Happy 2nd Due Date/Homecoming Day!

Two years ago today was Holland and Eden's due date, and the day that we brought them home from the hospital after 110 days in the NICU.

Last year on this day we celebrated by visiting the NICU to thank the staff, and to let them see how far the girls had come. I had hoped to make a tradition of it, but we couldn't go today because we are STILL sick:( At the beginning of the week, we seemed to be in an upswing, but today poor Eden has been hacking so much I'm afraid she may cough up a lung. So, instead of visiting the NICU, we celebrated by meeting Daddy for lunch, where Eden began coughing so hard that she ended up throwing up all over Daddy's work clothes! Luckily, we were seated in the back, far enough away from the other customers that I don't think we ruined anyone else's lunch. The good thing is that I think we are more bothered by Eden's cough than she is, cause she continues to be in a fairly good mood. I don't think I would handle a cough like that as well:) She's such a good girl.

So anyway, in honor of the girl's 2nd adjusted age birthday, I thought I would talk a little bit more about what they are like as two year old's...

Holland is really into walking and talking on the phone right now. Aunt Lizzie gave her an old flip phone that she has continuously been walking around the house "talking" on. You can understand a lot of the conversation, including "hi, bye-bye, and, who is it?". She always knows who she is talking to (usually Nana, but sometimes Kimi, Missy, Papa, or Daddy), and she always tells them it's "Hana."

Holland has an incredible memory. She can count to ten, knows her colors and shapes, and can identify every animal and the sound they make. She remembers everyone's name, including mommy's name ("Bebe"), daddy's name ("Don"), sissy's name ("Enid"), and her own name ("Hana"). She also knows the names of every one of her favorite television characters. We have a Barney book where Barney is leading a parade and all the animals are playing instruments. Holland can name the instrument that each of the animals plays, and if we see that instrument somewhere else, she will inform us as to who plays it (e.g. the squirrel plays the triangle). She is just now starting to get good at putting two words together like "hana turn" and "mama sit" and "hi o-pus (as she holds the phone to the octopus' head)." She also knows all the moves to many many songs and can supply a missing word in all of her favorite songs and stories.

Eden is a totally sweet, cheerful, silly, little girl. She has a great sense of humor and when she smiles you can see the joy in her entire body. She is quickly getting more and more responsive to questions and is saying more words all the time. Right now she can say mama, dada, more, all done, bubbles, up, what's that, hi, yes, woof, stinky, baba, and roar, clearly and consistently. She often repeats what we say, but it's not always clear to anyone except us:) I am really encouraged that she is answering our questions so much more lately. Like, I asked her today if she wanted a cracker, and she signed "more" then "eat." She signs and says "more" all the time now, which makes it a lot easier to understand what she wants. And, by the way, it's so frickin cute when she signs that I want to cry every time!!!

Eden is also enjoying "talking" on the phone, and has mastered the military crawl through her new tunnel. When we count she will repeat some of the numbers, and will pretend to count with her fingers. She likes things to be very orderly and makes up her own games which often involve lining her toys up in neat little rows. Eden also loves to color. She has to hold the crayon perfectly in her hand, and makes little marks like she is writing. She will look at the paper for any blank space, then deliberately goes to that space to fill it in. She is also particular about what color she uses and will throw every color until we hand her the one that she wants:)

You know, the word on the street is that preemies "catch up" by age 2, and this is the age at which doctors and therapists stop adjusting for prematurity when doing evaluations. Quite possibly, many or most preemies DO catch up by age 2, but many or most MICROpreemies do not. Even though my girls are beginning to do some of the things that 2-year-olds do, they are still quite far behind in many ways, even aside from the obvious physical delays due to the CP. One of the neonatologists at our NICU said to me that we should allow one year for each month they were early. H and E were born 3.5 months early, so they will not "catch up" until age 3.5 or 4. Even then I KNOW that the effects of their prematurity will linger. The effects on them, as well as on me.