Hannah's Birthday Twin

I knew there was a reason I've been procrastinating the blog update. I've had some great photos to share, and news tidbits that might be of interest to Hannah's friends, but just haven't gotten around to gathering them up into a coherent post.

Well, tonight we hit a milestone, and it's a doozie, more than worthy of an entry here.

You regulars know about Carter, who was born the same day as Hannah, in the same hospital, and shared the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit with her for the 105 days she was there. Unfortunately, Carter developed complications with his digestive system that kept him in the NICU much longer, then at various other hospitals for the first 15 months of his life. It culminated in an emergency transplant of his entire digestive system at Children's Hospital in Boston in May of this year. I was traveling in Asia at the time, and it was nerve-wracking to watch for updates on Carter's blog from afar, not knowing how things were going for days at a time. It was like being underwater, holding my breath, and every blog update was a break for the surface and a gulp of fresh air.

Carter has had a rough recovery since the transplant in May, but he's back home in Texas, doing extremely well, and getting down to the business of being a little boy instead of a patient. He's still got some tubes to help with breathing and digestion, but as we learned with Hannah, babies are particularly well-positioned to grow out of those aids, since their bodies are busy getting bigger and stronger.

While I was overseas, Carter's mom Chelle happened to mention on their blog an escape they made to Chili's for an actual sit-down meal, one day after I had eaten dinner in a Chili's in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. An odd coincidence.

Well, tonight we sat down for dinner at Chili's in Plano with Carter and his remarkable parents. This was the first time the birthday twins have actually met each other, and the first time we've seen Sean and Chelle since Thanksgiving of last year. After the ordeal that they've lived for the past year and a half, it was inexpressibly gratifying to see them so . . . normal. While most non-NICU parents witnessing our meal might not have described it as relaxed, as we juggled babies and dishes and toys and tubes, wiping down table and highchairs to avoid Respiratory Syncytial Virus, it is a true milestone to just be able to sit down and have dinner like regular folks. I still remember the first visit to a restaurant with Hannah after we left the NICU. After months of nail-biting worry and rushed meals while caring for an infant tethered to machines, an excursion into the real world, even just a meal at a restaurant, was like a dreamy walk through a spring-green park on a cool sunny day.




Sean, Chelle, and Carter all looked so good and so happy, and Hannah had so much fun flirting and smiling and babbling at her new old friends, it was a perfect end to a remarkable year. I hope that next year is a year of recovery for our friends with babies still on the road to good health, because progress for some children comes much more slowly. Our trials with Hannah were nothing compared to what some parents and their children go through, and I think we should all resolve in 2009 to help those little ones who start life with challenges, and the brave parents that stand by their side.




In other news . . .




We spent last week in Bossier and Shreveport for Christmas, and had a great time. Now that we have a walking, talking (OK, babbling), Christmas gift that keeps on giving, every trip into town is a hoot these days. We got a surprise Christmas gift when Hannah's uncle Gabe and cousin Alexander rolled into Rena's (my sister) driveway Christmas morning after a covert 4-day road trip through ice and snow from Utah in their new RV. And, due to the bad economy and Texas Instruments' extended holiday shutdown this year, Aunt Cat (Carla's sister) and Uncle Jon got to spend Christmas with the clan in Bossport, too. All in all, a very merry Christmas and a good start on a happy new year.




Some notes about the previous blog entry:

I noticed after posting that those of you who get blog posts via email ( you can subscribe with the link above) did not see the Elf Dance link, so here it is in case you missed it. And, here's a bonus Elf Dance, if you want more of the same with a retro twist.

Also, for those of you that want to see my sister Melanie's 50th Birthday slideshow but are hesitant or unable to download and run the Windows executable, here's a version out on youtube that should be viewable for anyone with high-speed Internet access.

Dancing Elves, Dress-up, and Funny Wigs

I needed to get an update out here before the 15th, because that would make it a whole month since the last update. There's been a lot going on, all of it good, and I suppose I might have been procrastinating because I know there's a lot of ground to cover.

Hannah is asleep and Carla is out with the chorus group. Last night we all bundled up and went to the mall, where Carla's chorus sang carols to frenzied shoppers. Hannah dressed in her chorus duds, and got more than a few glances while we were out and about.



A few weeks ago we got a chance to go visit Ashley, one of Hannah's NICU friends. Both Hannah and I noticed that Ashley has more cool toys. We'll see what we can do about that.




We went to visit the grandparents for Thanksgiving. One of the highlights of Hannah's days are her baths, and they're even more fun in Grandma's tub.




Mr. and Mrs Claus heard that Hannah was in town and stopped by for a visit. Hannah was either a bit suspicious about the hair, or was thinking of making a grab for the reading glasses.




Aunt Rosemary got Hannah a Russian train conductor's coat and hat.




After I dressed Hannah in a plaid jumpsuit with bright pink socks and shoes, Aunt Rena staged a fashion intervention and cleared out Marshall's stock of coordinated baby outfits.






I had to play with the "Elf Yourself" site this year. Here's an elf dance with Hannah, Carter, and Ashley.

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Carter, by the way, is doing very well, and is starting to settle into the groove of semi-normal home life after spending most of his first 15 months in hospitals. This thrills me every time I think of it, considering all he's been though. Be sure to check his web site for the latest cute pictures and updates.

My Mom spent a week at our house on her way out to San Diego to surprise my sister Melanie at her 50th birthday party. I put together a slideshow for Mel; with embarrasing photos from all stages of her life. You can click here to see it (WARNING: it's a 26MB Windows executable, so klaxons, alarm bells, and flashing hazard lights will probably appear when you click on it. But it's safe, I promise).

The party was 70s-themed and Hannah got to try on Mom's 'fro wig.

First Wind

It's been pretty windy here lately. We don't think much about it, now that I don't have time to fly kites or RC planes, but last time we took Hannah outside it occurred to me that she's never really experienced wind before. It took her a few minutes to get used to it, then she was back to exploring the back yard.

She still doesn't have enough hair to do much with (we have to dress her in pink when we go out or everyone assumes she's a boy), but it's just enough hair to leave her with chicken feathers in the morning, and just enough to blow in the wind a little.






Not much else going on, except a LOT of walking. I put together another video of her perambulations. Click here if you don't see the video window below. NOTE: Click the "watch in high quality" link on the YouTube page for a better video picture.

Drunken Sailor

Well, we aren't counting steps anymore. Hannah is now toddling non-stop around the house like a drunken sailor (my Mom's words) and quite of proud of herself, too. To see what I mean, click the video below or this link if your browser or email reader doesn't show the video player below.



We had a great time in Ohio (our friends Doug and Donna threw an amazing wedding) and Hannah and her Bossier contingent apparently had a blast entertaining each other while we were gone. While we were up north, we took in the Columbus Zoo, a corn maze, and some prehistoric Indian mounds. Carla is the little white dot walking along the serpent mound below.




We also enjoyed the luxury of several grown-up restaurant dinners. You know, the kind where you just eat your food at a leisurely pace without worrying about your child knocking the condiments off the table or shrieking like a chimp at the ceiling fan, and where paying the bill is not followed by Cheerio collection duty under the table.

But we were sure glad to get back and see that grinning little girl again. Strangely enough, grown-up dinners don't seem quite as much fun as we remembered. Cheerio clean-up is a small price to pay for the feeling of completeness I get when carrying Hannah out to the car after a meal. And when she occasionally looks up at me out of the blue and flashes one of those "That was fun, Dad" smiles, I just start thinking about what restaurant we can take her to next, and whether they have interesting ceiling fans or colorful condiments on the tables.


Those of you following Carter's progress probably already know that he flew back from Boston while we were in Ohio, and is now doing great, settled in at home in Texas with his parents. It is an amazing relief to have Hannah's birthday twin back home, stable and back on track (they were born on the same day and spent their first few months in the same NICU) . If you missed the excitement, be sure to check out his website and the local news story about him.

Getting Sassy

Hannah's starting to show a little more personality lately, mostly when she's not getting what she wants (the mouse, while I'm trying to use the computer, for example). Fortunately, we're still smarter than she is, and she can be fooled into thinking she wants something else (say, a scrap of paper that I "accidentally" drop on the floor so she thinks she's not supposed to have it).




We were going through her "too big" clothes again, looking for ones she could now fit into, and found the rodeo bowling outfit above.




At least this one is supposed to look goofy. It's a duck outfit. That's the beak and eyes on the top of her head. I suppose it's more of a duck-with-baby-emerging-from-hole-in-throat costume, but I guess they weren't trying for a realistic depiction of duck anatomy.




Hannah's up to 9 steps at a time now. When Mom got this outfit up in Iron River (bear country) last year, Hannah weighed about 5 pounds and it seemed like she'd never fit into it. Now it's the perfect sleeper for cool winter nights (in case we ever have one of those again in Texas).








Tomorrow we head to Grandma's house, where Hannah will stay while we fly up to Ohio for a friend's wedding. It will be the first time Carla's been away from Hannah for more than a few hours, but we're sorta looking forward to a couple days free of baby talk and protecting the environment from Hurricane Hannah. Really, it's just an excuse to loan Hannah to my mom and sister, but I think it will be great fun for everyone.

Stagger . . . Stagger . . . Stagger

I'm sure that someday Hannah will be in charge of dressing us funny, so we might as well take advantage of her defenselessness while we can. I thought this was a cow costume when I grabbed it at the store. It was only $8, so I didn't examine it closely or check for an udder. When I got it home I noticed it's a dog outfit. It even has a velcro-attached tail so we can play pin-the-tail-on-the-doggie while Hannah is scooting around trying to get to the next exciting new toy (by "new toy" I mean anything within three feet of the floor that we'd rather she not play with).



Speaking of scooting . . . that will not be her preferred method of mayhem for long. Just a few minutes ago, Hannah took 6 steps toward me, holding a fascinating Supercuts coupon that she had found. Her previous record was 3. She tends to walk (stagger is more accurate) more when she's holding something, probably because it's harder to crawl with something in your hand.




We took out our glass shower doors and put up a shower curtain to make it easier to bathe Hannah in the tub. The shower curtain drew her in like a magnet, then the toilet paper dispenser beckoned. If I hadn't been following her around, I'm sure we would have found a pile of two-ply on the floor with a baby in the middle. I seem to recall that Carla did exactly that when she was in the larval stages.



I've considered packing away the coffee table and just installing a little jungle gym in the living room for Hannah. We can't actually put anything other than toys on or under the coffee table, and it is only used these days as a fort, handrail, or drum anyway.

Hannoween!

We hardly noticed Halloween last year, because it fell three days after we brought Hannah home from the hospital on oxygen, heart and lung monitors, five medications, and two breathing treatments. We were a little preoccupied, to say the least. Hannah had a Halloween hat and binkie, but both too big for her (they fit perfectly now).

This year, we're a little more relaxed. I've even had time to carve a pumpkin.



Since someone always asks "How'd you do that?" (usually while thinking " . . . and why would you do that?"), here's the general approach:

First, I convert a photo of the subject into a black-and-white, high-contrast image using a photo editing program, then reduce it down to just 3 or 4 shades of gray. For amateurs like me, you have three shades to work with; bright where you cut all the way through, medium where you only scrape away the skin, and dark where you leave the skin intact.



Usually, I print this gray-shaded image, tack it on the pumpkin, and poke holes along the outlines so I can see where to cut after I remove the paper (same way Michelangelo transferred his fresco outlines to the ceiling of the Sistine chapel, I kid you not). This year I went all space-age and projected the image onto the pumpkin with my Texas Instruments DLP digital projector (a charming intersection of the low-tech organic artsy world, and the high-tech geeky electronics world) and traced the outlines with a sharpie marker.



From there, it's just a matter of carving all the way through for the bright spots, scraping the skin for the gray spots, and leaving the dark spots alone. All while trying to keep Hannah from eating the pumpkin, which she immediately identified as a potential food source and proceeded to gnaw upon. You can see some of my past pumpkin carvings, and other Halloween shenanigans by clicking here.

Speaking of Hannah and food, I put together this seasonal video clip, which Carla and my mother will hate but that Aunt Cat will love. Click here for a movie preview you probably won't see anywhere else.

For a few cuter videos, in case that one left you spooked, click here, here, and here.

We went into Louisiana last weekend for a visit, and so Hannah could get a little attention for a change. In case you thought I was the only weirdo in the Minor family, it was my sister Rena, not me, who noticed the adhesive properties of Hannah's rice puffs (see below). I hope for her sake that Hannah doesn't turn out to be the vengeful type.





In other news, our friend Carter is doing amazingly well after a bad spell back in ICU. He's now out of ICU and in a regular room, laughing and smiling and getting ready to get out of the hospital, hopefully for good this time. You can check out Carter's blog to get all the latest news and pics, but I couldn't resist stealing this picture and posting it here:

Carter

These Booties Are Made For Walkin'

Holy moly, time flies! I just noticed it's been over two weeks since I updated. A year ago today Hannah weighed just under four pounds and still wore an oxygen mask and a feeding tube. We are incredibly fortunate to be beyond all that, but we have friends whose children aren't out of the woods yet. I sometimes can't bring myself to post the mundane details of Hannah's development while worrying about Carter and Avery. Both have been through some scary moments the past few weeks, but seem to be headed back in the right direction. If you have a few moments to visit their websites and offer their parents some encouragement in their guestbooks, please do.

Hannah's not walking yet, but we've caught her standing a couple of times, balancing on her feet without holding onto anything. And she loves her new push toy, which she'd stagger behind for hours if given the chance. The problem is that she doesn't know how to turn it around or avoid obstacles, so if we're not there to do that for her, she'll just bash it into the wall, then sit down and cry cause it doesn't work anymore. For a video of that, and some other random Hannah moments, click here.




We decided that, instead of having to turn the Hannahmobile around every 10 seconds, we'd take her outside and let her play in the street. It's actually a cul-de-sac (snooty-talk for "circle"), so she wasn't dodging cars. She just got to push the toy for 50 feet or so before having to turn around. She thought it was great fun, and didn't even notice that she skinned her knee and wore holes through her fancy socks (sorry, Nancy!). We'll put pants and shoes on her next time. For video of that escapade, click here.

And, since the theme of this post seems to be video clips, here's one of Hannah laughing herself silly in the swing.

Not much else is going on. We're starting Hannah on table foods now; pretty much anything we eat that can be mushed up for a novice chewer with only eight teeth, is fair game. She gets whole milk morning and night, and formula mid-day just to make sure she's getting all the vitamins and stuff. She likes an appetizer of Cheerios, and apple juice from a sippy cup, while the chefs prepare her main course and decant her beverage. By "likes", I mean that if we don't provide something for her to eat the moment she's placed in the high chair, she bangs on the tray and whimpers. She doesn't know much at this age, but she seems to know that the high chair is made for eating, and that if she's in it and there's no food in sight, it's broken and must be reported to the management immediately.

Getting Into Trouble

Our lives are now structured around keeping Hannah occupied. She tries every door, pulls up on everything taller than she is, and is no longer fooled by the decoy remote control. She knows that the OTHER one must be the one to have, since it's the one Mommy and Daddy keep hiding from her. And within seconds of finding it, she knows exactly which buttons to press to get the TV, cable box, and tuner out of sync.

I was sitting at the computer a few days ago and turned to see Hannah smiling up at me, proudly holding a paring knife in her tiny little fist. Not sure where she found it, but it initiated another round of baby-proofing.

One of her favorite tricks now is to crawl into the study and close the door, then cry because she can't see us anymore. And of course, she sits right against the other side of the door, so we can't open it from the outside without pushing her with the door, which makes her cry louder. So I'll probably tape something to the door frame so it can't be closed by our little floor froggie.



We went to a restaurant with Carla's parents and Cat and Jon a couple weeks ago, and somehow forgot to bring a bottle for Hannah. And that was just as well, it turned out, because Hannah had a great time sipping milk from a straw used as an eyedropper, and we all had just as much fun watching her, with her mouth open like a baby bird, waiting for the next worm.



Hannah usually hates to go to sleep, because she thinks she's going to miss something fascinating or exciting, but she almost always falls asleep within 60 seconds of coming into contact with the sleepy-time bunny (a gift from Aunt Rosemary).



Hannah likes being read to, and it's one of the few things that can make her sit still for more than a couple minutes. She studies the pictures, and flips the pages back and forth as if making sure that the pictures are still there. Sometimes, though, she has to try eating the book. Just in case it got tastier since the last time she tried.



We had a visit from the Conlys a couple weekends ago. Our goal is to raise Hannah to be as sweet and charming as the Conly kids. That's Savannah, Kendall, Troy and Duncan flanking Hannah above. Kellye was behind a camera for the shot above, but you can see more of the whole crew at their website . . . just click here.

Hannah had gravity training just after the picture above was taken . . . fell right out of the chair and commenced one of those huge cries that are preceded by a long I'm-so-shocked-I-forgot-how-to-start-crying pauses. And then she was fine a few seconds later.

The chair above, by the way, is one that Carla used when she was a toddler. Her parents brought it over the last time they were here.



We drove into Bossier last weekend to see Uncle Gabe and cousin Alexander, who were in town from Utah for a visit. Rena had found a bunch of beanie babies for Hannah, and for some reason Hannah thought she needed to bite each one of them on the nose, one after the other. I suppose it was because my Mom was offering them to her the way we have been offering the biscuits and other finger foods she has started to eat.

Hannah's birthday twin Carter has been out of the hospital 18 days, but was just re-admitted yesterday after having some breathing difficulties. This is pretty common in preemies on oxygen, and I'm sure he'll be back on track in a day or two. Check out the latest pictures on his blog and leave a note in his guestbook if you get a chance.

Not Quite Starving for Attention

Playing with a washrag

Carla's parents drove in this weekend and my mom stowed away in their back seat. Add Cat and Jon to the mix, and you get a couple days where Hannah's feet rarely touched the floor. It's obvious that Hannah thrives on all the attention and interaction, and she always seems happier and more grown up in the days after we have visitors. Of course, it could just be that they leave behind piles of new toys, books, and clothes.

Looking out the window

Snoozing in Grandma's arms

Leaning out the window to make sure that's not a pot plant Mom and Dad are growing in the back yard.

At the park

We took Hannah down to the park for a stroll tonight. She watched the ducks and bikes and joggers, and examined the wooden bench and concrete. I stopped short of letting her crawl around, because everything she finds on the ground goes into her mouth, and, as I mentioned, there were ducks about.

The sunflower hat above was handmade by Grandma Hall. My fault that it's turned up Gilligan-style in the photo. It looks better turned down, but I just have to be able to see those eyes all the time.

For another video clip (5MB) of Hannah, this time giggling, click here.