Sundance

Hannah and I took a quick trip up to Sundance yesterday with my friend Lyndi and her 2 month old boy Samuel. Our husband's are long time friend's and they were roommates at college. Basically we love their family and we have prearranged the marriage of Hannah and Samuel :-) We attempted to hike the trail to Stewart Falls...unfortunately they didn't make the trail very family/stroller/baby friendly. About 20 feet after walking on the bumpy, narrow trail next to a steep embankment into a creek we decided to turn around. We had fun moseying around the lodge and trails around the resort. We also captured some great Kodak moments.

Hannah and I at Sundance
Snuggling up to mommy.
There's my smiley girl.
Hannah and I with Lyndi and Samuel (Hannah's future husband) :-)
Lyndi and Samuel

The start of the trail to Stewart Falls.

Lyndi and Samuel on the bridge. I love how relaxed he is.

"Hi der, Amma"

I have been meaning to post this for a while, but as you can tell, I have neglected my blog for a few weeks.

Mid September was a busy week developmentally for little Hannah. She started crawling frequently on September 16th. On the 17th she let go of my mom's hand's and stood up on her own for about 15 seconds. And on the 21st she got her first tooth. What a big girl!

While Grandma Geri was here she also said her first sentence. Hannah started calling Grandma "Amma" on the 20th of last month. The first time she said it she was reaching for Grandma to pick her up and she said "Aaaaama". She also got used to Grandma sitting in the back seat with her while driving in the car. One time Grandma Geri got in the front seat and as soon as Hannah heard her voice up front she yelled "AAaaaaMAaaa!" And finally, there was the sentence. When Hannah woke up one morning Grandma popped in the door to say Hi. Hannah looked over at her Grandma Geri and said "Hi der, Amma".

Daddy has witnessed a lot more verbalization by Hannah lately too. One evening Jake was changing Hannah's diaper and I believe she handed the diaper to Jake and he said "Thank you", to which Hannah replied "Welhum", haha. She has also said "Tiiiga" while playing with her Tigger stuffed animal. And whenever she drops a toy off of the changing table Jake says "Uh oh Speghetti O's" So one time she dropped something and Jake said "Uh oh" and then Hannah chimed in "Skkeho". Too cute.

Fall Fun

(Just FYI, I started this post a week ago, hence the introduction about it just being October. I'm glad the date at the top vouches for me, even though I am now finally posting it on the 8th, ha)

Is it really October? Holy cow, could September have flown by any quicker? I'm pretty sure that's a no. Life has been pretty busy in the Pollard household. Ever since we started house sitting in August we've had a lot more family in town. Apparently the size of our abode was a deterrent to family for years :-) J/k. It is wonderful having a place big enough to accommodate anyone who wants to pay us a visit. And if you're wondering why I'm using so many "big" words, it could be because I spend most of my day talking to a 10 month old and I just want to make sure my vocabulary still works :-)

Anyways.... back to what we've been up to. A couple of weeks ago Jake's sister Aubrey and her family had a time share in Park City. They stayed up there most of the week and came down to Provo to watch the BYU V.S. Florida State game with us. While they were here my mama was staying with us to get her Hannah fix before heading back to Paradise :-) It is a good thing they were all with us because without them it probably would have been marked as one of the worst nights ever. That game was ridiculous, it is the game all BYU football fans are trying hard to forget about. The following day Aubrey and her fam invited us up to Park City to spend some time with them. We had a blast. Park City is so incredibly gorgeous this time of year. The mountains look like they have been painted with red's, golds, and greens by some master artist. It is breathtaking. I had never been on the Alpine Slides before and Jake was kind enough to watch the babies while the rest of us when down the slides.

Aub and her family had to head home early and offered us their timeshare for the last couple of days. How can anyone say no to that? So Jake took a day off from work and we stayed a couple of nights in Park City. It was so fun to just pack up and get a way for a little bit, even though we went only 45mins from home. Technically it was our first "vacation" with Hannah on our own. We did a lot of shopping at the outlets where all of us were able to find great deals on fall/winter clothes. (We timed that just perfectly because the temperature dropped 40 degrees the following day.) Did I mention that Hannah has grown out of most of her 12 month clothes? This little porker (and I mean that in the cutest most enduring way possible) is now wearing 18 month clothes, at 10 months. Hopefully she will fit into these clothes for a while. I LOVE to shop for her, so it has been fun to get a new wardrobe for her every couple of months....but it just isn't very economical :-)

Family picture. I know Jake's eyes are closed :-( But it's the only picture with the Alpine Slides in the background.

What can I say, my hubby can't open his eyes in the sun, but we still love him :-)

Jake with Hannah and our niece Katelyn.
Hannah snuggling Pooh Bear while rooting for Boise State. I know I know, her eyes are closed just like daddy. Like father like daughter.
I LOVE how it says Boise State on her cute bum.
Still BSU's #1 fan.

"Circle, Square, Triangle"

Hannnah surprised us yet again and for journal purposes I just have to write it down. She was playing with Grandma Geri and her new favorite toy (thanks to Mimi!) yesterday morning. This cool "Learn and Groove" table by Leap Frog has a section on it with a circle, triangle, and square that when pushed say which shape they are. Hannah pushed the circle and after it said circle she repeated "ciiirrcul". My mom immediately called me to come quick because Hannah just said circle. I didn't quite believe her and wanted to hear it for myself and sure enough, when she pushed the circle she said "ciiiirrcul". Soon after she shocked us with that she pushed the square and after hearing it she repeated "sqwaare". That took us back and little and we were quickly realizing what a miracle we were witnessing. But what finally knocked our socks off was when she pressed the triangle button, heard it, and immediately repeated "triiiii-ain-guul". How in the world does a 9 month old hear something with 3 syllables like triangle and repeat it without having a mouth to observe or any prodding or constant provocation? She is our little miracle, in every way possible. But she hasn't been a one hit wonder with her shapes. She frequently says circle and square while playing with the toy, although she only said triangle the once. Jake didn't quite believe us until he heard her say circle and square herself. We actually caught one of the times on video camera (which I will upload soon). In the video Grandma Geri actually points to the shapes without pushing the button and asks Hannah "What is this?" and without delay Hannah immediately responds "Ciircul sqwaare!" It is adorable. She is adorable.

She may be an early bloomer when it comes to vocalization but this little one was quite happy with just scooting around the past couple of months. Today however, she started crawling a lot more often! But if she is really excited about her destination she jumps on her belly and grunts and heaves her way over with her arms and feet. Just within the past couple of days she has also started standing up while holding various objects around the house and moving across the room holding on. This evening she stood up holding onto the TV stand and worked her way around the couch to the ottoman. Yesterday she also climbed up the 2 steps leading to the kitchen from the sunken living room. We are so proud of our little munchkin! She is learning new things every day.

9 Month Stats

Hannah had her 9 month check up today. She is one healthy and happy little girl. Here are her stats:

Height: 30 inches 97th%

Weight: 20 lbs 15 oz 75-90th%

Head: 47 cm 97th%

And lastly, here are a couple of fun pictures we took while out to dinner with my mom and brother. Hannah was extremely excited when these pictures were taken, and it was all because of some water in a straw.

"Hannah"

Last night Jake took Hannah over to a picture of her on the wall. Hannah smiled, pointed her cute little finger straight to her picture and said "Hannah" as clear as day without any prompting. Jake, Mimi, and I heard it, and we were completely awestruck. She amazes us everyday.

9 Months Old.....Really???

Hannah is just 3 months from 1 year. My baby is growing up so fast :-( Hannah continues to learn new things everyday and surprise us with her level of understanding and communication. She has such a sweet and caring personality. For the past month she has been giving out kisses either on her own, which is usually right when we need it, or upon our request. I will say "Can Mommy/daddy/her bear/the phone (if someone is on it) have a kiss?" And she then analyzes if she really wants to and usually leans forward and plants a juicy open mouth kiss on us/the object. Usually I say "thank you" when she kisses me and on a few different occasions she responds with "Dank oooo".

She know's what the hand gesture waving means because I was on the phone with her uncle David and he said "Hi Baby Hannah" and without being prompted by me she looked at the phone and waved to it. She is also queen of mimicking: There have been times where she has repeated us when we have said "Hi". If a loved one says "Bye Bye Hannah" she has been known to say "Buuuuu-I" and wave at the same time. One time I had a big yawn right after waking up in the morning and she looked at me and repeated the same loud noise, she cracks me up. She also sometimes say's "Aww Dun (All Done)" when she is done eating.

Hannah has quickly become a daddy's girl. It started a couple of Sunday's ago when she didn't want to go to mommy, she just wanted to be with daddy. Jake would try to hand to her to me and she would start fussing until I handed her back over to daddy. Sometimes Hannah will ask for daddy when he is not home. This is how the conversation goes: Hannah will say "Dada??" And I respond with "Dada's at work." And she responds with "Ohhhhh". Usually she asks me a couple of times in a row and always responds with "Ohhh" when I tell her daddy's at work.

Favorite Toys

• Balls
• Playskool ball popper where she hits this button and the balls pop up like popcorn.
• Her stuffed bear's

Favorite Activities

• Reading books (she can actually turn the pages and point to objects on the page)
• Standing up by herself with the support of the couch/ottoman
• Mommy and daddy helping her walk around
• Hide and Seek (Jake and I take turns running around the house while the other person helps Hannah to chase us down and find us, she laughs hysterically)
• Peek a boo (always a baby crowd pleaser)

Words

• Mama
• Dadda
• Ball
• Hi there ("Hi Der")
• Thank you ("Dank oo")
• Bye
• Hi
• Num Num (she say's this when she's hungry)
• All done ("Awww Dun")

New Skills

• Pointing
• Going from skooting on her belly to pushing herself back to sitting
• Standing up in her crib
• Rocks back and forth on her hand's and knees more frequently, she will be crawling any day now.

Favorite Food

• Nursing
• Turkey Rice
• Rice Puffs
• Baby Mum-mums
• Fruits
• Yogurt

Her 9 month check up is next week, so I will report on her stats then. As far as we can tell she is still just as tall as ever and weighs over 20lbs.

All smiles on her 9 month birthday.

Playing with her most recent favorite toy, the Playskool ball popper. Thanks Mimi!

I love that dress. Thanks Grandma Geri! :-)

Hannah's 1st Pigtails! She looks so grown up with them...so I'm thinking I won't be doing them too often :-)

The view from the back.

Wearing her Boise State cheerleading outfit that Aunt Aubrey got her last Christmas. It fits perfect! Thanks Aunt Aubrey!

Giving her bear some kisses.