Hannah-- 8 month old!

This baby continues to be the light of our lives.  She cracks us up on a regular basis.  Miss Hannah weighs 22 pounds, wears size 4 diapers and 6 and some 9 month clothes.  She has one tiny tooth on the bottom.

Hannah is so curious about everything now, which has led to some bumps on the head or knocking into something since her balance and coordination doesn't always able to keep up with her curiousity.  We had to do some baby proofing and rearranging things to keep fragile or dangerous  items out of her reach.  All of our wastebaskets are now up on high counters because she loves to dump them.  She always manages to find the remote to the TV and change the show at a crucial moment.

 Sleeping

Hannah continues to sleep well after a blip of terrible sleep during our vacation and subsequent head cold.  It took a few days to get her back in the groove but now she is back on track going to bed between 8 and 8:30 and putting herself to sleep. She will often hum or sing quietly to herself to settle down which is so adorable it makes me melt.  She sleeps until around 6, has a bottle and sleeps in our bed for another hour or 2.  We are all happy with that arrangement for now.

Eating

Hannah loves to eat, especially food she can feed herself.  She is now a pro with finger feeding herself and we try to give her tiny pieces of whatever we are eating. We have to be really careful when we eat around her because she will just plunge her hand into whatever is on our plate.  She loves bread, blueberries, grits, cookies, water ice, rice, and taco meat.  We also have finally found a food she won't eat: steamed cabbage.  It is literally the only thing we have offered her that she has spit out (not that I blame her).

Language and Communication

I still am trying to demonstrate signs for Hannah although I could definitely be more consistent.  She does the sign for milk constantly although I am pretty sure she thinks it means "more".  When she wants our attention she will babble very loudly and will also make this little monkey type sound.  She begs for food by shouting "Mmmm!"  She will respond when we call both "Hannah!" And "Banana!".  She seems to understand "no".  Ryan caught her unloading sports memorabilia from his shelf and firmly told her "no".  She burst into tears and came crawling to me for comfort.

Milestones

• First trip to the beach: 

• Her first really long roadtrip.  About 6 hours in the car as we travelled to Virginia and back.  She actually did great.

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• Hannah mastered waving and clapping this month.  It is really adorable, especially the clapping.  She keeps one fist balled up and hits it with the other.  And she will clap for anything.  Eating often warrants a round of applause.  She claps when she notices anyone making eye contact with her.  She claps for the cats.  She is a clappy girl these days. 
• Her first picture with Santa at the flagship Yankee Candle store.
  
  
  
  
• She is standing for short periods and can cruise along furniture and the coffee table like a pro.
• She is babbling a lot and even saying, "Mamamama!"
• Stranger anxiety reared it's ugly head this month.  Hannah used to go to anyone but suddenly she is nervous to be held by someone she doesn't know well.  She wasn't too sure about Uncle Joe but she did warm up to Grandpa during our vacation and now they are buddies.

Likes

• To put her face right next to the fan on Daddy's nightstand.
• Icecream.  At the beach she was sitting with her dad on a bench when an older gentleman sat next to her with a cone from Kohr brothers.  She was begging him to share and we had to move her away from him.
• Her wubbanub (pacifer).
• Isaac.  
  
  She will crawl into his room if he happens to leave his door open.  She gets in his face when he is busy with other things.  She laughs at literally everything he does.  It is so cute.  She is his #1 fan. Isaac will usually come and get her every morning and play with her for a while.  It is a sweet routine.
• The cats.  

Dislikes

• Baths.  She likes swimming but for some reason hates bathtime.  Actually she hates anything to do with personal hygiene: having her face or nose wiped, having her hair brushed, etc.
• Her doorway jumparoo.  I keep trying to make it happen because it was Isaac's FAVORITE at that age but she is just not a fan.
• Loud noises such as the vacuum cleaner or the blender.  
• Being forced to pose for pictures with historical figures
    We love you so much Hannah Banana!

Where did July go???

So I will try to forge through my technology issues and give a summer update.  Through a series of unfortuneate events I lost my Galaxy and then the replacement Galaxy Ryan secured for me broke.  It is getting fixed but it will take a month or two to get it back.  The good news is I still have a phone for calls.  The bad news is it is this phone:

I really miss having a camera and GPS at my finger tips but it has been nice to sort of pull back on my technology usage.  During Isaac's soccer practices I have actually been reading books instead of just mindlessly refreshing facebook.  Texting is very laborious so I have really been MIA from most social connections.  If you need me, your best bet is to call me.

Anyways, I worry soon will be the insanity that is September and I won't get on here again until Thanksgiving.  This blog has been a personal and family journal for the past five years or so, so I need to try to muddle through on the tablet.   So here is an update on the Stephenson-Horne happenings.

We have been spending loads of time at our YMCA's awesome outdoor pool facility. We have discovered it is the perfect activity when we have Ryan's kids with us because it really is just as fun for Hannah as an infant as it is for Allison as a middle schooler.  There is a snack bar and a huge playground so it keeps everyone busy and happy.

The other day we happened to take the whole crew there and we discoveres it was the membership appreciation picnic.  They had a DJ, games, prizes and free hamburgers, hot dogs and icecream.  It worked out perfectly and the kids all had so much fun.  We even made the YMCA facebook page.

The other major happening around here is we finally have this little lady on a decent sleep plan.  I have blogged before about how the past few months or so have been a real struggle with Hannah getting up hourly.  Sleep deprivation was truly taking it's toll on me: I felt depressed, I had a minor accident with my car, I lost my phone and I really felt like I was losing my mind.  I have been getting by on cat naps and sleeping in and the thought of returning to school with her sleep habits being such a mess had me totally panicked.

  A facebook friend (the friend of my college roommate) recommended a book with a sleep training method.  I have read all of the No Cry books and had really gotten no where, so I decided to give it a try, really out of complete desperation.  The first night was rough, as Hannah did have plenty of tears.  She still woke up frequently that night but using the methods in the book she was able to settle herself back to sleep without my help (ie, I could stay in bed!).  It didn't take her long to understand what the new deal was and she improved rapidly.  I hate to jinx anything but less than a week later Hannah has been sleeping through the night and has put herself to sleep with no tears at all the past two nights.  The only thing is she now wakes up at 6 (whereas before she would sleep as late as 9).  I am thinking this is due to her going to bed at a more reasonable hour and also the fact that we cut out night feedings.  We have had good luck giving her a bottle at 6 and bringing her into bed with us for another hour or so of sleeping.  Then we still get our cosleeping snuggles in.  I really do consider it to be a tender mercy that we have gotten a few good night's sleeps in.  I hope our upcoming vacation doesn't undo all our progress.

In other sleep related news is Ryan and I finally traded out my old full sized mattress for a queen bed.  It was long overdue.  Of course, nothing is ever simple and after we got it home we discovered the boxspring was too large and inflexible to make it around the tight curve in our stairwell.  We ended up having to force it through the sliding glass doors off the kitchen on the second floor which was quite an ordeal.  Not only did we get a new mattress, box spring, bed frame and nightstand but we also got new bedding.  Of course, within 24 hours Hannah had a blowout leaky diaper right on the new bedspread, proving yet again that we are not in the stage of our lives to have nice things.  Oh well.

Anyways, there is nothing too exciting to talk about.  Next week we leave for our vacation-- a few days at the shore with my parents and then onto a few days at Busch Gardens.  I am looking forward to it, although traveling with an infant is rather intimidating.    

Finally!

Two years after I tried to start the process, I finally have my permament certification!

  The last major checkmark on my professional to-do list.