Since we last posted. . .

So since we last posted, Hannah has turned 1, is tap dancing and can say "Daddy, would you take me to the park so that we can swing and slide? . . . . . pleeeeeease?".

Ok, not really!  But seriously, all kinds of things are happening.  She DID turn 1.  And what a fun time we had turning one.  She got to where she would hold up her "1" finger when we asked how old she was.  She smiled and sometimes laughed when we sang Happy Birthday.

She got a swing, a set of bells, a musical drum and a ball this season.  She loves them all!  Swinging is quite a spectacular thing, she says.  She seems to respond naturally to musical things like drums and bells, oh, and Sarah's guitar and djembe (African Drum).

She is using sign language for  "please", "Light on", "light off" and "that "or "you" (translation: pointing at something).  She points to which food she wants at mealtime now.  She points to whatever it is she wants then signs "please", and, of course, she gets it!  For instance, she now knows what a fire and a fireplace is and loves it.  So one Sunday afternoon around 3:30 Hannah and I (Brad) are playing in the floor in the den.  She points to the fireplace and signs "please". . . .so we had a fire that Sunday afternoon at 3:30!

She is standing with the help of a prop.  She is quite verbal and expressive.  Most mornings we hear her in her crib chatting with her toys and stuffed animals.  She still does lip trills and monster noises.  She is VERY social in the store.  She must wave and get a response from everyone she sees, even those people who are uncomfortable around babies.  She'll lean over and wave even more for them!

Our friends Bob and Libby, who are letting us borrow most of the things we have for her, let us borrow a little lion that is designed to walk behind or ride on.  Sharon attached a rope to it and pulls Hannah around the house with it.  She LOVES that !

She can now eat banana unmashed and loves it.  She tries to bite of half of the banana at one time, so I have to put my finger on the banana at a certain point so that she doesn't, literally bite off more than she can chew!  This morning she ate raisin toast and some of Mommy's eggs.  At our friend Cris' house the other day, she ate some of Cris' chicken croissant dish, green beans and macaroni and cheese.  With mommy the other day she had baked potato soup.

She points appropriately to her head during 5 Little Monkeys, 'bumped his head'.  She also is doing the motions to "Head Shoulders, Knees and Toes".  She gets head, knees, toes, eyes, ears, mouth and nose.

She's still way too cute for words.  We wish you could all be along side us to witness her life and growth and cuteness!

Hannah is 10.5 months old now. We're in the stage when she is doing something new every day. She babbles up a storm & it seems 'Da' is her first word...for Daddy of course! Although 'NnGg' is a close second for our dog, Nugget. She's picking up on more than I realize. Just yesterday I said 'I hear Nugget outside.'  She turned around in her exer-saucer & pointed to the back door.

She gets excited when I say 'outside' - she loves it! She loves the trees, leaves, breeze. She can identify more & more things in her books & toys. It really amazes me what they learn so quickly.

And Elmo is still one of her favorites!

We spend our day on at least one, usually two, good strolls, playing in the floor with stuffed animals and toys, playing in her exer-saucer (where she sits in the middle & turns herself around to play with toys), & reading (she loves books). My mom had kept my favorite books from when I was a baby & toddler, and what do you know, those are Hannah's favorites as well!

She is a great eater but still no teeth. We're slowly introducing more table food but it has to go through the food processor a good fork mashing.  She does not like foods with texture & spits out even the baby snacks that melt in their mouths. Funny though, she'll put anything else in her mouth!

 She's finally wearing her 9 mo clothing - so she's 'catching up'! Ha!

She is starting to show signs of pulling up on things (with our help) and can stand with our assistance.  She's still not fond of tummy time but has gotten better & rolls herself around in her crib. Actually, you'll leave her in one place only to come back & find that she's rolled herself around to be upside down & on the other end of the crib from where you left her. I don't think she's going to be a crawler though.

She's happy, happy, happy! Thanks for checking in!

The Panda

Did we mention we call her Hannah Panda?  Well, when she was little. . . and Sharon would put her on her shoulder, she (Hannah) would curl up and kinda resemble a little panda bear, at least, in out little minds she did. . .

Anyhow!  As I type she is in her 8th month.  It's still a wonder that anyone gets anything done around here.  Not that she requires so much of our time, but she's just so incredibly adorable!  We just sit there and babble with her and stare at her.  You never know what she's going to do next that could be the cutest thing EVER!

She's beginning to sit up on her own.  She's not getting up by herself, but once she's there she can stay up for quite a while.  She thinks it's grand.  She's now definitely waving hello and goodbye.  A week ago it was more like an arm flap, but now she's got her wrist involved! 

She is in bed at night usually around 8:30 or 9:00 and stays down until 7:30a.m.  Sometimes she calls and asks for a diaper change anywhere from 6a.m. to 7:30a.m.  And there have been these blessed events where, after she gets a diaper change around 7:30a.m., she goes back down till 9 and sometimes 10!!  Sharon loves that.  And I, well, I go off to work.  I have several Hannah pictures at work to remind me of her unfathomable cuteness.

Today, 8-19, she rode in her grocery cart/high chair cover at Kroger.  She was thrilled with a new vantage point of all the groceries and shoppers.  And did I mention that she was cute?  Folks, it really is remarkable!

Hannah's Cross-Stitch by Grandmother

I just hung a beautiful cross-stitched birth announcement in Hannah Noel's room. The story is equally as beautiful... As some of you know, mom was working on Hannah's cross-stitched birth announcement on her death bed. She had done the baby feet portion and Hannah's name. I picked it up about four weeks before she passed away. I did the 'D, e, and c' in December for her birth date. Mom looked at it, didn't like the way I had done the 'D' (admittedly, it was wrong),  and she asked for her glasses, sat up on the side of the bed, and with Brad, Hannah and I watching, she took out my 'D,E and C' and did them over. Needless to say, the 'D' was correct this time!  She got about half-way through the 'c' and became sick and had to lay back down. She never fully sat up again like that on her own to do anything. About a week before mom's death, Hospice was asking if there was anything that was incomplete that mom would want finished.  I pointed to Hannah's cross-stitch laying on mom's dresser. On Thursday, March 6, I picked up the cross-stitch, sat by mom's hospital bed in her bedroom and told her what I was doing. I walked her through every stitch I was making.  "mom, I'm finishing the 'c' in December."  "mom, I'm putting the '3' in for Hannah's birth date." etc.  While I was talking, Mom's right hand slowly went up and down to show me that SHE was cross-stitching.  So she DID finish Hannah's piece! That was on Thursday. As you know, mom passed away the following Tuesday. I have just gotten the picture matted & framed. It hangs in Hannah's room and she LOVES it.  She really does reach out for it, touch it, smile at it. It's wonderful.  Thanks mom!

Yeah, she's still cute!

Actually, she's quite gorgeous!  At 7 months old, Hannah is as social and expressive as can be.  She's not quite sitting up on her own as the high chair picture might suggest.  But she's still darn cute.  In fact, I think I hear little miss cute upstairs right now asking for some dinner, so here I go!  Thanks for checking in.

It's June

Sorry so long since I posted!

We have been saying that by June things would begin to return to 'normal'. Well, it's getting there. Sharon and hannah have been home a solid 2 weeks now and Daddy loves it.

Pictures can't show just how beautiful and adorable Hannah is. It's strange to think about actually getting something done around the house because sitting and making faces and jabbering and playing with Hannah if far too much fun to do anything ELSE!

Today marks her 6th month birthday. Sharon sang Happy Birthday this morning when she awoke (the 2nd time). She seemed to think that was cool. She is 13.5lbs. and 23 inches long. She is rolling 3/4 of the way onto her tummy . . . so, I guess that wouldn't be her tummy, huh.

She makes dinasour sounds. She fakes burping when Daddy is feeding her. I guess she thinks that's just what Daddy does! She loves having the ABCs sung and signed to her. Head Shoulders Knees and Toes is another favorite. Since she was about 2 months old Sharon has been reading 5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed. She gets areal kick out of it and generally won't go to bed without having heard it once or twice.

One more day of Post Planning for Daddy and he's home for the summer! Sarah is Sewing, Camp Highlanding, Amtraking and Cheerleading all summer long. When she's not too busy, Daddy will take her to the pool! Mommy's still trying to figure out what to do with all the new stuff in our house since the squaring away of her mother's estate (while caring for a 6 month old and 36 year old!)

Thanks for cheking in!

What a great time!

Man, I love those girls! Sharon and Hannah got to come home last weekend. . . and got to stay the week! I still had to go to work, but, man! what a difference having those people around is! I mean that in a good way :) This weekend Sarah got to see her sister again and had a wonderful time feeding her, carrying her, playing with her. . . being a sister!

God has seasons for everything.

I've been bitter lately about some things God has chosen to act differently upon; Mimi for instance. (I don't really know if a semicolon goes there, but I know you read it with the appropriate inflection) Turns out, though, I'm not all that different than Jesus in terms of my prayer requests. Jesus asked His loving, all-knowing Heavenly Father, "Let this cup pass!" And God said. . .well, you know the story.

We had a drought. It rained. I had stress at work. It lifted. I missed my wife and daughter for 6 weeks. They came home. Be faithful. Sit back and live.

Hannah is smiling regularly (when she sees her father!), Laughing occasionally (much more so with her father), trying her darndest to sit up, sitting in the Boppy our friends Bob and Libby let us borrow, kicking and kicking and kicking, turning her head to and for and to, and being ever so expressive!

They have gone back to Chattanooga to square away things. . . but they'll be back :)

MiMi

Part of Hannah's story is the amount of drive that she gave her grandmother, Marilyn Holcomb, Sharon's mom. Mrs Holcomb was diagnosed with a rare cancer of the Peritoneam (sp?). She outlived the standard life expectancy of Peritoneal Cancer patients by double - all because she wanted to see, hold, love and enjoy Hannah. MiMi completed her journey today at 12:00p.m. It's funny because she had chiming mantle clocks in her house. That's not the funny part. The one in her bedroom has recently gotten hung up every 10, 11 and 12 o'clock hours. On those hours it would ringing seemingly incessantly. Actually it would ring about 15-20 times. Mrs Holcomb took her last breath right before the 12 o'clock chiming. We were right there with her watching to see if she was going to take another breath as the clock started. Well. . . we listened and watched as that clock started doing it's thing. But just as we noticed that it had rung it's annoying 20 times, it kept going. . . and going. . . and going. We all (me, Sharon and Shirley Bunn) started cracking up through our tears. I'll be danged if MiMi's spirit wasn't over there ringing that bell announcing her full and total arrival in Heaven.

So, how's the baby? :)

Everyone's so nice to ask. To which I say, "uhuhuh" (grunted version of "I don't know). Sharon and Hannah are in Chattanooga full time now. I've seen them 8 days in the last month.

Mrs Holcomb's friends have risen to the occasion to be there, helping Sharon in ways that are immeasurable. My mom and dad are up there for their 2nd week helping out. Of course, Hannah is in paradise with Nanny and PaPa there!

Mrs. Holcomb is very slowly declining. Sharon is doing an amazing job. Pray for 'Godspeed.'

Current

I know it's been a long time since my last post, but it's been as crazy as one would think with a new-born around. These days, though, Hannah is smiling cooing and being generally baby-cute! She and Sharon have been burning up the road in between home and Chattanooga to take care of her mom. Marylin now needs care 24/7. Yes, you all can pray us through this time.