The Hals Family World Adventures

Hannah @ 12 months!

At some point between when Hannah was eleven months old and now I woke up one morning and realized my child was most certainly a toddler. While there have been various qualities of Hannah that have seemed toddler-like for quite some time or have steadily snuck up on us here and there. I honest to goodness feel like there was a night somewhere in there where I put my baby to sleep and woke up to a toddler. I couldn't pinpoint a single exact moment, but it seemed sudden and irreversible.

My toddler!

Accomplishments and Highlights...in stream of consciousness form
At 13 months...Hannah is shifting more and more into her 18 month size clothes, is on the verge of reaching the moment when I finally relent and realize she really can't put on her soft, fuzzy 12 month pajamas one more time, and is gasp, wearing shoes with higher and higher frequency. (Yes, I know she shouldn't wear them all the time, and no, she doesn't). But when we first put shoes on her feet she would toddle while awkwardly half kicking her feet, like the video clips of a dog that has been forced to wear booties. Just last night she saw her shoes and reached for them and tried to put them on her feet. When I put them on for her, she then proceeded to walk back and forth between Daniel and myself.

Hannah took her first steps right around a year - she had been pivoting in a circle before that point, but finally got her left foot to move along with her right and would take 2-4 steps before squatting down or plopping onto her bottom. Since then her walking has been sporadic, but she is steadily sneaking it in more and more. She is often very happy to walk when I give her a finger from each of my hands and is downright fast. After having her barrel into crawling far sooner than I was remotely prepared, I have enjoyed the gradual nature of this walking business. I am really pretty sure that we witnessed her first steps and my heart swelled each time she would try and then flap her hands while laughing and grinning in pure triumph and happiness with her accomplishment. She is steadily getting smoother and faster...and by next month...she may be in an entirely different place, who knows!

This month we celebrated her birthday, I had my birthday (my "celebration" was the madness of trying to get out the door to the airport, a nice toast and glass of wine in the Atlanta airport, and a three hour mechanical delay from hell, but hey we were bound for vacation and that was the focus this year), and we enjoyed an amazingly epic trip to Argentina and Brazil!

Family vacation time! YAY! :) Heading to South America!

Hannah chilling in her bassinet - flying from ATL to Buenos Aires

Enjoying the city views and chasing down pigeons from her sweet ride

While she has always loved her puppies, this month she has fallen in love with animals! The pigeons in Buenos Aires and Rio, the dogs in El Calafate, and the coati in Iguazu Falls - she has loved watching them (and when safe, petting them) and is so excited each and every time. She was delighted to come home to her puppies and genuinely hugs Chance now, is continually trying to play with Holly, and actually says "dogs!!!" in anticipation when Daniel pulls up with her in the car in the afternoon after daycare.

Checking out animals at the National Zoo (in DC)

Enjoying the birds at the aviary in the National Zoo

At daycare our baby has moved into the toddler room! It has been a tougher adjustment for her than I was hoping, but overall I am really excited for her! Toddlers get two different outside play sessions, have more structured activities built into the day, have an adorable nap time on cots that she seems to be adapting to quite nicely, and the "busy busy" and continually rotating through different activities structure of the day is one that I think will be awesome for her and much more "her speed." The biggest adjustment has been getting to know the new people and reaching a comfort level with her new teachers, but she seems to be doing much better after just a few days.

Is anyone sleepy?

Naptime

Before the trip Hannah was sleeping okay - still waking at least once unpredictably in the night (sometimes at 1 sometimes at 3 sometimes at 4, etc.) And each morning was still Russian roulette. During the trip it was atrocious. She was teething and gaining two teeth and developed a pretty significant cold (one of her worst) and any time we sleep in the same room instead of a different room she wakes up more frequently/will wake up and then cry until I get her because I am "right there". Over the twelve days we traveled the best sleep we got were two nights in which she slept for a four hour stretch. It was brutal. Between crappy sleep on the overnight flight, a sick kiddo, getting colds ourselves, sleeping mainly sleeping in 1-3 hour stretches, and having busy days during the trip it was tough on us. Since we have returned from the trip she is sleeping quite well and I am hopeful (and hopefully not naively so) that this is finally the new normal. We'll see. Fingers crossed!

Snoozing in a cafe in Rio

Enjoying a whole seat to herself from Rio to ATL

Nom nom nom?
No leaps or bounds here. Still a pretty good eater, still fairly versatile. Still not a meat eater, but I figure that will happen when she needs it. We're still nursing! I didn't want to change a thing until after we made it through our trip and now I'm still not quite sure what to change or if I want to change anything. I have dropped a pumping session at work (from two down to one), which is the equivalency of one of the three bottles I was sending to daycare and I now just send three bottles that are each 1/2 to 2/3 my milk and topped off with whole milk. I really would like to eventually not pump at work (and by eventually I mean pretty soon...I am over bringing all the sterilized parts and trying to carve out the time from my day) but haven't quite gotten there yet. As for morning and evening? I am really hoping to continue and just follow Hannah's lead. We'll see!

Nursing my tele tubby on the go as we hiked a trail to see Perito Moreno glacier

First jelly bean - Happy Easter Hannah!

She loves Greek yogurt!

Growth and Appearance
She is taller and leaner and more toddler like. She has the most hair she's ever had, but still not lots of hair. Not quite enough to manage a barrette. The main thing? There's definitely some red in there! You can see it best in the sunlight, but it's unmistakeable! Her eyes are still hazel and she now has seven teeth. Three on the bottom, and four on the top. They're adorable. At her 12 month checkup she weighed 23 lbs, was 30 inches tall, and her big ole noggin was in the upper 90's%. Size 4 shoes - but quickly heading towards 4.5, still wearing some size 12 clothes, but 12-18 fits well and quite a few of her 18 month outfits fit perfectly (it definitely all depends on the brand).

airport antics - 7 flights down, one to go!

Her Favorite Things
She still adores books! Karen Katz lift the flap books are a new favorite. I gave her an adorable "egg carton" full of little chickies in eggs to play with on the trip and they were an absolute hit. She loves her mega blocks and is starting to try to stack them together, not just pull them apart, which is a fun change. She thinks bubbles are funny and can now not just roll a ball towards me, but actually throw it in my direction! Holly loves that new trick. Hannah also loves playing with the pantry cupboard we added to the hall right beside the kitchen to help with storage. She loves to pull everything down from the bottom two shelves and put them back over and over again. She LOVES to go outside and will throw a full on toddler style fit if I let the puppies out into the yard and we don't go outside for fresh air too.

This video - according to "legend" (aka my mom's stories), I was known for demanding applause and singling out those who didn't acquiesce my demands. While this isn't quite what Hannah is doing here...such demands may be only a few months away...

Communication
Words? Dada is still put to use and refers to Daniel and/or the desire to have fun. "Uh oh" has not only graduated from "uh uh" but she even has the tone correct dropping the "oh" down lower than the "uh". She consistently proclaims "Dat!" as she points to what she wants and now says "daw!" (dog) as she points at dogs or any other furry four legged animal. She also says "Do" when you ask her if she wants something and she doesn't. It's freaking adorable. She also blows kisses and emphatically waves hello/goodbye.

The Puppies
Are adjusting to Hannah's new found obsession with them. They aren't quite used to her wanting to give them so much attention, but they are adjusting. Chance has been amazing - and when we first came home he greeted Hannah (in my arms) before me. Holly is steadily taking advantage Hannah's willingness to play with her - and Daniel jokingly calls her his babysitter in the mornings.

Chance loves spring as much as we do!

Happy we're home!

Daddy
Hannah and Daniel are SO SO SO cute together. It's heart melting cuteness and is amazing. They have all kinds of little rituals and adorable would be a huge understatement. My confession? Daniel will openly tell you he doesn't love the "baby stage" but...the toddler stage? That's what he's been looking forward to and it shows through and through. Hannah has melted his heart many times over but the latest indicator? The night Hannah reached thirteen months, my jazz-and-classical-music-forever husband joined in on a dance party with me and Hannah and danced without abandon (she loved it) to Uptown Funk and Bitch I'm Madonna (one of Hannah's favorites...problematic, I know).

Looking at pigeons together

Hannah and her daddy :)

Mommy
At 13 months this momma is doing quite well! Reaching the twelve month mark is a major mix of emotions - bitter sweetness, nostalgia, triumph, disbelief...and a lot more. But, in the end, I have tried to focus on just being proud, thankful, and happy. Proud of myself - I grew a baby, nourished her, started working when she was four months old and have been loving my dream job, and have managed to move us, settle us, and keep us together. I may not be in amazing shape yet and clothes may not fit exactly like they used to, but I can speed walk miles and miles to support my husband while he runs a marathon, take my dogs on a long walk each afternoon, and have shed the baby weight and have reached my pre-pregnancy range (and pants size!!) I didn't mention it before, but they are pretty sure that the pubic symphysis pain that I was having before was either a pelvic stress fracture or a major over-separation of the pubic symph. joint. Either way, I was still in significant pain, even at eight months post partum and now finally over a year out it has faded to the point that it is not a day to day pain. Additionally - in spite of it, I have still been somewhat active and cannot wait to finally work my way back now that things seem to be more healed.

Overall, we all show up at work or daycare with clean clothes, clean selves, and eat healthfully. These are big things! I am so in love with my husband and my daughter and our puppies and on a day to day basis, my heart is so full. I would love to have a little more time for myself, but in the past two weeks as Hannah seems to be syncing to a more normal schedule even that is starting to happen little by little. I'll take it! I'm not gonna lie, juggling my full time job and our household, raising a child through the first year, surviving the epic rounds of winter colds and tummy viruses, keeping up with two happy puppies, and managing to plan a trip to South America for seven people (and successfully packing for and keeping my year old child happy throughout Argentina and Brazil) makes me feel like a bit of a bad ass. I'm sure something will crash my confidence at some point, but for now I am enjoying the high with the spring flowers.

In many ways we have been in flux for two years - since the spring of 2013 when I would talk poor Chris' ear off into the night as we walked Chance around the circle and I pondered whether I should leave my job, whether I would ever get pregnant, where we would move if we left Florida, etc. It is so glad to finally get to stop and enjoy the daffodils and cherry blossoms and soak in the spring and be happy about where we are and how amazingly everything worked out!

At thirteen months Hannah is inquisitive, exploring, sweet, snuggly, excited, and full of light and laughter. We have loved watching her discover the world and will do just about anything to make her laugh. Our little baby is a toddler! But with that comes an entirely new adventure - one we are very excited to embark on!