The Hannig Home

A quick recap of our day at the Paul Hannig household: Meredith continues to be a challenge to keep alive.  In the past week or two, I have fished the following items out of her mouth:  green monopoly house, white Lego, rubber end to our bathroom doorstop, and plastic piece from the top of an Old Navy clothes hanger.  See items below: Today, miss Meredith took it up a notch. To set the scene: I had Meredith sitting on the carpet in the living room with a basketball, watching Benny shoot baskets.  There were no toys out, nothing to present a choking hazard.  I was dusting.  We have a set of glass coasters on an end table, which I set on the floor as I dusted.  The end table was about 6 feet from where Meredith was sitting.  In the past, one of the coasters had broken so I knew the glass could chip or break.  And so I was sure to put the coasters back up on the end table before Meredith would try to reach them on the floor (she isn't completely crawling...but very, very close.

I just found a green Monopoly house in Meredith's mouth.  Paul said, "How are we going to keep her alive?" Luke had insisted on playing Monopoly on the kitchen floor, even when I reminded him that Meredith, although unable to crawl, can somehow scoot on her butt and cover some ground.  Well, sure enough, Meredith was rolling around on the floor and must have reached a house.  In the mouth it went.  I went over to check on her and saw some suspicious activity in her mouth.  I pulled it out and showed it to Luke.  He continued to play Monopoly, unconcerned.  When I asked him if he felt bad that Meredith could have choked to death on his Monopoly house, his response was, "Maybe."  Sigh. Well, I better run.  Meredith and Ben are in the bathtub now and Meredith is holding onto my bottle of Softscrub with bleach that I thought necessary to keep in the shower for ease of cleaning.  Hopefully we can keep her alive at least until tomorrow.   Now Ben is being b

Meredith,  I wrote this on the airplane on the way to Arizona a month or so ago: I'm on my way to Arizona for 3 days. Meredith, I miss you. You bury your head in my shoulder to hug me. Your soft little hands reach up and caress my face. Then you pull my face in to give me a wet kiss. And you rest your forehead on my forehead, never taking your hands off my face.  Always holding my face. Your second tooth just broke through. I felt it this morning. With your first tooth and this second one you have never cried, fussed or complained to let me know you might be uncomfortable. The only signs I got were that you woke up an extra time in the night wanting to nurse the past few nights, and you wanted to be held a little more the past few days.  If you were sitting on the floor (you sit well, completely unassisted now) you would look up at me and give me a little whine to let me know you wanted to be held.  Then, when I picked you up and held you close, you were content. But if I got b

Luke, You are going to be five years old in just a few weeks.  Last night I lied next to you in bed while you slept.  Your face looks so grown up.  You are long and lean.  I started to cry.  I remember, like it was yesterday, lying in bed with a one year old, singing bah-bah black sheep (you would say "sing ba-ba, mama"), and now you are almost in kindergarten.  You have become such a caring, mature, young boy.  I love spending time with you, doing puzzles or reading books or putting together legos.  I miss you when you are at preschool.  (That is another entire journal entry I never got to writing about - the emotions we both went through this past September when you started pre-school.  It was so hard on my heart to see you go....and caused you so much anxiety to go at first.  We both cried a lot those first few weeks).  Well, now you are at school Tues mornings, Wednesdays a full day, and Thursday mornings.  And when you aren't at school you are begging for play date