Hannah - 17 month summary

Mmmm ... warm chocolate chip cookie!

Hannah continues to understand and follow simple directions. She has also started to point to body parts when asked. The ones I've seen her do consistently are nose, mouth, and toes. I think of her as younger than she is because she is not walking, but I forget that her cognitive development is right on track.

Hannah has added a couple of recognizable words (to Peter and I) this month. One is 'giraffe' (her favourite stuffed animal), 'doggie', and 'soo-soo' for soother. I can't remember off the top of my head if there are any more. She gets frustrated when she can't communicate what she wants. An example of this is when Mom and Dad were here earlier this month they gave her orange juice with her breakfast. Well, she doesn't like juice but couldn't quite communicate that. She was cranky all through breakfast until we managed to figure it out. Then she was happy as a clam. I'm hoping that her volatile moods will calm a bit once she is able to get around better and communicate her wants.

Hannah still has her soother. I'm still not happy about it, but there are other changes that need to happen before I can work on it. Within the next week we will be moving Hannah into Nathan's room. It should be interesting, to say the least. Since she is still not very old we will just put a crib mattress on the floor in his room for her to sleep on. If that doesn't work she will have to use the pack 'n play. I'm cutting this transition very close with the baby's due date less than 6 weeks away, but time sort of slipped away from us!

Hannah has made strides toward pulling herself up this month - finally. Even after Nathan was walking he couldn't really get himself to standing very easily for a few months. I think Hannah is going to be the opposite - I think she is going to learn to stand and then cruise, then walk (like most children, I think). Hopefully this will mean less walking around with her holding our hands - that is tiring at 8 months pregnant!

Hannah is definitely down to one nap now. Some days are longer than others - anywhere from 90 minutes to 3 1/2 hours. Her bedtime has moved a bit earlier as well. She is usually in bed and asleep before 7 now.

Hannah got more teeth this month. I think she is up to 11. She loves meat, unlike her brother, and the extra teeth are really helping her chew.

I almost forgot to add that Hannah is finally doing independent playtime consistently!! She is still in the crib (which is going to be tricky when we move her to Nathan's room), but she will do 45 minutes relatively happy. Hopefully when we move to Nathan's room she will play in there happily and Nathan can play downstairs ... if I can get it cleaned up enough. Ugh.

I think that's it for this month. Other than the room transition we won't be too ambitious with teaching skills until after the baby is here.