I know this is super delayed. But I wrote this letter for Hannah last May and never posted it. And I just have to post it officially before I put up Lydia's birthday post and EmmaLee's birth post. Hannah is definitely not forgotten or loved any less!
Sweet Hannah,
I think that I have a harder time believing that you are really 2 than I have at any point in your development so far! You are my baby girl still! And yet your development is definitely proving otherwise! You have definitely gotten down the 2 year old attitude quickly! In fact, I think that you spent the months prior to your birthday practicing.
Despite your 2 year old attitude, you really are a sweet little lady. You LOVE taking care of your babies and I often hear you singing to them. I think this is my favorite thing to see you doing. Well, that and when you randomly decide to hug your sister and tackle her to the ground. You have a great career in wrestling! Your favorite thing to do first thing in the morning is to sit on my lap with your sippy of milk and snuggle as we watch a show. The show is not always necessary, however the blanket draped over our laps is! It doesn't matter how hot it is. You must have your "bobbee" (blankie). You also are very very strongly attached to "Aiee" (I don't know how to spell that pronunciation, but it means her owl snuggly). It is carried everywhere at home, often accompanied by thumb sucking and has also found her way into the car whenever we leave the house. Luckily I have convinced you that it does not leave the car into stores, etc in fear that it may get lost (and I don't ever want to face that trauma!). Aiee has already had very severe reconstructive surgery, and I anticipate several more before she finds her death bed.
A few month ago you had a very unpleasant experience when you tripped on your nightgown getting down from a chair. You fell flat on your face and chipped your tooth clean in half. We were able to get you into a dentist office within a few hours and you were well on your way to recovery. It was a terribly experience though! Unfortunately you had chipped your tooth all the way into the pulp and needed to get a pulpotomy (baby root canal) before they could put a composite crown on it. Because of your age, they chose to strap you down into a papoose and perform the procedure with you awake. I could hear your screams all the way across the office the full 20 minutes. It was so hard to hear you in such pain and know that I couldn't do anything to help you. After they brought you back into my arms, I didn't want to let you go. I wish I could keep you from many of the pains that you will experience in this life! But I know, as I knew in the waiting room at the dentist office, that I cannot. They are there for you to learn from and grow stronger (and to keep your tooth from getting infected and falling out). However, please know that I will always be there to comfort and love you!
We went to the doctor last week for your 2 year old checkup. It was a VERY traumatizing visit. The moment that we stepped into the back for your weight began a huge wrestling match and it didn't end until we walked out the door to leave. The only thing I can figure is that you are still very much traumatized after your bad encounters with the dentist recently. Either way, the only way we were able to get your weight was for me to hold you on the scale and then put you down to figure out the difference. And we had to pin you down and stretch you out like a newborn to get your height. And that was only the beginning of the visit. Sigh. I am so glad that you didn't need any shots this time! Sigh. After talking with the doctor, we did determine that you are definitely behind in your speech and we are now taking the steps to get your evaluated by a speech therapist and an audiologist. I don't think that you have any problems with hearing, but the more I think about it, the more I wonder. So we'll see about that soon. You do say several "words", however the only ones that anybody else would understand is "bye bye" and "no". However, even "no" is often very confusing because you also use it in reference to any form of beverage. So, even that is deceitful. Hopefully we can get this squared away soon! And despite the battling, we were able to get your stats. You are falling into the lower percentiles, but the doctor isn't concerned yet because your body is still in good proportion. You are a teeny little lady though!
Height: 2 feet 8 inches (19%)
Weight: 23 lbs 9 oz (12%)
Head circumference: 18 inches (20%)
A couple more of your favorites to end on a happy note:
You LOVE to get dirty! You got to go to the beach in Galveston a couple weeks ago for the first time since moving a year ago and you HATED the water. Just like you don't like swimming pools or even bathtubs. But you were in heaven playing in the sand! Everytime we go outside you find the dirt to play in. You love exploring in it.You still LOVE slides. And really anything at a park. You are very good at holding onto the grown up swings and love rocking back and forth in them. You love the freedom of running around and doing new things.
If I had to pin down your favorite food, I would say Mac and Cheese. That is always a guarantee. Along with most any fruit.
Sweet Hannah, you are such a fun, energetic and silly little lady! Without you, our family would not be complete. I love you and am so excited to see what the next year holds!
Love,
Momma
2 comments:
Better late than never, eh? :) I'm curious how her speech is coming along. Did she have any hearing issues? I wondered the same thing when Garrett was little, since his ability to understand me seemed so underdeveloped, which was then affecting his ability to talk. Now, though, I think that his issues stem from a problem more along the lines of auditory processing disorder, which Blake has. He hasn't been diagnosed with it, but there are just too many similarities to discount it. Anyway, I hope the speech therapy has been helping!
Wow, you're fast Lindsay! Her speech has definitely improved drastically since I wrote this letter. She speaks in full sentences now and is pronouncing more syllables than before. She still struggles a lot and can be difficult to understand, even for me. We are working to get her speech therapy both through the school district and privately right now. Her hearing has all tested normal. So that's not a concern now. Her speech therapist thinks that she also has the auditory processing disorder. So, maybe this is a genetic thing :(. Fun times. Lydia has great speech though. So I'm hoping that this won't be a problem with EmmaLee too. Not fun!
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