Playing with the Cousins

Hope loves when there are a lot of kids around - so Sunday dinners at my mom and dad's are lots of fun for her.

Jenna (or "Nenna" as Hope says) sat in a rocking chair and read a book. Hope decided to do the same.

Hope is making her fish face.
The girls had a party in the crib.

An attempt at all five together.

Hope has that look in her eye...she had been still long enough....

And there she goes.

Devin is probably still wearing these basketball clothes today. He loves them. Boy through and through.

Bailee pushed Hope on the truck, until they hit the house.

Bailee was posing nicely for me.....

then this streak went by.

And back again.

Bailee is posing nicely again.

Finally, Hope is still, because my mom is holding her. But Leah is missing. She was throwing a fit about something.

Triplet Update

Here is a recent photo of the triplets - especially for you 'Strong Moms' who have shared your formula coupons. As you can see, they are eating well. I think Jonathan now weighs more than Hope (and is not even half her age just yet). They turned seven months old a few days ago.

David, Abby and Jonathan

Just imagine these three crawling, then walking around. Busy Busy Busy.

Never to be Forgotten

Today would have been my Aunt Lois' 60th birthday. She died October 29, 2005, nine months after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. I wish Hope would have had the opportunity to know her. And I wish she would have had the opportunity to know Hope.

Here she is at our wedding on September 24, 2005 - her being there was one of the best parts of my day.

Lois - you are missed!

Down on the Farm

Here are a few photos from our walk to the Farm last weekend.

Hope stopped to pick some flowers, grass and weeds.

We went into the barn.

Hope didn't like sitting on a hay bale.

She saw some cows. I took her closer, but since I couldn't take a picture and make sure she stayed away from the electric fence at the same time, we had to move away for the photo op. We have books with pictures of cows, Hope has a stuffed cow, we have puzzles and magnets with cows. I've been trying to get her to say "cow" or that a cow says "Moo" for a while, but she has just given me that "Your crazy Mom" look. She pointed to them and I said, 'Cow." Her response? "Moooooo." I guess she just wanted to see the real thing.

The driveway was full of little treasures.

She picked up handfuls of little rocks.

If I had her put them back down, she just picked others back up.

She carried them.

And studied them.

And analyzed them.

Is the tractor really that big? Or is Hope really that little? Maybe both?

She pointed to it an said, "Tractor."

Fifteen Months

Hope turned 15 months old yesterday. Today she had her 15 month check-up. She weighs 21 lbs 11 oz (30th percentile) and is 31.25 inches long (70th percentile). She only gained three ounces in the past three months. I think part of it is because she was sick at the end of March and lost some weight, at least she has put that back on. She also runs around all day long - maybe I should put a pedometer on her to see how far she goes in a day? She still has her umbilical hernia. It has shrunk some. The Dr. is hoping it goes away completely before she is four years old, but if it's not gone by then he will refer her to a surgeon. That is over two and a half years away, so he said we should be patient and not to worry just yet.

I think Hope's talking switch has been turned on. She babbles all the time and is saying more and more words. Her repertoire includes Mommy, Daddy, dog, kitty, hi, bye, baby, tractor, Pap Pap, cow, moo, (can you tell we visited my dad at the farm this past weekend?) snack ("nack"), more, and other words that aren't at the top of my mind at this exact moment. When she is in the mood she will try to repeat just about anything - last week she was trying to say elephant and that's a big word for a little girl, especially a little girl with not so many teeth (although I think having her two front teeth have made a huge difference for her).

Hope loves books and has a Look-n-Find book that she likes to at. She likes to find and point to anything in a picture that you ask her to, such as pigs, lions, giraffes, elephants, flowers, frogs, sunshine, hats, kids, etc.

Hope is becoming extremely helpful. If I put a bag a groceries on the floor she will help take things out and hand them to me to put away. She will hand me clothes out of the laundry basket to put away (after refolding them of course), she is also learning to put her toys away (when she sticks around long enough).

Hope's favorite food by far is mac-n-cheese. She also likes eggs, yogurt, bananas, peaches, cauliflower, waffles, pizza and grilled cheese. Although she's not a big fan of meat yet, she will eat chicken and fish sometimes, but so far has only spit out burgers or steak. She likes her milk. She will drink a little juice, but she would rather play with the straw and juice box. Hope will blow on her food to cool it down, whether it needs it or not. She still loves to play with her food and stir everything. She doesn't have a big sweet tooth (maybe because it hasn't come in yet like most of her teeth), but I think she does have a soft spot for popsicles. I took her for her first snowball today. While she enjoyed eating it at first, eventually as it melted she just stuck her hand in and stirred and played. Hope now has four teeth. Her top two front teeth are in. She has two on the bottom - one of the front bottom ones just broke through, and one of her side bottom ones is about half way in. It's quite a weird, adorable tooth pattern she had going on. It's just not a good combo to help with her biting skills, so I still do a lot of cutting of her food.

At this point I think Hope will be right handed. It's still early to know for sure, but she tends to write with it more than her left.

Hope loves to play outside. She likes to write with sidewalk chalk. I recently ordered a water table and sand table and I think she will like them both a lot. Hopefully they arrive later this week or next. She also likes to be outside even if there aren't any toys to play with. She's happy just to walk around and collect treasures such as wood chips and rocks.

On Saturday we walked to see my Grandma through a hay field. The grass was as tall as or taller than her (but there is a mowed path).

She has a patch of curls in the back - this hair isn't long enough just yet to pull into the pigtails.

A Year Ago

These are some of my favorite photos of Hope. They were taken one year ago when she was three months old. Perfect natural lighting and a baby that didn't roll over quite yet made posing as easy as it was ever going to be.

Li'l Commander

Here is a clip of Hope this past Sunday. Whenever we come home from somewhere, as we walk in the door I typically yell "Down!" to Morgan because she usually jumps up on us. I think Hope has caught on.....

Poor Morgan.....