Letters to Joseph-November Part Two

Nov 28

Last week was your first Thanksgiving and we dressed you up in a button up white shirt and vest just like your Dad. Auntie Allison and Uncle Eugene came to visit all week long and we went all over the place! We visited REI, the Antique Mall (that seems to be your favorite haunt these days), the Kingfish Café, the Seattle Art Museum, the butterfly exhibit at the Pacific Science Center, the Hi Life restaurant, and lots more. We also hung out at Auntie Heather's neighborhood coffee shop (Auntie Heather of your favorite Heather Feather Sweater). You thought the lighting there was very interesting. Your Auntie Allie carried you to all of these places in the Baby Bjorn…we couldn’t rip you from her arms, not that we wanted to, you can't thwart love like that…she loves you SO much! She sings a song called ‘I Love Joseph All the Time’. Now that she’s back in New York, she misses you all to bits and she tells me that when she sees your picture on her computer screen that she wants to eat it up!

A couple of days ago we had a snow storm which is of course your first snow…it was very cold so we stayed inside and looked at it out of the window. We missed your 2 month well child check because it was too snowy to drive, so we went today instead. Dr. Danielson says you are doing SO well. He was very impressed with your head control, and when I told him that you’ve turned over from your back to your front twice (your Grandma Joyce was here and we witnessed your first roll, and you rolled over for Dad this morning), he told me that usually babies don’t do that until 4 months old. You weigh 13 lbs 2 oz now…4 lbs more than when you were born!...and you grew 2” also. He did tell me that I need to practice setting you down to be by yourself a little. He said, “Well, you can’t hold him 24 hours a day”…but the thing is that we DO. We just love the way it feels to hold you while you sleep…you are so peaceful and your face can only be described as angelic. But now, if we set you down, you wake up after 15 minutes. SO, I suppose that he’s right, but we’ll take it slow because I absolutely can’t stand it when you cry.

I admitted to Dr. Danielson that we’d had a little ‘accident’ or two…now, I only mention these because some day when you have a baby, I want you to know that it’s only human to experience this…so I’m told, but when it happens, it feels like the end of the world. I should also request that you NOT hold these incidents against us some day…come on, we’re being honest here. The first one happed when I was taking you out of the bath…I slipped a little on the bathroom floor and I pressed you into the infant bath a little with my thumbs into your armpits. I think my face of surprise scared you more than anything. I was so scared that I’d crushed something in your little body. Of course I’d called the nurse to tell her…she laughed and said you’d be fine. The next one was pretty minor. We’d just gotten your bouncy seat (which you aren’t very interested in right now) and you and I were lying on the bed. I wanted to put you in it so you could see what I was doing so I went into the living room to get it…when I picked it up from behind, I thought it was a little heavy, but I didn’t look inside. I brought it into the bedroom and set it on one side of the bed and started to walk around to where you were. But you started SHREIKING! I ran to you and I’d set the edge of it down on your arm…this wouldn’t have mattered but that the GIRL CAT was sitting inside and was weighing it down on top of you. Once again, you weren’t injured. THEN, there was one more that was my fault (we’ll get to your Dad next)…I had you all wrapped up in the baby sling and we went downstairs to do laundry…I reached for some clothes and felt you slip out of the bottom! I had one arm around you already and my instinct was to squeeze to catch you…I did that, but I think I felt your little body swing out. It happened so fast and you didn’t actually fall, but I think I might have caught you by the neck (EEK!!!). This time I was almost hysterical when I called the nurse…again they laughed and said you’d be fine. In retrospect, I think maybe I squeezed your shoulders when you were slipping. Well, I guess your Dad’s accident was less his fault than my accidents…all that happened was that he was carrying you and you banged your head into his glasses…but I never drew blood during my accidents and with this one you got a little scrape. Here’s to no more accidents…don’t be rolling off the bed or anything please. Dr. Danielson says this is all normal and that we should expect more of them…we’ll do our best to keep them to a minimum though!

Anyway, I digress…so then you had to have FOUR shots at the doctor’s office. I was so worried because I knew it would hurt you and that we would both cry. But the nurse gave them to you so fast that you barely knew what was happening. I’d waited for a while to feed you so that you would be really hungry, so I fed you right after the shots and you felt better. Now you have Daffy Duck band aids on your legs. You seem to be sleeping a little extra today…you’re laid across my lap as I type this. Your Dad is in Portland tonight, so it’s just you and me.

Earlier I was typing with you sleeping in your car seat (this is my new attempt to set you down, it lasted about 15 minutes) and you started crying. I brought out a stuffed doll that your Grandma Joyce gave you…we just christened it ‘Magical Happy Fairy Doll from France’…this doll gives you all kinds of love and sings the Magical Happy Fairy Doll from France song which entails a lot of kissing you and jumping around. You were pretty fascinated I must say…this is the first toy I’ve gotten you into (your Dad plays with you with stuffed bowling pin animals that he’s named Lewis and Darby…one is a monkey and one a giraffe). You looked and looked at me and then Magical Happy Fairy Doll…it really made you interested and you stopped crying. You have the brightest most curious eyes and the way you head bobs around, taking it all in is pretty amazing.

You are developing in all sorts of ways…this morning I tried out the Johnny Jump Up on you. My Mom and Dad used to go camping with me and hang me from tree branches in the Johnny Jump Up…so when I saw a vintage one on EBay a few years ago, I bought it right away. It’s yellow with a red kangaroo on it. Grandma Joyce thinks you might be a little to young for it, but I watch you like a hawk as always (yes, another ploy to set you down). I’ve tried bouncy seats and battery powered swings to get you to settle down by yourself, but so far the Johnny Jump Up has been the best. I think you like it because when you move your legs, you’re affecting your own movement as opposed to being passive in something that’s jiggling you or swinging you. Liam the Dog comes up and gives you wet kissed because you’re right at his level when you’re in it.

What a fun month…on to Christmas!

Love, Mom

Letters to Joseph-November Part One

Dear Joseph:

November 6

November is upon us already. I know everyone keeps telling me that I should savor your babyhood because it goes by so fast…I can’t believe how true that is. Next month, if not before, you’ll be grasping toys!

It’s a rainy rainy week and you have a runny nose, so we’re hibernating a little. We just walked under the skylights in our bedroom and you looked and looked at them and listened to the rain falling on them. You also gaze at the hanging paper sun lantern that I thought I might try to use as a focal point during your birth. Sometimes you like to be all bundled up and bounced near the black and white photographs of your Dad’s side of the family. You stare at them like you know them. This makes your Dad very happy.

Last week we went to Grandpa Steve’s house on his day to take care of Cousin Henry. It’s so beautiful in his studio since it’s so high up above Ravenna Boulevard which is lined with Horse Chestnut trees. The bay of windows in the front of the studio look right into those trees which are all yellow and orange right now. Your Grandma Joyce and I brought you up there to visit and there was such a warm glow about the whole event. Your Grandpa sat you and Henry on his lap while he rocked you in your Great Great Grandfather Hot’s old wooden rocking chair. Grandpa Steve read you boys a book about an Angus dog and a duck by Marjorie Flack. You are oh so loved.

On Saturday, I decided that I needed to have a haircut…so your Dad took you to the Antique Mall and strolled you around. He tried to give you a bottle, but we think you didn’t like it because it was too cold. We also think that this made you mad, because your poor Dad called me during the haircut sounding desperate and I could hear you crying in the background. He brought you in and I held you and you calmed right down. Sometimes I think you just need to be with me to feel content. Soon you’ll learn to let your Dad comfort you and sometime even after that, you’ll learn to make yourself content.

Letters to Joseph-October

Dear Joseph…

I’m writing this letter to tell you about your second month…October.

Your Dad stayed home with us until you were three weeks old, then he had to go back to work and it was just you and me during the days. We started forming a routine as much as we could.

You usually would wake up around 7am and your Dad would take you out of bed and spend an hour with you so that he wouldn’t miss you so badly while he was at work and so I could have a little time to myself to stretch out in bed or sleep on my stomach which I haven’t been able to do for so long. Then you would come back to bed and we would sleep for another hour or so. Then we would wake up and you would nurse for a while.

One thing about me that you know by now is that I need to have a shower every day in order to feel human. At first, I thought that I would take a shower before your Dad left for work, but since you are getting me up every two to three hours at night, I decided that I needed the sleep instead. Luckily for me and happily for you…you like water! So, every morning, I run a bath for you in your baby tub which sits at the bottom of the regular tub, then I point the shower head way down and take a shower while you are happily splashing in your tub. You don’t even mind the flecks of water that get on you. You just move your arms and legs in the water like it’s no big deal. I shower, (I’ve learned to keep my eyes open while I’m shampooing my hair so I can watch you carefully every second), and then I wash you with your baby wash since your little neck can get a little stinky.

After we are finished washing, I put you in your bouncy seat while I blow dry my hair…you like the sound of it and I blow dry you a little too. This usually keeps you content until it’s time for me to dress you…you usually cry when this time comes. I like to dress you in clothes that are a little more grown up…I don’t like you to leave the house in PJ’s like a lot of other babies.

I try to get us out of the house every day. The first day after your Dad went back to work, we went to Mom and Baby Yoga and for a long walk in Lincoln Park. You loved the sound of the waves on the beach and the wind in your face. We also started going to ‘First Weeks’ which is a discussion group for people with little babies. Even though you were only three weeks old, you were so big and grown up compared to the other babies. I know I’m biased, but it seems like you are way ahead of the typical ages for certain things…for example, you were already holding your head up by yourself at three weeks, standing on my lap, and you are just so alert and bright eyed. You do sleep a lot still, but when you’re sleeping, you just look like a little boy, the other babies look like sleepy babies. Finally, you are starting to make moves to roll over! Slow down on that one!

In the past few weeks, you have been smiling at us. That has been absolutely wonderful. You also mimic our facial expressions…especially when we stick our tongue out at you. At five weeks you started to bubble and drool a little…this makes me think that maybe you might get your teeth a little early…no rush on that! Your hair fell out around three weeks old, but it’s starting to grow back in now that you are seven weeks old. Most babies have grey blue eyes when they are born, but everyone keeps telling up that if your eyes were going to be brown or dark, they would be showing signs by now. So, amazingly, even though your Dad has green eyes and I have brown, you look like you’re going to have blue eyes. Your Great Grandpa Bob had blue eyes, but he’s the only one on my side of the family that I can think of who did. On your Dad’s side, we can’t think of anyone who has blue eyes…so you are very special.

We’ve had some fun outings this month on the weekends with Dad too. On the first weekend, we went to Barritt Reynolds 7th birthday party…the theme was Flower Fairy Tea Party, so I dressed you up like a ‘Leaf Elf’. I sewed cut-out leaves on your hat and onesie and you wore lime green pants and felt shoes. The girls fawned over you in their fairy outfits while I painted flowers on all the little girl’s cheeks. The next weekend went sailing with Chris and Emily Russell on their beautiful boat. I held you in the sling and, ever the water baby, you were perfectly content. Your Uncle Craig and Cousin Corey came to visit us one weekend and we went out to eat, to an exhibit on human anatomy, and walking in the park. We had so much fun and your Cousin loved to hold you.

For Halloween, you dressed up as a Bouncer at your Uncle Chris’ Bar, The Mean Eyed Cat. You wore your black Mean Eyed Cat onesie, a red bandana around your head, and upon your Auntie Allison’s recommendation, we painted an ‘I heart Mom’ tattoo on your arm. Your Dad and I dressed up like Cowboys who had been in a fight with each other and you broke it up. Halloween night was the first time that you took a bottle from your Dad. You did it on the first try!

Time is going by so quickly…I can’t believe that you are already seven weeks old. You are bringing us so much joy as each day passes.

Visit the E Rain Site for Joseph's Photos

Here is the link to the site so you can see all the Joseph cuteness!

http://www.erainimages.com/custom/2190/

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