How Hannah spent her Sunday

Hannah was really into her books this evening...literally.

Perhaps it was because she had so much fun reading with Poppy.  Apparently she said "book" repeatedly this afternoon.  I missed it because I spent my Sunday afternoon at the office.  So excited that book is one of her early words.

She also ate, and made a mess, and for some reason I chose to document it.  Things are pretty exciting around these parts.

Before Bedtime

After a 3.5 week hiatus, tonight I pulled out the camera to snap a few shots before bedtime. 

Back to the Grind

I have been dreading this week for most of the summer.  For me, back to school marks a return to more chaotic days...ones that begin with a 5 am alarm clock, making lunches while downing coffee and contemplating the logistics of a caffeine drip, simultaneously applying makeup and entertaining a one year old, followed by starting work days at 9 am and finally coming home at night to an equally exhausted husband and an overwhelmingly energetic one year old.

But I have had some pleasant surprises so far this week.  When school ended last June Hannah generally woke up around the time we did.  I would put her in her high chair and feed her bites of food while simultaneously making lunches, straightening up etc.  This seems to be considerably easier this fall.  Hannah has been sleeping until 7 or so, then I toss a waffle in the toaster, cut up a "nanana" and some strawberries and she self-feeds, while I work around the kitchen and "visit" with her.  This also means that I have had a whole hour to myself between the time that Tanner leaves for school and Hannah wakes up...such a luxury.  After a quick morning shower, this week I have had time to write thank you notes, address baby shower invitations, get a bit of work in, and today...I am blogging.

Other things are a bit more complicated.  I miss the days of being able to drop her in exersaucer in the hall while I put my makeup on and dried my hair.  Now, unless I can get her to play in her ball pit for 10 minutes or so, it is almost impossible to finish getting ready while she is running around the house like a banshee.  I suppose I should push these tasks up into my newfound hour of freedom, but I am always afraid to turn on the hairdryer, for fear of waking her.  Makeup is a bit less of an issue, as something about it being August and 110 degrees means that I have decided some moisturizer with sunscreen, powder, mascara and a bit of lip gloss does the job.  The entire process takes about 45 seconds, the same amount of time it takes a one year old to unroll a roll of toilet paper, coincidentally.

We seem to have fallen into a pretty decent schedule at night as well.  Hannah has been going to bed pretty consistently between 8 and 830.  We read with her, give her a bottle (I know, I know, it is going away in a week...or so), rock her for a bit and then put her into her crib awake.  Most nights she does not cry, and if she does it does not last long.  She has really been sleeping well.  I am so grateful for this.

I am not sure we have taken a picture of her on our good camera since her birthday.  Here are a few pictures from the iphone on Saturday.  Hannah had a blast at Paige's first birthday party.

On the Road Again

I wrote this yesterday intending to post it last night, but due to lack of wireless internet in my hotel room, it did not get posted until this morning.  I am in a much less whiny mood today, and am super-excited about seeing Miss Hannah and her father tonight.

I miss Hannah.

Melissa flew to Midland last Thursday morning, with Hannah, to spend the weekend.  Hannah stayed in Midland, then rode to Austin with my parents yesterday.  They are bringing her to Houston tomorrow afternoon.

This worked out great for Tanner and me.  I am in DC this week for work and he has had inservice all week starting at 7 am.  I am so lucky that my parents are able to provide us with so much help, I do not know how we would manage without them.

I have spent a lot of nights away from Hannah since she was about five months old.  Friends have asked how I do it, or other mothers in music class have commented that they have not even spent a night away from their 18-month old.  Reality is, I do it because I don't really have a choice, most of the time.  My job involves travel, and I really don't mind it for the most part.  The more I am traveling, the higher the likelihood is that I am working on something interesting and exciting.  I am also blessed with saints of a mother and a sister that make it manageable for us, Hannah has spent almost every night away from us with one of them, and I know that she could not be in better hands.

This is my seventh day away from Hannah.  It is not even the first time that I have spent more than a week apart from her.  About a month ago, Tanner and I spent eight days in Hong Kong.  I missed her like crazy, but was working constantly and experiencing a new city, so the time flew by.

This time it has dragged.  Tanner and I had a great date night Saturday night and enjoyed some much need down time, but spent a lot of the weekend at home, where she was noticeably absent.  Then this trip to DC has been fairly slow.  I worked until 730 or so last night, then headed back to the hotel, ordered room service and watched a depressing movie in my tiny hotel room.  I just look at the pictures and videos my parents have sent me over and over again, assured that she is happy and doing well, but all the same missing her and wondering if she wonders where I am.  I hear about all of the new words that she is saying, and hate that I am missing hearing them.  And I know that it is irrational, but I feel like whenever I am gone she has these huge language advancements and I worry that I am not talking to her enough or stimulating her enough or in the best way...that in some way she is better off when I am not her primary caregiver.

Anyway, enough about me...  Here is what Hannah has been up to with her grandparents this week (thanks to GrandJackie, Granddaddy and Aunt Melissa for all the iphone photos and videos):

With Nana at airport

Mom's "child-proofing" of the coffee table

Reading with Nana

More reading with Nana

Eating breakfast

Playing hide and seek

Not going to bed

Playing with Landry

At Keene's Birthday Party

Jumping on the trampoline

Headed to church

Playing at the Park

Must be hard to walk in the sand

And more eating

And laughing

Enjoying her play kitchen

At Chuck E Cheese with Landry and Lucas

Eating ice cream

Helping with the close of Aunt Melissa's house

Sleeping on the car ride to Austin 

Singing on the car ride to Austin

Exploring the condo

Enjoying the Austin Children's Museum

One Year Old in a Flash

Hannah's One Year Old in A Flash party was a blast.  We were so touched that so many of our friends and family, some traveling a fair distance, joined us to celebrate.  I got several ideas for the party (okay pretty much copied the theme) from a post on the Hostess with the Mostess blog.  I loved the invitation she featured on the blog, so I just changed the color scheme (ordered from Serendipity Beyond Design).

I also loved her idea of hiring a professional photographer for the party, and it probably would not have occurred to me on my own.  Sunshine Winters, who photographed our wedding and did Hannah's newborn shots, sweetly agreed to join us for Hannah's party on the evening of her six-month wedding anniversary. It was so nice to not have to worry about taking pictures myself and we ended up with roughly 500 pictures that captured almost everyone at the party.  I definitely plan to have her back to future birthday parties.  There were tons of great pics, so I made a quick slideshow instead of trying to choose my favorites to put on the blog.

Hannah's First Birthday Party from Margaret Franks on Vimeo.

I was also so pleased with all of the sweet letters, books and other mementos that Hannah received for her memory box.  We are so blessed to have such thoughtful family and friends, and I really think she will treasure the contributions when she is older.

As usual, I am also eternally grateful to my mom and Melissa.  Not only did they keep Hannah while we were in Hong Kong, they also managed to deep clean our house, tie bows around a hundred pieces of silverware and napkins, put together darling centerpieces, shop for last minute items and make the day of Hannah's party as low stress as possible for me.  Hannah and I sure are lucky to have them.

12 month Update

Hannah had her one year old check up yesterday. I am pretty irritated because it ended up being a rough day for me to get off work, and her pediatrician was not even there. I would have happily rescheduled so that she could have her well check with her regular pediatrician, rather than another doctor that spent approximately five minutes with us.

She was 31 inches, still in the 95th percentile, and 20 lbs. 14 oz., in the 50th percentile. She has been pretty consistent. She got four shots - prevnar 13, mmr, varicella and hepatitis. After not even crying when she got her 6 month shots, these were pretty bad. She was so pale afterwards also, I just felt awful and hated sending her home with Dad while I headed back to work.

She is eating a lot of table food now. Her favorites are chicken, pineapple, banana, macaroni and cheese, string cheese and goldfish.

Walking has become her primary mode of transportation, although she will still crawl occasionally. She loves mimicking our faces, especially if we smack our lips. She still loves bath time. She will take off down the hallway to the bath or shower at all times of day.

She pulls the drain plug out when she is ready to get out of the tub. She frequently tries to stand in the bath tub, so we are constantly telling her to sit down. She has grown pretty attached to mommy, and cries whenever anyone she is close to leaves the house.

She still loves playing outside and bangs on the door like Winston does to let us know she would like to go out. 

In fact, she wants to be Winston, I am pretty sure. We have to constantly watch her or else she heads straight for the dog food. She licks lotion off of her hands right after it is applied (a Winston trademark), and as soon as we get her out of her highchair she struggles to get free because she wants to join Winston in eating her crumbs off of the floor.  They also love to play chase around the den.

She does not say many words consistently, some days she will not really say any at all, but here is a list of words that I have heard her say at least a few times: mama, dada, no, yay, duck (and quack, quack, quack), fish, wagua (mixture of water and agua), cheese, go, and done.

She received a play kitchen for her birthday from her second cousins Landry and Lucas and absolutely loves it.  Yesterday she carried her plastic grapes with her all day, even to the doctor.  Her favorite activity is removing the sink from the kitchen, dropping items down it, then opening up the cabinet door to find them.  It never gets old.

She is also a climber.  She received a picnic table from my parents for her birthday and rather than sit at the table, she prefers to climb on top of it.  Small spills don't bother her most of the time.

I am sure there are a ton of other great things that she does that I am failing to remember right now.  I am loving this age so much.  Nothing makes me happier than seeing her toddle towards me when I walk through the back door in the evenings.