ONE YEAR!!!!!!

I still can't believe it. Hannah turned 1 on Wednesday! It was just a normal day, we just stayed home and hung out. We decided to leave the festivities until this weekend, partly because I know how much Dan hates celebrating birthdays and I didn't want to give him an extra reason to gripe this weekend. It seems like she's grown up a lot in the last month. She's always been a big talker, but this month she's taken it to a whole new level, and has even started saying real words. She's said Dada- no Mama, of course:( - yucky, uh huh, she waves and says "Ba", and my personal favorite-Quack, which is really more of a Cack since she can't make the qu sound. Her Aunt Chandler had a stuffed duck and Hannah picked it up and started quacking at it! And ever since, whenever we ask her what a ducky says, she gets a huge smile and starts quacking up a storm. It is so cute. She can walk about 10 steps by herself, but is either too lazy or too unsure of herself to really walk. She is still nursing, much to my chagrin. She really has no interest in quitting. I've cut back to just 4 times a day-before and after sleep- and she doesn't really like it. She gets really mad at me, but I'm trying to be strong. Hopefully I'll be able to cut back even more over the next few weeks. She has come out of her shell a lot lately, and is becoming quite the ham. She's hilarious on Sundays at church. Last Sunday she started practicing her monologue in the car and put on a very amusing show for everyone sitting behind us. She loves to tell very loud stories whenever it's quiet. She also loves when the sacrament gets passed down our row, and will scream if you try to skip her, which always reminds me of how her cousin Brigham was at this age. He would watch the deacons like a hawk and get really mad when he thought they were taking to long. When we're at home, I have to be sitting on the floor with her 98% of the time, otherwise she freaks out on me. It's probably the most annoying thing she does. And in my opinion, it's even more annoying when Dan's home, sitting on the floor, trying to play with her, and all she does is come over to me and whine until I sit on the floor. Apparently she thinks I don't have any need to be comfortable. Ever. She doesn't even really care if I'm actually playing with her, she just wants me to be uncomfortable. She also got 2 new teeth this month, which puts her at  a total of 6, 4 on top and 2 on bottom.

Aquarium

A few days after the 4th, I found out my mother-in-law was taking my nieces and nephew to the aquarium, so I decided to invite myself along. I had kind of high expectations- I thought Hannah was going to love it! Unfortunately, we made the mistake of waiting till after the aquarium to eat lunch. Yeah, it was a very bad idea. Hannah cried and whined and fussed the entire time. And because she loves water so much, it just made her MORE mad to be surrounded by water and not allowed to swim. She threw a couple of temper tantrums over that one. Sigh. Oh well, you live and learn. We went to the Rainforest Cafe afterwards, and she had a good time there, at least. Her Great Grandma had come with us, and Hannah talked her ear off while we waited for our food. The moving animals didn't bother her at all, but her poor cousin Brigham was so terrified, he had his head buried in his mom's chest most of the time we were there. It was pretty disappointing that she didn't enjoy the outing more, but maybe next time will be better. I've since taken her to the children's museum (and of course my camera was dead so I don't have any pictures, which I'm REALLY mad bout) and she did awesome and really had a lot of fun, so I have hope next time will be better.

I took her from Grandma to take a picture. I'm so mean!

Quite the auspicious start to the day, don't you think?

Abby having a grand time

Briggies watching the fish

Haha. Love that face.

One of the few happy moments- stuffing her face

Mom, you're in my way!

That girl sure loves hair!

Aunt Lacey finally got her to smile!

Learning the secrets of life from Great Grandma Francis

Being cute and adorable

Brigham using sleep to escape his fears

She was totally tuckered out!

Fireworks!

Every year for the 4th, we go to my in-laws to watch fireworks. They live outside the city limits where they are legal, and the people in their neighborhood go all out. Their next door neighbors always do some of the best ones, although this year they didn't do nearly as many, possibly due to the fact that last year, several of them went awry and almost got both them and us... but they still had some pretty awesome ones. Dan and his brother Curt even got a few of the big ones, but mostly they did sparklers and the fountain ones. I was a little worried at first that Hannah wouldn't like it; after all, we were literally right underneath some of the biggest ones and they were really loud- but she didn't mind at all. She got pretty tired toward the end, but still seemed to really enjoy it.

Sparklers!!!!

Chillin waiting for fireworks..

Cheese!

Hmm... Juice?? I wonder if the other Grandma has something better.....

Oooooh, yeah. That's the stuff!

Hangin' with Aunt Chandler

Emery was a little scared of the fireworks and wanted Hannah to hold her hand...

Man, that flash is bright!

Happy 4th of July!!

After dinner and before the fireworks, we put Hannah and her cousins in the baby pool for a while. As you know, Hannah is obsessed with the water and this day was no exception. It was pretty funny because her cousins were all being very timid about the water, but Hannah was super stoked. She splashed like crazy for the first 10 minutes, so even Emery who didn't really want to get in was completely soaked. Then she proceeded to crawl all over looking for the balls, and then crawled around with a ball in each hand, which had us slightly worried since the water was on the verge of being too deep for her. But Hannah did not care one little bit. She did slip at one point and went completely under, but immediately got up by herself and once she caught her breath, was ready to get back in and went straight back to the same antics. We are definitely going to need to find her a swim class next summer!

Old friends and new

A few days before the 4th, I found out that one of my friends from Virginia is in Fort Worth for the summer with his wife and their two month old son. So, of course, I invited them to watch the fireworks with us so I could see Jason and meet Grace and Henry. It was so much fun! Jason was such a good friend to me, so it was so great to spend time with him again, and his wife is so sweet and we totally hit it off. I'm hoping we'll get to spend some more time with them while they're still here!

Jason tried to get Henry to sit in his own chair, but it didn't work out so well at first...

                                     There we go! Don't you love those chubby little cheeks?

                                               Enjoying the fireworks!

Happy Independence Day!

For the 4th of July, we spent the afternoon at my in-laws with lots of family and friends. It was a lot of fun and I got lots of pictures, so this is just the first batch. Happy 4th from Hannah, Isabelle, Ella, and Emery!

11 months

Wow. In less than a month, Hannah will be One!!! I can't believe it. Time really does fly. It's funny to think back and remember this time last year. I was so huge, I had the whole waddle thing going on, and Hannah was doing baby workouts in my belly. I remember last 4th of July, we were at the in-laws house, and while half the family was playing Rock Band, the other half sat around watching my belly dance like crazy. She was going crazy in there for like an hour straight. I really can't believe it's July again already. So in the last month, Hannah has finally started standing up on her own. Every once in a while she gets a look on her face like she's thinking about taking a step, but she's not quite there yet. I think I keep forgetting to write about this, but she has completely stopped sucking her fingers. She stopped around the time her first top tooth came in, and although I'm glad I don't have to deal with the difficulty of trying to make her stop, I kind of wish she still sucked them. Ever since she stopped, it's been so much louder around here! It definitely made putting her down for naps more difficult. Instead of comforting herself until she falls asleep, she now stands up in her crib and screams bloody murder. Fun, fun! She also has developed an aversion to baby food. This is exceptionally annoying. All she wants is big people food, but she can't eat very much stuff so it's a struggle getting her to eat. This is also leaving a dent in her nutrition, which is causing some tummy troubles. So yeah, not really the funnest month we've had, but that's life, right? I'm really looking forward to the rest of July. The 4th is tomorrow, and then I have to figure out what to do for her birthday. Her Grandpa Poole will be here from DC for a few days to celebrate, so that should be lots of fun, and we'll see if she can figure out how to walk before he gets here...