Just in time for Daylight Savings...

Matthias, my second child, Matt, wait wait let me put a photo just so we all know who I'm talking about, no confusion...


This child.

Slept until 7:56 am. Seriously. James even said to me, "I tried to get Matt up to play with me, but he wouldn't. I turned on the light. I made noises."

Mornings have been getting a lot later recently...like 6 to 6:30, but whoa. He has never slept that late in his life believe me.

And on Tuesday when he had woken up at 5:30 he fell asleep on the way home from the gas station (4 blocks) and when we got home he walked into his room, changed into his pajamas and said "I'm cold and tired. I wanna take a nap." At 11:00 am. He was not sick (and still isn't). He's finally decided to value his sleep...and mine. Too bad 6:30 will again be 5:30 in a couple days...

Trick or Treat

The boys and I fully made Halloween Sugar Cookies while listening to Christmas music. I almost pulled out the wrong cookie cutters...if you look close you can see our trick for Taylor.

Lasik

This post is long overdue, but I thought I would mention that I finally got lasik on 09/09/09. I planned it that way. Too bad there is no 20th month...

Anyway, I have been really hesitant because I didn't want to be blind (even though there aren't any recorded cases of blindness from Lasik that I have been able to find) and I didn't want dry eyes for the rest of my life. But Taylor has been hassling me for years so I researched back in like April. Then ignored it. Then researched some more. Then decided to just do it and get it over with. Great attitude I know.

I went with my eye doctor's recommendations. I have no idea if his rates were even competitive, but he is one of the best out there, helped design the latest laser to be FDA approved, has done like a million lasik surgeries, started in like 1980s, etc.

My one promise I extracted from Taylor was that if I were to end up blind he tell me that Hannah's hair came in a golden blond color regardless of actual facts.

At first I didn't really notice much since I always wear contacts. Everything just seemed the same, I would go to take my contacts out or try to put my glasses on when I woke up. I even felt like I couldn't see in the middle of the night. For a couple weeks I seriously forgot to wash my face at night because my whole bedtime routine was thrown for a loop (and I am a routine person, to put it mildly).

One night I cried because I missed my fuzzy world I got to retreat to every night. It was like an escape from reality when I just took out my contacts and became disconnected with everything.

But now I am totally used to it. I take it almost completely for granted. Except for the occasional "WOW" moment I don't even think about it. At all. After less than two months of 20/15 vision...going from 20/800 which started when I was 8. I don't even remember being able to see before this and now I don't even think about the miracle that is my perfect vision. It's crazy. I am also actually now +1 in my left eye so I'm far sighted. Ha, ha. So far I haven't even noticed except if I try to read something like 2 inches from my face, then I can't focus.

One last note...I used to have nightmares that my contacts broke in my eye or they were super huge and I couldn't put them in. Or other weird things like that. Now I have dreams that everything is fuzzy...it looks just like how I saw the world prior to 9/9. And it scares me. Then I remember I really can see. Phew. How was I so blind for so long!?!

Growing and Learning

Today within the space of two hours Hannah began scooting across the floor while sitting up (it's really funny to watch), saying uh oh, she also signed 'light' for the first time and 'more' for like the second or third time. All within two hours! I am so glad I get to stay home with my kids and be with them everyday. I love watching them grow and spending our moments together. I would be so sad to miss out on our time with each other.

(sadly we were out of batteries in the camera so none of this is documented!)

Bath Time!

I would like to say that I do realize I blog almost exclusively about Hannah these days, but she does change the most.

Anyways...my better signing techniques are already paying off. I can tell she understands several of the signs. Also on Friday I read her a book before nap time about a baby who takes a bath. Then I changed her diaper and she was all happy, but as soon as I started putting her diaper and pants back on she started screaming. Then once I had her pants back on she got really angry and totally signed "bath". It was pretty hilarious. I was like, you aren't having a bath right now it's nap time, we just read a book about baths. But she kept crying and signing so of course I gave in because she's the princess so she got a bath. Plus she needed some positive reinforcement for her skills, right? I'm telling you she is really obsessed with baths.



(those empty bath crayons she's holding are like her favorite toy in the world, so maybe she would want less baths if she could play with those outside the tub.)

James Speak Today (or was it 10 years from now?)

This morning...

Taylor: You need to get up and get ready for preschool.
James: Let me wake up slow.
Taylor: You don't have time.
James: Just five more minutes.



Our new cell phones arrived in the mail today...

James: When we're like 13 or 14 can we have our own little phones?

Hannah's First Word (proceeded by a looong explanation)

Baby signing is such an amazing thing I have been really trying with Hannah to start her early. We did a very small amount of signing with Matthias and it was wonderful to be able to communicate with him very simply at 9-10 months old. Especially after James did not speak a word until age two...signing would have been very useful with him, but I was as yet unfamiliar with current baby/parenting trends so we were just frustrated for two years.

Anyway, I took a Signing Smart class when Hannah was 7 weeks old and was all ready to have her signing by age 6 months. But when I finally pulled out the book yesterday to figure out why she still couldn't sign at 8 months I found out I had been doing everything wrong. Guess I should have read the book a few months ago...

What I realized a couple weeks ago though was that I sign to Hannah, yet when she wants something she looks me in the eye and says "AHHHHH!". But she makes sure she has my attention, concentration can be seen in her eye, and then "AHHH!". I observed to Taylor, "It's like she can't figure out what I'm doing with my hands. She can tell we communicate with sound so she attempts to do the same, completely ignoring whatever the heck Mom is doing with her hands all the time."

Well within the first 5 pages of reading I find out I have to do specific things for my baby to realize that signing has meaning and power in her world. Oops. Guess that's why she ignores my signing and copies my talking. So we are starting anew this week following all instructions and hoping to get some signing.

But being more tuned into Hannah and her communication led me to discover she can talk! Ok, so she only says one word, but she has for a couple weeks now and I just noticed it. (for those of you rolling your eyes, I really think babies understand way more than we think. way more. and they can indeed communicate at very early ages.)

Soooo, the story is Hannah LOVES taking a bath. Loves it. Whenever I take her to the bath I always say "Bath time!" while signing bath. She always gets really excited, but today I was looking (and hoping) for a sign and instead I got, "ba, ba, ba!" What? Then thinking back I realize she has been doing this the last several baths, maybe 5 or 6. She says "ba, ba, ba" when we walk in the bathroom and then when she is in the tub. I know it is a fairly regular baby sound, she does say it occasionally at other times (mostly she just screeches at other times though...as anyone who has had a 6-13 month old can attest), but she always says it when it's bath time. She knows.

So it's official. Hannah's first word is bath! She may not be as physically advanced as the boys were at her age, but she understands the communication thing and can say one word. I guess that's boys versus girls, huh?