Twinkle Twinkle, little two year old. Now quit making me cry!

I'm not sure what happened at book club last night except my friends got Hannah all lit up on chocolate peanut clusters right before we left but in the car on the way home she was singing something over and over and I just couldn't get what it might be. Hannah's only song so far has been a song I think her Daddy came up with "Mommy, Mommy woo woo woo" or any permutation with Mama, Hannah, Daddy, or Car-Car (Claire). I asked Claire what Hannah was singing (she sometimes speaks Hannahese) and she didn't understand it either. Hannah's longest sentence so far has been about 4 words and most generally she uses one or two word commands (as you see at the end of her video when she says "I see! I see!!") AFter we said good night to the moon on our way in the door it finally it hit me that she was singing that perennial preschool favorite Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and my heart skipped a beat and then quickly filled with joy. Claire was just a few months younger when I captured her singing the same song, just a few days before Hannah was born. I double dog dare you not to cry, people. Double dog dare.

Hannah goes wild but does not take off her shirt

This post is entirely photgraphic, and just demonstrates how Hannah is full of the awesome. Tomorrow you'll get Claire and dental surgery, today, just consider the wee one.

She crawls at your request

So now I've gone and posted all out of order and the next few days will have you travelling backwards in time, but tonight was the first time I caught Hannah crawling on demand on video. I used the shorter video as a courtesy to you, but rest assured, you will see more video here. Faster! Longer! Uncut!

My most favorite PT says Hannah is the best ever hemiplegic patient at unbraced crawling he has ever treated. The best in seventeen years! She is a star and I am bursting with pride.

Go go goggle

And the word of the day from Hannah is Goggle! Yesterday she said "more" and "baby" and rode on a ride on tractor toy at the Children's Museum. Today she squiggled until I put her down near the playground equipment Claire was on at the day care, and then she made me walk her over where she grabbed on and pushed my hand away. She cruised to the stairs and showed every inclination to climb on up. She's just like a regular baby! Mostly what I wanted to say was "who are you and what have you done with Hannah?" and mostly today what she wanted to say was "gogogoggle."

Is there a humungous fungus in Salt Lake City?

Such was the question Claire posed over breakfast. I hardly knew what to say. Still don't actually. This is yet more proof that anything I say can and will be used against me later. Who on earth said such a think to my daughter? I bet this came from listening to her dad's talk radio drivel in his car, right? How did I come to have children with a man who listens to talk radio? How? Well, they are appealing children, anyhow.




After I read a book to Claire she often likes to "read" it back to me. This is Claire's version of Beauty and the Beast (board book edition).

Once upon a time there was a kind and beautiful girl named Belle.

There was a prince and his dungeon cast a spell on him and made him a beast.

That's Belle and her dress is yellow.

And then they had soup.

And she is not a teapot anymore, and he is not a cup anymore, and she is not a candle anymore. And he is not a beast anymore. And when Belle wears the yellow dress, she gets babies.


Now I know how I got those girls. I am getting rid of my yellow dresses ASAP.

The little red headed girl gets fancy

She calls this her Belle dress because it makes her feel like Belle from Beauty and the Beast. At other moments it is her Bo-Peep dress, and when she puts it on I have to get on my hands and knees and say Baa-Baaaaaa and eat 'maginary grass. Or get back in the barn.

Hannah tricks

In lieu of navel gazing and identity questioning and general moanery writ large, here is a view of Hannah's recent accomplishments in learning to use her right hand.

Ma-ma-ma-milestone!! I'd do the happy dance but I can't stop crying.

She finally pulled herself up to standing. Lord Honey saw it first and failed to mention it to me. Men are rather odd.

Here is the lead up.



The approach.




She shoots, she scores.



I had suspected it would happen any day as she'd suddenly gone through the kind of exponential change that had her sitting up in her wee bassinet, and therefore finally kicked out of our bedroom and into her own, and refusing to sit down, and rolling about in her big girl crib like a wild monkey just because she could, and we've been working on the parts of getting up for months.

Then I saw it today during our PT session and burst with pride. My little baby! All grown up! Suddenly she seems so mature, pulling up and hamming for the camera then expecting to be shown the picture for her approval.



I want her to walk, and to walk soon, but more so I want her to walk well. We are seeing two different PTs who recommend different things and I've focused more on the one who we met first, and how he wants Hannah working at basic skills and building up strength and balance. The other therapist, he of the pithy sayings such as "we all find our support" wanted her on walking toys (she said no), in a walker (she said fuck no) and cruising the furniture (she says OK to that). Her primary PT, he who visits my house, sometimes to comic effect, instead wants me climbing her up the stairs so she learns weight shifting and balance and bears weight on her weaker side in ways that mimic walking, and he believes in selectively splinting her elbow so she can't revert to her scrunched up arm pattern and pull herself out of balance. I went with his methods more, on instinct, and also on him saying look, she will walk late anyway so instead of pushing walking just push for the basics because her walk will look better if she shifts her weight well. After our session on Tuesday as he was readying to go he said it was one of the most fun therapy sessions he's ever done, and he's done quite a few. I haven't been able to talk about it because I can't control my emotions. Mike has always said Hannah would walk, he just couldn't say when or how steadily, but he is absolutely delighted with her progress and her many tricky skills, like cruising both directions (including to her weak side) and the way she holds her trunk and moves her shoulder and chest, and he says she'll be walking soon.

Every time I walk into the day care and find her standing at the table I think I'll just burst with pride and joy, It used to be that Hannah would bee sitting about while her peers romp about her and now here she is right in the thick if the action, leaning up against a table or shelf and looking so much more normal. 'Scuse me, I need Kleenex. Normal posting will resume soon.

The butt scootin' boogie

This is the way we cross the floor, cross the floor, cross the floor
This is the way we cross the floor, early in the morning.



And evening.



And bedtime.

And how she gets rug burns on the leg that slides. Maybe I should get her some baby Carhartts?

Disney-wo-woold by Claire, age three and a half

Whose house is this? It is a place we are staying this week. Why? We need a place to stay while we go to Disneyworld. Why, Mama? This house is yellow. Where is our other house? Whose car is this? We rented this car to use in Florida. Where is our car, Mama? In Utah. Why?

Whoa. Whoa. This place is too big. I want to go home. I love this place. Why? Mama, why? Look it's Minnie Mouse. I love Minnie! I want to meet Minnie. I'm getting out of the stroller. NO, I don't want to meet Minnie. NO! Aarrgghhh! Let's go away. What is that, Mama? I don't like funnel cake. I want some funnel cake. I need apple juice. That roller coaster is too big. It's scary.

Mouse ears! I want mouse ears, Mama. Pink ones! Let's get some for Hannah too!

I don't like Peter Pan! I want to go ride Dumbo the flying elephant again!

I love the Magic Carpet ride!

I don't want to go on Pirates of the Caribbean. Wah, I'm scared. Mama, will you sing "Yo Ho a Pirate's Life for Me"?

I love Nemo. I want to ride Nemo's ride again. I don't want to go to Turtle Talk with Crush. (Crush says to Claire) Whoa, Dude, let's hear from the girl in the flowered shell. What's your name? I am Claire Elizabeth. What's your question about turtles, Claire? I speak Spanish, but my Mama doesn't. Whoa, Dude. How's that work? Uno, dos, cuatro, cinco, seis, siete, ocho, nueve.

I want some monies, Mama. Look Claire, I got you this Princess coin purse for your monies, to keep them safe. Why, Mama? To keep them all together so you don't lose the coins. I want paper money, Mama.

My underwear are boring today. My underwear bore me.

I love my Ariel pillow. Can we stay in the yellow house today and not go to Disney-wo-woold?

Can I have some plastic money?

Girls, girls, girls

This is how her head looked before I let her tip over, right in front of me, as I helped her work on learning how to cruise, and even in my grasp I let her smash her wee noggin on a pointy cornered toy. I am full of the awesome!



In other news, Hannah had her updated testing for Early Intervention, and now rates at eight months in gross and fine motor skills, but a whopping fifteen months in language, out ahead of her actual fourteen months. That's my daughter! She rated high because she has words besides mama and dada, namely book and baba. She is working on boo for balloon. Her greatest accomplishment, however, is that she can sign milk to us and nearly bursts with joy every time we see her squeeze her imaginary teat. I was rocking her to sleep two nights ago and she would nestle in to my neck, sit up and dramatically sign for milk, take two swigs and stop to snuggle, then lather, rinse and repeat. When she tired of milk on demand, she sat up very purposefully looked me in the eye and stuck a finger to my mouth. I guessed she wanted me to sing (questionable choice) and when I did the babykins jumped with joy that she had yet again successfully pulled my puppet strings. I cried and she smiled joyously. Everyone went to bed happy, except Claire.

This one is full of sass right now, so I look back longingly at this view, taken a short two weeks ago, when she was full of good cheer and not too many screams. It seems she is not enjoying her best friend at preschool right now, and she gets amped up beyond all reason at things of little consequence. And, she is three and a half. While I was enjoying Hannah's expanding communication skills, I found Claire had crawled out into the hall outside her bedroom to spy on the activities in the house that go on after bedtime, and she fell asleep on the cold, hard floor. I kept hearing the breathing and thinking Lord Honey had the monitor turned up extra loud, only to find it was a different child, snoring away in a different place altogether. We seem to be going through a slightly more difficult stage, where she wants to do more but doesn't know how to get there. And it all kinda pisses her off, some.

I am in fluster to get all my regular things done so my life doesn't come apart at the seams while I am away, pack for all of us for a week away, and get all who are girls inoculated against the H1N1 menace. Busy, busy, busy.

Teeny tiny update and attack of the Blue Meanies

All right, you ladies who weren't going to have more kidlets soon - in lieu of a real blog post I am posting some pictures to make your uteri twitch.

Hannah is lovely and smiling as ever these days:



Claire is busy as ever and sporting a sassy new haircut:



In yet another awesome parenting event, when Claire painted this ceramic pot at a friend's birthday party, she got a glob of blue paint on her dress. When I washed her face before bed we wet the paint blob and reactivated it. Innocent Claire got yelled at for spreading blue around, but I thought she'd stashed a marker and gone on a tear with it. When she took her dress off, with much wailing and gnashing of teeth, as it has a snuggish neckline, she left a trail of blue up her forehead and into her hair and then at various and sundry points around the house. I had to stop yelling at her when I finally found the source and realized she wasn't in fact painting the town blue wilfully but only accidentally. We put this on the list of things she is not doing, like peeing on the floor and calling me stinky Mama.

Hannah makes a milestone

Well, I didn't get a picture of it yet, but Hannah sat up by herself today while we were at my sister's for my niece's birthday dinner. We've been working on that for about six or eight weeks or so with her PT. She lies on her back, rolls to her side, and pushes off on her strong arm. After she proved herself to her adoring fans, I walked away leaving her helium balloon dangling over her head, and she sat up without an audience to be able to grab her balloon. Since I am never one to stop talking, I have been telling her how a girl who can sit herself up is a girl who can get things done and other such platitudes. That usually comes right before she pokes me in the eye and squeals like a baby pterodactyl. I still don't know how to do video so I'll post a series of pix soon.

She has indeed made enormous other progress lately such as her right arm being able to go well above her head when she tells you she is "SO BIG" and has come a long way since July



She enjoys standing and working on her balance




While she wears her cute wee boot to support her foot



And I finally found a use for law books that get tossed once a year when the new codes get delivered to my office. Reduce, reuse, recycle, apply duct tape. It is never to too early to teach your kids of the wonder that is duct tape.



And yes, a toy store did explode all over my living room, what of it?

In other parenting glory, Claire got her first homework assignment today which I forgot to tackle before bed. Three and a half is not too young, right? They say the idea is to give parents examples of the progress the child is making, but I cannot lie, I was dumbstruck when I found the assignment amongst her "work" of finger painted pumpkins and worksheets extolling the virtues of the letter B.

Friday Haiku the pretty, slobbery dictator

A second new tooth
for my wee Hannah baby
costs me some good sleep.

We still call her Fang
because it is so much fun
her being so pretty

and yet slobbery
She also learned how to point,
tells us what she wants.

Every week Christina at A Mommy Story plays host to bloggers who love Haiku Friday - join us!

Grace in small babies

How big is the baby?



Is she "SO BIG?"
"SO BIG?"


Hannah is so big!

Where does the night live?

I always forget that the big life changes don't really just happen suddenly, they actually sneak up on you gradually and it just takes some time to see the change for what it is. Claire has been asking Why and What questions for some time now. It was clear a year ago that she was processing multiple layers of information simultaneously. When she visited me in the hospital when Hannah was born, after a few days of visiting and never seeing me out of bed she said to me "I need to see your legs." Her questions have become more existential and harder to avoid answering, and her own explanations ever more endearing. When she told me why her friend Logan didn't go on field trips from the day care she explained that he had to go home to his mommy to get some energy. Driving home yesterday in the car at sunset, she remarked that the sun was gone, then wondered where it had gone, and after some reflection asked "where does the night live?" Now, we all know, all mothers believe their children to be the brightest and best but I was tickled that when our brief explanation of daytime and sunshine failed to mention night, she filled in her own blanks and surmised that night was involved in the absence of the sun, but if she could say that she lived "in Salt Lake City in Utah!" then where did the night hail from? When this came up again over dinner Lord Honey decided we should get more scientific and decided to explain starting with the shadow cast by his hand and then using his other hand to suggest an imaginary object that could have been a sun or a planet and by the time he got to revolving I was hiding behind Hannah and laughing until he asked her if she got it and her reply was "I want a special treat." I think even for deep thinking three year olds, abstract concepts might take a while longer.

Hannah the happy baby