Moving On

I finally unpacked my hospital bag. That compact little duffel that traveled faithfully with me back and forth to Children's, stuffed with necessities has been tucked under the cradle for more than a year. And I have been ignoring it. At first we dared not unpack, as we were never that confident we wouldn't need it. So it stayed there at-the-ready... just in case. Time marched on, much faster than we realized, and I avoided that bag. I didn't want to remember what was in it. I didn't want to think about the emotional-baggage tucked inside the duffel-baggage. The pace of life picked up even more and soon I just plain forgot about that little bag. It got shoved under the bed, out-of-sight, out-of-mind.

But something else is happening in our lives now - we are expecting another Gift any day now! After ignoring that bag, and then procrastinating, and then forgetting all about that little bag, I needed it again. It really is the perfect size, you see. It has come to every hospital stay with every baby.

Taking a deep breath (mostly to avoid inhaling the dust) I opened that zipper. Prescription-strength ibuprofen - oh yeah, it's very painful sitting/standing beside an ICU bassinet a week after giving birth. That book a friend lent me to pass the time and I never read. (oops, sorry. I'll get that back to her now.) The Rosary, holy cards, Divine Mercy chaplet card. Some paperwork including an assessment form summarizing his condition. The little cardiac assessment book I read to refresh my memory from nursing school. I fingered those "Beads of Courage" laughing at my initial scorn at such a corny idea. I now LOVE those little beads, each different design and color representing each thing that Joey experienced. He has a very full bag of them, you know. Pens and the notebook I used to write my thoughts while sitting in his room. A deck of cards, some loose change, our hospital ID.

Joey's story is far from over. Every day is a reminder of where we've been with him and where we'll go again someday. In cleaning out that bag I closed his first chapter and gave us permission to move on. And in repacking it for our impending hospital stay I am ready to open up the next chapter - Joey the Rock Star, Joey the Big Brother!

Sleep in Heavenly Peace

Oh blessed slumber, oh heavenly rest. How long you did elude him! How long you escaped our grasps! But not anymore. No friends, the little prince is finally sleeping WELL in his OWN BED! All Night! (*Of course, he is a toddler who's sleep is subject to change with every sneeze or cough, at any moment without warning for an indeterminate amount of time.*)

Joey loved our bed a lot, but he did not like to be crowded. Actually, I'm not sure how much he liked having us in our bed. It was time for him to learn how great his crib truly is! Not only did it go rather quickly, but for a while he hasn't even fussed at bedtime. Oh glorious mornings! With my little boy greeting me happily and well-rested around 7am, everyone in the house is thrilled to see the sun.

The best part of course is how he established his OWN routine. After months of trying to introduce a "lovey" for comfort and him not showing any interest, he has chosen a stuffed dolphin he received at Christmas. After months of rocking and singing he has decided he no longer really needs the songs. What he does love to have is his Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer pillowcase, and anything with Frosty on it. He lays down on his side pointing and snuggling his 2 buddies. In the morning he tries to hand me everything in his crib, and I am unable to oblige and carry him at the same time! One morning Daddy carried everything down with Joey to discover that Joey expected Daddy to snuggle him with all of it!

I just adore how much he loves to snuggle during the day. It's always in brief, fleeting moments, and he rarely tolerates me interrupting his games, but it's soft and cozy and very, very lovely. And now that I get my own space at night I can soak it up joyfully during the day!


I realize I'm posting this picture way behind the season, but I ran across it today and couldn't help myself.

The Hair Cut

Everyone loves Joey's hair, and what's not to love? Those thick, luscious, dark curls are perfect. Beautiful. The envy of thinning-haired people everywhere. So maybe I'm being a little dramatic here, but the fact is that Joey's hair is gorgeous.


It forms the perfect frame for his chubby rosy cheeks. Even if he does look a little "Frodo -ish" here.

Mama plays with it constantly.

But it was time. The harsh realization came when I had to use, dare I say it, detangler just to brush out his hair.


Pardon me as a tear trickles down right along with the clippings. (Oh, there I go being all dramatic again. Blame it on the pregnancy hormones.)

Joey Loves:

The Beach

My Phone











Cookies! (and getting into mischief!)







Cars and Trucks

Another 1-year-ago Memory

Remember one year ago today? I sure do. In fact I have such a vivid memory of it that my stomach gets tight when I remember sitting in that waiting room outside the cardiac cath lab.

There are a few silly things that stand out in my memory, like playing with the music on my new I-Pod Touch that Patrick had just given me for my birthday. We had been anticipating a one-night stay in recovery, and he wanted me to have something to do. We were there for 8 days...

Perhaps the most profound memory of that morning was during the 20-minute wait of eternity, when we knew they were performing CPR, that our precious baby boy's heart had stopped and they were shocking it to start again. No one else was in the waiting room with us for a few minutes (we had an almost steady stream of Joey fans to come offer comfort and support) and Patrick and I were holding hands and trying to pray. Patrick said to me "you know he's alright." Actually I'm not confident right now. I don't know if I'll bring our baby home. "He's been baptized and confirmed. He's fine. It's us we're worried about. Not matter what happens, Joey is fine." Whoa. Now that's what it means to keep our eyes fixed on a God who loves us, in total surrender. Not that it was easy, not that I suddenly felt fine after that, but in one short moment my strong husband, just as scared as I was, kept our heads pointed in the right direction.

Well, here we are a year later. Out and about with the kiddos, playing and wrestling an ever-increasingly active and determined little boy. He looks perfect, with his bright smile, and charming demeanor. And yet as we reminisced about last year I began to wonder if I will ever really look at Joey the same. I say probably not, but that's okay with me. None of us are the same after last year, and we can thank our ROCKY for making us better!

14 Months

The Stats:
Weight - 24 lbs 10 ozs. This actually "drops" him into the 60% for weight, a good sign since his mobility has taken off.
Height - 30.5 inches. Short. Welcome to the my world, kiddo. But not as short as his sisters (percentile-wise) so maybe there's hope for him yet.

Food:
LOVES! Despite the fact that he still has the strongest most sensitive gag reflex in the world he loves to eat and is happily exploring new textures quite well. Of course his favorites remain easy finger foods, probably just for the necessary caveman killing instinct. His seat is always a mess.

Communication:
What a noisy boy! He talks constantly - surely just trying to be heard over his sisters! His verbal words are Mama, Daddy, ball, bottle, up, cup, pop, Papa, open, outside, all-done, again, and I'm pretty sure "mine." He also signs a little bit, mostly "more," "again," and "eat." Aside from that he makes noise and mimics sounds all the time! He also loves to get LOUD!

Play:
Cars and Balls, of course! He's such a boy, climbing over anyone and everything to get to a ball or truck. He vrooms and throws with the best of the boys! He loves his music table and building/knocking down block towers. I love that he initiates games a lot, too. He will get my attention to play patty-cake or peek-a-boo, and loves us singing "Wheels on the Bus" which he signals with "open!" while opening his arms wide. He's quite happy to play independently, too; he'll pull his basket off the shelf and dig through looking for toys and books and play quite contentedly.

Sleep:
ugh. My worst sleeper. To be honest, we've spoiled him rotten with sleeping with us and never on a schedule, plus we've never really let him learn to settle himself. He now screams until he throws-up every time we put him in a crib and he fusses for milk in the middle of the night. We keep saying we have to fix this, but nobody is really eager to make this boy cry in the middle of the night. Just the touch of a hand settles him right down next to us and melts our hearts. Yikes. After reading several sleep books by "experts" and polling everyone I can think of, my conclusion is that we're doomed. And he knows it, too!

Temperament:
Happy Happy Boy! Playful, happy, silly! (well, as long as we're not talking about sleeping arrangements that is...) He is easy to please, loves to be around people, loves to be entertained or to chill by himself.

Mobility:
A fast crawler either on hands and knees or hands and feet. He doesn't seem to mind hard or scratchy surfaces which is reflected in his perpetually scraped-up knees and tops of feet. He has not been super eager to walk. Just in the past few weeks he is starting to use walking toys across the room, but mostly still with our prompting. He pulls himself to stand on everything, though, and cruises along anything. The pediatrician judged Joey's overall development to be in the 12-month range, which is pretty darn impressive given how much catch up he has had to do!

A Birthday Boy's Party

Wow did we celebrate! Wonderful family, friends and prayer buddies delighted us by their presence at Joey's first birthday party.

It was a beautiful day at a perfect location. Perhaps the best part was the open area and playground for all the KIDS!!! Actually, we had about 60 kids there. No wonder I didn't get any cake.

Speaking of cake, JOEY loved his piece! Maybe a little sticky at first, but once that taste of chocolate passed his lips, there was no turning back. Actually, I'm not sure in the end just how much of the cake did, indeed, pass his lips. I do believe the majority stuck to his cheeks; they are quite sizable obstacles, you see.

Joey is quite the spotlight-hog; he just adored all the attention from everyone! Watching the kids run around, flirting with anyone who picked him up, and eating everything offered made him a happy little birthday boy.

It was such a joy for us to be able to celebrate with so many wonderful people who have showered bushels of love and prayers on us in the past year, especially in that first 6 months.

As for Joey, with all that happy socializing, I do believe we wore him out!