The Kello Show

Hannah is gettin SO big. She's a little over six months now and growing up so much.  She has two teeth now. The front bottom left she got on December 27th.  The front bottom right joined in two days later.  Everyone has been insisting that she's teething for three months.  She got some seriously rosy cheeks in the days leading up to cutting them, so maybe that's our tooth hint.  So far I haven't been able to get a picture of the elusive teeth, but boy howdy do we know they're there.  Ouch!



After our six-month doctor appointment, we started Hannah on solids on Monday. She loves rice cereal. Our little miss (or mess) is a darn good eater.  Right now she only eats in the evening, but we might add a breakfast feeding soon.  So proud of her!


Hannah sits up like a champ.  She can lean all the way over from a sitting position and put her head to her toes and pull her self right back up without wobbling or falling over.  She's also decided she likes to stand, although that typically means she holds on to something and we have loose hands around her middle.  I can't stand how big she's getting. 

She's also getting more hair all the time.  It's pretty blond, with some red to it. She still loves her bath time -- she alternates between kicking and sucking on her toes. 


What total joy our little girl has brought to our lives already, and it's only been six months. 

I know, I know, I haven't posted in a very long time. You see, we went out of town for two weeks at Christmas, and then actually had to get back to the grindstone once we were back. I'll work on getting pics from the trip up soon.

This post is more about a little something I'm thinking about doing. It's called Slow Readers Book Club.  Now, I'm not a slow reader (thanks mom for those speed reading classes I took in jr. high, they seriously worked), but this is more about not having lots of time to read.  Oh, I so feel that one.  Anyway, it's the brainchild of our.city.lights. I sort of like the idea that I could read and discuss a book online (no need to feel the pressure to host the book club yourself and spend hours making hors d'ouvres). I found out about it from one of the mommy blogs I like to read, For What it's Worth. How I originally found her blog, I will never know.  I tend to follow a long spiral of mommy blogs so that I end up reading about lots of other moms.

Lovely light streaming into Hannah's room made for some good picture taking time.  Here she is, in all her drool-covered glory.

Hannah got the perfect onsie as a baby gift from Rachel. It's from Powell's and it says, "Book Monster." We love it and we're so glad she's finally grown into it. 

For those of you who don't know what Powell's is, it's pretty much the most awesomest book store ever. It's in downtown Portland. Kell and I hate going into P-town, but when we do, we like to make a Powell's stop. It's glorious.  Now, if only we could go in without all those whacky Portlanders. 

Please note, our little miss is pretty much sitting up on her own here.  She does fall backward sometimes, but she's really getting the hang of it.

We had a lovely Thanksgiving with our dear friends. It was a nice, relaxing, yummy day -- perfect! We ate a ton, watched some Thanksgiving episodes of our favorite shows ("Slapsgiving" from How I Met your Mother was a fav!), and played some serious Cranium.   Good times.


And now for something completely different...

Our girl is five months old. This has been a very interesting phase for us. I almost think it has been as difficult as the newborn phase.  Hannah is growing like crazy, and that means eating like crazy, and that means waking up a bunch during the night.  She was eating so much I couldn't keep up, so we made the VERY difficult decision to add one bottle of formula in before bed.  It was really hard for me to decide to do that, but it helped some...at first.  Now, we're still getting up twice/night.  Boo! We were doing so well before.  I know she'll outgrow it though. 

People still say she looks like Kelly, but Kelly says she looks like me.  The other day, Hannah was giving me this look like, "mom, I'm so bored with you" and she looked just like my sister Anne.  Kell says he sees his brother Jamie sometimes too. Who do you guys think she looks like?

In other H news, she is getting so good at rolling over.  It's a little too good. I don't want her mobile too soon.  She is seriously working on the trying to crawl thing.  She scoots her little legs under her, but can't get up on all fours. Those attempts usually result in a face plant. It's OK though because she doesn't have far to go.

We still can take a walk almost every day.  The rain usually lets up long enough for a short one at least. I'm sort of dreading snow -- if its anything like last year -- because we really love our walks, and I'm not snow suiting up a baby to take in four foot snow banks. She still fits in the Bjorn OK, but it's starting to get a bit heavy for this out-of-shape momma.

Hannah and Bella have really started bonding.  Hannah reaches out to Bella and Bella will come lay next to Hannah when she's on the floor or in her Bumbo.  Bella is so good with her. She lets her tug on her ears and pull her hair. Hannah tries to kiss Bella, which involves an open mouth and a lot of fur - yuck!  Bella returns the kisses, licking on Hannah's feet.  She's such a sweet dog! It's only a matter of time before they are best buds.


Hannah is really getting into her toys now too, doing a lot of reaching and hollering if the toy is out of reach.  She really likes the soft toys that she can stick in her mouth and bite down on.  Bella likes the ones with squeakers -- she ate Hannah's rubber duck when someone (me) forgot to pull it out of the tub after bath time.  Speaking of baths... Hannah still LOVES them.  I mean, she really, really loves them.  She kicks like crazy, splashing all over the place, cooing and hollering the whole time.  She gets that from momma.

Five months old! The time has gone way too fast. 

Hannah just keeps getting better. Who knew it was possible?

What's our little 4-month old up to?

1. Hannah has left rolling behind for a bit while she focuses in her vocalizations. This is the really fun stuff for her linguist momma.  She has all her vowels except the high front (think "cheese").  She has /g/, /d/, /m/, and /h/.  This is pretty spot on for typical order of development.  Kell says she's been saying "momma" for a long time. I think it's more like a fussy whine, but if "momma" is her first "word," who am I to argue?

2. Hannah has also taken to squealing with glee. The first time, it surprised her, but then she decided she loves it! And loves it. And loves it.  It can be a bit alarming sometimes.

3. Hannah still fits in some 3 month clothes (Circo is so much bigger than Carters).  With cold weather coming in, we're going to have to stock up on some warm stuff.

4. Hannah is getting better at comforting herself in the middle of the night. She's really into the babbling brook on her Sleep Sheep right now (thanks Aunt Jackie). I think it drowns out rude neighbor noises (we love diesel trucks that rev their engines!). She will suck on her hand and go back to sleep unless she's really hungry. She eats about every 4 hours during the night, so we still get up a couple of times.

5. Hannah has been playing in her Bounce, Bounce Baby exersaucer. She really digs it.  (Thanks to the Ballengers for lending it to us!)

6. Hannah has been working on her application to Drooliard.  We think she's got it nailed.