Climbing!

Tonight Hannah climbed up all 5 steps from the family room to the kitchen by herself. In fact, she did it twice! She’s getting better each time, too. You can almost see the gears turning as she figures out how to balance and shift her weight, where to put her hands and feet, and how to bend and lift her knees. I predict that by Monday she’ll be able to take all five steps like an old pro.

You can see a couple of photos of our little climber (and burgeoning biped) here.

Medical Update

Hannah had a checkup today. She now weighs 19lbs, and is still in about the 50th percentile for weight. She’s developing normally, and eating well, and generally thriving. We’ll take that.

Aside from that, we still struggle on a daily basis to stay one step ahead of our little crawling baby. Unfortunately, I am sending some of my plants away, for their own good as well as Hannah’s. The first of many casualties, I’m sure.

9 Months

Hannah is 9 months old today. The last month has brought some pretty big changes.

Hannah got her two front teeth, and she also got a bunch more hair. We’re sure that she’s grown, although we won’t know how much until her next doctor’s appointment, which should be within the week.

The big news, though, is that Hannah has started crawling. Every day she gets better. It’s a lot of fun, and very frightening. Hannah has also started babbling, and she motors around the house, muttering consonant sounds under her breath. So far we have heard a sort of W/R hybrid, D (which means she’s said Dada and Daddy), B, and T. Of course, I repeat ‘Mama, mama, mama’ for her all day long. So far, no dice.

You can see the traditional monthly photo here. You can also see a few shots of our latest adventures here.

Busy, Busy

Now that Hannah’s crawling, it’s hard to find time to write anything. I can’t have her in the office while I work on the computer, because there are just too many hazards in here. And I’m reluctant to leave my newly-mobile baby alone for too long, because it seems that she is especially skilled at identifying dangers that I overlook.

So, if I’m not posting much, you know that it’s because I’m busy chasing a baby around the house. Until I get another chance to update, you’ll have to content yourself with the snapshot of our latest adventure here.

Civic Elections

Next Saturday is civic election day in BC. Here in Coquitlam we have to vote for 1 mayor, 8 councillors, and 4 school trustees. It’s a lot of people to vote for, and you don’t have an awful lot to go on in most cases. It’s even more difficult because this will be my third time voting in a civic election, and it’s the third municipality I’m voting in. I just haven’t been here long enough to have a history on which to base my decisions.

I have been dutifully wading through the flyers and local newspapers, trying to come up with good candidates. I’m not having a lot of luck. I hope all of you who are gearing up for civic elections are doing better than I am!

Oh, yeah, I have a couple of new baby photos here.

Pandora

This is a site that is really kind of amazing, it’s called Pandora

Essentially it asks you to name a musical artist or song that you like. Then it creates it’s own streaming radio station of similar artists and songs. It’s kind of hard to describe, so it must be tried to really get it.

Lots of fun!

So Tired

Now that Hannah’s learning to crawl, she’s inexplicably started waking up at night again. I’ve gotten used to her sleeping for 8-10 hours at a stretch, and I’ve gone soft. Now, when she wakes me up after only 4 hours of sleep, I can’t function. I really hope that this will end soon.

Hannah continues to advance in her mobility every day. Yesterday she perfected the back-to-tummy-to-scooting maneuver. Today, she’s working on crawling on all fours. When we gave her her bath tonight, her little knees were red from being up on them all day. It’s almost like every day she deliberately picks a new skill and works on it until it’s mastered. It’s kind of amazing to watch her progress down this road towards moving around the world on her own.

Babyproofing

Today Jon and I visited two stores, and spent over $300, in an effort to keep Hannah safe. We bought three different kinds of outlet covers, corner guards for sharp edges, three baby gates, a freezer lock, and 16 drawer and cabinet locks. We are sure that Hannah will delight in finding ways to bypass all of these measures.

We also gave Hannah her first bath in the big tub tonight. She had a great time splashing, and we loved that she didn’t get water everywhere, as was the case with her infant tub. You can see our bathing beauty here.

Big Crib

In response to Hannah’s newly-developed mobility, Jon and I lowered her crib mattress tonight. All of the sudden her bed looks entirely too big for her. I don’t know if I can handle the rate at which this baby is growing up (sniff!).