Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to our not-so-tiny, not-so-quiet, almost walking all over the place Hannah Mae!  (you may be thinking, wait, isn't she almost 13 months old now? and you would be correct, but we haven't been as up to date on this blog for a bit....)

 Then......

 Now!

 

Hannah has such a personality now.  She is sassy and independent.  She is friendly with other people and she LOVES animals.  She has quite the appetite (see above) and will eat Teddy Grahams all day. (so will her dad!).  She's not cuddly, and I miss the baby cuddles and I hate it when she pulls away (already!) when I'm trying to kiss her.  She is smart though, wicked smart, and we are in for some trouble.   At times she looks just like her Grandpa Schneider, at others just like her cousin, Larken.  She is a good traveler and is getting set for a trip to her 9-12th states. 

Then....

Now!

 Our little Peanut Butter Cup

 We can't thank our photographers enough.... and they happen to be great neighbors too!  If you are looking for a terrific photographer in the Milwaukee area, check out Nakasato Photography.  They do weddings, babies, maternity, family and commercial photos. 

11 Months

Oops, we haven't posted in a month.  We have been busy with learning to walk, eating "all by myself", swimming lessons, buying a new house and playing with toys.

10 Months

10 Months have just flown by!  We are enjoying Hannah's new independence - she's on the verge of crawling and insisting on standing/walking whenever possible.  She's eating loads of new foods (including ice cream and chocolate chip cookies!) and making a bigger mess than ever.  She's definitely more vocal now too.  In fact, sometimes too vocal.....

Quilting

I wanted to buy some cute fabric to make bowties for a friend.  So I went to Patched Works in Elm Grove.  And that was my first mistake.

My friend is due with a baby boy in 5 weeks.  She's a doctor, and her husband is a chemist.  So I asked if they had any dorky science fabric..... look at this quirky and cute Michael Miller print!

Curious Critters by Micheal Miller

Lab Animals in Turquoise

Coordinating binding Atoms in Black.

So I bought a yard of this and a yard of a coordinating print.  I bought blue minky for the back.  Since the print was so perfect I decided not to cut it and just to make a simple quilt.  I used 2 inch tape to mark out my lines and made up my own pattern that just happened to work out perfectly - I got lucky!

There was a little puckering of the minky, but all in all it turned out ok.  I even did my first HAND SEWN BINDING - which was a big deal and did turn out pretty nice (I need to work on the corners though.)  Again, I followed the Oh Fransson tutorials and was pretty happy with the result.  The Mother-to-Be also was quite pleased with it.

I liked this simple quilt.  1 yard of fabric was a perfect baby-sized blanket.  I did it all in about 3 days and would do it again.  I do need to buy some more 2 inch tape before I do another quilt, but it really helps and is super easy.

Swimming

We took a trip to Minnesota to see friends and family this past weekend.  While there we had a nice stay in Minneapolis at The Depot where there is a water park.  Hannah loves her baths, so we thought she might like the pool....and we were right!  She loved it!  She was fearless and tried floating, kicking and splashing.  Cousins Liza and Larken were less than thrilled with the noise, splashing and activity - but Hannah enjoyed it all.

We had a lovely visit with family and lots of fun.

We have now signed Hannah up for swim lessons starting April 15th - can't wait!

9 Months

 We've just returned from a trip to Nevada.  We stayed with some terrific friends, Kristin and Andy, who opened their house and casita to us.  They went so far as to borrow baby items for Hannah which she thoroughly enjoyed.  She also discovered cats - Keno and Sammy were very entertaining, although I'm not sure that they felt the same about Hannah.

We took a day trip to California and went to Death Valley National Park.  Hannah got her first stamp in her National Parks Passport.  Leave it to us to get to the hottest, driest, lowest place in the US only to find it 50 degrees and raining! We need to visit it in the summer to get the full effect as it was kind of lost on us.

 At Red Rocks outside of Las Vegas. 

 Hiking at Death Valley.

 Badwater Basin - lowest point in the US.

9 Months

Weight: 16.06 Pounds (25%)

Length: 27 inches (25%)

Head: 44 cm (50%)

Words: Screeching like a hawk, giggling, occasional "ma" and "ba" sounds

Activities: She loves jumping in her jumper (looks like an Irish Dancer), no crawling yet but she still enjoys being in the tub.  Notices Mom and Dad more often and is quite upset when they leave the room.  

Foods: BABY CHEETOS - aka "Puffs" - she will eat them by the fistful!  She hasn't found food that she won't eat yet but she does love fruits.