Meet Jack!

It's a BOY! He will be named Joshua Ellsworth Gillespie, Jr. after his daddy, and we will call him Jack for short. He is perfect in every way and very energetic! For more information, check out this post on my blog.

Hannah's First Christmas

Hannah was fascinated by the fire in the fireplace
Daddy helps Hannah open her stocking. The duck and giraffe finger puppets were a big hit!
Hannah points to the baby when we ask her where the baby is. She is pretty good at picking out babies in pictures, but doesn't seem to consider herself to be one of them!
After a month of being told not to touch, it took Hannah a while to understand that today it was ok to rip into the gifts! She liked the paper best.
Another hit was the Fisher Price farm with lots of animals to play with.
This is probably not the last time Josh will decide that a working knowledge of Japanese would really come in handy for assembling children's toys!

Hannah got a set of little chairs just her size from Grammy and Papa, and a pound puppy from her cousins Zach and Maddie.

A family picture in front of the fireplace at Josh's parents' house

Christmas Eve

Today Hannah wore another one of my dresses, which my mom made for me. I imagine this was for my first Christmas, although maybe not because the dress is long. The smocking pattern is little angels holding sprigs of holly and it's very very sweet! I forgot all about this dress until this morning, so I guess Hannah can only really wear it today and tomorrow, unless it still fits next year!

Christmas Eve Eve

In honor of the day before the day before Christmas, here are some shots of Hannah:
Hannah's favorite song is "Clap Your Hands, All Ye People." She lets us know she wants to sing it by frantic clapping until we start the song.
Hannah is still not sure how she feels about this whole standing up alone thing.
I'm not sure why this picture turned out so blurry. Oh well. As you can see, Hannah's hair is in an awkward stage of growing out, where it looks shaggy but is not quite long enough for clips. Maybe soon!

It's About Time!

This afternoon when Hannah wanted to be picked up, she pulled on my leg and said, "Mama, Mama!" Yay! Of course, I picked her up and congratulated her for being such a sweet girl. :)

For the past while, Hannah had been calling me "Baba" so I was hoping she'd get the "M" thing down soon.

Other word news: Hannah now says, "Airbus" when she means "hairbrush" and she calls her doll Emily "Day-uh-lee."

But I'm most pleased with the Mama development.

Hannah's First Bandaid

Hannah cut her finger today. She didn't even cry until we noticed she was bleeding and getting it all over her sweater. Of course, once we started making a big deal over it, she got upset too! Once we wiped off the blood, it was not very serious looking, but just in case I put a little bandaid on her finger.

After she calmed down, Hannah decided that her finger is now Very Special Indeed. She has been holding it out in front of her, apart from her other fingers, ever since. She holds it up for us to admire, and inspects it carefully. It's really pretty funny! :)

MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hannah just took TWO steps all by herself! She walked from Mama to Daddy without holding on and was so pleased at the clapping and cheers with which she was then showered. :) What a big girl!

Bean 2 Update

I am so fascinated by how babies develop in the womb. It's really amazing how quickly everything happens! We have a neat book called "A Child Is Born" that shows embryoscopy and fetoscopy pictures of development from the point of conception on. The beginning part of the book is really interesting as it shows how much happens even before the baby implants in the uterus. But I especially love the pictures of the babies week by week (you can see them here if you're interested). At 14 weeks pregnant (which is where we are today with Bean 2), the baby is sucking his/her thumb and is the size of your fist. Yesterday and today I've been feeling some little things that really do feel like the baby moving around. Either that or a goldfish is loose in there! :) I thought it was too early, but then I looked it up and apparently with second-time pregnancies or more you can feel movement as early as 12-13 weeks because you know what it feels like. It's very cool. Kick away, Bean 2!

Peekaboo!

Day of the Dolly

Since I didn't get an 11 month old picture yesterday, I tried to take a picture of Hannah this morning before church. She was happy to oblige as long as her doll could be in the picture too. I tried to take the doll away so you could see how cute this little velveteen dress is (Mom made it for me when I was Hannah's age and it's still very lovely), but Hannah kept trying to follow the doll instead of sitting still and the plan was quickly abandoned.

Hannah consented to leave the doll (who is named Emily by the way, in honor of the sister I would have had if Thomas had been born a girl) behind when we went to church. Once we got back home, however, the doll regained her place of primacy. I attempted to take Hannah for a quick walk, but she would not go unless the doll came too. I tucked the doll in with Hannah, who was bundled in layers, a big coat, her thick fleece hat with earflaps, her hood on top of that, a double folded wool blanket, and the quilted insulated flannel lined cover for the stroller. Hannah stayed warm, except for the hand she insisted on keeping out of the warm covers in order to pat the doll periodically, presumably for the doll's comfort and so that Hannah could ensure that the doll stayed warm too.

Having skipped her afternoon nap (a fairly common Sunday occurrence, sad to say), Hannah hit the bedtime wall hard, fast, and early. As I scrambled to get her into her pajamas and tucked in, she clutched the doll tightly to her chest. I tried to pry the doll from Hannah's wee fingers, only to encounter a protest such that you might have thought I was attempting to pluck the very life from her. Friends, need I tell you that Hannah fell asleep with Babydoll Emily by her side. Usually she doesn't go to sleep with toys, but I don't mind if she picks one doll to sleep with, so I bid them both good night.

Sweet Girl

Hannah is 11 months old today! Over the past few weeks she has started being so sweet and affectionate, and I love it! Not that she was un-sweet before, but she used to be far too busy to sit around cuddling with Mama. Now she will come over to me, climb into my lap, and lay her head on my shoulder, patting me and saying, "Awwww." I think that's funny since "Awww" is what I say when she does something cute and sweet, so she picked it up! I don't know what caused Hannah to become such a cuddly gal, but I am really enjoying it!

In developmental news, Hannah is still showing no interest in walking by herself, although she will stand up on her own sometimes. She just seems to get where she needs to go by crawling or walking while holding on to things. She's also not saying Mama yet, but that's ok since she is being so cuddly for me now. :)

Blowing Kisses

Hannah and I just spent about 20 minutes practicing the ancient art of blowing kisses. So far Hannah's version involves her licking her hand and then showing it to me. It's really funny! But she's getting there.

And yes, I did realize that there were finger prints on my camera lense and the problem has been rectified.

Trip to the Zoo

Hannah looks at the pandas with Grandad

Hannah's First Thanksgiving

Hannah enjoyed all the Thanksgiving food, but especially liked the cranberry flavor!

Pictures Taken By Alicia

Wow, can't you tell such a huge difference in quality between Alicia's pictures and ours??? She has a very cool camera, but also is a better photographer than we are for sure!

Hannah's Photographobia

The Perspicacious Princess of Photogeneity likes to ham it up for her parents, but she hates hates hates professional photographers. I thought Hannah's loathing was limited to Misty from Olan Mills (she scares me too), but today we had to go get our picture taken for the new photo directory at church, and Hannah pretty much hated that guy too. She refused to smile and just stared at him the entire time with a look of stern reproof on her face. At least we don't have to pay for them. Hopefully someone will take a good family shot of us over Thanksgiving that we can use in our Christmas cards, if I do cards this year, which I may or may not...

Anyway, above you can see Hannah admiring her dress at home before we left.

Baby It's Cold Outside

Today was pretty chilly, so for our outing to Costco Hannah bundled up in her new winter coat. I deliberately bought it way too big so it might fit all through the winter.
Hannah found the coat rather confining in her carseat, because it was hard for her to move her head around, but she put up with it with grace and aplomb as you might expect. The free sample of animal crackers at Costco kept her happy as she ate part of them and smeared the sticky crumbs all over herself.

There Was A Little Girl...

Here is what Hannah likes:
-kale mixed with applesauce
-books
-plain yogurt with flax seed
-baths

Here is what Hannah hates, loathes, and despises:
-having her diaper changed

Here is how it goes down:

Hannah is playing happily, singing tra-la-la and generally acting like the spokesbaby for happy-happy-joy-joy-juice. Suddenly, Mean Mommy takes Hannah to the changing table, which is the top of Hannah's dresser.

Hannah commences screaming like a Banshee who is afraid screaming might be going out of style.

Mean Mommy does the only thing she knows to stop the screaming quick before the windows start shattering: she gives Hannah a shoe to chew on (Hannah's shoe, that is, not Mean Mommy's shoe).

Those of you who think that is gross and think Mean Mommy has gone off the reservation on this one are obviously not well acquainted with the trills and thrills of the Banshee Top Forty. If you were, believe me, you would pop a baby shoe in there too!

For whatever reason, once she has been given a shoe to inspect, Hannah quiets down and the diapering can proceed. I do not know what is causing this recent development, as Hannah does not have a diaper rash or anything, but perhaps she's reached the age where she's gotten attached to her...ahem, how can I put this delicately...by-products?

To be completely honest, sometimes it works to give Hannah her hairbrush, but not always. The shoe is the Grail in this adorable drama.

Baking a Cake

Yesterday Hannah and Mama made a cake for Grammy's birthday. Hannah wore her little apron and munched on Cheerios while providing percussion accompaniment with her stirring spoon.
Hannah helped mix the dry ingredients with her spoon, and then decided using her bare hands would be easier! Mama took over after a few minutes and managed to get all the Cheerios out of the dry ingredients before adding them to the mixer. One or two Cheerios might have wound up in the finished cake, but hopefully no one noticed!
Here is the final product, fully decorated. Hannah studiously watched Grammy blow out the candles, so that she would know what to do on her own first birthday, coming up in only two months!

Music Lessons

Change of Due Date!

We had our first OB appointment and ultrasound today. They moved the due date up and said Baby Bean 2 is due June 7. That works for me! The baby's heart rate was 159, so I bet it's a girl, but who knows.

Feats of Strength

This morning I realized that Hannah had been awfully quiet for the past two minutes, so I went hunting for her, assuming she would be trying to get into something. I gasped in surprise when I realized she was halfway up the stairs! I stood behind her in case she fell, but she climbed up the rest of the way all by herself!!!! She's never even really attempted this before, so we are very proud of her. Yet another reason to hone my hawk-like reflexes from now on!

A change of format!

You may have noticed some slight changes to Hannah's website, since now she is sharing it with her future brother or sister!

Yes, you read that correctly, it looks like Baby Bean 2 will join the family sometime around mid-June (I'm really just guessing, may have to amend that later)! We're so excited!

Every now and then I plan to post little updates on what is going on with the baby. This picture is an embryoscopy picture of a baby at the same point we are in this pregnancy. At this point, the baby has a heartbeat, brain, nervous system, spinal cord, umbilical cord, lungs, arms, legs, lenses of the eyes, nostrils, and most other organs are already in place! Isn't it AMAZING how the baby forms so quickly?

Check back often for more updates on Hannah and her new sibling!

CHEESE!

I said, "Hannah, say cheese!" and I think she grasped the concept, what do you think? :)

In other news, despite her temperature still being over 101, this morning Hannah learned a new word.

"Hannah, let's put on a new diaper!" I said.

"DIE-poh!" she replied.

"Yes! Diaper!" I said again.

"DIE-PO!" she shouted!

So there you have it - a new addition to the vocabulary. Diaper. Now if she'll only use this skill to tell me when she needs a new diaper, we'll really be getting somewhere!

Hannah and Her Babies

Hannah likes to push her baby carriage around. Mama's doll Emily (Emily was the consolation prize when Mama got a brother not a sister) rides inside.
Hannah has also taken to carrying around Mama's old Cabbage Patch doll, Sarah Kitty (remember those lame names Cabbage Patch Kids used to come with?). Mostly Hannah chews on the doll's nose, but we pretend she's kissing the baby. To all our friends with real babies - don't worry, we will not let Hannah chew your child's nose. No worries.

Nine Months Old

Today we had Hannah's nine month checkup. She weighs 19.2 pounds, and is 28 inches long, both of which are 64th percentile (so to all the naysayers, she is NOT overweight thank you very much!). The doctor said Hannah is perfect in every way, but we knew that. :)

First Trip to the Zoo!

Today Hannah and Mama went to the Indianapolis Zoo with Rose and Alan and Rose's mom. It was so fun! Hannah had never been to the zoo before, and Mama thinks the last time she went to a zoo may have been third grade. Mama can say that baboons are still the greatest part of the zoo experience. :) Hannah and Alan LOVED the dolphin show. They could not get enough of the dolphins, and the dolphins liked to swim up close to the glass so the babies could see them better. What a fun afternoon!

Relaxing on the Porch

Hannah and Daddy on the porch swing at Josh's aunt and uncle's house in Kansas

Hannah and Mama

Kansas Trip

We just got back from Kansas, where we traveled to see Josh's grandmother and spend time with the rest of his family after his grandfather's death. Justin was there for a little while, and also Juliet and her children. Hannah had fun visiting with her great-grandmother and seeing her cousins. It seemed Hannah and Gweneth had more fun together now that they are a little older. Above, Gweneth (left) and Hannah sit with their great grandmother Joyce Gillespie. Sorry about the glare in the picture, I couldn't figure out how to make that go away!
Hannah and Gweneth also enjoyed climbing all over Greatgrandma's walker!

Little Helper

Look Mama, I'm helping sort the laundry!

Our Little Bibliophile

Hannah loves to peruse the shelves...

Hmmm...what shall I read next?

Hannah also likes to look at her own books, which we greatly prefer, since our books do not benefit from being in her mouth or getting the covers torn off...

Yes, she finds books VERY exciting! I wish I could record the noise she makes when she gets excited about something, it's very funny, like inhaling a squeal sound. But you'll just have to take my word for it.

The Bumbo seat is not getting much play anymore, because her thighs won't fit in it! But it's still good for hiding things in and retrieving them later, as seen above.