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!
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| 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!
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| Pensive Hannah |
Other Highlights this month?
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| Chris!!! and Daniel enjoying Sligo Park |
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| Chris taught her a few tricks during his visit :) |
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Hannah loves watching the boys rock
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| Enjoying butternut squash before hiking to the Harper's Ferry lookout |
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| Holly and Chance came with us! Holly snuggling after lunch |
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| Harper's Ferry |
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| Harper's Ferry! |
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| We made it! I hiked up with Hannah in the ergo! |
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| Daniel looking like a bit of a bad ass with two dogs, a baby, and our backpack on the way down |
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| Pumpkin Festival! |
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| hayride! |
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| pumpkin patch |
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| My pumpkin! |
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| Alyson, one of my former students came with us! |
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| She found her pumpkin! |
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| Hannah was a monkey for Halloween! |
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| Getting ready for the Halloween parade! The other babies were losing their cool and Hannah was like "dude, what's your problem?" |
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| Snuggle monkey! |
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| 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.
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| Aunt Stephanie, Hannah, and Uncle Michael! |
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| Michael and Hannah |
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| Hannah and Meredith playing with packaging blobs - Hannah loves playing with these |
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| 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.
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| 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!)
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| Making baby food! Butternut squash and pumpkin coming up - straight from the farm! |
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| Hannah had grabbed the spoon from my hand and in a millisecond splattered carrots ALL over her head and ears |
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| She is very proud of her ability to clap! |
Her Favorite Things
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| 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!
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| 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!)
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| 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.
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| The trails by our house! My daily walk with the pups! |
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| Conspirators. Daniel and I are outnumbered and doomed |
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| Sligo Park - they have cute concrete stepping stones through the creek :) |
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| Chance loves his Hannah |
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| 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!
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| Daniel and Hannah hiking down |
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| 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.
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| 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! :)
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| Our family @ 8 months! |
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