48 weeks!

I woke up this snowy morning with the sniffles Hanna is finishing off from last week so hopefully Michael misses out and we're all cold-free even if the weather is just that, cold. In other developments this week Ms.Hanna Lu...

• Had a bunch of new food for the first time: gyros, French fries, quinoa enchilada bake, corn {off the cob}, spaghetti {a HUGE hit}, meatballs, and regular oatmeal {with frozen berries added in}...here's to getting that babe on more "human" food and having her get more efficient at eating it.

• Watched some Curious George on the Netflix, thanks to some cabin fever which was a direct result of the crummy weather...she actually watched one whole vignette and we truly were not proud of it.

• Continues to love climbing up onto her chair and peering out the window. 

          She especially enjoys the trains and metro that go whizzing by.

• Gets very excited whenever someone enters a room or our apartment; she stops what she's doing, gives a huge grin, and makes some very happy sounds. This also translates to when she's nursing so she'll stop each time she hears someone or something to pop up and get a reaction.

• Enjoys exploring the cupboard and it's a good thing we have a tiny pot for some reason because it's perfectly her size to pull out and play with.

• Tried a piece of Guinness' dog kibble for the first time. I'm frankly very surprised we made it to almost a year. I was scurrying to get ready to get out the door today and baby was playing with the pot I just mentioned and had a pacifier in her mouth which usually keeps unwanteds out and I looked over at her to see a very funny face. She was seriously peeved with me for taking it out of her mouth. The crunchies are small enough she probably wouldn't have choked but I was still scared as heck and really guilty. 

• Finally cut a new tooth, almost six months after the first two came out. This is one up top and there are three others around it that are threatening their appearances but if they're anything like this brand new one, it'll take a long time. She hasn't seemed to fussy regarding this development nor has there been much extra drool but you sure can see them below the surface.

• Has been really good at playing with her toys in the toy area as opposed to trying to crawl all over the place in our home and get into all the dangerous things, minus today's doggy food incident.

• Wore pig tails for the first time yesterday!

          So cute!

• Continues her "tricks" of 1. where's Hanna?, 2. clap your hands, 3. how big is Hanna?, and 4. play the drums. 

• Has taken a few solo steps but still nothing substantial and will gladly crawl to any new locale.

• Got swaddled today. In a fit of boredom and because I saw one of her old swaddling blankets and felt inspired.

           Though dizzingly quick, it's still not difficult to believe how quickly the past year has gone by 
           and our newborn turned into the dangly legged creature above - since that's how all time seems
           to move. It's impressive, though, that we've somewhat survived almost a year...I can't even tell 
           if I'm tired anymore!

Stay warm out there folks, winter will surely soon abate.
xoxo, natty ♥

47 weeks!

So for our growing girl, we have a new white onesie and a different hair bow. I was going to buy a new pack of the Carter's onesies but realized that we never put the baby in these things except for her pictures so the $10 isn't worth it in my opinion so I found a funny white tank-top onesie thing at TJ Maxx today...TJ Maxx for the win! In other news, Hanna Lucille...

Jazz hands.

• Is still taking one or two steps at a time, unassisted. Then she realizes that she can get to her destination much quicker by crawling.

• Loves the push-toy-thing; we "borrowed" it from our building's play room {I love that place on weekends and snow days} and have yet to return it because she's had a few sniffles and I don't want to infect the building's kiddos. We brought it home in the first place because Saturday was a day void of much stimulation for our child so I let her "walk" home from the playroom. Going down two hallways is a lot of work for a small child...

• Really enjoys crawling up on her chair.

Big ruffly-butt climbing and exploration.

       We reconfigured her playspace, which included strategically removing some of her toys so as to  
        keep her well-stimulated {?}, because she's grown out of some of them {playmat}, and since 
       she had recently been really into poking her tiny fingers into the electrical sockets. Today we 
       also bought little things to stick in there so her fingers stay out {TJ Maxx too, incidentally}. 
       Since her chair is now below the windows and Hanna Lu loves looking out those windows this 
       is a perfect set-up. Except for how she doesn't know how to get down from the chair but I'm 
       assuming that will come with time.

• Has a wee cold this week but seems to be OK for the most part. She's coughing a bit and sounds a tad phlegmy which we don't love but such is life.

• Has some good family visits coming up for her birthday and Easter; almost all the grandparents!

• Continues to adore her daycare provider and be so happy for her in the morning, but I also love that she reaches for me in the afternoon when I pick her up.

• Shared my restaurant dinner the other night; bacon wrapped meatloaf and garlicky mashed potatoes - girl is a fan.

• Continues to love her baby food, baby cereal, and full-fat plain yogurt.

• Has been having a huge appetite, though with her ailment this week has been into eating a bit less.

• Still has only those bottom two teeth, though I haven't been, ahem, bitten in several weeks. Except for one random fluke time this past weekend but I don't count that.

• While nursing, though, has figured out how to blow raspberries against me and though it's adorable I'm not encouraging this behavior since it's supposed to be Serious Eating Time.

• Is trying to crawl into the bathtub; we get her all ready for bath in the bathroom and she knows exactly where to go.

• Will gladly play "chase me" in the bathtub when it's time to get out, which she so playfully started last week.

• Continues to love opening cabinets and pulling things out of bookshelves. It's actually great to indulge her, to a certain, safe, extent, and let her get bored/lose her interest so that she isn't quite so fixated on it instead of getting frustrated at being told "no" {a mutual frustration, truth be told}.

• Learned "Where's Hanna?" this past week, a variation on "Peek-a-boo". It's glorious and we request this game several times a day. Hanna seems to enjoy it too.

• Is wonderful and we love her so so much...five more weeks until we wrap up these weekly updates because, as much as we can adore someone, a weekly update is quite a lot after those special first 52. Woah.

xoxo, natty ♥

De colores.

46 weeks!

It's February!! This thing turns ONE next month...in six weeks actually, so let's see what she's up to today. Hanna Lucy...

• I dare say has been in a bit of a growth spurt; she seems starved all the time and that onesie is well and truly Too Small, as are some jammies that fit just fine last week.
• Is still standing a ton and taking maybe one step unassisted before she decides that she can crawl much faster.
• Loves looking out the window.
• Loves pushing the elevator buttons; our fault here for letting her do so in the first place but it's just so cute.
• Adores her daycare provider.
• Has been having more "food" than baby food while at home...banana, avocado, cheesy toast, yogurt, raspberries, and black beans were all on the menu this past week. She's just so dang slow with eating it all that it's easier to just spoon feed her the baby food, but I think it's good for her all around to eat the "real" stuff. She does still get and love baby rice or oatmeal cereal with milk mixed in.
• Took a bottle which was random because it seemed a lost cause over break in December and we hadn't tried since then.
• Really enjoys the playroom in our building as do her parents since it's a big and safe space for her to crawl around in.
• Was in the bath until the water drained completely tonight and when I told her "it's time to get out", she crawled away from me, though she obviously couldn't get too far. 
• Will clang two toys together.
• Uses our hands to do things for her; she has a toy that will pop up if a button is pressed but instead of doing so herself, Hanna Lu grabs one of our hands and puts it on the button for us to press it. She will do the same with the "more" hand sign - she moves our two hands together to say "more"...maybe she'll soon figure out that she can do these things too!

xoxo, natty ♥

45 weeks!

We are battling illness still, though hopefully this is its final gasp until some better-feeling days and now in baby news...Hanna Lucy:

• Has become super clingy with me. She cries if her dad tries to take her and we both know this is normal/natural/whatever and Michael isn't taking it personal but, forgive me, it's kind of annoying...but also nice to have someone seem to think I'm just that great.
• TOOK THREE STEPS THIS MORNING! What I mean is that she moved one foot forward, then the other, and, thirdly, the other one again...so cute! She still knows that she can get places faster by crawling but this is great.
• Has been suffering cabin fever along with her parents. Today's snow day was great because I didn't have to wear business/teacher/casual but it also meant another whole day corralling the baby. She really wants to explore all she can and there's not much beyond her play area in our apartment that is safe for her to explore so it turns in to us telling her she can't do what/go where she wants which is not fun for anyone. We've taken to going up to the building's playroom which is awesome because she can crawl and cruise around to her heart's content and there's no dog food or heavy stuff ready to hurt her. This morning I took her to library story hour and now she's old enough to play with the toys that they have for after the stories/singing and that was a great half-hour. I honestly thing that the reason things have felt so difficult/tiresome recently is that I was home sick several days last week and then there was the weekend plus neither parent is feeling particularly energetic these days. Normally we're not stuck in the apartment for so many days/hours and we're all a bit more fresh so hopefully things will feel better. Today was actually great, even though right after I read the school-closure announcement this morning I felt dread at a whole day of entertaining a very mobile baby while still not feeling 100%. The funny thing? I really look forward to time with her {duh} but maybe it all boils down to being a sick parent inside for so long is not fun. End of a really long point.
• Is very hungry these days, probably because we kept her strictly on milk and thin oatmeal while she was recovering from her tummy bug.
• Infected many people with said tummy bug.
• Is now obsessed with looking out our window. We will hold her up to see the snow {which has happened four or five times so far...in her life here in this apartment} and we can also see down onto the train/metro tracks and a big swatch of the city where we live {we're on the 14th floor}. This gets tiring, though, because the window sill is several feet up from the floor and we obviously have to {patiently} hold her up there. In the past few days it's become the only other thing, seemingly, that she wants to do besides explore kitchen cabinets...
• I thought it would be nice to let her get into a cabinet with a few things {a pot, a pan, a big pasta serving spoon [the kind with the prongs]...} and I created a monster because she only wants to do that {besides be held up to the window} and there's just not enough kitchen space to fully empty the cabinets of all the other cookware {that's too heavy for her anyway} and  in order to give her free reign of the cabinet, not to mention even if there were void of all heavy things she would still be slamming her fingers because she doesn't know how to carefully open/shut the doors yet. Serious baby-proofing is imminent. 
• Signed "more" to me this morning. Then hasn't done it since.

Hey baby - let's stay healthy please?!?!? And, we love you TONS, even though you're tiring.
xoxo, natty ♥

A sweet memory!

It's pouring rain out and I just took out Guinness the dog for the evening.

A loathed task if there ever was one.

Just kidding I love you so much Guinness and all of the things we do together that involve picking up after you!!!!

I grabbed an older jacket I don't wear much at all except for skiing, apparently.

I found this receipt in the pocket from the last ski trip i chaperoned...yikes, I need to get back out there to maintain my perpetual-beginner level of ability!

Even though the thought of giving up most of my semester break weekends was tough, I always loved going on that trip and I miss those days.

Here's to a hopefully healthy weekend folks.

xoxo, natty

No voice.

Apart from a bit of a stomach thing gracing our home this week, I've snagged myself a sinus-infection/bronchitis duo that has taken my dulcet tones and mangled them beyond recognition. It's painful, actually, to cough and squeak out words. Baby was better so we took her to daycare today and I proceeded to sleep most of the day while thinking I was hearing her cry in the background. Thus is a curse of parenthood, amongst many I'm sure.

Hopefully I'll be able to get out some sound tomorrow because there's teaching that needs to be done. 

A pretty sky can help things along.

And hopefully that little one gets fully better because there's is nothing sadder or more worrisome than a sick baby.
xoxo, natty ♥

Gross.

xoxo, natty ♥

44 weeks!

After a wonderful weekend in Arizona, we are all dealing with some illness, which is Sad. So let’s think about good baby things!

• Hanna Lu enjoyed her biggest party ever this past weekend and went hard...with no chance of her sleeping like she normally does, we just let her go with it and she ended up dozing in the arms of a guest…and slept through until morning!
• Is battling her first stomach bug, pretty well at that. We’ve gotten her down to just milk and pedialyte and she seemed to be fine after Sunday, besides a few challenging diapers, but just tonight she yakked all over me sooooooo…we’re waiting to get the bug ourselves, to be honest, which makes this kind of a yucky week but hopefully it won’t last long.
• Ate a pickle spear at the party this weekend, which we thought caused the tummy issues, but we realized that wasn’t the case. She certainly loved that pickle.
• Is all over our apartment – we decided this week that we need to get serious about baby-proofing this place.

On the go!

• Is so much fun and we really hope she feels better soon.

What a hoot.

Apart from little one's tummy aches, we're still riding high after this weekend's surprises...and what else?

1. It's GORGEOUS here. In the 70s and so pleasant out. I've got a bit of a sinus thing going on but it doesn't matter because I can go outside and get a bit of warmth.

2. We had a SPECTACULAR time celebrating my wonderful in-laws; what a joy.

3. We also had a great time watching some good football this weekend, though we were disappointed to see the Packers throw it away.

4. Though flying is never fun {in my opinion...would it get better if I were more positive about it? I can't see how I could trick myself into that...} it does mean that we will sleep in our own bed tonight, never a bad thing.

5. We do NOT have a red-eye flight today. Hallelujah.

I hope you're enjoying your long weekend! 
xoxo, natty ♥

Ten months.

We're having a great time in Arizona for a short little trip to surprise Hanna's grandparents so let's also check out her stats...

How old: ten months {we’re almost at being able to just use numbers!}

Weight: nearing 20 pounds or so.

Likes:

• Baby food…spinach and potato are a fave.
• Her milk, mixed with baby cereal, and spoon-fed to her.
• Guinness the dog and any other animal; she laughs at them.
• “Cruising” around {walking while holding on to anything and everything}, though she gets herself down to crawl when she decides she can’t walk.
• Poking at eyes; on her doll and her parents.
• Crawling all over our apartment and trying to get into things that would hurt her.
• Her family; Hanna Lu loved being with her grandparents and the rest of her family members over break and it was very sad leaving.

Dislikes:

Being sick…someone seemed to have a bit of an upset tummy this morning and she was not a happy camper {neither are her parents}. Hopefully this passes quickly as in before we get on an airplane tomorrow afternoon.

Milestones:

We are sooooooo close to taking a step on our own but haven’t made it their yet…a few more airplane flights and her very first Christmas and New Year’s…and meeting lots of people and even going to her first holiday party.

Sleep and eat:

Sleep and eat are about the same as last month…she goes down between 6 and 7 {I’d like it to be more like between 5 and 6 but she’s still getting over our trip} and gives us ten to 12 hours. She had been waking up once and after getting back from traveling we decided to let her just fuss herself back to sleep and it had been great…but then we came to Arizona this weekend so we anticipate some re-adjustment but hopefully things will be good after another week or two.

Baby also tried her first taste of burger, albeit crumbled up, and she enjoyed it; this was spurred on by her low-ish iron count at her nine-month appointment.

Miscellaneous:

Baby is wearing size 3 disposable diapers but that doesn’t happen too often, she’s mostly in her cloth diapers which are on the shortest set of buttons with four sets left unbuttoned around the waist, if that makes sense.

Surprise number two!

And today we pulled off our second great surprise of the weekend; a party with 70-plus guests to celebrate Hanna's grandparents' semi-retirement. We asked them to spend the day with friends {not sketchy at all} and be home by six. Michael's dad wouldn't open the door last night so instead of coming right in tonight, he rang the doorbell trying to play the same trick on Michael. After several rings Michael gave in and opened the door but he still got the last word, so to speak, considering the many people eagerly waiting to shout "surprise" in the house.

What a wonderful night it was and my husband, along with his brother, and their aunt and uncle did a stupendous job planning and executing it all; way to go!!!! And happy semi-retirement to my in-laws, they certainly deserve some extra time to themselves!
xoxo, natty ♥

Hello!!

Tonight we pulled off a feat; we surprised Michael's parents in Arizona. We're here for the weekend, tired after travel, but so happy to spend some days together!
xoxo, natty ♥

Squirming.

As seen in yesterday's picture, our little one is such a busy-body and wouldn't even stay facing forward and strapped-into a shopping cart. I even tried to make it tighter.

We were at Target, which is a good place to be, as I'm sure I'm not the only one who has that opinion. We were running errands which I don't like to do after school since the afternoons {heck, the days} are so rushed anyway but sometimes that just has to happen. I choose this Target that's a bit further out rather than the one that's directly on our way home because it's less crowded and there's a Babies-R-Us right next to it and I can get the jars of baby food that the little one likes {& are cheaper than the pouches}. We keep meaning to make our own but life/busy days.

And, just like that, it's almost the weekend again, funny how that always happens. Have a good one folks!
xoxo, natty ♥

Doing what she shouldn't do.

43 weeks!

Another cold week brings baby to 43 weeks old! And...

• Is being hilarious, giggling and making goofy sounds, and mimicking things we do.
• Has stopped with her tricks; clapping, drum playing, and showing us how big she is. Maybe she's on to bigger and better abilities.
• Is standing on her own but has yet to take a step, though she looks like she's thinking about it and then decides to just sit and crawl to wherever she'd like to go...clever baby!
• Has had her first...

         pony tail!!!

• Likes her food, though she realized how to spit it out which is messy and not fun.
• Tried ground beef for the first time tonight; I had to teach her how to eat it instead of just playing with it and hiding it under her legs {?} in her high chair but then it was a hit. This is good for her iron need.
• Enjoys the kids' playroom in our building but maybe not as much as her parents do since it's a place where there aren't any bookshelves for her to climb, dog food to eat, or any of the other hazards that our home present to her.
• Loves trying to poke and scratch our eyes so it's good she has her doll on which to practice these skills.
• Doesn't like her multi-vitamin/iron drops...I don't blame her because that stuff is GROSS.
• Loves throwing things down on the floor. We don't so we don't pick it up more than once for her.
• Likes to "drive" her stroller...

         though her aim isn't that great and she points us towards the wall. {I'm   
         holding her, obviously}.

• Likes her bath and tries each night to stand up in the water. We gently tell her that "we don't stand in our bath".
• Really likes her stacking cups and will crawl around with one in/on each hand, making a clomping sound as she moves through our apartment.
• Loves Guinness the dog still.
• Makes the sound "ddddeh" for many things, including the dog.
• Possible has her first word? I show her a picture of my grandmother's dog Ze Ze and Hanna Lu makes a "zeeeee" type of sound; she knows what she's doing!? She laughs at the dog first of course because she adores animals.
• Will not lay on her back as you can see from Michael holding her down in this week's picture; she wants to roll over onto her hands and knees instantly.
• Is amazing and we love this baby!

Two hours.

It's cold and rainy out today but that's OK because...

1. Thanks to said weather we had a two-hour delay this morning; I certainly do love me a bit of extra sleep!

2. Maybe more delays tomorrow? 

3. Baby is being hilarious; always fun!

4. Parks and Rec comes back this week!

5. I'm loving the slippers my dad gave us for Christmas; it's like walking on pillows and they're so cozy...thanks Dad!!!

Happy Monday y'all.
xoxo, natty ♥

Brunch is for jerks.

We met some family for brunch this morning; the meal began with cinnamon donuts and that's not a bad thing at all!

Have a good Sunday folks!
xoxo, natty ♥

Football.

Today we enjoyed some football on TV and major jun-fooding; what a Saturday. Tomorrow is to be a busy day with family and getting ready for the week so here we go!
xoxo, natty ♥

My kinda night.

As is the norm, tonight was spent at home.

This weekend we will watch some Patriots' football and probably eat a lot. 

And try to stay warm; brrrrrr!