Family and Brian Regan

A couple of weeks ago Jake's family drove up from Idaho so that we could all go to Brian Regan's live concert in Salt Lake City. Thursday night was the show and it was amazing. Brian Regan is hilarious. If you have never heard of him go here. This was our second time attending one of his live concerts and he did not disappoint. Within the first minute I was laughing so hard I was crying, and by 5 minutes my stomach was in pain from laughing so much.

I took this picture of Brian and the following videos with my cell phone. I don't know why but the video is sideways....if someone knows how to fix it please let me know.




We had a friend babysit Hannah and her 3 cousins while we all went to the show. It was hard to leave her but she did great for the sitter and we had a wonderful time. Jake's sister and her family stayed with us for a few days. It was fun watching all the children playing together. Hannah's cousin Macey just loves her to pieces. Macey even told her mom when they got home that she wants to come live with Gretchen. What a little sweetheart. It was so fun having family in town. And we can't wait for our trip to Disneyland with them in 6 weeks! Woooo hooo!

Katelyn and Hannah sharing a toy. Katelyn is 1 month older than Hannah.

An attempt to get a picture of all 4 kiddos before bed.


I used some hairspray and scrunched the back of Hannah's hair. It looked adorable.

Our happy girl.

15 Months Old!

My baby girl is over 15 months old. Where does the time go? Yesterday I took her to the pediatrician for her check up. After reviewing Hannah's stats the doctor said Hannah was the tallest 15 month old he has ever seen. I'm not sure what to think of that. I guess I should be happy that we have a future MVP basketball/volleyball player on our hands. We're just happy that she is happy and healthy and that her body is reaching its best and tallest potential :-) Here are her stats.

Height: 34 inches = 97th % (She is the average height of a 2 year old)
Weight: 25 lbs 9 oz = 75th-90th %
Head: 97th %

What she is up to:

New Words:

Her vocab skills are improving everyday. It seems like she says a new word each day. She now has a vocab of about 20 consistent words.

"Te-ooh" = Tigger and Pooh. She still loves to watch Tigger and Pooh.

"Bubba" = Buster. He is the little dog on Tigger and Pooh. Uncle David got her Buster for Christmas and she calls him Bubba.

"Cheese" = She loves to eat string cheese and I love hearing her say it when she wants it. She also says it when she is smiling for a picture.

"Baa Baaa" = Bye Bye. She says bye when someone leaves the house or when she is getting off the phone/skype.

"Juuu" = Juice. She loves juice. Apple, orange, mango-orange, V8 Splash...you give it to her, she will drink it.

"Nie Nie" = Night Night. She has the cutest way of saying goodnight. Whenever we ask her if she is ready for her nap or bedtime she will say "Niiiee Niiieee". It is adorable.

"Ticka Ticka" = Tickle Tickle. I tend to tickle her while I am changing her diaper and now when I stop doing it she puts her hands up on her chest and tickles her self saying "ticka ticka".

Sleeping:

For the past couple of weeks (*Knock on Wood*) Hannah has been sleeping through the night consistently. Most nights she will wake up once and fuss for a few minutes, but eventually she falls back asleep on her own. It is sooooooooo nice to finally not have to go to bed worrying about how the night is going to go.

She was taking two naps a day until just a couple of weeks ago. It was becoming such a task to try to put her down twice a day and often times she would just play in her crib for hours during her afternoon nap and never fall asleep. So I decided she was trying to tell me she was ready for one nap. After the switch she is doing fabulous.

Nursing:

Still nursing. Right after the post on her biting me she stopped. It was like she knew that I complained about it and didn't want me to take it away. She nurses 3 times a day and I love it.

Toys:

Daddy bought her a new favorite toy. It is a Little Tikes car. You know the cute red ones with the yellow roofs? She LOVES it. The day we got it she quickly figured out how to get in and out of it and loves to sit in it and wave out the window saying "Baaa Baaa!"

And that is our 15 month old in a nut shell. She is a happy girl and such an easy baby. She came to my tap performance this past weekend and behaved better than most adults in the audience. She just sat on her grandmas lap and watched and smiled and clapped while we were dancing. I loved looking out into the audience and seeing my girl enjoying the show. I already can tell she has a love for dance, and I am so happy I get to share that love with her. Thanks for entering our life and making our world a better place. I love you princess!!

Tap Company Performance

Here is the flyer for our upcoming performance.



Here is the press release for the performance.

Footwork: An Evening of Tap Dance

Rich sound and fascinating rhythm will ring out as Footwork: An Evening of Tap Dance takes the stage at the Post Theater on March 6th. Debby Robertson and members of SLCTap, along with Colleen West and the Foot Poetry Tap Dance Ensemble will perform on Saturday March 6th at 7:30 p.m. at the Post Theater at Fort Douglas on the University of Utah campus.

Robertson and West have shared producer duties before, in last year's RDT Sponsored "LINK" series event entitled Footwork: An Evening of Percussive Dance. Whereas that performance explored all genres of percussive dance, this will be the first ever to focus entirely on classic and contemporary tap dance. The stage at the Post Theater is especially appealing to tap dancers for its resonant wood floor, (unusual for dance performance spaces) allowing the intricate footwork to be clearly heard and fully appreciated.

Known for her technique and knowledge of classic tap, Robertson and her group will perform a 1930's vaudeville-era work, a classic soft-shoe routine by the famed "class act" duo of Honi Coles & Brenda Bufalino, as well as a complex a capella quartet. The Foot Poetry Ensemble will display their youthful exuberance and technical chops in a lively Latin piece choreographed by West, a witty disco-dance parody and a modern tap/hip-hop inspired piece.

Ouch

Personal post, continue with caution :-)

Hannah is just over 15 months old and I am still nursing her. Breastfeeding has been such a wonderful experience for me but lately it has not been so enjoyable. Every once in a while Hannah will have a day where she will bite me when I go to nurse her and continue to do so every time I offer it to her. She does have another tooth coming in so I know her gums are having a rough time but this biting thing needs to stop. Whenever I go to nurse her now I am hesitant with a finger ready to break her death grip of a bite. Any advice out there from you mother's who had/have babies who bite while nursing? I don't know what to do to discourage her because apparently my method isn't working. I'm so frustrated and I just wonder if maybe she is telling me she is ready to wean. Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Dancing Hannah

A couple of weeks ago Hannah started dancing every time we turned on Body Language by Jesse McCartney. Apparently it is her favorite song. The surprising thing about her dancing is that I never "taught" her how to dance. She just started doing it on her own. Originally her dancing included walking on beat in circles to the music, then she added bouncing and head nods, and finally some hand movements. We love turning on her song to see what she will do. I can't wait to enroll her in a dance class a couple of years from now. She will be unstoppable :-)

In this first video she starts bouncing at the beginning and at 28 seconds she really starts moving to the beat.

Hannah Dancing from Gretchen Pollard on Vimeo.

In this video she dances pretty much the entire time.

Hannah Dancing 2 from Gretchen Pollard on Vimeo.

In this last video Hannah thinks I am taking a picture so she smiles for the camera. She dances for the first 45 seconds of the video.

More Dancing from Gretchen Pollard on Vimeo.

Answered Prayers

My husband is not one to boast of his achievements, therefore I do his boasting for him :-) For those of you who read my blog, you know that Jake has been in the process of applying to medical school for the past 2 years. Well....to be precise this long road began 6 years ago because that is when he first decided he wanted to pursue medicine. He went to his academic advisor at BYU and told him his goal of becoming a doctor. His advisor, you know the one that is there to help you achieve your dreams, looked at his grades up to that point (I believe he was a sophomore) and told him that his GPA was not good enough.

Jake walked away from that meeting thinking medicine was out of the question and began looking into other options. He switched his focus to predental, then he decided to go into research and become a professor, and lastly he looked into being a pharmacist. Nothing felt right. And finally he decided that doing anything else would feel like settling for something that he just didn't want to be.

He applied to medical school last year for Fall of 2009. The only school he applied to was the University of Washington. He applied late and didn't even get an interview. I was discouraged but Jake was optimistic that if he sent in his application earlier that he would get an interview. So we waited another year and he applied again. This year he has been invited to interview at 7 schools. He interviewed at 6 of them and just recently turned down the 7th. He turned down an interview because today his aspiration became a reality.

He interviewed at the University of Washington a week ago. They only select 20 Idaho residents into their school of medicine. Today they accepted their top 4/5 applicants. Jake was one of them. I am so proud of him. It has been a long road full of many prayers and dissapointments, but today he is one step closer to achieving his goal. We feel so blessed. Medical school will of course be a challenge, but I have no doubt in my mind that he will rise to the occasion just like he always has. Thank you Mr. Mean Hearted College Advisor for possibly giving my husband the push he needed in the right direction by telling him he couldn't do something. Because guess what dude, he did it.

Tap Company Performance

The Tap company I am on (Foot Poetry Tap Dance Ensemble) is performing at the Covey Center for the Arts in Provo this Saturday, January 9th. There is a matinee show at 2pm and an evening performance at 7pm. We are performing with a variety of teams featuring many forms of percussive dance. The other companies we are performing with are the Rocky Mountain Express Cloggers, Extreme Rhythm Cloggers, High Performance Studios, and the Shelley School of Irish Dance. Ticket's are $10 and went on sale January 1st and are going fast. You can call the ticket office at 801-852-7007 or you can go here to order tickets online. It is going to be an amazing show. I hope all of you friends in the area are able to come!