These monthly pictures are really becoming more challenging. In reality, a lot of your pictures were like this... You're not one for sitting or laying still these days unless you are sleeping.
This month you spent getting your walking down solid. You now walk mostly everywhere and if you fall down, you get right back up again and walk to where you are going. You have difficulty getting around in sand, so you still crawl in sand. More recently, you have started to experiment a little with running. You are not as cautious and will sometimes just take off and starting walking pretty quickly until you fall forward.
The week before we left on out trip to Hawaii, we got a pretty big snowstorm. It dumped over 15 inches of snow in a day! Your daddy brought in some snow for you, but you weren't really too intrigued. It was too cold!
As far as talking, you are still just making sounds. You used mama very rarely and sometimes you babble saying dada. You are starting to experiment with different consonant sounds. While we were at your cousin's recital in Hawaii, you looked at Sammy and pretty clearly said, "Hi!" Your Aunt Bekah and I both heard it and looked at each other wondering if you really understood what you said. You haven't repeated it since though. Another thing that you have been doing is patting your mouth while you make sounds. You think this is pretty entertaining. If I start patting your mouth, you start smiling and then you go, "Ahhhh!" It's pretty cute! This is a little clip from our Moana Falls hike.
You also started making a gurgling sound this month. You have started to imitate me some and I was making a purring noise in the back of my throat for you. You were drinking from your sippy cup at the time and it made a gurgle noise. I could tell that you really liked the noise because you kept on doing it! The next time I was nursing you (and several times since then), you stopped, looking up at me, and started gurgling the milk. It's pretty silly and you think you're hilarious when you do it. You gurgle all the time now!
You are starting to understand even more, but you haven't been listening as well as I would like. I read an article online that perfectly described your stage, "Her desire to explore is stronger than her desire to listen to your warnings... What seems to be defiance is just her natural curiosity to see how the world works." You are DEFINITELY a curious kid. For the most part, I like to let you explore. I even let you eat the dry cat food since you weren't giving up on getting into it! Unfortunately you liked it, so my lesson didn't really help! Here is your mischievous face.
This year for my 30th birthday, your Aunt Bekah and Daddy bought me a plane ticket to Hawaii! Of course, you got to come with me! We left on Sunday, February 16th right on your mommy's birthday. Both flights were completely packed, so it was very difficult for you to lay flat to sleep. You did pretty well on both flights. On our first flight from Dulles to Los Angeles, we had a bunch of Asian tourists on our flight. They were absolutely enamored with you! After we got off the flight several of them asked to take pictures with you. This picture is from when you were sleeping and not bouncing!
When we arrived in Honolulu, your Aunt Bekah was right there ready to pick us up which was good since Mommy's cell phone broke on the flight (It may have had something to do with the fact that she dropped it in a tub full of water while cleaning about a month ago!) It was pretty late our time when we arrived (3am) so we went right to bed... Only to wake up a few hours later (4:30am Hawaii time) to run 8 miles in the Great Aloha Run! You were awesome in the jogging stroller! You watched everything for the first four miles of the race and then you slept for the next three. You woke up really hangry (hungry+angry) for the last mile and I was feeding you puffs as we crossed the finish line. After you had eaten more Puffs, an applesauce, and half a banana you were much happier! This was your first time seeing skyscrapers and you kept on looking up at the really tall buildings!
A week later, your mommy ran a Warrior Run 5K with Aunt Bekah and you were babysat for the first time by someone not in the family! You were sleeping when I got back and everything went well. Later that evening the whole family participated in a Glow Bash where we went on a scavenger hunt through Honolulu in the dark with lots of glow gear on. It was a ton of fun and you had a blast! You didn't fall asleep once or even fuss the whole time we were running around solving clues. We had a great time!
The two of us also went to the Honolulu Zoo. You enjoyed the zoo for the most part because there was a lot to see, but your favorite part was the "Keiki Zoo" portion where you could get really close to the animals!
Since Pokai Bay is on the leeward side of the island, we were able to see some awesome sunsets!
We also went on a few hikes with Aunt Bekah and the boys while we were in Hawaii. On our first hike to Makapu'u, we were able to push you in the jogging stroller. We saw some whale pods out in the ocean, had a great view of a light house, and of a few islands. When we got to the lookout point, I took you out of the stroller and put you next to the gate that kept people from going on the cliff. You clung HARD onto me and would not cooperate one bit when I wanted to take a picture of you holding onto the gate with the lookout. I hope this is not the start of a fear of heights and just your cautious nature!
Another hike that we went on (Kaena Point) went right along the ocean the whole time. There were some crazy waves on these cliffs that almost hit us and made your Aunt Bekah very nervous. I think you were pretty freaked out as well because you kept on looking back at the ocean instead of at the camera. You fell asleep after the hike as usual!
While we were in Hawaii you were absolutely enamored with your cousins Nicholas and Sammy. If we ever needed you to smile for a picture, we would just get Sammy to come over. He would make faces and act crazy and he could get a great smile out of you every time. You loved to watch Nicholas play Kendama, a Japanese ball/stick-like game. You also enjoyed listening to Nicholas play the ukulele and the piano. You really enjoyed just sitting at the piano with your cousins and touching the keys to hear the different sounds.
On our last day in Hawaii, we hiked Moana Falls with just the two of us. We has a blast! You were pretty unimpressed with the waterfall, but you enjoyed exploring some of the vegetation.
Coming back from Hawaii was really hard! Not just because we would miss the warmth and sunshine, but we will miss your Aunt Bekah, Uncle Jon, and your cousins Nicholas and Sammy. We'll definitely have to go back next year! The flights back were much easier because you slept the WHOLE way home including the layover. You were only awake for brief moments to eat! It made flying much easier. When we arrived home, daddy was on a business trip, so Grandma H came to pick us up at the airport. Boy was it cold! You slept the whole way home in the car, ate dinner once we got home, and then you were ready for bed by 7:30pm EST. You even slept through that whole night!! I think you were pretty tired from our trip to Hawaii!
The weekend after we got home, we were hanging out at Grandma and Grandpa H's house when you had a pretty scary accident. You were sitting in a booster seat at the dining room table eating mandarin oranges (a favorite of yours) when you got excited and pushed really hard on the table. You pushed the chair completely back and hit your head pretty hard on the back of the seat. A huge goose egg started appearing at the base of your skull almost immediately and you were SCREAMING. I comforted you and you were able to calm down pretty quickly, but the goose egg was getting bigger and looking pretty bad, so I called the advice nurse hotline.
Even though, you were up running around and playing a few minutes after the fall, they still advised me to take you to the nearest medical facilities with an MRI, so that meant our first trip to the ER. On my way driving you, I looked in my rear view mirror and saw that you were starting to go to sleep. I was really worried that it had something to do with your head injury, so I got really scared. I rolled down the windows, turned up the radio, and even resorted to flicking you lightly on your cheek to keep you awake until we got there. When we entered the ER, I was looking pretty flustered and scared and the person at the desk waved me past the two other people in line. Once we got in to see the doctor, you were wide awake, full of energy, and ready to explore the whole hospital. I had to hold you down just so you could be examined, but the doctor confirmed what I had started to feel that you were going to be OKAY!
Even though, you were up running around and playing a few minutes after the fall, they still advised me to take you to the nearest medical facilities with an MRI, so that meant our first trip to the ER. On my way driving you, I looked in my rear view mirror and saw that you were starting to go to sleep. I was really worried that it had something to do with your head injury, so I got really scared. I rolled down the windows, turned up the radio, and even resorted to flicking you lightly on your cheek to keep you awake until we got there. When we entered the ER, I was looking pretty flustered and scared and the person at the desk waved me past the two other people in line. Once we got in to see the doctor, you were wide awake, full of energy, and ready to explore the whole hospital. I had to hold you down just so you could be examined, but the doctor confirmed what I had started to feel that you were going to be OKAY!
Since we've been home, the weather has warmed up a little and we were actually able to go outside! You were able to push your own stroller and a play stroller of a neighbors. You absolutely fascinated by wheels and couldn't stop staring at a little girl that was rollerblading outside today.
I can't believe that you will be a year old in just a month! You are growing up so quickly my little Leah! I love you so much!
