The Nanny

One of the largest sources of anxiety for me prior to Hannah's birth and during her first few weeks of life was determining who would care for her upon my return to work.  It was one of the first things I started focusing on after I found out we were pregnant, and was so frustrated to find there was little I could until the start date was much, much closer.  I looked into a few day cares as backup, but knew with our schedules a nanny would be ideal, if not necessary, and hated to drop application fees to secure spots I hoped we would not utilize.  I scoured care.com, deliberated spending thousands on an agency to provide us with a nanny we probably really could not afford, and even resorted to perusing craigslist ads.  I asked everyone I knew, at the office, church and random social events to please keep their ears open if they heard of any families who might be getting rid of their nannies.

I occasionally receive emails or am pulled aside by barely pregnant acquaintances curious about how I found our nanny.  I always remember the best advice I received, from the sweet couple who did our pre-marital counseling.  "Right now, all you can really do about it is is pray," Kriste told me at four months pregnant.  And I stopped worrying so much, and started praying.  When it came time to interview nannies, shortly after Hannah's birth, I only talked to three.  Tanner and I both had such a positive feeling when we met Vilma, we just knew she seemed like the right person to take care of Hannah.  She held her for most of the interview, gently rocking her in her arms.  We had her come one day a week for several weeks, then start full time about three weeks before I headed back to work full time.

Although I missed Hannah like crazy, I didn't cry my first day back.  I had grown accustomed to leaving her some during the day with Vilma, and I already knew that I really trusted her to love and care for our daughter intensely, when we had to be away.

Today, Hannah shrieks with joy when Vilma comes into the house in the morning (I don't get quite that level of reception when I come home at night, but I will settle for the sweet smile and outreached arms my precious daughter offers me).  My mom has been in town this week, and much to her chagrin, Hannah has expressed a preference for Vilma several times through the course of the week.  Vilma reads with her, plays with her, takes her to the park, on long walks and to the library and doesn't even make her take naps (I do have a slight issue with this one, but realizes in the scheme of things it is a pretty minor complaint).  How could she not love her?

When I prayed for a nanny that would love and care for Hannah in my absence, I could not even have envisioned someone who would be as sweet to her and focused on her as Vilma is.  Hannah is such a happy baby, and while I do regret that I cannot be there with her all the time, at the same time I think she is so blessed to have caretakers that love her so much in Vilma, my sister and her grandparents (more on the other two later).

Also - a shout out to Miss Hannah who turned 8 months old today (more on that tomorrow).

I also just realized that I definitely need to get some more pictures of Hannah and Vilma.  All of the ones I have don't include Vilma's face.




Hannah and Vilma in November



Little Vilma (Vilma's daughter) entertaining Hannah during a haircut over Spring Break

 

Bayou Bend

Sunday we met Jenn, JP, Adam and Claire at Bayou Bend to enjoy the nice weather and get some pictures of the flowers.  There were a few logistical issues (primarily in the form of a 40 ft. two-way bridge exactly the width of Adam and Claire's twin stroller), but it was a nice outing regardless.

Our pictures did not turn out great, and I have not spent time in lightroom with them yet, but I figured I would share anyway.



So excited to be outside




Typical of most of the pictures we took




The closest they came to all looking at the camera





I look really short in this picture




Stylin' in her stroller





Jenn and Claire




The Whalens

   

Adam eyeing Hannah's bow...

 

and he gets it...





but not for long



A few with Daddy







Enough with the pictures, mom



I am working on a post about our wonderful trip and Hannah's spring break outings.

In the meantime, a few several updates:

1. Hannah went to the doctor on Friday for what turned out to be either a cold or allergies.  She now weighs 18 lbs, 1 oz.
2. She ate eggs, with a bit of cheddar cheese mixed in, for the first time last night.  She was a big fan.  She is really a good eater, despite her...
3. Lack of teeth (we have been convinced they are on the verge of breaking through since early November).  Surely at some point we will be right.
4. The army crawling continues and she is quite proficient at shimmying across rooms now.  She is starting to pull her knees up under her, so I am thinking that the actual crawling is likely to start soon. 
5. She still cannot get into a sitting position from lying down, which seems to be a source of frustration.  She loves sitting/lying/scooting on her mat and emptying her toy box in the living room.  She entertains herself with her toys for up to twenty or thirty minutes sometimes.
6. She is trying to pull up on everything.  Grandjackie took her for a haircut last week and she sat in a little car for the cut.  Apparently, all she wanted to do was pull herself up using the stearing wheel.  She tries to pull herself up in her crib as well, we lowered the mattress a few weeks ago, but may have to lower it again soon.
7. Her favorite (ie only) word is "dada".  We are not entirely sure that she associates the word with her father, although she does seem to consistenly use it when conversing with him or when trying to get his attention.  She consistently uses it when he is not around as well.  I am working with her on "mama", but she usually just responds by repeating "dada".

I feel like I am always saying this, but she really is at such a fun age right now.  Tanner and I missed her so much while we were gone, and it seemed like she changed a ton in the five days we were away from her.  Her voice sounded so different when we returned and we are also pretty convinced that her hands and feet grew meaningfully while we were away. It was great to get away for several days, and even better to return home to our sweet daughter.

On the Move

And she's off...

Tanner and I are also off this week.  We are thrilled to be in Napa celebrating our anniversary, but we miss our little army crawler.  The day has started off perfectly, we even had a taste of our wedding cake for breakfast.  It was still delicious.  We are having brunch at Ad Hoc, visiting several wineries and ending the day with a celebratory dinner at La Toque.  I could not imagine a better way for us to spend this day.  Thanks to GrandJackie for taking good care of Hannah and sending lots of pictures.

Happy Birthday, Aunt Melissa

I am a day late with this post, and it will be much shorter than it should be.  Yesterday, my wonderful sister and Hannah's perfect aunt (seriously) turned 26.  Mom, Melissa and I celebrated with dinner at The Grove and Billy Elliot at Hobby Center.

Melissa, I am blessed that you are my sister and honored that you are one of my best friends.

Lent Love

I have always been a fan of Lent.  I still remember the first year that we observed it, I was probably six or seven and my parents encouraged Melissa and I to give up Nintendo, which we did.  I have given up sweets, fried foods, alcohol, carbs and even all of the above.  One year I gave up online shopping (my Amazon addiction would make that pretty difficult now, which I know is the point, but every minute I am not at the grocery store, is a minute more I get to spend with Hannah).  My sophomore year in high school, I gave up going out to lunch, and donated the money I normally spent to St. Jude's (I am such a softie when it comes to their radio campaigns).  Two years ago, I gave up dining out, except for when traveling (I couldn't starve on work trips).  I think Tanner was particularly anticipating the arrival of Easter that year. 

I like the idea of Lent.  I like that it is a time to refocus, to develop discipline and to be reminded of the magnificent sacrifice Jesus made.  In addition to giving up vices, I always find that Lent is a good time for me to commit to really focusing on and strengthening my faith, regardless of where I am in my walk.  When I lived in San Francisco, I never found (or particularly seeked out) a church home.  But both years during Lent, I made the commitment to attend church each Sunday.  Last year, although I publicly joked that I had given up alcohol, unpasteurized cheeses, anything that might contain listeria, sushi and sleeping comfortably through the night, I committed to prayer time each day and to remain focused for duration of that time, as I am incredibly guilty of letting my mind wander.

So that leads me to this year, and I will start with the superficial.  There is a little basket on the kitchen counter in our office that has all sorts of snacks with little nutritional value.  Between 2 and 4 pm every day, I convince myself that snackwells cookies or cheez its would be a good way for me to waste six weight watchers points.  For the next forty days, I am staying away from the basket. 

Tangent:  I have been doing weight watchers since September, and my weight loss has been slow and steady.  The program has been working well for me because:

a) Tanner started doing it with me in January, which has been awesome.  He has more discipline than I do, but I am sure not going to cheat if he is not cheating; and

b) I have a ton of points.  They really want breastfeeding moms to lose weight slowly, and I have definitely been losing weight slowly.  At some point, now that Hannah is eating some solid foods, I need to update my plan that I am breastfeeding and supplementing (rather than strictly breastfeeding), which means I will lose seven points a day (strikingly close to the number I consistently waste on cheez its or snackwells cookies).  I think it is a sign that it is time to make the change.

Onto the less superficial.  I am giving up facebook and a few other time-wasting websites I am guilty of perusing at the office.  Honestly, facebook will be hard and I am a bit torn about it.  Sometimes it is the easiest way to get in touch with someone or get contact info.  I also get a lot of other useful information, like births, deaths, engagements and birthdays from facebook.  Besides, how will my facebook friends survive without seeing pictures of Hannah for the next 40 days?  But at the end of the day, it is more of a timewaster/stalking tool than any of the above, and with work picking up it is simply not a good use of an extremely limited resource, time. 

I have also commited to a daily devotional that explores the book of Matthew and to reading a few John Piper books and a Beth Moore book that have been idling on my kindle.

And finally, I want to blog more consistently (in the time I am not wasting facebook-stalking acquaintances), and expand the scope of the blog a little bit, although like the rest of my life, it will certainly continue to revolve around Hannah most days.

Sophie the Giraffe

Hannah loves Sophie the Giraffe.  Not too long ago we were at dinner with a number of childless friends, and one, who has no knowledge of Hannah's toys, asked, "where is her little giraffe?"  She just assumed that Hannah had one.  "All babies have the giraffe," she explained to the group.  Fittingly, I got a kick out of this Slate article.

Hannah with Granddaddy and Sophie

Lots of Laughs

This video has me wanting to go home and tear up some paper with my sweet daughter.

Seven Months Old

I am not really sure whether Hannah hit the seven month mark on February 28th or March 1st, but regardless February flew by.  Work is starting to pick up for me, and I feel as though I am in the middle of yet another adjustment period from mom who goes to work to true working mother.  I have been much more guilt-ridden, as I have spent a few early mornings, my typical slot for "quality time" with Hannah, keeping my fingers crossed she would continue to entertain herself in her exersaucer as I struggled to complete work I was too tired to finish the night before.  I have to remind myself that Hannah is so lucky to have a number of good caretakers, particularly Vilma and Aunt Melissa, and that all I can do is ensure that the time I spend with her is for the most part quality, to make up for the lack of quantity. 

This week has been particularly crazy.  Monday night I was on the phone with Melissa, checking in on Hannah, on my way from work to a Junior League meeting.  All of a sudden I hear a boom, and Melissa starts freaking out.  Apparently a transformer right behind our house blew, and a fireworks show ensued in our backyard.  By the time Melissa grabbed Hannah, ran outside and called 911, neighbors from up and down the block had gathered.  I headed straight home, but missed most of the excitement.  Instead, I got to mother and work by candlelight for the rest of the evening, as it was after 1 am before they had our power turned back on. I was fretting about the milk in the freezer, but it survived the outage.

And I certainly won't be receiving any mom of the year awards for my performance last night.  Tanner and I like to go to Terlingua on Tuesday nights for half price fajitas.  Last night, despite his protestations that it would be complicated, I convinced him that we should walk to the restaurant, which is less than a mile from the house.  Shortly after we got Hannah situated in the highchair, sat down and had margaritas delivered, Hannah stealthily grabbed a glass by the stem and proceeded to dump it on her lap in the highchair.  I, of coures, had not brought the diaper bag and did not think to throw an extra outfit in with the essentials in the bottom of the stroller.  We undressed her and wrapped her in a blanket, that I fortunately had thrown in at the last second.  The high chair cover was soaked, so I just let her sit in my lap.  The table was pretty full and I guess I left my water glass to close to the edge because within a few minutes of the first mishap, she successfully reached for and pulled a straw out of my water glass, while spilling her second full drink of the evening.  We have no car seat, so I am faced with the choice of walking my naked baby wrapped in a wet blanket home in her stroller or catching a ride with Zac with no car seat.  We opted for the latter.  She seemed really proud of herself after dinner, as if she had successfully managed to be the center of attention for an entire meal...

Aunt Melissa has babysat Hannah the last several Saturday nights, and Tanner and I tried Haven with Alan and Melissa and Ava's Whiskey Kitchen with Nick and Lauren.  I had intended to start blogging some about both restaurants and recipes, but I get so caught up talking about Hannah whenever I have the chance to blog, that I have not gotten around to it.  I will make it a goal, at some point in the future.  Last night was a reminder that we are very lucky to have adult dinners, made possible by Aunt Melissa's saintly willingness to babysit on the weekends.

I don't know that I have ever typed this many consecutive words with no pictures on this blog, so here are some pictures from our President's Day play date with Adam and Claire:

I love Adam in the background of this one

Hannah also wanted to give her own shout out to everyone: