When I think of how to describe Hannah I get this image of her running across the floor with a low humming “Uhhhhhhhhh,” trying to make a sound matching the vibrations of her running. She’s always imitating sounds and vibrations (vacumm cleaners, bumby stroller rides, etc.) with this low hum. She is in the moment. She is in tune with the earth, with the senses. When she likes something she slowly puts her head backs and swings it down again into a gigantic, earthy nod. When she’s happy, bliss covers her face so deeply that she even looks a little goofy. When she’s sad, you’ve never seen such an anguished look. Pure trauma.
She is tall (over 100 percentile) and solid (weight 80 percentile). Her legs actually have well formed muscled and so do her arms. She has full cheeks, auburn, wispy hair that is never quite in place, georgeous olive skin tone, big clear vibrant eyes, and a constant runny nose. She reminds me of old-fashioned baby–big and beautiful and messy.
She is sweet to her core, one of the sweetest toddlers I’ve known, but physically, she’s challenging as hell, climbing and exploring and so heavy to carry. She’s fearless, not an observer. In contrast, I’m constantly in fear that she’s going to end up in the hospital!
She interrupts her exploring frequently to cuddle with her thumb in her mouth and her head against my chest–each break lasts about 2 seconds. She’s a happy baby, but usually wakes up grumpy, especially from her afternoon nap. She loves her blanket and when she finds it she walks around with it dragging, her thumb in her mouth and the corner the blanket pressed against her eye with her other hand, like Linus.
She’s got a hoarse, sweet raspy voice . She has at least 10 “words”: “Hi,” “Bye-Bye,” “Da-da” (daddy), “Ra-da” (Rachel), “Ma-Ma” (mommy), “da”, {dog), “buh (book),” “da-pa” (diaper), “pa-poo” (poop), “ma” (more), “da-da” (thank-you), “pee” (please), “do” (no), “ba” (bath), “da” (duck), “is” (shoes), “bay-bay” (baby), “dis” (downstairs), “da” (down), and the favorite “Uh-Oh.”
When her Dad comes home from work she exclaims :”Daaa-Daaaaaaaaa” with her arms up toward him. Ten minutes later she sees me and it’s like I’ve been reinvented, a delighted “Maaa-maaaaaaaaaaaaa,” like I’ve been gone for days.
She likes to climb onto the couch and just sit, looking smug and tickled with herself. She’s very gentle with Charlie (our dog) and is constantly laying little pieces of food on the ground for her to eat.. She loves dolls, strollers, and necklaces, but also pushes cars around.
And this ends here, because my sweet, georgeous, snotty-nosed girl is awake and climbing again.
