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.
Fun in the front yard
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)
From the abundance of the heart…
Josie speaks.
Apparently she said “moooom” today.
Catching up is hard to do
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.
Easter 2009
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.
Smiley Josie
Unhappy one minute …
Unhappy one minute …
… 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.
A whole lot of laying down
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.
Blame it on work, or the girls, or whatever
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. Ed 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.
Josie’s hips
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.