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.