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.

• 
• 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!