miscellany - 8 updates

(Before I post about Joe's race and our trip to Alabama, here are some things from the past couple weeks.) 

1 - We dealt with a horrible rash. Several people - including a nurse at the church - thought it was chicken pox. It was all over but mainly on the trunk and it itched. Hannah's doctor said it wasn't. I believe him, but still...weird. What do you think? All I know, it was miserable. This picture was taken towards the end.

2 - Soy Saga: The week after her birthday we went to the doctor for her shots and check-up. We were told to switch her from formula to soy milk - cold turkey - that day. Listening to our own inhibitions we didn't start that night and waited til the next morning. It didn't go well. Hannah got real sick. Though her blood test confirmed she was only allergic to cow's milk, she for whatever reason could not tolerate the soy. After calling the doctor, I was advised to just continue giving her soy milk for 2-3 more days and let her "get used to it." No way, Jose (as my mom would say). There was not a chance that I would have continued to watch her throw up and heave for hours, not to mention the fact that she would have been extremely dehydrated and in serious trouble. My mothering instinct said enough. We called our friend, a pediatrician, in Savannah. She advised us to go back to our formula (Hannah's been on Alimentum - hypoallergenic formula the whole time.) and do nothing different for a couple days and then when we were ready gradually add soy to Hannah's formula 1/2 - 1oz at a time until her bottle/cup was all soy. That's what we did. We started last week and she's doing fine so far. Thank God for good friends and good doctors.

3 - We took a short trip to Savannah. That precious Very Hungry Caterpillar dress is from Aunt Jennifer! I adore it.

Leave me alone while I drink my water, thanks.

Ok, now I'll play.

Check out my new hat from Grandma!

Yay for me!

4 - Our friends Lauren and Pete celebrated their baby girl's 1st birthday. Riley had a ladybug themed party and Lauren made the cake. She is so dang creative! And Riley is so dang cute!

5 - Uncle Will gave Hannah an adorable animal play mat. If you push the animal heads they make noise. For some reason Hannah thinks she has to push them with her head. Uncle Will, did you demonstrate? We can't figure it out...but it is kinda funny.

6 - Hannah has a few new skills, including: blowing raspberries on everything from her arm to the back door and bathroom mirror, pulling her hair, and picking her nose (very unattractive). She's also into yanking her bib off. (Add that to the fact that she hates wearing bows and this girl just isn't into accessorizing. That will change...) She got a second upper molar to match the one side - so we have a perfectly symmetrical mouth with 8 teeth right now. And finally, she says "Uh oh!" all the time and thinks it gives her permission to throw or drop anything, anytime, anywhere. The funny thing is she'll say "uh" in several different tones, so it's more like "Uh uh uh....oh!"

7 - New words = new post. "Oh wow!" Need to catch it on camera.

8 - It is finally starting to feel like fall and I am so happy.

First steps!

(I know I owe you videos from Hannah's party. Katie did a great job filming, even though I asked her to catch some "snippets" on camera and she rather filmed the party in it's entirety. ;) I need to go through all those and post some selections from the birthday girl's big day.)

Anyway...

For a week or so I got the following routine: Hannah would stand up, look around, and if I said walk to me, that's when I would get the one, two, fall, and crawl. It's quite cute. Shoot, I'm in no hurry to have her running all over the house. It's hard enough to keep up with her now. She's a fast crawler! However, just in the last week, she has gone from taking two steps to ten steps (last night). Uh oh! as Hannah constantly says - my life is about to change...again.

On September 6th Hannah took her first step:

Now she's all over the place pushing Bitty Baby in her doll stroller. 

"no ma'am"

Seriously, how many times a day do I say this? Hannah's yanking the laptop cord out of the wall. No ma'am. She's pulling the books off the bookshelves. No ma'am. She's throwing magazines off the tables onto the floor. No ma'am. She's swirling her hands around in the toilet. No ma'am. And so it goes...

She has so many things to play with, plus the new toys she got for her birthday. There's a whole area in the living room designated for her new toys - blocks, a tea set, a drum and other music noise-makers, a purse filled with all sorts of things, a play mat that makes animal sounds, sweet plush animals - including a ladybug and octopus and pull-along caterpillars. She'll play for a minute or two, and then she roams around finding something to do that will annoy me. And I'm quite sure she knows it. Just as her hand reaches up to pull the plug out of the wall, she'll turn around and look at me sometimes even before I say her name. Guilty as charged.

Now I know people say you have to "pick your no's." So I try not to say no to everything I don't approve of, just the stuff that's definitely a no - for example, things that can hurt her. So if she's playing with a nasty dog toy, we'll take it and put one of her toys in her hand instead. But what about things that can hurt me? I mean not physically, but drive me crazy? I have all my design magazines on the built-ins in the living room. I do not want them torn. (And before you say anything, we do not have high shelves. All our shelves are conveniently located within Hannah's reach.) Perhaps I should get over it, but I don't like the whole "if it's not broken, it's not our's" mentality. We should be able to have some things that are not torn, broken, or stained. Hannah, however, thinks they are the most fun things to play with. First she pulls - or throws them off the shelf - then she goes after the covers, either with her hands or mouth. I get there, say "no ma'am" and then pick her up and relocate her to the middle of her toy mecca. And we play this fetching game most of the day.

We have definitely seen the toy-is-not-as-fun-as-the-box-it-came-in game. Hannah loves paper, bubble wrap, and cardboard boxes. But she is obsessed with other things as well. Included are the dog bowls - empty or not, the basket of shoes in the laundry closet (we must keep the door closed at all times or we'll find her chewing on flip flops), and the dishwasher (cannot load while she is around). These are no ma'ams too. So I guess I might say it too much. Oh well. Who's counting?

Here's the little mischievous bug:

Daddy rushing to unload the dishwasher before the "help" gets there.

1st birthday pictures

Hannah had a great first birthday. She heard from lots of family and friends, opened presents, and celebrated with Grandma and Poppy. She'd rather chew on the presents and play with the ribbons and bows than open them, and she'd rather eat fruit and vegetables than eat cake, but that's ok! It was a special day.

 Sweet potato pancakes for breakfast! At lunch, Mommy even let me lick the top of the sweet potato jar. Note the theme: sweet potatoes. Hannah's favorite.

Opening presents from Mommy and Daddy.

Clementine the monkey                                           pat the bunny

 Grandma and me

My 1st birthday cake                                          Poppy and me

Saturday, the 11th, we had a Very Hungry Caterpillar themed birthday party in our backyard. It was a great time and we are very appreciative of the friends and family that came from near and far to be here to celebrate.

rested, bathed, and ready to go in my birthday dress!

The party's here! We made a huge caterpillar out of beach balls for the front yard.

Hannah's monthly "9th" pictures hung on a clothesline with small circles for the guests to sign.

Daddy worked hard getting everything ready. The signs on the food table are clips from the book. Most of the menu consisted of food eaten by the hungry caterpillar.

Mommy made a caterpillar for the food table...

...and a butterfly for the gift table.

Hannah's bib (found on Etsy).

Daddy's about to say the blessing...

Time to party!

...more interested in the balloon.

All the kids had fun playing in the caterpillar tunnel from Aunt Jennifer.

two birthday crowns and a pile of presents = one spoiled birthday girl

Some that came to celebrate...