What has Hunter been up to?

Hunter, Hunter, Hunter.

I haven't written about him in a while!  This kid has the unique ability to be both the sweetest, most affectionate three year old I know one minute and then act like an unruly monkey the next.  Being three must be tough-- all these new things around you that you can't physically do or comprehend.  And then, of course, there are all the RULES.  He must feel constantly squelched by our insistance that he obey.  I can tell you that it isn't easy to raise a three year old.  Josh & I both feel the weight of trying to shape this little boy into a decent, well-mannered human who loves the Lord and seeks to help others.  But sometimes just making it through the day is a feat!  I have this image of lovingly teaching and encouraging my children to make good choices, while cuddling them on the couch and stroking their hair.   But in reality, some days it seems more like we are in a battle of wills in a wrestling ring.

Hunter is strong-willed.  He is bright and hungry to learn.  He can be so stubborn (and Josh & I know that he was really doomed to this, as both of us are stubborn!).  He is good at playing by himself and very imaginative.  He has started giving his toys unique voices and creating story lines as he plays.  He likes to set his own pace and sometimes tells me to "go away" when he is in the middle of play.  At other times he loves including Josh and me in his games.

Hunter loves to wrestle his daddy, which usually turns into an hour of burying daddy and then squealing with delight when he busts out of the pillows and blankets.  They also do a lot of sword fights and hide-n-seek.  With me, Hunter likes to build train tracks, read books,  and enjoy "baby sister" as he calls her.  We also like to cuddle when Hunter slows down enough to sit still!  He likes to twirl my hair and press his cheek to my face.  That makes my heart melt.

His verbal ability constantly makes Josh and I stand in awe.  He understands and comprehends so much more than we give him credit for.  When he starts to verbalize it, we begin to understand what an incredible memory this child has.  He associates things very well and often can tell us where we were when we heard things or saw something new.  According to Hunter, everything happened, "yesterday."

He is really into numbers right now and often talks about when he will be TEN.  He can't wait to be 10.  He says when he is 10 he will go to school, run fast, and be able to watch Toy Story 3.  When he asks for something small like fruit gummies, he asks for "A HUNDRED!"  He can almost count to 29. He usually has problems with the number 13 and 15.   But if we help him with those he can make it to 29.  Then he says "Twenty ten!"  We are still working on understanding the concept of 30, 40, 50, etc.

He is almost completely potty trained.  He still wears a pull up at night and during nap time, mostly because I haven't wanted to risk changing the sheets multiple times a day.  He does great during the day, though, and even takes himself to the potty now!  Hooray!  Hunter still has his paci at night and nap time, too.  I keep telling him that is about to come to an end.  But it is hard to take something like that away from him.  He loves it.

Hunter is really into Bob the Builder right now.  He walks around the house singing the song all the time.  We have been taking weekly trips to the library to get new Bob the Builder DVDs as well as Clifford books.  He also chose a few Dr. Seuss books this past week.  When he sees any book or movie he wants he always says, "Mommy, can we buy this at the library?!?!"

Hunter does spend a considerable amount of time in Time Out.  We do 3 minute time outs where he has to keep his hands on his knees.  He usually knows when he has to do a time out and is generally good about staying put.

(Hunter in time out) 


 He is a sweetheart.  We are thankful to have him filling our days with laughter, trains, hide-n-seek, pillow fights, peanut butter toast, sweet hugs, discipline questions, PBS, and curly red hair.

8 months

Adelyn is now 8 months old!  She is crawling, eating 3 solid meals a day, and babbling gibberish.  She loves to click her tongue and she giggles like crazy when people do it back to her.   Her other sounds include a whole lot of squeals, "dadada,"  "ssssssssss," and the occasional "mmmmmm."  

She has begun pulling herself up on things-- mostly just to her knees, but occasionally she gets her feet under her.  We lowered her crib right around her 8 month birthday.  Josh went in to get her up from her nap and found her standing, chewing the top of her crib.  So now it is lowered all the way down and she can stand up with no risk of toppling out of the crib.

Stranger anxiety has settled in a little more.  She has become more picky about who can hold her, which has made church nursery a little difficult.  Adelyn has two moods: happy and mad.  There is a fine line between the two.

Just in the past week she has begun to crawl one hand at a time.  She is fast!  She gets around our apartment pretty well now and is usually on a mission.  She loves to explore and find as many things as she can.

Hunter is still doing pretty well with her.  He loves her very much.  But he is teaching her to be tough from a very young age.  The other day I walked into the kitchen for approximately 10 seconds.  In that time, Hunter picked Adelyn up and put her on our recliner.  She was not stable at all and I literally ran to her to make sure she didn't fall down.  He thought he was helping her out.  She has been hit and slapped, had toys taken out of her hands, and had multiple items thrown at her.  It is hard to be a second child!

As far as eating, she is a champ.  A usual day includes oatmeal and fruit for breakfast, fruit and veggie for lunch, and rice cereal and veggie for dinner.  She goes through 2 jars of baby food and 6-7 Tbsp of cereal every day.  We do 4-5 bottles a day, too, at 6 oz each.  She loves her food!

She sleeps about 11-12 hours at night and 3-4 during the day.  When she sleeps, she puts her two middle fingers in her mouth and cuddles her minky dot bunny.

We love you Baby Adelyn!  So thankful for you!

Conversations with Hunter

Me: "Hunter, would you like a banana?"
Hunter: "No, mommy.  The Babana would spill all over the couch and I don't want the couch to be dirty."

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Hunter: "I'm Hunter Daniel Hammans.  That is Adelyn Taylor Hammans.  You are Mommy Daniel Hammans and Daddy is Daddy Daniel Hammans!"

What is important?

We decided to take the kids to Chick-Fil-A this evening for a fun night out.  I have been so busy the past week due to beginning my internship as well as having multiple evening events.  I have missed my family time.  It was nice to be together.

Hunter ate all of his chicken so we let him go play in the playground.  Josh & I were right outside of the glass doors, watching him play and enjoying some adult conversation.  A few minutes into this, Hunter comes walking out to me and I said, "Hey bubba, how are you?"  Just then a woman across the restaurant looks at me and says, "Uh, he was just hitting a boy over and over up on the equipment."  I clarified, "Hunter was hitting another boy?"  She was laughing and said, "Yes, I just looked over and he was hitting.  It looked funny to me."

I was mortified. I know I immediately turned red.  In this moment I knew I had a choice.  The Lord is sanctifying my heart by teaching me that I have the choice to react to Hunter or to teach him.  It is my natural tendency to immediately wonder what the other parents are going to think of me and my parenting skills.  I fear judgement.  I fear other people disapproving of me and my family.  When I do this, I am forgetting what is most important: Hunter's heart.  He needs to learn that hitting is not a good choice, of course.  But he also needs to know that Mommy loves him even when he makes bad choices.  I want him to know that he matters more to me than what other people think of me.  Tonight I got to practice that.  

 I asked Hunter why he was hitting and he didn't respond.  So, my sweet husband went into the play area and found another set of parents consoling their son.  Josh helped Hunter to apologize.  In the moment I got nervous that other parents were going to act irrational.  Hunter has a lot of energy & is a very physical boy.  He is learning to control himself but it is a slow process.  The other parents were not mad at all and said they didn't see it happen either.  The boys were up in the equipment where it is really hard to see.  Thankfully, they just said they understood boys did this sometimes. 

I was so nervous, but I took myself into that playroom and sat across from the other parents.  I took Hunter by the hand and told him I loved him.  And after we got through the apology, we moved on.  I am so glad the parents were kind-- that helped me to not feel as shamed.  I pray that the Lord continues to help me put my son first-- even over and ahead of what other people think of me.  Although I do pray that I can learn this without Hunter hitting any more kids!!!

He is a sweet boy and generally his physicality is not malicious.  He is just physical and rough.  He enjoys it and assumes others do as well.  I desire to steer that energy in the right direction....  

After this incident, Hunter had a great time playing with the kids and even played a few rounds of hide-n-seek with them.  He did great.  Until he peed on the slide.

Oh, the joys.

Total side note: A few days ago on the playground, Hunter was hitting a boy about 2 years older than him.  I watched him hit several times, not hard, but even when his friend had asked him to stop.  I went over and said, "Hunter, why are you hitting your friend?"  He responded, "Mommy, I am a super hero and this is my super power!!"  I had to keep myself from laughing.  I said "Hunter, you need to find a new super power.  It is not ok to hit your friends."  Josh & I have laughed about this a lot since then!

Kid-isms

Tonight, when I was tucking Hunter in (for the 4th time), I said, "Good night Hunter!"  And a sweet little voice said back to me, "Good night, Mommy."
"I love you, son."
"I love you, too, Mommy."
OH!  Melt my heart my little boy is growing up.
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Hunter has a great vocabulary and talks a lot.  A LOT.  There are a few words he still gets a little wrong....
-- He still calls elevators "alligators."
-- Bananas are --> BaBanas.
-- He can't quite say Adelyn.  She is "AdeWin."  Which is funny, because he cannot say "Woody" (from Toy Story).  He calls Woody "Hoodie."

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Adelyn has taken to eating solid foods.  It took her a bit to warm up to the idea, but now she is full force eating away.  ;) The entire time she has something in her mouth, she sings.  Literally.  She has a lot to say about her food!  So cute.  I will try to capture this on film as it is hard to describe!

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Adelyn is a calm and happy baby, until she isn't.  Seriously, the girl can go from calm and mellow to freaking out in nothing flat.  Hunter always had a few warning signs at least and putting him in a moving car would always calm him down.  Not Adelyn.  When she is mad it doesn't matter what is happening, her needs will be tended to NOW or she will scream.  Sometimes this happens while I am driving or while I am doing something where my hands are not free and she must wait a moment.  But waiting is not.her.thing.  Hunter has started intentionally singing to her in moments like this.  He will start singing the ABCs or Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.  Calms her down, even if it is just for a moment.  Such a sweet older brother.

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The other morning I was in deep sleep and heard laughter.  Something about the sound of it set me off and I just KNEW something was wrong.  I was groggy but fumbled my way into Adelyn's room where I found Hunter INSIDE Adelyn's crib, covering her head with her blanket and laughing hysterically at her "disappearing."  Adelyn was obviously still asleep when Hunter broke into her room and had no idea what was happening to her.  Needless to say, we are CLOSING her door from now on!  We have a door gripper thing on her door so Hunter can't open that quite yet....

Hunter's birthday questions

On Hunter's birthday, I asked him several questions in order to remember all the details about his life.  Like a true 3-year-old boy, this was not done in one sitting!  HA!  I got the first few questions on the video and asked him the rest over the next few days.  Here are his answers.  Enjoy!

1. How old are you? I'm Freeeeeee

2. What is your favorite animal? Kobe Dog.  Or Penguins.

3. What is your favorite thing to eat? Peanut Butter Toast

4. What is your favorite game?  Hide & Seek

5. What is your favorite TV show? Bob the Builder

6. What is your favorite movie? Cars

7. What is your favorite color? Green. or Blue.

8. What do you and your mommy do together? We play.

9. What do you and your daddy do together? I wrestle daddy.

10. What makes Mommy Happy?  Sister makes mommy happy. 

11. What is your favorite sport? Soccer. Or baseball.

12. What is your favorite book?  Carl books

13. Where is your favorite place to go?  The Magic House

7 months

Adelyn is 7 months old!!

She weighs 15 lbs, 3 oz.  She learned to crawl around June 16, cut her first tooth on June 22, and learned to wave on June 27. She is growing up!!!

She is sitting up on her own much better yet still prefers to be "standing" with other people's assistance. When we were at my mom's house she refused to sit for her baths! She would go stiff as a board.  It was hilarious-- took one of us to hold her and another to wash her!

She can get where she wants to go for the most part, which means my job just got a little tougher.  She is slow but determined.  She does the cutest baby planks when she wants to crawl.

She is such a pleasant baby who usually has a smile on her face.  It was interesting to watch her around my family these past few weeks.  She would smile a hesitant smile around new people that looked like she was trying to decide whether to laugh or cry.  Sometimes she would cry.  But as she got more used to the "new" people the crying stopped.  For the most part, she is happy & cheerful.

Adelyn caught a virus somewhere along our travels and is still struggling a little bit with it.  Today is day 7 of fever, more sleepiness and less appetite.  We are hoping it goes away soon!  The doc has told us to keep doing what we are doing and if she still has fever tomorrow we will be heading back to see her.







I have been blown away by her development this month.  She is still so small (15th (ish) percentile!), but it is fun to watch someone so little maneuver around.  She is such a joy.