Update, part 2

Okay, let's see where we left off...

October: October was a CRAZY month around here. We had visitors, birthday celebrations, sick days, and who knows what else. In celebration of Hannah's first birthday, my sister, Shannon, flew out early in the month. It was so nice to have her here for a little over a week. She was able to spend some quality time with Hannah and she also designed and made an amazing cake for Hannah's party. My mom also flew in for the party. She spent a few days with my other sister, Heike, before coming to stay at our place. This was after the party and Shannon's departure. (This is important to know, as our house is very tiny and having everyone here at the same time would have been a little bit crowded.) We had Hannah's birthday party and she had a wonderful time. She enjoyed the wrapping paper and tissue more than the actual gifts, but that's okay. I think she still had fun. Plus, the present opening was good practice for Christmas.

After Hannah's birthday (and the departure of all visitors), things took a turn for the worse. I came down with a really nasty illness (a virus was the official diagnosis). I was at the med center twice and missed two days of school. Right when I was beginning to feel better, my school closed for three days because we had so many students home sick - some with the almighty H1N1 and some sick, like me, with other viruses. I basically quarantined myself in an attempt to keep Hannah and Jeremy healthy, which was successful.

November: Another crazy, busy month. In the "school" world, November brought report cards and parent/teacher conferences. Thankfully, almost all of my conferences went well. Conferences were the same week as Thanksgiving, so it was nice to have conferences end and go right into a few days off. Sadly, November brought us Hannah's first ear infection. She was a trooper and eventually decided that her medicine was okay. Her ear infection led to a cold, which led to constant nose wiping. She was not such a trooper about that. We spent Thanksgiving with Jeremy's mom and dad. It was nice to be able to just sit and relax. Hannah loved most of the Thanksgiving foods - especially pumpkin pie. She ate half of my piece and wanted more!

December: What a fun month! I had three snow days, which are wonderful surprises. They helped the time until Christmas vacation pass a lot faster. Over Christmas vacation, my parents drove out from Oregon to visit for a few days. Hannah loved having her "Oregon grandparents" here for awhile. We hosted Christmas at our small little home - we had our family of 3, my parents, Jeremy's parents, Jeremy's brother and his girlfriend, and my sister and my niece all crowded together. It was loud and crazy. I think Hannah and I were both a little overwhelmed. :)

Hannah also had another ear infection (this time in the other ear). She did not handle the medicine as well this time. Each dose was a battle and was almost impossible to do alone. She mustered all the strength she could to fight us off.

Okay - that's a lot of updating. I think I'm done...again...for now. :)

Has it Really Been Six Months?

So, I realized today that it has been SIX MONTHS since I have updated this blog. That is quite simply ridiculous. But, in my defense, a lot has happened. Let me just take you on a whirlwind tour of the past six months.

July: I found out my dear friend and teaching partner was leaving my school. While this was incredibly sad (and is still very sad), it did open up a full-time teaching position, in my grade level. After a few days of waiting and hoping, I was offered the position. Rather than teaching 4th grade 2 or 3 days a week, focusing on science, I now teach 4th grade full-time and focus on writing. Quite a switch, but one that I am loving.

Hannah started crawling in July - this certainly brought a lot of changes to our life. Constant vigilance became our new motto. Molly (our faithful beagle) had to adjust to this new moving person. Thankfully, Molly is super patient and has continued to be wonderful with Hannah.

August: It turns out I don't remember a lot from August. I believe it might be because I was completely overwhelmed with getting my new classroom ready. I know a lot of things happened, but truly, I don't have a clue what they were. Perhaps I should have updated the blog that month. :)

September: Jeremy started classes again this month - taking a chemistry class at Grand Valley. He was in class 7 hours a week and was working 42 hours a week. Needless to say, he was busy and exhausted.

Hannah started learning more and more. She started figuring out how to blow kisses, which is quite possibly the cutest thing ever. We also worked really hard on some important signs. Hannah became really good at "eat," "more," and "done."

My school year started and I instantly remembered how tiring the first few days/weeks of school can be. I'll be honest, it was a hard adjustment - going from part-time teaching to full-time teaching. I had a new subject to create lessons for, we adopted a new math curriculum, which required a lot of attention, plus I had 26 students to try and get to know - oh, and figure out how to be a full-time teacher and mom.

Okay - that's three months of updates, so I'm going to quit for now. We'll focus on October, November, and December (and maybe even January) later today or tomorrow...or maybe six months from now. :)

8 and 9 Month Combo... (it's long!)

So, I completely missed Hannah's 8-month post, due to the fact that we were in Oregon having fun. :) I figured I would just combine it with her 9-month post - as it has all just sort of blended together in my mind. :)

What a busy age we are at! Hannah is constantly on the move. Even though she didn't truly crawl until her 9-month birthday, she certainly moved all over the place. She figured out how to move to wherever she needed/wanted to be by rolling and rolling and then turning on her belly and rolling and rolling some more. She also was pretty good and scooting on her belly backwards, looking behind her to see where she was going. That was pretty cute. Unfortunately, one of the things I have learned from all of this "belly-scooting" is just how dirty my hardwood floors seem to be. I'm going to have to become a lot more faithful and cleaning all the floors in my house.

When it comes to communicating, Hannah is so "talkative." She is saying things like "dada" and "mama," but not necessarily to myself or Jeremy. We get a lot of other "words" as well and lots and lots of shrieking. Mainly, I think, because she can. Thankfully, we have a VERY patient dog, who just sort of raises her head or push her head further under a pillow or something.

We're working with Hannah on using her spoon - which really just means while we're feeding her, we give her a spoon to play with. When she manages to get it in her mouth correctly, we celebrate and clap and cheer. We're doing the same with a sippy cup. So far she's not all that impressed with the sippy cup, but we're working on it.

Hannah loves to jump up and down. If we could spend all day holding her hands and helping her jump, she would love it. Sadly, she weighs almost 21 pounds and that's a lot of child to keep pulling into the air! I'm certainly getting in a workout every time we play! She loves to dance around with me to music, which we do in the privacy of our own home because I certainly can't dance. But Hannah doesn't know that, so that's okay! :)

She's taking more of an interest in listening to books and helping turn the pages. Although sometimes it just turns into a time of trying to eat the books and that's okay too. I also introduced her to the piano a few weeks ago. I'm not sure how she feels about it yet, but she was certainly intrigued by it.

I know I say it often, but I'm going to say it again. She is just so much fun and I don't know that I could love her more than I do.

Oregon or bust!

Back in June, we took our first family "vacation" to Oregon. My parents and sister hadn't had a chance to see Hannah since she was born and my brother-in-law hadn't met her at all.

To be honest, I was really worried about flying with an 8-month old. I did a lot of "research" and took to heart many of the tips that had been shared with me. Fortunately, my worst fears were never realized. Hannah was an amazing baby on each and every flight. Within 5-10 minutes of being in the air she fell asleep and stayed asleep until we were about 10 minutes from landing. She never cried, just got a little fussy, which truly, I was a little fussy as well. We had a great flight attendant on our flight from Grand Rapids to Minneapolis and he made sure that Hannah received her first pair of "wings."

I had a few specific requests for our time in Oregon. You know, a few local restaurants that I just "had" to visit. For example, I had to enjoy my favorite dish (arroz con pollo) at Ixtapa. I really "needed" to enjoy the deliciousness that is Bing's Chinese Kitchen. A stop at Taco Time for their crisp meat burrito was also on the agenda. And of course, no trip to Oregon would be complete without a trip to the coast and a teeny, tiny bowl of clam chowder at Mo's.

Speaking of going to the coast, what a trip that was! My parents rented a van and my sister and brother-in-law came along. Let me just say that while a van can "claim" to carry 7 people, they should really specify that 6 of those 7 people can't all be adults. Tom, Jeremy, and I had to share the bench seat in the back. We were very, very close by the end of the trip. Our trip to the coast started with a tour of the Tillamook Cheese Factory. I grew up eating Tillamook's mild cheddar cheese and to this day, find that it is the BEST CHEESE EVER!! Thankfully, our local Costco carries it. The tour concludes by letting you sample any of their cheeses, which is probably the best part. Of course we couldn't leave without also enjoying some of their yummy ice cream. Poor Hannah wasn't able to partake, but I'm sure she'll have her chance again. We drove down the coast and stopped in Depoe Bay, with the hopes of getting the best salt water taffy available. Sadly, they were already closed. :( We continued on our way and went to Agate Beach. Hannah absolutely LOVED the beach. She loved having the wind blow in her face, she loved putting her little toes in the sand, and even enjoyed putting her feet in the freezing waters of the Pacific.

Other than our day at the beach, we really just spent time relaxing with family. Shannon, Tom, Jeremy, and I had the chance to spend a day together, which was lots of fun. This of course gave Grandma and Grandpa some "quality time" with Hannah, which they loved, of course.

All in all, it was a great trip. Hannah did such a good job - she adjusted to all the changes really well, which was wonderful. Plus taking the trip was just a great way to start off the summer.

Attempting to catch up...

So I'm just a little behind in blogging these days. I'm going to do my best to do a little catching up. Be patient as there may be several posts going up in the next few days! :)

Happy Father's Day!!

Happy Father's Day, Dad!