Goodbye August

We are trying desperately to grasp onto the final remnants of summer as the start of the school year gets closer and closer.  It has really been a lovely summer, the perfect balance of being busy with projects and activities and long stretches of unscheduled play time with the kids.  I didn't teacher summer school or write summer ieps and it felt like a true break from the stresses of school.  Despite my denial, the school year is looming overhead.  I already had to go in three days last week and do a back to school night.  We get tomorrow and then Tuesday we all go back, ready or not.

It has already been a rocky start to the school year.  I am in a bit of conflict with the district over my laptop, so I have limited access to technology.  We were supposed to be unpacking boxes and moving into a newly renovated school but construction is behind so we were forced to unpack the same boxes we packed up at the end of last year in the same temporary school we have been using.  I am keeping almost my same caseload as last year, which has it's advantages, but has contributed to my apathy about getting ready for the new year.

We have finally called it quits on our Cub Scout efforts.  Ryan and I have been holding up our struggling little pack for over a year now.  We are down to only 1 other boy besides Isaac who also is able to come consistently and he is about to start sports.  It isn't very fun for anyone to rush home from work, slap dinner on the table and then drag the baby over to the church only to find that Isaac is stuck doing an activity alone with me.   We are going to give our neighborhood Cub group a try.  That didn't go over that well with the primary president.  I hate how things like "convenience" and "fun" are viewed as frivolous considerations in the context of church life.

Another change this school year is Hannah will be going to a new babysitter.  Grandma and Ryan will still be helping out, but she will also be spending time with Asher a baby friend from church several days a week.  It will be a big change but I know she will do well.  She is getting another tooth on the bottom which has made her rather miserable the past few days.  It hasn't stopped her from attempting to climb stairs every time I turn my back on her.

(Notice the TWO unused baby gates in the background?  Parenting fail).  Today I went to move the laundry along and when I came back she was standing on the fourth step up, all proud of herself.  Someone in our neighborhood was throwing out a gate today, so we have three now (all trashpicked, cause we're classy like that)  which is sufficient to block all of our stairways.  Now we just need to remember to actually put them up.

In other news I am finally getting the hang of couponing.  I have attempted coupons a few times in the past but could never really make it work.  But now I am starting to understand it better and I am really seeing the results in my wallet. It is almost like a high watching her scan the coupons and seeing the total go down, down, down.  I am far from being an extreme couponer but I am definitely enjoying it.   Here are some recent trips:

Paid $2 @ CVS

Free @ CVS

$17 @ Giant (total before coupons/savings $40).

I also had a great trip to Target where I got $23 dollars worth of diapers and formula for $3 out of pocket.  It is fun to have a hobby that actually saves money and even Isaac is getting into it.  There other day we were at a store and passed one of the coupon machines in the aisle and he was like, "Look mom!  Coupons!"

That's about it for us.  HAPPY MONDAY!

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.

Miss Hannah: 6 and 7 Month Updates

I have fallen majorly behind on the blog. We have been home and busy and also I have some technology issues.  I am using my tablet to do this so I apoligize  for formatting, etc being off.
Hannah is not impressed clearly.

Miss Hannah continues to be a happy easy going baby. She just had a well check and she weighs almost 21 pounds and is 27 inches long-- the top of the percentiles for her age.  She really has such a sweet personality.  I am loving every second we are spending together this summer.

Sleeping

Ugh, the one hangup that we cannot consistently get past.  Overall, the past two months her sleeping has really been poor.  We moved her into her own room again and suddenly she was waking up every 45 minutes to an hour.  The last few weeks of school were a real challenge for me teetering on the brink of exhaustion induced insanity.

I started off summer vacation by reading several sleep books and hundreds of article on baby sleep and I found some areas that needed improvement.  We ended up bringing the crib back in our room, and then after some time passed we  eventually put it back to her own room.  It was too much for me to walk back and forth 27 times a night but now that we have made some progress I really do like her in her own space.  When she is in the room I hear every noise and sound.  Ryan pointed out that she is not all the way awake when she is making noises and I am pouncing on her too quickly, when she might still be sleeping.

We also cut out night feedings which I had been dreading.  I realized Hannah was sometimes consuming 24 ounces of formula at night (which is way too much).  We put a stop to nightime feedings by swapping out formula for water which she is not very interested in.  I am trying to be more consistent with our nighttime expectations and I am trying to steel my nerves and trust that a *teeny* bit of nighttime crying is okay.  I have been bringing her back to our bed if she wakes early in the morning (which she has been doing more consistently now that I've cut out nighttime bottles) and so we still get a little bit of cosleeping and cuddle time thatI think she really needs.

I would still say she is a high maintanance sleeper with a long way to go, but I finally see a light at the end of the tunnel.  I hope I didn't just jinx myself.  So that was long and rambly and probably not of interest to anyone but me... Anyways...

Eating: 

Hannah is a fabulous eater.  She has liked every thing we have offered her.  She has tried fruits, vegetables, and even some chicken, pasta and beef meals.  Ryan let her taste hot sauce the other day and she even liked that.  When she is interested in something one of us is eating she will loudly say "mmmmmm!" So try to convince us to share.

We have been working on finger foods and self feeding, but it has been hit or miss.  She prefers for us to feed her or to put her mouth down to eat them directly off the tray.  She can get the puff or cheerio in her fist but can't seem to get the timing right to release it into her mouth, which frustrates her.  Also, still no teeth.   Just like her brother.

Milestones

• Hannah reminds me a lot of Isaac in that she is so physically strong.  She has totally mastered sitting and immediately she started working on standing.  She can stand without holding onto any thing for several seconds now.  It is so cute.

• We were thinking she may skip crawling all together but she decided to master crawling in a day.  It was so funny.  One day she couldn't crawl at all and the next day she was scooting all around.  

• Another milestone of sorts is the Hannah is officially signed on to the New York City based modeling agency Generation Models.  Ryan's siblings were all involved in modeling as children and his mother had felt like Hannah had a look people might be interested in.  Ryan sent her pictures out to a few places and we were thrilled to hear back from Generations. They encouraged us to come to the city so they could meet Hannah and go over paperwork.
•  
• They are very reputable and the lady we met with was great.  She was even really interested in Isaac but he told her he in't interested in modeling.  The agency felt like Hannah will be offered a lot of work but will see how often we can realistically make our way up to new york. 

Likes:

• Daddy!  She loves wrestling around with him and is always after whatever he is eating.  

• Isaac.  He might even be edging out Daddy.  She always wants to be near him and thinks everything he does or says is HILARIOUS.  
  
• Swimming.  It really tires her out though.  She has fallen asleep in the pool (in our arms obviously) more than once.  
• Her activity table.
• The cats.  I am modeling signs for her and I am sure cat will be the first sign she uses.  She and the cars love each other so I get to use it many times a day.
• Cuddles and being held.  I don't think it is as much of a like as it is a need.  She needs time in the moby wrap or cuddle time before naps.  When we do cosleep she always puts one hand on Ryan and one hand on me before she will close her eyes. 

Dislikes:

• Hats.  Good thing she is old enough for sunscreen now.

• Being alone for too long.  She needs to know someone is close by.
• When I wear sunglasses.  They must come off.  Immediately.  And then be stuffed in her mouth.

We love you so much Hannah Marie!

6 Months Old

We have a six month old on our hands and she is cuter than ever!  

Ten on Tuesday

1.  The kids have been out of school for a week or so now, but since we had an insane amount of snow this past winter, the teachers are stuck making it up with endless inservice time.  It's horrible. I am used to being on my feet all day, interacting with kids and (for the most part) being in charge of my time, so sitting and being lectured at day after day is getting old.  I just want to be home with my kids!

2. It has been HOT, HOT, HOT here, like 95 degrees or hotter.  I can't wait to be finally, finally, done school so that I can take full advantage of all of our YMCA pool privileges.  

3. I got free tickets to a Reading Fightin' Phils game as part of their educator appreciation night.  When it came time to go it was in the 90's, I was tired and not really feeling that into it.  I tried to convince Isaac that it would be fun to skip it, but he is soooo into baseball and he was determined we would still go. 

 Isaac really enjoyed himself which made it worth it in the end.  As Ryan pointed out, everything is always about Hannah now, so it was nice to do something that was just for Isaac. He choose a spot very close to where the pitchers warmed up and they tossed him a ball.  He really seemed to enjoy the night, so I was glad we went after all.

4. I received a disturbing phone call at work.  Apparently someone hit this guy's car and left my cell phone number in a note on his windshield.  Thankfully Ryan is a cellphone expert and was able to block his number so he can't reach me again.  Scary!

5. Isaac is spending all next week at my parents house.  He is attending a basketball camp there and doing some other fun stuff.  I know he is really looking forward to it.  

6.  I am so excited that some of shows are back.  I watched The Fosters last night but I am waiting for Ryan to be home to watch Switched at Birth.  I need a new show to binge watch while I organize a bunch of papers and file boxes I brought home from school. 

7. Saffron wants to be wherever Hannah is. 

I don't know why, since Hannah regularly rips out huge clumps of Saffron's fur.  It must be her motherly instinct.  It would be cute, if it wasn't so annoying.

7.  I don't think I have mentioned it on the blog yet, but Little League is FINALLY OVER.  I don't have a commitment every Friday and Saturday!!  Wahoo!!!!!

8. Now if only I could somehow get Cub Scouts off my plate.  They told me that they are looking for someone to replace me... but it doesn't seem like they are looking too hard. 

9. I am so boring I can barely come up with ten things.  

10. One more day of inservice left.  One... more.. day...