Party Animals

Dear Hannah and Nathan
Hannah is 23 weeks old  and Nathan is 2 and a quarter years old. Every week I must sound like a broken record player when I say, you two are growing too fast! But it's true and with each passing day, it seems like time just goes by that much faster.

I am very thankful that both of you are taking afternoon naps at around the same time. Hannah usually will start napping from about 1-2 and nap for about 3 hours. Nathan is starting his naps closer to 2 and sleeping until 4. When you both wake up, half of the time, Nathan wakes up super cranky like this...

 Hannah is almost always in a happy disposition. I flip her over and I get the sweetest smile.

 After everyone wakes up from naps, we usually play a bit. This past week a very weak cold has been going through the family so we've stayed home in order to rest up for the 2 parties that we would have later on.

We played the usual grocery store.

 And painted...

 And the day before the party, we made sure the house was nice and clean for our guests.

 Nathan was super excited when it was party number 1 time. It was the normal monthly get-together that we have with the babies from our birthing group, but calling it a party makes it that more fun. We actually tried to replicate a picture that we took 2 years ago when these toddlers were babies who could barely hold their heads up. We flipped the 2 kids ind the middle, but otherwise, I'd say it turned out better than I thought it would.

 Of course, the new brother and sister in the group along with the yet-to come sisters also got their own picture. The boy sitting next to Hannah is only 3 days older than she is. Hannah is wearing his older sister's clothes and the boy is wearing Nathan's old clothes.

 We then had some yummy snacks and everyone got to make their own pretzels.

It was really cool to see everyone interacting with each other more now that you all are a bit older. There were a few "mine" wars, but things always work themselves out and life goes on.

The next day we had some friends from our Chinese play group come over. Every mom brought super yummy Chinese dishes and after lots of practice with Daddy, Nathan did a very good job with sharing his toys with his friends. Many of the moms commented on how well Nathan spoke Chinese. Some even exclaimed that even though both parents spoke Chinese, their child insists on speaking English. Let's hope speaking Chinese remains "cool" to both of you so that you don't lose this precious gift of being able to speak with at least 20% of the world's population.

Hannah is sleeping very well. When she starts getting a bit fussy, I start the bedtime routine and put her down. Within a few minutes, she falls asleep with little to no fussing. If we are in a foreign place, I will pat her to minimize the fussing, but she will quickly fall asleep. At a MOPS meeting, I was able to put her down on a table and she took a good 45 minute nap in the middle of a meeting. As soon as I start to sing the lullaby, she starts to rub her eyes and I know she's ready to sleep. I am pretty sure she has learned that the lullaby means that it's time to sleep. I hear about the things that some other parents have to do to get their kids to sleep and I'm super super thankful for my little angel baby who falls asleep so well.

Funny story happened this week with Nathan. We all woke up a bit late that morning due to the rainy weather and we were all rushing to get out of the door. I had just finished changing and Nathan noticed that I didn't have any shoes on. He asked, "Nathan get shoes for mommy?" I replied,
"Thank you, but I'm going to wear my boots today."
"Nathan get boots for Mommy?" shocked, I replied,
"Ok, thank you." Pitter patter, off he goes and I resume with getting Hannah ready. A few moments later I hear,
"Mommy!" and then some grunting. The sound was a bit muted and soon I figured out that it was coming from the garage. I quickly opened the door and found Nathan at the door holding onto my roller blades by the straps. Looking up with a proud, but exasperated smile, he said, "Mommy, boots!"

Everyday I am reminded of how God has blessed me with 2 amazing children, I love you both so much.

Ama is here to visit for a few days this week so let's see what sort of adventures we will go on.

Until next week,
Mommy

Pro-Choice? Pro-Life?

During the summer between the fourth and fifth grade, I decided that I would take the pro-choice stance in the controversial abortion debate. You probably ask why I was even thinking about this topic at the ripe age of nine and my answer would be: summer reading list. As an avid reader, every summer, I eagerly waited for the summer reading list to come out and then I tried to read as many of those books as time allowed. That summer, one of the books on the summer reading list ended up being a book discussing the debate on abortions. (Thinking back, there must have been a mix-up of titles. An abortion book on an elementary summer reading list?!) After reading the book and giving it some thought, I decided that if a woman chose to have an abortion, it must be for a good one, because the decision to give up one's child is not an easy one at that.

Over the years, headlines about protesters at Planned Parenthood facilities came and went and I didn't think much about the issue. If a woman were to get an abortion, she must have thought really long and hard about it. If in the end, she decides to abort the baby, it's her choice. There has got to be a good reason for it. 

A few months ago, I applied to volunteer at a local pregnancy resource center. I had to fill out an application and one of the questions asked about my thoughts on abortion. (Since our church supports this center, you can guess that the facility is a pro-life organization.) I truthfully put down something like this:
While I believe that all babies deserve a chance in life, I don't think I am completely against abortions, especially those with just cause. I haven't come across any scenarios yet, but I still feel that the mother should have a choice. 

A few days later, my friend discovered that the baby in her womb was diagnosed with trisomy 18. I tried to put myself in her shoes to see whether or not I would decide to keep or abort the baby. While I could make a very compelling argument for having an abortion, I found the decision to be too difficult to make. As for my friend, I prayed that God would make the decision for her. In the end, she decided to terminate the pregnancy, but thankfully (in an odd sort of way) my prayer was answered and I thank God for that. A few weeks later, my friend and I were discussing the matter and I was a bit surprised to hear from her that if this were to happen again, she would just let nature run its course. Through her experience, I had kind of decided in my mind that if we had a similar situation come up, an abortion would be "justified," but now she's saying that she would've regretted it if she did. I guess I won't be having an abortion if a similar situation happened to me.

Many people argue that being pro-choice and supporting feminism go hand in hand. For a long time I would agree. When I was teaching 8th graders, a student came to me for advice. She was pregnant and considering an abortion. While I didn't give her explicit advice on what she should do, I did advise her to think about what her life would be like and what she would be able to provide for the baby if (s)he was born. I was basically telling her that if she had a baby, she wouldn't have the freedom to accomplish what she wanted to do. The baby would hinder her and in turn, she would hinder the baby. Thankfully, she miscarried and didn't have to make that tough ultimate decision.

If that same 8th grader would come to me today, being a mother, I think I would give her different advice, but regardless of the decision that she made, I would respect her for the person that she is.

Being a mother of 2 has shifted my perspective. The "miracle of life" became more real and tangible. In fact, when I had Nathan, it didn't become "real" until I was holding him in my arms. With Hannah, I started to cherish that little "gummy bear" from the moment I found out I was pregnant. Giving up a fetus to me is just as difficult as if (s)he were a full term baby. Life is a miracle. It is precious. Who am I to terminate it?

As I have yet to find a scenario that justifies abortion, I still believe that all babies deserve a chance in life (which makes me pro-life?), but I am not completely against abortions with just cause. And what exactly constitutes "just cause" is really only up to the mother to decide. (Does this make me pro-choice?) God gave people choices and whether we make them good, or bad, we must continue to love one another as God loves us in an awesome and unconditional way.

5 Month Foodie and Awesome Big Brother

To my two adorable, growing up too fast children, 

These past 5 months have flown right by. Hannah is now 5 months old and as cute as a button. 

Whenever I put Hannah on her back, she loves to play with her toes. She also likes to rub her two feet together. This causes socks to fly off and sometimes they do so in a non-explainable projectile fashion.

 Hannah is getting happier with tummy time, especially if she has new things to look at. One day, I decided to put her by a window. She happily looked outside for a bit before getting too fussy.

 And she's got super chubby cheeks. Just too kissable.

 This was Nathan when he was 5 months old almost 2 years ago.

Like many babies at 5 months of age, she loves to be pulled up into a standing position. 

 She has also become quite active at the activity center. We try to change out the toys once in a while.

 Hannah giggled one more time this week. This happened when we were coming down the stairs. Nathan was being silly and jumping down each stair and saying "kaboom!" after each step. That made Hannah giggle out loud.

At almost 5 months, Hannah is starting to lose the reflex where she pushes food out. This past week we were successfully able to feed her some avocado and she gummed a piece of steamed broccoli. She got so impatient with us feeding her that she was able to grab the spoon and tried to feed herself.

I'm also hoping that she is turning a new corner in the sleep department. Last night she slept 7.5 hours straight. She probably could've slept longer, but I woke her up to eat and then she went back down for another 3.5 hours. Will this baby be able to sleep through the night by the time she is 6 months old? I don't know. We'll see. 

As far as sleep schedule goes, Hannah is going to bed at around 7:30 - 8 pm. Waking up once or twice at night to nurse and wakes up at around 7:30. Then she takes 1-2 short naps before lunch, a longer nap around 1 and depending on the length of the long nap, maybe a short cat nap around 5:30. 

Big brother is still napping pretty well from about 1:45 in the afternoon to about 4. When he wakes up sometimes he is groggy and grumpy. Sometimes he is silly and happy. But I love his bedhead!

 Can you believe that the weather has been in the upper 60's, lower 70's these past few days? We've taken advantage of this and we take nice long walks. Nathan pretty much rides his scooter wherever we go now. In fact, he's gettting so good at steering that he can follow a line while riding his scooter.

 It's pretty funny to see how you guys still don't really understand the concept of a long time. Whenever we call Nathan a "big boy" he always eagerly asks us, "Nathan big boy. Drive car?" Unfortunately, I have to say, "Not yet, when you are big like mommy and daddy."

This past week Nathan has either had a cold, and/or has suffered from cedar allergies. One night it got so bad that he started wheezing. We brought out good ol' Sammy the seal and Nathan actually remembered what he needed to do, despite it being over a year since we used it. We could tell that he could tell that the medication was helping him feel better.

 The relationship between Hannah and Nathan continues to grow everyday. Hannah continues to adore her big brother and Nathan gingerly tries to entertain Hannah.

 This morning, instead of snatching a toy away from Hannah, Nathan helped Hannah retrieve her dropped toy! (Excuse the messy dinner table. We just don't know what to do with the 3 huge boxes of Taiwanese pineapple cakes we recently bought from Costco)

We are going to have a pretty busy upcoming week. In a few days we will be hosting another baby party at our house to recreate this picture that we took 2 years ago.

It's going to be interesting. I will post details about it next week!

Stay cute and tiny for now.

Love,
Mommy

Omnivorous, ping-pong playing, question asker & 21 month old

Dear Nathan, 

I can't express how happy I am that you are starting to eat some solid veggies. We've been giving the blender a run for its money over the past 2 years and hopefully it can rest a bit before we need it to prepare food for Hannah. 

It all began with green beans. 

 Like we do every meal, we place a piece of veggie on your plate. It was getting towards the end of the meal and like always, you hadn't touched it. Hannah was getting quite interested in what we were eating, so I licked off the sauce and popped a green bean into her mouth. Immediately, she started sucking and gnawing at it. Daddy and I both started to cheer.

Then we heard some noise from your end and looked over. You had a green bean sticking out of your mouth. We anxiously waited as you chewed and swallowed the goods and we also cheered for you. You got excited and asked for more. Hannah wins "Daughter of the Year"

 The next night, I made a dish that had sugar snap peas. You opened each pod and gingerly took out each pea. After awhile, I decided to give you some frozen peas to see if you would eat them. As you can see from the picture below, after trying a few, we couldn't get them out of the bag fast enough.

 And then you gobbled them up quickly.

 The next day, I decided to try frozen broccoli. Right before dinner, you were asking for a snack, so I gave you a little piece of frozen broccoli. You ate it and asked for more!

Next time I go to the grocery store, I'm going to pick up more frozen veggies for you to try. Perhaps you'll like frozen bell peppers, or squash, or even water chestnuts! I'm getting giddy just thinking about it.

Your language is developing at lightning speed. This past week, you started asking us questions beyond "can I do this?" or "try?" You've started asking "[Insert name] are you?" (Where are you?) and "[Insert name] doing?]" (What are you doing?) And after we explain things to you, it's reassuring when you laugh an "I got it" laugh. You haven't started asking "why" yet, but I'm sure that is coming soon.

Another thing you ask almost every day is whether or not you can drive the car. Whenever I mention that you are such a big boy, you ask, "Nathan drive car?" and boy, do you have the most hopeful look on your face. I always have to explain to you that you are too small and when you are big like Mommy and Daddy, that's when you can drive. You seem to be satiated by that response and reply with an "OK, Mommy."

This past weekend, we went to a friend's birthday party. The party was at a jumpy house and you actually did pretty well. You stayed mostly on the jungle gym and avoided most of the blow up areas. Nonetheless, you had a blast.

Last week, one of the girls in your class invited you to a birthday party as well. (According to the teachers, she is one of the 2 girls who are extra special to you). Ever since you received the invitation, you've been asking, "Noelle, party?"  We can only respond with a "wait" since your concept of time is pretty much non-existent.

We've also had a few chinese play dates and often someone brings a cake, so you can call it a party. You get pretty excited about parties. You have the cutest "party!" dance that you do.

You are slowly getting the hang of a modified ping-pong game. Daddy rolls different sized balls towards you and you have to hit them.

 Your forehand shots pretty much send the ball shooting sideways, but you have a pretty good back hand. The ball usually will fly straight back when you hit it with your back hand.

Hannah is doing pretty good. She's rolled over from tummy to back only once and she no longer is babbling as many sounds as she used to do. Most of the sounds that come out of her mouth are more like grunts and "mmm's"

She really enjoys playing with toys and very interested in the food that we are eating. She pretty much protests every night at dinner when we are all eating and she has to sit in the chair and watch us. I usually take pitty on her and will have her drink some milk. I've also stuck some raw veggies in her mouth and she will gum or suck on them for quite awhile. She is a happy baby!

As far as sleep goes, Hannah is starting to fall into a pretty good routine. Her awake time is no more than 2 hours. When she starts to rub her eyes and get a bit fussy, I can easily put her down for a nap without tears.

Usually, she will take 2 shorter naps in the morning and then one long one in the afternoon. We've moved bed time a bit earlier (7:30) and she seems to be sleeping until 7ish in the morning. When I pull her into bed with me and nurse her lying down, we can sneak an extra hour or so of sleep in.

That's it for now. 

Love, 

Mommy

Sleep Training: Done

After a week, I think we are pretty much done with the sleep training. Hannah goes to bed around 7:30 each night and is able to fall asleep on her own under 15 minutes. In addition to a dream feed, she wakes up about 2 times to eat at night, and at almost 5 months old, I'm ok with it. I know that these feedings will not last forever, so I'm going to enjoy these precious moments that we have together right now.

Two nights ago, I was able to put down and head out to a book club meeting. Last night I put her down and she fell asleep without a peep.  

Once I start solids, I'm going to try to lengthen her stretch of sleep (if needed). Until then, 3-4 hour stretches of sleep is what I'm going to have to live with for now.

Sleep Training: Day 6

Tonight, I decided to mix things up a bit. My friend who is also sleep training her baby decided to try to put her baby to sleep a bit earlier. Hannah always seem to be a bit over tired by the time I give her a bath, so I decided to try to put get her to sleep closer to 7. After going through the routine, I put her in her crib and she flipped her head a few times and fell asleep. No tears, it was 7:01.

I decided to give Steve a night off from Nathan bath duty, so around 7:30 I started bathtime with Nathan. Around 7:40, Hannah woke up crying. I'm thinking we were too loud in the bath tub since the bathroom is right next to Hannah's room. Steve went in to pat Hannah, but she continued to cry, so I went in and fed her some more milk. She fell asleep while nursing so I just put her back into her crib and walked out. This was around 8:00. At 8:15 Hannah got up again, so I went upstairs, picked her up, sang the lullaby, kissed her goodnight, and put her back in the crib. She cried for 10 minutes and then fell asleep.

Every morning, Hannah wakes up at 6:50. I end up pulling her into bed with me and we will doze off until about 7:30, when we wake up to start the day. If she could just sleep a bit longer, even if it's until 7:00, that would be great. Some sleep experts say that putting a baby to sleep earlier may help them sleep later.  Of course, I'll give it a few days, but let's see if this will work for Hannah.

Sleep Training: Day 5

Tonight, I went through the normal routine, but instead I rocked her until she put her head down on my shoulders (as opposed to alert and looking around with eyes wide open). Then I said "goodnight, I love you" and put her in her crib. 8:01. She fussed on and off for about 3 minutes and became quiet. When I checked the monitor, she was asleep.

I'd say she is able to self soothe now. I'll keep posting the progress for a day or two, but if things continue like it did tonight, I'd say we are finished with sleep training!

If she is able to soothe herself back to sleep when she wakes at night, that's all I care about. Once she can do this, I will wait about 5-10 minutes before going in to feed her.

Yay [happy dance]!

Sleep Training: Day 4

Day 4 of training was a bit more rough. After going through the routine, I put her down in the crib and patted her 10 times and then walked out. 10 minutes later, she was still crying, so I went back in and patted her for about 30 seconds and then walked back out. I went to take a shower Hannah was quiet. I checked the monitor and this is what I saw. 

Cute baby asleep. No more than 25 minutes of crying on day 4. Tomorrow, I don't think I'm going to go in to comfort her once I put her down. It seems like that just works her up a bit more.

At night, she is still waking up twice to nurse. I'm going to keep feeding her for now.

Sleep Training: Day 3

As much as I hoped for another cry-free night, that wish did not come true. However, when Hannah did cry, it was more of a complaining sort of "wah wah wah" and not a full-blown-red-in-the-face type of cry. We did the usual routine and I set her down at about 7:40. She was quiet for a minute or two and then started to fuss. I decided to take a shower. When I got out at 8:00, silence. Steve told me that she stopped crying about 2 minutes before I got out of the shower, so Hannah fussed for no more than 20 minutes. Not too bad.

As far as naps during the day, she seems to go down easily. I just go through the routine and she rubs her face against my shoulder and fusses a bit. I lay her down and pat her for a few seconds and she falls asleep. It almost seems like as soon as she hits the bed, she feels more comfortable and then settles into sleep.

From what I remember, after training Nathan, he would fuss for about 10 minutes before falling asleep for awhile (like a few weeks). I'm curious to find out how long Hannah will fuss before she falls asleep. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Sleep Training Day 2

We went through the routine: Bath, feeding, story, swaddle, song. Then, I rocked her for about 2 minutes and when she was calm and just sucking on her fingers, I put her in the crib. 7:45. I gave her a kiss, said "goodnight" and walked out.

I went to the monitor to see how she was doing. Still calm. A few minutes later, I decided to take a shower. Well, it's 8:08 right now and Hannah is asleep. No tears tonight. At. All.

Wooohoo!

Hannah is 20 Weeks

Dear Hannah and Nathan, 

While we had a great time in Illinois and Dallas, it good to be back home and settled into our routine once again. So far, your naps have been staggered, so I really got to spend some quality time with each of you. The weather was nice for the past 2 days, so when both of you were awake, we went outside for a nice long walk. Nathan rode on his scooter and is now going really fast; so fast, that I have to run a bit to catch up. But he usually insists on being the engine and mommy (or Teddy) being the caboose. Nathan's picked up a bunch of train terminology on our recent trip. I wouldn't be surprised if he knew what a time table is (Thanks grandpa!). 

 In the afternoons while I prep dinner, Nathan watches an episode of Ni Hao Kai Lan, or Curious George. Hannah hangs out in the kitchen with me and watches me cook. She can get quite mischievous since she can now reach and grab things.

 Hannah really likes to read books as well. She will tell you when she's ready to move onto the next page too.

 Yesterday, the weather was so nice, we just had to go outside. Hannah was still napping so I set up the monitor and we went outside to put away the Christmas decorations. While I was taking the ornaments off our tree, Nathan stopped what he was doing, ran over and exclaimed, "No! Ornament On. Mommy, no take off!" I had to explain to him that since Christmas was over, we were taking them down and they would go back next year. He accepted the explanation, but I'm not sure how much he actually understood.

He then went exploring in the garage and found these guys...

 With a very excited tone in his voice, he looked up at me eagerly and asked, "Nathan try?" I told him that those were too big for him, but he continued to ask, "Try?" How could I deny that relentless spirit? We pulled the chairs out and I proceeded to put the roller blades on him.

 After pulling him around the driveway for a little while, I told him that we would eventually get him a pair that fit, and then I asked him if he thought the skates were too big. He agreed with a goofy, "Yeah, too big!"

Nathan is starting to become a very caring big brother to Hannah. At first, he was a bit jealous, then he just ignored that she existed for awhile. Now, I'm starting to see that he is noticing her emotions and wants to interact with Hannah more. If her socks fall off, he will tell me. If she's chewing on something, he will also tell me. I think I can finally trust Nathan to be in the same room alone with Hannah.

 Hannah is still generally a happy kid. She is really exploring the world with her mouth. I gave her a piece of bell pepper that I was eating and she started to gnaw on it, sucking the juices out. She's definitely interested in what we are eating so I'm just going to slowly give her veggies to try (mainly for texture). Nathan saw Hannah eating the pepper and he tried the pepper too. He spit it out quickly, but hey, he tried it!

Nathan has been playing kitchen a lot. It's amazing to see all the different things that he picks up from watching me cook in the kitchen, including all the sounds of the kitchen, from the sizzling of water hitting a hot pan, to the grumble of the ice machine.

Nathan's drooling has started to improve a bit as well. He is now more aware that he drools and when we remind him to close his lips, he will purse them tightly. It's really cute.

This morning, Nathan mentioned that he wanted to wear undies instead of a diaper. I put on a pair of pull ups and I've been taking him to the bathroom every 45 minutes to an hour. He's in a diaper now for his nap, but so far his pull up diaper is completely dry. We'll see how the afternoon goes. Well, I think we are about caught up for now. Until next week!

Love,
Mommy

BTW: Hannah had her 4 month check up yesterday. She's measuring at 14 pounds 3 ounces and 25 inches tall. She is about the same height as Nathan when he was 4 months old, but much heavier. (Try 2 pounds heavier)

Sleep Training: Day 1

Now that Hannah has been sleeping in her crib for almost a week, I decided it was time to start sleep training. For the past few nights, I've been able to get her to fall asleep in the crib by simply patting her back. This has been successful for night time and naps.

I forgot how painful this process is.

After following through the bedtime routine of bath, milk, story, swaddle, and song, I placed her in the crib at 8:00. I went in to pat her 5 minutes later, then, 10, took a shower, and then went in to pat her once again. At 8:53 she stopped crying. Steve remembers Nathan crying for about an hour and a half the first night. If all goes well, the cry time will go down significantly tomorrow, if not, the next night.

Sleep training is quite controversial among the mommy community. We went through with it with Nathan and I don't think (according to an anti-cry-it-out website)  "it is more likely to foster a whiny, unhappy, aggressive, and/or demanding child, one who has learned that one must scream to get needs met."

While Nathan may be whiny sometimes, I don't think he is more whinier than any other 2 year old. In fact, he may be better at communicating his needs than some kids his age. If you know Nathan, he is generally a happy kid. Just recently, he will tell me, "Mommy, Nathan happy." Sometimes he will even ask me if I'm happy. Such a sweet boy. 

Nathan is also an amazing sleeper. While we have had some rough patches with sleep, most nights he will go to sleep without a fight. He may sing/play in his crib/bed for a bit, but eventually he falls asleep on his own. 

Another fear that I had when I was first sleep training Nathan was that he would have separation anxiety. This ended up not being the case at all. He is totally OK with me leaving him somewhere with people that he knows. He is a very confident boy who is sweet and loving. 

Without a doubt, I know the initial few days of the sleep training process will raise a baby's stress levels, which "experts" say will affect a child. But I'd say the overall result of good sleep  outweighs a few nights of high cortisol levels. When I was a first time parent, I don't think the crying bothered me as much as doubts of whether or not I was scarring my kid for life by letting him cry-it-out. This time, the proof is in the pudding, or rather, our first born child.

19.5 Week Adventures: Planes, Trains and Automobiles

It was a typical Saturday evening. We had just finished eating dinner and Daddy was playing trains with Nathan while Mommy was playing with Hannah on the exersaucer. The time: 7:00. Fast forward an hour and both children are fast asleep in their own rooms while Mommy takes a nice long shower and Daddy catches up on his Reddit posts.

Dear Children,
We had just returned from a 15 day vacation. While we were at Grandma's and Ampa's (Grandpa's), Nathan expressed an interest in sleeping in a "big boy bed." So we went along and he did just fine. When we got home, we asked Nathan whether or not he wanted to sleep in the "big boy bed!" or the "Baby crib." He proudly announced, "big boy bed," so Daddy quickly moved the bed into Nathan's room and the crib into Hannah's. So far so good.

[Sleep training info: skip if this does not interest you]
Up until this point, Hannah's bedtime routine consisted of a warm bath each night, a nursing session and then sometimes a story. Then, I would swaddle her while singing a lullaby, and then rock her to sleep in my arms. When she had been asleep for about 5 minutes, I would then put her down. Recently, I've been experimenting with putting her down as soon as she starts breathing deeply and patting her until she falls asleep. Tonight starts night 1 of sleep training. After bath, I nursed her until she was full and then we read a story. After the story, I swaddled her while singing a song and afterwards just rocked in place while standing up. She rubbed her eyes against my shoulders and would fuss. After her fussing stopped and she was a bit calmer (but still awake), I put her down in her crib (with the white noise machine on) and patted her until she was deeply asleep. I'm going to do this for about a week, putting her down a bit earlier and then patting less and less. I know I'm going to have to have her "cry-it-out" for a few nights, but hopefully what I'm doing now will help ease the crying and soon she will be able to fall asleep on her own.

Hannah has made a significant leap recently. She is now able to sit up in the Boppy pillow

and grab for objects and deliberately put them in her mouth.

 She's really enjoys exploring the toys on the exersaucer.

Hannah is just really alert now. She will jerk up at the slightest sound while she is nursing and turn her head when she hears an odd sound. I'm also pretty sure that she knows her name, although she probably thinks it is "Hannah Bear." 

Hannah also made her first giggle at week 18. Hannah and Nathan were both in the bathtub. We were asking Nathan who had the biggest belly and Nathan replied Hannah. This immediately made Hannah giggle. We tried it again, and sure enough, Hannah giggled. It was too cute. I'm so happy that Nathan made Hannah giggle for the first time. A few days later, I was giving Hannah a massage after bath and while holding her up in the air and turning in circles, she started to giggle as I sang "The wheels on the Bus." The giggle wasn't as big as the one Nathan evoked, but it was still audible. 

Hannah is napping about 2-3 times a day. For the past few days, the typical 10:00 am nap lasts for about 2 hours. Then the 2:00 pm nap, lasts for 2-3 hours. At dinner, she'll take a quick 20 minute catnap while nursing and she's usually in bed around 8:30 pm. Then, around 11:30 she'll wake for another feed. Afterwards, it varies: some nights, she's up every hour, some nights she sleeps for 3-4 hours and then wakes. I haven't really seen a pattern there. We are back home and our schedule is a bit more predictable, so let's see if her night sleep patterns will improve. 

Hannah is now wearing 6 month clothes. I had packed a 3-6 month dress for her to wear. I tried it on her before we left and a week later, it no longer fit her. Wow, talk about a growth spurt. According to the Wii, Hannah is now 14.5 pounds. Nathan didn't reach this weight until he was 6 months old. 

Ok, enough of the boring stats and milestone updates, let's talk about the highlights of the past 1.5 weeks. (I'm publishing 2 posts in one day, so if you missed the Christmas Eve post, it' there too.)

Christmas Eve, Great grandpa and great grandma came to grandma's house for dinner. Before dinner, we all went to the Christmas Eve service at church. We had talked about Christmas being baby Jesus' birthday and so throughout the service, Nathan was pointing out all the baby Jesus' that he saw (which was quite a few). We were a bit embarrassed at first, but considering that Nathan was simply repeating "baby Jesus" at church, and could be muttering worse things, we worried less about it.

For dinner, Mommy made everyone authentic Chinese food and Nathan kept great grandpa busy.

 Hannah had Great-grandma covered.

 After we said our good-byes, everyone went to sleep. In the morning, grandma made some awesome pumpkin waffles and then we gathered to open presents and see what Santa had brought.

 For lunch, we went over to a different Great-grandparents' house to celebrate the annual Christmas party. There, you guys met your newest second-cousin.

 Then, we played a not-as-crazy game of white elephant gift exchange. Believe me, in the past, things got a bit crazy. When you get older you can ask us about the giant underpants and funky animal hats. Hannah just sat with grandma and after awhile, just fell asleep in her arms.

 Nathan became enamored with a particular dancing snowman whose hips swayed in an almost raunchy way. As much as Nathan would've liked to take the snowman home with us, I'm glad he didn't really understand the rules of the game and the snowman went home with a grand-uncle.

 Hannah got some pretty funky shoes from the great grandparents.

 After the game was over, the Christmas band reunited for their annual concert. This year, the band featured their newest player (Hint: he's playing the drums.) Nathan stole the show away as he banged on the drum oh so rhythmically and swayed his body to the melodious sounds of Christmas.

 It was a long day and for Nathan, a no nap day. Besides being a bit more clingy, he did well.

The next day, Hannah met a new friend. Nathan had met him before, but he probably didn't remember. For the most part, they played pretty well together.

 But a few times somebody wasn't too keen on sharing or taking turns.

 On Saturday, we decided to take the commuter train to downtown Chicago. Nathan was super excited to ride on the train. Even though the ride was about an hour long, he didn't want to get off.

 We walked around the Sears Tower, Union Station, and had lunch.

 Afterwards, we rode back home.

The next day, we took advantage of the weekend train pass that we had purchased and rode the train in the opposite direction to a little town, had lunch, and then rode the train back.

On Tuesday, your cousins joined us in Illinois and in the afternoon, we went to the Chicago botanical gardens to view their train exhibit. It was pretty cool and you were pretty excited to see Thomas there . You didn't realize it then, and probably won't for awhile, but the buildings there were all artist renditions of famous Chicago buildings. It was quite beautiful.

The next day, New Year's Eve, we got together with another second-cousin and had some fun at Chuck E. Cheese. Nathan liked playing skee ball (but wasn't great at it, unless you call throwing the ball into the next lane, good) and a driving game. But the best part was probably seeing Daddy get into the ticket chamber where hundreds of tickets fly around for 30 seconds and you have to grab as many as you can. Daddy did pretty good and got about 450 tickets. 

On New Years Day, we all got up really early to go to the airport. The ride back was pretty smooth and once again, Nathan was a great kid. Hannah pretty much slept the whole way and when we arrived, Auntie Momo picked us up and we all went to get some Chinese noodles for lunch. 

The next day, we headed out in the morning for Austin. The drive was wet, but steady and we hit some traffic along the way. We stopped in Waco and visited the Mayborn Children's Museum. Nathan really enjoyed pretend driving the fire engine and school bus. There was also a train exhibit set-up, but we didn't stay too long because Nathan wanted to play with the trains, and they were off limits to us. We made the second half of the trip after lunch and both Nathan and Hannah slept most of the way home. 

Today, the house is still a mess as I'm trying to unpack everything and put things away. It will get done soon, but I'm also realizing that we probably should get rid of some stuff as well. Well, that's it for now. Hannah has a 4 month check up in a few days so I'll make another update on Wednesday. One more day and it'll be just you two and me during the day. Yikes. 

I love you two so much! 

Mommy