Hannah 10ish Month Update

I have thought a lot about blogging over the past month, but I don't even know what to get in and write. Life has been very good, but very busy.  At any rate, our little sweetheart is ten months old.  Here is the update on her.

Eating

Hannah continues to be a great eater.  She is not at all picky and will eat pretty much whatever is offered to her.  She has recently entered a very stubborn phase though where she does not want you to feed her, she wants to feed herself, hold the spoon, etc. I love the independence but it makes for some massive clean ups.  The aftermath of last night's dinner is pictured above/below.

She is eating more and more table food.  Yesterday Isaac was eating a chicken sandwich and she stole the whole top to the bun right off his plate and stuffed it into her mouth as fast as she could. And is not too interested in baby food.   I love that she is such an easy eater.

Sleeping



Sleeping could be better.  We have not been as consistent as we should have been with nighttime routine and it is taking it's toll on her sleeping through the night.  Hannah has decided she really prefers cosleeping to be alone in her crib and she will wail and wail until one of relents and lets her sleep with us.  Over the summer she would give up crying after a few minutes which wasn'too bad but now she will carrying on for 30 minutes which is hard on all of us.  It's bad and I am will probably have to do an intervention again soon, but I am waiting until teeth are cut and she gets over the nasty cold she has had for the past week or so.She is getting quite spoiled but it's hard to resist.  Both Ryan and I find ourselves savoring these moments with our last baby.

 

Likes:

• Dancing.  She will go into the middle of the room and bounce around when she hears a commercial with music. 
• Isaac.
• Daddy.  Her interest in Daddy is bordering on obsession.  She can't get enough of Ryan.
• Phones and electronics.  If you have it in your hand, she wants it in hers.  She tried to rip an iPad out of a man's lap at church this past Sunday.

Dislikes:

• Strangers or thinking she is alone.  At church she will sometimes walk away from me and then cry because she doesn't know where I am.
• Anything personal hygiene related, especially wiping her nose and washing her hair.
• Loud noises.

Milestones:

• She says "no" now and shakes her head.
• She also says "Wow!" and "Whoa!" but never on demand.
• She can squat down. 
• She is showing that she understands what things are for.  When she sees her comb she will hold it up to her hair.  When she sees a toy phone she will hold it up to her ear (and sometimes will even say "Hi").

Hannah's 9 month Update

Holy 9 months Hannah!  It is weird to think that you have been out of me as long as you have been in me.  It's hard to imagine a time when this silly baby wasn't a part of our family.   She is the light of our lives.

Eating

Hannah is still a fan of eating and pretty much all foods. Typical meals include instant packages of grits, cheerios, toast, baby yogurt, and fruit cups from Chik Fila (grandma gives her the hook up).  If you are eating in front of her she considers your food to be fair game.  

Sleeping

Hannah has been keeping up her streak of great sleeping with one blip when she had a terrible head cold.  Sometimes she wakes up early and moves to our bed to for another hour or so of sleep.  Other mornings she sleeps late and wakes up happy in her own bed.  The worst are the mornings when Ryan works early and I have to wake her up to get her off to the babysitter.  She hates when I wake her up.  She is napping better at the baby sitter's too.  She is consistently taking a good morning nap but her afternoon naps are iffy. Some days she will sleep for a half hour or less, some days not at all.  Her bedtime ranges between 7-8. 

Likes

• Wrestling.  She loves to tackle and wrestle around with Isaac and Ryan.
• Dancing.  She has pretty good rhythm too.
• Pacifers.  I am not sure how I will ever take them away from her.
• Isaac.  She wants to be around him all of the time.  

Communication and words

She is babbling a lot and will often say "mama" although it doesn't mean me. Sometimes it means "more" and sometimes it is just babbling.  I feel like her receptive language has grown by leaps and bounds.  The other day I left the room and she crawled after me.  Ryan asked her to stop and she did and then she held her hand out towards the room I went to.  It was like she was explaining to him, "but I want to go with mom."  

Dislikes

• Being flat on her back.
• Holding still for diaper changes.  She is too busy!
• Being bored.
• Being contained.  Now that she can walk she has no interest in her jumparoo or excersaucer.  I have to make sure to buckle the straps on the shopping cart and stroller or she will try to stand up.  More often than not there are tears when she has to get in the carseat too.
• Anything related to personal hygiene.  Including: having her nose wiped, brushing her hair, taking a bath.

Milestones

• This girl is officially walking!  She is still a little wobbly but getting steadier every day.  

• First taste of Halloween festivities.  Isaac had a soccer game only a few minutes away from Dorney Park so we stopped there for their Halloween festivities.  First petting zoo, first pumpkin.
• Hannah mastered clapping over the summer but she does it appropriately during Isaac's soccer games and it is so sweet!
• Hannah will give kisses now.  They are very long kisses though (like 20 plus seconds) and a bit on the slobbery side with her mouth wide open. 
• She has a top tooth now, in addition to the two on the bottom.  It is a side incisor which looks a bit funny.  I call it her fang but Ryan hates when I say that.
• She is rocking 9 month clothes and some 12 month clothes, especially 1 piece pajamas.  She is in size 4 diapers.

Hannah Marie, you are the cutest nine month old there ever was!

Steamrolled by September

My last blog post was labeled "Goodbye August" and at this point I feel like this one should almost be labeled "Goodbye September".  September tends to steamroller me, but I have been trying to stay organized, stay on top of things and establish routines and this has probably been one of my better Septembers as a result.  I made a list of mini goals I want to accomplish.  Little things, like going to yoga two times in September and decorating the house for Halloween.  It is nice to have a list I can reach for when I have a few moments to really accomplish something, rather than just zone out in front of a screen.   One of my goals is to blog weekly which has been a challenge.  But here are a few updates. 

Isaac is in fourth(!!!) grade this year and is really showing a lot of maturity.  He is only going to the YMCA in the morning now.  In the afternoon he takes the bus home and lets himself in.  He has about 30 minutes until I come home with Hannah.  He has been really responsible with using that time until I come home to knock out his homework.  Part of his homework is always to read 30 minutes.  He has really stayed on top of that well without a  lot of nagging from me which I appreciate.   We recieved his PSSA scores in the mail and I was proud to see that he is advanced in math.  He is continuing with the viola and this year has started the trombone.  We are also fully in the swing of travel soccer.  His league this year includes teams in Delaware and Maryland, so it really is a lot of traveling.   It is a lot to keep track of but I am impressed with how well he can handle it. 

We made it out to my parent's house for dinner last weekend (another mini goal for September).  Isaac has been asking and asking so we squeezed a dinner trip out there on a busy weekend.  Isaac loves the basketball hoop there and even took some time to play with Hannah.  These pictures from that day have becomes favorites.  You can really just see how sweet he is to her. 

 

 

Hannah is still the light of my life.  She is trying and trying to walk and is getting better everyday. She loves to give herself applause for her efforts and then she knocks herself off balance and falls over.   She also loves to dance and will do so any time she hears music, even the organ playing the hymn at church gets her moving.  She is becoming really destructive curious.  She loves to tear apart Ryan's magazines and drop all kind of objects between the slats in our head boards.   Any open drawer is fair game for her to start unloading clothes.  She grabbed my tablet the other day and I discovered that she friend requested all kinds of people on facebook including my principal... awkward...

It is starting to feel like fall here finally.  A busy time of year for us but also my favorite time.

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.

• 
• 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.