Word # 5 - and crying it out :(

So today, I caught Hannah pointing at things and saying, "Look!" Very cute :)

As for some not-so-cuteness, I'm having to let her cry it out tonight......... breaks my heart. She's been fighting going to sleep (at night and for naps). She'll find anything to keep from going to sleep. Once she figures out that she's falling asleep, she starts scrambling for something else--tonight, her decoy was finding a book to read. Welp, we looked through the book, sang through a song a few times, and I put her in her crib, kissed her goodnight, and walked out. That was about 40 minutes ago. Still going strong.

I went in after she cried--no, wailed, really--for 20 minutes and reassured her that I was still here by kissing her on her head (she's standing up in her crib) and quickly patting her back. So, if she's not asleep in another 10 minutes, I'll go do the same. It sounds like she's getting tired, though, but who knows. Hopefully it doesn't take too many nights of this to sink in.

Word # 4

Today, I caught Hannah holding a little stuffed yellow toy with an orange beak, saying, "Duck!"

First Words

Hannah has 3 words in her vocabulary so far. You ready?

1. "clock"

2. "cat"

3. "Gypsy" (our cat's name)

Talk about picking difficult words to say first!

Hannah Updates

Our little girl is getting all growed up. :)

First of all, she has let the crawling cat out of the bag. I would say in the last week she has really figured it out. So she's scooting pretty quickly around the house. She loves chasing Gypsy or having me chase her, which is super cute. She also climbed her way all the way up the stairs today! (with me spotting, of course) Along with crawling, she's pulling up on things and cruising. She gets better and better at cruising every day, which is very neat to watch.

She also gives kisses. We got video of that yesterday, and one of these days when I've got more than 3 minutes, I'll get that uploaded for you to see. Hannah likes for you to tell her what things are called. When she knows what something is called, she smiles when you say its name. She really likes when you say, "clock." She mimics your intonation when you say things... you can tell that she's really trying to say what you're saying.

She's still a peanut (imagine that). Someone asked us today if "he" was 4 - 5 months old. HAH! Try 10??? Oh well. Who cares. :)

And finally, the latest picture!

The House and Farrah Update

Well...the house is coming along as you can see below and it seems as though this takes the longest (the foundation that is). We also are continually blown away by how fast Farrah is growing. It is amazing how much she changes in one week.

[I uploaded all new pictures to their previous picasa albums (Farrah and House), so they are updated. They can be viewed here: http://picasaweb.google.com/jumpuva ]

A Day at the Elms

Our good friends, Mike and Eva Elm, invited Calie and I over to the their house for dinner on Thursday night. They are a great family with loving hearts and Eva isn't a half-bad Swedish cook. She made a delicious dinner while Calie did piano lessons with Jasmine, their daughter. Meanwhile I took some photos of Hannah and Farrah and the Elm family. The Iranian guy in the pictures is Mike, a man after God's own heart. I enjoyed talking to him in depth about his conversion experience from Islam to Christianity--God is Awesome. Mike also has a hobby of keeping and breeding Iranian pidgeons. I took some pics of them in flight against God's canvas. The little boy in the pictures is their son, Michael, and the little girl is Katherine, their foster child.