Hannah's 9 month Update

Holy 9 months Hannah!  It is weird to think that you have been out of me as long as you have been in me.  It's hard to imagine a time when this silly baby wasn't a part of our family.   She is the light of our lives.

Eating

Hannah is still a fan of eating and pretty much all foods. Typical meals include instant packages of grits, cheerios, toast, baby yogurt, and fruit cups from Chik Fila (grandma gives her the hook up).  If you are eating in front of her she considers your food to be fair game.  

Sleeping

Hannah has been keeping up her streak of great sleeping with one blip when she had a terrible head cold.  Sometimes she wakes up early and moves to our bed to for another hour or so of sleep.  Other mornings she sleeps late and wakes up happy in her own bed.  The worst are the mornings when Ryan works early and I have to wake her up to get her off to the babysitter.  She hates when I wake her up.  She is napping better at the baby sitter's too.  She is consistently taking a good morning nap but her afternoon naps are iffy. Some days she will sleep for a half hour or less, some days not at all.  Her bedtime ranges between 7-8. 

Likes

• Wrestling.  She loves to tackle and wrestle around with Isaac and Ryan.
• Dancing.  She has pretty good rhythm too.
• Pacifers.  I am not sure how I will ever take them away from her.
• Isaac.  She wants to be around him all of the time.  

Communication and words

She is babbling a lot and will often say "mama" although it doesn't mean me. Sometimes it means "more" and sometimes it is just babbling.  I feel like her receptive language has grown by leaps and bounds.  The other day I left the room and she crawled after me.  Ryan asked her to stop and she did and then she held her hand out towards the room I went to.  It was like she was explaining to him, "but I want to go with mom."  

Dislikes

• Being flat on her back.
• Holding still for diaper changes.  She is too busy!
• Being bored.
• Being contained.  Now that she can walk she has no interest in her jumparoo or excersaucer.  I have to make sure to buckle the straps on the shopping cart and stroller or she will try to stand up.  More often than not there are tears when she has to get in the carseat too.
• Anything related to personal hygiene.  Including: having her nose wiped, brushing her hair, taking a bath.

Milestones

• This girl is officially walking!  She is still a little wobbly but getting steadier every day.  

• First taste of Halloween festivities.  Isaac had a soccer game only a few minutes away from Dorney Park so we stopped there for their Halloween festivities.  First petting zoo, first pumpkin.
• Hannah mastered clapping over the summer but she does it appropriately during Isaac's soccer games and it is so sweet!
• Hannah will give kisses now.  They are very long kisses though (like 20 plus seconds) and a bit on the slobbery side with her mouth wide open. 
• She has a top tooth now, in addition to the two on the bottom.  It is a side incisor which looks a bit funny.  I call it her fang but Ryan hates when I say that.
• She is rocking 9 month clothes and some 12 month clothes, especially 1 piece pajamas.  She is in size 4 diapers.

Hannah Marie, you are the cutest nine month old there ever was!

Steamrolled by September

My last blog post was labeled "Goodbye August" and at this point I feel like this one should almost be labeled "Goodbye September".  September tends to steamroller me, but I have been trying to stay organized, stay on top of things and establish routines and this has probably been one of my better Septembers as a result.  I made a list of mini goals I want to accomplish.  Little things, like going to yoga two times in September and decorating the house for Halloween.  It is nice to have a list I can reach for when I have a few moments to really accomplish something, rather than just zone out in front of a screen.   One of my goals is to blog weekly which has been a challenge.  But here are a few updates. 

Isaac is in fourth(!!!) grade this year and is really showing a lot of maturity.  He is only going to the YMCA in the morning now.  In the afternoon he takes the bus home and lets himself in.  He has about 30 minutes until I come home with Hannah.  He has been really responsible with using that time until I come home to knock out his homework.  Part of his homework is always to read 30 minutes.  He has really stayed on top of that well without a  lot of nagging from me which I appreciate.   We recieved his PSSA scores in the mail and I was proud to see that he is advanced in math.  He is continuing with the viola and this year has started the trombone.  We are also fully in the swing of travel soccer.  His league this year includes teams in Delaware and Maryland, so it really is a lot of traveling.   It is a lot to keep track of but I am impressed with how well he can handle it. 

We made it out to my parent's house for dinner last weekend (another mini goal for September).  Isaac has been asking and asking so we squeezed a dinner trip out there on a busy weekend.  Isaac loves the basketball hoop there and even took some time to play with Hannah.  These pictures from that day have becomes favorites.  You can really just see how sweet he is to her. 

 

 

Hannah is still the light of my life.  She is trying and trying to walk and is getting better everyday. She loves to give herself applause for her efforts and then she knocks herself off balance and falls over.   She also loves to dance and will do so any time she hears music, even the organ playing the hymn at church gets her moving.  She is becoming really destructive curious.  She loves to tear apart Ryan's magazines and drop all kind of objects between the slats in our head boards.   Any open drawer is fair game for her to start unloading clothes.  She grabbed my tablet the other day and I discovered that she friend requested all kinds of people on facebook including my principal... awkward...

It is starting to feel like fall here finally.  A busy time of year for us but also my favorite time.

Goodbye August

We are trying desperately to grasp onto the final remnants of summer as the start of the school year gets closer and closer.  It has really been a lovely summer, the perfect balance of being busy with projects and activities and long stretches of unscheduled play time with the kids.  I didn't teacher summer school or write summer ieps and it felt like a true break from the stresses of school.  Despite my denial, the school year is looming overhead.  I already had to go in three days last week and do a back to school night.  We get tomorrow and then Tuesday we all go back, ready or not.

It has already been a rocky start to the school year.  I am in a bit of conflict with the district over my laptop, so I have limited access to technology.  We were supposed to be unpacking boxes and moving into a newly renovated school but construction is behind so we were forced to unpack the same boxes we packed up at the end of last year in the same temporary school we have been using.  I am keeping almost my same caseload as last year, which has it's advantages, but has contributed to my apathy about getting ready for the new year.

We have finally called it quits on our Cub Scout efforts.  Ryan and I have been holding up our struggling little pack for over a year now.  We are down to only 1 other boy besides Isaac who also is able to come consistently and he is about to start sports.  It isn't very fun for anyone to rush home from work, slap dinner on the table and then drag the baby over to the church only to find that Isaac is stuck doing an activity alone with me.   We are going to give our neighborhood Cub group a try.  That didn't go over that well with the primary president.  I hate how things like "convenience" and "fun" are viewed as frivolous considerations in the context of church life.

Another change this school year is Hannah will be going to a new babysitter.  Grandma and Ryan will still be helping out, but she will also be spending time with Asher a baby friend from church several days a week.  It will be a big change but I know she will do well.  She is getting another tooth on the bottom which has made her rather miserable the past few days.  It hasn't stopped her from attempting to climb stairs every time I turn my back on her.

(Notice the TWO unused baby gates in the background?  Parenting fail).  Today I went to move the laundry along and when I came back she was standing on the fourth step up, all proud of herself.  Someone in our neighborhood was throwing out a gate today, so we have three now (all trashpicked, cause we're classy like that)  which is sufficient to block all of our stairways.  Now we just need to remember to actually put them up.

In other news I am finally getting the hang of couponing.  I have attempted coupons a few times in the past but could never really make it work.  But now I am starting to understand it better and I am really seeing the results in my wallet. It is almost like a high watching her scan the coupons and seeing the total go down, down, down.  I am far from being an extreme couponer but I am definitely enjoying it.   Here are some recent trips:

Paid $2 @ CVS

Free @ CVS

$17 @ Giant (total before coupons/savings $40).

I also had a great trip to Target where I got $23 dollars worth of diapers and formula for $3 out of pocket.  It is fun to have a hobby that actually saves money and even Isaac is getting into it.  There other day we were at a store and passed one of the coupon machines in the aisle and he was like, "Look mom!  Coupons!"

That's about it for us.  HAPPY MONDAY!