Bday party canceled

So disappointed we had to cancel Hana's birthday party, but she has a fever an feels pretty terrible. Feel better baby!

Hanalei you are One Year Old!

One year old

 Dear Hana,

We are so excited that you are turning one, what a huge milestone! You have brought a light to our little family and we feel complete now that you are here.  This year has been amazing watching you grow from a tiny little infant, just 7lb 8 oz, into a beautiful little girl. 

I remember it so vividly.  One year ago, I was getting anxious because you were 10 days overdue.  Everything was in order: diapers were stacked in your freshly decorated nursery, the baby bag was packed and I had been off of work for a few weeks to get ready for your arrival.  

mama's belly at 39 weeks (3 weeks before you came!)

I’d been experiencing Braxton-hicks contractions in the evenings for weeks, and kept expecting to go into labor at any minute.  By Valentine’s day, I was getting antsy and was determined to avoid getting induced.  So after a firm pressure point massage, I got out the stretchy pants and walked 4 miles around Lake Miramar.  I must have been a sight hauling my ginormous belly around the lake.  

It did the trick though, because that evening the contractions kept getting harder until we knew you were ready to come.  After laboring at home for a few hours, we packed up for the birth center where you were born in the water at 12:45am on February 15^th.  

3 days old

You were the best valentines present that your papa and I could have given each other. 

This year has been very exciting for us as you have grown into a little person and we have all grown as a family.  Here are some highlights of you at one year:

• You are a healthy 19 lbs with 5 teeth and hair just long enough for tiny pigtails

• You love to climb.  No chair, coffee table or drawer is safe with you around.  Sometimes you take a big tumble, but it doesn’t seem to distract you.

Exploring the Mc Donalds play structure

• You are snuggly and cuddly.  Though you love to grab toys and bring things to us, you will often crawl into our laps and just sit there and play (though that may involve climbing all over us, offering to share your food with us and sticking your fingers in our mouths and noses).  I just love that you want to give us hugs and snuggles.  That must be a little girl thing.

• You love to sort things.  Shape toys are your favorite.  Putting play food in and out of your dishes is a very close second and putting toys back in the storage containers is second nature.

• Sleeping can be a challenge.  Some times you are sound asleep all night, but just as often you wake up at least once during the night and then punish us with an impossibly early 5am wake up time.

• Toothbrushes rock.  Hands down toothbrushes are your favorite toy.  Playing with the family toothbrushes keeps you occupied while mama gets ready in the morning. 

• Eating … not so much.  You are certainly eating solid foods, but have no patience for a spoon.  You only want food that you can feed yourself so yogurt and oatmeal are off the table.  String cheese is hands down your favorite, but more often than not you toss food on your highchair right to Samson.   You do about 4-5 bottles a day, and often don’t finish them.

• Booger face. You've had a low-grade cold for the last month and a half which means we are constantly wiping your nose.  We've even changed the lady gaga song from “poker face” to “booger face” in your honor.

• You love your brother. No one  makes you laugh as hard as Max.  You tolerate his rough wrestling because you love his attention.  He hoists you up by the armpits and carries you around, it just cracks us up.  As you’ve gotten older, you don’t let him get away with stealing your toys anymore.

• You know the important words.  You are proficient at “ma-ma” and “da-da-da” especially when you want something ;-)  you call for the “doh-doh” when you want Samson to come over and eat your food, and can ask for a “bah-bah” when you are ready to drink your milk.  You jabber and chatter in only a language that Max seems to understand.   
• You took your first steps last week.  Though you still prefer crawling right now, you are becoming a walker one step at a time. 

• You have a sweet, calm nature.  We know that if you are crying and fussing it is because you are not feeling good.  The rest of the time you are sunny and even-keeled …smiling and pretty patient with us parents and your brother.

We love you Hana and are so excited to celebrate your first birthday with you today!

First Steps

Last Monday Hana took her first steps.  For weeks she has been practicing her walking with papa and mama, holding on to our fingers as she paces the floor.

Last Monday, we got some new bedroom furniture delivered and all of us were sitting on the floor in the master bedroom planning out how to arrange everything.

new bed

 While we were hanging out on the floor, Leif mentioned that the ladies at daycare had been hinting that "Hana is standing up by herself very well these days," and he suspected that maybe she had taken a few steps at school that day.  Well, no sooner were the words out of his mouth than Hana took off!  She took about 5 steps across the floor before dropping triumphantly to her knees.  Of course we all hooted and hollered.

getting to her feet this weekend 

Since then, each day she gets up the courage to try walking once or twice.  Crawling is still the preferred method of transportation and it seems like taking steps is still really scary for her.  But look out, in no time this girl is going to be running around!

Everyone is excited about you walking, even Samson

Around the house

Here are a few snapshots of moments in our life:

Max and I enjoy cooking together.  He grabs his stool and while I do all of the measuring, Max dumps stuff into the bowl and is in charge of stirring. 

  

Hana really enjoys sorting, arranging and picking things up.  She is a real help when it is time to clean up, she loves to put the legos or blocks back into the container.  Every day she spends time in her kitchen putting dishes in the sink, and then pulling them out of the oven.  It is a cycle that she'll repeat 20+ times.  Cracks us up. Oh yeah, she totally claimed Max's Christmas tractor.  She rides that thing all over the house. 

 

 

We are surprised daily at what Max has learned.  I was shocked when he told me that was a "two clock"  we didn't  know he could identify numbers already!  The other day he pointed at the chalk board where Leif had written Max's name.  "Mama, that's my name M-A-X."    He identified his name and told me the spelling! I think this is unique to his name, don't think he can do this for any other words yet ;-)

Ahh, what will they do next?

Sick day

Our family has been struggling with cold-after-cold-after-cold the last month.  A few weeks ago, Max had to come home from school sick.  He threw up a few more times before bed, but by morning he was 100% again.  It amazes me how quickly kids bounce back from stomach bugs.

He still had to stay home from school (their policy) so I spent the day at home with him. We had a lot of fun playing:  We took a long walk to the park, climbed the hill and played with all of the fun toys at home.

max took that picture of me in the lower right, with my iphone nice work right?

It is nice getting low-key relaxing time with my son. Glad he was feeling better.

Grandparents

Last Sunday afternoon we had lots of grandparents visiting us.  The kids love spending time with their "grands."

Sunday was beach day

On Sunday morning, Max and I got up early and did the normal morning stuff (eat breakfast, wrangle into clothes, debate the merits of shoes, wrangle out of clothes to use the potty, change into new clothes when we didn't make it to the potty in time, discuss why using small voices in the morning is a good thing... you know, typical morning stuff).

We were both pretty frazzled by 7:30 when we went to tell papa that "its wake up time."  Leif is great, he hugged max, told me to take some time for myself and then asked Max what he wanted to do today.

Max thought about it for a few minutes, then "hmmm.... we go beach today."  And so we did.

Max got to run-run-run his energy out in the waves and on the sand.

Hana got to meet sand for the first time, delicately tasting the grains.

We all enjoyed the unseasonably warm January morning.  The sun was shining, the air was warm and their wasn't even the typical ocean breeze.  That made for a completely relaxing morning where our little family could re-set and enjoy each other.  

This is why we live in San Diego.