Johanna through the sleepless haze

Our little Johanna is so much fun. She leans in to catch your eye and when it is caught a huge smile erupts over her whole face. Hanna likes to play and investigate. She is not satisfied to be laying on her back any longer. When we lay her down on her play gym she flips right over onto her tummy and pushes her chest off of the ground. Most of the time we put her in a sitting position and she happily reaches for toys and turns them over in her hands. Everything winds up tested by her mouth at some point during the play. Hanna will frequently lean right over and chew on her toe, then sit back up without too much effort. We pulled out the exer-saucer and she loved it instantly. Of all of our kids she has really investigated all of the toys it has to offer. The first day she hit the tractor's button and lights and music started. She was so excited and swung her arms around over and over in an attempt to make it happen again. She is getting quite good at it.

She is still a delight on the changing table. She smiles and holds her toes while we clean her up. When it is time to close the diaper she releases one foot as I do the one side and then she releases the other. She is happy to hold a toy, most usually a little purple bear, during the process. Just yesterday though she kept turning over and I had flashes of big sister's as infants diaper wrestling matches. For now it is not a struggle. It has gotten rather messy though. Since we started vegetables and fruits Hanna has had lots of little and a few big diaper leaks and the changing process includes an outfit change too.

A big change these past few weeks has been moving into her bedroom. I still haven't hung anything on the walls but I will. I finally did get black-out inserts for her curtains and we began putting her to sleep in her crib. She had been looking huge in the bassinet so it was shocking to see her small again in the comparatively huge crib. Sadly though she didn't do much sleeping in the crib.

Ever since March and the debacle of rice cereal, followed by an ear infection and her first two teeth, Hanna hasn't slept. She got into a pattern of waking up every 3 hours. And her naps were terribly inconsistent as well. It is absolutely exhausting. It is worse than newborn sleeplessness. With a newborn you have extra help and lower expectations, plus the opportunity to nap. but with a 7 month old I am working and engaged in all of the regular household responsibilities. It feels like having a very dysfunctional case of ADD, just completing a sentence was challenging. This blog has suffered a bit as well as every project I intend to get done, but then there is Hanna's smile making everything doable. For both of our sakes, really the whole family's sake, we are working on getting Hanna on a sleep schedule. We are paying closer attention to her natural rhythms and making every attempt to getting her to sleep at a  regular time. The bedtime routine and overnight sleeping is getting much better. In fact last night she slept 10 hours straight. The naps are still erratic but with another weeks attention I hope it becomes a good pattern.

 
She has been a busy baby this June, with many events to attend. Plus Hanna got to spend some time being snuggled by Grandma Kate and share her smile while she visited from Colorado. Hanna has also discovered the fun of the pool. Our last few pool excursions have included tons of happy splashing and wild blinking away the water. It is shaping up to be an amazing summer and I am looking forward to experiencing it with the benefit of a good night's sleep.

Megan's turn on Stage

Our lovely Megan took the stage this past weekend for her year end dance recital. The recital had some great choreography and very skilled dancers. Megan was disappointed that she was not able to watch the show off stage but luckily got to see a few numbers during dress rehearsal a few days earlier. We were glad that Grandma Kate, who was in town for a visit, joined us for the show. The show moved very quickly from one number to the next so they were able to do a large number of routines in just under 2 hours. Megan's dance was in the 2nd half and we got great seats on the side of the stage where she spent most of her stage time. Of all of her recitals, Megan looked the most confident this year and had her performance memorized. Her form and lines were beautiful. She always moves with such grace and it is a treat to get to see her let this attribute shine on stage. We are very proud of her.

Bridget Center Stage

June found Bridget preparing for the big stage. At the beginning of the month Bridget silently walked on stage in the dark in her pink ballet shoes and sea blue ballet costumes. They had been practicing for months and Bridget was ready. She said she wasn't really enjoying class as the year went on but she had obviously been paying attention. The day before the recital was the all day dress rehearsal and she got a chance to practice on the big stage and find her spacing. After the intermission we changed her into her pink and black tap outfit and she click-clacked her way to the stage.  Bridget enjoyed the whole process and remembered her moves during the big show. She glowed and accepted all of the praise she received and a bunch of roses, with extra pink cheeks. The recital was a lot of fun for us because 4 of our nieces also danced in the production, so both the crowd and the stage were full of familiar faces. Bridget says she doesn't want to dance next year, so she'll trade the stage for a field and instead will try soccer.

Then on Monday Bridget got to walk across the stage at her Elementary School for the Kindergarten Promotion ceremony. She was very anxious about having to go up and down the steps in the crush of kindergarten obliviousness, but Jim reassured her and turned her mind to a gift that awaited her. The ceremony was not too long, but made enough time for a few songs and certificate distribution. Bridget looked for us when she was on stage and found her whole family smiling and looking to catch her eye. Bridgie Rose's big cheeks crowded her eyes as she smiled and waved to us. She really has made huge strides this year and is not only a big sister but also a big elementary school student. I don't know what kind of stage she will take as she grows but I know God has a great plan laid out for her.

Piano Rectial

Our lovely Emma has been playing piano since 3rd grade and this year for the first time she played in the piano recital. Every year Emma has missed the annual recital because it has overlapped with the annual Girl Scout Encampment weekend. This year though encampment was moved one weekend and she was able to attend. The recital is held in the church where her teachers, who are mother and daughter, hold their lessons. We filed into our pew and were happy to share the excitement of seeing Emma perform. It was a large group of students from elementary to high school age and they each played one piece. It moved quickly and had a lot of variety in both skill and style of music. Emma was the 2nd to last to play and did a beautiful job. She played "Almost Lover" by A Fine Frenzy. She played without sheet music, impressive as always.  Emma said she was nervous and was shaking a little.  But she heard Hanna talking half-way through her performance and it made her smile and relax. We are so proud of her.

Emma and her teacher Holly

May

We had a cooler than usual May with a good deal of rain with a few incredibly hot days thrown in to remind us summer will come. Time was marching toward the end of school, and the wrapping up of programs. I track down activities and the forms for all of our summer fun. We fill our days with music concerts, dance recital prep, field day fun, scout events, birthday parties, hanging out with friends and school projects including a trip to the state park for Rachael's science experiment on emergency whistle effectiveness.

The many home projects also moved forward. We finally finished painting both the office and Johanna's room. We picked up the base cabinets for the office. I painted and replaced the hardware on them. Jim got a desk for the office, sanded and stained it. We also got the desktop but we still need to put it all together. We moved the old desk into Megan and Bridget's room and rearranged their dressers and toy towers. They now have a ton of floor space on which to play. Hanna's room was finally ready for her to move into. She has been sleeping in her room for a few weeks now and it is beginning to feel settled. Slowly the house is coming together.

Memorial Day rounded out the month with things I value most : faith, family, and remembering the past. Our whole family got up early on our "Monday off" and headed to the cemetery. We each got a bundle of flags and walked the rows of headstones, looking for those who served our country. Each one received a flag aside their grave. The weather was incredibly mild and it didn't take us long before we finished our section. For lunch we went to my parents house for the annual crowning of Mary. This year after we processed and sang Marian hymns, it was Megan's turn to do the crowning. It is always fun to pray and hang out with family. We are so lucky to be able to see them so often. That evening the girls were eager to get to the pool, which had just opened for the summer. Emma, Hanna and I stayed away from the 64 degree water but Rachael, Megs and Bridge all seemed to have a good time swimming with the few other brave souls.

May is an intensely active and vibrant month and already it is gone. Happy June!