It's Official!

It's official. Hannah is now legally a Spontak! :) We went to court yesterday for Hannah's adoption finalization. While the hearing itself was uneventful actually getting up to the courtroom had some snags. We had to go through a very long security line to even get past the courthouse lobby. We had to take Hannah out of her stroller and send everything expect us and the stroller through the x-ray machine. They used the wand on the stroller. Once through they told us that cameras were not allowed and that we would have to take it back to the car. I was already just a little bit emotionally on edge and telling me that I was not going to get a picture to commemorate my daughter's finalization was not a smart thing to do! I marched right over to the deputy on guard with our letter from our lawyer who does adoption hearings in that very same courthouse all the time that said be sure to bring your camera. The deputy was not sympathetic at all and refused to let us bring it through! I was seriously ticked off because I HAVE SEEN pictures from that courthouse before. Kyle had to take the camera back to the car and then go through the long security line again. Once we got up to the courtrooms we met another couple who had also been denied their camera. Then, right before it was our turn to go into the courtroom another couple arrived from our agency and we found out that they HAD been allowed to bring their camera! Let me just say that this angered me even more than not being allowed to bring ours in. I mean if you are so adamant about security and about cameras being absolutely not allowed anywhere in the courthouse then how could they let someone get through with a really big camera!?! Some great quality control they have if security didn't even notice their camera! Thankfully that family was finalizing right after us and they offered to take our picture of us with the judge and email us the photos. So, I will have my picture, but I am still upset about the injustice of it all. If they are going to ban cameras then they need to ban all cameras and not just randomly refuse to let some in but not others. If the government wants to make rules then they should make them fair and applicable to all and not just enforce them when they feel like it. Anyway, the hearing went smoothly and it is all over. Hannah is now officially and legally a Spontak. :)

The last week or so has brought several new developments besides Hannah's finalization. First off, she is of course growing again. After mourning the retirement of two more beloved sleepers, we measured her again to find that she had grown another 1/4 to 1/2 inch. That puts her length now at around 25 3/4 inches or 26 inches! I would say that she is now in 6-9 month clothes as her primary size. She still has a few odd 3-6 month onesies that fit, but they are getting tight. We removed the head support from her car seat last week, but yesterday Kyle had to actually move the harnesses in her car seat so that the shoulder straps would actually go around her. We got out the owners manual to the car seat and according to that Hannah can only grow another 1/4 to 1/2 inch or gain a few more pounds before she is out of the seat for good. I've been saying for about a month now that I thought she was getting close to outgrowing it, but Kyle kept dismissing me. Well, now we know for sure! I'm not quite ready to fork out the money for a new convertible car seat just yet, but I guess we really don't have much choice. Once she outgrows it, it's not safe to have her in it anymore. Safety is the most important thing so I guess I'll just have to deal with it. While at the courthouse I was able to compare Hannah to several other babies around her same age and she was by far the biggest one there. There was also an eight month old little boy at the restaurant we stopped for lunch at and Hannah was even bigger than him! I have concluded that my daughter is indeed a giant! I really hope she does not get teased by other kids once she gets older if this trend continues.

Hannah has also taught herself a new trick recently. She has learned how to use her head as a pivot point, arch her back and use her feet to push herself around in a circle. Last night I watched her do a complete 360 degree rotation. Mind you this took almost an hour to complete, but she did it. It also solves the mystery of how Hannah was managing to get herself completely perpendicular in her crib. Instead of staying in her crib the long way like we put her down we have been finding Hannah sleeping with her head and feet across the short side of the crib instead. I was really wondering how she was managing to do that when finally I got to see her scoot herself around. She has also decided that she no longer wants to sleep on her back no matter what Mom and Dad and all the experts say. She is going to sleep on her left side and there is nothing we or anyone else can do about it short of tying her down to the bed! She and Kyle have been involved in a battle of the wills the past few nights about this newest development and I must admit that Hannah is winning! Kyle places Hannah on her back to sleep and then several times a night goes in and makes her return to her back, but each time she immediately rolls herself back onto her side and drapes her arm across her face. It's the arm draping that worries Kyle the most I think. He's afraid she won't be able to breathe. It really doesn't matter what he does. No matter how she looks when we leave her she is always in her new preferred position when we come back. I guess this means goodbye to our beloved Super Buddha pose. :(

Hannah has also decided that she's not nearly as hungry as she used to be. She's started refusing bottles lately. Usually she takes some of each bottle, but there have been a few times in the last week that she has ended up taking over one whole bottle less of formula a day than is normal. I'm mildly concerned about this and plan to ask the doctor about it during her 4 month check up here in a few weeks, but I'm not concerned enough to call the office about it right now since other than that she seems perfectly OK. She's not losing weight that we can tell and not acting sick or running a fever. She just drinks until she's full and then spits the bottle out. If we try to put the nipple back into to her mouth she expertly blocks it with her hands or even reaches up and knocks it away if we manage to get past her defenses!

Another milestone is that Hannah has graduated to her big girl bathtub and she really enjoys it I think. I took the sling out of her tub and put it away for good. Now she's splashing away in the water with her feet. It's pretty cute. I've got some cute video of her splashing in the tub that I'll try to post. I'd rate it PG for some partial baby nudity! ;0
http://video.google.com/videouploadfinished?docid=5730186296407061204&filename=wsb64__00000_T2N0b2JlciAxOCwgMjAwNiAwMjk.avi
Just click on the link to watch the video.

On a final note, Hannah got yet another package in the mail the other day. Each time I think there can't possibly be another person who might want to send a gift and each time I'm surprised when another package arrives in the mail! This time it was from my cousin Matt and his wife Regina. The mailman brought it into the house for me because my hands were pretty full with Hannah and it was a big box and after he got a look at Hannah he commented that he thought it looked like Hannah had grown since the last package he delivered for her last week! It's pretty bad when even the mailman is noticing growth! But then I guess it just goes to show what generous family and friends we have that Hannah has gotten enough packages that he has actually been able to track her growth over his many visits!

The Case of the Missing Baby Stuff

I remember someone telling me before Hannah was born that baby stuff is lost easily so I should buy extra, but I didn't really believe them. I now admit that I was wrong and they are (whoever it was) completely right. Recently things have bee disappearing like crazy! Half the fleet of Hannah's pacifiers have deserted their posts, her baby nail clippers are AWOL, and somewhere there are at least 3 missing baby socks! Add to this list the bottle we left at a restaurant the other day and several toy "links" that I am positive are here in the house somewhere and you get a recipe for driving me crazy! If things are bad now, I can only imagine how they will get once Hannah becomes mobile!

Lately Hannah has been having a bit of a rocky sleep schedule. Now most parents would probably wonder why I even worry, but Hannah is such a good sleeper and thrives so much on her schedule that I always worry when things get a little off. She's been falling asleep earlier and earlier in the evening and we had been having to wake her for her final bottle and diaper change before bed. Then after her last bottle she's been having a hard time settling down to sleep and has been crying when we put her down to sleep or waking up after a few minutes and crying until we rock her back to sleep. So, last night we decided to try giving her her last bottle a half an hour earlier and trying to keep her awake just a little bit longer so that she's really sleepy when we put her to bed. It seemed to work last night so hopefully it wasn't just a fluke and things will continue to run smoothly.

Hannah continues to enjoy her play gym more and more. Lately she's been getting a kick out of (no pun intended) swinging her legs up and grabbing her feet and then using them both together to kick the toys. It's pretty cute to watch. She continues to grow stronger and stronger and her head and trunk control has improved drastically in the last week. She's sitting up much better with her boppy and can sit by herself propped up against the back of the couch or a chair almost indefinitely.

Her hair is growing so long that it's almost ridiculous. It's constantly getting caught in the Velcro on her bibs or snaps on her shirt. Her bangs are now officially in her eyes and she appears to have a mullet! I've noticed that it seems like it is getting thicker as well. It's still not quite long enough everywhere for me to get it up into one of those Pebbles Flintstone pony tails, but it is definitely long enough for barrettes. The problem with that is that Hannah likes to play with her hair so much that she pulls the barrettes right out and I"m afraid she will put them into her mouth and choke.

Yesterday we had our first baby spit up incident in public. Kyle and I were out to eat and Hannah had finished her bottle and was sitting happily on my lap while I ate. Out of the blue I felt my pants getting wet. Hannah had spit up a massive amount of her bottle. She managed to not get a single drop of it on her bib, but instead deposited it all on both of our blue jeans! YUCK! I hate wet jeans. Of course I had an extra shirt for myself in the diaper bag should something like this ever happen, but not an extra pair of pants! Really, what were the odds that I'd get baby puke on my pants and not my shirt? Hannah sure does like to keep us on our toes!

Of course she is still growing like crazy! We think she's grown another 1/4 inch and is now at 25 1/2 inches long. We don't know how much she weighs, but it's getting harder and harder to carry her around in her infant car seat and we've removed all of the head supports now because she is just too big. The other day Kyle noticed that most of her 0-3 month onesies, stretchy as they are, are getting too tight and difficult to snap. I've also had to retire 2 more 3-6 month sleepers (the more stretchy ones) in the past week. The other thing I have noticed is that her arms are getting longer. She has several 0-3 month and 3-6 month long sleeved onesies (which I absolutely love by the way!) that although they aren't too tight and will still snap are turning into 3/4 sleeved onesies instead of long sleeved! Right now I"m still having her wear them and I just layer something over the top of them since she really doesn't have many 6-9 month or 12 month long sleeved onesies, but soon I'm not going to be able to do even that because the arms are also getting tight. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find many long sleeved onesies. Occasionally I'll find a single one at a specialty store like Old Navy or The Children's Place, but I haven't found any packs of them yet. I don't really want to buy them one at a time b/c they cost more that way, but I may have to start since companies don't seem to want to package them. It seems like everywhere wants to just sell long sleeved shirts. I have nothing against long sleeved shirts, but I really like the long sleeved onesies because they don't ride up when I pick Hannah up or when she wiggles around. As cold as it's been I want to make sure she stays as warm as possible.

Here are some more Hananh videos. Just click on the links to watch them.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-140372765346280036&hl=en


http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-140372765346280036&hl=en

We have a cat?

Hannah realized for the first time yesterday that we have a cat. I was talking on the telephone with Mike, Hannah's birthfather, and Hannah was sitting on my lap when all of a sudden I noticed that Hannah was giggling. I looked down and saw her petting Sadie, one of our cats! Hannah was reaching out and rubbing Sadie's fur and Sadie was in turn rubbing her face up against Hannah's hand. Hannah must have liked the softness of Sadie's fur because she kept on reaching out and touching her and then giggling. The two of them were at it for several minutes. For the rest of the day, every time Hannah saw Sadie her eyes locked onto her and she reached out for her if she was close. On several other occasions she ended up petting the cat again. Even today she reached out for Sadie when Sadie walked by. It looks like I will need to be getting Hannah one of those look and feel board books if she is that interested in textures. Yesterday I was also able to talk to Tiffany, Hannah's birthmom. We had a nice chat and talked about coordinating our schedules to get together sometime before the holidays get too busy. We are hoping to get all the kids' pictures taken together if possible. I think it would be really nice for Hannah to have a picture of herself with her siblings.

Here is another video we have of Hannah being cute. Just click on the link to see the video. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3127997354669683269

The first picture is of Hannah petting Sadie. The second one is of Hannah sleeping in her Super Buddha pose in one of her new 6-12 month outfits from Billie Jo.

Accidental Rollover

My little girl accomplished a big thing today! Hannah rolled over from her belly to her back twice today!!!!! Both times were accidental, but still she was able to do it. She had spent most of the day awake and cranky so around 1:00 I put her down for some tummy time to try to wear her out. She was NOT pleased with my choice of activities and started thrashing about with her arms and legs. While thrashing she managed to push herself over onto her back. Afterwards she got real quiet and was glancing all around her like she was paranoid or something! I think she really surprised herself! I was so excited about this new trick that I rolled her right back over onto her tummy and after some more screaming and flailing she managed to flip herself over again! Of course I didn't have the video camera out since I didn't expect anything exciting because she was so tired and cranky! That'll teach me I guess!

Another new trick she taught herself today was how to kick her foot outside of the toy bar on her bouncer and prop it up on the bar like someone putting their feet up on a coffee table. When I saw her like that I thought, "Oh no, she's stuck," and I put her foot back where it belonged. She immediately lifted her foot back around the bar and propped it back up and then gave me a dirty look as if to say, "hey! I was comfy like that!"

We survived our first overnight trip with Hannah. Things really weren't too bad. Really the hardest part about the whole thing was the drive there and back. The carseat has lost its magic sleep inducing powers and Hannah was awake and wanting to be entertained most of the 2 hours there and 2 hours back. Her turtle kept her entertained for part of the time, but of course she kept knocking it out of her reach. So, I spent a good portion of both trips turned around in my seat, hanging over the back fetching the turtle. Both Kyle and Hannah found this highly amusing, but I did not see the humor in the situation. Finally on the way home it got so bad that Kyle had to pull over and I had to sit in the back with Hannah. The little stinker stopped fussing immediately and didn't knock her turtle out of reach the rest of the way home! In fact, she decided that it might be a nice time for a nap!

Video Post

Well, I finally found a better way to post videos. I'll try to keep posting them from time to time. Just click on the links and they will take you straight to the video clips.


http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6452816167477752366

Here is a video of Hannah in the play gym that Ken and Amanda gave her.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6190874609090764054

Here is a video of Hannah when she was only about a month old. She loves to have her face blown on.

3 Months Old

Tomorrow Hannah will officially be 3 months old. She is getting to be such a big girl! She is so curious and happy. She brightens my every day! Today she had breakfast with her friend Evelyn at Panearas and then went to JC Pennys to get her 3 month pictures taken. Of course she looked adorable and I can't wait to get them back so that I can post them on here.

Hannah has accomplished quite a bit since I last posted. Her biggest thing is that now toys are VERY interesting. She swats at them with her hands and kicks at them with her feet when they are dangled above her. She reaches for and grabs toys that are held in front of her on the first try and plays with and chews on them for quite awhile before she loses interest. She LOVES her play gym now and will play in it happily by herself for over a half hour! The other day she was kicking at the ball on her gym and she kicked so hard it came off its velcro strap and flew across the room. I have some video of her in her play gym that I will try to post on here in the next week. She's decided lately that games are quite fun and enjoys playing patty-cake and peak-a-boo with both Mom and Dad. Rolling over is another skill that she is working hard to master. I've had several people tell me that she won't do it for quite awhile yet, but they haven't seen her at it. She's so close she can taste it and it frustrates her to no end. Apparently going from your tummy to your back is easier, but she has no interest at all in learning how to do that. She wants to roll from her back to her tummy and she's almost done it multiple times now. She gets about 3/4 of the way over and teeters there for a minute before her heavy legs get the better of her and she flops back over! It's quite comical to watch, but as I said if you leave her at it too long she gets REALLY MAD! The struggle for tummy time is over and now I actually think she enjoys it. She's also doing much better at sitting up although she'll still fall over if she gets too excited and turns her head too fast.

Hannah and Kyle teamed up together this year for my birthday present. They made me a really cool book titled Mommy and Me that has a little story and a bunch of pictures of Hannah and I. I loved it! It made me cry it was so sweet!

The other day I got the notion to play dress up with Hannah to see if she had grown into any new clothes (and she had!) and while I was at it I decided to try her Squirt Halloween costume on her. For those of you who don't know, before Hannah was born and actually before we were even matched with Tiffany and Mike, an extremely nice woman who adopted her son through the same agency that we adopted Hannah through was looking at our website and saw the pictures I had posted of our nursery. Since we had a Finding Nemo theme, she mailed me the Squirt costume that her son wore for Halloween last year. She was so sweet! I offered to buy it from her or at the very least pay the postage, but she wouldn't let me. She said she just wanted pictures of Hannah in the costume in her nursery. Well, the costume is a 12 month size and is quite large. Anyway, I wanted to see just how big on Hannah it was since she is growing so quickly and has been able to wear some things that we were sure she wouldn't be in for another 6 months at least. By the time I got around to the costume Hannah was starting to get tired of being dressed and undressed, but she was a good sport about it and let me dress her up one more time. I managed to snap a few shots of her in the costume, but it is quite apparent from the photos that although she isn't screaming she is definitely not happy with the situation. To make things worse, I got a little greedy and decided that I wanted a picture of her doing tummy time in the outfit that way I could see the turtle's shell and eyes. Well that was just too much for poor Hannah and she let me have it. Such a screaming fit I had never been able to capture on film before. I just couldn't resist taking one final picture of her! I'm such a mean mom! :P

Tomorrow we are taking Hannah on her first overnight trip and hotel stay. We are going to Terre Haute for Rose Hulman's homecoming. I have absolutely no idea what and how much to pack for her. There's just no way to average or guess how many diapers or outfits she might go through in a day and a half. Some days she has 6 dirty diapers (one for each feeding), but others she has 12! Sometimes she dirties 3 or more before I even get her off the changing table for the first one! The same goes for outfits. It seems like most days she makes it through the day in the same outfit that I put on her when she wakes up and then has one sleeper as PJs for the night, but other days she may go through 4 or more outfits during the day and 2-3 sleepers in the evening/night. The record (not counting the 2 weeks she was in the hospital) is 8 outfits and 2 sleepers in one 24 hour period! Thankfully that doesn't happen often, but it is a possibility and I don't want to be stuck with no clean clothes for my little girl. This trip is going to be a test run for our trip back to PA for Thanksgiving. We will be gone 9 days and it's practically impossible to know how many outfits, diapers, wash cloths, wipes, formula, burp cloths, etc to take with us. We could fill our entire car just with Hannah's stuff for the week, but of course we have to leave room for Kyle and I to sit and a small place to store our luggage as well! It should be an interesting adventure. What might normally be a 12 hour drive will most likely take closer to 18 and we will be without our bouncer, mobile, and swing which we have come to rely on as our saviors. We will also have to most likely have to boil bottles everyday and do laundry at least once during the trip at various people's homes that haven't had babies around in years. Like I said it should be interesting and will definitely be one for the memory books I imagine.

Just a few more Hannah updates before I wrap this post up. Thursday Hannah received yet another package in the mail. I honestly didn't think there was anyone left that could possibly send her a gift, but I was wrong. Hannah is totally spoiled rotten! We have recieved more packages in the mail in the 3 months since Hannah's birth than I have recieved my entire life! We know so many wonderful and generous people. Thank you all! This time it was Jay and Leah, our friends who recently moved back to Canada, who sent her a book called Hannah and the Seven Dresses. It is quite cute and I'm sure it will become a favorite of hers since what little girl doesn't like being the star of a book. It's very exciting as a little kid to hear your name read as part of a story. I remember my mom having some books made with me and my cousin Billie Jo as the main characters and I LOVED them. Thanks Jay and Leah!

Backing up just a little big further, Wednesday morning I woke up at around 5:00 am to the sound of Kyle and Hannah singing in the nursery. They were belting out Clemintine and various other kids songs as loud as they could. First, I just turned off the baby monitor hoping that would do the trick. When it didn't, I had to resort to putting my pillow over my head to get back to sleep. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not really complaining. I know how incredibly lucky I am to have a husband who gets up at 5:00 am to feed the baby and who will sing silly songs to her before he has to go to work, but it is very hard to get to sleep listening to a song about a miners daughter who drowns because her lover is too scared to swim out and save her and whose father then goes into a depression and kills himself to be with her and then they both end up fertilizing flowers while the lover runs off with the sister! And this is a children's song! That brings me to another point. Have you ever actually listened to and thought about the words to the classic children's songs? They are awful. There are songs about jilted lovers, suicide, drunken monkeys, death, vomit, and other gross bodily functions. Whoever first decided these songs ought to be sung to impressionable children must have been crazy! If you don't believe me, go to http://niehs.nih.gov/kids/music.htm#index and read the lyrics to some of your favorites and some you remember listening to as a kid and I'm sure you begin to see the pattern.

There She Grows Again!

Hannah has officially decided that she no longer wants to be a little girl. She has been taking every opportunity she can get to sleep and consequently grow. At her 2 month check-up she measured 23 1/4 inches. That appointment was on September 9th. It is now September 25th and when Kyle and I measured her two nights ago she was 25 1/4 inches long! We measured 4 times to be sure we weren't screwing up some how! 2 inches in less than a month is absolutely rediculus in my book. I had to pull out some of her 6-9 month clothes last night for her to wear. We had a fashion show/see what fits party in her room last night and I cycled out several 0-3 month and 3-6 month outfits and cycled in just as many 6-9 month outfits! This is crazy! My little girl isn't even 3 months old yet. She's not supposed to be wearing 6-9 month clothes.

The difference in sizing in baby clothes does drive me crazy however. I think it just may be worse than the sizing in women's clothes. I held up a pair of 0-3 month pants that Hannah has that she can still wear (they are getting tight and bit on the shorter side though!) in front of a pair of 3-6 month pants that I just bought her the other day and they were almost identical in size (both the waist and length) so I took the new 3-6 month pair of pants back since I didn't figure she'd get to wear them long enough to justify buying them. Too bad though because they were really cute pants and they were even on clearance :( Then I held up a different pair of 0-3 month pants that she has that fit her just right with some room to grow next to a pair of 6-9 month pants that Myrna bought her and they were exactly the same size! As a result, those 6-9 month pants are now in the rotation . Then I held up 2 different pairs of 6-9 month pants next to each other and one pair fits her a little bit baggy with a decent amount to grow into and the other pair is like 2 inches long and the waist comes up almost to her arm pits! It's so weird!

I have decided after this latest clothing adventure that I'm not buying her anything anymore that is smaller than 6-9 months unless I want her to be able to wear it the very day that I buy it and am willing for it to be questionable how much longer she will get to wear it. One of the weirdest things I think is that almost every single onesie she has (0-3m, 3-6m, and 6-9m) fits her well regardless of the size. I think I have only had to retire 3 onesies (all from the same pack) since she has been born. They fit her really well right when she was born and she grew out of them just before her last doctor's appointment.

Heather and Billie came to visit Hannah today. It was Billie's first time to meet Hannah. Billie couldn't believe how big she is. I should have told her "welcome to the club!" They both brought Hannah some more new clothes. Thankfully they are all at least 6-9 month sizes so she should hopefully be able to wear them for awhile! Let's hope so at least. Billie has now caught the baby bug and wants another little one. Hannah tends to do that to people. It's not fair really though because Hannah is so not the typical baby. I think she gives people a false impression on what parenting is like. It's like false advertising! She even makes people who have already raised their kids forget how hard having an infant was. She's like that kid that everyone hates in school who throws off the curve and makes all the other people look bad!

Well, I've been trying to post more pictures on here for two days now and blogger just won't let me. I promise to try to get some of them up on the next post.

Super Buddha

There are lots of Hannah updates today so I hope I don't forget anything! First I'll start with the title of the post since you are probably wondering already what on earth I was talking about. Super Buddha is what Kyle and I call Hannah's favorite sleeping position. I'll post a picture of it so that you can see what I'm talking about. She sleeps with the soles of her feet turned in towards each other (oftentimes touching) and her arms straight up past her head. We've noticed several variations of the Super Buddha pose such as Egyptian Buddha, Airplane Buddha, Buzz Lightyear Buddha, and many others. I'm going to attempt to capture a photo of each pose over the next few weeks and will make a photo post of them all for your viewing pleasure!

Another interesting thing we have noticed is that Hannah has a favorite toy on her mobile. This fact is quite evident as I've watched her several times and it's always the same. When I pointed it out to Kyle he saw it too. One day I was watching Hannah in her crib watching her mobile very intently. Every so often she would become very active and squeal with delight. Then she would grow anxious and start turning her head from side to side. As I watched I began to realize that this was a pattern that was recurring at set intervals. I studied her actions a little more closely and realized that she would become excited when the toy with a big orange smiley face on it would pass through her vision and then she would become anxious and begin looking for it once it was out of her range of vision. She would continue her search until the smiley appeared again and then she would get excited all over again! I'll try to post a picture of her favorite on here as well.

Wednesday, Hannah and I went shopping for her winter clothes with my friend Sarah and Hannah's buddy Evelyn. We ended up having quite the adventure. Poor Evelyn had some digestive disturbances while we were shopping and we had to make an emergency pit stop in the Macy's restroom for new clothes and a sponge bath! Hannah even had to let Evelyn borrow one of her bibs. Evelyn and Hannah seemed to get a kick out of watching Sarah and I scramble around cleaning up baby poop and searching for clean clothes and Sarah and I just had to laugh at our luck. During that shopping trip I bought Hannah a winter sleep sack. It was size 0-9 months and was huge. Well, last night Kyle put it on her at bedtime and when I came in to tell Hannah good night I noticed that her feet were all the way at the end of the sack already! The little stinker is doing it again! She's growing out of brand new clothes right after I finally take the tags off of them. That sleep sack was supposed to last her all winter! I don't think we can afford another growth spurt like this!

We also discovered this week that Hannah is officially teething. She had been showing the telltale signs for about a week (drooling, fussy, low grade fever on and off, chewing on everything) but Wednesday night we examined her mouth and we can actually see her bottom front 2 teeth just below the skin. I really hope they just go ahead and pop on through soon because this extra fussiness is for the birds. Last night the only thing that would soothe her was a cold wet wash cloth for her to chew on.

This weekend we also have a visit planned with Mike. It will be the first time he has been able to come visit us at the house. He got to visit Hannah once while she was in the hospital here in Lafayette, but this visit should be nice because we won't have nurses and doctors running in and out.

The final Hannah update is that we finally have Hannah's finalization date! On October 19th Hannah will officially become a legal Spontak! :) We have one more post placement visit on Wednesday and then our court date on the 19th is all that is left. It will be so wonderful to finally have all that paperwork completed and be done with the whole process. It was a long broken road to Hannah, but it has all been worth it. When I look at my little girl I can't even imagine how my life would have ever been complete without her. She was meant to be ours before we ever knew that our children would come to us through adoption and now I can't think of anything that could have been more perfect.

Official 2 Months Pictures!

Here are Hannah's official 2 months pictures. Our favorites are the ones in the hoodie. In case anyone cares, her outifit is entirely Old Navy fashions courtesy of Auntie Heather! :)

Pictures From Visit

Here are some of the pictures I took during Tiffany's visit. The first is Kayla and Hannah and of course the 2nd is Tiffany and Hannah. The 3rd is Tiffany's mom and Chase with Hannah. The last is Tiffany's brother with Hannah.

Visit with Tiffany

Hannah got to visit with Tiffany and her family yesterday. They all came up for lunch and a visit so our house was quite full. All together it was Tiffany, Chase, Kayla (the twins), Donna (Tiffany's mom), and Robert (Tiffany's brother). With 8 people in our house (including 2 3 year-olds) it sure seemed really small! Chase and Kayla are both very active (especially Chase) so a good portion of the visit was made up of running around after them making sure they didn't escape into the street or terrorize the pets too much! :) Tiffany brought some baby pictures of her and it was amazing how much like Tiffany Hannah looks like. Interestingly enough, I was just looking at some of my old baby pictures and Hannah also looks an awful lot like me! They brought us a framed picture of Hannah from when she was born that had the caption, "I asked God for a miracle and He gave me you." It was very sweet of them. Tiffany also filled out the pregnancy pages of Hannah's baby book. I had bought a baby book at Halmark that had removable pages that could be taken out in the case of an adoption and replaced with adoption specific pages. Since we have a close relationship with Tiffany I asked her to fill out the pregnancy pages for Hannah so that she could have both. After they all left, I read what Tiffany had wrote on Hannah's pages and it made me cry. She said that after the first time she spoke with me on the phone she knew she had chosen the perfect parents.

Sunday was the culmination of a long week for Hannah, Kyle, and I. Because Kyle has had to work late hours at work all week I've felt a bit like a single parent and I must say that I have no idea how they do it! Spending this week all by myself with Hannah with no breaks made it a bit easier for me to know how Tiffany must feel and understand how she was able to make the decision to place Hannah with us. I'm sure it was very hard for her, but she knew the realities of being a single parent and knew that adding an infant would make things even harder. Hopefully this week will be a bit more normal and we can all have a bit of a rest before Mike drops by next weekend.

I tried to post some pictures of Tiffany's visit, but for some reason Blogger doesn't like them. I'll try to post those pictures on the next update.

Getting Stronger

Well Hannah got to meet her Grandpa Barney on Sunday for the first time. He says he wants to be called Pap which is fine with us. He and Mindy brought Hannah an Ohio State blanket. Barney is trying to train her early I guess! Hannah is finally starting to get back to normal after her shots. This morning she didn't have a fever which made my day. Fortunately for me, when she did have a fever she loved the baby Tylenol. I don't know what I would have done on Saturday trying to give her medicine for the first time all by myself if she hadn't of liked it. It was stressful enough as it was. I sure didn't need her spitting it out or gagging!

Hannah is getting so much stronger every day that it's unbelievable. She's able to sit upright for much longer periods with only the boppy pillow for support (it comes up just past her pants when she's sitting) and actually seems to prefer sitting upright as opposed to laying down. Sometimes she gets fussy if I get tired of helping her sit up and lay her down if she's not ready to be done looking at things! Tummy time is also getting more fun. Yesterday she had tummy time in her play gym and actually reached out in front of her for the toys that were hanging from the wedge. Today when I put her down for tummy time she immediately pushed up on her forearms and lifted her head and chest right off the floor and held it there for 4 minutes! I checked the clock! While up there she looked around, smiled at me, cooed, and tracked toys I was moving around with her entire head! I was so proud of her! :) She's also trying to sit up on her own now when she's in a reclined position and reach for toys that are held in front of her. Today I had her propped up on our bed with some pillows while I folded clothes and she tried to sit up with so much force that she got her head, shoulders, and upper back up off the pillows several inches and held it there for a few seconds before falling back against the pillows. Then she got the idea to use the pillows kind of like her bouncer and then starting trying to bounce her way up! Later on in the day she did the same thing while in her bouncer! I don't think it will be long before she's sitting up. The one thing she is not doing yet that I fully expected her to already have mastered is rolling over. From the time we brought her home from Wishard she has been able to roll herself up onto her side and stay there, but she still hasn't even really attempted (not that I've noticed anyway) to try to roll herself from her back to her belly or from her belly to her back. I can't wait for this stage to start though. It should be fun.

Another funny thing we have noticed about her personality is that although she loves her baths, she hates getting out and getting dressed afterwards. Well, she got a baby bathrobe at one of her showers and Kyle has discovered that if we can get her into that bathrobe as soon as she is out of the tub we can (as Kyle puts it) ride the happy wave for a bit longer. It's a bit of a pain to get a wet, slippery baby into the sleeves of the robe, but it's well worth the effort. The payoff is continued giggles and smiles instead of 15 or more minutes of screaming. Then once she's all dried and has forgotten about the bath, we can put her real clothes on her without a fight. Plus, she does look awfully adorable in the robe. Now all she needs is pink fuzzy slippers to go with it and some curlers for her hair. Her great grandma was saying on Saturday that she has enough hair to get a perm! :)

Well, that's all the Hannah updates I have for today. I'm going to try to post some pictures of her visit with Barney and Mindy and a cute picture I have of her in her bathrobe.

Two Months Old

Hannah is now officially two months old. On Wednesday she went to get her two month pictures at JC Pennys and today she had her two month check-up and vaccinations. She weighed in at 12 lbs 13 oz and was 23 1/4 inches long! She's now in the 88th percentile for height and the 95th percentile for weight and the 90th percentile for head circumference. The doctor says she's doing great and there's no need to be concerned about the height/weight discrepancy. He said the formula she is on is most likely making her gain more weight b/c the rice starch adds calories. Apparently she should level back out once she starts table food.

I thought that it would be no big deal seeing Hannah get her shots after having to watch her get a lumbar puncture, but my heart still bled as she screamed bloody murder each time they poked her and there was nothing I could do about it. It turns out that Hannah is one of those babies that is negatively affected by her shots. The entire rest of the day she was fussy, lethargic, had no appetite, and ran a temperature of 100.5 degrees Farenheit. It was so sad for me to see my little girl not acting like herself. :( Eventually she started to perk up a bit right before bedtime so hopefully she'll be back to her normal bubbly self tomorrow.

Tomorrow she gets to go to her first ever Mendenhall Bean Supper. That should be fun and exciting. She'll get to see her Great Grandma Clodfelter again and hopefully her Grandpa Clodfelter will be there too. On Sunday she will get to meet her Grandpa Barney and Mindy for the first time. Everyone keep their fingers crossed that she makes a good first impression!

As soon as I get her JC Penny's pictures back I'll post the official 2 month pictures. In the mean time, enjoy all the unofficial pictures of my big girl! The last picture of her in her swing is her looking pitiful after her shots. :( Even when she's sick she's cute!

Labor Day Weekend

Hannah had quite the busy Labor Day weekend. She had a visit from her Uncle Kevin and Emily, she went on a six mile walk with Mom and Dad in her stroller, got to have a picnic at the park, and ate outside on the deck with Mom and Dad in the nice weather. Hannah also has a busy week coming up. Tomorrow she turns 2 months old and gets her picture taken at JC Pennys and gets to hang out with her buddy Evelyn. Thursday she gets to go on a walk with Kristie and Friday she has her big 2 month check-up with her doctor and gets her first round of shots!

Her newest trick has been growing like crazy. I finally got all of her new clothes washed and put away and some of them she has almost outgrown already! She's now officially out of 0-3 month clothing and is almost out of 3-6 month sleepers! 3-6 month clothes without feet are ok. She's outgrown her 0-3 month socks and her 3-6 month socks and is now wearing 6-12 month socks! This girl has some BIG feet! She's been wearing lots of pants the past week since it's been nice and cool here and she looks oh so cute in her outfits. She's also had several occasions to wear her Old Navy hooded jacket that Aunt Heather gave her and she looks mighty cute in that too! I'm not sure how much longer that jacket is going to last her so I bought her a 6-9 month jacket at Walmart the other day so that I have something on hand when she finally does grow out of it. I am anxious to find out how much she weighs now and how long she is at her doctor's appointment.

Today I tried propping her up with her boppy pillow and she was able to sit up assisted by that for about 20 seconds. Her head is plenty steady now and she's raising her head and chest off of the floor during tummy time. She really enjoys being outdoors and will even sit in her bouncer on the deck while Kyle and I relax. Yesterday we finally got her a swing and so far she loves it. She is mesmerized by the floating fish that hang above it. This weekend she also moved up to taking 5 oz of formula at a time and has been downing the bottles like a pro. This switch necessitated us buying new bottles because our old bottles only held 4 oz.