51 week!

Michael and I just finished cleaning up after a little sick baby...hopefully she just ate too much too quickly at the end of a long day and that we're not staring down the barrel of a whole-family-stomach-extraveganza...and in some happy news! Hanna Lu...

• Had a well-baby check today and is doing quite well on all accounts...no longer anemic {she was borderline at nine months anyway}, above average in height {?!} and weight, and a great baby...woo hoo! She'll start drinking cow's milk this week and can also have her first taste of peanut butter and eggs...such little luxuries we post-first-birthday folks take for granted!
• Is very talkative with her words as well as gibbereish..."zeeee zeeee zeeee zeeee zeeee" for any dog {it's the name of my grandmother's dog whom she met last December and she just recently dug it out and uses it for all dogs", "ayne" for "train" whenever she sees or hears it, "dada", "mom", "hi", "bah" {for "bye"}, and a few others I'm sure. She also has a couple of non-verbal sound cues, there's one for "look at this" and another for "I'd like to nurse". And in terms of communication, the child points.
• Cut another tooth and seems to have a few threatening to do so up top.
• Will do five to six steps unassisted and still seems to prefer crawling when she wants to get somewhere quickly.
• Loves perching in her chair and peeking out the window at the trains.
• Gets a kick out of Guinness the dog and her father...I love seeing her so happy to see them.
• Had a handful of new foods this past week though I can't recall what exactly.
• Has one more weekly update and a first birthday coming up next week!

50 weeks!

Oh goodness this kid has been such a ham this week! Hanna Lucy...

• makes a scrunched-up-face smile all the time; cheese!!!
• tried string cheese for the first time - loves it.
• has been putting down blueberries since yesterday; I smash them a bit so they're not little throat-lodgers.
• is taking independent steps everywhere.
• gives us a constant stream of babbles...and sometimes they're whispers under her breath, especially if she's working hard to do something like pull her self up or get at something. I realized today this seems like a small detail but it's super cute to me and not one I want to forget.
• loves hearing and seeing the train from our apartment or in the car. "ayne" or "nayne" means "train".
• searched and called for her "daa" yesterday when we stayed home due to ice and he went to work.
• has been getting SO excited and squirrly about seeing said father when he gets home and it's adorable.
• makes a really funny "zeee zeee seee seee gee gee" sound, especially when we get her up from a nap and she seems frantic. Why this sound at this emotion is beyond me since "zee zee" is my grandmother's dog's name.
• "swims" in her bath; she loves this so much and also dips down to get a drink of water ever minute or so. Gross.
• is very interested in playing in our kitchen cabinets. I have two set aside for her that have some special "Hanna" kitchen "toys" and thankfully those keep her occupied for quite a while but when she starts to get interested in Guinness' food area or trying to open the garbage can it's time to move out of the kitchen. But then...
• she throws a mini-tantrum/fit --> is this a portent of times to come? Isn't it too early for this? Just this week if I tell her I'm picking her up and it's time to put things away, then motion down to get her, Hanna will quickly turn her back to me and hide what she's holding or she'll scurry away. The tears after doing what she doesn't want me to do don't last for long but ugh, I thought we had more time.
• is saying "hi" to many people, especially passerby in public places {some even say "hi" back} but never on command.
• waves "bye bye".
• either loves a sippy cup {water or milk} or hates it {she tosses it to the side with a disgusted sound}. 
• caused some trouble in our playroom upstairs because she had a toy another child wanted. This happened a few times yesterday and it wasn't a "let him/her share" sort of situation but rather the other kids were feeling possessive. But it got me wondering/thinking that we have to broach this topic at some point and I seem to recall hearing/reading about two approaches? Let the other kid take the toy or explain to that kid that my kid is currently enjoying it so he/she can wait? Blergh; we still have time.

Another one for good measure!

Let's hope that this week's upcoming predicted snow is not that bad and that Spring can be sprung and Miss Lu can celebrate her first birthday with a nice day out!!!
xoxo, natty ♥

49 weeks!

Gah it’s cold still but the weekend after next brings Day Light Savings Time and then certainly Spring can’t be too far behind.

So, Hanna this week…

• Has turned into a chatterbox! It’s a constant stream of sounds but she alluvasudden has three distinct words she loves: train, Guinness {our dog, not the beer}, and Dad. I love hearing this. Now, to the uneducated observer, these “words” would be sounds but we know what she’s saying and she definitely copies us when we say the actual words. There are no surprises here, obviously, considering she adores her dad, LOVES staring at the trains from her chair looking out the window, and things Guinness is hilarious. She does say “mom” and “mama” but not quite as often and usually when I’ve abandoned her in the high chair for too long.
• Took a couple of five-ish-step-long walks on her own. One was at daycare when I picked her up and each time she takes steps on her own she has this look that she knows exactly what she’s doing, she’s just choosing to crawl most of the time because it’s faster.
• Has some great new foods…mashed carrots, adult oatmeal {plain with frozen berries added in} eggplant/spinach/feta pizza {my fave!}, and a few other things…yum!
• Is quite the mermaid in her baths; Hanna Lu has taken to getting on her tummy and pushing up with her hands {a la upward-facing-dog or Ariel on the rock in the Little Mermaid} and kicking her legs – it’s a good thing there are some swim lessons in her future! She will also still play along with “running” {splashing} away from me when I say it’s time to get out of the bath.
• Hung out with some pals in town last night and adorably tried to feed their little guy {five months older than ours} some snacks the kiddos were sharing. He patiently sat there and let her. Swoon!
• Is enjoying her toys with gusto these days; we cleared out a bunch into temporary storage to maintain less clutter and give the babe a chance to enjoy what she has and then enjoy some “new” toys later on when these lose their sheen.
• Will be one year old quite soon; we should get on that party-planning bandwagon shouldn’t we? Though I suppose I should make a mother’s promise of never giving our March 18^th baby a St. Patrick’s Day themed birthday party. She might very well have parties that just happen to be green themed since that’s what might be on sale {or even Valentine’s/pinks/red/hearts…I hadn’t even realized the timing}…have a great week folks and stay warm!

48 weeks!

I woke up this snowy morning with the sniffles Hanna is finishing off from last week so hopefully Michael misses out and we're all cold-free even if the weather is just that, cold. In other developments this week Ms.Hanna Lu...

• Had a bunch of new food for the first time: gyros, French fries, quinoa enchilada bake, corn {off the cob}, spaghetti {a HUGE hit}, meatballs, and regular oatmeal {with frozen berries added in}...here's to getting that babe on more "human" food and having her get more efficient at eating it.

• Watched some Curious George on the Netflix, thanks to some cabin fever which was a direct result of the crummy weather...she actually watched one whole vignette and we truly were not proud of it.

• Continues to love climbing up onto her chair and peering out the window. 

          She especially enjoys the trains and metro that go whizzing by.

• Gets very excited whenever someone enters a room or our apartment; she stops what she's doing, gives a huge grin, and makes some very happy sounds. This also translates to when she's nursing so she'll stop each time she hears someone or something to pop up and get a reaction.

• Enjoys exploring the cupboard and it's a good thing we have a tiny pot for some reason because it's perfectly her size to pull out and play with.

• Tried a piece of Guinness' dog kibble for the first time. I'm frankly very surprised we made it to almost a year. I was scurrying to get ready to get out the door today and baby was playing with the pot I just mentioned and had a pacifier in her mouth which usually keeps unwanteds out and I looked over at her to see a very funny face. She was seriously peeved with me for taking it out of her mouth. The crunchies are small enough she probably wouldn't have choked but I was still scared as heck and really guilty. 

• Finally cut a new tooth, almost six months after the first two came out. This is one up top and there are three others around it that are threatening their appearances but if they're anything like this brand new one, it'll take a long time. She hasn't seemed to fussy regarding this development nor has there been much extra drool but you sure can see them below the surface.

• Has been really good at playing with her toys in the toy area as opposed to trying to crawl all over the place in our home and get into all the dangerous things, minus today's doggy food incident.

• Wore pig tails for the first time yesterday!

          So cute!

• Continues her "tricks" of 1. where's Hanna?, 2. clap your hands, 3. how big is Hanna?, and 4. play the drums. 

• Has taken a few solo steps but still nothing substantial and will gladly crawl to any new locale.

• Got swaddled today. In a fit of boredom and because I saw one of her old swaddling blankets and felt inspired.

           Though dizzingly quick, it's still not difficult to believe how quickly the past year has gone by
           and our newborn turned into the dangly legged creature above - since that's how all time seems
           to move. It's impressive, though, that we've somewhat survived almost a year...I can't even tell
           if I'm tired anymore!

Stay warm out there folks, winter will surely soon abate.
xoxo, natty ♥

47 weeks!

So for our growing girl, we have a new white onesie and a different hair bow. I was going to buy a new pack of the Carter's onesies but realized that we never put the baby in these things except for her pictures so the $10 isn't worth it in my opinion so I found a funny white tank-top onesie thing at TJ Maxx today...TJ Maxx for the win! In other news, Hanna Lucille...

Jazz hands.

• Is still taking one or two steps at a time, unassisted. Then she realizes that she can get to her destination much quicker by crawling.

• Loves the push-toy-thing; we "borrowed" it from our building's play room {I love that place on weekends and snow days} and have yet to return it because she's had a few sniffles and I don't want to infect the building's kiddos. We brought it home in the first place because Saturday was a day void of much stimulation for our child so I let her "walk" home from the playroom. Going down two hallways is a lot of work for a small child...

• Really enjoys crawling up on her chair.

Big ruffly-butt climbing and exploration.

       We reconfigured her playspace, which included strategically removing some of her toys so as to 
        keep her well-stimulated {?}, because she's grown out of some of them {playmat}, and since
       she had recently been really into poking her tiny fingers into the electrical sockets. Today we
       also bought little things to stick in there so her fingers stay out {TJ Maxx too, incidentally}.
       Since her chair is now below the windows and Hanna Lu loves looking out those windows this 
       is a perfect set-up. Except for how she doesn't know how to get down from the chair but I'm
       assuming that will come with time.

• Has a wee cold this week but seems to be OK for the most part. She's coughing a bit and sounds a tad phlegmy which we don't love but such is life.

• Has some good family visits coming up for her birthday and Easter; almost all the grandparents!

• Continues to adore her daycare provider and be so happy for her in the morning, but I also love that she reaches for me in the afternoon when I pick her up.

• Shared my restaurant dinner the other night; bacon wrapped meatloaf and garlicky mashed potatoes - girl is a fan.

• Continues to love her baby food, baby cereal, and full-fat plain yogurt.

• Has been having a huge appetite, though with her ailment this week has been into eating a bit less.

• Still has only those bottom two teeth, though I haven't been, ahem, bitten in several weeks. Except for one random fluke time this past weekend but I don't count that.

• While nursing, though, has figured out how to blow raspberries against me and though it's adorable I'm not encouraging this behavior since it's supposed to be Serious Eating Time.

• Is trying to crawl into the bathtub; we get her all ready for bath in the bathroom and she knows exactly where to go.

• Will gladly play "chase me" in the bathtub when it's time to get out, which she so playfully started last week.

• Continues to love opening cabinets and pulling things out of bookshelves. It's actually great to indulge her, to a certain, safe, extent, and let her get bored/lose her interest so that she isn't quite so fixated on it instead of getting frustrated at being told "no" {a mutual frustration, truth be told}.

• Learned "Where's Hanna?" this past week, a variation on "Peek-a-boo". It's glorious and we request this game several times a day. Hanna seems to enjoy it too.

• Is wonderful and we love her so so much...five more weeks until we wrap up these weekly updates because, as much as we can adore someone, a weekly update is quite a lot after those special first 52. Woah.

xoxo, natty ♥

46 weeks!

It's February!! This thing turns ONE next month...in six weeks actually, so let's see what she's up to today. Hanna Lucy...

• I dare say has been in a bit of a growth spurt; she seems starved all the time and that onesie is well and truly Too Small, as are some jammies that fit just fine last week.
• Is still standing a ton and taking maybe one step unassisted before she decides that she can crawl much faster.
• Loves looking out the window.
• Loves pushing the elevator buttons; our fault here for letting her do so in the first place but it's just so cute.
• Adores her daycare provider.
• Has been having more "food" than baby food while at home...banana, avocado, cheesy toast, yogurt, raspberries, and black beans were all on the menu this past week. She's just so dang slow with eating it all that it's easier to just spoon feed her the baby food, but I think it's good for her all around to eat the "real" stuff. She does still get and love baby rice or oatmeal cereal with milk mixed in.
• Took a bottle which was random because it seemed a lost cause over break in December and we hadn't tried since then.
• Really enjoys the playroom in our building as do her parents since it's a big and safe space for her to crawl around in.
• Was in the bath until the water drained completely tonight and when I told her "it's time to get out", she crawled away from me, though she obviously couldn't get too far. 
• Will clang two toys together.
• Uses our hands to do things for her; she has a toy that will pop up if a button is pressed but instead of doing so herself, Hanna Lu grabs one of our hands and puts it on the button for us to press it. She will do the same with the "more" hand sign - she moves our two hands together to say "more"...maybe she'll soon figure out that she can do these things too!

xoxo, natty ♥

45 weeks!

We are battling illness still, though hopefully this is its final gasp until some better-feeling days and now in baby news...Hanna Lucy:

• Has become super clingy with me. She cries if her dad tries to take her and we both know this is normal/natural/whatever and Michael isn't taking it personal but, forgive me, it's kind of annoying...but also nice to have someone seem to think I'm just that great.
• TOOK THREE STEPS THIS MORNING! What I mean is that she moved one foot forward, then the other, and, thirdly, the other one again...so cute! She still knows that she can get places faster by crawling but this is great.
• Has been suffering cabin fever along with her parents. Today's snow day was great because I didn't have to wear business/teacher/casual but it also meant another whole day corralling the baby. She really wants to explore all she can and there's not much beyond her play area in our apartment that is safe for her to explore so it turns in to us telling her she can't do what/go where she wants which is not fun for anyone. We've taken to going up to the building's playroom which is awesome because she can crawl and cruise around to her heart's content and there's no dog food or heavy stuff ready to hurt her. This morning I took her to library story hour and now she's old enough to play with the toys that they have for after the stories/singing and that was a great half-hour. I honestly thing that the reason things have felt so difficult/tiresome recently is that I was home sick several days last week and then there was the weekend plus neither parent is feeling particularly energetic these days. Normally we're not stuck in the apartment for so many days/hours and we're all a bit more fresh so hopefully things will feel better. Today was actually great, even though right after I read the school-closure announcement this morning I felt dread at a whole day of entertaining a very mobile baby while still not feeling 100%. The funny thing? I really look forward to time with her {duh} but maybe it all boils down to being a sick parent inside for so long is not fun. End of a really long point.
• Is very hungry these days, probably because we kept her strictly on milk and thin oatmeal while she was recovering from her tummy bug.
• Infected many people with said tummy bug.
• Is now obsessed with looking out our window. We will hold her up to see the snow {which has happened four or five times so far...in her life here in this apartment} and we can also see down onto the train/metro tracks and a big swatch of the city where we live {we're on the 14th floor}. This gets tiring, though, because the window sill is several feet up from the floor and we obviously have to {patiently} hold her up there. In the past few days it's become the only other thing, seemingly, that she wants to do besides explore kitchen cabinets...
• I thought it would be nice to let her get into a cabinet with a few things {a pot, a pan, a big pasta serving spoon [the kind with the prongs]...} and I created a monster because she only wants to do that {besides be held up to the window} and there's just not enough kitchen space to fully empty the cabinets of all the other cookware {that's too heavy for her anyway} and  in order to give her free reign of the cabinet, not to mention even if there were void of all heavy things she would still be slamming her fingers because she doesn't know how to carefully open/shut the doors yet. Serious baby-proofing is imminent. 
• Signed "more" to me this morning. Then hasn't done it since.

Hey baby - let's stay healthy please?!?!? And, we love you TONS, even though you're tiring.
xoxo, natty ♥

44 weeks!

After a wonderful weekend in Arizona, we are all dealing with some illness, which is Sad. So let’s think about good baby things!

• Hanna Lu enjoyed her biggest party ever this past weekend and went hard...with no chance of her sleeping like she normally does, we just let her go with it and she ended up dozing in the arms of a guest…and slept through until morning!
• Is battling her first stomach bug, pretty well at that. We’ve gotten her down to just milk and pedialyte and she seemed to be fine after Sunday, besides a few challenging diapers, but just tonight she yakked all over me sooooooo…we’re waiting to get the bug ourselves, to be honest, which makes this kind of a yucky week but hopefully it won’t last long.
• Ate a pickle spear at the party this weekend, which we thought caused the tummy issues, but we realized that wasn’t the case. She certainly loved that pickle.
• Is all over our apartment – we decided this week that we need to get serious about baby-proofing this place.

On the go!

• Is so much fun and we really hope she feels better soon.

43 weeks!

Another cold week brings baby to 43 weeks old! And...

• Is being hilarious, giggling and making goofy sounds, and mimicking things we do.
• Has stopped with her tricks; clapping, drum playing, and showing us how big she is. Maybe she's on to bigger and better abilities.
• Is standing on her own but has yet to take a step, though she looks like she's thinking about it and then decides to just sit and crawl to wherever she'd like to go...clever baby!
• Has had her first...

         pony tail!!!

• Likes her food, though she realized how to spit it out which is messy and not fun.
• Tried ground beef for the first time tonight; I had to teach her how to eat it instead of just playing with it and hiding it under her legs {?} in her high chair but then it was a hit. This is good for her iron need.
• Enjoys the kids' playroom in our building but maybe not as much as her parents do since it's a place where there aren't any bookshelves for her to climb, dog food to eat, or any of the other hazards that our home present to her.
• Loves trying to poke and scratch our eyes so it's good she has her doll on which to practice these skills.
• Doesn't like her multi-vitamin/iron drops...I don't blame her because that stuff is GROSS.
• Loves throwing things down on the floor. We don't so we don't pick it up more than once for her.
• Likes to "drive" her stroller...

         though her aim isn't that great and she points us towards the wall. {I'm   
         holding her, obviously}.

• Likes her bath and tries each night to stand up in the water. We gently tell her that "we don't stand in our bath".
• Really likes her stacking cups and will crawl around with one in/on each hand, making a clomping sound as she moves through our apartment.
• Loves Guinness the dog still.
• Makes the sound "ddddeh" for many things, including the dog.
• Possible has her first word? I show her a picture of my grandmother's dog Ze Ze and Hanna Lu makes a "zeeeee" type of sound; she knows what she's doing!? She laughs at the dog first of course because she adores animals.
• Will not lay on her back as you can see from Michael holding her down in this week's picture; she wants to roll over onto her hands and knees instantly.
• Is amazing and we love this baby!

42 weeks!

I skipped last week's update {thank you inertia} so this is quite a list for our little girl considering just how much she has been up to {a lot!}...

***And my poor old computer is having trouble communicating with our camera so today's fun pictures are locked somewhere in limbo; hopefully I'll get them up soon!***




***Edited to add pictures!***

• Can do tricks! Will: "clap your hands"

         , "play the drums", "give a kiss" {open-mouthed}, and show you "how big is       
         Hanna Lu?"

         {"So big!}.

         This is amazing to us; in the span of a week or so she started to follow these    
         commands and we're trying to teach her a few new ones.

• Weighed in at a bit over 19 pounds and 27 inches long today, placing her in the 60-something percentile for height/weight. I'm guessing both her father and I are a bit lower than that.
• Baby happily celebrated her first Christmas with both families; we had the holiday a bit early in Arizona and flew to California Christmas morning to finish off the day with family there. 

Upside-down squirrel and drool on her father's leg; our first Christmas as a family of three.

The whole two weeks of travel were very exciting for her but perhaps a bit overwhelming. Her sleep wasn't great while "abroad" and the nights were hard for us considering what a great sleeper we had worked to teach her to be. The past few nights at home have also been kind of rough but we let her figure it out on her own tonight so we'll see how things go through morning.

• Our baby now points and points at everything; up until a few days ago it was just her hand but we now have finger action.
• She visited the San Francisco Zoo with her grandpa Jeff {my dad} {a favorite place of ours when I was a kiddo} and LOVED it. There was a lot of pointing and making sounds in reaction to the animals. She didn't care for the merry-go-round, though, so that's something we can work on.
• Hanna Lu also went back to the beach with Grandpa Jeff and was really apprehensive, especially about the sand...I put some in my hand to let her feel it and she warmed up to the texture.
• Spent lots of quality time with her Abuelita in California as well as her grandparents in Arizona; thank you to all of her grandparents and family who happily spent time with baby Lu...she loved it all!
• Was interested in opening her presents but really only until she ripped off a tiny bit of paper - which was good enough for her.
• Met Santa for the first time and was OK with the whole experience...photographic evidence forthcoming {see above complaint}...she even made the "nice list" in the long North-Pole-let's-see-how-many-chances-there-are-to-get-your-money experience that the mall offers.
• Did OK in all of the flying we did; four flights total including a red-eye just this past Saturday night.
• Began some teething which was confirmed at her nine-month well-baby check today; this explains some, ahem, behavior, that we'd been experiencing and I had chalked up to being out of her routine. 
• Wants to walk; is cruising up a storm and loves standing up.Loves her new baby doll but mostly because she can poke at the eyes as much as she'd like to, something we discourage because it hurts and is destructive but this is just a doll so it's OK and not creepy that our daughter loves poking eyes...right? I won't let her be alone with dolly until she's older for fear she rips out the eyelids or eyelashes and attempts to ingest them but it's adorable how cute she is with the doll, eye poking aside, because she'll give her kisses.
• Got her very own chair and is really appreciating sitting in it as well as climbing on it. 

Notice the finger in the eye.

         Thank you so much Grandma and Zaide for my fun chair!!!

• Is a wee low on iron, as told to us today during her check-up. This isn't something I like to hear, I don't want to worry about anything being amiss or as it shouldn't but her doctor wasn't alarmed and prescribed us some iron and told us to cut out the yogurt since dairy can inhibit iron absorption.
• Is not into drinking her milk, as she has always been, but it was tough because we were in charge of her every day over break {as opposed to our saint of a daycare provider} so I figured out the best way for her to continue getting the milk she needs is to spoon-feed our child her milk, usually mixed with some oatmeal. Talk about tedium but it truly was the only way to get in the milk that she needs. Who in the world ever would've thought we would have this problem and that this would be the most frustrating part of parenthood. It's seriously discouraging and that the baby's a bit anemic just adds to that discouragement.
• Is making a ton of funny new sounds, lots of goofy babbling, which is adorable.
• Will also mimic us if we make her "latte-machine" sounds.
• Does this funny thing with her hands; she opens and closes her fists and it looks almost like some type of sign-language; I wonder what it means?
• Is growing and changing every day and we just love this kid; we're so grateful for the time together over break!

xoxo, natty ♥

40 weeks.

What a wonderful few days we’ve been having here in Arizona…so what else is happening??

Face FILTHY from her dinner earlier.

• Hanna Lu had her first Christmas; we celebrated early here since we’re flying to California on the holiday. This baby thoroughly enjoyed the unwrapping at the beginning but after she ripped off a piece of two of paper, she got too excited and distracted to go any further. Nonetheless, she has loved her new toys and has played with them each day since.
• Has met some new Arizona friends and has been a very good sport about the few late nights we’ve subjected her to.
• Will celebrate her first actual Christmas Eve tomorrow night with her father’s side of the family; this includes cheeseburgers and potato chips, though her menu might be a bit different.
• Flew for the whatever-th time and did quite well considering it all but was very squirmy and had a hard time falling asleep {& staying asleep} but she was truly a good baby, as she always is.
• Has let us know that she prefers to drink anything out of a cup; apparently our baby has always just wanted to be treated as an adult?!?!
• Wore a part dress for the first time, last night and today with Santa; trés cute!
• Wore shoes for the first time last night and then again today {with her fancy clothes}; she was so confused!
• Started clapping this past Saturday; “yea!!!!”…and just tonight we got her to clap when we sing “If you’re happy and you know it…”; she waits until the end to clap.
• Met Santa this afternoon and though she didn’t cry, she didn’t smile.
• LOVES this jumpy thing our Arizona friends let us borrow while we’re here and it’s very funny to watch her go up and down.

39 weeks!

This week is a busy one so let's see what's going on...

• Had cheese for the first time; loves it! Hanna Lu had a bit of quesadilla one day and then just some plain old cheese several times after that and she's a happy camper with it.

• Also is loving on plain yogurt...we tried some a couple of months ago that didn't go over well but in the past few weeks she is all about it.

• Wants nothing more than to crawl around or pull herself up to standing...this child is not interested in sitting still.

• Loves her bath and is getting better at not standing up in the tub.

• Thinks that Guinness the dog is hilarious, still. He will come sprinting up to her and lick her face, run away, and repeat and even this doesn't bother her.

• Had her first adult dinner party this past weekend and rather enjoyed herself {& the snacks}...she slept a bit late the next morning too which was lovely, though not late enough in her parents' opinion.

• Will be traveling on a plane again this week...and then next...and then the week after that; to Arizona, to California, back to Arizona, back to Maryland.

• Still really likes her cereal; she has either an oatmeal or rice or a grain mix and it's usually made with milk  though sometimes we make it with water. She gets a bit impatient with baby food but will continue to eat cereal way after that.

• Has a bedtime routine that I realized I haven't recorded for posterity's sake...has "dinner" between five and six, a bath, jammies, one story, a bit of nursing, another story, and is in bed with the "rain" sound machine {an app on an old iphone we have} between 5:45 and six. She's waking once a night usually though me thinks that's just a bad habit and we'll try to break it once we return from all of our travels in January, what with all the time-zone changing that will be going on. Baby's usually up by 5:30 or 6:30 though on weekends if we give her a quick snack and put her back down she'll sleep until 7:30-ish sometimes. She's ready for a nap within two hours of waking up and on weekend days, when she's with us, she'll nap for one to two hours in the morning and then again in the early-mid afternoon. At daycare I'm not sure how things go but I do know that HL is well rested, full, and happy when I pick her up so I'm not asking any questions.

• Hanna loves her daycare provider...and this woman is such a loving presence that we love her too. She makes me laugh because in reaction to Hanna Lu's somewhat finicky eating, she is so determined to get milk and food into this baby and fatten her up. I don't have the heart to tell her that Hanna is just who she is but I don't discourage her nonetheless {she's just perfect in our eyes, obviously}.

• Is climbing...or at least trying to. If she had the traction and things were easier to climb, the baby would be going vertical...this does not bode well for us in terms of relaxing at home with our child ever.

• Will hilariously kick her legs if you hold her up in the air under her arms. We have started to do this any time we pick her up because it makes us laugh so much.

• Is pretty OK being with other and new people. She does show separation anxiety occasionally, usually if she has just woken up, but she is pretty affable otherwise...this may change soon since I think "stranger danger" might start kicking in around the nine month mark {later this week!} so we'll see.

• Loves "Cuties" {though I think right now the ones we're getting are called "Halos"?}...she kind of sucks them dry and leaves the pithy...seeds come in these things so we just need to check for that before letting her have them.

• Went to the pediatrician, unexpectedly, today for a bit of an icky eye {related to her cold from last week no doubt}...and she weighed in at almost 19 pounds and about 28 inches long/tall - she started out at almost ten pounds and 22 inches. While in the waiting room Hanna Lu was very intrigued by two young boys who were playing and tried to get down on the floor to play with them. They were both about five years old and as sweet as they were with the baby, saying "hi" to her and everything, I figured her style of play {thrashing her arms} wasn't what they would appreciate {they were quietly "driving" cars}. This wasn't the first, Hanna Lu is always very interested in kids and loves to mix it up with them. I think we can thank daycare for this, truly - it's great to see our baby be social.

• Is really goofy and so much fun...we're very excited to spend time with family so they can see what she's been like recently; wish us luck traveling!

Because I can't get enough of those legs.

37 weeks!

Hello December!!! After her first Thanksgiving let's see what's up for this baby.

Right before she whipped on to her hands and knees to crawl away.

• Is being a total GOOFBALL...especially if she's tired like she was tonight. She will not stay on her back or sitting if she wants to get to something. Today's pictures were a challenge.
• Is pulling herself up on everything and is even trying to stand up by herself without even holding on to anything.
• Is giving slobbery open mouthed kisses; so adorable!
• Will maybe do a high five if she's prompted.
• Still thinks that Guinness the dog is hilarious.
• Is determined when she wants something, like to climb up on our bookshelf. 
• Is a big fan of her baby food still, especially if it's mixed with oatmeal. I sure hope she gets into real food eventually but she's just so slow with it.
• Is sleeping pretty OK at night, waking once for a snack though I think it's time to phase that out.
• Needs to have a nine-month appointment...her mother needs to get onto scheduling this!
• Will "cruise" (walk while holding onto anything) after pulling herself up on things...this is adorable but this child is so mobile and into everything and we need to get some baby containment going on in our home to give Hanna's parents a bit of piece.
• Is babbling a ton and this week has been loving on shouting out "dadadadada...ah DAH ah DAH".

She was flipping over immediately after being placed on her back and Guinness was curious about all the movement.

xoxo, natty ♥

36 weeks!

Hanna Lu is having her first set of holidays and not even realizing it! What else about baby Melamed...

Jazz hands!

• She is pulling herself up on anything and everything and will even take a few wobbly steps.
• Loves her daycare provider and will sometimes not reach out to me if she's being held by her; I find this glorious and not sad at all because it's a humongous blessing to have someone with whom we can trust our daughter and whom our baby so obviously loves.
• Doesn't like babyfood as much as she used to but is loving on her rice cereal again, though she'll do just fine with the food mixed with her rice cereal. She seems to eat best if we feed her, though, since she's super slow when feeding herself. I think we're destined to have a life-long picky eater...she seriously has never been that into it. This is funny considering how much her parents love food.
• Is hand/knee crawling everywhere.
• Is very curious about our bookshelf and tries to get up into it several times a day.
• Has her very first Christmas dress ordered.
• Inherited a ton of hand-me-downs from a daycare friend and is looking quite chic in them all.
• Babbles a ton and just the past few days has been really into saying "uhhh DA. DA. DA. DA. DA."
• Still says "hi" {"ahhhhhhh"} and waves and  she's started a two-handed wave though it could very well be her attempt and clapping which we've been trying to teach her and which she loves.
• Enjoys her bath but this week has been trying to climb up/stand up and we have to firmly tell her "no" and sit her down again.
  Has taken to biting her mother whilest being fed. They haven't been super hard chomps but it's not pleasant. I'm doing what I read should be done and saying something ridiculous like "I see you don't want to nurse anymore, let's take a break" and giving her a minute break or so. I don't think this means we have to stop, I just need to be aware of when she's bored/done which can be difficult since she's such an on/off eater and I've always just kept putting her back on in an effort to get her to keep going. It didn't happen today so that's good.
• Will celebrate her first Thanksgiving in Pennsylvania later this week, weather god willing, and we're so happy to do so!!

And one for the road.

xoxo, natty ♥

35 weeks and eight months!

Another week and BRRRRRRRR the cold has arrived! Today is a special day since Hanna Lu is not just 35 weeks old but eight months as well so we’ll have two updates!

 First for this week’s…

·      We are hearing the funniest espresso-machine-sounding noises from this kid; khiiiiiihhhhh, schuuuuggghhhh…

·      We’re still snotty but hopefully that’s going to go away soon.

·      We are crawling everywhere, even the traditional hand and knee crawling, but the babe is far more into pulling herself up to standing…on anything she can get to and we’ve had a few bumps and bruises because of this. The best place so far is her crib since she has a nice safe landing. In her crib the other day, she even took a few “cruising” steps on her own though she’s far too wobbly to stand on her own.

·      Not much else is new and I’ll talk more about little bit in the monthly update below but this baby is just SO adorable and amazing and wonderful to us; we love her so so much and are really looking forward to her first holidays!

How old: eight months old! 

Weight: I forgot to check but from recent at-home weighings I’d say almost 18 pounds. Slow and steady is the name of Hanna’s growing game.

Likes:

·      Standing up! This kid is constantly pulling herself up whenever/wherever she can.

·      Pureed baby food; she’s a fan of this and I think she likes it more than regular food because we feed her and it’s quick whereas she’s a slow self-feeder.

·      Guinness the dog…Hanna loves laughing at him. He’s not so keen on her these days probably because she makes unpredictable movements towards him and grabs his fur.

·      Children’s Tylenol, red-dye free and cherry flavored; we gave this to her last weekend because she was pretty miserable and it went over quite well.

Dislikes:

·      Being sick – hopefully we’re somewhat on the tail end of this thing or this most recent thing.

·      Being tired, though she might not realize it. Hanna Lu gets a bit high maintenance {fussy} if she’s tired.

·      The time after her bath and before getting on her pajamas…it takes having something in her hands to distract her. I had been letting her play with the bottle of lotion I put on her but one night she dropped it on her forehead and wasn’t a happy camper. It’s not heavy at all so she was mostly startled but now we know better and limit it to her lovey.

Milestones:

·      First Tylenol!

·      First really cold weather…that happened today! Though the babe only spent minimal time in it.

Sleep and eat:

·      Hanna drinks maybe 20 ounces of milk a day, perhaps a bit more or less? She’s still not big on drinking her milk much to her mother’s chagrin.

·      Hanna usually eats one to four pouches of baby food a day as well as milk mixed in with baby oatmeal several times.

·      Loves banana and lots of other finger foods but takes a long time to get in much so the purees seem to make baby happier.

·      Goes to bed between 6 and 6:30 and will sleep until we wake her up for the day at around 6 in the morning with usually one wake-up that happens between 2 and 5 AM for a snack. On weekends Hanna can be cajoled into sleeping until around 7 so, left to her devices, the child likes sleep. She usually rolls over and goes to sleep on her own as soon as we lay her down. She starts the night off with a pacifier that I believe is promptly thrown to the side. We have a white noise app on an old phone-turned-ipod that plays “rain” for an hour. I’m not sure if this does much for her but it’s just what we’ve always done and I imagine might come in handy when we’re out of town a lot next month and it can help mimic our at-home routine.

·      Bedtime’s routine: dinner, bath, story #1, nursing, story #2, kisses and goodnight.

Miscellaneous:

·      Hanna Lu loves waving “hi” and even says the word as “ahhhhhhhh”.

·      Baby is able to wear six month clothing and 9 month as well and if she’s in disposable diapers size three is perfect for her.

·      Our cloth diapers are holding up quite well. We use biodegradable/flushable liners to make clean-up a bit easier…otherwise we should be spraying the more soiled diapers into the toiled before we wash them in the dryer and what with daycare and everything, the liners are just so super easy. I’m debating the value in schlepping the set with us for the holidays since we’ll be gone for two weeks. When I think about home many diapers we go through over just a weekend I want to take them but they take up space and will need to be laundered when out and about so we’ll see.

xoxo, natty ♥

34 weeks!

The weeks is barreling ahead, as it usually does, and Hanna Lu is 34 weeks old...let's see what's up!

A pensive one for this week; her bruise is hiding right below the hair bow.bab

• She's still waving a ton and saying "ahhhhhh" as "hi".
• She's very intrigued by us clapping and seems like she might want to do so as well.
• Is loving baby food; I had these grand ambitions of "Baby Led Weaning" {look it up if you're curious} as a means to introduce regular table food to our baby instead of dealing with purees and after trying some store-bought baby food last week we realized it was a hit. Maybe she just likes the quickness of it all {she's not super efficient at eating regular food}? The texture? I would at least like to actually make some and have a big pureeing session sometime soon since it's so easy to make and freeze the stuff but for now it's just the pouches and jars we buy.
• Is trying so hard to stand/sit up on her own and she does so quite well. If she doesn't have much to grab onto to pull herself up then Hanna will just get onto her knees and sit there like that. 
• Crawls and tries to climb up on just about anything.
• Discovered this muscle rolling "stick" we have and tries to wave it around like some deranged group leader.
• She also figured out how to stand up on her own in her crib...that was on Saturday and since then she's been standing most times when she lets us know she's awake.
• HL has actually been a lot more active in her crib this week and even gave herself a gnarly forehead bruise by crawling and propelling herself forward straight into the railings in her crib. Our kind daycare lady made a mention of the bruise to us and we both realized we probably should've told her when we dropped off the baby...first time parents here!
• She is still so snotty and I'm wondering if maybe she got another cold or just never got rid of that first one but either way we're hoping for less congestion soon.
• This kid is amazing and wonderful and we just can't get enough!

xoxo, natty ♥

33 weeks!

It's November; next month we get to visit California and Arizona families and we're so happy about that! What else...

Wouldn't lay back for her picture. And I think that onesie is way too small, I just don't feel like fishing out a bigger one.

• Baby is still battling a bit of something, appetite isn't fabulous, sleep could be a bit better, etc....is this our new normal considering the nature of illnesses spread amongst small children in daycare and within families or will things look up soon?
• We officially have a waver; Hanna loves waving. I even think she makes a "ahhh" sound to mean "hi" because she only does it when waving but Michael isn't entertaining that thought.
• Tried some actual pureed baby food this week and loved it; I bought it on a whim and since it was successful I might make a few batches in order to use up some of the milk I have stored considering Hanna Lu doesn't drink as much as I can make for her.
• Hanna loves puffs; they're cheerios but made out of rice flour and she's had a "green" flavor and just had the sweet potato ones tonight. It's wonderful to see her little pincer grasp get the practice and she's so sweet because she does this whole body wave of excitement when she sees the container.
• Enjoys water in her sippy cup.
• Had her second visit to the pumpkin patch and didn't make a peep the entire time. It was also her first experience with being cold and totally bundled up and I think that had something to do with it.
• Is loving on Guinness the dog in a big way. He can elicit giggles just by trotting past her. We don't let her get a hold of him too often because hers is not a gentl grasp but we do let G-man give the baby face kisses which he gets really into and Hanna loves. I'm still super cautious about him around Hanna even though he's given us no reason to think otherwise, I just know that deep down he's still a dog so we keep a pretty hawkish eye on the two of them.
• Is crawling into everything; is very curious about our bookshelf.
• As of last Wednesday afternoon, can pull herself up! She did it at daycare and at home can do it really well on the couch and in her crib, though with gripping and how slippery our floors are for her, HL can't quite get it done on the floor in our living area.
• We're loving on this little girl so much and are looking forward to the holidays with her!

xoxo, natty ♥