Hope’s blog has been moved to a NEW address.

It is now hosted directly, rather than under the wordpress server and domain.

I won’t be making any more updates to this blog – but everything has been moved, and updated, on the new blog so visit us there!

Please bookmark her new DIRECT addresses:
www.HopeAnn.com or www.HopeChavez.com

Hope is working hard at figuring out this crawling thing. She can now easily get up on her hands and knees, and while she does not yet actually crawl, she can manage to get around fairly well already. 

She’s always so excited about moving around, she just has to figure out the order things move in and bring it all together now. It is so much fun to watch her learning, she gets so happy and excited and enthusiastic about everything!

I took some pictures to share of her working on it today!

  
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8 months finds Hope growing, changing, and becoming more gorgeous every day.

She is easily sitting and keeping her balance on her own now. In fact, she is almost able to sit up by herself now too!

Crawling is going to come soon. She is starting to get up on her hands and knees, at which point she will rock back and forth, and usually end up flopping backwards … ending up further from where she wants to go! She sure tries hard though, it won’t take long for things to come together. 

She is learning how to use her fingers better, she can pick up cheerios and manage to get them in her mouth on her own, and has mastered the art of pinching things between her thumb and fingers. Eating now goes hand in hand with pinching. Hope’s favorite thing to pinch while she is eating seems to be mom’s chest … which as a result looks like a scabby war zone.

Eating has become another new adventure this month. She had started to enjoy tasting foods, but until recently had not really wanted to eat any quantity of them. In the past week she has really decided she likes to eat now. Orange foods are her favorite, squash, carrots, and sweet potato – she sure makes funny faces for green-beans though! 

Enjoy the new photos!

  
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Richard has been quite busy teaching Hope new tricks as she grows.

Biting the pacifier and playing tug with her teeth was a fun game … as long as it involved daddy and the pacifier. Once she carried it over to feeding time with mom though, we had a bit of a painful problem (followed by a discussion with dad regarding future new tricks).

The fine art of blowing a raspberry did not go over so well when she showered her half-asleep mom with a spray of milk the following morning… but she sure was amused and proud of herself! Dad tried his best to hide his amusement and feign innocence (apparently in light of mom’s displeasure it seemed the wise response) but with little success as he couldn’t seem to stop laughing.

His most recent was to teach her to stick her tongue out. She is quite a little ham, and very quickly picks up on new things – especially if it results in making people laugh at her! Needless to say, she very quickly became quite proficient at this new skill, and spent so much time with her tongue hanging out of her mouth that I had to buy her a tube of chapstick as she was causing a red chapped area on her bottom lip and chin.  

Here she is with Joanna – showing off her new skills!

  
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These pictures speak for themselves . . . Be sure to view all four in order!

  
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(Note from Mommy: “He He He … Finally, Daddy gets a taste of his own medicine after teaching her to bite!”)

Our trip back from back from California started out well enough. OnStar got us lost in downtown San Diego (when I asked for directions to the nearest beach, they sent me to Beach Street market, in the middle of downtown San Diego). Then they sent us clear over to an island when I called for new directions to an actual beach.  The new puppies in the back only howled for a couple hours before deciding to quiet down. The visit to the beach (once we actually got to one) was wonderful, the best part of the whole trip! Then we hit the road heading back toward NM, with a stop along the way to visit Richard’s mom and sister.

Hope got to meet her Grandma (Richard’s mom) for the first time, and was a big hit. She was welcomed with open arms, new toys to play with, and had excited smiles to share with everyone.  Hope was infatuated with Grandma’s new Pearls and loved playing with them. We had a nice visit, and Hope got to spend a happy afternoon with her Grandma. 

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After our visit we hit the road again, a little later than intended, but planning to reach home by midnight. Hope had other plans though. After about 30 minutes back on the road, she decided she was done being in the carseat. So, we stopped for dinner, let her relax for a while, then tried it again. This time we only made it about 20 minutes of driving before she decided she was done. After another 30 minutes of trying, unsuccessfully, anything to keep her happy, we pulled off on the side of the road to take her out and feed her. With Hope nice and happy, we figured we could finally get back on the road and headed home … guess we forgot to ask her approval on that one because the car-seat did not go over well again. It didn’t take long before Richard or I could stand her being so upset, so we stopped at a gas-station with a tasty freeze and sat down to enjoy an ice-cream cone  for a while. As long as she was out of the carseat, Hope was as happy as can be! This time when we started driving again, she lasted about 30 minutes before she started crying. By now, it was after 9PM and of we drove straight thru the rest of the night we wouldn’t reach home until 6:00 the next morning… and Hope was bawling again. We finally gave up, found the nearest cheap hotel, and called it a night. As soon as she had a bed to stretch out in, Hope was sound asleep for the night.

The next day we started early and made it home in decent time, despite construction slowdowns, wind so strong we could not see more than 50 feet in front of the car thru the blowing dust, rainstorms, sleet, then snow. It sure was nice to finally make it home and be out of the weather and the car!

We took a road trip out to California to pick up a couple of new Cane Corso puppies, and Hope got to see the ocean for the first time. She seemed quite excited watching the waves, so I took her out to see one up close and personal. Standing with her toes in the sand was interesting for her – she did the stork thing for a second with one leg up in the air, then noticed the wave coming in toward her. I guess they must have looked a lot better from up in the safety of mom’s arms than staring at them from her level, because she sure was watching it intently. She didn’t really mind though, till it washed over her toes – then she decided it was COLD and she didn’t much care for bare toes in the waves!

She did great on the trip out, and really enjoyed all the time spent visiting folks and seeing the sights. On our way out we stopped at a beautiful beach to relax and enjoy ourselves for a bit. I think some folks that live near it take the ocean for granted as it is there all the time, probably like I do the mountains here. I love the ocean though, it is so beautiful and relaxing for me. The time spend on the beach with Richard and Hope was the best part of the whole trip for me!

Here are some photos to share.   : )

  
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We spent this afternoon at a park with my family celebrating Hope’s Grandpa’s birthday! She really seemed to enjoy being outdoors for the afternoon.

It was a nice day, just warm enough to be pleasant without being hot, though I found the breeze to be just a bit chilly myself. Hope is becoming more and more alert and responsive all the time. She is a happy baby, always ready to laugh and just full of smiles for everyone!

Her top teeth are coming in now, the middle two are just through, and the next two on the top look like they are going to be coming in right behind them. I think now that her teeth are coming in, she is developing quite an interest in trying them out – she likes to chew on any objects, clothes, and fingers she can find available.  : ) 

 
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When I showed these photos to a friend, her response was “Wow, she’s such a little person already“. Of course she’s a little person, but what I think she meant was that Hope is growing up so fast, and not looking so much a little baby anymore. It really is amazing watching her grow and change, she seems to become more and more beautiful by the day.

Hope can sit and keep her balance on her own now! (at least for as long as sitting holds her interest). And her first top teeth are on their way!

Hope is really developing an interest in tasting things. She’s not much for actually eating any quantity of anything, but certainly will let us know that she wants to try almost anything we are eating ourselves. Foods with texture like breads, pasta, avocados, etc are all quite exciting to her now. She’s not much for mush though, won’t have anything to do with rice or oatmeal baby cereal, and a spoon-full of smashed banana resulted in the funniest face as she tried to spit it out! Guess she takes after her mom there, ugh, slimy bananas . . .

For this month’s photos, I draped a white sheet over the headboard of our bed, dropped a couple desk lamps at the foot of the bed, Richard played peek-a-boo with Hope and I and ended up with some beautiful shots! Feeling rather pleased with myself and the way they turned out, I sent a number off to Costco to be printed. When I got there to pick them up though, they said there was a problem… They required a signed copyright release from the photographer to reprint any professional studio shots. I don’t think the lady believed me when I kept telling her I took them myself, but in the end they made me sign a waiver stating they were my own shots (apparently to make sure that when the real photographer showed up to sue Costco, they could pass the blame off on me) and let me have my prints. I’m very pleased with how they turned out, and guess I ought to take that whole experience as quite a compliment!

I love these pictures, hope you enjoy them!

  
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What a month of firsts for Hope this has been. In the past weeks she has gotten two teeth, learned to roll over – both ways -  to pull herself into a sitting position in her swing, and to be quite more vocal and opinionated as well!

 She has become very “touchy”. Especially when she is eating she loves to look up and touch my face with her hand.

 She has started really getting into expressing herself with sounds now too, especially in the mornings. Some mornings we wake up to what sounds like a very happy barnyard has gotten loose in the crib across the room!

She has started using rolling as her means of getting places now. If she wants to scoot and can’t seem to get the coordination down to get where she wants to go, she’ll roll a couple times and be right there! 

Her balance is getting stronger, and soon she’s going to be sitting on her own I bet.  : )

  
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