A World to Explore

I mentioned in the previous blog entry that Hannah was just starting to crawl, but didn't appear to be going anywhere deliberately. Well, that seems so long ago, now. The day after I posted that entry, she learned that she could get to point B from point A by coordinating those leg things with those arm things in a particular sequence (click here for a video of those first crawls). She now has red marks on her knees from scooting around all day. We've had to start using the dog gates to keep her from wandering too far, and can't look away for more than a few seconds if she's on the floor. I suppose it's fitting that Hannah figured out her transmission the day we got the Odyssey back with its new $4000 transmission (so much for Honda reliability).


We've had to put rubber bands around the coffee table doorknobs, because she learned that they open and there's a lot of stuff to taste in there. Now she just pulls the knobs and lets the rubber band slam it back, delighted with the cool wooden bass drum we inadvertently created for her.


Now that she's getting around in two dimensions, she's starting to notice that there are things going on above floor level that she might need to get involved in. So she's trying to climb legs and pillows and anything else low enough to provide a boost up off the floor into that third dimension (click here for a video).


Hannah had several visitors this weekend. My friend Don and his wife Kelly and son Danny stopped by. Don and I started at Texas Instruments at the same time in 1989 and have more or less worked together ever since. They brought Hannah some very cool toys (lots of buttons, levers, knobs, lights, and sounds) but somehow managed to sneak off before we got a picture of them for the blog.

Kenji and Yukiko traveled all the way from Japan to visit Hannah (OK, maybe Kenji is here on business, but Hannah doesn't need to know that). I met Kenji and Yukiko about 8 years ago when they showed me all around Japan while I was there on business. They brought Hannah a tiny Kimono that I'm sure you'll see here on the blog as soon as she grows into it.


Please don't get the impression that you have to bring gifts to visit Hannah. I now know how fun it can be to shop for toys and baby clothes, but I assure you we don't expect anything, and neither does Hannah. We love having visitors because we enjoy your company, and we're stuck at home these days anyway. :-) And Hannah appreciates anyone that will make faces at her and make her stuffed animals dance around. We don't need much advance notice if you're in the area and would like to drop by, as long as you don't care if the house is clean. Just call or email to make sure we're at home and decent. We're introverts, but Hannah needs to be socialized, so we're more than happy to emerge from our shells for her benefit.

Next weekend is the NICU reunion at Medical Center of Plano, when all the past graduates of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit are invited to meet at the hospital and catch up with all the doctors, nurses, and fellow patients and parents. While we were still at the hospital, this reunion was one of the goals we hardly dared hope for. Back then, just being able to bring Hannah back to the reunion at all was not a sure thing, and we didn't know what disabilities would be uncovered by all the testing yet to come. July 15th will be Hannah's first birthday, and the fact that we no longer even think of her as preemie is a remarkable and miraculous thing. She started life at 1.5 pounds, with lungs and digestive system that couldn't function without help from doctors and machines. She's now a 17-pound perfectly beautiful little girl, crawling and babbling and demanding to explore her new world, and I look forward to thanking the doctors and nurses that made that possible.