Fun in the flowers

There is a tradition in Texas where parents drop their children in the bluebonnet flowers each year to take pictures of them. By the way, bluebonnets are the state "flower" of Texas, however they happen to be weeds (Yes, Mandi, they are weeds)! Go figure! However, I always found this tradition to be silly and vowed to never do it...until I had a kid. Oh well! So, Kelly and Crystal and I took Hannah and Caleb to take some pictures in the bluebonnets today.

Often parents take these pictures on the side of highways where the flowers are abundant, but thankfully we found a field far away from the highway. So, off we went for some fun with flowers.

Isn't Caleb adorable?! I LOVE his little dimples.

Isn't this so nice...well, the reality of our time was a bit different than what is portrayed above. In reality, it really looked more like this...

LOVELY huh?! It really was just Hannah who was crying. For the most part Caleb behaved himself. I have NO idea what Hannah's problem was, she was not going to give in to the bluebonnet pictures though. Maybe she is more of a rose type of girl. I guess we always have next year.

Our little Linus (Part 3)

Ever since I started rotating blankets with Hannah she has become accustomed to not having one special blanket, but many. The problem with this (or maybe the benefit) is that anything and everything that is fluffy and soft becomes a blanket for her. She has been known to grab the kitchen towel and snuggle with it as well as a soft dinner napkin at Outback. I know, I know, I am such a mean Mommy for rotating blankets, but it ensures that we can always find something soft and fluffy for her to snuggle with. Well, yesterday while I was getting ready, she pulled my towel down and it became her blanket for the morning.

Does this not look JUST like Jason?

Sorry this picture is a bit dark, the batteries on my flash went out and it worked off and on until I realized it and changed the batteries.

Disclaimer: I know that other parents have a special blanket or bear for their kids and I think that is wonderful. We are not against that in any way. In fact, Hannah does have a "most special" blanket that is a part of the rotation (her red Christmas blanket). We are just choosing to do it a different way, but I am in no way advocating our way over any other. Trust me, it has its pros and cons.

Playing Dominoes

After being at the house all day long, you have a learn to get creative with new and interesting toys. So, we resorted to playing with Dominoes today. Who knew that Hannah would enjoy it so much. I think she loved the sound that they made when they hit each other. So, when I get desperate again I can always count on the Dominoes to come in handy.

If only...

Dear Hannah,

My sweet baby! If you would only walk instead of crawl you would not have to carry things around in your mouth. I promise you it is easier to carry things in your two little hands then between your teeth. This will also save us from huge dental/orthodontal bills in future years.

Think about it and in the mean time we will keep practicing!

P.S. We might have news on a house later today! YAY! We have a verbal committment and our official offer was submitted this morning...so if/when we have news I will post the information and pictures for your viewing pleasure.

We caught Hannah in this pose the other night when she was sleeping...it was so cute that I had to capture it. She is to long to sleep in the crib sideways but she does it anyway. We always put her in the bed longways, but she turns sideways and squishes against the bumper pad like this. She even propped her foot up to make herself more comfy. She is such a cutie!

Our Little Linus (Part 2)

Since we typically leave Hannah's blankets in her crib, she quickly figured out that she could go over to her crib and get them out. Here she was trying to desperately to spring her blanket from behind the bars of the crib.

Doesn't she just look so proud of herself for finding her blanket. I think she was turning around to show us...
If you stick your tongue out it helps you to reach things in far places...you should try it. Hannah does it all the time.
Reach baby, reach!!!
Got it. Good thing you got long arms from your Daddy.

Victory! As you can see the thumb went straight into the mouth. If Hannah is anything, she is consistent!

On to another toy. This shows the attention span of an 11 month old.

By the way...can you believe that Hannah will be 11 months old on Monday! We are gearing up for her first birthday. FUN, FUN!!

Our little Linus (part 1)

Hannah LOVES her blankets (she has many) and it cracks me up to see her with them. As you can see Linus above, he has his thumb out and ready to go into the mouth...well, that is TOTALLY Hannah. She doesn't suck her thumb at all, until you get her blanket, and then the thumb goes straight into the mouth...it is utterly adorable. If you just walk her over to her crib where she can just see her blanket she will put the thumb in the mouth. But, I digress.

For the most part, we keep her blankets in the crib, but we will bring them out occasionally especially if she is fussy to help calm her down. Well, she attempted to carry her blanket around one day as she was crawling, and you can see how far she got below.

She hasn't tried to carry a blanket around since. Maybe she will pick this practice back up once she starts walking.

Hannah is in the dog house...

...literally.It seems like every day Hannah finds a new and interesting thing to play with. Well, her new fascination is with Molly's crate. She loves to open and close the door and crawl inside. So, here are some pictures and videos of her enjoying her new toy. Who needs Fisher Price anyway?!?!

Just an update - Hannah is not walking any more than before. I think, just like with rolling and crawling, she will take a bit more time to figure out that it is actually fun. She did this with rolling especially. She rolled over a lot for a day or so, then did not do it again for several days. So, we are still working on it. I will post videos and updates when she is really walking around the house.

Ready for the big girl bed...

...well, not really but she sure looks comfy huh?!?!

I took these pictures this past weekend after we kept Hannah out WAY past her bedtime. She was utterly exhausted and fell asleep while nursing. I just laid her on the bed for a moment, but she looked so cute (and little) sleeping on our bed. I guess she still has a few years before she gets her own big girl bed.

What a day...

Let me first show you the aftermath and then I will tell you the story...This morning I made a nice big pitcher of apple juice and while I was in the kitchen Hannah was playing in the pantry. At one point I opened the fridge for something and she crawled over to it and wanted to have a little look around. She loves the fridge by the way, but I don't let her play around it much (and for good reason!). Well, I let her stand there and look around for a few minutes. I turned around to get something in the sink and I hear a BIG splash...YUP, the apple juice went EVERYWHERE!!! She had grabbed ahold of the pitcher and yanked it over. It was all over Hannah, all over the floor, all over the bottom of the fridge and in the drawers. So, I stripped her down and put her in the exersaucer (which she was not pleased about) in order to clean the kitchen and fridge. The pictures really don't quite do the sitaution justice because I had already cleaned up the floor and most of the fridge by the time I thought about chroniciling this little epidsode.

Well, later this morning we went to play group and had a blast. As we were getting ready to leave I put my plate of leftover banana bread on a chair while I got the diaper bag. So, Hannah pulled up to the chair and yanked the whole plate of banana bread off and it went EVERYWHERE! So, there went the delicious banana bread that I had made this morning (during the whole apple juice fiasco) all over the floor. LOVELY!

So, here is the score as of now:

Hannah - 2

Mama - 0

Crazy weekend

Well, the delay in posting is evidence of our busy weekend. We were out and about looking at houses (yes, we are still house hunting), pricing home repairs at home depot, going to the kids museum here in town, shopping, and playing with Hannah. WHEW...I'm a bit tired after all of it! Hannah is doing great though and is still working on walking. She points to EVERYTHING now and giggles all the time. This really is such a fun age! And I can't believe that in 1 week she will be 11 months old which means that she is SO close to being a year old!!!
Anyway, there is a lot going on here, but we are certainly enjoying all of it. I have many more pictures and stories to post, so hopefully I can get those up soon.

These were pictures that Gramma sent us from our time in CA. Hannah looks adorable in this cute little dress, I love it! Maybe she looks less like a little fella' here.

She's getting bolder

Hannah has just begun taking some steps across the room this afternoon toward objects. The only steps she took up until now are toward Jason or I and only because we were holding out objects for her. But today she has showed increased boldness in taking steps across the room. So, I am guessing that this weekend might be a significant one in her walking. YAH!

She's a monkey

Hannah has begun to imitate things that Jason and I do, like sounds and actions. So, here she is imitating Jason. She actually first did this with Mimi when she was here, but I only recently caught it on video.

I am sure I could win the mother of the year award for allowing Hannah to play with a small plastic bottle, but you know how it goes when they find a toy that they enjoy playing with...oh well. Trust me, Hannah knows what is in this bottle and she quite enjoys it.

She did, however, read the ingredients just to make sure it was safe. She approved.


Do you think she was trying to tell me something?

Still working on it

Hannah is still working on walking. She has not taken any more than about 3-4 steps unassisted. She does, however, walk more with her little push toy. Just this morning she did about 3 laps up and down the hallway all by herself (it made me tired just watching).
Also, don't mind the sagging pants in the video...I have trouble keeping them up on our little skinny mini.