Hannah & Gavin

Here's a shot of Hannah & her cousin Gavin. Why is it so difficult to get multiple children to look at the camera??? Hannah wanted down, Gavin wanted something other than me holding him, and I'm hoping I can get up out of Hannah's chair when the picture is over.....Good times.

Chillin' with Daddy

Mommy's Little Helper

I created a "safe" drawer in the kitchen filled with things that Hannah could play with and that could keep her occupied when I'm trying to work in the kitchen. Hannah recently discovered her drawer and has been quite excited to try everything out.

My daughter LOVES to lick things, so I shouldn't be surprised at her licking the strainer. She also licks the TV, nightlights in the hallway, the baby gate, toys, me, and pretty much anything else. I haven't decided if she does this because she thinks she is a dog and spends too much time watching Abby, or if it is just a phase....

She's also fascinated by the fridge, and she showed me how interested she is when I was cleaning the shelves and left the door open. My dad always used to complain that the penguins in the fridge would get out if we left the door open....maybe Hannah went looking for the penguins!

One Year Old!

Hannah is one. It is so amazing to sit back and think about how our lives have been changed in the past year....and I often wonder what in the world we did with our time before we had Hannah (actually, much in the same way that we can't remember what our life was like before Abby came along). Our life has been changed for the better -- Hannah is so full of personality, she is so much fun, she smiles (almost) all of the time, she has a great "toothy" grin, and best of all for me, when I get home from work she flaps her arms and squeals with delight (smiling and lunging toward me!). Hannah is also a little climber -- she tries to climb into the bathtub, out of her crib, onto the couch....she is moving non-stop. She also enjoys chasing Abby around the house and will frequently take off after Abby and fortunately Abby is very gentle with her (even when irritated).

We had Hannah's 1-year doctor's appointment and our doctor was a little concerned that Hannah's weight plateaued between her 9mo. & 12mo. appointments. In fact, in those 3 months, Hannah has only gained 9oz. (She is now 17lbs, 4oz.) Our doctor has never been one to worry about percentiles (Hannah has consistently been in the 3-5 range), but she does want a decent curve to her chart. So, I was asked to wait to start her on cow's milk and to do what we can to get extra calories into her, since all of that constant movement is working off the calories faster than we can put them on! I had been planning on cutting out the pumping while I am at work, since she could get cow's milk during the day while she was at the sitter's. Our doctor told us that I could stop daytime pumping and offer formula, but after talking with a pediatric dietitian friend, I realized that a 1-year old who hasn't really had formula isn't going to start taking that yucky-smelling/tasting stuff now. Instead, my friend suggested pediasure as a supplement, and continuing to nurse full-time. So, here I am.....I'm now the lawyer who is going to nurse full-time until at least 15 months.....Crazy, I know.

Although Hannah was mad in this picture - I'd just finished cleaning out her nose - I thought the picture was cute.

The following pictures show the changes from last year to this year. Both "current" pictures were taken on her birthday. The incubator picture was when she was 5 days old, and the other "baby" picture is the day she came home from the hospital, at just over 5 weeks old.

And now, for some fun pictures that show off my girl's climbing ability. The big-girl chair was a birthday present from Mommy & Daddy....but right now it is a safety hazard : )

Abby & Gracie

Abby with her "cousin" Gracie (Josh & Danila's dog). We love the doodle : )

Birthday Party!

Although her birthday isn't until Wednesday, we had Hannah's birthday party this afternoon. We thought it would be nice to have it on a longer weekend, so our extended family would be able to make it. Unfortunately, only Jon's side of our family was able to come to the party, so even though it was planned as a small party, it ended up being even smaller than planned...But we still had a good time!

Hannah LOVED her cake, as you'll see from the pictures. It didn't take her long to figure out what to do. She picked up the butterfly decoration, tried it but wasn't thrilled with the taste, so I took it and pointed to the icing, and away she went...

Mom, I don't know why I'm wearing this hat, but I'm ready
Mmmmm...this is pretty good.
Yep, likin' it a lot. Why have I not been given sugar before?

Yes, the icing is up my nose and is dangerously

close to my eye. What's it to you?

This cake is SO GOOD, I can't help myself.

In case you're wondering, Hannah didn't eat the whole cake that was sitting on her highchair. But, she did pick at part of it for the better part of 30 minutes and probably ate 1/4 of the cake. She MAY have had a bigger piece than me!

Prior to the cake eating extravaganza, we opened a few presents and played with some new toys. We had the party right after Hannah woke up from her afternoon nap, so she was ready to play AND get a snack, so the timing ended up being perfect.

In case you're wondering, the cake was made by "Cake Dot" - the same lady that made our wedding cake, and the cake we used to announce/celebrate being pregnant (See the Oct. '07 post for the picture). We really like her cakes - the adult one was chocolate - and she actually designed the cake herself. The only instruction I gave her was that I didn't want the cake covered in pink, because having a little girl there is PLENTY of pink in my life, and I suggested butterflies or flowers as a decoration, since Hannah isn't really into a "character" or anything. The butterflies are all fondant, and because she'd already made some for a wedding cake, I wasn't charged extra! As my sister-in-law told me, the sign of a good cake is no leftovers, and there were only 10 adults at the house to have cake (and they finished off the rest of Hannah's smash cake too!).

Snowy Afternoon Fun

This afternoon Jon's school had an early dismissal, and our firm closed early because of the weather. I actually left work shortly before we closed and came home to play in the snow with Hannah. I'd seen the weather reports that it was going to get really cold later in the week and wanted the chance to play outside before the temperature went below zero.

Daddy loves his little girl.
Hannah loved to watch the snow coming down.
Mommy introduces Hannah to snow...

Even Abby joined in the fun. Abby loves to play outside in the snow. Hannah loved to watch Abby & Mommy run in circles, chasing each other in the snow. She thought it was really funny. Ultimately we were only outside for about 5 minutes....after taking about 10 minutes (or more) to get everyone dressed and ready to go outside.

Happy Birthday Liam

Today is my nephew Liam's first birthday. It's hard to believe he is already one year old. Last year at this time when I got the news that he was born I told all of my nurses about him, and as soon as I had pictures I made just about every person that came in my room look at them. Of course, I never thought I'd be giving Liam a cousin that same month....

Liam is growing up so quickly. I hate that we live so far away from him and can't see him very often. Here is his birthday update, with some recent pictures!

http://thecassidyclan.blogspot.com/2009/01/liams-1st-birthday.html

Brushing Teeth

Now that Hannah has teeth (so far 4 of them), she gets her teeth brushed every night after her bath before bedtime. It's actually something that she really enjoys!

Hannah always tries to hold the toothbrush herself. She really likes to take her sips of water to rinse afterwards too - but there is usually a decent amount of water from the cup spilled on her, so we've learned to wait before putting the PJ's on.

Happy New Year!

Well, this New Year's Eve was certainly different from last year!!

Last year at this time, I was in the hospital... our friends Curtis & Sheri came over to my room, and we played cards, watched TV, and one of my nurses (who can remain nameless) showed the boys how to work the bed pan sprayer in my bathroom, how the big giant scale that they used to weigh us worked, and other "fun" hospital things. We had a good visit and toasted with French lemonade to having a better 2008.

This year, Sheri & I fixed dinner for the guys....we made steak, twice-baked potatoes, spinach & strawberry salad, and had molten lava cakes for dessert. Quite the feast! It was nice to have such a good dinner and be able to hang out. Since we both now have kids, it's just easier to stay in than trying to go somewhere. While we were hanging out we took more pictures of the kids and dressed up the dogs in Christmas antlers that we had laying around.

Jacob & Hannah enjoy their first New Year's Eve

Joey

Abby