New Year's and Valentine's Day
January-February, 2005

What a nice couple of months....  Joshua has done so well, and is growing, developing, and changing every day!  I went back to work on January 3 (SO hard to do!), but we are VERY lucky that Josh gets to stay with Grammy (my mom) when Daddy or Mama can't be home with him.  I couldn't ask for a better arrangement, and we are eternally grateful to my parents for it!

Joshua gained almost two pounds over the course of January and February...he weighed 12 pounds, 4 ounces on January 2, and was 14 pounds, 2 ounces on the 24th of February.  He is holding his head up on his own, and is rolling over like a champ!  Rolling has become his preferred mode of transportation -- he's not yet crawling, but he's rocking some, and can get on his knees and lift his belly off the ground.  He hasn't figured out the mechanics of moving forward yet...he gets up on his knees, but then tucks his arm under and rolls.  He eventually gets moved forward (a diagonal, rather circuitous route), but it's not the most efficient.  I'm looking for him to start crawling very soon, though!

Joshua has also started on solid foods (thank goodness...if he upped his milk intake any more, I wouldn't keep up!).  He LOVES his rice cereal, and scarfs it down like he's been eating for years.  He also likes applesauce (didn't the first time he tried it, but has developed a taste for it), peaches, pears, bananas, and (believe it or not), carrots!  He likes juice and tea (he had a blast trying to drink tea from a glass!), and he can't get enough of graham crackers (we give him the graham cracker sticks and he holds them and gums them up -- gets them all over his face, and has a great time with it...when he runs out, he yells for more, and snatches them right out of your hand as fast as you can give them to him).  There are some cute pictures posted of him "eating."  We're on a pretty good eating schedule now...he gets up in the morning (between 6 and 8, depending on if he has to go to Grammy's for the day) and has 4 ounces of milk, then for the "mealtimes" during the day, he gets a bowl of rice cereal, some sort of fruit and/or vegetable, and juice and/or tea, followed by a couple of ounces of milk.  Then, last meal before bed, he gets 4 more ounces of milk, and hits the sack sometime between 9 and 10 (usually).  I really couldn't ask for a better baby...we've been SO lucky that he's so laid back and so wonderful!!!

He is still getting his shots for RSV once a month...doing pretty well with those, and (so far) has avoided picking up any bugs (knock on wood!).  Of course, he hasn't been out a whole lot -- we're trying to be very careful about his exposure to nasties until RSV season is over (it runs October - April).  He did have his first official "dinner outing" several weeks back...we went out with friends to the Brambleton Deli (did the "early bird special" and met at 5:00 p.m.).  We pretty much had the place to ourselves, so that was nice, and he was a perfect angel!  He drank his milk, then sat in his seat and took it all in.  He didn't fuss, didn't cry...just smiled at everyone who looked at him!

We went to see the orthopedic doctor yesterday (Dr. Mirenda), and he is pleased with Joshua's progress.  He said that everything looks great, and that he's growing and developing well.  He wants to see him back in June so that he can do X-Rays (he thinks his bones will be sufficiently calcified by then so that an X-Ray will be beneficial).  At that point, we'll know more about the actual bone structure in his hand and foot, and can make some more solid plans for moving forward with treatment/therapy/surgery.  He said that his foot has very good range of motion, and that if he is still trying to hold it crooked the next time we see Dr. Mirenda, he'll see about bracing it part-time as he's learning to walk so that it straightens out properly (in the meantime, we're just to keep on with his foot exercises, and let him crawl, walk, etc. as he's ready).  As for his hand, once we know more from the X-Ray, Dr. Mirenda is going to put us in touch with Dr. Hagan so that we can set a course of action for separating his fingers (if that's what is determined to be the best plan), or decide what the next steps should be with his hand.

That's about it as far as news goes.  We're enjoying watching Joshua Ryan grow up -- I can't believe he's 7 months old already!!!  He's going to be going to college before we know it.  I say that I can't wait for June when I'm out of school and can spend more time with him, but I'm also trying not to wish away time.  In the meantime, I'm just going to enjoy every minute I have with him.

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