Best Birthdays Ever (5/07)

Our birthdays in May 2007 were by far our best birthdays ever. I don't remember doing anything special for either Maria's or my birthday, but I do remember enjoying the company of Hannah, especially as she grew more interactive and fun. Some of my favorite pictures ever (no, not the one in her Eagles jersey) were taken this month. Can you guess which ones they are?

On the Road (4/07)

April 2007 was a fun month. We took Hannah on her first road trip to San Diego and LA for Passover, and she said her first true word. It was "achkee", which means glasses in Russian, and she said it on our drive home from LA. She did a good job being couped up in the car for all those hours, although she didn't sleep much :)

Passover was fun, and Hannah got to play with her friend Lia. Aunt Yaling was pregnant with Zoe at this time, so having two babies in the house was good practice for her and Jake. Nana also liked having us stay at her house in Oceanside, and we took some walks on the beach that Hannah enjoyed.

Hannah was rolling over and sitting up by this point, but not quite able to move around.

Hannah weighed 14lbs, was 26.25 inches long, and her head measured 44cm.

Digestive Personifying (3/07)

Hannah's personality continued to develop and shine through in March of 2007. She was a sweet, social, happy, loving and funny baby. She always attracted a lot of attention when we went out, and she showed her enjoyment of it by smiling back at everyone who smiled at her. We took Hannah to the SF Zoo for the first time this month. She was a little young to understand the animals, but we enjoyed being out in the world with her.

March was also the month when Hannah stopped drinking breast milk and started on solid foods. Her first meals were organic oatmeal, and we gradually added fruits and vegetables to her diet. Her favorite food around this time was peas, but she pretty much ate everything we gave her, including carrots, squash, spinach and whatever other concoctions Earth's Best made available. I even tried making some homemade concoctions that Hannah ate for a while but eventually grew out of.

With the solid foods came....you guessed it, solid shizzle. And lest you forget, shizzle out of water, whether it comes from a dog, adult, or adorable little girl, stinks just the same. My dormant gag reflex was beginning to awaken.

Shizzler (2/07)

As all our friends told us, once the 3 month mark passed, things started to get dramatically better. But we discovered an odd thing about Hannah around this time. Every time we took her somewhere, she had a habit of making poop, regardless of whether she'd pooped before we left the house. Whether we took her to a family meal, or out to breakfast or lunch, she would invariably soil her shorts every time! Maybe she was just so relieved to be out of the house and experiencing the world that she just couldn't control herself. That aspect of her is straight-up Landow. Ironically, around this time, with her bald head, she also started looking like both Buddy and David Landow, my grandfather and uncle, respectively. Ode to the Landows!

Sweet Boiba (1/07)

When the New Year rolled in, Hannah started to became more of a person and less of a fragile infant. We started to see elements of her personality come out. She was happy, social, curious, and just about the sweetest little girl you could imagine. Maria was great with giving her tummy time and singing to her constantly. Her favorite song around this time was Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes, and every time we sang it or played it on CD, Hannah would brighten up with a big smile.

January is also the month that Maria went back to work and Linda, Hannah's Nanny, started taking care of her during the day. Linda did a great job taking care of Hannah from day one, always playing with her, singing songs, teaching her things, and taking her for walks along the water. Maria worked from home at the time, so she got to sneak away for a quick kiss or hug with Hannah, but it's always been a challenge managing our careers and raising Hannah. We're very fortunate to have Linda though, as she loves Hannah very much.

Hannah weighed 12lb 1oz, was 24.75 inches long, and her head was 42cm.

A New Day (12/06)

This was it...the 3 month mark. Hannah was going to leave our bed, move to her crib, and sleep through the night. We loved having her sleep with us, but we desperately needed sleep. The magical 3 month mark is what kept us going up to this point.

December was a fun month. Hannah started getting more vocal, babbling different things, including my favorite word "da da." We also took her on her first road trip this month, to Monterey, to meet our friends Erez, Maya and their baby Lia.

Towards the end of the month, we were invited to Rusty and Patti's holiday party. This was going to be our first night out (you can tell by the pictures in the slide show), and also Hannah's first night in her crib.

Without much ado, we put Hannah to bed in her crib and left for the night while Maria's parents babysat. When we came home, Hannah was still sleeping. When we got into bed, Hannah was still sleeping. And she didn't make a peep until after 6am the following morning.

We had done it. The rough part was over and we could now gradually start getting back to normal. That first night of sleep was just wonderful, as it was the first tangible moment where we could feel that things were going to get much much better.

Looking back over my blog entries for the first 3 months of Hannah's life, I realize that sleep is a constant theme in my writing. Both our sleep (or lack thereof) and Hannah's sleep. In retrospect, this was the hardest part of adjusting to life as parents. It wasn't hard to love Hannah, or change a diaper, or learn how to soothe her. But it was very challenging to figure out how to do all these things, and handle the responsibilities of our own lives, without much sleep. I cannot possibly overstate how much better we started to feel after Hannah made it through her first night without waking up. It really felt like a new day from that moment on, so much so that when we look at pictures from those first few months, we hardly remember those long days and nights in the beginning of Hannah's life.

Here Comes the Sun (11/06)

As November rolled in, we began to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Hannah started getting more interactive, smiling frequently, and her stretches of sleep grew longer and longer, although napping was still a challenge. We also had lots of visitors this month, and we took Hannah to San Francisco for the first time.

During our first Thanksgiving with Hannah, we had plenty to give thanks for. We celebrated the holiday with our friends and family at our house. My mom, Maria's parents, Uncle D, Jake and Yaling, Lora, Sasha, Misha, Ali and Uncle Jared all joined us. Hannah wasn't quite sure why everyone was in her space, but she enjoyed all the activity and love she got that night.

We were told over and over again that after 3 months, everything would improve drastically, so the turn of the month was filled with anticipation.