And the fun continues in the Hopscotch household! Miss H continues to make us laugh and amaze us as she does new things. Her apparent love for singing has continued, and the “ABC” song is her favorite. She can make it through the alphabet up until a garbled “LMNOP.” She has also picked up that the song is the same tune as “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” so she likes to hop back and forth between the two tunes. She’s also showing an interest in counting and raises her index finger saying “one.” Cute!

Her sleep has been a bit disrupted the past month, and I really think she’s about to cut some new teeth – upper canines are 16-22 months and lower canines are 17-23 months, so we’d be right on track for these (Miss H started with teeth at 4 1/2 months!). Maybe by her 18 month update she’ll have her full set minus the dreaded 2-year molars!

Otherwise we’re just getting into the swing of things with having a “big girl” in our midst – going down slides at the park (with some help), starting to say sentences, running around like a wild kid up and down the sidewalk – always a new adventure and so much fun!

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Our “state of the family” right now is this:

What we’ve learned: To start letting go a little bit. The other week we were celebrating our 4th wedding anniversary by going out to dinner. Our good friend M (who is also a nanny and amazing with kiddos) babysat Miss H for the evening. Technically we had time to put Miss H to bed before going out. I finally talked Mr. H into passing off “baby duty” to M so that we could go out for a pre-dinner drink. Miss H knows our friend pretty well so I wasn’t worried about how bedtime would go. And I’m so very happy that we relaxed a bit and let Miss H have great one-on-one time M – while Miss H knew her from past visits, this was the first time Miss H really remembers her and they definitely bonded – the next morning Miss H woke up asking for M! It was so cute and they’re complete buddies now. Sometimes it feels like the easiest way to parent is just to do it yourself, but it can be much more beneficial for your LO if you let others in!

What we’re enjoying right now: Of course all of the fun that is Miss H (and, umm, fall clothes!!). It’s also exciting to introduce all kinds of food and more “meals” for Miss H. She is happy to eat almost anything, so it’s fun finding new recipes for her.

What our biggest struggles are: We’re back to square one with cooking for ourselves. Miss H eats like a queen – produce and eggs from the local farmer’s market, organic protein, organic milk – but we aren’t nearly as kind to ourselves and really need to make more of an effort to meal plan.

What has been Miss H’s most exciting milestone: Saying her first sentences! (I’ll preface this story by sharing that Miss H’s nickname is Say Say, which she calls herself.) The other night our dog Charlie was laying on the floor sleeping. Miss H looked down at him and said “Night night Charlie. Say Say go night night too.” It was so adorable and exciting to hear her really connect words!

What we’re looking forward to: I really want to work on better table manners and cannot wait for the day Miss H isn’t throwing forks, spoons, and sippy cups on the floor! We will get there, right?!