Hannah @ 9 Months! Waving, Sleeping, and Pure Delight!

This has quite possibly been my favorite month so far!  Hannah has been SO MUCH FUN!  And...she has been sleeping the best she has ever slept this month so I actually seem to have the energy to enjoy her and feel the joy of being with her.  Full of giggles, determined to explore, and so loving and happy - our sweet Hannah is nine months old!  

 Sleep!!! 

At 8 months 1 day Hannah was moved up to the "mobile baby" side of the infant room.  (Bragging mother alert) They had an incoming infant and needed to choose one of the six babies to move up - and chose Hannah over others older than her because she is so very active and mobile!  (Bragging over).  Monday night?  OMG She slept from 9 - 6:30!!!!  I finally had to wake her up to feed her before I left for work!  Crazy!!!  Is every night like that?  No, but we have had more good nights than bad nights lately and that...is a HUGE change!!!  This month Hannah sleeping through the night is MORE normal than her not sleeping through the night.  AHHHHHHH!  AMAZING!  

That said...I'm still not getting a ton of sleep (like...previous Beth would think it's not enough and a co-worker said "wait, you're excited to only get how much sleep?"), but seriously...it is amazing.  What I mean by that is that Hannah has been going to sleep deeply enough that I can put her in her crib somewhere between 8 and 10.  Sometimes when I go to move her to her crib she just isn't ready and needs to nurse and snuggle longer (judge away, but I am okay with that - I am gone all day long, she needs some mommy snuggle time!)  Once my hands are free it is about an hour before I can crawl into bed.  (There's SO much to do...an hour is cutting it as short as possible to get ready for bed myself, walk the dogs, clean up, prep for the next day, etc).  So I crawl in bed at 11?  Hannah wakes at 4 or 5.  If she doesn't wake up until 6 something, I need to have woken up and showered and gotten most of the way ready by the time she does.  So if she does sleep, I am still only getting a maximum of 5-6 hours (which to a new mom sounds AMAZING...to most others it sounds like not enough).

Accomplishments and Happenings This Month

She's waving now and it is super cute!  When she waves it is a full body wave accompanied by a full big toothy grin!  She has been doing some serious cruising this month!  I also noticed that when she wants something that is on the floor/that she has dropped and she is standing, that instead of having to sit down to grab it, she actually squats down and picks it up and pops back up with ease!  She has great balance and great "saves" - I have seen her actually save herself from falling over by grabbing something with one hand - and she manages to keep herself upright and prevent a wipe out.  ...I was super impressed.

Standing and turning - super cute! 

Always on the move

Or nom nom noming

(Below - one of the first days Hannah started waving)  :)

She had a double ear infection this month :(  but the doctor was super impressed by her pain tolerance and the happy demeanor she had even though she didn't feel well.  She was quick to become extra fussy when she needed/wanted something, but overall I was amazed by how pleasant she was while she was sick and in pain. 

She's beginning to understand "no" and contemplates what to do once we say no.  We are working on redirecting and making sure that we follow through when we say no.  ...You can see her processing and considering.  But sigh, I guess it's time to start picking our battles! 

We had a visit from a former student, Ben Laird - he's a cadet at West Point this year!  (His family is the one that gave Hannah her first set of books with all the personalized messages before she was born).  And Hannah loved him!  We had a great evening learning about the first year at West Point, playing with Hannah and catching him up on how things have been going in Maryland.  IT's always neat when my "worlds collide". 

Cadet Ben Laird + Hals Family - Hannah's not quite sure what to make of his hat!

Thanksgiving Break was a wonderful blessing. We really enjoyed the time to ourselves as a family and spent Thanksgiving day itself enjoying a blissfully low key day with the Kunkle family.  Four adults and two littles ones seemed like a very reasonable ratio for all of us and we had a nice afternoon and evening cooking and catching up. 

Reading a book with her Daddy on Thanksgiving :)

the Maryland natives are bartering goods

Hannah playing in Lillian's box fort tunnel complex

Lillian + Hannah = Thanksgiving Cuties

Decorating for Christmas!

It finally arrived!!!

The missing bag that I gate checked in Sarajevo on June 21st arrived at our home in Silver Spring November 28th.   If this bag could talk...

Our poor car seat.  Will I trust the integrity of the frame anymore?  Hell no.  But am I hoping to wash the cloth cover and put it on our current frame - yep!!

Nom Nom Nom

Really wants to feed herself.  For Hannah this month has been a month of transition.  She's hungry...but only wants to eat a limited amount of bites per meal from a spoon.  She is obsessed with learning to feed herself.  So we usually start a meal out with yogurt or the pureed baby foods I have made (we're going to use them up, definitely not throw out all the tastiness and hard work!) and then she transitions over to other things.  She likes peas, cheerios, LOVES cheese of all kinds, loves to gnaw on a raw carrot, apple, sweet potato even (we let her hold one while I was cooking thanksgiving weekend and it came back looking "attacked" by a little rodent) and the obliterates steamed sweet potato slices.  A big recent (and incredibly messy) hit?  Raspberries and blackberries!  yum yum!  The main issue is that her coordination of grabbing an item and successfully delivering it into her mouth isn't great yet.  We're getting there!  But that is the biggest contradiciton..."I want to feed myself!" but "I can't get food in my mouth" That said, through the month she has made leaps and bounds, perfected the pincer grasp and is continually becoming more adept.  Very fun to observe!

No one is safe when Hannah starts flinging food.  

I yam what I yam.  

Growth and Appearance

She finally has more than fuzz!  Not much more...but enough to be able to spike it a bit in the bath and to have a little bed head after a nap.  Now the far more pressing question - what color is it?!  So far it looks golden with hints of red during the day and brown at night.  In the sunlight though it is undeniable that there is some red in there!  Her eyes are a beautiful hazel too!  At night they look most dark...and sometimes I wonder if they are just going brown but then when the light catches her eyes I see a teal blue rim and then green rippling through the brown.  For her sake I really hope they stay this way - I LOVE them!  She still has two adorable little teeth (although I really do think she is teething at that more are eminent...she started drooling like crazy this weekend and was extra fussy.  We'll see!)  

Size wise the 6-9 month clothes are getting too tight.  The 9 month outfits fit...but are on their way out and the 12 month clothes are a nice fit - there's a few that are still a little big.  We moved into 12 month pjs this week and they fit her a little too perfectly already!  I like that all the 12 month stuff has grippy feet.  For Hannah, that's quite helpful.  When we went in for the ear infection she weighed 20 pounds exactly (8.5) months - so she has officially doubled her birthweight and is still growing!  :)

Her Favorite Things

She still loves the fat plastic stackable rings, loves to play with plastic mardi gras beads, adores books, and has really been enjoying the elephant push toy the Grand Hals gave her when they visited.  She also loves it when I grab a toy from her hand with my teeth and shake it back and forth like I am a puppy.  ...She laughs and laughs.  We often do this with a small stuffed animal to survive the oh-so-ridiculously-squirmy diaper changes.  

She has been so so so ridiculously cute lately!  SO happy and quick to laugh!  The past few weeks have just been the best!  

I dare you to look at this picture and not smile.  :)  

Communication

She has gotten very good at saying "Da da" and often does when she is happy or wants attention.  She is hungry she makes a pleading "mmmmmmmmmmm" sound.  The day she turned 9 months old she said "Ma Ma" when asking to be fed!  :)

Puppies 

She loves her puppies so much!  She has developed a bad habit (which we are discouraging/redirecting accordingly) of casting cheerios and food bits to her lowly subjects and laughing as they scramble.  Sometimes it seems regal and mocking, other times it is adorable fascination.  But she often stops when we tell her no. 

She also loves to "play bow" to the puppies.  I had noticed a strange behavior that I found adorably funny...but I couldn't quite figure out its origin/why it tickled me so much.  ...Hannah would crawl around the house and jerk her head downward as she was crawling around.  it was strange.  Then, one evening while we were upstairs in her room, she was playing with the puppies while I put laundry away and she was just giggling and giggling over and over.  When I studied what was happening I realized she was crawling up to Holly and play bowing - slapping both hands down and lowering her head with her bottom in the air - just like a puppy inviting you to play with them (Holly does this with us all the time and we often respond with similar gestures and then play with her).  Sure enough, Hannah was mimicking this behavior and some of the times the dogs were bowing back!  Regardless, each time she bowed, she burst into a fit of giggles!  It was such a fun interaction to witness and had me smiling for days!  :)

Hannah also enjoys it when I roll a ball to her - she then adeptly picks it up and shares it back with me (she's not good at rolling it back yet).  Some times if the mood is right Holly will take the ball instead and then bring it to me, drop it, and I roll it to Hannah, she picks it up and hands it to Holly, etc.  Each time Holly takes something from Hannah she laughs and claps her hands!  SO cute!!!

I have also been trying to help her learn to pat/pet the dogs instead of just pulling their fur and she has finally caught on.  She loves to crawl to Chance and pat him.  :)  

Chance with his jingle bell collar and Hannah playing with the lights...

He is the sweetest dog on the planet.  

Daddy

Still not sleeping well...it's not really linked to Hannah's sleep, it's just shallow, crappy sleep each night for Daniel.  We're not sure why.  But we are sure that finally caving and becoming a coffee drinker (just one cup in the morning) has been a transformational experience for Daniel!  The first weekend he drank coffee was he spoke to me as if he was Rob Lowe the entire day!  Epically funny!  

I adore this picture!

He also loves loves loves everything Christmas, so it has been a fun couple weeks around the house with Christmas music and a Christmas tree.  (We got one.  ...it managed to get lights and looked pretty if you squinted and blurred the lights.  We also agreed it was totally okay to give up and not bother with ornaments.  haha.  Next year maybe?)  

Daniel & Hannah selfie!  Trying out our new camera remote and showing off Hannah's beautiful Christmas outfits :)

Hannah & Daddy selfie!  Hannah @ 9 months!

Mommy 

This month has been one of my absolute favorites!  She has just been so much fun!  And she has been sleeping!  And she has been easier!!!  She is more content to explore and play - on her own, but with me close by.  But there have been several nights where I have been able to give her different things to do while I cook dinner and actually managed to cook dinner without it being a disaster and without having a totally unhappy baby!  And I didn't feel like I had outright ignored her either!  Awesome!  Spending a week with her over Thanksgiving was also wonderful and I really enjoyed catching up with Hannah and "resyncing" with her.  

As capable as she is, she's still my baby!  :)

Our family @ 9 Months!

Full of smiles, quick to laugh, and generous with her big sloppy kisses, Hannah is absolutely lovely and SO much fun @ 9 months!  :)

Hannah @ 9 Months enjoying her first Christmas season!  

Hannah @ 8 Months - Monkey Business, Kalahari Communication, & Clapping!

While it is not something I could explain at the time, although I did have a hunch that Hannah had become more difficult and demanding from 5-7 months. Learning to crawl, teething, frustration with being unable to communicate, a round of separation anxiety/heightened clinginess, along with the fact that we were in the midst of moving...all of it meant that Hannah was harder on us than before. I began to wonder if I was imagining things...I knew that I was a little less patient than when we weren't in the middle of a move, but yet I still felt like she was still much fussier than she once was. And then, all of a sudden after we hit 7 months and progressed towards month 8 our Happy Hannah returned! Hooray!!! I wasn't imagining it! She really had been much harder. Hooray for a happy Hannah!

Hannah @ 8 Months!

Accomplishments
More adept and skilled, she now always crawls with her tummy off of the ground and certainly makes the transitions from sitting to crawling to sitting to standing to sitting, etc. effortless. She is very quick at progressing through all of these now and it a speedy crawler. In fact, at daycare they had to move a baby up to the next level today to make room for a new infant (as Hannah is 8 months, 1 day) and they chose Hannah as she was by far the most mobile in her group. Mid month she started working her way up the stairs too.


Along with a happier demeanor, Hannah is clapping and I think it is her most adorable trick yet! Clapping almost always is accompanied by a happy smile. She can also come when called - if she is sad that I left the room and I can often convince her to come to me and she will come crawling to me. I can also set her down in the living room, Daniel can call her and she will crawl over to him and then stand at the couch to be picked up! Such cuteness!

Pensive Hannah

Other Highlights this month?

Chris!!! and Daniel enjoying Sligo Park

Chris taught her a few tricks during his visit :)

Hannah loves watching the boys rock

Enjoying butternut squash before hiking to the Harper's Ferry lookout

Holly and Chance came with us!  Holly snuggling after lunch

Harper's Ferry

Harper's Ferry!

We made it!  I hiked up with Hannah in the ergo!

Daniel looking like a bit of a bad ass with two dogs, a baby, and our backpack on the way down

Pumpkin Festival!

hayride!

pumpkin patch

My pumpkin!

Alyson, one of my former students came with us! 

She found her pumpkin!

Hannah was a monkey for Halloween!

Getting ready for the Halloween parade!  The other babies were losing their cool and Hannah was like "dude, what's your problem?"  

Snuggle monkey!

Dreaming of bananas

Hannah finally met our dear friend Chris! He came and stayed with us for two full weekends and the days in between. We hiked Harper's Ferry, spent time on the trails near our house enjoying fall, and went to a pumpkin patch the following weekend. This month was also Hannah's first Halloween and I couldn't help but be really excited! And then to round out the month, Hannah's Grandparents and Aunt and Uncle (Gary, Pam, Michael & Stephanie) poured into town for a whirlwind weekend. 

Aunt Stephanie, Hannah, and Uncle Michael!  

Michael and Hannah

Hannah and Meredith playing with packaging blobs - Hannah loves playing with these

Daniel LOVES making fires in the fireplace - we were all enjoying smores!

Sleep
Still incredibly inconsistent. While she is capable of sleeping through the night, that doesn't mean that she does. And this month we have had a cold to keep her up at night and an insatiable growth spurt. This month we had two weeks of sleeping 2-3 hours a night, 4 glorious nights of amazingness, followed by several of the worst nights we have ever had, followed by an insanely demanding growth spurt, which tapered to the classic and not restorative 2-3 hour stretches. ...I'm really tired.

Family nap time!

NOM NOM NOM!
Holy Growth Spurt!
So we had slowly creeped up to sending three 2 oz containers of veggies/fruit and three bottle of expressed milk. At dinner Hannah was eating an additional 1.5 ounces of veggie/fruit, about a half ounce of cheese, and some puffs or cheerios. ...Then it happened.


I knew something was up when she ate alllllll.night.loooong. The next day I found out daycare had given her an additional 4 ounces of fruit/veggies from her reserve! Woah!


So...we introduced Greek yogurt. The next day at daycare this child ate three 2 ounce portions of veggies/fruit (apples+cinnamon; pumpkin; and butternut squash with a little apple) AND four ounces of Greek yogurt AND a half ounce of cheese AND three bottles. She then came home - she was all happy in her daddy's arms. Then I walked in the door and then second she saw me she squawked and started screaming for food...her face like immediately changed from smiling to OMG FEED ME...then at dinner she ate another ounce of Greek yogurt, a serving of carrots, and several handfuls (my size handful) of cheerios! She took a bath and then nursed for 2-3 hours before I could put her in her crib. And within 2-3 hours she was up to nurse alllll.night.loooong. Hello Growth Spurt! Holy cow! I'm really really glad she's doing so well with food because there's no way I could keep up with her demands if we were still exclusively nursing! I'm just really excited we made it this far and now that her demands exceed my production we are able to supplement with homemade food. I'm also super relieved that the growth spurt kicked in the week that it did - because the previous week I was running way low on baby food and would have been woefully unprepared. Currently we have a very healthy stockpile of food options and she definitely inspires me to stay on top of it! I would list her favorite foods...but right now this baby isn't picky! (Also a major blessing!)

Making baby food!  Butternut squash and pumpkin coming up - straight from the farm!

Hannah had grabbed the spoon from my hand and in a millisecond splattered carrots ALL over her head and ears

She is very proud of her ability to clap!

Her Favorite Things

She loves story time!

What is the one thing that can get Hannah to stop in her tracks, sit in your lap, and wiggle with excitement as her eyes light up and she widely grins? Books! The two favorites are currently "Baby Woof Woof" and "Pat the Bunny". Baby Woof Woof is this very simple little book that asks a question, then you open a flap and reveal the cute baby animal behind the flap and it says a little more about the creature. There's a puppy, bunny, fluffy penguin chick, kitten, foal, and duckling...and Hannah prefers that this book be read at least three times per sitting. She loves it - she wiggles with excitement for this book more than any other and it is adorable and utterly awesome!

Baby Woof Woof is her favorite

She also loves Pat the Bunny - her favorite parts so far are patting the bunny, peekaboo, looking in the mirror, and smelling the flowers (she now puts her nose to them instead of licking them! progress!)

Patting the bunny :)  

Communication
Last month we developed a back and forth of blowing raspberries and sputtering back and forth to playfully communicate with each other. This month we have moved into exploring the "clicking" sound - when you click your tongue on the roof of your mouth.


It goes something like this:
Hannah looks at you and while smiling goes "click"
Me or Daniel: "click"
Hannah grinning: "click"
and then at this point we steadily "click" as we zoom in closer and closer for a snuggle and kiss. It is UH-DORABLE.


Sometimes it is a "Cough". Hannah coughs, we do a single cough back, Hannah mimics our cough...etc etc. And she coughs really hard every time even though we are playing. Also super crazy cute.


Then towards the end of the month it went something like this:
Hannah looked at us, smiled, and went "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"
Daniel and I look at each other, bewildered, widen eyes, shake our heads no, and whisper, let's not encourage this...
Hannah looks at us again, smiles, and goes "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"
We ignore her.
Hannah looks at us again, she smiles and goes "AHHHHHHHHHHHHH"
We put her in the pack and play and walk away. (Briefly.)


There were a few tears. ...but we are back to communicating like Kalahari bushmen around here and not axe murderers, so I am okay with that. 


And!  Right at the end of the first month, Hannah said her first word!  Any guesses?  

Da da.  It is ...adorable and heart melting!  She says it lovingly most times.  And while it is not consistently only at Daniel (I wouldn't expect it to be yet at all), there was an evening when she was nursing and getting ready to go to sleep, Daniel walked in the room and she tipped her head back, looked at him, broke into the biggest grin, and exclaimed "Da da!!!"  :)  

Hannah starts out clicking in this video but then switches to saying "da da"  :)


Pups
Still doing great! They really love the trail! Daily walks amongst the trees and brush and deer and leaves and tromps in the creek make the puppies very happy! They are ever sweet with Hannah and she just adores them. They are also glued to Hannah's side during meal time as she messily chows down and cheerios and cheese chunks fly. (She's not throwing food yet...just not fully coordinated either...and sometimes she likes clapping mid meal). Chance is so heart warmingly sweet with her and Holly is steadily learning to play more gently. She now knows to turn to the pups and stick her hands out for kisses too.

The trails by our house!  My daily walk with the pups!

Conspirators.  Daniel and I are outnumbered and doomed

Sligo Park - they have cute concrete stepping stones through the creek :)

Chance loves his Hannah

Chance hiking at Harper's Ferry - he and Holly were sooooo happy

Daddy & Mommy


I work on the blog entry through the month - I keep a running draft in google and add things as I have time. ...This was my commentary a few weeks ago and thankfully I don't feel this way at the moment, but I can't help but share:


"The struggle is real! She just doesn't sleep! Daniel isn't sleeping well even in perfect conditions (We don't know what's up, but it's a compounding problem!). I'm a sleep disaster because of Hannah (she's trying to kill me) and we.are.so.utterly.wiped."


Lol. Yep. We've had good weeks and we've had bad weeks.


Daniel is hanging in, but he really isn't sleeping well - even on the nights that Hannah sleeps amazingly. We have been little scientists and have steadily changed one factor at a time and just can't seem to figure out what the issue is. It seems like he isn't getting into deep sleep and the cumulative effects for him are debilitating. We're working on figuring it out, but man! Hannah will have a good night and I will wake up all excited, only to ask Daniel how he is and find out he slept terribly. :( We just can't seem to get on the same page with sleep. Hopefully we can figure something out soon!

Daniel and Hannah hiking down

enjoying the warmth of the fire

On a positive note, work is going really well for both of us. We both really like our jobs and have had good, positive feedback lately, so we are both feeling good about what we are doing. It's awesome to enjoy going to work and what you do when you get there.



I am hanging in as well - ready for a little more consistency in the sleep department (surprise surprise), but it gets better one step at a time. The growth spurt was rough, but the nights when she sleeps well give me hope and the knowledge that the promise land is coming. :) I'm just ready to be more unpacked, more settled, and to be able to feel like I have a minute to make plans and do something other than strategize on how I am going to use the ten minutes I have between when I finally get Hannah to bed and when I have to walk the dogs and go to sleep myself. The other mood lifter? I LOVE fall SO MUCH! After all those years in Florida it is just that much more magical! I get to walk the dogs amongst the fall foliage for thirty to forty-five minutes each day before Daniel and Hannah get home and it is my sanctuary time. Some days are more hurried than others, but many days along the trail are just magical. My drive to work ends with an eight minute drive through the gorgeous Rock Creek Park. We see deer daily around here even though we live in the midst of a major metropolitan area. It's beautiful and very soothing.

Having fun at the pumpkin festival

Overall, this month has been a good one! I know Hannah's fussiness was a combination of changes in environment, illness, teething, vaccinations, her favorite caregiver at daycare going on vacay for a week, me feeling more stressed than normal as we moved, etc, time changes while traveling, etc. But!!! Even with all those factors...bottom line, she was extra fussy and demanding. It is SO NICE to have my sweet sweet Hannah BACK and better than ever! She is full of laughter and smiles and the most ridiculously adorable clapping hands and clicking sounds and now the ever heart melting words of "da da" which she says lovingly towards us. Fall, a visit from Chris, hiking, pumpkin patching, dressing like a Monkey, trick or treaters, did I mention, FALL!, and a whirlwind visit from the Grand Hals and Uncle Michael and Aunt Stephanie, it's been a beautiful month! :)

Our family @ 8 months!

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