Hans is Five Months

My little buddy is five months old. 

He is a joy and delight to our hearts. 

I turned 37 a month after Hans was born. It’s been eight years since we had a newborn in the house. Having one again is making me feel so many things. 

It’s been unbelievably precious to have the honor to hold this little man. When I was a younger mom I felt all the pressure for my kids to exceed every milestone. I felt all the judgement (likely mostly in my head) if my kids weren’t on top of all their skills. Being an older mom, and a mom of children with special needs, has shown me that those things don’t really matter all that much.

There was an article that just came out on Vox giving alllllll the reasons why women can’t breastfeed. It dedicated an entire section on the amount of time it takes. Their goal was to say “who really has time for this?” But I say, what better way can a mother show deep love for her child than by allowing her own body to nourish him? What a gift to hold my son for countless hours during his first year of life to gift him food, comfort, love, and to bond in a beautiful way. Maybe I feel it more deeply after missing out on the first 2+ years of my fifth and sixth daughters lives. The healthy emotional attachment that babies gain from nursing is irreplaceable. 

Now, some highlights from the past month!

We had a wonderful Easter celebration! Look at all these cousins who get to grow up together. Hans is the youngest of 20+ cousins. 

My sister, Stacy, took this adorable photo!

Hans found his thumb and is loving it. He rejected the pacifier for a few weeks in favor of the thumb, but now goes back and forth. 

Hans is a drooly, drooly baby! He goes through so many bibs that I would rather spend money on cute and functional bibs than clothes since no one ever sees his shirts (unless I’m changing bibs)! 

Love making my guy laugh!

He sleeps half swaddled so the thumb can comfort him through the night. He’s also a spitter which is why I have the blanket under his head to sleep. 

Hans is the master cat napper. I can already see him as a dad and grandpa gently dozing on his chair to “rest his eyes”. 

Mr. Blue Eyes! So handsome!

Ah! Both of my Mr. Blue Eyes. Love these guys. 

Hans is now rolling over from his belly to his back. He is getting close to rolling from his back to belly also. He still doesn’t prefer being on his belly but it’s good exercise for him. 

Hans is about 26” and 13.5 pounds. He’s definitely still happiest to nap when he’s held. Ruth loves to hold him - most of my pictures seem to be of the two of them. 

Hans & Magdalena. 

Haha! Snake on a baby tradition continues!!

We love you so much, little man! Happy 5 months. 

Abbey is Thirteen!

Abbey is now thirteen! It’s hard to believe we have another teenager in the house. 

In August, Abbey became our OAH (Oldest Available Hess). She has taken to the role like a duck to water. Abbey sees a need and fills it without being asked. She regularly starts breakfast, cares for younger siblings, bakes food, gathers the school books for the day, and all around makes my life much easier. 

As you can see, she’s very into Star Wars at the moment. We made this BB8 piñata out of paper mache and Abbey and Maggie painted it. 

Abbey still loves sweets. She’s the only kid in the family who has ever had any cavities, too. Coincidence? 

This photo about sums her up. 



Ah, but she does have a soft side as well. Abbey is SO good with kids. She is confident and exerts authority over them but with love. She expects to be obeyed and children respond well to her. Abbey will be an amazing mother someday as she has a strong sense of healthy boundaries coupled with a great sense of humor. Her current lament is that I’m not hard enough on the little girls. She remembers me being much more strict with the oldest three. 



Abbey and Peach! Abbey is very responsible in caring for Peach. She feeds her and plays with her and has even trained her to jump through a hula hoop. Abbey and Maggie together have taken over a bulk of the animal caretaking with Anne at school this year. Again, she has stepped into the role well. I never have to remind her to take care of the animals. 

This is one of my favorite pairs of earrings that Abbey made this year. She makes a lot of faux leather and leather earrings. I love them because they’re so light weight you don’t even know you’re wearing them. She recently got interested in making resin pieces and turning them into earrings and necklaces. She has made some really neat pieces. I’ll definitely need to have a little open house this fall to allow my girls to sell their creative works. 

Abbey has become quite the baker this year as well. She has made breads, cakes, cookies, coffee cake, and more. I was a little irritated when I gave her my best cookie recipe and she somehow made them taste better than mine. Haha! She definitely enjoyed our three weeks before Christmas school lessons as we cooked and baked items everyday as we learned about the foods other countries eat at Christmas time. 

This almond cake was amazing! I’m usually too preoccupied to take photos during the actual baking. Abbey also made a paper snowflake to decorate the cake. 

Abbey! She is such a lovely girl. I’ve loved how she’s grown and matured this year. She can be ornery at times but she is very trustworthy. She is a delight to be around. She is developing her own style and I like that. She is asking to be baptized this year and I’m so grateful to God for His faithfulness in Abbey’s life. She has my sister, Audrey, as a prayer partner this year so it’s also special to see Abbey develop a strong relationship with her. 

Happy 13th birthday, Abbey! I love you!

Four Months with Hans

Our little man is four months old!

We love him so much! Hansy is still a great night time sleeper. I usually lay him down around 10:30 or 11pm  and he sleeps until 9 am. He is awake a lot during the day and is definitely happiest first thing in the morning. 

He is getting better at enjoying being put down but still isn’t a huge fan of tummy time. It’s really fun to hear him coo and chat and make noise. He definitely loves when his sisters talk to him. 

Heidi loves to push him on the baby swing. She’s a little rough but Hans doesn’t seem to mind it. He gives her some huge smiles throughout the day. 



Getting stronger!

Heidi being so sweet and gentle with Hans. 



I was a little concerned Petey was going to die so I wanted photo evidence for Hans someday that he really did meet Petey. 

Hans enjoyed being pushed in the stroller on sunny days. He does not like the wind on his face, though. It takes his breath away.

Happy Hans! 

He is growing so fast. He weighs around 13.5 pounds and is about 25” long. We’re all so enamored with him. 

Windy Easter! Also, my first drooly baby. He goes through multiple bibs a day. 

Almost all the cousins together for Easter. Heidi was napping, Gavin was at his dad’s. Hope Hans loves being part of a huge family. 

I’m hoping next month Hans will start napping in his crib more. He mostly likes to be held during the day to sleep. I did get him to nap for 45 minutes today in his crib but definitely hoping for longer stretches. 

Happy 4 months, Hans! We love you lots!

Ruth is Seven

Ruth is seven! 

Ruth had a fun birthday with her daddy. They ate Burger King at a pond, then went to the Science Factory. She had lots to share about her time there. 

She chose cheesecake with caramel sauce for her birthday dessert and requested home made dumplings and bought Chinese food for her meal. It was all quite yummy. 

Ruth is still very tiny; she weighs about 31 pounds but is happy to finally be in size 4 clothes. Thankfully she loves being small for her age and actually likes when people comment on how tiny she is. 

Ruth was diagnosed with a learning disability at the beginning of the school year. It was helpful for me as her teacher to be able to work in a different way to help her learn. With Herculean effort she is now reading. It’s still a bit laborious but she’s getting better everyday and is confident enough to finally find some enjoyment in reading. Writing is also a huge challenge but she has made slow and steady progress in that area as well. For some reason compound words often get mixed up in Ruth’s mind so she comes out with the cutest words like: bow cross and bell cow. Thankfully this doesn’t seem to upset her. I typically tell her it’s because she’s so smart and her brain is moving so fast it gets one step ahead of mouth. 

Ruth loves Hans so much! She asks to hold him more than any of the other girls. She is adamant that we have another baby right away so that Hans will have a friend close to his age. Ruth thinks it would be best if we have one more but have it be two (twins). I’m not sure we can convince daddy of the idea, though. 

Ruth is enjoying ballet. It’s a great activity for her small size. She is interested in softball and swimming but I don’t think she’s got the strength and endurance for either of those sports just yet. 

Ruth is always wanting to help with everything. She loves to help with meals, with Heidi and Hans, and just about everything but cleaning up. She’s very good at keeping her school things organized. 

I’m constantly amazed at her work ethic. She does cry sometimes when the work is very hard or she’s frustrated but she always wipes her eyes and tries again at her own insistence. Her speech has progressed incredibly this past year. We’re very grateful for her speech therapist who is dedicated and talented. Ruth has therapy once every two weeks and we practice everyday at home. It’s nice that I’m in the sessions listening and can reinforce the lessons at home. 

Ruth has lots of plans for when she grows up. She still says she wants to have nine children but she’s not sure what job she wants to have. Maybe an artist, maybe a hairdresser, maybe something else. I just remind her she has a long time before she has to choose. 

Ruth is also very, very funny. She sometimes says little one liners that crack us all up. For example, when the Hess family was talking about the Boba Fett show and how it wasn’t that great Ruth pipes up and says, “Yeah. It jumped the shark in the Mando episode.”

We’re grateful that she will not need any cleft surgery this year. Most likely she’ll get braces on her top teeth in the next year, then after that she will have to have a bone graft surgery where they’ll take a piece of her hip bone and put it in her gumline where she’s missing a piece of bone. 

But most of all, we love Ruth for being herself. She is a sweet and caring girl. She loves dancing for Jesus and it was so precious to hear her belting out the songs while she does ballet. She told me recently that she’s extra special because she has 3 moms and 3 dads. Us, her foster family, and her birth family. Hans has helped to heal some of the blank spaces (for now) in Ruth’s mind. Watching my pregnancy and seeing ultrasound pictures and reading about how the baby was growing inside of me really moved her. As I said, Ruth holds Hans more than any of the other kids. 

Happy 7th birthday, Ruthie V.! We love you! 

Three Months with Hans

My little buddy is 3 months old today. 

He is still a sweet snuggler. He loves to be held throughout the day. He’s getting a little better at being set down in the swing or in his bouncy seat where he’ll bat at his toys and be contented there for a few minutes. But he definitely prefers to be held. Thankfully there’s no shortage of arms to hold him.

 

Hans started sleeping through the night at about 2.5 months so the past 2 weeks have been very nice. He still is up sometimes but only for about an hour then he’s back to sleep. Just this week I moved him to his crib in his room overnight because he fills up the bassinet from nearly head to foot he’s so tall! The first night he was awake several times but the second night he slept all night. 

This is the face he made when he saw me after sleeping all night. Isn’t he so sweet and handsome?

He really is such a content little guy. He outgrew his 0-3 month clothes so I’ve already moved him to 3-6 month outfits. He now weighs about 12 pounds and is about 23.75 inches tall.




Growing is hard work!

Ruth took this photo of me playing with Heidi while holding Hans. I love how it is an accurate representation of where we’re at right now. Babies, messy top knots, comfy leggings, tired eyes and smiles. This was in between giving spelling lessons. 

The days are jam packed but also somehow slow. We’ve dialed back on therapies and appointments and it feels really good. 

Hans will for sure have a different childhood and experiences from his older sisters but we believe it will shape him into the man God wants him to become. 



I have great hope for the bond between Heidi and Hans. She’s always ready with a pacifier for Hans as she finds it very upsetting to hear him cry. She’s not always as gentle as I would like so I’m glad he’s growing into a big boy!

Looking forward to seeing Hans grow another month. God is gracious.