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.