Oops!

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted last, but we've been moving!! Our original move date was July 3rd and then my mom came out for about a week and a half to help us move. We were making such great progress that we wondered if we could move the previous Friday (the 26th) instead. Seemed silly for me to be in a packed house with just Hannah Gray and I when we could be in NJ with Ethan. So we changed the date to the 26th. Well, our mover in Annapolis cancelled on us, so we had to scramble to find another company. Ethan managed to find some guys out of Baltimore, but they were only available for Thursday morning, first thing. So we had to be completely boxed up by Wed. night. We did it! Phew!! My mom and I were hoping to take some time to hit a beach for at least a couple hours to enjoy the Maryland shore before we took off and I think we would have been able to do that prior to the second change of date. But it all worked out well and good thing we were on track in our progress!

So we drove to NJ on Thursday and we changed my mom's flight so that she would leave from near our new home on Sunday. Thank goodness she was here for the move. The movers on the NJ side of things were SLOW!! I think I unloaded more from the truck than they did. Now granted, they did a bunch of heavy stuff, but I think I saw them with their heads in the freezer, panting than I did with a box in their hands. We couldn't shoo them away until all the heavy stuff in the front of the truck was unloaded. But once that last piece of furniture was out, we sent them off. The "team leader" was in his car, with the radio on and car out of park before the other two guys were even out of our house. Our new neighbor, Steve gave me a lesson in being from NJ. "Kid, you gotta tell them how it is. You tell them they've got 20 minutes to unload that truck and this is what you'll pay them for it. You're in NJ now". And in NJ we are.

Some things I've learned so far...

1. Don't talk on a cell phone while driving. Cops don't like that.

2. You can't turn from intersections 99.9% of the time. They have these weird little off shoots that go around so that you change directions there and get to the street you want to. Other drives don't like it when you miss those.

3. Everyone seems like they're from Italy.

4. Ask people to spell their names. Sometimes it's the only way to tell what they're actually saying.

5. There are lots of bakeries here. And all good ones.

6. The bakery down the street gives my mom (and me) free cookies and he waves to us as we walk by.

7. I should hyphenate Hannah Gray so that we don't hear her name pronounced just as "Hawn-ah"

Okay, now for what I think you're probably reading this blog for; to hear about Hannah Gray.

She's changing a ton! She's started this quiet babbling that's different from anything else she's done. It's not a repetitive saying of the same one or two noises, but more like she's actually carrying on a conversation with herself, or with you if she's looking at you. She also started standing by herself for like 20 seconds at a time. She started to do it I think the weekend before we moved and now will pull herself up and let go of whatever she's holding onto. It's funny b/c sometimes I don't even think she realized what she's doing. Then once she does, the back arches back, she starts to teeter, she'll catch herself (sometimes), then Boom, falls flat on her rear end.

She blew kisses (I think that's what she was doing) for the first time yesterday, she regularly waves hi and bye. She high fives now, will love on whatever she decides to whether that's us, Tanner, a picture she really likes or a favorite stuffed animal. But it's all very intentional and she means it. She's giving kisses. Actually she opens her mouth really wide and leans into you and puts her open mouth on your face/nose area and just keeps it there, mouth open until she's decided that she's loved on you enough.

Let's see, I think that's about it for now. I will post pictures of the house and lil' bit soon. Our house is a bit of a disaster still. I did take a couple pictures "before" and I'm waiting until we have our final product to take the second round.