March

It is so crazy that March is already over!!  Time just flies by so fast!  We now have about 2 months until we meet our new little baby.  I'm both excited and nervous about tackling a newborn again!  I look at Hannah and the stage she is in, and think....can we do this all over again?  But then, I am also so excited to have that sweet little baby nestled on my chest, to smell the smell of newborn again, and watch the amazing development that happens in the first year of life! I am also so excited to see Hannah as a big sister.  I think she will be great at it!  She loves her baby dolls and already loves giving kisses to my belly.

March was a fun month for us.  Hannah and I have had a couple playdates with new friends from church and I am very excited about growing relationships in this community with these ladies.  We've started sticking around for Sunday School which has also been good as it's helped us meet more people and get to know our pastor a little better.  Hannah has done awesome staying in the nursery too!  We've really spent the month getting settled and living life in a little more of a routine in our new house.  There is much to be done by way of decorating and furniture, but we are just taking it slow trying not to be in a hurry to have a perfectly put together house.

We started off the month with a visit from Grandmama and Granddaddy.  Hannah has started calling my mom "Baba" which is pretty cute.  We loved our time with them and showing them our new home and our new city.  Hannah had a blast showing off for them too!  In the middle of the month Hannah and I headed down to Atlanta for the weekend to see some of my sweet friends, one of which was in town from Jackson, MS.  While we were only able to see them for one evening, it was so fun to be able to spend some time with good friends who have known me forever!  We were able to laugh about old memories and catch up on everyone's "current lives" as well.  Hannah had a blast playing and being the center of attention!  The rest of that weekend was kind of cold and rainy so we had lots of time to play at Baba and Granddaddy's house!  On Saturday we enjoyed shish ka bobs with my parents, my brother, his wife, and her mom.  Hannah loved playing with Uncle Eric and Aunt Melissa!  It was so cute watching her.  Her favorite was when she and Eric were watching Wipe Out and when people crashed, she'd fall onto the chair.  Sunday we went to church and then met up with my sweet friend Beth who is expecting her daughter any day now!  It was wonderful to see her and we can't wait to meet little Sinclair!  The trip ended with a special visit from my friend Kristen.  She drove all the way to my parents house just to see Hannah and me.  I have some pretty great friends!!

The month ended with Easter and what a wonderful time that was!!!  We headed up to Asheville on Saturday to go to my niece Molly's 3rd birthday party.  Hannah had a blast and wanted to constantly be with Molly.  The party was fun and as always it was great to hang out with my sister, parents, and nieces.  We ended Saturday with pizza from Barley's and more fun playing with the Goforth cousins.  Since my parents were there, Matt, Hannah, and I stayed in a hotel down the hill from their house, but showed up bright and early for a little Easter breakfast and then on to church.  It was a wonderful service celebrating Jesus' Resurrection!!!  We then had a fun day filled with Uncle Michael's pulled pork, an easter egg hunt, and lots and lots of play time with cousins!  When we arrived home that evening, Hannah started crying when we pulled up to our house cause she wanted to "pay (play) and Molly's house".

These first three are Hannah dancing is the super cute new outfit that "Baba" brought.

Fun in Atlanta

Loving time with Lauren

Having a blast jumping onto the chair with Uncle Eric

Playing with Grandaddy

These next three are when Hannah gathered up LOTS of babies and sat in the computer chair.  I was trying to get her to smile, not much luck, but we got an overly exaggerated "cheese"

These next pictures are from Molly Ryan's super fun gymnastics birthday party!!!  

Happy Easter!

Hannah-21 months

On St. Patrick's Day our little Hannah turned 21 months old!  I know that generally this is not a significant life stage, but for Hannah I feel like she just blossomed overnight into a little girl, and NOT a baby.  For about a week leading up to this day, Hannah had started calling everything boo (blue), you asked her what her favorite color was, "boo", you asked her what color this or that was, and with intense enthusiasm, she always replied "boo".  On Saturday morning (the day before St. Patty's), while getting Hannah out of bed, she pointed to something and said "Purp-ull".  Whatever it was, was in fact, purple.  The whole day, she could correctly identify purple things, but everything else remained "boo". On Sunday morning after Matt got dressed, Hannah shouted with exclamation, "Geeen!!".  And she was right.  She can now correctly identify, blues, greens, purples, pinks, browns, blacks, whites, reds, and oranges!  And it has only been 4 days.  Yesterday as Hannah and I were playing outside, she started gathering rocks.  I asked her if we could count how many rocks she had.  I said "one", to which Hannah continued, "doo", "tree". Then I said "four", "five", and Hannah said, "sicks".  I then said "seven", and Hannah said, "aitch".  After that, every other rock was either "sicks" or "aitch".  But even still, I was VERY impressed with my not quite two year old.  We are also now averaging Hannah using the potty once a day.  She has had a potty for months now and would only just use it as a place to sit and read books.  When we moved, I decided not to put the potty out because I did not think she really understood what it was for.  Then recently she started asking about it.  As of yesterday and today, we've had two successful potty uses.  Each time she has said "teetee, poppy?". And then when I put her on the potty, away she goes! Of course, she doesn't keep her diaper dry all the time, and only asks to go to the "poppy" after she goes number 2.  And we've had a couple times where she asks to sit, but then nothing happens.  But overall, I'm pretty proud of her.  So much so, that I am considering trying to potty train before new baby gets here!  We will see how it goes, and I'm completely okay if she's not quite ready to be completely diaper free.  Over the last few weeks her motor skills have continued to improve and she can now walk up and down the stairs while only having one hand touch the wall.  I'm still pretty nervous about it, but always stay close in case she needs me.

She continues to be such a joy and a super happy baby little girl.  She loves her "bobby" (mommy) and her Daddy very much and gets super excited about being around others.  She has begun recognizing that people have names, and will often talk about people by name (really she just repeats their names over and over).  She has recently developed a deep love for "piecy" aka, pizza, and asks for it just about every meal.  She loves to read still and has really started mimicking what each book is about.  She "picks an apple and a plum" while reading "Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb", she repeats letters over and over while reading "Dr. Seuss' ABC", she rocks her body "back and forth, back and forth" while reading "I'll Love You Forever", and she even "bundles up so you don't freeze" while reading "Go Dogs Go".  She's a great sleeper still, but has on occasion refused her afternoon nap.  She plays happily in her crib for an hour or more, but I'm still not ready for her to give up her nap!!!  So far it just happens occasionally and she really stays pretty happy the rest of the day.  We just love her so much and are so excited to see her become a big sister!!!

She also LOVES to dance.

February

February was a very busy month for us.  The first weekend of February we had planned to take a few trips up to the house to start slowly moving in, however, like with most "best laid plans" that didn't exactly happen.  We had some hiccups with the mortgage and closing on Friday, so nothing could get worked out until Monday!  Thankfully everything was able to be straightened out and we got the keys on Tuesday morning!  My dad came up on Thursday and was able to help Matt move a bunch of stuff, and the movers came on Friday.  We were so thankful that my dad was able to help!!!  We were definitely not as prepared as we would have liked to have been and he was a HUGE lifesaver!!  But the move in went well, and we have been getting settled slowly.  We have met all of our immediate neighbors and been treated to cupcakes, cookies, poppy seed bread (more like cake!), and potato soup! Everyone has been very friendly and welcoming.

The day after we moved, my dad spent the morning helping us unpack boxes, and then he headed back to Lilburn.  Then on Sunday, my sister and her family came for a quick visit!  Unfortunately I did not get any pictures of their visit, but we had a great time!!  It took them just a little over an hour and a half to get here, and we had a super fun day!  We cooked out for lunch, and then spent the afternoon at Ikea.  Hannah had an absolute blast playing with her cousins and showing them her new house!  We are so excited to be living close enough to have these fun day or overnight trips more often!!!

Hannah has done awesome with the move!  As with our move from Indy, as soon as she saw her crib, she felt right at home!  She has been sleeping great and really has not skipped a beat.  One day we went back to the apt to clean, and Hannah was very confused that her books were not in her old room, but other than that, I think she is LOVING the new house and having much more room to play!  

In mid February, Hannah experienced her first snow!  Atleast, the first one to her knowledge.  She was so cute and did not know what to think!  We got about 2 inches over the course of 1 hour!  Once we finally got her to taste some, she could not stop eating and called it "ice" the whole time!  She just wanted to run around and play in the snow and was very sad when it was time to come in.  

The day after the snow, Hannah and I joined Matt on his business trip to Charleston/Myrtle Beach.  We left on Sunday so we could spend President's Day touring Charleston while Matt had the day off.  The other days, Hannah and I just hung out while Matt was in meetings.  I think Hannah's favorite was the day at Myrtle Beach.  It was quite chilly on the beach, but it was sunny and she LOVED the sand!!!  At one point she saw some other people walking in bare feet, and insisted that we both take our shoes and socks off!  

The rest of the month has just been filled with trying to put things in their place and get settled.  We are really enjoying our church and getting to know new friends.  Hannah has a few little friends in nursery that she talks about all the time.  She is just growing so much, and her vocabulary continues to amaze me!  She has far too many words to list anymore, and just this month started calling me "baba" or "bobby".  For some reason though she occasionally make the mmmmm sound, in m words she uses the b sound.  I'm sure it will work itself out, and for now, I think it's cute to hear her call for bobby!

I helped Hannah make a snow angel!

Our most precious piece of luggage!

January

This month seems to have flown by thought it really wasn't too busy.  We started off the new year with Matt heading to Boston for his national sales meeting.  It is always sad for me when he goes, because I so wish I could go with him and visit with my dear friends from when we lived there.  But when it comes down to it.......early January in Boston is NOT the time to visit especially with a toddler.  So while we missed Daddy, Hannah and I had a great week getting back into the swing of things from all of our holiday travels!  We got back into the routine of going to the YMCA, which Hannah has been tolerating so well!  The first few times we went, she cried when pulling up to the building, but starting this January, there have been no tears!!  Unfortunately, a couple weeks into the month, Hannah started to spike fevers though she seemed to feel well.  The doctor determined that she didn't have the flu or strep throat, but just a virus.  So a few days later, her fevers stopped, but then the cold began!  She was coughing a ton, hoarse, and had a runny nose.  Of course then, I got sick!  So we had a week and a half of our routine down the drain trying to get everyone well again!  I was most sick the weekend of my birthday which was also MLK weekend.  Besides not feeling great, Matt and I went out to a wonderful birthday dinner while his Aunt and Uncle watched Hannah.  We are so thankful to have them near and so thankful that they love our daughter!

At the end of January, we closed on our first home!!!  We are so incredibly excited to move into our house, and finally settle into our little life in Huntersville, NC.  We will be living just down the street from Lake Norman and a few miles away from our new church.

Oh and I almost forgot, in the middle of January we had our 20 week ultrasound!   I cannot believe I am already halfway finished with this pregnancy!  We are pleased to say that the baby is healthy and active!  He/she was being very shy and did not give us a good image of his/her face, but on the positive side, we get to see him or her again in February!  The way the baby was positioned, the tech was unable to do all of the heart measurements (everything is good, they just need a few additional measurements), so they want to try again and see if he/she will cooperate a little better!  As I did with Hannah, I'm pretty much carrying this baby all out front, and again, as I did with Hannah, I'm already getting comments asking when I'm due and unbelief that I have so much more time left!

Hannah's words really took off this past month.  She is starting to try to repeat words when you ask her.  A few new words are balloon, please, coffee, ice, goat, owl, bye, see you, ball, hat, and tons more!  Her vocabulary is growing by the day!  She still doesn't say mama and refuses to try to say her name.  If you ask her to say "Hannah", she ignores you first, and if you keep asking, she just says "no".  I'm sure it will come in time!  She still loves to talk on the phone and loves bedtime.  She has also gotten quite possessive over her toys.  She will have toys all over the house, and when I start to clean up something she isn't playing with anymore, she immediately comes over wanting to play!  But that just means that whatever she was playing with is now all over the floor!  The good thing is, that she is very obedient and when I tell her that we are cleaning up the toy (ex. blocks), she will help me.  While she has always been very interested in books, she is getting to where she can really sit down and listen to you read the whole book!  She also loves to point to things in books like different animals, balls, babies, hats, glasses, trees, flowers, etc.  It is very cute to watch her searching for whatever I ask her to find.

Our new house!!

The following are taken at a little bridge that goes over some railroad tracks in Waxhaw, NC

Bath time fun

After the YMCA, Hannah showing off her Minnie hat that she made.

Her first little french braid