…My BABY will be 18 months old in the morning and I am so excited for her and the adventures my family has ahead…and for all of the new things we are continually able to do as a family of four now. We have spent the past eighteen months, cocooned together in our home, in so many ways, snuggling, giggling, dancing, playing, at times surviving, but steadily melding together as an awesomely tight knit family of four. Hannah is the energy and enthusiasm that keeps us all going, but Lily is the sweet, sticky, silly glue that binds us together. When Hannah announces it is “family hug” time and we drop everything to snuggle in tight, my heart nearly bursts. THIS is what it is all about. We all know it and we can all sense it…and even if only for a few seconds, nothing else matters.
The past few months have been busy as ever around here - Daniel has been traveling for work frequently, and each trip is usually 4-6 days, with the longest one being 9 days. It honestly seems like we have been in a constant state of gearing up and preparing for him to be gone and then playing catch up afterwards as we each juggle so much during each trip. For Daniel it's catching up at work and from jet lag and from looooong work days and for me, it's catching up for the inevitable cumulative exhaustion that comes from being a single parent. In fact, between July 27 and October 19, he's been gone 23 days. When he's out of town, between drop off times, dog walking, and pick up times, I cannot work a full day unless I completely upturn the girls' schedules (which I really try not to do). And yet, even if I take a 60-90 minutes of personal time from work, I am still getting up earlier than I usually would and going to bed later - so by the time he comes back, I am usually utterly exhausted. Our life isn't quite set up for him to travel for work quite this much (my commute really throws a wrench in things during these weeks). If you add in his other trips - between March and mid November he will have been gone 40 days - on at least 7 or 8 different trips! I've managed nearly all of it by myself! But I do owe a huge shout out to my Aunt Mary-Michele and my grandmother for helping out the week that Daniel was gone and it coincided with our first week back for faculty (which is one of my three busiest weeks of the year and not a week I can shave an hour or two off of my day with personal time). Things should be calming down travel-wise...but I will believe it when I see it. We are really excited for the next two months (Nov & Dec because it is full of wonderful holiday and very little work travel!)
Some additional highlights from mid July to mid October have included a wonderful river day with our friends and continuing many of the traditions we have started - attending the county fair in August, apple picking in early September, a semi-local weekend getaway at the end of September (this time it was to West Virginia), and hitting the pumpkin patch.
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| wading along our river - the Middle Patuxent |
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| family time and friend time! a huge win! |
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| they loved hopping from tube to tube! |
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| Saturday morning snuggles while dad is in Colorado |
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| getting ready to head out for the county fair! |
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| without fail - the corn pit has been a total favorite the past two years |
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| apple and raspberry picking at Butler's orchard |
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| enjoying one of the views in West Virginia |
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| Berkeley Springs |
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| dipping her feet in Berkeley Springs |
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| borrowing Daddy's shades while we try wine at the Antietam vineyard on the edge of the Antietam battlefield |
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| enjoying mac and cheese at the corner stable |
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| the bike rack at Kohls was all the rage |
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| enjoying the pumpkin patch |
But...let's talk about these babies!
Our sweet Lily @ 18 months:
Lily understands pretty much everything…and has for months. But what floors me is the layers that she understands in a situation. Hannah can be throwing a fit about something and Lily will emerge with exactly the item Hannah wanted. The other day, Lily had just finished an apple sauce pouch and went to the pantry to get another - I said “Lily, can we put the apple sauce pouch back and I will give you grapes instead?” and she nodded, put the pouch back, and went to the kids table to wait for her snack. Ahhhhmazing. Today, her dad was in the kitchen and dropped the lid to the dog food container and Lily beelined it into the kitchen and picked it up for him. She doesn't miss a thing.
She has also been so happy and snuggly lately. And loves to give hugs and kisses. She sneaks in new words all the time, if you are actually listening and paying attention.
Yesterday I caught her counting “two, three”
during the “woah” game.
Tonight, she
said “up,” asking to be picked up while her dad and I were sitting at the
dinner table and she said “book!….book!” as she went to find a book for me to
read. Earlier today I asked her to say "help please" instead of whine and she looked at me and said "help." And at lunch time she was asking for "more! more!" and when I asked what she wanted more of she actually replied "corn" - we are making major communication progress folks!
I call Lily our incredibly observant owl and personality wise she may be a little more reserved than Hannah, but her default is snuggles and
laughter/grins. All summer she was steadily gaining teeth and finally all eight teeth have broken through! In a 2-3 month stretch we went from eight teeth to sixteen teeth combined! Between a slow down in teething and improved sense of communication from both parties that it isn’t a continual
guessing game... means we have a young child who is pretty content and happy!
When we were fall decoration shopping and in one of the Halloween aisles at JoAnns, when Lily saw a skeleton lawn creature, she growled at it!
Lily keeps playing the “woah” game in which she says “woah”....”woah”...and then throws her entire body backwards in a crazy 180* trust exercise. It definitely keeps us on our toes...and she just giggles and giggles. At least she says "woah" to hint what she's going to do before throwing her whole body backward! (Most of the time)
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| She's pretty silly and has a mischievous smile that I have a feeling is really going to test us sometimes - but she loves to laugh and find ways to make us smile. |
Lily - not quite 18 mos, has been ignoring wooden puzzles and tonight sat down and did one from scratch start to finish. Since then she has an increasing interest in them. She also loves to dance and do this adorable side to side wiggle
thing with her entire body. She also loves when we do "motor boat, motor boat go so slow..."
Lily's words lately: Thank you, Bye, Hi, Mama, Dada, Hannah, Ch (Chance),
Holly, dog, milk, more, bottle, water, up, book, ball, blue, purple, yellow,
all done,
Favorite shows/movies - Rock Dog and Daniel Tiger
Favorite toys - foxie, Glow and seahorse, the ball popper
machine thing, music cube in the morning, dance music thing
Favorite foods/treats - gummy bears!
Hannah at 3.5 years
Hannah excitedly tells people: "I am half of three and I am big and strong and I am Hannah Hals!"
Hannah has been so protective of Lily - she continually references “her baby” and says “my baby is sleeping” (in the crib upstairs) or “my baby is 1!” (to the people in the mall. She also tells her entire name to people. Thankfully she says it so quickly, people often don’t distinguish that it is her first and last name, and they often look to me for translation, but still!
Tonight we had a tea party, she specifically poured “tea” for each of us, made sure she put sugar in her tea, and was really excited to have a family tea party.
Hannah-isms -
We were at a restaurant and were going to get ice cream afterwards and she looked at her dad and asked for "10 money for ice cream."
"Mom. Listen to me." - this was a tricky one. Basically whenever she wanted something, she would use this line. She felt like she could use it to overrule something we had said (like, no, you cannot have candy right now) - "No. Mom. Listen to me. I want a lollipop." etc. It was stern and insistent and keep catching me by surprise.
Parents: "Hannah, please stop whining"
Hannah: "I'm not whining, I'm using my words..." ...well, she has a point...
While folding laundry, Hannah saw my bras and picked one up and said “for your milk, mommy?”
While out running errands, Hannah used her "phone" (flat Rock) to set a timer for when we had to pick up pizza...She comes by it honestly!
Hannah - "Mommy, I am so excited for Chance and Holly that Daddy is coming home tonight!"
We went on a fall decorations shopping expedition and Hannah LOVED Michaels and wanted pictures with everything, including scarecrows and black sparkly pumpkins.
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| She was SO excited to find a wild turtle in the woods and to get to save him from Chance (we moved him much further off the trail) |
At 3.5 Hanna’s favorite shows/movies - My Little Pony song video
clips and cutie mark stories, Snow White, Cinderella, and Tangled.
Favorite toys - legos (the little “classic” kind),
magna-tiles, her little my little pony figurines, TEA PARTY!, anything silly putty or slime related.
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| we enjoyed a visit from Aunt Mary-Michele and Uncle Kevin! |
On the Saturday Daniel was in Spain, I ran errands with both kids with me - and managed to make three different stops, come home and have Lily nap, and then run two additional errands. A week later on “Columbus Day” (aka Destruction of Indigenous Peoples Day), I took the kids to the mall by myself to run a few errands…and as I was tucking them back into their carseats and climbing back into the car…it hit me… while yes, it does take extra energy and planning to take the kids out and to run errands…it is totally doable and not a barrier like it used to be. It’s a combo of how far we have come and me having more energy again overall…but it’s awesome for it to finally not feel impossible to go out and run an errand with the kids by myself!!!
The past six weeks or so I have finally reached a point in which I don't feel like death every day. I honestly feel like I have been swimming in choppier and choppier water, often holding my breath and swimming underwater since June of 2013...with a small break for air and calm for about two months during the summer of 2015 and I really feel like just recently I have had moments where I have been able to come up for a little bit more air...I am not even talking about actual breaks for myself, more just physically not feeling awful all the time. But then I am shocked when I feel like I am getting sucked back down - because I have no reserve to pull from whatsoever (and each time Daniel has gone out of town, the undertow or a down current moves back in). But it is still very hopeful to finally feel like we are at the beginning of feeling more like myself again.
Daniel has been very busy with work, but things are going really well for him! He got to help present at a conference in Spain, visited the Madrid DSN (deep space network), and has been traveling a great deal for his other program as well. In November we are going to go out to LA (again, for his work), but this time I am actually going with him! I am excited for the opportunity and the chance to get away, even if he will be working and it will be a quick trip. It's a huge step to be at the point where something like that is even a possibility!
Since we found out we were expecting Lily, we have talked about making it to the 18 month mark and how things should shift and be more manageable after that point and really - they are! It's been so exciting and uplifting to see the subtle changes and improvements and to enjoy our time with the girls more than ever!
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| Our family of four @ 1.5 years and 3.5 years! |
It’s wonderful to feel again and to be able to enjoy it more tangibly and fully. Did I sleep walk through the last several years? Not even close. But I certainly recognize the limits the strain and stress and exhaustion place on us. I’m just deeply thankful to have come up for some fresh air for now and to be able to enjoy my sweet family more than ever. 
