on october 5th, 2014, my husband and i welcomed yet another spectacular human being into the world. toot! toot! (thats my own horn) since then, we have had the honor of getting to know her a little bit and here follows my account of the person of hannah julie lima:

back when she was the tiniest little thing i've ever seen, i thought she looked just like emily only close to 3 pounds lighter. she was this oddly familiar person always reminding me of my first baby and so skinny! i felt like i'd break her and we actually got to use many of the newborn clothes that barely fit her older sister. both of these things quickly changed. 

now she is 6 months+, a much less fragile 15 pounds and completely her own identity both in my heart and in the world of hashtags. its hard for me to find a resemblance now between my two girls. i figure hannah looks just like Ricky's side of the family except with my blue eyes and fair skin. even my mom said, straight out of the womb, that she looked like lisa (ricky's mom).


it's a little unfortunate that with the second you tend to define them by every way they are not like the first. but that is why we have determined that she is such a sweetie. when she learned to smile it was as if she was just waiting for the next opportunity to practice this new skill. all you had to do was look her way and you would be greeted with absolute sunshine. emily was not like this.  we had to put in a little more effort for her and if we wanted emily to laugh, forget-about-it! hannah IS ticklish! particularly, the arm pits :). its one of my favorite things about her that she laughs almost every time i change her clothes. it makes the experience, which happens almost ten times a day, less tedious. 

Things Emily loves at the moment:
- to go on walks. she walks by herself (no stroller) and they often take 45 mins or more because she likes to stop and pick up leaves or talk about flowers or whatever. oh, and she often talks for most of the time. 
- she likes to hold hands when its her idea, especially
- stuffed animals. i can't say enough how much i love this but she loves all things stuffed. her favorite is "mee" which translates to "monkey". she needs to have at the very least monkey with her when she is sleeping and is often accompanied by upwards of 3 or 4 buddies. 
- she loves to repeat things and is trying new words all the time. 
- she loves to take her grandparents dogs for walks
- she loves to sing and dance. her favorites right now are 1. "deep deep" which is code for any frozen song and originates on the first line she ever sang in one of the songs 2. wheels on the bus and that entire cd of which "wheels on the bus" is the first song(requested with hand motions of the song)3. shake it off- the new single by taylor swift (she's a hip baby ok)
- she loves the pool "POOOOL!!" and slides. she just mastered going done the chick-fil-a slide by herself. 
- she loves books and having mommy read them to her and picking them out and recently takes a book to nap with. 
- she loves to color. or i should say she loves to tell you where to color and to have you color for her. 
- she loves taking pictures with mommy and daddy's camera which is labeled "cheese" since we tell her to say that when we take her picture. 
- she is obsessed with the ipad. we refer to it as the "object of desire" since we can't mention it without ten requests to go on it. i need a sign that says "this child has gone without screem time for ___ days" 
- she loves the movie frozen and really any movie i think if we let her watch it. 
-she loves cell phones and constantly requests "re! Re!" which means to call grammy and since she has two we aren't sure who she is referring to. 
- she loves going to her friends house and playing with them, although, at the moment she's not the best at it (aka: what 19 month old does share well? i mean seriously people)

Emily is exactly 19 months and 14 days old at this point and i've never sat down to write a mushy detailed description of just who she is at this moment in life. I'm taking it upon myself to do this now for multiple reasons which are as follows: 1. isn't 19 months and 14 days like a big deal? 2. ricky and i was just saying how are we going to remember all the little things we love about her and 3. pretty soon she won't be the center of our world anymore - she will have to share it with this mystery being we call hannah (or at least thats how i imagine emily sees it). So even though i kind of wish i had been doing this all along and it erks me now that this isn't apart of some "series", i know i'll never regret doing this. 
Here is our "State of the Emily" address or more like "everything i can think of i want to remember forever" list:
-Emily is a complete mix of her father and i. not just physically, which is to be expected, but personality wise. She is such a first-born, like ricky, and yet manages to have a lot of my spunk too. For example, she will put things away and in the right place with out being asked or coached (ricky swoons when she does this). She used to not continue eating until her sippy cup was placed back in the circle thing on her tray. one time i told her she could have what i was eating (a cookie or something) but she was holding this letter magnet thing. Before she took the cookie, she had to put it back on the fridge BUT then she realized it was upside down. She paused, fixed it first, and then took the cookie. Who does that? Answer: Emily. She also is very curious about everything like her dad. She will "help" her dad do anything, from building her new crib to a little yard work here and there. 
Ways she is like her mommy: she is a snuggle monster (or should i say mauler).And she loves being wherever we are no matter what(i think she is an extrovert). If we are working in a room and have the gate up because she can't be in there, she will bring toys to the gate and play NEXT to us. 
- Emily only has one volume (or so it seems) and is becoming very verbal. she also does this hilarious thing where she will copy our tone and imitate us. For example, if i am getting very passionate about something and my voice is raised and my arms are waving around in animation of my point- she will most likely be found doing the exact same thing only in baby babble. 
- she says "yeah" and your heart melts. 
- she also very clearly knows the word "no" and uses it with abandon 
- she makes the best faces and is very expressive. 
- she is very feminine and dainty and careful when she plays. 
- she picks up on everything! she is always listening and we can't get away with mentioning much food or anything she knows about without a chorus of "hon-nee!" (hungry) or "pah!" (ipad). 
- speaking of the "pah", she is a master at all things having to do with the ipad and can deftly go back and forth between apps and plays her games like a champ. (i'll put this one in the category called "like her father" since it has to do with technology) 
- i wouldn't consider emily to be a "sleeper". This is also something i blame ... i mean attribute... on her father. while her friends nap for 2+ hours or even 3 at a time, emily only goes for an hour and a half most days and wakes at the very early hour of 6 every morning. 
- she is very friendly and loves people and will say hi to anyone and i'm convinced everyone thinks she is adorable because they often tell me so... so there!

a good friend of mine sent me an email with the subject line: "art project $"(<-- teehee). he wanted me to take this picture (below) and do some sort of drawing or charcoal. it's of his girlfriend and her much beloved dog that may not be around much longer. sweet, right? i was SO glad he left it open ended enough for me to decide to NOT do a charcoal drawing or any kind of drawing but instead do a loose watercolor. so freeing! i really enjoyed doing this and i think it makes it a little more special then an exact replicate precise drawing. besides, i'm out of practice for that so it might have ended up looking just off enough for you to say "oh thats nice" instead of "incredible!". i've done this once before for my parents and their dogs and i loved how it came out. i wish i had a picture of that to throw up here too. 

its always fun to add little details like the dumb bell, ruler and especially the tooth. they deliver the information in a more interesting way and fill in some gaps. i happen to know (wink, wink) there is a giraffe in the mural in her room so i used that to fill in some awkward spaces too. 

my sister and her husband had been able to watch their cutie of a niece for close to 2 years before deciding (with a third baby on the way) that it was time to give up babysitting. what a blessing it is for family to be your watch your babies for any amount of time- MY! all the genuine love and attention they got to give their niece! so, it only made sense that they would send her off to day-care with a special present: enter the "nap mat". basically, it's a sleeping bag, kiddie sized, with a cushy pillow and a soft blanket attached. they got it embroidered with her initials but still wanted to go the extra mile and asked me to do a little something, too.
here is what i came up with based on their request: 
hand stitched, ironed on, felt animals and her name. the animals are even cuter when you realize that each one represents little alex and her cousins.