Since my last post Hannah's formula consumption went from bad to worse. She started refusing all formula from a cup or a bottle and screaming at the top of her lungs when she even saw any. She was SO HUNGRY, but she refused to eat. We thought maybe her teeth were hurting her so we tried Oragel and Tylenol. We tried holding her, putting her in her highchair, and even letting her sit on the floor. Nothing worked. We had several tense days where I fretted over her getting enough nutrition and I almost called the doctor again, but then finally she began to eat a little again. Oddly enough she will start out her formula in the highchair drinking from the sippy cup. She will drink maybe one or two ounces and then refuse to drink from the cup any more even if we hold it (that's a complete backslide as she was drinking her entire amount from the cup for at least two whole weeks prior to this recent battle). If we try to force the cup she will scream and cry. So, now we have to put the rest of the formula into a bottle and hold it for her in her highchair or pick her up and hold her for her to drink the rest. Sometimes she will drink it all and sometimes she won't, but at least she's getting most of it down. We have cut her back to 6 oz a bottle again until she starts consistently drinking it all. Today she did ask for more during two of her bottles so that is encouraging. I wonder what caused all this fuss? She seemed to be doing great and then BANG! she lost all the progress she had made. Maybe she's just not ready to be weaned yet. I might have to break down and buy some more bottles after all :(
Hannah is so active these days that I am absolutely exhausted at the end of each day. Actually I'm exhausted by 9:00am, but who's counting! She goes like a mad woman all day long and she's into absolutely EVERYTHING. She's even become sneaky and will crawl away really quietly while my eyes are turned for just a second. When she realizes that I've found her she will giggle and start to crawl away faster! She's only taking one nap a day now so I have no time to really get any work done. It's no longer safe to go into another room for even a second to grab something to work on and I have no means of containing her other than her crib and I don't want to use that as anything other than a place to sleep so I'm pretty much out of options. Hannah and I play and read all day (or I chase her around and try to undo the destruction she leaves in her wake) and then I kick it into overdrive the minute she goes down for a nap to try to get things done.
Hannah's vocabulary continues to increase and she really uses her words and her signs to get her point across. In the past week she's started using "up" a lot It's so hard to say no to he
r when she asks so nicely!) and every time I take her to our bedroom she makes a beeline straight for the bathroom saying duck, duck, duck and grabs her rubber duckie off of the edge of the tub! She's also said Grandpa, banana, and Mamaw for the first time and has started naming people in her picture books as we look at the pictures. She can correctly identify, Mom, Dad, and Evelyn. The Mamaw utterance was also in response to a picture of Mamaw. Phones continue to intrigue her and she talks to Daddy on the phone everyday at work. She even left him a voicemail this week!
r when she asks so nicely!) and every time I take her to our bedroom she makes a beeline straight for the bathroom saying duck, duck, duck and grabs her rubber duckie off of the edge of the tub! She's also said Grandpa, banana, and Mamaw for the first time and has started naming people in her picture books as we look at the pictures. She can correctly identify, Mom, Dad, and Evelyn. The Mamaw utterance was also in response to a picture of Mamaw. Phones continue to intrigue her and she talks to Daddy on the phone everyday at work. She even left him a voicemail this week! I almost forgot to tell everyone that she got her 4th and 5th teeth in. Now she has 3 on the top and two on the bottom. She's still drooling like crazy and chewing on everything so I figure another one on the top can't be far behind. Her stranger/separation anxiety continues. She's going to be spending the day with Mamaw and Papaw tomorrow so hopefully she will go easy on them! I'm praying that this stage will ease up soon. It really does break my heart to see her so scared. It hurts people's feelings too. They really want to hold her, but Hannah wants nothing to do with them.
The dogs and cats have been so good with Hannah lately and she's started to get a lot better about gentle touches. She was hugging Abby like crazy last night and Abby actually seemed to enjoy it. Every time we let Ella out of her crate she immediately runs over to Hannah and tries to lick her on the face! Hannah thinks that is pretty funny. Even Sadie and Penny have been less apt to run for the basement when they see Hannah coming. The other day Hannah kept putting her bugaboo around Sadie's neck like a necklace! She was such a good cat and just sat there patiently while Hannah took it on and off over and over again. Unfortunately for Saddie, Hannah's not very good at just lifting it straight up so Sadie had to endure a fair amound of pulling on her head and neck each time Hannah attempted to remove it. She was a good cat though and never even acted angry.
I'm back again after our weekend excursion to work on Grandpa's house. We almost have it all done. There's just a little bit left to do next Saturday, but basically it's good to go! :) Hannah won't know what to do without Grandpa at her house anymore! Hannah spent all day Saturday and all day Sunday with Mamaw and Papaw while we worked. On Saturday she had a 
really rough time. She was fussy the entire day and went on another hunger strike. She refused 2 bottles and a solid food feeding. Eventually though she couldn't hold out any longer. Mamaw took her on a walk which made her sleepy so she took a nap. After she woke up from her nap she ate for an hour straight! She had a bottle, a full meal of solids, plus wagon wheels and veggie puffs. On Sunday she did MUCH better. No more hunger strikes, no more fussiness, and she even learned some new words. Mamaw is now firmly engrained as part of her vocabulary as is Zeke (Mamaw and Papaw's dog). Mamaw gave her magnets that have pictures of she and Papaw and one that has Zeke's picture on it and Hannah can look at those magnets on our fridge and tell us it is Mamaw or Zeke. Occasionally, Zeke is called Ella (that's still proving to be a tough habit to break! surely all dogs are named Ella!), but she does know his name and loves to give his picture on the magnet kisses :)
really rough time. She was fussy the entire day and went on another hunger strike. She refused 2 bottles and a solid food feeding. Eventually though she couldn't hold out any longer. Mamaw took her on a walk which made her sleepy so she took a nap. After she woke up from her nap she ate for an hour straight! She had a bottle, a full meal of solids, plus wagon wheels and veggie puffs. On Sunday she did MUCH better. No more hunger strikes, no more fussiness, and she even learned some new words. Mamaw is now firmly engrained as part of her vocabulary as is Zeke (Mamaw and Papaw's dog). Mamaw gave her magnets that have pictures of she and Papaw and one that has Zeke's picture on it and Hannah can look at those magnets on our fridge and tell us it is Mamaw or Zeke. Occasionally, Zeke is called Ella (that's still proving to be a tough habit to break! surely all dogs are named Ella!), but she does know his name and loves to give his picture on the magnet kisses :) The last two nights have been really rough in the sleep department for Hannah. She has absolutely refused to go down at night. We do her entire bedtime routine and she is fine, but as soon as we turn out the light to sing her her first song she goes ballistic. On Sunday night Kyle used the vibrating rocking chair to finally get her calmed down, but last night we just let her cry and did the Ferber method. They both seemed to work equally well, which translates as neither worked very well at all, but in the end she did eventually go to sleep after much screaming and hysterics. Her 6th tooth popped through Sunday night so I thought that maybe that had been the problem so I did preventative care last night before I put Hannah to bed by giving her some Tylenol and oragel, but it didn't seem to help at all. So far I've only got to see that new tooth twice and very briefly both times. Kyle still hasn't got a glimpse of it yet, but it's definitely there.
Hannah just keeps growing and growing. Recently I bought her some really cute clothes at Old Navy using a Christmas gift card I had. I bought size 18-24 months. Sounded reasonable to me given Hannah is only 10 months old! Well, apparently I was wrong because when I got them home I decided to try them on her before I cut the tags off (good choice on my part!). The T shirt I couldn't even get to fit over her head and the dress I managed to get on, but it was already snug. So, back I went to the mall later that week to exchange them both for 2T sizes! The worst part is that neither of those 2T sizes are any too big. They fit her just perfectly now. There will be no "growing into" these particular clothes. They fit right now and once she grows a bit they won't fit at all! So, if anyone ever has the urge to buy Hannah clothes absolutely do not get anything smaller than 24 months that you want her to wear right this second and nothing smaller than 2T that you think she might wear for the rest of the summer. In the past two weeks I've had to retire 4 pairs of pants, 3 shirts, and a jacket. We even had to buy all new socks sized 24-36 months! I also think I forgot to mention to you all that Hannah got her feet 
measured at the specialty shoe store in the mall and she wears a size 4 1/2 wide. That explained why the size 4 shoes she got for Christmas and the size 5 shoes that I recently bought her to replace them did not fit. Her foot was just too wide to even get inside! It didn't matter what the length of the shoe was since I couldn't even get it shoved through the hole!
measured at the specialty shoe store in the mall and she wears a size 4 1/2 wide. That explained why the size 4 shoes she got for Christmas and the size 5 shoes that I recently bought her to replace them did not fit. Her foot was just too wide to even get inside! It didn't matter what the length of the shoe was since I couldn't even get it shoved through the hole! One of Hannah's current favorite activities is wearing things as bracelets. She likes to use the rings off of her rock -n- stack or her bugaboo as bracelets for her arms and legs (and mom, dad, or grandpa's arms and legs) or as necklaces for the cats! She's got this funny little one handed flip thing she does to get them on her arms and she thinks it's great fun to put them on and take them off repeatedly. Another new skill Hannah has been working on is putting the shapes into the right holes in her shape sorter. She understands that the shapes go inside the holes, but she lacks all the necessary hand-eye coordination to consistently get them through the hole each time. Then there is that pesky business about picking the correct hole to shove them through as well. Mommy has to help with that, but she is learning to try another if the first one doesn't work.
