First Halloween!

Hanna Lu spent her first Halloween at home with her daddy, recuperating from her cold which is still hanging around.

We had some time dressing up as the crazy monkey that she is and then hopefully she'll get some solid rest tonight and be on the road to an even more solid recovery.

Happy Halloween folks!

32 weeks!

Only 20 more of these updates to go! Tonight we're pretending there's not a nerve-wracking World Series game on right now and focus on this little girl! This was a fun week! Hanna Lu is...

A serious one because our Giants cause us consternation.

• Hopefully feeling much better after getting over her first cold. She sidestepped a high fever which one of her little peers got {I work with the moms of two of Hanna's "classmates"}.
• But is maybe teething again? We see/feel nothing up top {which is supposed to be where the next ones come in} but there's the drool like before and she's majorly into chewing on things like before too, not to mentioned some disturbed sleep and fussiness...
• Is eating a bit less...womp womp. I was thinking maybe she wasn't super hungry after her cold but who ever knows with this baby and her eating. I do know that milk comes home with her each day. But, she is still enjoying eating actual food; sweet potatoes are the favorite though this week she's been really into bell pepper and cucumber. We'll have some more chicken later this week hopefully as well as some toast and perhaps a bit of yogurt. The "puffs" I give her are very appreciated as well.
• Is now a tummy bather -who does that??- she starts sitting and then I put her on her back to get her cleaned up a bit more. This lasts for less than a minute before she turns right over to splash and crawl around. we're not a fan of this since it's too slippery for her to stay steady but goodness gracious she's not happy to be put back on her back. The other big problem of this whole "on the tummy" thing is that she'll open her mouth and dip down, letting the water get in and she laps it up. 
• Isn't moving quite as quickly with her crawling because she's trying too hard to get up on her feet {which creates a bit of a downward facing dog pose} or bending one leg and kinda trying to sit.
• Skipped her late afternoon nap tonight and was a WRECK at bedtime...it's kind of a rush to pick her up and get home so she can rest a bit {in bed by 5-ish}; she'll sleep for about an hour and then we do the whole bedtime routine. Apparently this nap helps!
• LOVED cheering on her daddy while he ran his marathon on Sunday.

Thank you auntie Becs for these pictures!!!

         Hanna Lu really liked watching the runners zoom past her.

          And giving daddy some love. 

• Went to the pumpkin patch for the first time and also really enjoyed it; this kid is pretty observant and likes looking around at everything and everyone. 

"

"Lemme at that llama."

         The "farm" animals were a high point of the afternoon for her. I say "farm"    
         because are llamas really farm animals?

• Got to meet her loving auntie Becs; this was so special.
• Is a crazy handful, especially if she's tired, but we're so enamored of this kid. 

xoxo, natty ♥

Run Daddy, run!

To cap off an amazing visit with Rebecca, we spent the first part of today cheering on my sweet husband through 26.2 miles.

Look at that cool jacket he snagged post-race!

Despite being sick he rocked this marathon and Hanna Lu and I {& a bunch of other people} are immensely proud of this tough man; we love you sweetie/daddy!
xoxo, natty ♥

Great pumpkins!

Rebecca and I took baby Lu to get a pumpkin today.

It was a beautiful day and our little girl loved the orange everywhere.

And the feel of the pumpkins.

Mostly, though, she really loved the llama {or alpaca?}.

What a gorgeous day!xoxo, natty ♥

31 weeks!

Somehow I got sicker than the baby did and I'm jotting this down before heading to urgent care for, hopefully, some antibiotics. In other and lighter news...

• Is getting over her first full-blown cold; there were/are some rough nights but she's been pretty happy during the day. Just snotty.
• Hates getting her snot cleared out. We have this sucker thing and she cringes when she sees me coming towards her with it and is maybe eying me a bit suspiciously while daddy hasn't done any of it so he's the good guy. 
• Is babbling; we hear lots of "dadada" and I heard a "y" tacked onto the end of it the other day, there are some "la"s and "ba"s in there too, as well as "ghee"s.
• Is crawling everywhere, most specifically to our bookshelf. It's still an army crawl though her legs are kind of doing the crawling motion now. She also does this thing where she moves herself with her arms/hands and kind of pops up her back half. She has also taken to getting up on her feet while her hands are holding her up; kind of a downward facing dog yoga pose and it looks almost like she's trying to stand up.
• Is enjoying more and more food; sweet potatoes are still the favorite, broccoli is not a favorite, she tried peas tonight {I mashed up each one a bit to avoid the choking fear}, and she still loves her oatmeal. We may try water in a sippy cup in the next week.
• Is a handful; she figured out rolling over and trying to crawl in the bath yesterday...another bath time activity the baby discovered? We're practicing sitting in the bath and last night she was leaning forward, holding herself up with her hands and getting her face close to the water...and I realized she was lapping it up like a dog.
• Finds Guinness the dog hilarious; if I can get him to put his front paws up on her stroller while she's in it we get a nice belly laugh.
• Loves playing with board books; that's a good start, right?!!
• Is very observant and watches everything and everyone...I think she picks up on emotions pretty well for her little age, but I could be imagining it; she might not smile as much if we're talking in a more serious tone.
• We're loving this kid and can't wait for aunt Rebecca to meet her later this week!!!

xoxo, natty ♥

Food glorious food.

We're diving into eating real food while still primarily drinking milk.

Roasted yams and carrot with cinnamon.

So far, beyond baby oatmeal and rice cereal: sweet potatoes, banana, avocado, chicken, a waffle, a piece of toast, roasted carrots. Though it's still quite messy, baby seems to really enjoy playing with the food, though it's all in an eating manner - she gets it in her mouth, gnaws on it, and might swallow it. There will be plenty more on the menu in the coming weeks!

Seven months.

We are on our own this weekend {help!} while Michael is out of town at a wedding...so let's see what this past month has brought us.

Not the clearest picture but none of the ones I took today were lacking blurriness; this baby loves to move! And shout! And squeal!! And kick her legs!!

How old: seven months.

Weight: maybe somewhere near 17 pounds? She was about 16 a month ago and scale visits here at home have shown not a whole lot of growth, though our scale can be erratic and  she certainly feels heavier to me so maybe around 17 is what I’ll say.

Likes:

• People; Hanna Lu is almost always enthralled with the other people who ride the elevator with us and is totally impressed by any other small child…so observant!
• Sweet potatoes!
• Her oatmeal, mixed with milk though tonight she had it with water since there was no milk on hand {I had frozen everything that was in the fridge}.
• Crawling! This kid is everywhere…she’s showing signs of maybe wanting to pull herself up but for now she’s army crawling all over the place. She gets up on her hands and knees all the time and can even move a few paces this way but she hasn’t quite perfected it. Sometimes she sticks up her bum when she’s on her hands and knees. Hanna will also be on her hands and knees and kind of go down/turn to one side which puts her legs in this funny position but she does it when she wants to sit a bit and look at/play with something.
• Sticking thing in her mouth. This past week she started getting her fist in there but in a funny back and forth in/out sort of way which makes a really cute “blaaabba blaabba” sound.
• Creaking like an old door and babbling {dadadadadada…}.
• Playing in her toy/play area {& she just recently starting trying to pull up and chew on the edges of the alphabet/number mat…but when she wants attention from us she starts crawling towards us.
• She still enjoys hanging out in her exersaucer but for shorter periods of time since she really loves moving around on the floor.
• Guinness the dog; he can elicit a laugh basically by just walking past her. She also appreciates grabbing onto his fur but we try to circumvent that behavior.
• Her new crib. We help her get into a standing position while holding onto the railing and she loves that vantage point. It’s got a much softer mattress than her pack n’ play and her sleep hasn’t changed, though it hasn’t been stellar since returning from California anyway.
• Our building’s play room; there’s not much for her age but there are some toys and when we take her there she makes a hilarious series of breathy-oh-my-gosh-so-much-to-see noises.
• Other kids; being at daycare has really fueled this. On the swings yesterday Hanna was staring at the toddler next to her…what a creepy stalker baby!
• And her new daycare; woo hoo! This new lady is super warm and bubbly and Hanna Lu seems to really enjoy her which makes me feel good.
• Swinging! Hanna’s grandma and Zaide took her to the park on their last visit and we went again yesterday so the kid doesn’t have much swing experience but gosh golly she was THRILLED with it last night.
• Grab-scratching onto things; my chest, the couch, my face, her dad’s face, our arms…so mostly her parents’ bodies? This is painful with her little talons.

Dislikes:

• Getting her nose cleared out; we’ve had a bit of congestion here today and this morning she couldn’t eat because she couldn’t breathe from her nose so I used the thing we have to clear out congestion. It wasn’t the first time but it was the first time she really needed it {& still does, she totally sounds gooped up still} and Hanna Lu is not happy afterwards.
• When daddy gets her dressed; she seems to scream just for him – she doesn’t love the process but little bit makes it much harder on her daddy.
• Teething; we had a rough weekend last week before chomper number two made its appearance; this weekend has been better so far but for the unrelated congestion.

Milestones:

• Can sit unassisted though topples over if she gets excited and moves too much.
• Has taken some baths sitting up!
• Has teeth!

Sleep and eat:

• Sleeping has struggled a bit in the past two weeks thanks to our cross-country trip, teething, and the recent snottyness…still not too bad {one to two night wakings} in a 12 hour period but not as good as before. Still, we can’t complain.
• Hanna still eats/drinks mostly milk but will have oatmeal two to three times a day and one or two “meals” {along with the oatmeal} of food – roasted  veggies, banana, avocado, plain roasted chicken breast, and toast are all things she has enjoyed so far. I’m having some trouble coming up with more food to give her since we’re not really doing purees. The whole “Baby Led Weaning” {“weaning” meaning “to eat food other than breastmilk/formula” rather than wean off of milk completely} touts just giving baby what we’re eating but we never have enough left overs and it seems a bit much for her so young, though tons of people do it so we’ll see. Up new for this week: cucumbers {raw and in spears} and butternut squash {roasted and in spears}.
• The babe is still a difficult milk drinker. At her six-month appointment I asked about a possible posterior tongue tie. Weeks and weeks of a baby who doesn’t love eating/drinking and daycare providers who ask about it and I’m much more resigned to our lot with this infant but still super curious and sometime in August I started to wonder about a tongue tie, though I can’t remember what prompted that. Hanna’s pediatrician checked it out and said there might be but gave us a referral to an ENT person for little humans. Each time I call to make an appointment, though, no one answers and none of my messages have been returned. Lame. The baby seems to enjoy eating food just fine but if we plan to nurse/bottle feed until at least a year old that’s still a good chunk of time and if there’s something we could do to make the process easier, oh my goodness I’d be all for it. There’s been nothing quite as frustrating in my life as when the baby doesn’t want to eat.

Miscellaneous:

• We had a great time visiting California very briefly which made us only that much more excited about going home for Christmas to visit both the Golden State and Arizona; we certainly miss our families out here.
• Hanna Lu is wearing mostly size six-month clothes, though she can fit into some three-month things {they’re just short on her}, but not many. We haven’t tried any nine-month things yet, but I have them all washed and they actually look like they’d fit her but I just haven’t attempted it.
• In disposables little miss is wearing size three and probably will for a long time, though she wears cloth diapers 100% of the time; we just did the disposables for our big trip. I haven’t decided yet if we’ll take them along at Christmas. I brought them this past summer for our long trip and two weeks feels like a long enough time to validate bringing them, even with a transfer between California and Arizona in the mix. They take up suitcase space, obviously, but I hate buying so many disposables. We also started using flushable liners in the cloth diapers which make for easier clean-up; since Hanna’s eating food now and not just milk, her dirty diapers are no longer water-soluble and need to be worked on a bit before putting them in the wash – the liners are incredible and make things really easy and since they’re biodegradable I don’t feel so guilty.
• I’ve been curious about baby shoes since I see other babies of a similar age sporting them and we have a few we got as gifts; they are all massive on her and earlier today at the mall I checked out sizes and I think our child has freakishly small feet. I’d love to get her a pair of cute little baby moccasins and the tiniest size fit her nicely but I think I should get the next size up with the assumption she’ll grow those feet at least a wee bit.

Contortions.

I love night acrobatics.

I try not to peek in on her too often since her door squeaks and we haven't WD40-d those hinges yet but I adore seeing what she's gotten herself into.

Are we adults the same?

30 weeks!

This past week flew by! So let's look at the details...

Odd angles.

• LOVES sweet potatoes/yams...and is eating more in general. In a fit of "oh, we should be getting you on food", Hanna Lu Lu has had two to three "meals" a day; each one usually has oatmeal {mixed with the milk she drinks} but before that I give her time to gnaw on/swallow a bit of whatever we have ready for her...so far she has had: plain roasted chicken breast, roasted sweet potato {and with cinnamon}, roasted carrot {a big hit, but not as big as the sweet potato}, banana {a favorite when frozen in her silicon feeder [I tossed the mesh one because it's too hard to clean the banana out of]}, a lone waffle, toast {plain}, and avocado. I don't send any food beyond the oatmeal to daycare with the babe since we're doing the whole baby-led feeding thing {no purees, just give baby a big enough chunk of the food to gum on} but maybe in a few weeks I'll ask her daycare lady about doing it this way.

• Is totally into being up on her hands and knees though the kid's legs kind of splay out when she tries to move forward as such so most of  her movement is army crawling though she does get some hand/knee movement. Hanna Lu is not content to just sit and be, she is constantly on the move. The kid shows some desire to pull herself up at times and will definitely stand up/walk if assisted. She will occasionally be OK just hanging out on her back, playing with a toy, but that happens maybe once every other day; our infant is no longer immobile. 

• Is enjoying different textures; she has always loved the scratchiness of our couch and ottoman, she's been big into grabbing onto my face and, if you will, decolletage area, and she's loving her sheepskin; 

Hiding under it is good too.

          we snagged it at Ikea last week {nude baby on sheepskin pictures coming soon, I'm sure}

• Is teething; I think I see a little white spot next to her tooth which probably {hopefully} explains the fussiness and neediness of the past few days. The aforementioned frozen banana was a huge hit which makes me think it's helping with the pain.

• Thinks Guinness is HILARIOUS. 

• Had some rough sleep this past week {waking two to three times versus the one or none we had seen before last weekend's California trip}; I'm really hoping this irons itself out. She's definitely actually hungry when she wakes up, versus just eating for a minute before falling back asleep, so perhaps there's some growth happening, or teething, or adjusting to the new crib, or trying new foods during the day,  or still getting used to being back after vacation, or being a baby...

• Is showing the development of a bit of separation anxiety; if she doesn't want to be left alone, she'll protest if we put her down in her play area...but then she calms down after less than a minute and realizes her toys are around her. She doesn't seem to mind being left at daycare or going to new people but I do notice a skeptical look on her face when we do so.

• Continued consonant sounds; "dadadadada..." is still going strong but I've heard some "la"s and just this afternoon a "ma" {at least I think so!}...this babbling is very cute.

• Is sitting up in the bath, very supervised obviously, though I'll still have her lay down at times.

• Is hilarious and our joy;we love this baby oh so much!

Something new.

We started a new daycare this week because Hanna's old daycare had to close for some random but not bad reasons. The baby seems pretty OK with her new set-up but the big issue for us is that we had to provide our own sleeping arrangement...which we didn't know until our first day.

So after a quickish trip to Ikea yesterday and some efficient building {thanks Daddy!} little Lu Lu has her very own and very first crib. The change hasn't seemed to disturb her sleep too much but it hasn't been great this week thanks to returning from our California vacation. Our computers {both of them} are having some issues so hopefully we can get some pictures of that experience posted soon too.

29 weeks.

Woah WHAT a week for little bit...let's see:

We took and left our usual quilt at daycare; a mistake not to be repeated.

• had another set of travel experiences in the air! Baby Lu is not as easy to fly with as she was; she's way more alert now and into her surroundings which makes it challenging to get her to sleep. She's super squirmy and curious about everything and doesn't want to turn off. When she did realize how tired she was, I think she was having a hard time because she normally sleeps on her tummy and obviously couldn't do so on the plane. But we made it and we're home and hopefully the time difference irons itself out later this week {last night's sleep was rough and there has been crying tonight – something we hadn’t seen since we first began teaching the babe how to sleep way back in July}.
• went to her second wedding! She didn't dance at this one either and she actually changed into her pajamas for the reception and slept for a portion in her stroller ...what a funny baby.
• visited the beach for the second time and even took a nap in the sand.
• watched beach soccer.
• got to see her loving California family; they were so excited and so was the baby!
• we're babbling!! Alluvasudden on Thursday {October 2nd for posterity's sake} the kid let loose with a "dadadada..." and she hasn't stopped since. I've also heard some "la/le" in there as far as other new consonant sounds.
• and did I mention the tooth?!?! After much curiosity, we finally have the tip of a tooth breaking through on Hanna Lu's bottom left. I found out the hard way. I think I had noticed a bit of increased drool as well as some biting down on things but I thought nothing of it until I truly noticed it while Hanna was having a snack on the plane.
• started a new daycare; unfortunately our new situation had to close {no bad reasons, thank goodness} and through a series of fortuitous events and really kind coworkers, we have a new situation even closer to where I work. Today was the first day since we were still traveling yesterday so hopefully Hanna Lu isn't too discombobulated after all this craziness.
• crawling crawling crawling! Hanna Lu is up on her hands and knees for about 50% of the time she spends crawling {the other half is army crawling}, but while up on those hands and knees, she can’t quite coordinate the traditional movement so we see her move with her hands and kind of pull her legs forward.
• lots of face and hand grabbing; when we were sharing a bed over the weekend Hanna just wanted to hold a face or hand while she slept. This is majorly adorable and it makes it extremely heartbreaking to let her cry while she falls asleep again but she had gotten into such a great sleep habit that moving into bed with us is not a good idea since she sleeps there pretty poorly compared to on her own {same for mom and dad}; vacations are fun but this has been a very challenging transition back.
• is pretty curious; I’m including a shot of her grabbing the camera cord during her shoot today and not letting go.

So curious.

Here's to another great week with our beautiful daughter...as well as to some more quiet times in the days ahead!

What fun!

When everyone says that babies and kids enjoy the wrapping more than the gift, they're totally not lying!

Though Hanna Lu certainly appreciated the new {& soft!!!} teddy/elephant inside of that blue bag!! Thank you to our Texas friends for their thoughtfulness!