Other Random Weekly News

Can you believe this handsome devil will be 40 soon?

Josie Update:
Josie is doing awesome, charming strangers everywhere with her cute smile and doll-like appearance. She is way into sitting up now and loves sitting on the floor, grabbing her toys, and putting everything into her mouth. She has also started trying out all sorts of people food. With Lucy we introduced her to food like all the books say, one thing at a time, starting with vegetables. With Josie, partly out of laziness and partly out of a desire to stimulate her interest in spices and flavors, I am letting her try whatever I eat. I break everything up into extremely small pieces or mash it up first. So far, she likes everything: garlic bread, pasta, beans, pizza, on and on. We don't have any food allergies in our family and a doctor friend suggested that most food allergies (except peanuts and dairy) manifest as only a mild rash anyway.

The only Josie downside right now is that she is making us crazy with her terrible sleep habits. She bothers me every hour from 7:30 PM until 11:3o PM. After that she starts sleeping for two hour stretches but still often ends up sleeping with us in a safe position swaddled in the boppy on my lap. She is very determined to get what she wants at night and so far Mitch and I haven't had the willpower to lay the smack down on her with the sleep thing....Plus we've done a lot of things wrong with her sleep-wise. She likes to go to sleep while eating. She likes to sleep on me. We feel bad for her because of all the weird antibiotics she has to take that mess up her stomach. My working means she has to get all of her boob-time at night. It's pretty much a disaster that we will have to fix in the next month or so.

Lucy Update:
Lucy had a great week visiting with her grandma. Today we went to the Harbor and she rode the zebra on the carousel. Grandma Jo also got her a new swimsuit and swim shoes. Of course she has been wearing her swim shoes constantly since she got them.

The Rest of Us
Mitch and I are good, if exhausted. We are still recovering from our week in the hospital with Josie and are looking forward to getting back to our regular routine this week. Mitch is gearing up for his big birthday bash in two weeks. Can you believe he will be 40 years old? Despite all his gray hairs, he's still quite the spring chicken and is still learning new tricks (like how to play the mandolin).

The cats are the same as ever, furry, slightly flea-ridden, and annoyed by the kids. We've seen a bit more of Katafanga this weekend since Barbara has been petting him and Seth and Elise are out of town.

A Compliment from the Oldest Living Doctor
While in the hospital we had several visits from the attending pediatrician, Dr. Fricker. He introduced himself to me as the oldest practicing doctor, and truth be told, he did look pretty darn old. One day I saw him and one of the resident pediatricians while I was strolling the halls with Josie in the Bjorn, dragging along her i.v. pole. As we passed them, he said hi, and the resident exclaimed that Josie was, indeed, "the cutest baby ever." A nurse who was there asked her who had told the resident that Josie was the cutest baby ever and the resident replied, "I heard about her from the oldest living doctor." Then the nurse said, "why is she so darn cute???" And Dr. Fricker replied, "genetics."

A Second Useful Thing About Gray's Anatomy
So Gray's anatomy has become a pretty annoying show. I am sick to death of Meredith and McDreamy and Izzie and George are pretty annoying too. Several episodes have jumped the shark (the ferry boat episode, need I say more?). But actually being in a teaching hospital made me thank Gray's anatomy for its rather accurate portrayal of the power structure of a large teaching hospital. Last week we got to meet resident doctors, attending doctors, the chief resident, nurses, and an added component, care partners. Having watched a lot of Gray's anatomy was helpful in deciphering all of the various players in the hospital.

By the way, the first useful thing about Gray's is how often they kill off characters that one grows attached to during an episode. All that death makes me cry over a lot of episodes but is helpful in trying to deal with one's own fear of death.