Sleep Smiling

One of my favorite parenthood moments these days is when I walk into Hannah's room while she's sleeping and catch her smiling with her eyes closed. It's one thing to see her laughing madly at a dancing teddy bear, or at my chimp-like antics, but to know that, even in her down time, with nothing but her nascent baby thoughts churning around in that tiny head, she's content and happy enough to smile for no apparent reason . . . that just makes my day. At those moments, the bond between me standing there and that drooling, sphincter-challenged midget in the crib, seems real enough to reach out and touch. Like a big yellow rubber band of sunshine joining us at the heart. And I have to resist the urge to pick her up, and instead tear myself away and let her sleep.

The last time I caught her smiling in her sleep with her hands behind her head, I grabbed the camera to take a picture. But she heard the camera turn on and opened her eyes just a bit before I took the picture.


In other news: Carla just finished her first Calligraphy commission since the twins arrived, and while it takes a little longer with a baby in the house, it went pretty smoothly. And, last night she did her first chorus performance since rejoining her singing group. TI is planning to send me overseas for a couple weeks in May (my mom plans to come hang out with Carla and Hannah while I'm gone). So things are getting back to normal, more or less.

Hannah had a three-month follow-up visit with the developmental pediatrician on Friday. These are standard for preemies, because they are at risk for a whole range of developmental challenges, and they prefer to spot and correct problems early. But so far, Hannah shows no lasting effects of her rough start in life, and is meeting all the milestones as expected. We got some pointers for getting her crawling and sitting on schedule (more time on the floor and less in the activity center and jumper).

I have a few more videos to share. It seems the previous links didn't work for everybody, so I'm including these as YouTube videos. If the links below don't work for you, and you're receiving these posts as emails, try clicking on the link to the actual blog (below), or go to http://karlminor.blogspot.com, and try the links within the blog's web page. Let me know if you have trouble with the videos, cause I'd like to find a solution that works well for everybody.

Laughing at the Bear: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vylC0gJGbfE
Playing with the Laptop: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-QF6OsDppo

Room to Grow

What's this? Two posts in the same week?

Well, I wanted to point out that the video links in yesterday's entry were a bit messed up. If you saw bugs and demons crawling all over Hannah in the videos, you weren't hallucinating. That was the result of my poor video conversion skills. I have fixed the links (I hope) in yesterday's post so they should work now.

Hannah slept in her own room and the full-size crib last night for the first time. Compared to the bassinet, which she pretty much filled from head to toe, the crib is a queen sized bed. And the queen seems to like it just fine.


(In case you're wondering if we pushed her crib down a river to take that picture . . . it's just the Jungle mural on the wall of her room)

For those of you that have been keeping up with Hannah's birthday twin, Carter, be sure to check out his blog this week. He's up in Boston getting a revolutionary new treatment for infants with liver impairment. He's been getting most of his nutrition via a feeding tube, since he had to have some intestines removed shortly after birth. The downside of that is that the liver has a hard time handling the artificial nutrition (TPN) long-term, and these babies end up with high bilirubin levels (jaundice). This new treatment is a better form of feed (with fish oil!) that allows the liver to recover and handle the TPN better until his digestive system is more mature. Unfortunately, the treatment is experimental and only available in Boston. So Chelle and Carter are up there getting healthier. Sounds like he's had a great week so far, so we're pretty happy about that. There's a great picture of a smiling Carter here.

Chowing Down

Hannah had her first "solid" food today, from a spoon. She knew just what to do with it and seemed to be saying "Well, it's about time!" It was just rice cereal, the consistency of thin paste, but that's what they recommend starting with. We got a few other more interesting fruit and vegetable mushes, but we're supposed to introduce new foods three days apart, so if there are any allergic reactions, there's time to spot them and know what caused them. To see the video, click here.


We're probably going to move Hannah to her own room tonight. She's been sleeping through the night for several months now, and she's pretty much outgrown the bassinet next to our bed. This will mostly be a tough transition for Carla and me; Hannah is usually out like a light the minute she hits the mattress and probably won't notice. It's as if she has a combination tilt and light sensor that detects a supine position with dimmed lights, and flips the "sleep" switch in her brain.


Hannah still has a very low threshold for comedy. Carla discovered the punchline to Hannah's favorite joke today . . . "Press the button!" We have no idea what the rest of the joke is, but apparently Hannah does, because she laughs at it every time. To see the video, click here.



You've probably seen previous photos of Hannah sleeping with her hands behind her head. Well, we usually put a dish towel over her chest for a few minutes after every meal, and tuck it under her arms so she can still move them around. This time, she fell asleep so fast I just draped it over her arms. I walked back by a few minutes later, and she had assumed the position, tucking the dishtowel around her face in the process.

Sorry the updates are so few and far between. I'm mostly caught up with chores and work, but I've recently been summoned to the far east on business for a whirlwind tour of the Philippines, Malaysia, and Taiwan, in May. Only about three days in each place, but it will mean two weeks away from Hannah. Ouch! My mom has volunteered to come hang out with Carla and Hannah while I'm gone. I'll have to make them promise to email photos daily. It's going to be rough going two weeks without this:

Welcome Back!

Well, it's been a while since the last Hannah update, so we've got a lot of pictures piled up. My siblings converged on Bossier last weekend, from California, Georgia, and Texas, and Hannah got to meet a passel of aunts, uncles, and cousins for the first time.

Somehow, a couple of folks managed to avoid the camera, but here are the ones that were caught Hannah-handed.

Cousin Maddie

Cousins Kelly and Kaitlyn

Cousin Shelby

Uncle Bruce (Karl's brother, and father of the cousins above)

Thank goodness Hannah didn't inherit my curious lack of lips.

Cousin Maddie and Hannah's new socks from Aunt Nancy

Thank you, Thank you very much.

The new court jester with Aunt Rosemary

Aunt Melanie

Favorite new toy . . . the jumperoo.

Recovering from a wild time in the jumper

Ethan Powell, December 5th, 2006 - April 5th, 2008

I'm very sad to report that Ethan Powell, fighting leukemia for 14 months, passed away yesterday at the age of 16 months. I knew Ethan's father Ben when he was a child, because Ben's parents (Ethan's grandparents) are good friends of my mom. Ben and Becky and their family need your prayers in the coming days.

Ethan himself is now doing fine, at peace, carried beyond this world on an enormous swell of love and faith. Which is no less than this brave little fighter deserved.

We love you, Ethan.


For more information, click here to visit Ethan's website.