8 Months Old

Anna turned 8 months old this past weekend. Where is the time going? She is growing so fast and it is so much fun, but (as I've mentioned before) part of me feels sad that the baby stage goes by so quickly. I LOVE the stage she is now--still my snuggly baby, but starting to show some signs of independence too. I love watching her interact with other people, especially Catherine and Will. I love seeing her expressions when she sees or hears something for the first time. I love her baby babbles. And oh my, her smiles still melt my heart every day. I am so thankful for this sweet baby girl.

In the past month, Anna has learned to crawl, now has 3 bottom teeth, sometimes sleeps all night but usually gets up once around 4 or 5 am to eat, sucks her fingers almost all day and night, has eaten some of Eli's dog food and loves to eat baby food, sits in the big bathtub all by herself (with very little water in it), and loves to pull hair (especially Will's when he tries to love on her while she's nursing).

She is a pretty easy going baby for the most part, although her separation anxiety can make her less easy-going for people other than mommy. As long as she's with me, she's happy (most of the time). For example, today I had a dentist appointment. Catherine and Will were at preschool, and I took Anna with me. She sat on my lap the entire time I had my teeth cleaned and saw the dentist while she ate cheerios, one by one. She never fussed and or even tried to squirm away--which I think is unusual for a baby who has recently learned to crawl and wants to explore everything. I'm not saying she's always peachy perfect--she did literally scream and cry and refuse to be put down for 2 or 3 straight days last week (teething pains and a fever were the culprit), but on the whole she is such a lovable baby.
We're excited to celebrate your first Christmas with you, Anna! (Although according to Catherine, it's her 2nd Christmas. She just couldn't see what was going on last year because she was still inside.)

I Love Her!

My friend Jill came over the day after Catherine's surgery to bring us dinner and entertainment (it's never dull when we're all together). We sat Charlie (who is 5 weeks younger than Anna) and Anna in the kitchen while we were getting dinner together and snapped these pics of them.

I think this one is hilarious! He's definitely checking her out.

"Man, she is beautiful. I think I love her!"

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving has always been one of our favorite holidays, especially Jay's. It's a little more laid-back and relaxed (if you can avoid the Christmas season being pushed into Thanksgiving) and usually gives us a chance to enjoy fun times with our family.

This year we went to the beach with Jay's parents from Weds until Sunday. We usually try to make it to my family's on Thanksgiving Day and then head down to the beach with his parents for the rest of the weekend, but this year we just felt a little too drained to drag all 3 kids around that much.

This was the first year we had been at Wild Dunes for Thanksgiving Day and we got to go to their annual Thanksgiving parade. It's started by the firetruck (Will was so excited that he wore his fireman costume and the fireman waved right to him!). Then everyone decorates golf carts and bicycles to ride in the parade. They also throw out candy to the kids. Some of the golf carts were quite elaborate, like this turkey. Our other favorites were Prince William's Royal Wedding, the Griswold's, and a couple's 50th wedding anniversary. We all had lots of fun seeing everyone's creativity. Maybe if we're there for Thanksgiving Day another year we'll decorate our own. (And for the record, it was a warm 76+ degrees on Thanksgiving Day. We should have taken our bathing suits and beach toys.)

On Friday it cooled down and rained some that afternoon, so Catherine and Will put one of her birthday presents to use--an umbrella that you color and decorate the pictures. Her birthday is in 2 weeks, but since Jay's parents can't be here then we celebrated her birthday with them this weekend.
On Friday evening, Wild Dunes kicked off their Christmas season with a tree lighting and kids activities. Our favorite was the huge gingerbread house that the kids could decorate. They gave them cups of icing to stick various candies onto the house and they had so much fun. Will kept wanting to just lick the icing, of course, and would turn around to see if we were watching him. Then he'd just give us this sneaky little smile :)
The 3 kiddos love hanging out and having extra attention from mommy, daddy, Mimi, and PopPop. When the adults out-number the kids, we usually can keep everyone pretty happy!
And since I forgot to post it before we left town, Catherine's class had a Thanksgiving feast last Monday. They all dressed up like Indians and sang us a few songs and even had a special blessing. Their teachers had given each of them special Indian names that they thought fit their personalities. Some of them were Setting Sun, Brave Bear, Peaceful Lily, Mighty Turtle. Catherine's name was Great Spirit, which I think fits her perfectly. She does have such a sweet sweet spirit and seems to think of spiritual issues more than most four or five year olds. For example, she came home from school the other day and told me they sang "Give Thanks with a Grateful Heart" and while they were singing it she was thinking about meeting God and him introducing her to all the people in heaven. She said she kept seeing what that would look like in her head. I love her Great Spirit!
We have so many things to be thankful for--too many to list. But I am so thankful for Jay and his tender and loving care of all of us, for each of our children and how their personalities fit together so well in our family, and for God's merciful love to me. We hope you had a great Thanksgiving celebration too.

So Brave!

This morning Catherine had surgery to repair the 2 hernias in and around her belly button. These have been there since birth and we kept waiting to see if they would ever heal on their own, but they didn't. So we finally went ahead and had them fixed today. She was so brave and courageous! She even said yesterday that she was thankful about getting her belly button fixed when we were listing our Thanksgiving Thankfuls.

Here's our brave girl in the pre-op room. She was so thoughtful that she cut out some Fancy Nancy pictures to take the doctors and nurses.

Off she goes! What a way to ride into the surgery room. She was waving to people like it was a parade.
All done and in the recovery room. Catherine didn't want to ever leave, and who could blame her? They give you popsicles and Mommy holds you and you gets lots of attention. We finally had to convince her that it was time to go home.
She's been watching movies and eating a lollipop on the couch. She has been a little scared to move because she thinks it will hurt, but we have finally convinced her to get up and start walking around some. Overall she has done great! We're so proud of her.

Good Night, Sleep Tight

Busy Days of Fall

Fall is in full swing at our house, with busy days of playing, cleaning, preschool, errands, church, playdates, and lots of laughter, crying, tantrums, and fun! Here are a few random pics to share:

The preferred method of transportation at our these days is Will's new front-loader that he got for his birthday. He and Catherine love to scoop up dirt and leaves and ride all through the millions of acorns that are in our driveway. (and please notice that Will is of course wearing shorts, t-shirts, and sandals. I cannot convince our children to wear pants or long sleeves unless it's below 40 degrees.)

Catherine finished her dance class for the fall. They had a day when the parents could come watch. It's always fun to see that beautiful little girls and their ballerina dance moves. Catherine's social calendar is in full swing with playdates, birthday parties, dance, choir, and preschool. She also spent 5 days at Mimi and PopPop's all by herself. When she came back home she seemed so grown up. I can't believe she's almost 5 and so independent. My eyes sometimes still get teary just from dropping her off in the car line at school and watching her walk inside by herself.
Anna is also on the move. She started crawling a few days ago! Sometimes she forgets that she knows how and will just sit there (which I like) and she gets frustrated if she tries to crawl a long distance, but it's all starting to click. Catherine asked when they would need to watch out so that Anna wouldn't get into all their stuff. Soon...very soon. And with three teeth now (all on bottom) she could chew up lots of toys.
Ahh, the perils of preschool. While putting on Will's pjs last night I found this on his back. I asked him what happened and he said another little boy bit him on the playground when Will tried to play with his car. He had a pretty good bite! I guess it's not that much different than the hitting and kicking I had disciplined Will for earlier in the day though. And oh yes, I almost forgot. His name isn't Will anymore either. It's Rob, after the fireman in a book we checked out the library weeks ago. Will wanted us to call him Rob one day so we did. It has now been weeks and he's still insisting that we call him Rob. He cries and yells if we call him Will. Even his teachers at school call him Rob now. He did finally negotiate a little bit the other day and tell me I could call him Mr. Hatten. Gotta love that 3 yr old determination.
Okay, this one is totally random, but I like it. My car had 111,111 miles on it. You people know I have weird things with numbers and even though these are odd numbers I still like it. Keep on hanging in there Pilot, so that I can keep resisting the minivan!

27 Hours Away

Jay and I got 27 hours away together this past weekend, from Friday at 10am until Saturday at 1pm. Yes, I counted the hours. The time for just the two of us to be together seems so precious and rare these days that I wanted to enjoy every minute. For our time "away" we went to downtown Greenville. We hardly ever get to enjoy all the fun things in our own city and we didn't want to be too far away in case things went downhill quickly with the kids :) (And for the record, yes Anna refused to drink her bottle for the entire 27 hours. But she survived.)

Jay scheduled a couples massage for us on Friday morning and then we ate at Jamaica Twist for lunch. We stayed at the new Courtyard Marriott (gotta love Marriott points) and they let us check in early at 1pm, so we were able to enjoy a long 2 hour nap on Friday afternoon. We ate at Rick Erwin's for dinner that night and enjoyed walking downtown and browsing through art galleries. After sleeping all night (no one woke us up to eat or fix blankets or go to the bathroom!!!) we enjoyed brunch at Mary's Restaurant at Falls Cottage. It was a beautiful fall morning and we loved sitting outside overlooking the park. We enjoyed some time just strolling through the park and then went back to the hotel to watch football before our late check-out at 1pm. We had a great time together. I really love spending time with Jay. He's my favorite person in the whole world. I'm so glad I'm his wife.

Our time together seems to be captured by one of our new favorite songs "Dancing in the Minefields" by Andrew Peterson. Part of the lyrics:

"I do" are the two most famous last words

The beginning of the end

But to lose your life for another I've heard

Is a good place to begin

'Cause the only way to find your life

Is to lay your own life down

And I believe it's an easy price

For the life that we have found

And we're dancing in the minefields

We're sailing in the storms

This is harder than we dreamed

But I believe that's what the promise is for

'Cause we bear the light of the Son of Man

So there's noting left to fear

So I'll walk with you in the shadowlands

Til the shadows disappear

'Cause he promised not to leave us

And his promises are true

So in the face of all this chaos, baby

I can dance with you

And we're dancing in the minefields

We're sailing in the storms

This is harder than we dreamed

But I believe that's what the promise is for