and she really likes that. She will watch it as she is putting herself to sleep. We've started putting her to bed at her bedtime even if she's still awake and she's been putting herself to sleep which we think is fantastic! Last night Kyle and I actually had an hour to ourselves with neither of us watching Hannah before we went to bed. It was great. We got a lot of stuff done!

one month pictures

I'm goimg to post some more pictures of Hannah in this entry. She's growing so quickly it's hard to even imagine that she was ever tiny! This first picture is of Hannah going to her 1 month doctor's check-up. Doesn't she look all grown up in her Old Navy clothes? I love this next picture because I think she looks like a little southern belle!

She is definitely getting stronger every day and more strong willed by the minute. She has forced me to find a new technique for burping due to her newly acquired acrobatic talents that she uses to avoid being burped. This final picture is of Hannah and I with our friend Beth and her 3 month old son. Hannah looked so tiny next to him. He's a big boy!

One Month Old

WOW! It's hard to believe that Hannah is already one month old. I can't believe I've been a mommy now for a month! At some point in the post I'm going to try to post the professional pictures we had taken of her when she was 5 days old then I'll also try to post the most recent pictures I have of her too.

Hannah had her follow up doctor's visit from the hospital on Friday and it went well. She weighed 10 lbs 8 oz. That's my big girl! :) We got the ok to start letting her sleep mostly through the night. Now she takes about 4 oz every 3 hours during the day and then has her last bottle at 9:00pm. She then goes to bed shortly thereafter and sleeps until 5:00 am when we wake her up to feed her. Then she goes back to bed and sleeps until 8:00 or 9:00am! We've heard that this is not too common for one month old babies, but we always have believed that Hannah was an over achiever! :)

I've now been on a few outings alone with Hannah and she seems to be doing well. She definitely does like her car seat with the Gracopedia memory foam! Yeah Adrianne and our connections at Graco! Yesterday Uncle Kevin and Emily came to visit her and we went out to eat with Hannah for the first time. She sat in her car seat and slept the whole time. She's such a good baby! On Saturday it was finally cool enough for Hannah and I to go out for a substantial walk during the day. We've got tot start training for the mini if we are going to be ready! We walked 1.9 miles. That's not really that much, but it was starting to get hot again and I'm pretty out of shape. Plus, pushing that car seat, stroller, and diaper bag really adds some weight to the whole exercise which is good! When I actually go to walk the mini without the stroller I'll feel light as a feather!

Right now Hannah's newest tricks (besides sleeping through the night which we love!) are tracking an object consistently from left to right and back again several times, lifting her head and holding it steady for close to a minute when placed over your shoulder, and deciding that she just might like her bathtub. She's also started to let us sit her on our lap and do things while she is awake! Yesterday when Kevin came to visit either Kyle or I had her pretty much the entire time we were playing our game (close to two hours) sitting on our lap facing out looking at the world. She's also decided she thinks ceiling fans are totally cool. Now I didn't think she was supposed to be able to see that far, but apparently she can see something because she definitely fixates on ceiling fans wherever we happen to be. It's not just our fan. She liked the one at our friends' house too.

Well, that's really all I have to report on Hannah right now. I never did get around to posting the new pictures of her. I'll try to post those as just a picture post here later in the day if Hannah ever lets me get back to the computer. Right now she's just waking up and ready to eat.