15 months.

Hello summer!!!!!!!!

How old: 15 months.

Weight: about 22 pounds.

Likes:

• Being independent…this child is all about being her own person.
• Putting on a show; if we laugh at something she does, Hanna will repeat the action to elicit another round of laughs. This is adorable until it’s not ;).
• Berries of all sorts.
• The toys and people at daycare; they’re all so much more fun than home!
• Swimming…she’s gone several times in the past month and even had her first “swim lesson” tonight and our girl is a total fish.
• Sitting in her green chair.
• Going “SIDE!” {outside}.
• Dogs, all of the dogs.
• Balls.
• Her CD of nursery rhymes…recently I realized she’s “singing” along and it’s soooooooooooo adorable.
• Seeing her daddy, especially when he comes home in the evening.
• Curious George on Netfilx, though she loses interest after the opening song so it seems like it’s the music and singing that appeals to her.
• Being mischievous…getting into Guinness the dog’s food and water ranks high on her “fun activity list”.

Dislikes:

• Getting her diaper changed.
• Since several days ago, Hanna Lu freaks out at sitting in her high chair. Sigh. So, I figure she’ll get over it soon enough and the compromise is that she sits in her green chair for meals.
• The high chair fear has also included a dislike of her bath. Ssssiiiiighh. I can get her to get in a bit so that’s good enough and, again, I figure she’ll get over this.
• Having things taken from her that she wants to hold onto and having an activity stopped before she wants it stopped – in other words, transitions are hard for this girl without some finessing, all of which I think is age-appropriate. Plus, with the recent visitors and travel, she's all out of sorts and I think that's normal.

Communication:

There is so much going on here I might not be able to remember it all…:

• Singing along to songs with words and “humming” with songs that have no words.
• Saying “more” and signing “more” at the same time.
• Different sounds for when she wants something, doesn’t want something, or is scared.
• Being aware of when she’s being cute or funny and playing it up.
• Very clear new words, though her permutations sound a bit different: outside, ball, dog, woof, beep-beep, binky, about {from the Hokey Pokey song}, Curious George, Guinness, toot-toot {from a song on her CD}…and there are more I’m sure.
• There are many times, despite all of these new words, when Hanna can’t tell us exactly what she wants and that frustrates her to no end. Hopefully with the more words she learns the less frustration she’ll feel and hopefully we’ll get better at interpreting her sounds/words/motions.

Milestones:

• Baby’s first swim lessons!
• Another plane trip which isn’t new but now that she’s walking and much squirmier than before, this was kind of new.

Sleep and eat:

Kind of the same as last month!

Miscellaneous:

• Our daughter is hilarious and challenges us anew each and every day…we can’t get enough of this little nugget!

14 months!

Summer is creeping in on the wings of some humid weather and I'm pretty happy about it...in other news:

"I shan't sit!"

How old: 14 months.

Weight: still between 20 and 30 pounds…how’s that for specific? I would guess between 22 and 25 pounds is a good guess. The past week or so has brought a bit of a growth spurt, which I realized today when the pants she was wearing were way short on her {see the picture!}.

Likes:

• Sidewalk chalk! This is quite the hit.
• Playing outside in the plaza outside our building…we meet her friend Pablo there in the afternoons and his mom and I get to chat and wrangle babies and I’m loving this set-up since it gets us being outside in the warm weather.
• Walking.
• Music…I play a CD of kids’ songs we got from Grandma and Hanna Lu loves it. And, anytime we sing together at home she’s thrilled…The Itsy Bitsy Spider is a favorite, as well as the alphabet song but nothing seems to be as big a hit as If You’re Happy and You Know it.
• Berries!
• Cookies…I let her have a bit of a snickerdoodle tonight in honor of being 14 months old and HL made quick work of that half cookie.
• Quesadillas…and some other foods too, as long as she’s in the right state of mind {hungry}.
• Milk in a sippy cup…she can do ones that have straws and the other kind.
• Guinness the dog, as always.
• Playing with her soccer ball she got from her Great-Uncle Kevin.
• Curious George on the Netflix…though she loses interest within a few minutes and this is all ok in my eyes since it happens about once a week.
• Books…she especially likes “Dear Zoo” because it has flaps.
• Closing doors; I help her close the car doors and she knows how to safely do the ones in our apartment. The only trouble is that if she closes herself into a room, she can’t get out and then gets mad.
• Bubbles…though she can’t blow them herself.
• Playing with her crayons; drawing a bit and taking them out of their box and then putting them back in again.
• Her ladybug ride-on toy Grandma and Zaide gave her for her birthday:

Notice those sweaty bangs from today's mugginess.

          her legs have even grown since then so she can actually use them to propel herself and not just 
          push outward/forward with her tummy which was her first technique.

• Playing in her bath…she was standing up for a few weeks and would sit down when I ask her to, but this week the standing up has been at a minimum.
• Sitting in her green chair.

Dislikes:

• Diaper changes…there’s a lot of anger at this several-times-a-day activity.
• Being asked/made to do something she doesn’t want to.
• Too much time in the car, especially if it’s warm; I don’t blame her.
• Grass…but it seems as though she’s getting over it so – yippee!

Communication:

This girl is so verbal! I’m trying hard to incorporate Spanish more but it’s hard when the kid is so good with her English. I’ll keep trying, though. Some new words this month:

• Adding in the names of a couple of friends from daycare, as well as her daycare provider.
• She identifies her eyes and belly button but hasn’t mastered any other body parts.
• Just today I noticed some attempts at making a tune? So she's trying to sing? Hanna might have inherited her parents' inability to carry a tune, but this was pretty adorable.

Milestones:

• Baby’s first spring BBQ with friends; she loved their dog.
• Hanna “ran” her first 5k with her parents at my school last weekend; 

           she was cute, chatted a bit, and just relaxed for the ride.

Sleep and eat:

Hanna Lu is on a good schedule this month, bed is between six and seven, but the unfortunate part is that she’s been on a 5:30 wake-up and it’s not fun for her parents. But I think if we maybe work towards getting her down a bit earlier that might help her sleep longer {so the books say} so hopefully I can try to do that this week. On weekends her nap schedule is kind of crummy. I think I’ll need to consult with her daycare lady regarding the nap schedule during the week so I can maybe mimic that since what we’ve done on weekends is usually a nap after being awake for an hour or two and then again later in the morning and then early afternoon and I think our babe is growing out of that schedule.

Baby is eating less and less baby food, hardly any actually, and eating a variety of grown-up foods in small amounts. The girl houses several full sippy cups of whole milk each day.

Miscellaneous:

• HL has the same clothing and diaper sizes as last time and her microfeet are making it challenging for me to find some good sandals that have grip and are waterproof {any suggestions, internet?}
• There are currently seven teeth in Hanna’s mouth but she’s been drooly and grumpy for a couple of days so maybe some more are pushing through.
• She is a blast each day, even during those grumpy times, and we love our girl so much!

13 months!

Life has certainly gotten the best of me; it’s been so long since I posted anything and despite being so celebratory for her first birthday I got nothing jotted down for Hanna Lu’s 52^nd week or her 12^th month…oh well! Here goes 13 months as well as a slightly different format; this kid will have on whatever she has on on the 18^th of the month and will hopefully pose nicely enough for us in the “Hanna” chair. I hope I’ve talked about how much we adore this seat and it’s so funny because Hanna seemed to fall in love with it just tonight – she reluctantly ate dinner and then wanted nothing but to get down and get back into her chair. Anyway:

 

How old: 13 months.

Weight: between 20 and 30 pounds.

Likes:

• Getting on the ground.
• Playing with a scooter that is at daycare; the toughie is she needs someone to hold her on it.
• Calling Guinness the dog up to our bed when she’s getting her bedtime routine.
• Holding my keys and Guinness’ leash {not together}; I have to come up with a diversionary tactic each time I need to take away the keys from her. I think she likes feeling useful and doing what the grown-ups do because if I let her have the keys after I get her out of the car, she’s very eager to swipe them in front of the key pad that lets us into our building.
• Playing with other kids and being around other people; she says “hi” to everyone unless you ask her to in which case it’s a blank stare.
• As of last weekend, strawberries and blackberries; yum!
• Trying to feed herself with a spoon. Or maybe it’s just playing with the spoon she loves.
• Having her teeth brushed, though it might be just the itty bit of toothpaste. We have a little thing I put on my finger with soft bristles on it but I think we’ll get her an actual little toothbrush soon.
• “Curious George” on the TV, though this doesn’t happen very often.
• All sorts of new things…it truly is amazing the new changes we see each week; saying new words, obviously noticing when I changed up the decorations on a wall, asking for “up” when she wants it, and liking our “green” smoothies, to name a few.

Dislikes:

• Transitions; poor thing seems to have a tough time with changing from one activity to the next when we need to, especially if it’s going inside after being outside {we’ve been hanging out in front of our building with a group of other kiddos/moms/dogs after school on nice days and HL digs playing on the ground and watching the big kids run around}. I honestly think it’s just her personality coming out/frustration because she can’t do everything she wants {because she’s one year old}/not being able to communicate well paired with being tired – when are kids not tired?
• Food/eating. I had high hopes for Hanna’s life-long weird eating habits that her pediatrician has always said are just Hanna-being-Hanna to go away and maybe they still will but I’ve battle a baseline of frustration each day regarding our child’s disinterest in eating/drinking. There are some things she likes {see “berries” above} and she loved baby food/baby cereal for a while {but one cannot live forever on purees} but there’s rarely gusto and it’s a constant concern of mine to ensure she’s hydrated and not cranky because she’s hungry. I’ve taken to giving her a pouch of applesauce or something else to eat on the way home because it’s a nice way to get things into her but it also helps with the transition {also, see above} of leaving daycare which was never really something that bothers her up until a week or so ago.
• Green grass! We first noticed this last week when we thought it would be nice to sit on the grass at a park because it was really nice out and little girl clung on tight to either me or Michael, whoever was holding her. She was seemingly really nervous about the grass below our blanket. She also kept motioning to a large bronze tiger nearby and making a kind of upset sound. We tried taking her near it and baby was UNINTERESTED in that bronze lion. I’d like to let her know how great it is she is letting her feelings be known!

Communication:

Hanna seems to be coming up with new words each week. We haven’t been very good about pushing the Spanish or sign language but we try here and there. No matter what, though, our child certainly is communicative. She has a very specific set of noises she makes for things she doesn’t have words for yet; one for telling us to look at something {it includes a pointing motion}, one for wanting to nurse {along with pulling down my shirt which is unfortunate if we’re in mixed company}, and a delightful one for things she doesn’t like {a screech that definitely isn’t crying and is a sound she’ll repeat until we make things right again – see “grass” above}. Here are her current words, though obviously her iterations don’t always sound that clear:

• Ma
• Daaa
• Up
• Bye
• Hai
• Non-verbal head shaking
• Guinness {our dog} {she usually pats the bed or couch or whatever we’re sitting on when she says his name because she’s trying to call him over…when he comes, then she says “haiiiii”}
• Train
• Zee Zee {my grandmother’s dog}
• Kai {a friend at daycare}
• Teeth
• Hush {from “…an old lady who was whispering ‘hush’…” from “Goodnight Moon; she accompanies this with one finger to her mouth}
• Non-verbal “more” {fingers from both hands together} and “bath” {rubbing fists on chest as if scrubbing}
• Uh-oh
• She responds to: Where's Hanna?  Where's your: belly button/nose/mouth/eyes? What does the old lady say? {"Hush" with a finger to the mouth}.

Milestones:

So many!

• First ice cream and a taste of an ice just today; both were a hit.
• First cow’s milk and strawberries and honey and all three were also a hit, though the berries the most.
• Walking more and more though she’s still quite shakey; I remember she crawled early on but it took her a long time to get really fast at crawling so I’m wondering if it will be the same for walking.
• Her first birthday and party; both went quite well and baby girl certainly likes her frosting.
• Hanna got her first Easter basket on her second Easter and enjoyed some new shoes as well as her first set of crayons; she needs to be closely supervised with them because she likes to pop them into her mouth still but other than that the drawing portion of her childhood has commenced!
• I’ve started to attempt getting back into running in a more serious manner than my prior dabbling and this means that HL has been logging some good jogging stroller time. She manages pretty well though I sometimes feel bad for the bumps in the road. It’s awesome because we have several local playgrounds on decent running routes and it breaks up these runs but she gets so upset when we leave and needs so much supervision still since she can’t really walk all too well I don’t do the playground routes but hopefully in a few months we can reincorporate them when I’m not working and have more time and HL can move better on her own.

Sleep and eat:

Things got a bit off due to moving/a welcomed slurry of visitors/being sick/a lax spring-break schedule so HL’s sleep hasn’t been as fabulous as it could be – she’s been waking once a night between 2 AM and 4 AM and we’re so pooped we just bring her back to bed with us for a bit. We’re currently on day/night three of trying to break this habit and hopefully things will get better.

Eating wise, please see above. I’d really like to get our daughter on mostly if not all “human” food and no more baby food or cereal but that’s still the quickest way to get food into her so it’s been challenging.

Miscellaneous:

Hanna wears 12 to 18 month sized clothing and could be a size 3 or 4 in diapers though she is wearing her cloth diapers all the time; they are open to the middle button length-wise and around her waist there are either three to five columns of buttons visible. 

Hanna Lu has tiny feet and is just fitting into a size 2. 

She has two teeth on the bottom and four up top with one more up there maybe trying to poke through.

We are loving on this girl so much and have the best times with her. Watching her grow up is a true privilege and we look forward to each day with her!

11 months.

Only one more of these...though I might try to keep up with the monthly ones post birthday since I love looking back at these and it'll be easier not doing it each week, right? Anyway, here's what Hanna's up to this past month.

How old: 11 months.

Weight: about 20 pounds.

Likes:

• Food.
• Playing.
• Crawling.
• The playroom in our building.
• Guinness our dog.
• Peering out the window while sitting on her chair.
• The trains outside our window.
• Her bath.
• The push-walker toy that is in the playroom.
• Other kids as well as her daycare provider.

Dislikes:

·         Being placed on her back for a diaper or wardrobe change.

·         Having something taken away from her, though she gets over it pretty quickly.

Milestones:

·         This kid has taken about five steps on her own but has yet to really go for it…walking seems imminent.

·         Another tooth came in the past month and several others are threatening to do so as well.

·         Had her first Valentine’s Day…we didn’t do much for her; sorry baby.

·         Enjoyed several snowy days and is still experiencing some frigid cold.

Sleep and eat:

·         Sleeping is the same as last month; 10 to 12 hours a night depending on when we put her down. She might have a night where she wakes up once and we just let her put herself back to sleep, unless she gets loud and upset, which is rare.

·         Hanna expanded her palette and tried a bunch of new foods; spoon-feeding her baby food remains the quickest way to nourish this child, though.

Miscellaneous:

Hanna is in 12 to 18 month sized clothing, size three disposable diapers, has one “long” row unbuttoned on her diapers and three to four rows around her waist unbuttoned…if you know the Bumgenius lingo.

Ten months.

We're having a great time in Arizona for a short little trip to surprise Hanna's grandparents so let's also check out her stats...

How old: ten months {we’re almost at being able to just use numbers!}

Weight: nearing 20 pounds or so.

Likes:

• Baby food…spinach and potato are a fave.
• Her milk, mixed with baby cereal, and spoon-fed to her.
• Guinness the dog and any other animal; she laughs at them.
• “Cruising” around {walking while holding on to anything and everything}, though she gets herself down to crawl when she decides she can’t walk.
• Poking at eyes; on her doll and her parents.
• Crawling all over our apartment and trying to get into things that would hurt her.
• Her family; Hanna Lu loved being with her grandparents and the rest of her family members over break and it was very sad leaving.

Dislikes:

Being sick…someone seemed to have a bit of an upset tummy this morning and she was not a happy camper {neither are her parents}. Hopefully this passes quickly as in before we get on an airplane tomorrow afternoon.

Milestones:

We are sooooooo close to taking a step on our own but haven’t made it their yet…a few more airplane flights and her very first Christmas and New Year’s…and meeting lots of people and even going to her first holiday party.

Sleep and eat:

Sleep and eat are about the same as last month…she goes down between 6 and 7 {I’d like it to be more like between 5 and 6 but she’s still getting over our trip} and gives us ten to 12 hours. She had been waking up once and after getting back from traveling we decided to let her just fuss herself back to sleep and it had been great…but then we came to Arizona this weekend so we anticipate some re-adjustment but hopefully things will be good after another week or two.

Baby also tried her first taste of burger, albeit crumbled up, and she enjoyed it; this was spurred on by her low-ish iron count at her nine-month appointment.

Miscellaneous:

Baby is wearing size 3 disposable diapers but that doesn’t happen too often, she’s mostly in her cloth diapers which are on the shortest set of buttons with four sets left unbuttoned around the waist, if that makes sense.

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 ♥