Badump, Badump

Oh Hanna . . . my sweet, sweet Hanna. . . . my Hanna who has a hard time expressing her feelings in words. I call her my turtle. Because whenever she is sad, or her feelings are hurt, she will hide her head . .. most of the time under a blanket. If she doesn't have a blanket nearby she'll run off to be by herself.

Her not expressing her feelings is very foreign to me . . . as I am one who probably overexpresses my feelings . . . not in a confrontational way though. . . I avoid confrontation like the plaque. . . but I'm certainly one to let my family know how I'm feeling.

The other night she fell asleep on the couch before dinner. We tried to wake her up, but no such luck. She woke up and then laid on the kitchen floor in front of the breakfast table. A little later I noticed she was gone. I thought she'd made her way upstairs to go to bed.

I go to get on the computer and I hear this muffled sound of sobbing. I go into my bedroom (which is next to the office) and I see this lump under the covers.

It was Hanna, and she was sobbing uncontrollably. I had no idea what was wrong with her.

I lay down beside her and try to coerce her to put into words how she is feeling. This requires great patience on my part . . . she's a tough cookie and is hard to drag things out of.

As I persist in talking to her, so that she will talk to me . . .she tells me nothing. All I hear are her sobs.

I say to her, "Hanna, baby, please tell me what's wrong. I can't help you if you don't tell me what is wrong. Tell me what your heart is saying."

She stops crying, looks at me with her red, swollen eyes and says, "Badump, Badump."

Oh my, I could not control my laughter. She's so much like Jon . . .doesn't like anything serious . . . loves silliness . . . will be silly to cover up the seriousness.

Come to find out, she was hungry . . . all of that because the child was hungry.