Yesterday was Easter. We had an awesome day. We colored eggs first thing in the morning bc we had some setbacks boiling the eggs (I know I know) and anyway vigil mass was about 3 hours long (Jo was at Grandmas!) so Saturday dying eggs just didn’t pan out. But Sunday morning we sat at the table and Josie really enjoyed it. We let her color on the eggs with crayons (even though it didn’t really show up) and then she dropped the eggs in (with some help). And mom really liked that the dye stayed in the mugs and not all over Jo! The only spill had been when I put two eggs in one mug and the water overflowed. But anyway, no biggie, and now we have about 18 eggs to use in Easter pie which I sadly never got around to as it was also planned as a Saturday activity. Now its tonight’s dinner plan. Looking forward to it all the same!
About two weeks ago, we transfered Josie to her crib in her room (the loft just outside our bedroom). She is adjusting well going from Mommy and Daddy’s big bed and really doesn’t cry or protest. We only ever put her down when she’s already pretty worn out and sleepy, so she generally just lays there and whines and bit or cries for a minute and rolls over and falls asleep. On “bad” nights, she will only lay there if we hold her hand through the crib rail, so we sit next to her bed and she drifts off after 20-30 mins. Not too shabby. I have to say though that I miss her snuggling in the bed, but we still have cuddles at naptime in my bed. Live for nap time! In the mornings though, she wakes up around 7ish which is when she is used to getting a tube feed so Brian just goes ahead and plops her in bed with me and feeds her and heads to work. Then I maybe, hopefully, get an extra 30 mins of sleep (on good days its more, but life doesn’t usually work out in favor of extra sleep now does it?). But when we get her up in the morning, she hugs us with a death grip and doesn’t want to let go. So hopefully she is adjusting well to sleeping in her “big girl bed”. I know she will have to transition to a real “big girl bed” still but I don’t see that coming for a few years yet. Her crib still swallows her — she still sleeps sideways in it! And I don’t foresee her being able to crawl out anytime in our near future. We’ll play it by ear anyway.
Yesterday at Publix, a lady walking down the aisle started shaking her head at me (as every 3rd person does who sees me waddling with Jo on my hip) and said “oh you poor thing,” which totally caught me off guard bc I wasn’t having any trouble. I had Jo on one hip and a coke in the other hand looking for Gerber snacks while Brian got some cold cuts at the deli. Not like I was navigating on crutches or something. Whatever. But to the lady I must have looked pitiable; she went on to say “well things like that happen” which I assume she meant my pregnancy and what she thought was Josie being younger than she is because everything thinks she’s so much younger. Boy am I sick of that. Everyone thinks Jo is about 9 months old. I mean, ok that’s the size and development level she’s near but you can’t assume everything. And of course as the lady walked away she threw me a pity, “You’ll survive.”
I think I am the only person not worried about “surviving” this new baby. I am not sure if it’s that Josie hasn’t uncovered a terrible twos type temperament, but I am not entirely sure she is going to be that bad even when she does. She’s never gotten anything when she wanted and understands the word “wait” which I think is pretty good for a 19 month old (almost in a few days). She’s pretty darn patient. She communicates decently. She acts very wise for her age. Which I prayed a lot for over our first stay at Shands when I was told she may be mentally retarded. So I prayed, well if she isn’t “smart” let her be “wise” which sounds contradictory, but I know people who aren’t necessarily quick but they come to surprisingly wise conclusions. I mean, take kids in general. Little kids. They might not have a total grasp on how the world works, but their faith and trust is phenomenal. Jesus tells us to be like little children. And I think it’s better to be apt to being taken advantage of than be bitter and cynical. Give me naivety any day. I just want to make sure we can watch out for Josie if that does become the case. I am just babbling but anyway, just saying, I think Jo is going to be pretty wise. Smart too.
In the world of oral skills, Josie is just doing amazing. In purees she is taking over half a serving container in a sitting. But more importantly — totally willingly. She still makes the funniest faces when we feed her though. And she loves little things like noodles and breads and does really well. She also has been letting us brush her teeth ever since we got an Elmo toothbrush. She sings “la la la la la la” at close to the right pitch when Elmo’s world comes on. Last week I even heard a couple “da das” but she’s been holding out since that day (since we told DaDa about it lol).
As for walking, she as always makes progress (and I hate to sound terrible but its the slowest progress you can imagine like being stuck in quicksand, but I will take forward steps regardless). I still predict she might even take a few solo steps by the time the baby is born! But she pretty much guaranteed is not going to be “walking”. Its going to probably be another couple of months before her first steps. Then another couple – few months to fine tune (if its anything like crawling). Then she’ll probably be 2 and a half by the time she figures out how to run, which might be interesting if Mary is around that same stage. Possible. I’m just rooting for a second baby who doesn’t require therapy 3-4 times a week to advance. That she sticks around the average range for development. We will see when she gets here though — but I just don’t know how I will juggle having to coach 2 kids through every tiny step of development at the same time. Whenever I hear parents complain about, gosh, how darn fast their kids are progressing and how they wish they’d slow down, I hate it. No, you don’t want them to slow down really bc not only is it emotionally difficult to realize that your child is behind (whether or not you try not to think about it or worry about it) its TIME CONSUMING! Not just going to therapy but doing double feeds — oral and enteral — and they both take forever and then all the therapy play and exercises and homework you feel guilty if you don’t get everything in. I mean, Jo sleeps, what, 14 hours a day? That doesn’t leave that much time to do everything, and personally I am just a bit worn out between that and carrying around her sister, which I will add that we conceived with the idea that a sibling would be the best thing we could ever do for her — developmentally and especially socially as she is supposed to have plenty of social issues. Anyway, I am getting so much hassle about this baby and nothing but negative comments, even if they are meant to be constructive warnings. I can’t take one more stranger shaking her head at me or saying you poor thing or WORSE what everyone seems to think is appropriate and somehow not rude as hell — implying that we made a mistake in conceiving Mary. I always make sure to point out that we tried for 6 months before she was conceived and that really paints a shocked look on their faces. They usually only muster an “oh” and shut up or say something like “you’re brave” and I say something like, “Well we came so close several different times to losing Josie …and after that we weren’t sure if we would be able to have any more healthy children without defects — you never realize how precious life is until you experience something like that — so when we learned we could go on to have healthy kids, we decided to go for it. Crazy or not. And besides, it’s going to be the best thing for Jo to have a sibling, someone to help watch out for her and be there for her when we can’t and help her navigate life from a different perspective we can’t offer.” Then the person we have randomly met at the park swings or grocery store or Target really shuts the heck up. lol.
So as for walking, might be a little while yet — BUT Josie TOTALLY walked only needing one hand for support today. Thats new! She’s still really wobbly, but she didn’t fall down. Can’t wait!
<3
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