Our Sweet, Giggly Peach

Looking back on my blog posts, I did such a great job keeping updates on Hannah, and have yet to write a blog on Abi! 

Our giggly, snugly little girl, Abigail Brenna Brown, was born on November 19 at 1:01am, 20 inches long and weighing...well, we aren't sure.  The scale said 9 lbs 14 oz, but the next day she was only 8 lbs and by the size of her, she was definitely closer to the 8 lbs.  So...somewhere between 8 and 9 lbs. :) 

The first two weeks, she was an amazing sleeper and I thought, boy, we have been blessed! 

Once the honeymoon was over, however, she decided she didn't really want to keep to a good sleeping schedule.   This has been the case ever since. 

She may not be a good sleeper, but she is such a content, happy baby.  She will smile and giggle at the drop of a hat. 

Hannah is an amazing sister.  She loves Abi with all her heart and I can tell that her sweet, sensitive spirit is going to protect Abi with everything she is.  Abi also loves Hannah.  She will lock eyes on Hannah and follow her with them until Hannah looks at her, and then she will give her the biggest grin ever.  My heart swells every time I see their tender interactions.  I can't wait to see their relationship continue to blossom.

In the last month and a half, Abi has really started meeting big milestones.  She got her first two bottom teeth at about 4 1/2 months.  Right before 6 months, she started rolling over regularly and sitting up.  She now sits up very well on her own and will play sitting for long periods of time.  

I started her on solids about a week before her 6 month birthday.  She enjoys eating, but a few days ago had some major constipation and pain passing her first solid waste, so I'm trying to incorporate things like pears to help keep things going well.  :P

She still wakes up at least once a night and despite doing some sleep training, she struggles to self-soothe that one time yet.  As long as it is just once, though, I can handle it.  It would help if I started getting to bed earlier though! 

Her naps are all over the place.  Hannah was by the book with her naps, but not Abi.  However, I know it could be worse.  She does at least take 2-3 naps a day and at least one of those is usually 1 1/2 - 2 hours in length.

She is such a sweet blessing and addition to our family.  Although being a momma of two brings its days of exhaustion and testing of patience, I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.

Hannah Update: Month 21

The last time I updated on Hannah, she was 14 months old (7 months ago!) so I figured I should probably update again! I'll let you scroll to the previous post for some recent pictures.

Although she has been pushing our buttons more and more and now needs very consistent disciplining, she still is such a joyful spirit. Joyful and independent. She loves to try and do so many things on her own, which is good most of the time, but can be challenging other times.

For instance, the things she loves to do on her own and is starting to get the hang of:

1. Using a spoon and fork. Although it's inevitable that some of it is going to get other places, she does quite well using both. The problem sometimes arises when she wants to use adult-size forks and spoons because she sees Mommy and Daddy using them, then she has trouble getting the food in her mouth and gets frustrated. It's always a great night when she is content using her "Hannah-size" spoon and fork.

2. Brushing her teeth...well, kind of. She loves to brush them and as long as she's not distracted by the running water or trying to get the soap to wash her hands, she can do a reasonable job. It always helps if I brush mine at the same time and she tries to mimic what I do.

3. Putting her toys away. Ok, this one she might not like to do as much, but as long as we make it a game, she will be competitive and try to put them away fast. :)

4. Blowing bubbles. She L.O.V.E.S. bubbles. She always tried to blow them herself and usually ended up just eating the soap....until about a week ago until I bought the Bubble Oodles from Gymboree. Have you all seen these? They are great! You can blow them out of the little instrument and the bubbles don't pop for quite awhile! I saw them first when we were visiting our dear friends Scott, Fiona, and Olivia in Colorado and Fiona had them. I made a note to get some myself! Not only does it save you from having to blow bubble after bubble, but the little blow wand is a lot easier to use and Hannah now takes great delight in being able to create her own bubbles.

Other things Hannah enjoys doing on her own are climbing off and on anything (dining room chairs, couch, glider, etc), washing her hands, turning on the TV (ok, maybe not a good thing :P), turning on the radio, shutting doors (she's still learning to open them- she can if they aren't shut all the way), and basically trying to do anything we're doing.

This also has lead to her becoming Mommy's little helper. She loves sweeping and I can't get out a broom when she's around otherwise she'll be the one "sweeping" everything up! If I'm wiping down a countertop, she wants her own paper towel to "clean" things, and she can help set the table with small items like utensils. I think we should start trying to bake something together soon! It will be messy, but I'm sure she'd love it.

She is also becoming a little chatter box. She isn't speaking in sentences yet, but her jibberish "sentences" are now starting to include an actual word here and there- and she's very serious about them- like she knows exactly what she's saying and expects us to know as well! "La juba kiki bobaju baby likilu" Hearing something like this is common- she loves talking about her baby doll!

Here are the words she is saying (I've tried to keep a list this month). Now, granted most of them aren't fully formed, but at this point, these are words which we can definitely tell what she's saying:

Daddy
Mama
Hannah
Baby
Ball
(basketball, baseball – baball)
Shoe
Sock
Car
Duck
Eat
Please
Hi/ hello
No
Banana
Nana
Papa
Bar
Go
Stop
Yogurt
Bunny
Hat
Hop
Row
Truck
Rock
Eat
Me
More
Purple
Yellow
Blue
Green
Sky
Star
Fly (with a “p”)
Butterfly
Hot
Eye
Bye (bu-bye)
Cold
Mint (she recently discovered my stash of mints and will ask for one regularly. If she’s lucky, she sometimes gets one)
Bubble
Cheese
Feet
Toe
Stuck
Circle
Doll
Milk

It's so fascinating to hear new words develop almost daily at this point. I'm sure sentences will be right around the corner!

She is such a blessing, and I need to remember that even on days when she tests the boundaries to see how far she can go. Today was one of those trying days, but I need to remember the treasured moments throughout the day- like today when she cuddled up close to me in my bed and just stared into my eyes with a content little smile on her face.

Thank you, Father, for the miracle of Your children.

Capturing her Personality: Top 5 Pictures

Wow, I can't believe it's been 2 months since I posted! I really need to get back on it! Tonight won't be the night, but I will leave you with 5 photos from the last 3 months that really capture how our little girl is growing up!

I'm linking this to my friend Amber's blog for the 1st Quarterly Top Five of 2012

The shot above was taken at the zoo in February. This penguin board was next to the penguin exhibit and before we knew it, Hannah was climbing the stairs behind it and sticking her face through the hole. I love how it captures her humor.
She loves her "baby" and takes such good care of her. This photo, taken after church one Sunday, shows how she can spend a lot of quiet time just playing with her baby doll.

There's not too much that I can say about this photo except that every time I look at it, my heart swells with joy.

She adores two things: her books and her stuffed animals. Sitting in her chair reading to them was completely her idea. I like how this captures her love for reading and her imagination.

She also has become a little artist and will sit at the table daily wanting to paint a new creation. I think you can tell by her face in this picture that she takes great delight in art!

I still can't believe how quickly time goes by! Hannah is now 20 months old and nearing the 2 year mark quicker than I can blink! She brings so much joy to our lives each and every day.

My Heart Melted

Normally, as part of H's bed time routine, I nurse her for a few minutes, read her a story, call John in, pray as a family together, and then he puts her down to sleep. However, on Mondays, I've been going to a woman's Bible study, so I have been nursing her before I leave (although, even that's not really necessary, but it's still something I enjoy :)).

Tonight, I ran out of time to nurse her before I left. I was just getting ready to go to bed tonight and thought that I would just go nurse H and cuddle with her for a few minutes before I went to bed.

The "sleepy cuddle" happens rarely these days.

After all, who could resist a cuddle with this.


So I got her up, without waking her up, she nursed half-asleep, and then I cuddled her with her head on my shoulder for a good while. A few minutes before I was ready to put her back in bed, she lifted up her head and gave me a kiss and put her head back down.

She did this not once more, or even twice more, but three more times she lifted her precious sleepy head up and gave me a kiss.

My heart melted and is still a puddle on the floor in her room.

It's the little moments like this I want to treasure, and thank God even more for giving me the honor of raising His child.

Hannah Update: 14 Months

Hi Hannah Bug! (or "Buggie")

I realized that I haven't done an update on Hannah in quite awhile and so much has changed! It is a constant joy to see my baby turn into a little girl.

1. Hannah isn't walking yet, but we are practicing. She is hesitant to go without holding on to our hands and after letting go, she'll stand for a moment and then slowly sit down. She still thinks it's just easier to crawl places.

She does love standing and climbing, though. She'll walk by pushing chairs, toys, and our coffee table all over the place. She constantly climbs on our ottoman and chair.



We take walks almost daily around our complex outside. She has a little walker/car and loves walking with it on our sidewalk and stopping to point to a bug or touch a leaf on a bush. She would be outside all day if she could. I'm looking forward to the fall and winter so that we can do that even more!



2. She gets so excited when she sees animals- either on the tv or in real life. She knows how to growl like a lion, squeal (?) like a dolphin, pucker her lips like a fish, tweet like a bird, move like a monkey, and she's learning to bark like a dog, although that's still more like a squeal too.

3. Her vocabulary is slowly starting to develop. She continues to say "hi," "dada," and "mama." And although "dada" always refers to her daddy, she's still learning that "mama" refers only to me. It's funny because I started patting my chest and saying "mama" a couple weeks ago, and now she'll pat her own chest and say "mama," like she's the mama. It's cute. :)

She has said "hi dada" a few times as well, so I'm counting that as her first sentence, lol. She will also say"us is?" and points to things, meaning "what's this?" She is a very curious little girl!

4. For words she doesn't say, she does a good job of using sign language, especially "eat" and "more." We tried the traditional way of saying "please," but it never caught on, so now she's learning "please" by putting her hands together (like prayer hands). She also does well with "all done."

She's at a stage where she does tend to whine when she wants something. I think it is because she wants to express herself more, but she is not able to completely tell us what she wants. Because of this, she whines. We try to ignore the whining and teach her more appropriate ways of showing us what she wants (crawling to a toy, giving us a block if she wants help stacking it, etc).

...and the temper-tantrums do come. Especially if we take away something she can't have or if she doesn't want to go down for a nap. Fortunately, though, they don't last long since we don't give in to that behavior.

5. She responds to many full sentences now. She knows when we are going to take a bath, brush our teeth, eat a meal, go outside, and numerous other things. It is so precious to see her comprehending more and more.

6. She loves to feed herself and won't even let us feed her yogurt anymore. Just this week she really started understanding how to get a spoonful of yogurt out of the bowl and into her mouth. It's messy (which is totally fine), but she's getting the hang of it!


7. Whenever she sees a word or letters she says either "da!" or "ss" and wants us to say all the letters. Right above the glider in her room is a cross-stitch alphabet that my mom made for my baby room. Every night we need to go through the alphabet and sing "the ABC song" while pointing to the letters- at least once. Sometimes we'll do it three or four--or five-- times. :)

8. I decided to see how she would do with a crayon and piece of paper, and she was fascinated. She won't color if I put her in her chair with paper and crayons on her tray, but if I tape it to the floor and put a few crayons on it, she'll periodically crawl over and start scribbling. She knows not to color on the floor, although she still likes to hold on to the crayons when she leaves the paper, so we're working on making sure they don't leave marks on other things.



8. She can be such a ham. She'll laugh at herself to the point of her shoulders shaking. I love when we just sit and laugh until we're both out of breath (the silent laugh, I call it). The most beautiful moments.

Some other pictures to leave you with...

Peek-a-boo!
Fun with forts

Bed-head (before combing...)

Nice and neat... (after lotioning and combing)

You decide: Which hair style do you like better??

Birdie-Themed Birthday Party

Our baby girl turned 1 yesterday! Although I plan on posting a more reflective post on this past year (along with one of our 3-week road trip!), but until then I thought I'd post some pictures from her birdie-themed party. We had loads of fun and I thoroughly enjoyed planning and getting ready for it!

Hannah: 10 month update

Well, I know it has been awhile since I've blogged and that's mainly due to the fact that May has been a super busy month for us. Not only did we have a lot going on as a family, but unlike traditional school when May is winding down, with K12, this is the month where we as teachers are the busiest. We need to make sure that students are on track with their progress and that we have conferences with each of them regularly. It just now dawned on me that I haven't really written about my job before. Now that things are winding down, I'll try to write a post in the next few weeks about it.

But now, it's time for a Hannah update! On Wednesday, Hannah turned 10 months old. Somebody pinch me. I must be dreaming. The last 10 months have flown by! There is a reason why the saying "they grow up too fast" is a cliche...because it's so true!!

I am amazed by our sweet little girl more every day. Her personality is beginning to blossom. She is very content to sit and play with her toys but also curious. Now that she can crawl (although it's still more of an army crawl- I think it's due to the fact that we have wood floors and she can get around fast), she loves to explore new areas. Her favorite places are the bathroom and under our bed, naturally two places she should not be going. #1 because she likes to go for the toilet- ewwww- and #2 because we have a power strip with cords under our bed. I definitely have to keep an eye on her and most of the time the bathroom and bedroom doors are closed now!

Some new things:

1. She now loves books- and not just to eat them! Yey! The first place she'll go when we're in her room is for one of her baskets of books. When I finish nursing her, she always reaches down for another basket of books by the glider. After I read one, if I'm about to get up, she starts whining and crying for more. Although I'm trying to discourage the whining and crying, it's just so sweet that the reason is because she wants me to read more. Who can fight that?!

Her favorite book is currently "The Wheels on the Bus." Whenever I read it to her, I sing it, so she now actually hums three beats of the song when she sees the book! I'll have to try and record it soon.

2. Her laugh is getting deeper and more contagious. I'll post a video soon :)

3. She continues to squint up her nose and knows that we'll laugh when she does, so she's definitely doing it to be funny. She can be such a little ham.

4. She is just starting to pull up on things. She hasn't gotten up using the couch yet, but the other day she did on the entertainment center! I think she scared herself because she didn't know how to get back down, but she's definitely getting close.

5. She continues to do "so big," clap, say "hi" and wave. She now also blows kisses or give a kiss with a closed mouth- love it!

6. She has a deeper recognition of the word "no." She will hesitate before doing something now when I say it, and sometimes stop altogether. Yey! Now here's hoping that lasts into her teenage years.

I can dream, can't I? ;)

Routine

We have a great routine going. We usually eat dinner between 6:30 and 7 and she eats with us now-- I do give her baby food still, but she is also great with finger foods so I've started doing that more. Last night we had broccoli, and she's had it mashed up before, but this time she took a big bite of a piece of mine and loved it! I'll definitely encourage that behavior!

After dinner, John and I play with her for another 30 minutes or so and then it's time to start getting ready for bed around 7:30/ 8:00. She doesn't take a bath every night, but I love the nights when I do give her one...clean baby in cpzy pajamas before bed is the best!

Once pjs are on, I nurse her one last time. I love this time of the night because I still put in the "Sing Over Me" CD and sing to her. This CD has become so special to us because it was the only CD I wanted played while I was in labor, and during the first few weeks of Hannah's life, it was what settled her down the best when she was fussy. I love being able to still have this special time to go to. Thank you to my friend Lela for giving me the CD!

Next, we go to the bathroom and brush her 4 teeth! She loves having her teeth brushed...and I think one main reason is because she likes the taste of the toothpaste, haha.

After brushing teeth, either I or John read to her...usually a few books because, as I mentioned before, she can't get enough of reading! If I read to her, then John comes in and says a prayer. Hannah's definitely used to this now and I think she's starting to learn that she needs to be quiet when we pray.

Then it's time for kisses for mommy-she now blows kisses and gives kisses with her mouth closed- and daddy puts her in bed. I love that she has that special time with John right before bed. He always does silly things to make her laugh and I know Hannah really loves it too.

Hannah sleeps from about 8/8:30-7am most days now which has been wonderful! It's nice that John and I have our evenings now and that I can get good sleep again!

Her nap schedule is fairly regular too. She loves to nap. After waking up at 7, she's back down around 9 and sleeps until about 10:30/11. Then up from 11-1 and another nap from 1-2:30. Most days she also takes a third "cat nap" from 4-5 (which is what she's doing right now :)).

I love her more each day and thank God for this amazing opportunity to raise her!

So I guess this video didn't post in my last blog- sorry about that. Hopefully it's good now!

Month 8!

Cheese!

I found a way to get my pictures out of my camera without the cord! Woohoo! Who knew there was a slot for the memory card in my computer... ...anyway, I thought I'd post some recent pictures of Hannah and a list of what she's been doing during her 8th month of life. On March 25, she turned 8 months old and I know it's cliche, but time really does fly by! And as these last few months have included some huge milestones, it's almost hard to believe!

Playing with my friend Knox in the courtyard. We love to eat our toys!

Bath time with rubber ducky

What she's doing now...

1. She clap! clap! claps! all the time :) She will clap when we sing, clap when we say "clap" and clap when we say "yey!" She'll even say "ya ya ya" when she claps. Love it. The cutest time when she claps, though, is at night before bed. Our bedtime tradition, which I love, includes either John or me reading her a book (or two or three ;)), singing a song together, and then daddy saying a bedtime prayer. And then right after John says "amen" she starts clapping. It's like she's clapping for Jesus :)

Saturday Morning Market for my birthday (a surprise from John!) 2. She can (sometimes) do "soooo big" We got her on video, which was great, but since then, it's rare when she'll do it.

"Soooo big!"

3. She can sort of eat some finger foods, like banana. She'll get one or two pieces in her mouth, but the rest usually end up all over the tray, her face, and bib. It's cute to see her try so hard, though!

Trying to eat bananas, but instead creating some interesting food art

4. The latest and biggest development is that she's on the move! Not completely crawling yet, but army crawling/ scooting all over the place. I found this out by accident this week. I was in the middle of a conference call and she started getting a big fussy (she was in the room with me) so I placed her on a blanket in the living room with her toys. Not 3 minutes later, I heard crying and came in the room to find her on the other side of the room, under the couch from her waist down! She got stuck under and wasn't quite able to move herself forward to get out. So funny. Since then, she's learned to get all over the room and even attempted to pull down a basket of dvds that we have on a low shelf on our entertainment center. Needless to say, there will be no leaving her alone during a conference anymore, and this morning I spent some time baby proofing our place- making sure cords were out of reach, etc. I can't believe we're to this point! Here is a video of one of the first times she was on the move:

On the Move