Life in the slow lane...

Not much to report on the home front today. The garden is growing, which is exciting. I can't wait to see how it does this summer! If anything, I predict the lettuce and the sweet peas will do well. Hopefully everything does, but we won't know for a while more.

Hannah started eating actual baby food this week, so far she's had sweet potatoes, and today she started on carrots. She LOVED those! She'd barely finish one bite, and she'd be opening her mouth for the next bite. Maybe it's because of all the carrots I ate while I was pregnant.

Anyway, now I just want to post some pictures of Hannah!

Things around the house

So much to update, so little time... It's amazing how fast the last few days and weeks have been going! Just when I think "Phew, my blog is all updated!" Something happens and BOOM! I need to update it again!

Things around here have been good but busy. Work has been crazy lately, with new families moving in and families moving out. But, it's been a good busy. I've felt efficient and useful the last few weeks, which is a really good thing.

Friday was John's 7th and 8th grade bands trip to the festival they play in every year. It was a long day, but we had fun. This was (we think) my 4th year chaperoning the event, so I've pretty much got it down as well as John and his co-teacher do. We left the house at 6am, got to the school around 7, and had the kids on the bus by 8:15. We were making great time, and got to the school the kids were performing at about 1/2 an hour prior to their warm up time. Unfortunately, the school had just come out of lockdown for a drug arrest (it was a high school), so all of the performances were pushed wayyyy back. John's school was slated to perform at 12:40, and didn't get to go on until about 1:20. The kids handled it really well though. His band got a gold, which was great. The chorus performed, and also got a gold, so things were good. The second part of the day was spent at Six Flags New England, and we couldn't have had a better day for it. We only got 3 hours at the park, which was a bummer, but the kids were awesome about it, and the weather was awesome, so the kids still had a really great time. Most of the rides were running, so none of the kids got disappointed by not getting to go on anything. John and I got Hannah a really cute Wonder Woman onsie, which is super fun. There are some pictures of her in it below.

John and I have pretty much spent the weekend recovering from the trip, and doing things around the house. This year, we planted a vegetable garden, so hopefully it will do well. We have leaf lettuce, sweet peas, cherry tomatos, yellow bell pepper, orange bell pepper, cucumbers, zucchini and summer squash. I'm so excited! I hope my garden does well. I spent a lot of time outside planting and working on it yesterday, so I can't wait to see how it does!

Monday the 19th, Hannah had her 4 month check up. She did great! She had to get 4 shots, which really stunk, but she handled it like a pro - some screaming, and that was it for the day. She measured at 26 inches long and 14 lbs 11oz. I'm sure she's gained weight since then. She loves to eat her rice cereal, and I'm starting to wonder when to add more things to her repitoire of food.

Tomorrow, Hannah is going to see her first parade - we're meeting my parents and grandmother in Concord for the Memorial Day parade. I'm excited to take her. It's supposed to be sunny and 80 degrees - what a way to kick off the unofficial start to summer!

I guess that's about it from here. I posted some recent photos of Hannah. I still can't believe she's 4 months old now! Goodness! Where does the time go...

Mommy, I'm sleepy...

Huh?

Look! I'm playin' video games!

But what does this thing DO?

I'm a playin' baby, mom!

Hannah's secret identy, revealed!

Mothers Day and other stuff

Yesterday was Mothers Day, so happy belated Mothers Day to all the moms that check this out! My Mothers Day... well, kind of wasn't. My parents had a Jessie Willcox Smith print framed for me, and gave it to me as my gift. They used to have it hanging up in their bedroom, but they had it reframed and said it looks like me holding Hannah.


It looks really great hanging up in the living room, I think. John really likes it there too, so it worked out really great. It's appropriate too, because it's hanging right over the Pack 'n' Play!

Otherwise, it was just kind of... a day. We were at my parents house that weekend because the 10th was my dads birthday, so we had a little party for him. Then we did a mothers day breakfast on Sunday. Hannah's Godparents came over to see her, since they hadn't since she was baptized. It was nice to see them. Then our friends Theresa and Chris stopped over so they could meet Hannah and we could meet their new basset hound, Gunther. We went to our friend Sarah L.'s wedding that afternoon. I guess, now I should say she's Sarah N. =) Good thing all of the Sarah's I know aren't marrying people with last names that start with the same letter - I can still identify them as Sarah N (formerly Sarah L), Sarah S (formerly Sarah C), Sarah M, Sara J, etc.

John got me a really sweet card from Hannah, but that was all, so I was a little disappointed. I would have thought he would have tried to give me SOMETHING (flowers, anything!) to show he appreciates everything I do around the house and all the caring for Hannah I do, but I don't think he realizes how much work I do on the days that I'm home. Oh well.

Today, Hannah started on rice cereal. What a hoot! It was hilarious. She seemed to like it the first time around. She could have cared less the second time around. She was more interested in her spoon that time. I took a video of her the first time she tried it.



I took some stills of her also, because the video is pretty long, but it is funny to see her playing with her bowl in the video, and her spoon in the still photos.

Things I've discovered during motherhood

I've decided to start a list of things that either people told me about being a mom, or things that I have discovered on my own, that I have found to be very useful. They are in no particular order of importance, it's just what I thought of as I was writing. Some are practical, some are just facts of motherhood. The tips come solely from my experience, some have a smattering of child development thrown in. Enjoy =)

1. Sleep when the baby sleeps. This definitely is true, as you don't realize how tired you get, even just from getting up once during the night to feed the baby. You need naps. It sounded totally stupid when people would tell me this, but the number of naps I've taken since I became a mom has been more than quadruple what I've taken in the last year.

2. It will get easier. It will. If it didn't, all moms would have long since given up the career.

3. When shopping somewhere you will be using a shopping cart (i.e.: Target, the supermarket), park as close to the cart corral as possible. The last thing you'll want to do is unload your car, put your baby in the car, then have to walk half way across the parking lot to return the cart with the baby in the car. You also won't want to keep the baby with you, walk half way across the parking lot, and then have to carry the baby back to the car. If at all possible, park right next to them. Better yet, park next to the one that's the closest to the entrance/exit. This tip is exceptionally handy when the weather is lousy.

4. You have no idea how in love you'll become with your baby. You'll discover that there is nothing in this world you wouldn't do for your child. Your baby is the cutest thing in the world. You'll want to hold your baby all the time, and smother them with hugs and kisses. The amount of love you feel will make you cry.

5. Read a bedtime story to your child. Read to them anytime! It's an amazing way to bond with them, and it really helps them settle in for the night, and they like to look at the pictures. It's an integral part of our bedtime routine.

6. Set your bedtime routine early, and stick to it. This will become the rock of your day, and your baby will come to expect it. We did this just because it seemed like a good idea, and it's really worked well. We started around 2 or 2 1/2 months, and it's been the best thing we could have done! Even in the most unstructured of days, you'll know that you'll be putting your baby to bed in the same way every night, and s/he can look forward to that quiet time with mommy and/or daddy.

It's late, and I'm sleepy...

But I wanted to be sure to get these pictures posted tonight before I forgot all about it. They are the portraits we had done at Target in Concord last week, on Hannah's 3 month birthday!