Sara Comes to Visit

My friend Sara and I met at Clemson during our freshmen year and she quickly became one of my best friends!  We haven't lived in the same town since we graduated in '05, but we've stayed close.  She came up to Wake Forest last weekend to meet Hannah and hang out with us.  We had such a great time and I'm so thankful she was able to come!

Sara and Emily snuggling to watch a movie after Em woke up from her nap.  

Hannah wanted in on the action!  

Late Saturday afternoon we decided to go up to the seminary and let Emily run around.  Bert brought our frisbee and Emily was sooo excited about it....she kept calling it a plate (pa-wate)!:)  

Sara treated us to lunch after church on Sunday.  She's too sweet to us!  This was Hannah's first restaurant experience and she did GREAT....she slept through the entire thing.:)   

Sara, thank you so much for making the trip up from Columbia!  It meant so much!  Love you!:)  

Wordless Wednesday

1 Month

It really is hard to believe Hannah is 1 month old today.  This month has flown by for sure!   People keep telling me she's getting so big, but since I'm with her all day every day it's hard for me to see.  When I first saw this picture all I could think about is how much bigger she's gotten in the last four weeks.  I'm not sure if it's the way she's sitting up in the picture or if it's that her face is filling out, but I realized my baby is growing up...fast.  I'm going to enjoy every minute.  

Growing up does mean having some growing pains, though. Hannah's having trouble with acid reflux. She's been on medicine for two weeks now and it seems to be helping. She's still having some trouble, but it's much better. Today I took her back to the doctor for a follow-up visit for her reflux. She had a great check-up! 

Weight:  10 lbs 7.5 oz

Sleeping:  Last night she slept 5 hours straight for the first time, but before that she's been averaging about 3 1/2 hours straight at night!  Go Hannah!   

We love you, Hannah!  Happy one month!  

Uncle Stan

My brother, Stanley, is just the best.  Seriously! 

He's living in Macon, GA right now, which is about a 7 hour drive from Wake Forest.  He wasn't able to come up when Hannah was born because he was on a ski retreat.  His plan was to come the very next weekend.  The day before he was set to come he caught a cold and decided to postpone his trip.  So, last weekend he made the trip up to spend the weekend with us and meet his new niece.  He was so excited about meeting her!

When he first arrived and was holding Hannah he kept asking me if she was okay and if she looked comfortable.  By the end of the weekend he was totally comfortable with her.  He'd pick her right up and calm her right down!

Emily loved having uncle Stan here too!  She had a playmate.  The day after he left she kept asking where Uncle Stan was.  So sweet!  

He helped us give Hannah a bath and then got some snuggles after we finished bathing her.:)  

 

We love you, Stan!  Thank you so, so much for making the trip up to see us!  Can't wait to see you soon!  

Random Emily-isms

Emily turned 23 months last week.  I can't believe she'll be 2 years old next month!!  Here are a few things she's doing these days that I just don't want to forget....

When I'm burping Hannah while Emily is in the room, she runs over to help.  She'll say "I burp-in."  She pulls my hand away and then starts patting Hannah's back.  She's hardly touching her though.  Every time I try to start patting again, she'll pull my hand away again.  Makes for a long process.:)

A few mornings ago when I was getting her dressed she kept saying "Me do it!"  She can't quite get dressed by herself, but she certainly wants to.

She's started saying "I go potty."  She'll run towards the bathroom.  She'll usually get distracted, but she's definitely showing some interest.  Too bad this Mama isn't about to take on potty training right now.  She'll have to wait until Hannah Banana's a little older.:)

Another one of her favorite phrases is "I meeeaaannn dat!"  She usually says this when she's telling me she's finished with lunch or dinner.  She'll say "All done, I meeeaaannn dat!"  Haha.:)

Yesterday she was wanting me to get her a book and she said "I neeeeed it."  Can you tell she likes dragging out words?

She's so verbal.  She will literally repeat anything and everything.  Last week I was calling her doctor's office to speak to a nurse.  As soon as I got off the phone she took my phone, started walking around saying "I speak nurse, Watts."  I guess she heard me say our last name too.

 

She loves the regular camera.  She'll say "SMILE" anytime I pull it out.  She is not a fan of the video camera.  I can't tell you how many times we've pulled it out and tried to get her on video dancing or talking....every time she stops what she's doing and we get nothing.  Maybe one of these days she'll decide she likes it too.

She's started "reading" books to us.  It's unbelievable how many parts of books she has memorized.   I didn't realize how much she was paying attention until she started "reading" to me.  It's so fun to hear her!

Be careful what you say.  As I said before, she's soaking everything up.  Last week I heard her say "good gosh."  Ooops.  It's not that I think gosh is a bad word, but I don't want my 23 month old saying it.

She LOVES pictures ("pi-chures")!!!  When Mimi was here she let Emily look at pi-chures on her iPad.  Emily now wants to look at pi-chures on our computer all.the.time.  She'll say "I see pi-chures, mommy, I see pi-chures."

She's really good about saying thank you ("kank you").  Most of the time we don't even have to prompt her.  She's not as good about saying please ("pwease").  She'll say it when we ask her "what do you say, Emily", but she usually needs a little reminder.

She still loves to dance.  She'll dance to anything and everything.  Yesterday we were up on campus at the seminary letting her get some energy out and the bells in the chapel started playing the chiming of the hour.  She stopped picking up leaves (she also still loves leaves) and started dancing to the chiming.

Time Change

The time change is always interesting when you have little ones, but it's especially interesting when you have a 4 week old.  Before the time change Hannah was most awake from about 10pm-1am.  Some nights she was fussy and some nights she was just "talking" to us, but she definitely didn't want to go to sleep.  Now I like to stay up late, so I was okay with the 1 am bed time.  The past two nights (since the time change) she has been WIDE awake from about 11pm -3am.  The 3am bedtime is a different story!:)  Emily's up bright and early, so going to bed at 3 can make for a short night.  Bert and I are trying everything we know to keep her more awake during the day and more sleepy at night.  So far we haven't exactly been successful!  We would welcome any suggestions!:)

I go back and forth when I'm sitting up with Hannah in the middle of the night.  One minute I'll be so overcome with thankfulness for this little girl that God has blessed us with...I can't do anything but stare at her and praise Him for her.  The next minute, while I'm still so thankful, I also want to cry because I really just want to go to sleep.  Ha!  I have to remind myself that I WILL get to sleep through the night again one of these days, and just enjoy this newborn stage!  We love our little night owl! :)

First of Many

Several days last week were absolutely beautiful.  The temp was up in the 70's.  One evening we decided to take a walk.  Bert was getting the stroller out of the car and I was talking with one of our neighbors and watching Emily ride around on this Radio Flyer pictured below.  

All of the sudden out of the corner of my eye I saw Emily flip over the front of this riding toy and hit the pavement face-first.  She immediately started crying.  I ran to pick her up and noticed that her mouth was bleeding, but I couldn't tell where the blood was coming from at first.  We took her back inside to clean her up.  She had cut her lip and the right side of her lip immediately started swelling.  It made me so sad to see her in pain.  Bert reminded me that this would just be the first of many injuries.  Ha!  I know that it's true, but I certainly don't like to think about it.  

Bert suggested we go ahead and take a walk to distract Emily a little.  It was a great idea! She calmed right down.  Here she's showing you her boo-boo!  

Picture of the injuries.  Can you see how swollen the lip was?  You can click on the picture to make it bigger. This was taken about an hour after it happened.  

The next morning the swelling had come down significantly.  I'm thankful that it wasn't any worse than this!