Meet Jack!

It's a BOY! He will be named Joshua Ellsworth Gillespie, Jr. after his daddy, and we will call him Jack for short. He is perfect in every way and very energetic! For more information, check out this post on my blog.

Hannah's First Christmas

Hannah was fascinated by the fire in the fireplace
Daddy helps Hannah open her stocking. The duck and giraffe finger puppets were a big hit!
Hannah points to the baby when we ask her where the baby is. She is pretty good at picking out babies in pictures, but doesn't seem to consider herself to be one of them!
After a month of being told not to touch, it took Hannah a while to understand that today it was ok to rip into the gifts! She liked the paper best.
Another hit was the Fisher Price farm with lots of animals to play with.
This is probably not the last time Josh will decide that a working knowledge of Japanese would really come in handy for assembling children's toys!

Hannah got a set of little chairs just her size from Grammy and Papa, and a pound puppy from her cousins Zach and Maddie.

A family picture in front of the fireplace at Josh's parents' house

Christmas Eve

Today Hannah wore another one of my dresses, which my mom made for me. I imagine this was for my first Christmas, although maybe not because the dress is long. The smocking pattern is little angels holding sprigs of holly and it's very very sweet! I forgot all about this dress until this morning, so I guess Hannah can only really wear it today and tomorrow, unless it still fits next year!

Christmas Eve Eve

In honor of the day before the day before Christmas, here are some shots of Hannah:
Hannah's favorite song is "Clap Your Hands, All Ye People." She lets us know she wants to sing it by frantic clapping until we start the song.
Hannah is still not sure how she feels about this whole standing up alone thing.
I'm not sure why this picture turned out so blurry. Oh well. As you can see, Hannah's hair is in an awkward stage of growing out, where it looks shaggy but is not quite long enough for clips. Maybe soon!

It's About Time!

This afternoon when Hannah wanted to be picked up, she pulled on my leg and said, "Mama, Mama!" Yay! Of course, I picked her up and congratulated her for being such a sweet girl. :)

For the past while, Hannah had been calling me "Baba" so I was hoping she'd get the "M" thing down soon.

Other word news: Hannah now says, "Airbus" when she means "hairbrush" and she calls her doll Emily "Day-uh-lee."

But I'm most pleased with the Mama development.

Hannah's First Bandaid

Hannah cut her finger today. She didn't even cry until we noticed she was bleeding and getting it all over her sweater. Of course, once we started making a big deal over it, she got upset too! Once we wiped off the blood, it was not very serious looking, but just in case I put a little bandaid on her finger.

After she calmed down, Hannah decided that her finger is now Very Special Indeed. She has been holding it out in front of her, apart from her other fingers, ever since. She holds it up for us to admire, and inspects it carefully. It's really pretty funny! :)

MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hannah just took TWO steps all by herself! She walked from Mama to Daddy without holding on and was so pleased at the clapping and cheers with which she was then showered. :) What a big girl!

Bean 2 Update

I am so fascinated by how babies develop in the womb. It's really amazing how quickly everything happens! We have a neat book called "A Child Is Born" that shows embryoscopy and fetoscopy pictures of development from the point of conception on. The beginning part of the book is really interesting as it shows how much happens even before the baby implants in the uterus. But I especially love the pictures of the babies week by week (you can see them here if you're interested). At 14 weeks pregnant (which is where we are today with Bean 2), the baby is sucking his/her thumb and is the size of your fist. Yesterday and today I've been feeling some little things that really do feel like the baby moving around. Either that or a goldfish is loose in there! :) I thought it was too early, but then I looked it up and apparently with second-time pregnancies or more you can feel movement as early as 12-13 weeks because you know what it feels like. It's very cool. Kick away, Bean 2!

Peekaboo!

Day of the Dolly

Since I didn't get an 11 month old picture yesterday, I tried to take a picture of Hannah this morning before church. She was happy to oblige as long as her doll could be in the picture too. I tried to take the doll away so you could see how cute this little velveteen dress is (Mom made it for me when I was Hannah's age and it's still very lovely), but Hannah kept trying to follow the doll instead of sitting still and the plan was quickly abandoned.

Hannah consented to leave the doll (who is named Emily by the way, in honor of the sister I would have had if Thomas had been born a girl) behind when we went to church. Once we got back home, however, the doll regained her place of primacy. I attempted to take Hannah for a quick walk, but she would not go unless the doll came too. I tucked the doll in with Hannah, who was bundled in layers, a big coat, her thick fleece hat with earflaps, her hood on top of that, a double folded wool blanket, and the quilted insulated flannel lined cover for the stroller. Hannah stayed warm, except for the hand she insisted on keeping out of the warm covers in order to pat the doll periodically, presumably for the doll's comfort and so that Hannah could ensure that the doll stayed warm too.

Having skipped her afternoon nap (a fairly common Sunday occurrence, sad to say), Hannah hit the bedtime wall hard, fast, and early. As I scrambled to get her into her pajamas and tucked in, she clutched the doll tightly to her chest. I tried to pry the doll from Hannah's wee fingers, only to encounter a protest such that you might have thought I was attempting to pluck the very life from her. Friends, need I tell you that Hannah fell asleep with Babydoll Emily by her side. Usually she doesn't go to sleep with toys, but I don't mind if she picks one doll to sleep with, so I bid them both good night.

Sweet Girl

Hannah is 11 months old today! Over the past few weeks she has started being so sweet and affectionate, and I love it! Not that she was un-sweet before, but she used to be far too busy to sit around cuddling with Mama. Now she will come over to me, climb into my lap, and lay her head on my shoulder, patting me and saying, "Awwww." I think that's funny since "Awww" is what I say when she does something cute and sweet, so she picked it up! I don't know what caused Hannah to become such a cuddly gal, but I am really enjoying it!

In developmental news, Hannah is still showing no interest in walking by herself, although she will stand up on her own sometimes. She just seems to get where she needs to go by crawling or walking while holding on to things. She's also not saying Mama yet, but that's ok since she is being so cuddly for me now. :)