Morning

This is what our mornings looked like pretty much every day of December before we left town.

Kids in pjs.

My fireman in his fireman pjs, playing with his firemen, watching Fireman Sam.

My little "swimmer" up on her belly, grabbing at toys, chewing on toys, yelling at toys, rolling onto toys.  Staying still long enough for me to take her picture.

Then there is nap time.  But first, there is pre-nap time reading.  Jayce and I in the chair, and Hannah listens from a blanket on the floor.

But the other morning, Jayce decided that he wanted to read to Hannah.  He grabbed his book, laid down on the floor, and started pointing out the pictures to her and telling her the story.

I snuck out and tried to be as invisible as possible.  But how sweet is this?  Playing together is just around the corner.

 

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Baby's First Christmas Comparing

I was so pleased when I washed Jayce's Baby's First Christmas onesie and discovered that it will fit Hannah. He was 7 months old and she is only 6, but it works just fine for a little Christmas photo comparing.

These pictures make me laugh. This was the last straw with our old camera, when my harassing Chris for a new camera reached new heights. The pictures with the flash were dreadful (below), and without the flash were super blurry (above). I remember thinking how much I would have loved the above picture of Jayce if only it were clear. Sigh.

Aside from that, I just love my two little Santa babies, with their round eyes and chubby cheeks. Jayce was almost sitting at this point, which is why he is surrounded by pillows. Hannah isn't so steady yet, which is why she is in the Bumbo seat.

I had to laugh when I looked through my pictures and discovered that both children gave me a flailing arms, punking me out picture. But I guess it is the age for that.

I also can't help but look around the rest of the room at what is different. When we took Jayce's picture, we had only been living here for four months. So other than the tree, Santa hat and baby onesie, everything else is different. New coffee table, tv, tv stand, curtains, wall color, even the tree skirt is different. And those two babies couldn't be more different.

So different but both so sweet.

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Six Months of Sass

Hannah, you're 6 months old, and are you ever your own little person.

You are SUCH a daddy's girl.  You have a special way that you act when he is around: You give him a sly little smile, stick your tongue out a little, make soft little cooing sounds, and then flip your head (and body) around so that he has to come around on the other side of me to see you, and then you do it all over again.  It's like you're saying, "Now come over here and get me Dad!"  It's your own form of hide-and-seek just for him.

You have gotten very strong, and easily flip yourself over and over on the floor.  You also flip yourself onto your stomach in your crib and fall asleep that way.  It stresses me out.  We spent a day going in and flipping you back over, until one time you fell fast asleep that way, so now I just leave you be.

You use that same method, when I'm holding you, to turn your whole upper body from one direction to the other and often clobber me in the process.  Seriously, the other day you punched me right in the nose and I was surprised that my eyes filled with tears.  The week before you flipped from one direction to the other and in the process flipped my glasses about 5 feet away from me without even touching my face.

It was a little bit like in Anchorman, when Ron Burgandy is talking to his dog. You ate a whole wheel of cheese?  Heck, I'm not even mad.  I'm impressed.

I was like, "Han-nah!...Wow, you didn't even touch my face, just threw my glasses all the way over there..."

You are still "hugging" me, and Ooooooh, I love it!  I know that it's just because you want to chew on something, or you're hungry, but you when you wrap your arms around my neck and pull me towards you it feels like a tiny little hug!

You've had your first antibiotic for a respiratory infection, and the 10 day course of treatment handled it gradually, so your "schedule" is way off now.  But let's be honest, you've never really taken to the schedule.

I looked at your 2 month post, where you were sleeping 6 to 7 hours at night and thought, I want that!  For the past 6 weeks or so you've been waking up multiple times a night.  At first it was teething, then it was this infection.  I get it, you're uncomfortable, it was hard to eat when you were so congested so you ate less and more frequently.  But 3-6-8 times per night is really wearing on me!!  You've downgraded to 40 minute naps as well.  Now that you're finally off of them I think a call to Jan is in order to get this all back on track.

You had your first visit with Santa.  It was relatively uneventful although Jayce wanted nothing to do with him!

Your stranger anxiety has kicked in, but last week you had a successful stay in the nursery and stayed the whole time.  Chris just had to go in there with you a minute until you smiled at everyone and then was able to sneak away.  This was so helpful since I was teaching in the classroom next door and was sure that I wouldn't be able to accomplish anything if I could hear you crying.  Luckily it's the 5 year old class, so I'm sure I could have easily found a way for them to make enough noise to drown you out, but luckily I didn't have to resort to that.

Your activity of choice now is on your belly, swimming.  No pushing up onto those knees yet, and I'm so glad.  I might have to come over and knock you off of them if you did. (Not really, but please don't start crawling yet.)

You are now in the bouncy seat and exersaucer every day, in addition to your blanket time.  You're far too busy of a roller for the play gym.  I was sad to see it go.

I waited to start you on solids until closer to 6 months, and you HATE them.  Really, it's ridiculous.  After 5 days of the most watered down possible rice cereal, you still cry, buck, turn your head, spit it out, and fling your body around in every direction in your Bumbo seat to try to escape.  I'm going to give it a little break and then resume again in a few weeks.  You have not won the battle, I'm simply waiting for my next attack.

You had your well visit and I was surprised to discover that despite everyone telling me how big you are, that you're actually small.

Height, 26 inches, 55th percentile.  Weight, 15 lbs 6 oz, 38th percentile.  The doctor said he isn't worried about the weight, if you had eaten right before you came to the appointment you would be in the 40th, so it was fine.  But I worry!

It appears that you think you are the boss of us around here.  You eat what you want, sleep when you want, wake when you want.  But you do it all with the sweetest and happiest disposition of any baby that I've ever seen.

You, my dear, are a sweet little handful.  Happy 6 months.

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Thanksgiving

Yes, I realize how close it is to Christmas at this point, but our week after Thanksgiving had 3 doctor's visits, 2 kids with 2 infections and 1 pre-op appointment, in addition to the whole "no car and no purse" thing.  It was a crazy 7 days, and we felt like we lost a week out of our lives, but everything else piled up in the meantime: work, laundry, clutter, pictures, etc.   But now that things are normal I can catch up a bit. :)

We celebrated Thanksgiving in Louisville this year, and were so glad to get to see everyone all together for a little bit.  Obviously it was Hannah's first Thanksgiving and there was a fair amount of snuggling and rocking for this little lady.

We made a valiant attempt to get a picture of the grandkids with the grandparents, and it just wasn't happening.  It's a good thing that the "attempt" pictures are fun too, but I think it will be several years before we have a picture where all the kids are looking in the same direction and no one is trying to escape.

It was a busy few days, full of playing, eating and napping.  Chris and I even managed to nap while Jayce and Hannah did, and it was fabulous.

We took the kids over to see JC & Louise as well, Jayce played happily and Hannah snuggled whomever was holding her.  Which is about the best compliment you can get from a 6 month old.

We had a great time, but it so busy and chaotic that I barely had my camera out and these are my only pictures from the weekend.

Sounds like a good reason for another trip.  Soon. :)

 

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Grandma

See you soon, Grandma!

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