Hannah: 9 Months Old

Today we had Hannah's 9-month check-up. She had one shot and cried for just a few seconds. She was smiling on our way out the door! She started doing the milk sign this past month, but she doesn't do it regularly. She usually says "miii mii mi mi mii mi mii" and puts her head to my chest to tell me she wants milk. She also calls both me and Brian "ma ma." She says "ma ma" and "da da," but she doesn't call Brian "da da." She has been pulling herself up and cruising for a long time now. Lately, she has been standing on her own for a couple of seconds before she grabs onto something again (or falls down). She also can feed herself with her pinchers. Brian is concerned that she's going to be a lefty because she usually feeds herself with her left hand. I've told him, though, that we have a while before she really shows which hand she will be using. Here's how she's growing:

Height: 29 1/2 inches long (95th%)

Weight: 21.3 pounds (90th%)

Head: 75th-90th%

Heidi's new vocabulary

Heidi has been saying "What the heck?" a lot lately. I don't know where she got that from. I was kind of shocked the other day when I heard her say it. Brian and I don't say it. She's also been using the word "devour" a lot lately, too, thanks to Word Girl. Word Girl is probably her favorite cartoon right now. She's learning new vocabulary words every time she watches it. She was going to be Word Girl for Halloween this year, but she changed her mind (and was Snow White instead). For her birthday, my mom and dad got Heidi a book called My Mom Is Ruining My Life. Since I read that book to her, she's been using that phrase too (My mom is ruining my life). Anyway, just thought I'd mention a few new words/phrases she's been using a lot lately.

Heidi's 4th Birthday Party

Heidi had a very princessy 4th birthday party last Saturday. We invited some of her friends (Ella, Sophie, Alicia, and Sienna). All of the girls wore princess gowns to the party. We also had the pink birthday tree out too!

We had princess music. The girls also decorated princess crowns. I even made a pink, strawberry princess cake with a Cinderella polly pocket doll on top. Heidi got lots of presents, including: 4 My Little Ponies, a Diamond Castle barbie doll, a unicorn Webkinz animal, a handmade cupcake purse w/a $10 gift certificate to go to McDonald's, coloring/sticker books, Polly Pockets, pajamas, dresses, new red sparkly shoes, and lots of other clothes (from grandparents).
We played a couple of princess games at our party. The first one that we played was a Snow White game. The girls had to find 7 hidden apples. One was poisonous (with a ribbon tied around the stem). The girl who found the poisonous apple was going to get the prize, but more than one girl found it at the same time, so everyone got a prize just for playing. The second game that we played was called Put Cinderella In Her Window. It's just like Pin The Tail On The Donkey, but instead, we had a poster of a castle and there were different princesses in the different windows of the castle. While blindfolded, the girls had to place their Cinderella stickers on the poster (trying to put Cinderella in her window, which was the only window without a princess on the poster). Heidi was the first one to play this game and she tried to move her sticker after she saw where she had put it. Grandma Sylvia played at the end to show the girls that it was okay to not have it perfectly placed where the window was. It was just a fun/silly game to play. The girls mostly had fun dancing to princess music.

At the end of the party, each girl got her own bag to take home with a princess Polly Pocket inside, a silly straw, and a princess gummi snack. I think they all had a good time at the party! :)

Frère Jacques

One day a while back when I was singing Frère Jacques to Hannah, Heidi got upset and said "That's my song." I guess she was upset because that was one of the songs I used to sing to her almost every night when she was a baby (and she's still a little jealous of her baby sister). Then, one night about a week ago... I asked her if she wanted to sing the Frère Jacques song before she went to bed and she said "No, that's a silly song." I guess she thought it was silly because the words don't make sense to her. I tried to explain to her that it sounds silly because the words are from another language... and other people from different parts of the world speak different languages, like Dora (who speaks Spanish). We always sing it in English after we sing it in French (the Brother John version). She still seemed to think it was too silly to sing and said she didn't want to sing it. Then, last night... I put Heidi to bed first and then went to Hannah's room to get her ready for bed. I started singing the Frère Jacques song to Hannah and Heidi heard me singing it in her room... and she got upset and wanted me to sing it to her. I guess she can't make up her mind about whether she wants me to sing it to her or not. I think she was just wanting me to sing it to her, though, because I was singing her song to Hannah again.

More Birthday Pictures