My baby is 7!

Hannah in 2006----Hannah this summer

It is official right now. It is Hannah's birthday. She is seven. I have been very lucky to have the 5th baby be as good as she has been. I joked sometimes saying it took 5 times to get it right. But I wouldn't change any of the girls really. I can't believe she is this old already. I think the toddler/preschool years are my favorite and I am seeing myself at an end. The youngest is in school all day now. Which is OK and sad. I have enjoyed the happiness a Happy Meal can bring, visits to our favorite stores in the mall on weekdays. Going to the library. Shopping in the 4-6x sizes is done. Board books are long passed over due to go away. But in my mourning of this time that has past-and it seems I get to look forward to many years of teenagers yet ahead-hormonal girls, ugh. I still enjoy my little girl in her happiness at Christmas time. The magic she still holds. The happy wave when she sees me still. Not the "ugh mom, your still here." I love the little girl that she still is.

Here is a little Hannah history. She was my 2nd biggest baby at 9obs 11ozs. She was a big girl and it only took me 3 days to be induced with her on time. She was an easy baby which is why she nearly dropped 2 lbs after birth because she was tongue tied. She was nursing but getting next to nothing and didn't complain. She dropped down to my smallest baby at 8lbs 1 oz. We got her back on track but because of that she stayed a newborn size much longer than the first 4. She wore newborn booties for a long time. I remember how hard it was to have a little one while chasing 4 older kids. She was always in the car. Thank goodness she was great at car riding. I had 2 screamers. As she got older she loved to go all the time.

We were going to name her Lillian and call her Lilly. I was pretty sure that was decided almost to the end of my pregnancy. Then I started to doubt that this baby wanted that name. So we were undecided in the hospital as I was trying to go into labor. We started leaning more towards the name Hannah. As I was in the hospital I remember seeing this blonde little girl in my mind with a sweet calm nature and her name was Hannah. Not Lillian. I told Lee Joe what I had seen and felt more confident in that name. So we named her Hannah Lillian. When I had Hannah's pictures taken at 18 months I was floored when I brought the pictures home because what I saw in those pictures was the little girl I saw in my mind.

Hannah has some serious quirks--She hates spaghetti, We have to have "meat" on Sunday-she prefers roast, She will only eat a grilled cheese sandwich-no other sandwich. But she will eat ham just not on bread. She won't eat a thing with the slighest taste of peanut butter. No jelly. She loves pancakes and use to call them pantycakes. All she had to do was ask Lee Joe to make her some pantycakes and he would make them for her everytime. She likes giraffes a lot. She sings very well and has memory with music like her oldest sister. She wanted to learn to play the piano and in particular she wanted to learn how to play music from the Corpse Bride. Amber taught her how to play the top hand notes when she was 5. They would sit together at the piano and Amber would play the bottom hand while she did the top hand and she can still play it sometimes. She plays guitar hero pretty well. She really likes Star Wars. And all things girly too. She is pretty good on the computer but she has had to be on it since she was two because of what is in the next paragraph.

She was born with a piece of iris in her pupil. It is called a persistent pupillary membrane. She has been seeing an eye doctor since she was a newborn. We have had to eye patch her eye, eye drop her eye and now have a thing called a foil over her lens on her glasses to make her weak eye work better for years now. She has had to play on the computer and the game boy was helpful in working her weaker eye. We have found it does interfere with her vision somewhat but the other eye sees extremely well and it is not that much of an issue. Only when we are trying to point something out far away do I notice she has a hard time. But learning is not a problem for her. She amazes us all. Her interest now in building toys is being encouraged much more. A few things she has told us is that she wants to be an engineer and she wants to build roller coasters. The older girls claim she is so smart because I played Mozart for her. I was taking some pretty great vitamins at the time too. So who knows what it was. But she walked the latest of all my girls at around a year-they all started from almost 9 months to 10 months. She was the latest to potty-train. That was convenience for me I think.

Having the 5th child was an incredible challenge for me but I have had more joy with her than I could have imagined. I wouldn't want it any other way. I did remind myself often to slow down so I could enjoy her instead of getting frustrated in having to slow down. And now I keep telling the girls to slow down growing up just a little more. How ironic is that? I enjoy my kids so much and am so blessed and happy to have special days like birthdays to celebrate them.

Labor Day 2008----Christmas 2008