Moving Right Along

Hannah has been a very busy baby since my last post. She is currently hosting her Grandpa at the house because he is not feeling well. She went to pick him up at the hospital on the 10th and he's been with us ever since. Hannah loves having Grandpa here and they are getting lots of bonding time. She is also enjoying Grandpa's dog, My, because she has a long furry tail that is oh so fun to grab!

As for Hannah's newest accomplishments there are many! She's now eating 3rd stage baby foods that are very chunky. She likes them quite a bit and as always never bats an eye at new foods. She's been eating so much solid food lately that we actually cut back her formula an ounce on each bottle! She really does like her food :)

The most exciting update is that Hannah can now sit herself up from either her belly or her back with no trouble at all. She really surprised her grandpa and I one night by starting out across the room from me sitting up and then all of sudden I felt a tug at my leg and Hannah was sitting at my feet yanking on my pant leg! We thought, "How on earth did she get over here!" Until then we did not realize she could sit herself up.

Ok, it's been a few days since I started this post and I have a new and exciting announcement, Hannah crawled for the first time!!!!!!!!!!!!! She has not really duplicated this amazing feat yet, but we have her first time on video as proof! She's working really hard at it every chance she gets and the pets are a huge incentive for her. She can now get into sitting and crawling position quite easily and goes absolutely everywhere she wants to go quite quickly. Once she really gets the hang of this crawling there will be no stopping her!

She's also into absolutely EVERYTHING! Nothing is safe anymore as she pulls things off of tables, opens doors and cabinets that aren't locked, pushes things out of the way and tries to pull herself up on shelves to get coveted objects. It's amazing how much progress she's made in just a few days. She seems more and more like a toddler every day. She even had her first table food yesterday. She ate some pieces of a biscuit and some mashed up banana. She LOVED the biscuits. She kept giving us the look like she thought she was hot stuff for feeding herself the biscuit like she was getting away with something she shouldn't be doing! :)

Hannah is such a joy in my life. I can't imagine what I ever did without her. Every day I thank my lucky stars that God blessed me with such an amazing little girl. She's growing so fast. I wish she would slow down, but it is amazing to watch her grow and develop into a beautiful little girl on the inside and out.

Oh, here's an update on the cutest baby contest. The voting starts tomorrow and you are able to vote online as well as through the paper ballots in the newspaper, but there is a catch. All votes (except for one vote per person per day using the newspaper paper ballot) are by donation only. It's $0.25 per vote and the minimum online donation is $5.00 (20 votes). The money all goes to fund the newspapers in education fund, but still I think it's a bit fishy that the voting actually costs money. Instead of the cutest baby winning it's going to turn into who's family and friends have the most money to spend on the voting :( I thought the donations were just the entry fees, but I was mistaken. I'll post the website where you can vote on here, although I don't expect anyone to feel like voting since it costs money. Looking at all the cute babies might be fun though, so take a peak and enjoy all those smiling faces since there were over 700 babies entered! http://www.jconline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage

I have many more updates to post, but I want to be sure that I post this blog tonight so that people can see the baby contest tomorrow when voting starts. I'll try to get back to this sometime later in the week.

PS. Here are the before and after pics for my hair (finally!)

Mmmmom, mom, mom, mom

Finally, enough of the Da, da, da, da, das! Hannah has finally decided to bless me with some mom, mom, moms :) Today she's been doing it all day and it just makes me smile every time I hear it! I get so excited that she does it again just to see me smile and clap! Then of course I smile and clap more.

As for other less important :p Hannah updates, Hannah passed her hearing test with flying colors. She won't have to have another one until she turns a year old unless we start to notice any problems. From here on out she has them every six months until she's 3 years old and then we are completely in the clear.

She continues to eat like a champ and really seems to like absolutely everything we put in front of her. Nothing new shakes this kid. She's even warmed up to the barley cereal. We have noticed that peaches seem to bother her digestive tract a bit, but she likes the taste of them ok. Prunes also may be having a similar effect, but at the moment it's a bit too soon to tell.

Yesterday Hannah had her 7 month pictures done and her regular photographer was sick so we had a new guy. Hannah, who had been being absolutely adorable, took one look at this guy and decided that there was something she didn't like about him and began to scream! This theme continued throughout the entire session! I had to work really hard at distracting her so that she would not notice he was looking at her when he took the pictures because if she saw him even looking at her she would go into another round of screams complete with tears and a horribly runny nose :( There weren't very many cute ones this time so it made it very easy to choose which ones to order. I guess I can be thankful for that!

On Wednesday my new mommy-do was completed so now I can finally post that picture you all have been asking for. The reason I was waiting is because I decided to get a perm done too. I haven't had one of those since 6th grade so I was a bit nervous, but it turned out pretty good. I'm still getting used to it and I haven't been able to wash it yet so I'll let you know what I really think about it in the next post. I was a bit worried that Hannah might get a bit scared by it because I read in on of my books that babies at this age don't like big changes to their home or parents and this was a pretty big change. Hannah, however, handled it like a pro and was as flexible as ever.

Hannah's newest trick (of which I am NOT pleased) is throwing tantrums. She's decided that since she's wearing 18 month clothes she can start throwing tantrums like a toddler too. She does it when I wash her face after she's done eating, when I don't give her food fast enough, when I make her sit down after she has been standing for awhile, or when I sit her on the floor after I've been carrying her. So, I've started really working on teaching her the word "NO" and giving her a look that lets her know I am not pleased as well as ignoring her continued behavior until she calms down. Right now there hasn't been any progress, but I have a feeling this could be a VERY long battle.

I finally got around to uploading some more of Hannah's videos. To see the video just click on the link and enjoy.

The first video is just of Hannah talking and rolling around on the floor. Not too exciting, but for those of you who don't get to see her you can at least see how her personality is developing.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5393554616343596730&hl=en

Hannah loves to get into the clean clothes while I fold laundry and she thinks it's funny to steal something I've already folded. She gets a really proud look on her face when she thinks she's gotten away with something!

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2165618576115601540&hl=en

Hannah frequently rolls herself into a corner and can't get out. She thinks it's funny for awhile, but then gets hostile if you don't rescue her when she's done playing.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9207544038951777663&hl=en

Hannah currently obsessed with the dog beds. She loves to flip them over, kick them, or roll underneath them.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2809187550474091139&hl=en

Little Explorer

Hannah has really become a little explorer as of late. She's finding all manner of ways to get around and she uses each method as needed to get where she wants to go. Her favorite places to go right now are under her swing, under the coffee table, up against the entertainment center, and up against the basket of blankets. She LOVES to get up against something and then kick it tirelessly. She's also been attempting to pull herself up on the coffee table and the basket of blankets. She has yet to be successful at this new milestone, but we all know how relentless she can be when she sets goals for herself. She also loves to crawl and roll all over Kyle and I as well as the couches and chairs in the house. It's so funny to see her climbing over things to get what she wants which is usually a lamp, remote control, or the telephone!

The last few days she has been VERY cranky. Her teeth are really bothering her. I'm not sure if it's her newest tooth that's still causing pain or if I should expect yet another new tooth sometime in the near future. She's drooling like crazy again and chewing on EVERYTHING in sight. Whenever I give her one of her teethers from the fridge and she first puts it in her mouth she gets this look of ecstasy on her face like she's saying, "YES! This is heaven." Kyle said Tuesday night when he gave her one she went from fussing to laughing hysterically as soon as he gave it to her. At times it's like we have a miniature Dr. Jekyll-Mrs. Hyde on our hands. One minute she is happy as a clam and the next minute she is SCREAMING bloody murder. It's so hard to know that she is hurting and to not be able to do a whole lot to ease her pain.

Her sleep problems seem to be evening out for the moment. She's getting much better at soothing herself and that makes me happy. It's so hard for me to hear her cry and just let her keep crying when I know that if I just picked her up and rocked her I could have her comforted and back asleep in under 5 minutes. I know she has to learn how to do this for herself or she'll end up being that 7 year old that won't go to sleep by herself and has to sleep with mom and dad. I want to do what's right for her long term, but it's hard.

Hannah's become an obsessive stander and eater of veggie puffs. I truly believe that she is addicted to both of these activities! She will grab and pull on the handle of the basket over and over and over, but she's just not quite strong enough to get herself up because the handle has too much give and it's a bit high up for her to really get a good grip on it. Or she will pull at my hands and slap me and make all sorts of noises if I'm not paying close enough attention to her until I let her use my thumbs to pull herself up. If I make her sit back down she cries and starts reaching for my hands again until she can pull herself back up. She's starting to get adventurous about it too. She'll let go of my hands with one and sometimes both hands. Today she actually balanced herself without holding onto anything for about 3 seconds before she started to topple over. She also started trying to pull herself up on the crib railing today. She rolled herself up next to the crib and grabbed and pulled with all her might. She just wasn't quite strong enough to get herself up at the angle she was at. As far as the veggie puffs go, she swipes them up as soon as we put them on the tray of her highchair and as soon as it's gone she's looking for more. I have a feeling that it won't be long before she's using the "more" sign to tell me she wants more of the beloved veggie puffs!

Notice in the last bath picture how long her hair is getting! It's down between her shoulder blades now! I can even manage to get it into a single ponytail in the back if she holds still long enough!

The purple shirt Hannah is wearing in these last few pictures is a Christmas present from our friend Marisa. She gave Hannah and I matching Life is Good daisy shirts! We love them and I can't wait until it gets warm enough for us to both wear them out together! We'll look so cute! Well, at least Hannah will. :)