15 month check-up

Hannah had her 15 month check-up this morning. She did great. The doctor did most of her examination right with Hannah on my lap. Everything checked out right on track.


Verifying her paperwork

In the last month, I thought that Hannah looked like she'd gotten taller, and that was confirmed today. She grew 2 1/4", from 27 1/2" at 12 months to 29 3/4" now, meaning that she's now in the 25 percentile for height! Considering Jason and I are definitely at the short end of the scale, we're totally excited about her new growth :-) She weighed in at a petite 19 lbs. (5th percentile) but continues to have a big head at 18 1/4" (70th percentile). Hopefully that big head means a big brain that will someday get a big scholarship!

Hannah lucked out and didn't get any shots at this visit. Since she'd just been sick, we opted to delay the MMR and chicken pox vaccines until her 18 month visit. I don't think she missed them!

Overall, we have a very healthy little girl.

Ready to hit the road

Sick girl

Earlier last week, the stomach bug hit our house hard. Jason came down with it on Wednesday. At first we thought it may have been something he ate, but we found out this weekend that it was more than just bad food. Poor Hannah awoke yesterday morning with the same symptoms. She acted fine but couldn't keep anything down. We had a very good reason to wash her high chair cover as we discovered that by dinner time she still wasn't able to hold food down. At least she loved the Pedialyte, as that was the only thing that seemed to stay put.

Today, we just took it easy, hanging out around the house and slowly re-introduced some solid food. Thankfully, she kept it down all day!


It all took a lot out of her. It was so hard to see her not feeling well, but it was kind of nice to get all kinds of cuddle time with the one who rarely sits still. Hoping and praying now that this bug has been squashed before it gets any more victims (me)!

Summer fun

One of my favorite things to do in the summer is visit our local Farmers Market. It's been open for a couple of weeks now, but this morning was the first chance that we've had to get down there. Hannah and I joined our friends Sara and her baby Jacob and Jill and Claire to do some local produce shopping. The weather was perfect, and the selection was good.


Hannah and Claire in their matching strollers and Jacob in his cool, orange BOB.

With all of that shopping, we worked up an appetite, so we headed over to grab some lunch at the Cherry Deli. It worked out perfectly, as we arrived just before the lunch rush and had a nice, big table to spread out. The kids did great, and us moms even managed to enjoy some nice conversation.

After lunch and Hannah's afternoon nap, we took advantage of the wonderful weather and explored outside around the yard. We don't have too many outdoor toys just yet, but Hannah seemed happy discovering all of the treasures around the yard.


Typically on Friday nights, we feed Hannah dinner, get her to bed, and Jason and I order in a pizza and watch a movie. We mixed it up a little bit tonight, though, and headed downtown to have dinner at the Festival of the Arts. Several of the streets are closed off and lined with food vendors from local charities. Of all of the types of food available, Chinese was our cuisine of choice. Hannah seems to have taken after Daddy and loved it - even the spicy Szechuan chicken. Her favorite, though, definitely were the crab rangoons. Gotta love that fried, cream cheese goodness!


Festival of the Arts is not just about the food, but all kinds of artists perform throughout the weekend - dancers, bands, etc. It truly is quite a cultural event that's all FREE! Afer dinner and chocolate waffle sundaes for dessert, we enjoyed listening to the choir from Resurrection Life Church. Talk about awesome! They could be professionals (maybe they are??). The perfect, uplifting end to a wonderful evening.

One tired little girl.

Couldn't you just eat her up?!?

Ok, so I'm a bit biased, but I think she's just too cute for words...

Cousins

Ever since my mom found out Todd and Courtney were expecting a girl, she has been so excited to buy them matching dresses and take their picture. When we were up north for Memorial Day weekend, she got her wish. She bought them the most adorable pink, gingham dresses and dressed both of them up. However, she discovered that taking a picture of a 14 month old and a 2 week old can be quite a challenge.


Hannah's not so sure about sharing the spotlight.

Even though the girls didn't quite cooperate, I think it still turned out pretty cute. I have the feeling we'll be getting a lot more twinsy cousin pictures together in the future.

Making life easier

I used to be pretty good at setting weekly menus, making grocery lists, and preparing half-way decent meals. It seems that since I had Hannah, however, that I have just not been able to get my act together ahead of time. I finally got tired of it and joined e-mealz about a month ago.

Sometimes these sort of programs seem a bit too gimmicky, so I wanted to give it a good try before I posted my opinion. Let me tell you, my life has been so much less stressful thanks to this wonderful meal planning tool! You can choose a meal plan that best fits your family (I picked the weight watchers points system for 2. You can never be too healthy!), and each week a new menu is available with a full week's worth of simple recipes, complete with a coordinating grocery list! I print off 2 copies of the menu and grocery list - one to mark up and shop with, as we never seem to make all 5 meals, and the other to put in a recipe notebook that I'll be able to refer back to. Even Jason has noticed that we're once again having good homemade meals without me hounding him for ideas.

Sorry if this seems like a total commercial. I really don't mean it to be. I'm just so happy about how well this is working out for us that I had to share. Anything to make life easier is worth it for me!

Pictureless weekend

After a couple of very busy weeks, we finally had a relaxingly busy weekend (if that makes any sense). Unfortunately, I left my camera in my work bag, so I didn't get any pictures. You'll just have to use your imagination :-)

Hannah and I started off the weekend in Frankenmuth to attend (and help with) my cousin Matt's graduation party. The last of the grandchildren has finally graduation high school. My aunt and I had worked so well together hosting my sister-in-law Courtney's baby shower that she asked me to help out with Matt's party as well. The night flew by without a hitch. I guess that's what her 3rd graduation party and 2 great minds get you :-)

We headed home early on Saturday, so that we could spend most of the weekend all together. We spent the day without an agenda and filled it with fun odds and ends - a trip to Target, a stop at Flowerland to buy a lilac bush, a walk around (well, not ALL the way around) Reed's Lake, and dinner outside on the porch at Graydon's Crossings in East Grand Rapids. After we got home, Jason and I finished off the night with our "in-house" date night with a movie and a bottle of wine :-)

Sunday morning started with church as usual. We recently went to 1 service for the summer, so we had a little adjusting to do with the morning schedule. It was kind of nice to get an extra hour beforehand. We typically go out to breakfast after church, but since it ran late, we headed to Grand Haven to have some lunch at Snug Harbor. Since it was pretty breezy and chilly, we ate inside where we had a great table by the window. Hannah had a wonderful time watching all of the boats cruise past and the people (and dogs, or JJ's as she calls them) walk by. In fact, she had such a fun time that I'm pretty sure the whole restaurant could hear her shouting with glee! We walked off lunch with a stroll down the boardwalk.

Ah, I love weekends with nothing to do!