18 Month Update

Hannah had her 18 month update today. She was 24lbs 8oz and 35.25 inches, which puts her in the 50th percentile for weight and so far off the charts for height that it doesn't even matter anymore (seriously, the doctor remeasured her 4 times because she didn't believe it either). ;) The doctor looked it up and said she was the average height of a 2.5 year old, which certainly explains the trouble I have been having finding clothes to fit her. I guess all those "she is taller than my 2 year old!" comments weren't an exageration!

She has 6 teeth with a 7th finally just starting to come through as of this last weekend. It has been almost 7 months since her last tooth and it's nice to know that they are actually there, just taking their time coming in. Her hair is of course the same way. Although it is still quite thin, it is finally getting longer and I even noticed a few whisps over her collar the other day. So I guess she won't be bald and toothless forever!

She says 50 - 60 words and can identify most of her body parts, which the doctor said is very good. What a smart little girl!

She got lots of shots, which she was not happy with (she tried to get away after the 1st one and there were 4!) but she was able to muster a smile and wave for the nurse before leaving. It helped that the nurse gave her a sucker. ;)

She is doing very well, and we got a great report!

Halloween Cuties!

Yesterday Mare made the awesome suggestion of taking the kids to a nearby park, putting them in their Halloween costumes, and taking some pictures. What a great idea! Cash could not have looked cuter in his little pirate costume and Hannah looked absolutely adorable as a fairy princess!

Here is Cash and Hannah - Cash looks like he is protecting his girl:

Here is my favorite picture of my little fairy:

I also really like this picture as well, even though she isn't smiling:

Here's a cute one of Mommy & Hannah:
And a cute one of Mare & Cash:
So incredibly cute!!!!!

For All My Cyber Stalkers Out There...

Here I am, not posting and not thinking anything about it because I figured the only one who read this thing was my mom. Then I come to find out that there are people on here who read my updates, you just never comment. Just for future reference, I love comments! ;)

So I haven't updated my blog in a while. The summer has been winding down and we have been busy, but not with terribly exciting things. We have finally finished a small project we started for Hannah's room:
For those of you who have never seen Hannah's room - her name is the new wall hanging. It turned out pretty cute and I'm happy with it.

Hannah has been running around and having a good time playing with all her little friends. Here she is hugging Cash:

And playing the piano with Bryn:



We had a fun trip to the museum recently:
And she liked playing in the racecar there (she's taking a really sharp left!):

Basically we've just been hanging out with friends and having fun. What a great way to end the summer!

I guess that's about it for now. I'll leave you with my new favorite picture of me & Hannah:

Brag on Baby

It really is amazing how quickly they change. She has been doing so many new things recently, I thought I'd update everyone with all the "new" things.

She has so many words now - it's hard to believe that 2 months ago, she only said 3 words (mama, dada, and baby). Now she can say the following words: mama, dada, baby, ball, book, yes, yummy, hot, hot dog, doggie, birdie, water, more, boy, and Hannah. She says about half of her words without any prompting at the correct time. The other half we are still working on to make sure she actually understands what they mean.

She waves when you say "hello", "byebye", "see you later", or "let's go." She tries to talk on the phone and type on the computer. If she wants you to take something and you aren't paying attention, she takes your hand, opens it, and places the object in your palm. She points or brings you things that she wants. If I ask her where her belly button is, she pulls up my shirt and points to my belly button. She laughs at everything. She gives real kisses and hugs on demand. She puts her hands up palms up for "all done" and she raises her hands in the air if you say "way up high" or "ta-da." She can stand up on her own and walk pretty well now. She dances. She sits on the floor and uses her feet to move in a circle. She tries to pick things up with her feet. She claps when you say "yay" or when you start singing "Pat-a-cake."

It's so awesome to see her turning into this fun happy little girl. :)

Tagged

Okay, I've been "tagged" by Amy and Hannah is taking a nap, so here we go:

The Meme Rules:
1. I have to post these rules before I give you the facts.
2. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
3. People who are tagged need to write their own blog (about their eight things) and post these rules.
4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
5. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

The Facts:
1. My screen name for most of my accounts online comes from how my twin sister used to pronounce my name when we were very young. She couldn't say "Andrea" so she said "Angeia" instead. This name has followed me since then, with my brother Matthew and childhood friends Katy & Lori picking up on it. Sarah, Matthew, Katy, & Lori still frequently call me "Angeia" or the shortened version "Ange", leading many people who don't know me to ask if my name is "Angela."

2. When at a restaurant or fast food place, I always ask for pickles on my sandwich and then proceed to take them off and eat them before I eat the sandwich. I like the taste of pickles, and I don't mind pickle juice on my sandwich, but I think the actual pickles overpower the rest of the sandwich so I eat them separately. I don't think this is weird, but Rob assures me that it is.

3. I am obsessed with "chick lit" right now and have been reading every Candice Bushnell, Jane Green, Meg Cabot, and Emily Griffin book I can get my hands on. When I start reading a book, I have a hard time leaving it unfinished. If uninterrupted, I will read the entire thing in one sitting. Nowadays, it takes me on average around 2-3 days to finish a 300 page book.

4. I love to cook from a box. I add my own ingredients, but modern cooking has made it so easy to quickly whip something up that I dread having to cook from scratch. My friends at my old work constantly referred to my left-overs as "Semi-homemade Cooking with Andrea."

5. Being a stay at home mom is the best thing in the world. I knew I wanted to stay at home while my children were young since I was about 12 years old and am so lucky to have found a husband who wants that for our family as well. I have also loved the name "Hannah" since I was about that age.

6. I am not a fan of planes and make pretty much any excuse to avoid getting on one. In college, if I had the choice to swim to Europe to visit Jen instead of flying, I would have starting practicing my backstroke. As it was, it was an international flight, so I did the next best thing: got very tipsy on the little bottles of wine they give you.

7. We moved back near our hometowns so that when we had kids, they would be close to their grandparents. I have always had (and still have) a wonderful relationship with all my grandparents and wanted my children to have the same opportunity. If it weren't for that reason, I would love to live on one of the coasts or near the mountains.

8. I could spend all my money at Super Target. Whenever I am bored, I love to walk around there and just look. They have everything from DVDs to baby clothes to food. What's not to love?

Here's who I'm tagging:
Rob, Mare, Gwyn, Manda, Jenn, David, Katy, & Lori. :)

Franken-Hannah!!!

Hannah has really started to move now, and she has this adorable little walk that makes her look like Frankenstein. I would say she looks like a weeble when she walks, but "weebles wobble but they don't fall down" and this is not true for our cute little toddler. She still crawls occasionally if she wants to get somewhere really fast or doesn't have anything nearby that she can use to stand herself up, but she mostly prefers to walk now, even if she does still need her arms out to keep her balance.

On another note, our new favorite word is "birdie" which she likes to use to describe anything that isn't Mama or Dada. She also loves the word "uh-oh" and likes to drop things just so she can say it. She has about 10 words she says now pretty regularly. Brushing our "hair" has become a new favorite (yes it's in quotes because she really still doesn't have any) and she also enjoys pushing her stroller or cart, giving hugs to people and her dolls/stuffed animals, and waving at everything.

Words and Walking

We have been stuck on the 2 words "Mama" and "Dada" for a while now, but just a few weeks ago we added another word to our vocabulary: "Baby". Personally, I think Hannah is asking for a brother or sister. ;)

Last week, we added one more word: "Bird". How cute!

Yesterday Hannah took her first real steps. She has been sort of taking steps for a while, but they were usually just one step between me & Rob and they were much more like she was leaning so far forward she was about to fall and then she put a foot out in front of her and we caught her. Yesterday, she took 5 steps to get from Grandma Elstro to Mommy. What a big girl!

1 Year Doctor Appointment

For those of you who love the stats on our baby girl (you know who you are), we went to the doctor today for her 1 year check-up. Everything is great! She is in the 95% for her height and the 50% for her weight. No more baby food, and she can start whole milk. The doctor also said she is so very close to walking because she barely hangs on. The only bad part of the visit was the end when she had to get those icky shots.

Hannah is 1!!!

Today, our little girl turned 1 year old! I can hardly believe it - it seems like just yesterday we were bringing her home from the hospital. We spent the day doing lots of fun things: playing, getting pictures taken, going to the playground, opening gifts, and of course eating lots of cake! What a wonderful and memorable day! Her birthday party is Saturday - I'm sure it will be so much fun too!

Best Morning

Hannah and I enjoyed breakfast in bed this morning, thanks to Rob. We shard a huge blueberry muffin, and after every bite, Hannah felt the need to give Mommy a hug. It was very cute and a wonderful way to start the day! :)

Two More Teeth!

Hannah has had 2 teeth pop through recently and is now about to get 2 more! The result is a sometimes cranky baby, but she's so cute with her little teeth, who can be too upset about it?

Queen Waves & Kisses

I used to think that Hannah's wave was the most adorable thing ever. We call it her "queen wave" because she flips her little wrist while she's waving - it's so cute and I've never seen a baby wave like that before. Now the waving has competition. Recently, Hannah has learned how to "kiss" when I ask "Hannah can mommy have kisses?". She pulls her lips into a fish face and keeps going until it her lips smack, making an audible kissing noise. It is the sweetest (and funniest) thing! Now we are working on blowing kisses!

A Gift For Hannah's 9 Month "Birthday"

Today Hannah grabbed my finger and put it in her mouth (trust me, you get used to it) and was chewing on it as usual when I felt something strange. Upon further investigation, I found her right bottom tooth had begun to emerge just in time for her 9 month "birthday." What a great gift! Now I'm just worried that she is going to use that gift to bite Mommy!

Hannah's 9 Month Appointment

At Hannah's 9 month appointment today, she weighed 19 pounds, 9 ounces and was 29.5 inches long. That makes her in the 96th percentile for her height and in the 67th percentile for her weight. Her iron levels were normal, and she is ready to start table foods now. What a big girl!

Mama

Hannah has finally decided it was time to start talking. She has been crawling around for a couple weeks now saying things like "ma ya la" and "ra da aa." I have been trying to get her to say "mama" for a while now and Rob has been trying to get her to say "dada" (and my father in law has been trying to get her to say "Jerry! Jerry!" but that is a story for a different day - there isn't enough room in this blog to convey my true feelings on that issue). Anyways, on Monday while my parents and grandparents played with her so I could run to the grocery store, she looked around and said "mama?" 3 times. Then when I returned, I put her in my lap and she laid her head on my chest, wrapped her arms around me, and said "mama." She should learn how to say "can I have a car for my 16th birthday?" now because when she is acting this darn cute, I'm liable to say yes to any request!

Hold Your Applause, Please

Hannah has found clapping this week. It is very cute, especially since she holds her hands out really wide and then misses about 1 in 3 times when she tries to clap them together. She claps at all times that she deems appropriate, usually meaning that she claps when she is bored or when others keep clapping first. She also likes hitting things together, such as blocks or bottles. It is keeping her very entertained. On another note - I have found that Hannah much prefers things that are not toys to things that are. She looks at you bored after about 2 minutes of playing with any one toy, but give her a wooden spoon, her shoe, or a piece of crumpled paper and she is entertained for hours. And now that she is becoming very efficient at crawling and pulling up on things - you don't have to give her anything to play with because she will certainly venture out on her own to find something she shouldn't be in that is so much more fun than anything you could've given her. The baby-proofing has begun!

Hannah Is Crawling!!!

Hannah is crawling - yay!!! Or wait, maybe I should rethink that. She was just rolling and army crawling before and it was hard enough keeping up with everything she was getting into. At least she is pulling up onto furniture now. That seems to occupy most of her time and she stays in one place. For now. ;)