William Hahn

Yesterday afternoon, about 10 minutes after we left from visiting him, my grandfather William Hahn passed away. He was 81.

We called him Hon. I never knew that wasn't a typical grandfather name until I reached grade school and other kids gave me funny looks when I talked about Granny and Hon. Later, I found out the story behind the name. My oldest cousin Chris would always hear Granny calling her husband "Hon", short for Honey. He just assumed that was his name and started calling him Hon as well. The name stuck.

Dustin, the boys, and I have been frequent visitors of Hon and Granny over the years. First at their house and then for the past two years at the nursing home. The boys have put on shows for him, sang to him, told him stories, and have given him countless hugs, kisses, and smiles. He loved hearing about our latest hunting and fishing adventures.

Last Saturday before we stopped by, I explained to Southern that Hon was sick and would probably be napping alot. He was asleep for most of the visit, but he did open his eyes long enough to tell us hi, smile at us, and pat Baylor's arm. Upon leaving, Southern and Remington gave him hugs, Baylor gave him a gummy grin, and Dustin and I told him that we loved him. He was awake and smiling. Southern told Granny, "I hope Hon gets better."

Yesterday, I reminded Southern that Hon was still sick and that he would probably be napping again. He did not wake up during our visit, but it's possible that he could still hear us, so we included him in our hellos and goodbyes. My dad was also visiting at the time, and he called later to tell us of Hon's passing.

Hon was given 3 months to live in the fall of 2007 when they first discovered his cancer. Since then, he has met and come to know our three boys. For that extra time, I will forever be grateful.

4 Months Old

Baylor turned 4 months old today.

Here's a picture of him in his bed tonight -

Compare it to this picture taken on his first night at home -

Wow! He sure has grown...

At 4 months old, Baylor
- wears size 3 diapers
- wears size 6 month, 9 month, and even some 12 month clothes
- has not kept shoes on for longer than 15 minutes at a time yet (he even kicks off his socks sometimes)
- sleeps through the night (woohoo!!) He'll go down around 11pm-midnight after cluster feeding for an hour or two and then will sleep until 8-9am most days. Some days he wakes up at 5am.
- absolutely hates riding in the car after dark. I've even tried driving with the interior lights on, but that doesn't fool him. He just cries... even though he is full, has a dry diaper, etc. As soon as you get him out of the car, he stops. I don't know what it is because he's not that upset about it during the day. So we just avoid traveling at night now unless he's sleepy.
- loves to chew on his hands
- gives HUGE smiles and laughs
- squeals with delight when he is talked to
- rolls from tummy to back

And speaking of sleeping, sometimes one (or both) of the two older boys will wake up in the middle of the night and crawl into bed with Dustin and me. One night a few weeks ago, both of them were in our bed when Baylor awoke. I got him and laid back down in our bed to nurse him. He was soon back asleep, and I snapped this picture.

Doesn't that just melt your heart?

Southern "reading"

Southern loves to read... though he can't actually read just yet. But that doesn't stop him from burying his nose into a good book. The boys and I visit the library at least once a week where they are allowed to check out (almost) anything their little hearts desire. The ride home is then spent with Southern (and sometimes Remington too) paging through each of his books and studying the pictures. Then, when we get home, I will usually read aloud at least one of the books checked out that day. Some days we read them all, but we usually try to save the rest for bedtime.

Southern has always loved Eric Carle books. One of his first favorite books was Brown Bear, Brown Bear. Recently, I decided to grab another Eric Carle book from the library. We hadn't read this one before. And after I finished reading through it one time, Southern decided that he now wanted to "read" it himself. So proud of our little man!

golf

As the boys and I were eating lunch today, the phone rang. Remington, who was munching on some corn on the cob at the time, looked up and said, "Daddy!". I got up to check the phone, and sure enough, it was Daddy calling. Dustin was calling because he forgot his camera at home, and he was hosting the boys fall golf tournament today. So a quick drive into Seguin was added to our day's plans. We got there just as the last few boys were finishing up their round.

 

We soon made our way to the covered pavilion where the awards ceremony was to take place. Dustin was super excited because not only did his team place first in the tournament, there was a tie for first and second medalist - and both boys were on his team!

 

 

After the winners were announced and photos were taken, Southern, Remington, Baylor, and I hopped onto Dustin's golf cart with him and headed over to Hole 1 to watch the sudden death playoff for first place medalist. Remington was a little too excited and yelled "weeee" just as the first player was teeing off. Oops! Luckily, it did not affect his swing, and that player went on to win the playoff.

And the boys enjoyed spending their afternoon with Daddy!

3 months old

Baylor turned 3 months old today!

At 3 months old, Baylor

- wears size 2 diapers
- still fits into some size 3 month clothes, wears some size 6 month clothes and even some size 9 and 12 month clothes
- still breastfeeds around the clock but has a few longer stretches without eating during the day
- is almost sleeping through the night (yay!)
- has successfully spent the past two nights out of Mommy and Daddy's room (bittersweet)
- gives smiles more often
- has gone back and visited his NICU nurse at the hospital - she was super excited to see him!
- still loves being held and doesn't like being on his own too often during the day
- has started spitting up often
- is going to experience his first major holiday this month

BOO

Southern's handprint spider

Remington's footprint ghost

Baylor's footprint ghost

Costume Parade

I am a part of KinderMoms of New Braunfels. It's a club for moms and kids that groups the kids by kindergarten age. For example, Southern will start kindergarten in August of 2014, so he's a K14. (Remington's a K16 and Baylor's a K18.) I love meeting and hanging out with kids that may be in his class one day. And it will be so fun to show them pictures of them together as babies when they are in high school! 

With KinderMoms, each mom organizes at least one playdate every 3 months. And you can make it for just your age group or for all ages. Southern had the idea to do a costume parade with his friends back in September. What a fun idea! I thought about where to do a parade and decided that a nursing home would be a great place. So I contacted the activities director of a local nursing home and pitched our idea. They loved it. We did our little parade with them this past Friday. It was a hit! Southern was Spiderman, Remington was Elmo, and Baylor was a chili pepper. So cute!!

There were about 13 other moms there with 1-3 children each, so we had a good turnout. One of the moms brought suckers for all of the kids to hand out to the residents which they enjoyed doing. The residents also had some candy for our kids along with balloons and snacks. It was great to see so many excited faces (young and old alike). 

I got a ton of compliments on the little pepper I was carrying around. One sweet lady walked up to us, leaned over Baylor, and said, "Oooh a little chili pepper. Pobrecito." That made me smile as my grandma says that often. (It means "poor little thing" in Spanish.)

And one man had his birthday that day, so we all sang "Happy Birthday" to him. What a wonderful feeling.