New arrivals and general update

Wow! It has been waaayyyy too long since I last updated!  We have had many new happenings in the Forsha house, one of which being the birth of our identical twin girls, Madison Eve & MorganJean, on July 3, 2009.  Hannah is a very proud big sister and likes to give them hugs and kisses, which the tolerate.  She also tries to help feed them, but that does not go over quite as well.

Hannah is now 20 months old and is doing great.  She recently developed a love for Elmo, so we have been acquiring some DVDs that she would love to watch all day long if only mean mom would let her. She loves to sing and dance and just be crazy in general.  We are recognizing tunes that she sings, just not all the words yet, but she gets better every day.  On a trip to MN, she developed a love for the DVD player in the van, so now we think we have to watch it any time we get in the car.  But, since she is now relegated to the very back, I usually let her as it keeps her occupied and not stirring up her sisters. I think potty training is on our horizon as she asked to sit on the toilet yesterday, so I bought a potty chair today.  This is one of the things about parenting that I have been dreading.

The twins are now almost 11 weeks old and are doing great!  Just today Morgan was cooing at me and both smile very easily in response to being smiled at or talked to.  Unfortunately our camera is currently being fixed, so we have not caught a picture of them doing that just yet.

15 months old and Easter

Hannah turned 15 months old 3 days ago, wow does time go fast!  She is a walking, running, starting to talk, little ball of energy.  Her favorite activity seems to be emptying out all of her toy bins for the fun of it and then going on to something else, like opening all the drawers that contain my table linens and emptying that out as well 🙂  She is a very active little girl full of curiosity and energy.  She does sit occasionally and read herself her books.  She is starting to say more words: all done, don’t, stop, no, ball, kitty, dada, and Shadow with regularity.  She is also starting to learn her body parts and animal sounds.

At the moment she is cutting all four canines.  As she already has her 1st year molars, once these are cut, we should be done for a little while, thankfully!  It does not actually seem to bother her too much, she just seems to want more lap time than usual.  With my expanding stomach, sometimes we have a little bit of a hard time getting comfortable!

Hannah also moved to a new room recently!  As she is going to be a big sister to two little girls in a few short months, we needed the larger room to accommodate 2 cribs, she moved down the hall to the room right next to ours.  We redecorated and she officially has a little girl’s room decorated with butterflies, flowers, and bugs along with a few pictures.  She took to her new room with no problems at all and now runs in there when she is upstairs and likes to go through her drawers to look at all of her clothes!

She has definitely enjoyed the warmer weather and going to play outside.   We bought and installed a gate for the deck so we can just open the back door and let her play out on the deck without having to worry that she will run around the house and into the street if we turn around for a minute!  Thankfully, it was a nice weekend over Easter as we had Thom’s parents, the Noths, and his great grandparents and Aunt over for the weekend.  Sage and Hannah had a lot of fun together and it was fun to hear the jabber away at each other 🙂  We did an Easter egg hunt, which they both enjoyed.

Winter

Winter is passing very quickly this year.  However, Andy may dispute that opinion!!  He is beginning a work schedule of 4 ten hour days this week.  Although that is very appealing in summer, I think he is still a little worried about the weather still to come (and the thought of ten hours out in it).  It does mean that he will have Fridays off to hang out with the girls (me, Sage and Parker). 

 We’ve been blessed by having daily play dates for Sage.  Parker’s mom, Rene, had to start her student teaching recently, so we get to play with Parker every day.  Sage is in heaven (well, most of the time!!)  They actually play remarkably well together for their ages.  Sage loves to give Parker hugs, and almost picks her up off the floor.  They nap in the same room and I know they are awake when I hear them both giggling furiously and jumping in their beds!  Parker has had the rotovirus, but she is still always ready with a smile.  What a sport!!  We’re looking forward to when the weather is a little warmer and we can all get outside to play.  

 We were able to open up the windows and get out of the house a little this weekend.  It was mid-30s and we were loving it.  Sage went for a run around the block.  She really can move.   We just recently got her a backpack/child harness.  It’s really cute.  They make the harness look like a plush puppy dog…that way you don’t feel so guilty putting it on your child.  Hopefully it also helps other people be less judgemental about having it on your kid…because I think it is going to be a standard part of Sage’s wardrobe this spring and summer! 

 We also went for a hike in the woods.  Andy carried Sage, and she just hung on to her ball and loved the ride.  Sage’s new favorite toy is a foam football.  She carries it around like it is gold!  She’s gotten pretty adept at throwing and kicking it.  We’re pretty sure she has her father’s coordination…thank goodness! 

 Also new to Sage’s world is climbing.  We’re talking rock climbing here!  She scales anything she can find.  So now the chairs are all pulled away from tables (unless you want her playing on top of it).  We bolted her bookshelf to the wall.  It all started innocently enough with Sage just trying to get up on the couch.  Now she will attempt anything!!  Andy just said yesterday there is no longer a safe place in the house.  That followed an incident when she somehow got a knife off the back of the counter!  Another episode that illustrates this is when she got into a candle this week.
I lit the candle while Sage was taking a nap because the house was stale.  It was on a table, but I thought it was far enough back.  When Sage got up from her nap she went right for it and managed to pull it down before I ever had a chance to get there.  Luckily, she didn’t burn herself!  Unluckily, she ended up with wax all through her hair.  I knew she wasn’t hurt when she was trying to eat the wax…that orange flavor sure is convincing!  She spent some time in the tub and then used some olive oil to get it all out.  That, however, led to the problem of getting the olive oil out.  Several washes, and some dishsoap later, she was good as new! 

 Sage definitely has qualities that will serve her well in her future.  She is determined, focused and adventurous.   However,  I think that it will lead to many, many more stories!

Make sure you click on the photo or go to http://noths.shutterfly.com/ to check out all our recent photos.

Nearing the 1 year mark

Hard to believe that almost 1 entire year has passed since Hannah entered our lives! What a year it has been! Our little bundle of energy is into everything and has curiosity without end. I am told this is exactly what her daddy was like at her age, so I guess she comes by it honestly!

We have been very busy and hardly at home since the start of the holiday season.  We started the season by traveling to Green Bay via Ladysmith and Hannah and I stayed by Thom’s parents for 2 weeks.  Thom was coming back to the area the first weekend in December to attend a Packers game with a coworker and to attend some meetings, so we decided it made more sense if I just stayed in Green Bay for the additional week. Although several people (myself included) were stricken with the fly the week of Thanksgiving, we had a very good time and got to spend some time with Andy Noth’s family. H and Sage seemed to enjoy each other’s company a little bit more this time and actually had a couple of good natured wrestling matches!  H also got her first taste of playing out in the snow.

H and I drove home with Thom and then spent a very short 11 days at home before we started our journey to Minnesota for Christmas.  We now take 2 days to do this trip with a hotel stay.  The trip was pretty easy. Having a DVD player in the van was definitely a wise choice as Hannah seemed to enjoy having a diversion from time to time. She traveled really well and we were very lucky! We did run into some blowing snow on the highway, but the roads were fine so it was a little slow going, but we still made it in good time. 

H’s major firsts this post are that she learned to walk on the first of December while at Grandma Linda’s house. Unfortunately, daddy missed this, but he saw it a few days later when she was still pretty wobbly! She is working on her molars, and one is starting to cut.  She is also being switched over to milk and seems to really like it, so that was not too hard 🙂

We stayed a week at my parents at Christmas and Hannah got to play with Kayla and Raegan a lot, which was enjoyed immensely by all three! Hannah go a lot of gifts for Christmas, someone must think she was a good girl this year!! While at my parents, we also held a small, early first birthday party for Hannah and a 2nd bday party for Raegan so that we could celebrate with family that will not be able to make it to Hannah’s party at home.  As you can see from the photo, she definitely likes cake. 

Hannah would like to end this post by announcing that she is going to be a big sister to twins next summer!

She is also starting to talk and has a few very understandable words, kitty and daddy.  She also nods and say yeah, but that is a little too common of an occurrence to say she knows that she is saying :). There are a few that sound suspiciously like thank you, mommy, and all done.

Will Scoot for Pretties

I know, everybody told me Elizabeth would be a confirmed tomboy.  And she may yet decide she’s into baseball and Chuck Norris movies.  But I’m keeping these pictures handy just to prove she’s all girl, at least right now!

She’s SOOOO close to crawling, but she hasn’t quite figured out how to get that front knee out of the way.  But for now, she can get to everything she wants by scooting!

10 months old

I can’t believe that Hannah is 10 months old today. She is a very busy little lady who makes us laugh and want to tear our hair out! She is finally taking some decent naps, her afternoon nap now can last 2 to 3 hours, instead of several 40 minute naps throughout the day. I guess all that crawling, screeching, pulling herself up, digging in cupboards, harassing the cats,  walking around furniture (or with it, if it happens to move), going up and down steps, and walking with one or two handed assistance wears her out. She now has 8 teeth.

She is now almost exclusively on table food. She will eat baby food every once in a while, but not often enough that I will be keeping a large supply on hand.  We really have yet to find anything she will not eat. She love ham and ground beef and pretty much any fruit or veggie. She even likes pickles. Can’t argue with that, I just hope it stays that way!

We are just starting to get some cooler weather down here and it actually feels like fall. Hannah took her first wheelbarrow ride with daddy, and seemed to like it, although not for very long. She does like the leaves, but we just had rain after they fell, so no leaf pile pictures this year 😦 

We were able to go to Florida for a long weekend earlier this month.  We were in the Ft. Lauderdale area and enjoyed a few days of sunny, 80 degree weather.  Hannah had fun swimming. We are not sure how she felt about the beach. The first evening, we went down to the beach and she was trying to crawl into the surf, and the next day, she hated it. This is why we got a hotel with a pool, that she thoroughly enjoyed, as well as hallways and atriums with a really good echo! While in Florida we went to a Butterfly garden that had some birds as well. She was pretty fascinated, but none landed on her. 

We will be having a VERY busy holiday season this year as we are driving to Green Bay for Thanksgiving and Minnesota for Christmas!  We leave this friday for Wisconsin as we are stopping at the Noth’s first as I have yet to see their house! Then we will be heading to Green Bay to Thom’s parents for the Thanksgiving.  Thom will be heading home the sunday after, but as he is returning with a coworker for a Packers game the next weekend, I and Hannah are going to stay at Grandpa and Grandma’s for another week! We are excited as we will also be spending Thanksgiving with Andy’s family as well as Thom’s grandpa and grandma Forsha and then Uncle Scott and Denise on the day after!

We are home for less than two weeks before we then head to Minnesota for Christmas with my family! We are very excited to see Kayla and Raegan again!! On both trips, we will be stopping for the night at some point and taking along plenty of DVD’s and put the system in our van to work! Unbelievably, not long after Christmas will be Hannah’s first birthday!! 

Well, that is what our household is doing.  We are pretty sure Hannah will be walking very shortly, while we were in Florida, she started standing on her own for a few seconds and has done it several times, for longer periods, since.

Fall Happenings

It has been a busy week, and month! Hannah is now fully recovered from her bout with croup.  She is still just a little hoarse, but that is coming back, so soon the screeching will once again start 🙂 

This past week, Hannah also had her grandparents from Minnesota (my parents) visit for the week.  While they were here, we went pumpkin picking at Huber’s farm. We had our choice of pumpkins, and Hannah seemed to enjoy the fresh air. We also took her Halloween picture while the weather was still warm.  As you can see, she was will be a very cute ladybug! All of this was done on the day she turned 9 months old! She also cut her seventh tooth.

It was a very busy week! On other fronts, she has been enjoying going to Mother’s Day Out 2 mornings a week. I just laugh when they comment on how busy she is! She is constantly in motion and her newest delight is to chase and catch the cats. They are not as thrilled with this game as she is, but I figure they can easily get away.

Hannah, as of last week, decided she no longer likes baby food. She much prefers to feed herself from food from my or Thom’s plate.  We are finding she is not too picky about what she eats. She still likes the baby food fruit and desserts, but not the meals.  I did find she will eat the gerber graduates as well, which will come in handy when we are eating something she cannot.

As busy as she keeps us, we enjoy every minute! She is a happy, healthy, 9 month old.

Hannah’s first ER trip

Well, we got through 8 months and 3 weeks with no colds, flu or even a sniffle. But, that run has ended. Last night Hannah went to the ER with a fever. We found out when we got there that her fever was at 103.4 and that she has croup! She was given a steroid shot at the hospital as is doing much better today and her fever is gone. But, she also had the start of an ear infection, so she is on an antibiotic for that.

Fall

Sage at 11 months

It’s been a busy, fun summer. Last week we finally started to feel the fall air sweep into our area. We’ve started firing up the woodstove in the evenings. I can’t deny that the smell is great and so comforting, but behind it is the knowledge that winter is quickly coming. We went out to the Blue Hills this weekend for a hike and we also snapped Sage’s 11 month photo. The trip included a rock scramble to get to the overlook. I almost had a heart attack watching Andy scramble to the top with Sage on his shoulders. But surefooted Andrew made it up and down without the least bit of drama…even with Sage in tow. I, on the other hand, looked like quite the spectacle. I should have been fearing for myself, I think. It was a great view, however, and brought up back to the days on the trail in norther PA.

11 months old. Unbelievable. Also the fact that Sage is walking. Unbelievable. Last week, Monday, she started off on her own. At first she couldn’t keep up with the momentum of her feet and was falling directly on her face. By Wednesday she would fall on her tush after 4-5 steps. By Friday she could stop her momentum and drop meaningfully to her knees. Now she is walking across the room and arriving exactly where she intends. It is amazing the difference that a week makes.

Another big hurdle is that she is saying a couple distinguishable words. Mommy, daddy and kitty are all pretty clear at this point. Well, perhaps not clear to the untrained ear, but we can distinguish them pretty well. She chatters to herself pretty much all day, so we know all those stored words are going to start popping out in the next couple of months.

Sage and Hannah at wedding

We’ve recently enjoyed a quick trip to Ohio for my cousin’s wedding. Along the way Andy stopped at a specialty archery shop and got his bow all set up. He has since been practicing and in ready to get out and bring some meat home to fill our freezer. The garden was officially closed this week. It was a great year and we didn’t get frost until October…unheard of. We estimate that we grew about 250-300 pounds of tomatoes this summer. We still have 60 pounds ripening in our kitchen. We were also successful with peppers, beans, cantaloupe. It was a fun season, but we are certainly ready for a break. We picked the pears this evening and they are the last thing we have to do (other than those 60 lb of tomatoes).

We’re looking forward to a slightly less hectic fall and are anxiously anticipating our anniversary, Halloween, Sage’s first tea party, Amy’s 30th, deer hunting, Thanksgiving and Sage’s 1st birthday party. Did I say less hectic? But all these things remind us why fall is our favorite season. We’ve posted some new photos on our shutterfly page. Be sure to check it out. http://noths.shutterfly.com/ or click on any of the photos to get there.

8 Months Old & Vacation #2

It is so hard to believe that 8 months have already passed since we brought our little bundle of energy and personality home! But, it has and we definitely have a little bundle of energy and personality in our home 🙂 

Hannah is at the moment sitting on the floor next to my desk screeching to her little heart’s content. She has made many new discoveries in the past month, the main one being pulling herself up on anyone and anything she can find. She is also babbling a lot more this week, which actually makes it easier to find when she is exploring the house.

She is also starting to open and look in cupboards and drawers, so I think it is time to do some baby-proofing! This week she has also cut her fourth tooth, so she now has a total of 4! She cut her third tooth while we were in TN on vacation with the Forshas. So she now has her 2 bottom front teeth and the two 2nd incisors on the top. Thankfully she teeths rather well with only slight fever and some spitting up.

We have been a busy house the last couple of weeks. We started it all by going to Indianapolis for Great Aunt Helen Loughmiller’s half birthday party. From there Hannah and I traveled with Amy, Sage, and Grandma Linda to go and visit in Columbus, OH for 4 days. We had a lot of fun at Great Grandma Finneran’s house. Hannah and Sage both had a bit of a learning curve learning to play with someone else their own size. At first they seemed to need to share the same square foot, but they did adjust and play together very well. As you can see by the picture, we were able to go and visit campus and get some good pictures of the two of them together. 

We also got to meet Uncle Dan’s two puppies. Hannah was fine with them, as long as she was not on the floor with them. They are definitely some cute little dogs! We also got to finally participate in a trivia night with Uncle Dan, Grandma, Uncle Bill and Aunt Sue, Brianna, Mary Kay and some of Uncle Dan’s team. It was a lot of fun and a beautiful night to be outdoors. Hannah was up a little later than usual, but she napped on the drive over and she and Sage definitely had a good time and were not lacking for attention! We left for Louisville after trivia and arrived at home at a little after 1 in the morning. 

The next day and a half was spent grocery shopping and packing for a week at Dale Hollow Lake on the TN side. We had a 6 bedroom cabin rented in a great marina called Eagle Cove. We were there with Uncle Jim and Aunt Laura, Mom and Dad, and Thom’s grandpa and grandma Forsha for the entire week. For the first weekend we also had a second cabin rented as we had Amy, Andy, Sage, Andy’s sister Sara and her husband Dan, and Aaron, Kelly and Kelly’s sister Amanda, as well as Matt and his girlfriend Katie. We had quite a crowd and a whole lot of fun! We rented a deluxe pontoon complete with a slide and took the boat out at least once a day for the long weekend. 

The rest of the week was also a lot of fun and very relaxing. I think both Sage and Hannah enjoyed a lot of extra attention and playmates! 

Unfortunately, this past week did not start out so good. On Sunday we had a really big windstorm that knocked out our power until Friday morning at about 6 a.m. We were able to secure a generator on Monday, so we did not lose any food from our freezers or fridge. The main downfall was boredom and the fact that Thom was entertaining clients all week, so we did not get to see much of him. 

Thankfully we are now back to normal and Hannah starts Mother’s Day out next week, which will be good for both of us! She will be going to a church on Tuesday and Thursdays mornings for a few hours to play with some other infants close to her age, and I get a few hours a week to run errands and finish some things that I started before she was born!

That is what we have been keeping busy with and I am sure it is about to get busier as we are not too far from the holiday season!