Walking and Talking much? Ummm no

Hannah is changing by the minute.  Everyday is different which can be expected at this age.  She is trying to talk and listening to every word you say very closely.  She says bear, ball, touch, dad, up, pup pup for her puppy.  She says other things but who really knows or understands her.  If you ask her what sound a bee makes she will buzzzzzzz and if you ask her what sound a dog makes she will woof.  It is very cute.  She is learning a ton right now and paying very close attention to everything we do.

She loves to walk around but she will only do it if she is holding your hand.  It has become a crutch for her and we are trying to break her of the habit.  She will take steps on her own (up to 5) and she likes to stand and balance by herself... but she is so hesitant to walk.  In time she will be off!

She loves to turn lights on and off, play with buttons/switches and open/shut cupboards.  I let her stand in the kitchen and play with them and it drives Jamey crazy that I let her do that.  She is having fun.

Hannah is really a sweet sweet baby.  She loves to cuddle, she loves laying on soft things like her monkey rug or even the rug in the kitchen and she LOVES stuffed animals!!  She sleeps with a bear and her Hannah pillow and I will sometimes find her sleeping with her head on her pillow like a big girl.  She is always happy as well.  She is always laughing and playing.  She loves loves loves Emma to death and Emma can do no wrong in her eyes.  Even if Emma tackles her, she laughs.  Obviously, I'm not happy when Emma does that but Hannah doesn't mind.

She likes to play games too.  She knows that Emma's bunnies are off limits.  But Emma has been carrying around her bunnies in the house lately and if she puts them down Hannah will go and get them.  She will then laugh and run away with them.  I think it is hilarious, Emma, not so much.

Emma and Hannah love taking baths with one another.  Emma likes to wash Hannah's hair and Hannah loves to wash Emma's back and torso.  It is so cute to see them interact in the bath together and help each other out.  I really hope their sweet relationship continues through childhood and into their adult years.  They really do love being around each other and playing together.

Hannah likes to run away from us now when it is time to get her dressed at night.  She is just like Emma in that way -- naked baby on the loose.  She laughs and laughs and it is a fun game for her.  You can't help but laugh too because her sweet laugh is infectious.

Hannah trying to talk

Hannah and Emma update

Hannah's a year old and she is doing great.  She had her well baby appointment on Wednesday and she weighs 21 lbs which puts her in the 50 percentile.  She is starting to get very vocal and actually says "hi."  Sometimes we think she says Emma too but we aren't really sure.  She is starting to move a lot more and crawl now instead of scoot everywhere.  But my goodness, she is probably the fastest scooter in the west! For the longest time she wouldn't crawl and would get around scooting.  I am glad she finally figured out how to crawl and get around.  For the past few weeks she has been screeching like you couldn't believe.  She wants something, where it is attention, toy, food, whatever and she gets frustrated and starts speaking like a shrilling bird. I do hope this phase passes quickly. She has officially transitioned to cow's milk.  It wasn't too bad - Emma cared much much more.  But Hannah has always been easier in that regard than Emma.  She eats practically everything and will drink bottles.  She is sleeping well for her naps.  She is still taking two naps and will sleep about an hour each.  One of them will be a little more than an hour which is great.  When we put her down to sleep she doesn't cry. She just sucks on her puppy's ear and goes to sleep.  It is so nice to have a kid you can just put to sleep like that.  I remember Emma used to cry every single time you put her to sleep for her nap no matter what!!!  I thought it was normal and when I heard about her friends not doing that I couldn't understand.

Hannah has her top four teeth, and she just got her third one on the bottom.  I think another one is coming though.  Hannah overall is a really easy girl.  She is always happy, wants to be around people and is exploring and learning her world.  She absolutely adores Emma - she is her best friend!  And Emma loves her too.  It is really cute to watch them play together.  Emma is very good with her and will engage her to play.

Hannah and Emma love going swimming at Grandma Shu Shu's.  They are both water babies and could live in the pool if we let them.  Emma is a great swimmer.  She doesn't need much assistance in the pool.  Today she swam the entire length of the pool all by herself. I was so impressed.

We threw Hannah a birthday party at our new house.  We moved in the week before it so we had to get it together in record time!  It was a great party.  The weather was fantastic, Hannah loved the attention and Emma loved having everyone over.  

For part of June, July and some of August Emma took ballet and tap classes.  Her friend Uma took the class too.  She started a couple of weeks later but it was nice for Emma to have a friend.  Emma liked it when she got there but it was such a fight to get her to go in the first place.  She wasn't that great of a listener to the teacher but when she wanted to she would.  We decided not to enroll her again and instead find something else for her to do.  She loves to do art so I am looking into art classes for her.

So much has happened

I really feel bad for not blogging until now.  To say so much has changed is an understatement.  The last few months have been crazy!  Hannah kept getting ear infections and finally on May 15 we got tubes put in her ears.  It was absolutely horrible to hold her as she was put to sleep.  I never want to experience that again!  However, putting tubes in her ears was the best decision we ever made. 

We went to Santa Barbara for Ryan and Emily's wedding and Emma was the cutest flower girl.  Hannah walked down the aisle with us and then we handed her off to Judith.  Emma was adorable and she did great as a flower girl.  Will had to hold her hand and tug her a bit to get her to go down the aisle but it wasn't a big deal.  She didn't drop flowers going down the aisle and instead decided to drop them while she was seating down.  After dropping them at her feet she thought that the rose petals would taste good so she kept trying to eat them.  It was hilarious watching it. 

We then moved to LA.  Jamey moved a week before me and the girls.  It was really hard moving without Jamey but my mom came up to help.  Judith came out for the first week and it was amazing!  Emma was really sad when Judith left.  She started The Tree House School and she really likes it.  She does miss her old friends (and Judith) terribly but once she starts making friends at school it will get better. 

We saw Tricia and Mona the first weekend we were in LA.  We went to lunch and then beach.  Emma had so much fun seeing them!

On to Hannah.  As I write this the poor little girl is very sick.  She has had a really high fever for the past few days (103.5-104) and it is just so sad.  I took her to the doctor to make sure that her ears were clear, and they were.  I will not be surprised if she breaks out with a rash after her fever goes away.  I am kinda hoping that she does and then we know it was Roseola.

Hannah has also gotten a ton of teeth.  She has her two bottom teeth and she has three teeth on top.  She is waiting for her top front one to come in and I can see it coming.  I can tell that she is in pain from her teeth and I feel so bad for her!

Emma went to ballet and tap class today for the first time.  She has so much fun and she looked so cute as a ballerina!

A quick update

So Hannah has two bottom teeth now.  They definitely bother her a bit and towards the end of the day she can get cranky.  But overall, considering what she must be going through she is being a champ! 

Her sleeping through the night is still not great.  It really is all over the place. This morning she woke up at 5:15am.  I wish she wasn't in our room because we would let her cry until 6/6:30 but we can't do that because she would wake up Emma.

Emma on the other hand woke up in the middle of the night (3am) crying and screaming.  When Jamey went in she said that she had a bad dream  - that skunks were trying to come in her room and bite her.  In the morning she said she was also scared that there were rats under her bed.  Jamey slept in her room with her for the rest of the night because she was very scared.  She wanted to come in our room but having one of our girls in our room was enough. 

Emma also loves to make up words!  She calls me Mamu (ma-moo) and Bunu (bun-ooh) for her bunnies.  It is pretty cute. 

She also loves making up songs.  The latest she said was a song that she made up in her heart.  We don't really get that but that's what she says :)

Pictures!!

The last few months...

A ton has happened over the last couple of months.  I am just going to list things out because so much has happened.

1. Hannah was constantly sick with ear infections.  She had three ear infections in less than 3 months.  It was so bad that we scheduled her to get tubes put in her ears.  Thankfully, after three different antibiotics, including the broad spectrum shot, her infections cleared up and we cancelled the surgery. It was supposed to happen last Tuesday (March 26).  Last week was the first week since Jan. 14 that she wasn't sick. I was going to the doctor every single week since I went back to work and it was getting really tiring.  Now her doctor and I are pretty close!  Dr. Dawn was great and really felt for us!
2. We learned Hannah is tongue-tied.  We found out when she went to the ENT.  The ENT said that we don't need to do anything about it until we put tubes in her ears but it explains why she is suck a strong sucker!! She is overcompensating for the fact she can't stick her tongue out.  But she doesn't have a problem eating or nursing so there is nothing to do right now.
3. Hannah turned 6 months old.  Her check-up went really well.  According to the percentiles, her head is on the smaller side which isn't surprising - so is Emma's; her weight is a bit above average and her height is a bit below.  She is perfect!
4. The flu - Strain A took over our house.  We all got our flu shots but that didn't stop the flu from entering our house.  Emma got sick on a Thursday night and I took her to the doctor that Friday.  I brought Hannah with me because I didn't like the way she sounded and I had the doctor check her out.  (She had double ear infections) Thank goodness my mom was coming to town that weekend - I needed her more than ever to help out!  Then Sunday Hannah and I got sick. I texted Judith that night to let her know what she was in for the next day and she texted back that she too was sick!  My mom ended up staying until Wednesday night - she nursed us all back to health!!
5. Emma's been eating like there are two of her.  She eats two dinners and downs food like it's going out of style!  She must be going through a growth spurt.
6. Hannah got her first tooth!!  Her bottom left tooth broke through on Thursday (March 28).  It's very exciting.  It looks like her other tooth is about to break through any day as well. 
7. Hannah stopped rolling over.  She's not interested in doing so anymore.  The doctor isn't concerned and said that it isn't a milestone she really cares about.  I don't know why she stopped doing it - she just did.
8. Hannah sits up all on her own now.  We worked on this skill for a while and she is really good at it.  
9. Hannah is getting so big it is ridiculous.  She has the cutest cheeks and OMG her thighs!!!  You just want to eat her ginormus thighs!!! They are the biggest thighs you have every seen.  Her rolls are incredible.  She also has twist on wrists and feet.  Her ankles don't really exist.  The crazy thing is she doesn't weigh all that much.  She weighed 16 lbs at her 6 month appointment and then when we were doing her pre-op appointment (two days before she was 7 months) she weighed 16 lbs and 3 oz.  
10. Emma's vocabulary has exploded!  She talks and sings up a storm.  She makes up some fabulous songs - my favorite is her window song.  "Open my window on the freeway.  No way, no way, Jose!"  She also sings Hebrew songs she learned at school.  She is singing Dayneu right now because of Passover.  She also loves to sing Happy Birthday in Hebrew and Spanish. Speaking of Spanish, Emma is starting to really talk in Spanish.  She used to mainly answer back in English but now she answers in Spanish a lot more.  It is really cute to hear her speak Spanish.  We are so glad that she is learning the language.
11. Emma's favorite phrase is, "do you know something?" and then she will go and tell us a story or ask something.  It is really cute.
12. Emma's behavior has gotten better.  Not a whole lot better but she is definitely being better.  She still isn't listening all the time and when we tell her not to do something it doesn't always work. But, she's a work in progress.
13. Emma loves playing "baby."  She has all her dolls and has named them.  She says they are her babies like Hannah is my baby.  It is very cute to see her do all the things to them that I do to Hannah.  She gets them dressed, they go to the potty, she takes them for walks, puts them down for naps, etc.
14. Emma can dress herself now.  She is very particular about the clothes she wears.  In fact, she has a favorite shirt - it is a short-sleeved blue shirt that says #1 Big Sister.  The shirt has a picture of two birds on it and one has a bow.  What is hilarious about this is that she calls it her kitty cat shirt.  I keep telling her she is silly to call them kitty cats because they are birds and she said no they are kitties.  The funniest thing about this is the other day Emma said to me, "Mommy, my shirt is so silly.  These kitties look a lot like birdies."  I busted out laughing!
15. Emma and her hot chocolate.  Her morning ritual is drinking hot chocolate.  It is the only way now that we get her to drink milk. She makes it herself most of the time, with some help of course, and we buy the chocolate powder.  She likes it really "brownie" on top.  If it isn't "brownie" enough she lets us know!
16. Emma is being really nice with Hannah.  She is very loving towards her.  Unfortunately, Emma doesn't know her strength and is a bit rougher with Hannah than we like.  She is learning but we still have to keep a watchful eye on her.  
17. Emma has a ton of nicknames for Hannah: Hannah Banana, Hannah Biena, Hannah Blank, Hannah Loopie
18. Emma has created her own swear word.  When she gets hurt or drops something and doesn't mean to she will say "Plumee."  It's fantastic when she says it.  Makes us laugh each time!
19. Emma got her brand new twin size bed a few weeks ago.  She loves her new bed!  
20. We broke down the real crib and moved into our room.  My dresser now lives in Emma's room.  This is less than ideal but our backs were killing us from putting Hannah down and picking her up from the Pack and Play.
21. We are in the process of sleep training Hannah.  Tonight is Day 4.  She's been doing pretty well, all considering. We are sleeping in the living room.  I sleep on the couch and Jamey sleeps on the floor.  Last night she slept till a little after 6am which was great.  She woke up twice in the night but she didn't cry.  Now she just needs to not wake up and completely sleep through the night.  We are hoping we can move back into our room this weekend.

That's all I can think of for now.  I will post some photos later.