Recently in Josie Category

Later this year we are planning to visit Bolivia. It has been two years -- and two babies! -- since our last trip there.

In the past we have always shot our own photos for passports. Heck, I did my own passport this way even before I met Yoli, sending in a (pretty bad) snapshot taken against a wall that I happened to have two of.

Taking photos of babies and toddlers can be pretty tricky. And each round of photos we took had some problem that made me decide to redo them. So we ended up with almost 100 photos of Joseph and Josie before all was said and done.

For the heck of it, I decided to grab six photos of each child and make a little collage. Josie's is maybe a little more interesting since she was making all sorts of faces.

At the end of January we took a trip to the Magic House. It was our first outing somewhere in a while with the girls. They had a blast, but of course it couldn't last long enough for them.

Some recent development milestones:

• Jadzia can read and write! Last week she made up some valentines that we mailed out to family and handed to our neighbors. I spelled the names, and she wrote them out.

• Ludi is singing really well, and she has quite a few songs memorized.

• Josie is walking, and doing some talking and signing. Best of all, she is sleeping through the night -- and she has moved into the girls' room.

Josie turned one year old on Jan. 14. We had a nice little party with the girls and their Nanny. Yoli made homemade pizza, which was awesome. Josie got a kick out of it, and she wasn't shy about wolfing down the birthday cake, either.

Keep reading to see some photos from the festivities (and to learn about the bald-day).

This Christmas was a lot of fun. Perhaps the best part was having my Nan in town all week, and my brother's family for several days. We went over to my mom's house daily to hang out.

Of all the gifts the girls received this week, this one gave us the biggest laugh. It's a ladybug toy for Josie:

As Yoli removed it from its packaging today, she found the following warning:

Caution: Please be safe. Always select the correct size toy for the type of breed and chewing habits of your dog. Should any portion of this toy break or tear, please remove from your dog and discard immediately. Vo-Toys, Inc. is not responsible for any pet owner's neglect or misuse of this toy.

Speaking of recipes, Yoli has some recipes she's been saving for almost 20 years. Many of them are hand-written or cut-and-pasted into a little notebook.

Last night she decided to try a recipe that she had wanted to make for a long time. The recipe was written in Portuguese, and it was called "Torta de Chocolate," although it really looked more like a pie than a cake. She had found the recipe on the street back in Bolivia and had always wondered how it might taste. Now was her chance to find out.

(And yes, Yoli knows enough Portuguese to be able to prepare this recipe)

But there are always some monkeys to throw wrenches into things. In this case, the monkeys were named Jadzia, Ludi, and Josie.

All the girls wanted to be in the kitchen watching Yoli as she cooked. Ludi was standing on our step ladder, Jadzia brought in a stepstool from the bathroom, and Josie was just crawling and doing whatever.

When Yoli went to fetch a pan from the basement, Ludi sprang into action. She took Yoli's good vanilla, and poured all of it into the mixture for the torta's filling. The cap fell to the floor, where Josie eagerly picked it up and began licking it. Jadzia the eager spectator didn't bother to call for help.

Suffice it to say that Yoli threw all three out of the kitchen, cleaned the mess, and continued cooking.

I got to taste the torta last night. It was very mousse-pie-like, but the crust was like a very firm cake rather than a pie crust. Very tasty, but it had enough vanilla flavor that it almost had an alcohol taste.

Beautiful weather left me with no excuse to avoid raking leaves today.

The girls offered their "help" which lasted for a while. Mostly they wanted me to make piles that they could play in.

Ludi was the best helper, probably, grabbing small handfuls and putting them into the yard waste bag. But she's not quite tall enough to reach in, so she would have to pull the bag down.

Jadzia, on the other hand, could grab a nice big clump of leaves, and she was plenty tall. But she wasn't all that interested in working.

(Josie offered moral support, and mostly just enjoyed being outside)

I finished the front yard, but the side yards and back yard remain. I also have 4 ornamental grasses that I need to trim for the winter.

And, as usual, the tree in the front yard is still loaded with leaves. It's going to be a loooong fall.

Ever since we've had a bookshelf, the little girls have been inclined to pull all the kids' books off the kids' shelf, several times a day.

First it was Ludi. Then she outgrew it. Now it is Josie.

Today I moved the kids' books to a somewhat higher shelf. Not so high Jadzia and Ludi can't get to it -- but, I hoped, high enough that Josie wouldn't go after it anymore.

Yoli emailed me this photo while I was at work tonight. My efforts have failed.

Here are some photos of the three girls together from our session with Elie.

Recently, we went to a celebration of the anniversary of "Parents as Teachers" Florissant Civic Center that featured all sorts of fun activities for the girls -- including face-painting.

Here are some photos of Jadzia, Ludi, and Josie with their friend Claire in their favorite domain: the front yard.

(by which I also mean the neighbor's porch and the neighbor's driveway)

Josie speaks.

Apparently she said "moooom" today.

Still playing catch-up here on the blog... Someday all my websites, bunk beds, and projects will be finished and we'll be up to date.

Ah, who am I kidding?

Anyway, here are a few choice pics from our trip to San Antonio.

Nan holds Josie in her living room.

Yoli and the girls colored eggs on Easter Eve. They kept it simple, using regular food coloring, rubber bands, and crayons.

The eggs turned out beautifully, but the only problem was the girls wanted to eat them right away!

I am retro-dating this post, since the photos in it took place in the middle of April. Sorry for the long delay.

And then happy the next ...

These photos are from a trip to the Botanical Garden.

Pay no attention to the baby behind the curtain!

Yoli and Jadzia are putting together a flower arrangement. It actually has lasted quite a while and is still up on our mantle.

Yes, that's pretty much how one can summarize the life of a baby. If she's not being swung in someone's arms, then she is more than likely laying down on a bed or somewhere.

I know the pace of this blog has been a bit slow lately. There's a couple of reasons for that. The first is that I now work a four-day week. On those four working days, I have far less free time. The second is Josie and the girls. Josie has been quite fussy the last few weeks, and the harness has undoubtedly exacerbated that to some degree. When she's crying, she only calms when we hold her a certain way and rock her, and it can be exhausting on nights where she won't go to sleep.

But thankfully we've also had some really nice peaceful times with Josie. I think we are getting better at caring for her.

Of course the other girls continue to be demanding, too, always wanting to be in action, especially with the recent spate of warm weather.

One way to take care of everyone is to go for walks in Ferguson, which tires out the girls, and lets Josie sleep on my chest in the baby carrier. We went to the library and Walgreen's yesterday morning, for example, and ran into a friend on our way back home.

Right now all three girls are sleeping. I'm enjoying a bit of time to import some video of a family history interview I shot earlier this week during my furlough from the Post-Dispatch. The subject is Mr. Richter, who is the only living first cousin of my great-grandfather, Frank Becker. A couple days after our interview, he had an operation to remove some cancer. If you think of it, please pray for his recovery.

One problem of blogging is deciding how much personal detail is good to expose in a public medium.

In the case of our little princesses, I have generally not discussed medical issues, etc. Not that they haven't each had their own unique challenges, it's just I haven't seen fit to describe them publicly.

This time, I think I will make an exception. Our little Josie apparently has some hip problems ... mainly her hip sockets are a little to shallow and in one of the hips, the ball is protruding out of the joint a little too far.

The doctor detects this by moving the legs and listening for a clicking noise. In our case, she sent us to have an ultrasound which confirmed Josie had hip dysplasia.

Because she is only 1 month old, this is a very fixable problem. She will wear a fabric "Pavlik harness" to hold her hips in the correct position. She has to wear the brace 24 hours a day for the next 3 months. After that time, she should be completely fine.

She has had the brace for one night so far. She has been fussier since getting it, but she is still sleeping well, and she has some stretches of being calm. Hopefully she will adjust to it very soon.

The harness is all fabric and velcro, there is no metal. It fits under her clothes and works with diapers ... but because her legs are up, some clothing (like onesies) might not work well.

I have mentioned this publicly simply because I'm sure people are going to notice Josie's harness ... or at least notice her legs are always up in a strange position. But it is only temporary, and right about the time that Josie will be ready to start rolling over, she'll be free to move her legs again.

Here's a quick update with some great photos of Josie and the girls. Hope you get a kick out of them!

Jadzia has been waiting all winter for us to get enough snow that she could make a snowman. Finally the moment arrived. She and Ludi came out with me and we began working on a snowman. But the fun didn't last very long.

Click here to see a few photos of Josie taken by the hospital baby people.

So we've gotten through the first night with three girls. It has been a bit strenuous keeping up with all these girls. The older two are more than enough to keep us occupied, for sure. But they have given us some brief periods of tranquility from time to time.

They are very curious about the baby and like to touch her (or slap her), kiss her, look at her, etc. So far Josie isn't capable of doing anything to raise their ire. However, the baby is quite a capable crier and pooper. She really kept us up last night. Thankfully, though, we are getting a bit of daytime napping in the last 2 days. In fact, I am quite thrilled to report all four of my girls are still sleeping right now!

Because Josie still doesn't "do" very much, life in the house in many ways is very similar to what it was before. We still have the same problems of girls getting picky about eating food, fighting over toys (or fighting to have space on the carpet in which to dance), screaming, doing things we just told them not to do, etc. But when we see Jadzia and Ludi have nice sisterly moments, it does give us a hopeful glimpse of what life might be like for these three girls in the future.

We had a brief incident at the hospital yesterday as we were leaving. Yoli was sitting in a wheelchair holding Josie, while a nurse stood by. They waited for me to bring the car around and come in to the lobby with the car seat. Josie was dressed in two layers of clothes (too big for her tiny body) and a beautiful white blanket made by Maud Lawrence, one of my Nan's relatives. I came in toting the car seat and two little rolled-up blankets to support Josie's head. A lady standing nearby came over to tell us that the baby wasn't dressed warmly enough for the frigid temperature outside. I told this woman that the car itself was warmed up and that there were more blankets inside, but this didn't assuage her. She began accusing us of child abuse and berating the nurse who was helping us, as her husband stood by quietly. She said she would call security, etc. It blew my mind. In any event, the nurse was quite kind with us and knew what she was doing, and got Josie installed in the car seat quite nicely.

What a great way to welcome a new baby to the world. And what a wonderful feeling it gave Yoli and I as we prepared to start our new life with this new addition. Seriously, I'm sure this lady's intentions were good, but her execution left much to be desired.

It goes without saying that Josie survived the drive home.

Here's the second of two videos I shot on Wednesday. This one shows my parents, my brother, sister-in-law and nephews when they came over to the hospital to meet Josie. With four toddlers/preschoolers running around the room, there was potential for much havoc. Thankfully, serious damage was avoided. I'm so glad that Justin and Becca could come up with the boys.

Here's the first of two videos I shot on Wednesday. This one shows Josie right after she was born.

After a while I took Jadzia and Ludi to meet their new sister, Josie. We told them that Josie had arrived with gifts for them: an apron for Jadzia, and sunglasses for Ludi.

Both girls were very interested in holding Josie and touching her. Ludi especially. Ludi was giving her kisses. But she was also treating Josie more like a doll, repeatedly pushing in her nose and saying "nariz" like she would with the doll she got for Christmas.

So here's a bit more about our new girl, Josie Míriel Renaud.

Yoli began having her serious contractions in the night. She woke me to let me know what was happening, but said they were still very irregular and that I should try to sleep. I did eventually, but I had a hard time of it because of adrenaline. Around 6 a.m. we called my mom and asked her to come over. Thankfully she was able to leave right away, despite the fact that Wednesday is normally a Café day for her.

As soon as she arrived, we set off on the long journey to St. Luke's. Unlike the last time we had a long trip to the hospital for a baby, Yoli didn't spend the whole trip pushing. But she was still very close to being ready to deliver.

I can't say enough good things about St. Luke's. They took us right in at the ER and wheeled Yoli right into her room. The nurses attended her and helped her get going, without bogging us down with a ton of paperwork.

The birth itself was natural and pretty fast, like the other two. Actual pushing took around 15 minutes. I think Yoli was hurting a lot right at the end, but she seemed very relieved and relaxed as soon as Josie was out.

There were a few little hangups at the beginning getting Josie to nurse, but it sounds like she is an old pro as of this evening.

I'll have more photos and videos posted in a while, so keep watching.

Already I can tell that it's not easy juggling three kids!

Yes, that's right, the third child arrived early this morning -- 7:49 a.m. to be exact (that's for you, Caesar) -- at St. Luke's Hospital.

At the moment the girls are upstairs; Jadzia is watching Mr. Rogers and Ludi is eating cereal. So I only have enough time right now to say that the delivery went very well. It was hard for Yoli, but it was short. Both mamá and bebé are in good shape.

Our new baby is a girl! She weighed 7 lbs and was 20.5 inches long. Her name is still a work in progress. Hopefully this evening we will have decided and I will post it here.