Fall Visiting

Seth and I took a trip to Utah this past week. I think I have officially figured out the best amount of time to be away from home. It's five days, in case you were wondering. Unfortunately we stayed for eight. It was so fun to see family, an old friend, and trees that actually change color but I'm a home girl.

We stayed with Brandon's grandparents so Seth got to bond with them properly for the first time. He really took to them and they made us feel right at home. He especially liked reading stories with Grandma and playing tops with Grandpa.

We got to spend a good amount of time with my sister and her brand new babies. Seth loved his cousins so much and every time we showed up at her house he immediately started asking for the "bebe". He has asked for them since coming home too. We were also able to be there for their blessing.

The happy family

Savannah is a gorgeous girl and couldn't have looked any better, this is the dress my sisters and I were all blessed in

What is it about two that makes one so much cuter. I guess it's why everyone loves twins so much.

Oliver Dee Schauerhamer with his Great-Grandpa Dee. I know Great-great grandpa Oliver was watching from heaven.

Missing my dad, sister, and Brandon but otherwise we were all there. I love these new family additions.

We also got to go to a pumpkin patch and as much as California has to offer, lets be honest they can't compare to Utah when it comes to pumpkin patches. AANNDDD my long time friend Muriel who came back from her mission last week came with us.

Seth had so much fun with his grandma this past week.

They had the coolest animal swings and Seth tried every single one.

Inside the ghost. It echoed when he made noises..

This face kills me

Seth LOVES to be buried. I found a handful of corn in his diaper when we got home.

First train ride, sort of.

Seth loves cars, trucks, wheels.. put them together and he is one happy kid. And this is muriel. we have been friends since we were 11.

Fall is my favorite season.


 We also spent some time at my little sisters house where Seth got to feed chickens, play with her dogs,  and play cars with his uncle. He also rode a 4wheeler but that was not a happy moment, we are guessing it was too loud.

Hatch Happenings

Its been quite a while since I wrote about what we have been up to so I thought I would do a spring re-cap before we get too far into summer.

Seth is doing so much better with chewing and enjoys going to OT. His speech has also made improvements. He now clearly says 4 things. Ba= Ball, grunt, grunt, grunt, ggrruunnntt = 1, 2, 3, gooo and he says go, go, go as he zooms around on his scooter. He still doesn't say mama or dada, but waves goodbuy, signs more, thank you, hungry, please (sometimes). The biggest improvement we have seen with Seth is his comprehension. Just a few months ago I wasn't even sure he knew his own name. Now I feel like if I use simple enough phrases, he can understand what I tell him. Seth definitely understands scooter, bike, high chair, park and beach. Can you tell what his priorities are?

you need pure concentration if you want to go fast.

Seth finally has a favorite aunt on the Hatch side. Brandon's brother Michael was married in May. They had a temple wedding followed by a gorgeous beach front wedding dinner. We got to celebrate again several weeks later after their honeymoon to Europe with the entire BYU mens volleyball team, something I find incredibly hilarious but totally would have done if I had been in their place.

Seth is having major separation anxiety these days...

Somehow Seth ends every event with his clothes off.

We had a great 4th of July. Seth refused to be separated from me and so he missed out on riding his scooter in the parade but he loved the splash pad and swimming pool and grandmas house. The next day we went to the beach where I showed Seth the pleasures of being buried in the sand. Now he wants to be buried every time we go. Seth is learning to swim with his life jacket and arm floaters on. He can propel himself with his arms a little bit but gets tired pretty fast. We are still working on kicking.

sparklers before bed with Aunt Diane

boogie boarding with Cory

beach baby

that smile!

Seth is almost 18 months old and Brandon has been taking him to nursery and staying with him to get him used to it. This was not necessary as he was immediately sold once he saw the train table. He also has more responsibility now. He is in charge of cleaning up his toys, washing his hands after the park or before eating using his step stool and of course, washing the car!

I redecorated my living room and am SO excited. When we got married we were given someones furniture, decorations, pretty much EVERYTHING she owned since she was moving into a convent. I am to this day extremely grateful however, I was also very excited to choose my own color theme and style. I still need to make new curtains but just love sitting in my living room and feeling like its mine!

We are also getting really excited for Seth's new baby cousins Thor and Loki to be born. We are hoping they wait until at least 36 weeks but as long as they are healthy wouldn't mind seeing them a bit sooner. We are also excited to find out what their names will be, although they will always be Thor and Loki to me.

A bunk bed for Seth

It's kind of strange but as long as I can remember I have wanted to build a bunk bed for my children. I only have one child and he isn't old enough to sleep in a bed BUT I just couldn't wait any longer. Sooo I somehow convinced Brandon that we needed a bunk bed now. My arguments were all sound such as "it would be nice to have somewhere for relatives to sleep when they visit" and we will need one eventually so we might as well do it now" and my favorite "we can put drawers under it and use it as storage." Well, it worked and I am the proud owner of a bunk bed. A bunk bed that I, kind of, helped build and got to choose how it looks.

Seth wanted to be part of the process every step of the way. He played with the tools, brought the boys pieces of wood they didn't need and threw a tantrum every time I tried to take him away. I am SO excited to get it painted in the next week and the mattresses on. I may even have to take a nap to try it out!

Here we go, again

This time last year we were adjusting to parenthood, physical therapy, and the possibility of Seth needing a DOC band to correct his head shape. Seth is now 15 months old, in the 97th percentile and such a joy to be around. In the past few months we have been going through the process of having Seth evaluated for Physical, Occupational, and Speech therapy. I had to fill out a bunch of forms about Seth recently and after writing 8 pages worth of things he can't do and the things he does awkwardly, they asked me this question: What do you admire most about your child? It was one of those questions posed at just the right moment that it gets you on so many levels. Here I was focusing on the negative and doing everything in my power to effectively explain why we were referred to them in the first place and suddenly I am asked to say my favorite thing about him, his best quality. Well, I would like to share what I wrote. My favorite thing about Seth is that he never gives up. He is curious and outgoing and when he sets his mind to something, he works at it until he masters it. It is my greatest joy watching him do this, lately he has taken to learning to climb certain things and can now get onto every piece of furniture in the house including the kitchen table.

My happy boy, he loves water.

 Seth had his evaluations today and is 55% delayed in speech. The youngest they usually start speech therapy is 15 months but Seth is so delayed that his speech is in the 3-6 month range (he just started babbling). This means that he is not ready for speech therapy so in the meantime he will start a therapy called infant stim. This therapy will help develop his mouth muscles and comprehension and get him to the point where he can start speech therapy. The concern is even greater because of his family history, both Brandon and I needed therapy. Brandon along with all his brothers and my sister needed speech therapy and I had to go in to learn how to swallow properly.

Seth will also be needing occupational therapy for several reasons, the biggest being his spacial awareness, or lack there of, and perception but his scores were not high enough to qualify for the government program we are working with. They are going to try and petition an exception based on their assessment that he is "a danger to himself". I am not sure how I feel about that but after two split lips, a chipped tooth, walking off ledges, lots of goose-eggs, scabs and gagging (one of the things he needs to work on is chewing and realizing how much is in his mouth) I kind of see their point. He doesn't need physical therapy as most of his gross motor scores are off the charts awesome!

Seth got a major haircut. We all miss his blonde hair but things are so much easier now.

Seth's first drawing, he gave it to grandma.

He LOVES running down hills.

Valentines Day-- Through the eyes of a mother

Yesterday was Valentines day. I love Valentines day. Even as a child and single young adult I still loved valentines day. I guess it's partly because my mom always made it special by decorating the breakfast table and giving us all a small valentines treat or toy. At school you got TONS of candy and sweet cards from all the girls in class and funny ones from the boys. Maybe it's because I always felt that valentines day as more about physical proof of the love that surrounded me all year than about having a sweet heart. My first valentines with a boyfriend, who just happened to be my future husband, was pretty horrible. I had built up all these crazy expectations in my head of what valentines day would be like once I had a boy as my valentine. Thanks to the BYU business school and their decision to have a HUGE junior core project due on February 15, my valentine didn't even take one second to think of me. He was inexperienced, I was inexperienced and neither of us thought of the needs of the other. I think the night ended in Brandon asking me to tell him what I wanted him to buy me and me saying it wouldn't matter now anyway because he didn't think of it himself. I know, we were so mature. After cooling down we both realized we had been in the wrong and since then have had pretty awesome valentines days. Nothing crazy, but I got flowers and he got food arranged in some special way.

Last year, everything changed. We had a 3 week old! Our Valentines day was spent in the pediatricians office after finding a lump the size of a golf ball in Seth's neck. I think we ate at burger junkies after because we were too starving to wait for anything else. (For those who don't know, the lump was just muscle and after 6 months of physical therapy he was all better)

This year I had planned a couples massage for Brandon and I and then a dinner after. Seth would be asleep by then so to save money on a babysitter I planned to rent a movie and spend the evening at home. Well, This is how my day went. Wake up to find the trash bag I had left out overnight had been attacked by a raccoon or skunk and trash covered the entire driveway. Then Seth wakes up with a fever and is pretty cranky unless we are outside. Nap time finally comes and I get to write my talk for church on Sunday. Usually I really enjoy writing talks and this one was a wonderful strengthen your testimony kind of topic but I didn't have any personal anecdotes to share or stories that would fit in. (I'm afraid it won't be very good and can only hope that the spiritual-ness of it will make up the difference). Seth wakes up and still has a fever PLUS he has thrown up ALL OVER his crib. Awesome! So whats a mom to do but call the babysitter and ask her if she can come at 6 instead of 4 so that Seth will already be in bed for the night by the time we leave. I still sent Brandon to get a massage while I cleaned up and did laundry, filled Seth with medicine and water, and wrote extensive notes for the babysitter.  Romantic, huh?

The evening ended up being pretty great despite my changing everything up. Brandon loved his massage and it relaxed him so much he didn't even get frustrated when I made several blunders in a row. We still got to go out to eat and instead of a night at home we got to see FROZEN!!! I could rave all day about it but I know you all feel the same way so I will spare you! I will say, however that the movie fit into my valentines day perfectly. Its not about having a sweetheart to buy you flowers or pamper you or kiss you. It's about being there for those you love no matter what. It's about taking care of family and laying awake all night while your baby is coughing wishing you could cuddle him in your bed and make him better but knowing his personality enough to know that he would rather be left alone in his crib. Its about sending your love off to get a massage without you because you know he needs it. Its about the siblings who may not always agree with you but will love you and be there whenever you need them and its about the parents who give everything to make your life better than theirs was. And of course, its about the couples who put their valentine before themselves because their greatest wish is to see the other one happy.

I love valentines day and I always will.

Fruit and nuts from mom and dad :)

My favorite flowers from my favorite man