Big Steps

Just wanted everyone to know that Sage took her first steps last night.  After two solo attempts that both ended in Sage bumping her head with style, she braved it again.  She let go of the ottoman and instead of lunging into Andy’s waiting arms as we expected (we didn’t want her on the floor again), Sage took two unaided steps and collapsed into Andy’s arms with a grin.  We don’t know when we’ll see it again, but it was a huge night around the Noth house.  Everything changes again…gotta love this parenting thing.

Photos at dede

As promised, here is the link to see the latest session at Dede Holman. www.dedeholmanphotography.com and click on CLIENTS in the lower right hand corner, and enter the following password: forshan

Enjoy!!

7 months old!

Wow, time really does fly when one is having fun! Hannah is now 7 months old. She is getting bigger and growing up fast! In the past month we have reached quite a few milestones:

Two teeth have arrived. The two bottom teeth cut within 5 days of each other, but she handled it like a trooper. She was a little more cranky than usual, but that was about it. I am slightly suspicious that another is on its way, if her diapers are any hint of what is to come. 

We are lucky enough to have a baby who really is not picky about baby food. She is starting to play with the Gerber Puffs we are putting on her tray. I am not sure one has quite made it into her mouth yet, but at least she is showing interest. She is getting much better with a sippy cup. She does not drink from it much yet, but she does like chewing on it and it keeps her happy in the car!

Crawling is in the very near future in the Forsha house. She is getting up on her hands and knees and rocking all the time. Rolling and inchworming on her back are the modes of transportation at this point, but she does move her knees and then lunge to move forward. She watches quite intently if anyone is crawling, so I have a feeling she will be figuring it out soon. 

She has also decided that sitting up is fun and makes playing with her toys much easier, so we are now willing to do it. She can get herself to the sitting position from laying, so her crib was lowered recently. She does not do it a whole lot, but she can if she chooses. 

This month has been both quiet and busy for us. We went to Peoria, IL the first weekend in August for Elizabeth’s baptism. We had a lot of fun swimming with the boys and meeting our newest niece! Uncle Thom even took Elizabeth swimming! 

Grandma Linda and Grandpa Steve came home with us and spent almost a week helping me repaint the basement and bathroom. We were able to get everything done and even had time to throw a barbeque with some friends. Hannah very much loved having Grandma around for 6 whole days. Thankfully she was very content to play while we were painting. 

The past couple weeks have been pretty quiet. We just took her to her sitting up pictures with Dede Holman. She did great and we know we are going to have another round of really cute pictures and a really hard time deciding which ones to get. I will post the link when I get it so you can see her pictures online. 

In a few weeks we are off on another week vacation on Dale Hollow Lake with Thom’s side of the family. I will be sure to share pics of that week as H and Sage will be together at the beach!

I found the camera cable!

After some *encouragement* I went hunting for the camera cable so I could share photos of the kids.  After uploading 133 images and 11 movies, I realized how much we’ve done this summer that we haven’t shared.  So here’s a recap of our summer so far.

Just a nice afternoon

We had a visitor early one morning. He perched on Will’s bike and let us get quite close to him.

Peoria Hot Air Balloon festival. We saw lots of hot air balloons, but playing frizbee in the field was lots more fun.

Like father, like sons….

How nuts do you have to be to take 7 kids under 7 years old out to eat?? All told it wasn’t too bad….I even got to finish my breakfast!

I’ll get the photos from Elizabeth’s Baptism posted soon.  Although we start school on Monday, so it may be a while before I get time!

Sage is 9 months old

Sage at 9 months

Sage turned 9 months old while visiting family in Green Bay. She sure was a busy girl while she was there. She attended her first parade with her Grandma Linda and Grandpa Steve, she swam in the pool at Grandma Bobbi and Grandpa Mark’s, and she was doted on by everyone, including Auntie Sarah and Auntie Gretchen.

9 months seems to have already brought around some changes for Sage.

• She prefers to eat mostly finger foods (although Mean Mommy throws in some baby food to increase her nutrition). We have yet to find a food that she doesn’t eat. She really enjoy raspberries, green peppers, nectarines, mandarin oranges, and the occasional cracker. Just yesterday she was eating eggplant without complaint. We only wish it could stay this good!
• Sage has decided that she now knows how to go up stairs. She practices whenever possible. She especially enjoy practicing on the risers at the library. At the top of three steps are really large and fun stuffed animals. She hasn’t quite figured out how to go down those steps, but we are working on it.
• She LOVES reading books. This is especially fun for Mommy. Before now she just kind of tolerated it and mostly wanted to put them in her mouth. Now she loves to read the books and lunges into my lap at reading time. She especially likes books with flaps or textures inside.
• She has fully figured out the whole crawling thing. A week on Grandmas’ carpets was all it took. Now she zooms from room to room like a pro.
• Sage is routinely using her first sign for “all done”. She still needs a little encouragement to use it, but it is making feeding times less frustrating for her. She also lets us know when she is done with her baths.
• She now has eight teeth. We’re thinking she may be done for a little while…or perhaps we are just hoping.

The rest of the family are finishing up little projects around the house, enjoying the Olympics, and trying to relax a little before the apples and tomatoes are ready to go. The garden looks great and I can go out and get a crop of something every day. It’s great not having to buy produce at the grocery store!!

Lots of love from the Noths.

Photos up

Just wanted to let you all know that I finally got the photos updated on our website. You can click on the photo to get there, or the address is http://noths.shutterfly.com/

Sage is staying with her grandparents in Green Bay this week and Andy is on a last minute trip with a friend to Colorado.  This means I am home alone, and I am finally getting things done.  The main focus of my energy is transforming the basement into a playroom for Sage.  Also, I am working to keep up with the garden.

Sage sounds like she is having fun in GB.  She went to her first parade, and Grandma Linda noticed that she is saying her first word…”up”.  The girl know what she wants.

More to share next week.  Love to all! 

to see more pics of Hannah

Hi everyone!  My wonderful husband bought me a new IMac for our anniversary, so seeing new pics just got a whole lot easier!!  You can now go to http://gallery.me.com/nforsha to see any pictures that we have published there, which is all of them!

Camping Chick

Summer is sweeping by fast. We’ve been so busy that we haven’t gotten a post in recently. I’ll try to get in as much as possible in during Sage’s nap.

Sage in Mommy and Daddy's tent

The big development is that Sage went on her first camping trip! We took her camping with Andy’s family for almost a week at a lake in the National Forest. Andy’s family has been camping there since he was old enough to crawl out of the tent, so it is a great tradition to be continuing. Sage had her own tent and only had to sleep with us the first night. After that she settled into her sleeping bag and slept (aside from some teething induced cries in the night).

Swimming in the lake

We swam, took a hike, swam, played, swam, canoed, swam, slept, and swam. I’m not sure who was more tired at the end of our relaxing trip. Sage took baths in our washtub and even discovered her own coveted Forsha yellow cup (another fun tradition to keep alive).

Taking a bath

Despite our best efforts, she ended the week dirty and smelly with bug bites and sand in her diapers…so all in all I think the trip was a success.

It was also the first camping trip for our cat, Baxter. People did look at us a little funny, but he sure did enjoy himself. The chipmunks took a liking to his litter, and that gave Baxter loads of entertainment.

Baxter Hunting

He never did catch up to one of them (not that they were fast). I think that his leash held him back….or let’s say that it did for his ego. At night he slept in the camper with Grandma Bobbi and Grandpa Mark. Whenever he heard Sage wake up, however, he started meowing to get back to our campsite. They are quite a pair.

We took lots of pictures, so look for them to be up on our website sometime this week (http://noths.shutterfly.com). I am working to get them there, but I am also trying to get through laundry before

Sage and Baxter in the car

Sage goes visiting with her Grandparents next week in Green Bay. I’m also working of weeding the garden and getting the basement ready for painting next week. We want to make it a little more hospitable as a playroom for Sage. So the pictures may take a couple of days.

Our garden is growing well. However, Andy found a rabbit in there the other day. So we went out yesterday and bought a newer, heavier fence to try and keep them out. Tonight we have to put it up. Just one more thing to add to the list. We sure do find ways to keep busy. But the yard and house are looking great. All that hard work does pay off when you look around.

6 months old

It may be hard for us to believe, but Hannah turned 6 months old on July 18. It is amazing at the changes just in the last couple of months. I cannot hardly believe that a mere 6 months ago, she was this tiny, helpless, newborn, and now she is a wiggling, giggling happy little girl.

One of her accomplishments is sitting up. The only hiccup in this is that she does not like to sit up, so she does not do it very often, but yesterday she was sitting in front of me and was catching herself before she fell and stayed there for about 10 minutes, so I know she can do it.

As you can see in the picture on the right, she can also get on her hands and knees. Rolling has become second nature and I often find her on the opposite side of the room that she was put down in. She scoots on her tummy as well, she can only go backwards as of yet, but she has been getting up on her hands and knees and rocking. Just yesterday, she was in that position and got one of her knees in front of the other and promptly lost her balance and fell on her nose! Luckily, she is pretty tough, so she just rolled over on her back and started playing with her toys again.

She really likes standing and has suddenly developed a love for jumping, so she really likes her jonny jumper and the exosaucer now!

Aunt Melanie also taught her the little trick of walking with assistance! Thankfully, she does not do it for very long or very frequently! 

She is becoming much more vocal and definitely likes to try out the range in pitch! Screeching is the current favorite. Hannah is also eating 3 meals a day of baby food, stage 2, and has really shown interest in what everyone else is eating as well. On our recent vacation, Grandma Linda even gave her some birthday cake. She has also sampled ice cream, whipped topping, vanilla pudding, and an oreo cookie shake. She seems not to particularly like anything too cold, so ice cream and shakes may be something she likes a little more in the future!

That is pretty much what Hannah is doing and learning as of her 6 month mark. I am sure she will be surprising us daily for the months to come and I will be sure to let everyone in on what she is doing!

She still has no teeth, though, but there are two white spots on the bottom, so hopefully they will break through soon!

Vacation

Hi everyone!  It has been awhile since the Forsha family posted anything! We have been very busy! First, we went on vacation to the Wisconsin Dells with the Van Dam side, and then Hannah and I went home with my parents to Minnesota for 10 days. We were gone 1 day short of 3 weeks!  

Before we got to the WI Dells, we left a few days early and spent the first night at Grandpa and Grandma Forsha’s new house in Denmark, WI. Unfortunately, Grandma was not home for the weekend, but we had lots of fun with Grandpa and even went strawberry picking! Then, we went on to Plymouth, WI the next day to spend a night with my Aunt Denise and her family. She made a great supper that night and then we went to watch some fireworks. Hannah and daddy stayed behind and both went to bed early!

 

On Sunday, the 29th of June, we got back in the car for a short drive to the Tamarack resort in the Wisconsin Dells. My parents and my sister Melanie, her husband Jason, and their two girls, Kayla and Raegan, were there to greet us. Everyone commented on how big Hannah had gotten and how much she has changed since her baptism in April. She had smiles to give all around.

During our week long stay at the WI Dells, we went to a storybook garden, where we got to feed a giraffe! We also went on a WI ducks ride and we also went on a bigger boat for an upper dells tour. The area is very beautiful with many really cool rock formations along the river. We also spent an afternoon in the downtown area, where we took an olde time portrait at my mom’s request. It turned out looking pretty good. 

Our resort was really nice. It was a little ways off of the main area, so it was nice and quiet. We had two condos, a one bedroom, where Thom, I, and Hannah stayed. Grandpa and Grandma bunked with us for the weekend. The rest of the crew was in a two bedroom condo next door. They were very nice and we were very happy with the entire setup. 

Hannah’s big accomplishment while we were in the Dells was that we got her past her fear of the swimming pool. It took a couple of attempts, but we did get her to enjoy it. I think very warm water and Aunt Mel making her forget where she was may have been the turning point. By the end of the week, she was putting her face in the water and was not complaining very long after being dunked!

On Sunday, the 7th, Hannah and I said goodbye to Thom as he headed home and we traveled with my parents to Minnesota. Hannah was very good on the trip. She made the transitions from place to place very well, which was very nice for me!

We had a busy 10 days in MN. We got to spend a lot of time with Kayla and Raegan, which was very nice as we do not get to see them as much as we would like! Hannah and I got to experience a draft horse show in MN, which we both enjoyed. I think we may talk Daddy into a horse yet if I sic her on him for one  We spent an evening with a bunch of friends of mine from college while I was in town as well. 

The big event for the week was the Talsma reunion on Sunday, July 13 at a park in a town very near to where I grew up. The Talsma side is my mom’s side, for those of you unfamiliar with the surname. There was a total of 137 Talsmas at that picnic. We had a really good time.

All in all, our vacation was wonderful, Hannah picked up some more new tricks, but I will go into those on the next post all about her turning  months old!  We had a very good time in WI and MN and Hannah enjoyed being with her Grandpa and Grandma Van Dam for over 2 weeks as well as Uncle Jason, Aunt Melanie, Kayla and Raegan.