Loving Mamahood: 12 months!!!!!

What?! It can't be...really? I cannot believe it has been a year since Hannah first entered this world....craziness. What a blessing her sweet soul is to me and Bryan.

I'll start with basics...

1. Weight at her 12 month check-up: 17 pounds and 4 oz...still in 3rd percentile and right on her growth curve.

2. Height: 29 inches! Long little sweetie! 50th percentile.

3. So, at Hannah's 12 month check-up on August 12, she was still not really crawling. She was sort of crawling backward, pulling up and cruising the couches, but not crawling. The doctor was not concerned at all. He continued to tell me that crawling is not a developmental milestone and that as long as she was on target with everything else, not to be worried. He went on to say that she was above average in social skills, fine motor skills and with her speech and that I should not be worried. However as an Occupational Therapist, I am convinced that crawling is a developmental milestone that she needed to reach. So, I continued to work with Hannah everyday as I had been doing for months and low and behold, the Monday after her appointment, off she went. And when I say off she went, I mean off she went...EVERYWHERE! She seems more content and this mama can definitely breath a sigh of relief. Well sort of, other than the fact that now I am chasing her everywhere. And when she is not crawling, she wants to be holding my hands walking around. For those of you who know that Bryan and I are implementing the "Growing Kids God Way" principles (aka baby wise and toddler wise), when we start blanket time I'm sure it will be interesting to say the least.

4. She now signs "milk", "more", "all done", and has signed "please" once...we are still working on that one. We are also working on "water" and "thank you". For any moms out there that are starting sign language with your children, I would definitely start with "please". She has gotten a little confused as to why I am trying to get her to sign "please" after she's already signed "more". Anyway, that's just a side note.

5. She says "da da", "ma ma" or "na na"(I respond to either one), "dog dog", "yellow"(but it sounds more like "wewo"), "church", "couch", "light", "hoss"(the name of one of our dogs), "doll doll", "bath"(which is more like "bap"), and most recently at a friends house she tried to say the name of her little boy....she actually said "ash", but it was in response to introducing her to "Cash". There may be more, but this is all I can think of right now.

6. Hannah loves to interact with you...more than playing with toys even. She absolutely loves to play peek a boo, patty cake, and do the itsy bitsy spider. She loves for you to talk to her and tell her stories about everything. We make everything around our house a story or a song. It would be interesting to leave the video camera on to see what I actually sing and talk about with Hannah all day long....doing dishes, laundry, and all objects in our house have become a song.

7. Which brings me to the next topic...she absolutely loves doing outside chores with me or Bryan. She gets so excited to go feed the dogs, water the ferns and check on Donald, our duck that we inherited. She loves to go for a walk around the pond (we do this at least twice a day) and stop by her favorite spot...the weeping willow tree. She's not interested in staying long, but she just squeals when we start walking toward it.

8. Her favorite toys are blocks, books and puzzles(the big kind that have the little peg for tiny hands to pick up). She's not actually stacking blocks or putting the puzzle pieces in...she likes to shake the block to make noise and knock them down if they are stacked and she likes taking the puzzle pieces out. And she hates dolls right now(sorry grandmama...I'm sure she'll eventually grow to love the doll you got her for her birthday). It's crazy...she just starts crying and scrambles away from any doll I pull out for her.

9. She still LOVES music. She just sways her little body anytime she hears music or if someone starts singing.

10. Hannah is still a mama's girl, but I would say that one of her favorite times of the day is when daddy comes home from work...mine too!

11. She still loves any animal sounds.
12. She is completely weaned as of 08/29/11. I'm a little sentimental about it, but Hannah has transitioned to reading books at night before bed like a champ.
13. Bed time is at 7:30pm and she sleeps until 7:00am most mornings.
14. She is taking two naps a day 1 1/2 to 2 hrs in length.

I guess that's it for now. I wish I had a picture of her getting weighed at the doctor's office, but I accidentally deleted all my pictures of August. I know, I'm sick about it. That included her birthday party. Thankfully, my sister and mother-in-law had taken several pics of the day.

I'll end with a flashback picture....she's still as beautiful as the first day I saw her.......