Anna - Month 1

Day 1
Anna is here; 6lbs1oz, 215 PM, 19 inches

Day 2
Anna is home from the hospital very good at sucking

Day 3
Anna is tiny and a bit dehydrated, she weighs 5lbs6oz today, we went to Dr Cutherbertsons

Day 4
Anna is a poop machine; her daddy is half impressed, half exasperated and told her she wasn't being very environmentally friendly after she went through 3 diapers in one changing

Day 5
Anna is eating now; she is still very sleepy, except at night, she does not like the bassinet and has slept with mom and dad every night, shhh don't tell the SIDS police

Day 6
Anna loves her passy

Day 7
Anna is on the fast track; umbilical chord is off

Day 8
Anna is still in the extremely sleepy phase of life

Day 9
Anna is very difficult to burp though pretty easy to squeeze a poop out of. This kid poops all the time!

Day 10
Anna is in need of her first bath. Her parents have not been on the ball in that department.

Anna is 14 oz in 7 days! 6lbs 4oz. Gogo Anna go!

Day 11
Anna is recovering from being cooked on her walk to the farmers market with mom, grandma and Sarah Jane on the hottest day of the year. She is a very good sport and rarely complains about anything.

Day 12
Anna is first night of no 90 minute feedings, just three very civilized 30 minutes, spaced exactly 3 hours apart. She managed to wake up at 11:58, 2:58 and 5:58. That's quite a circadian clock! And she went back to sleep in the bassinet which made her mom very happy. The trick seems to be coaxing a burp out of her and NOT changing her diaper after the second side.

Day 13
Anna is headed to the city for her big sisters play date at Moscone park with Brady and former nanny Veronica. She was very well behaved!

Day 14
Anna is going to sleep in the original bassinet which arrived from cousin Clyde in New Jersey. Fingers crossed for a better night than last night!

Day 15
Anna is unable to fall asleep in her own bed after 1 am which is not a schedule her mother is enjoying.

Day 16
Anna is meeting her GG and Great Grandpa.

Day 17
[First missing day. I think I was tired.]

Day 18
Anna is grunty, baby acne and explosive toots. Not very ladylike at the moment...

Day 19
Anna is enjoying some solo attention from mom on the next to last day of paternity leave. Headed up to the little trains in a bit but quiet on the couch for now.

Day 20
Anna is finished with her third bath and didn't cry at all which is a little odd. What baby likes a bath that much?

Day 21
Anna is stoic as paternity leave ends. Her mother is facing the end of dad being home less gracefully.

Day 22
Anna is quiet at night, she almost never cries, she usually wakes mom up with her grunting which means she is hungry.

Day 23
Anna is figuring out she needs to make some noise if she wants to get attention

Day 24
Anna is eating every two hours today and last night. She apparently did not get the memo that 3 was more appropriate.

Anna is meeting her Nana and Papa

Day 25
Anna is starting to pick up her head and look around. Though still very sleepy.

Day 26
Anna is not cooperating. Eating every hour, won't sleep in her own bed, forgot how to burp again. Great timing for her dad to take off on a two day bike ride.

Day 27
Anna slept loads last night, 7 to midnight, 1 to 4 and then all the way to 7. Dad brought the magic swing up to our room. That seemed to do the trick.

Day 28
Anna said goodbye to her Nana and Papa today.

Day 29
Anna has grown out of Newborn diapers. She is officially a 1. After she officially peed on her mother while nursing. That is the sign. Anna is gassy, poor baby. She had some bouts of fussiness today for the first time. Have been solving all problems by feeding her but trying to stop that now. She should be able to go 3 hours!

Day 30
Anna spent the evening wishing aunt Carrie happy bday over Thai food in the city, an event she cheerfully slept through though she protested loudly most of the way home. Tonight she is going to try her first bottle.

Day 31
Anna took a bottle! 11PM dream feed from dad so mom got to sleep until 2!

Big slugger

Baseball with dad

Oh! Tents! (REI)

Videos of SJ and Anna from Zeke

Sarah Jane at Totland

Sarah Jane Holds Anna

First breakfast out

Bette's dinner

The Challenge...

Sarah Jane was perhpas the most photographed baby ever for her first two years. Or maybe not ever, but certainly highly photographed. We recorded everything - anyone who visited, anyone who held her, anything she did, we got a photo. I was pretty sure (and I was right) that a second child would occupy quite as much of my hard drive. What to do for that second child to make sure we remembered who she was and what she did as she made it through this exciting first year? Then Aunt Ellie sent me a YouTube link to a funny video of a baby who had a picture taken every day of his first year in the same spot, with a big piece of paper showing what day it was. That would be fun! But Dave quickly (and rightly) vetoed it as crazy. But it got me thinking - how could we remember every single day of Anna's first year? I'm sure by the time Anna can read this there will be something else new and fun to occupy us but right now we are occupied by Facebook, Flickr, and all things social networky. And we love to post and read our "status" - a short, note on what we are doing or feeling at the moment. The best ones attempt to be witty ("Abby is on the night shift, following a day shift, following a night shift... when does my overtime pay kick in?") but the majority are really, really mundane and mostly pretty boring ("Abby needs some coffee") Despite the boring-ness, I find them fascinating - like sitting on a windowsill watching a moment in someone's life.



So, here's the challenge: Can I post a status update for every (or nearly every) day of Anna's first year? I'm pretty sure no one will find all of these, or even most of these, interesting but perhaps the compilation of the full year will be fun for Anna to read some day. She won't appreciate it until she has her own babies but then the daily sleep, eat, poop struggle might be pretty interesting!



I will do my best to illustrate with pictures and maybe even videos when we have them and I will strive for witty but am pretty sure we will settle for mundane.

It's a...

Girl!

Abby, Sarah Jane and I are ecstatic to announce the arrival of Anna Whitney Hoverman who was born today, Aug 19th, at 2:15 in the afternoon in San Francisco. 

 

Anna was born a healthy and lightweight 6lbs 1oz; arriving punctually on her due date though she took a leisurely 21 hours.  Sarah Jane is very interested in her sister but asked us several times to put her "back in bed?"  

 

Anna was named after Abby's Great-Grandmother (Anna Whitney) and sisters (Whitney and Eleanor Anne).  

 

More pictures to follow,

 

Dave, Abby & big sister Sarah Jane

 

 

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Dave Hoverman

Senior Principal

The Parthenon Group

555 California St, 31st Floor

San Francisco, CA 94104

(415) 486-3611 (direct)

(603) 315-4167 (mobile)

 

Sarah Jane at 24 months

This is going to have to be a quick update as according to Dr. Kim I am already in labor with baby number two. Poor Sarah Jane, already getting shafted! Before we head to the hospital we wanted to record some of our favorite things about Sarah Jane at 24 months and some of her exciting summer events.

Sarah Jane had a very busy summer. We started off by going to Uncle Nat's graduation in Hanover, stopping first in Boston to visit Tuck friends. While there we had dinner at Pico close to our old Southend apartment and Sarah Jane was an amazingly good sport playing under the bar for almost three hours while we socialized and ate dinner. She definitely established herself as a rockstar good baby with that feat. Our friends who are parents of boys couldn't believe it. Nat's graduation was Sarah Jane's third trip to Hanover (forth if you count in-utero.) After Nat's graduation, we spent Forth of July in Tahoe and then got on a redeye, flew to Miami, then took a 3 hour flight to St. Kitts and then a taxi/boat/taxi to Nevis for Uncle Matt and Aunt Julia's wedding. Sarah Jane was a rockstar through all of that travel, never once breaking down though she did call our bluff in the Miami airport at one point when we threatened to leave her in the seat she refused to vacate. She happily waved goodbye and we caved first. She was a very little girl at all the wedding celebration, enjoying pancakes every morning served by Leslie the clairvoyant (maybe?) baby whisperer waitress and thoroughly enjoyed all of her Aunt's and Uncles - Kiki, Hef, Mike Ju-ya, Lolo and "Don". We weren't sure how she turned Matt into Don but it was pretty funny. Sarah Jane was very hesitant in the pool and did not like to go off the steps though we did manage to get her to jump off the side of the pool eventually. She made a beautiful little flower girl in a gorgeous dress which matched Aunt Julia's (second dress) and behaved very well during the both the procession (escorted right before the bride but "cousin" Laurie) and the ceremony. That said, she refused to take a half-way decent picture with her mother the entire evening though she took many perfect ones with her beautiful Aunt Julia. Hmph.

After we got home, she had one last week with Veronica and Brady and then we headed up to Tahoe. Leaving Veronica was very hard for me and for Veronica (many tears) though thankfully Sarah Jane didn't realize what was happening. Up at Tahoe Sarah Jane definitively established that she did NOT want to go anywhere near the water. It was NOT her thing. She did enjoy playing in the baby pool on the front porch and she particularly likes filling up buckets of water. Grandma got her a little beach chair just like mommy's because Sarah Jane learned a good trick. She would tell me that she needed to go pee-pee so I would get up from my nice comfy chair to help her and the next thing I knew, she would be sitting in my chair. I fell for it every time. I was very glad when Grandma got her her own chair. On the pee-pee topic, Sarah Jane loves the "potty book" and has shown lots of indication that she is ready to be potty trained. However, when we tried at Tahoe to do the full immersion method, we discovered that while she can hold it, she can't or won't "go" in the potty and it makes her very distressed so we put the project on hold until after the chaos of the summer calms down.

While up in Tahoe we closed on the house in Berkeley. We drove down with Grandma and Aunt Ellie on Thursday night, packed on Friday and moved on Saturday. Sort of busy. Sarah Jane rolled with it at every step. She loves her "NewHaaus" and particularly enjoyed running through the empty house yelling with Aunt Ellie the day of the move. For the record, I think Aunt Ellie might have enjoyed the run/yell as much as Sarah Jane. She had a tough time sleeping the first night and spent a good part of that night chatting in mommy and daddy's bed which we did NOT appreciate but she seemed to adjust just fine after that.

We then spent three weeks moving in, getting used to our new neighborhood (she LOVES neighbor Nico!), planning for Nana and Papa's visit and getting ready for Sarah Jane's 2nd birthday party which began with a petit guest list of ~20 but suddenly mushroomed into a gigantic party of 55. Sarah Jane enjoyed getting to know Totland (the park near our house.) Her favorite toy is the big red plastic car with the door that closes. Unfortunately the wheels don't work that well and she either doesn't get it that she can push it herself or realizes that she can get mommy to push her around and around but in either case mommy spends a lot of time pushing her around and around. Not so fun when enormously pregnant. We have limited our trips to Totland as a result. Sarah Jane also likes the swing, the cooking stations and the vacuum toys.

This follows a big theme in Sarah Jane's life currently which is cleanliness. She LOVES to be clean and hates to be dirty. She sits quietly to have her face wiped off, insists on having a napkin in her lap for meals and generally wipes her hands after each bite. She still sings the "clean-up clean-up" song which she made up herself and usually puts away whatever toy or book she is playing with before she moves on to the next toy or book. When in the bath, she not only puts all her toys away when she is done but carefully squeezes and shakes all the water off of them before putting them in the basket. It's a little strange. Aunt Dr. Whitney says it's not a sign that SHE is psychotic, just that her parents have problems. Could have told you that. She also loves to cook and "wash" which involves standing at the sink and filling up cups with water and washing them. She can do it for hours at Grandma and Zeke's house. We are worried about their water bill. Other things she loves at Grandma and Zeke's include Pickle (and Pickle now loves Sarah Jane), the chickens, picking tomatoes and strawberries (which get eaten right away) and the swing seats. She also loves Grandma and Zeke and Uncle Nat. Sometimes she says "Miss Uncle Nat, miss Uncle Nat" over and over until we call Uncle Nat on the phone. Uncle Nat is the only person she has ever "missed". I'm not sure what it means. Grandma incidentally now seems to be "grama", not "mama".

She also loves to "fix" with daddy which generally involves projects around the house or putting together Ikea furniture. She is very good at screwdrivers. She was highly impressed when Dad and Uncle Nat moved the light over the dinning room table and tells me about it all the time.

Whatever "miss Uncle Nat" means, Sarah Jane truly does miss Brady. She has seen Brady three times since we stopped seeing them every day and each time has been a joyful reunion with lots of hugs and kisses and running around happiness. She also talked to Brady once on the phone and there were lots of "I love you Brady" and "I love you SarJane"s which made mommy very sad! We are looking forward to a weekly play date when Erin is home on maternity leave.

A typical day in Sarah Jane's life goes like this: She wakes up at 6:15 on the dot. She gets her diaper changed and then comes into Daddy's room for a bottle and some books (yes mommy lives there too.) Sometimes she brings the books in herself. The other morning she brought in 4 - one in each hand, one under an arm and one in her mouth. Then we get in the shower. She no longer likes to have her hair washed so there is crying every morning. After shower we sing the "Baby Burrito" song which sounds like the Baby Beluga song from Rafi and Sarah Jane calls it the BabyBu. She gets the towel wrapped around her arms and looks like a starwars creature. Then we get dressed. She no longer likes to get dressed so that now takes a long time. Then we brush her hair. She no longer likes to have her hair brushed so that takes even longer. It's a bit of a pain. THEN we go downstairs and have breakfast. When we get downstairs she says "New Haaus!" like she just noticed where she was. We have oatmeal. Sarah Jane's has bananas and PBs. Then we tend to do errands though that is going to change soon. After errands we come home and blow bubbles in the back yard. Sarah Jane LOVES bubbles and is very good at them. She likes to catch them and say "I got it!" when it pops. After bubbles, we eat burritos. Sarah Jane LOVES burritos. Then we got outside and have some fruit. At about 1, she tells me she wants to go night night. We go upstairs and she very agreeably gets in bed and makes like she is going to sleep. Sometimes she does but usually we spend 45 minutes manipulating mommy (Agua!!! Blankets!!! Mommy's room!!! Closedadoor!!! OpenOpen!!!!) THEN we go to sleep. At this point I'm exhausted and also go to sleep. She usually sleeps for 2.5 to 3 hours which is a good thing cause I'm beat. Then we get up and sometimes go to the park, sometimes go see Grandma and Zeke, sometimes pick up dad at BART. She eats dinner at 6pm and starts heading to bed at around 7:30. Bedtime routine involves a bottle, 3-4 books on the couch (two couches), brushing teeth and then three songs. She also needs to be tucked in with three specific blankets, the yellow one, the pink one and the green one and her head goes on the soft brown one. Did I mention very specific?

Before I sign out, I should mention all the medical ailments Sarah Jane has had this summer. It started out with an odd rash on her face, hands, feet and diaper area. At the same time she had another rash on her elbows and knees. It was all very strange, not diagnosed satisfactorily by the doctor, didn't seem to bother her and eventually went away on it's own. Then on the Saturday before the birthday she was hoisted into the air by her dad and straight into the low beam between the kitchen and the dinning room. Rather than crying Sarah Jane immediately went totally silent, held onto mommy very tightly, and then appeared to have her eyes roll up into her head. At that point we sprinted out the door on our way to the hospital. As we ran outside, she suddenly perked up and said, "Nana coming?" and was completely cheerful and didn't seem to have any recollection of bumping her head. All very strange. Thankfully we had a doctor and a nurse with us (Papa and Nana) and they monitored her very carefully for any signs of damage which did not appear. Then the day AFTER the birthday party she got a massive splinter in her finger which had to be dug out with a needle (she was not silent for that one!) AND she smacked her face on the bathroom floor after escaping from the shower at top speed not wanting to have her hair washed. Also not a silent aftermath.

She did have a good time at her birthday party and with her new stuff. She particularly likes her table and chairs from Grandma and Zeke and master-assembler Uncle Nat. She also LOVES the pink rocking chair from the Zelenaks which Papa assembled. She wants to take it with her wherever she goes. Including the aquarium. That one didn't happen, it is big. She also loves the tent in the backyard with the tunnel from Nana and Papa. She got lots of cute outfits, cooking stuff and books. She also got a tutu and leotard from Aunt Whitney which she is going to learn to love but hasn't figured it out yet.

And now on to the elephant in the room, Mom's tummy. Sarah Jane is NOT interested. She refuses to have a conversation about it though when I tell her that Daddy and Mommy are going to to to the hospital to get the baby she says "Jane Come?" Then I tell her she's going to stay with Grandma and Zeke she seems totally satisfied and moves on. That's about as far as we get. She is interested in the baby toys/gear and is a very good mommy to her dolls. Everything is a baby including her fork which she often wraps in her napkin and sings to sleep. It will be interesting to see what happens when she meets the baby! Sarah Jane is a VERY good little girl and I'm sure she will be a good big sis.

At our new park!

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Toys at IKEA

Morning paper

Loaded up

Back in SF, pounding a whole burrito

SJ ready for Tahoe trip

Too cool for school

Sarah Jane's big event

Sarah Jane had a big moment this morning. We read "The Potty Book" when she woke up and before I put her diaper on she insisted she had to "go" - I was skeptical but we ran to the bathroom and she "WENT"! Not once but twice. It was very exciting. We filmed the aftermath on Dave's new toy - the Flip - we gave it to him for father's day...

Gogurt with Dad

Abby is on her last business trip of the year!  Dave is hanging out with Sarah Jane.  They got froyo.  Sarah Jane is wearing her brand new Dartmouth sweatshirt.  I think she looks VERY grownup.   

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Sarah Jane's admirer

Email received from Kiran Lawrence after our trip to Covelo with her three kids:

Subject: Thomas's Song

In the car on the way to the club this morning I over heard Thomas singing a little song about "the girl I'm gonna marry and her name is Sarah...Sarah Jane" So cute! She made a big impression on him!

Walking Pickle with Grandma and Zeke

Very satisfied with herself

Robert Smith 510.524.0080 From a tiny keyboard.