Appreciating my good fortune

One of my friends lost her 4-1/2 year old son this week. He had a rare genetic disorder and had a host of medical and developmental issues. She and her husband were great parents, though, and their lives revolved around caring for this poor kid. I can hardly imagine what they have gone through and what they are going through now.

John said today was the first time he had been to a funeral for someone under 60. It was my second experience of a friend losing a child, and I hope I never have another one. What a horrible thing!

It really makes you appreciate what you have. I have two such happy, healthy, beautiful, practically perfect children!

If I were religious I would say I was blessed. I believe I'm just lucky. And so glad to be...

Paper Family

Spring Flowers

Contrary to popular belief, Rochester does eventually thaw and become a nice place to live every year. Gotta love those first flowers of spring!

The Next Bobby Fischer

Genevieve learned to play chess less than six months ago. We have been amazed at how quickly she picked it up and continues to improve. For the past month she has been going to her school's chess club once a week. Today they had a tournament. Check out the silver medal winner!


For the record, Genevieve played 6 games. She won the first 5. The sixth game was against an undefeated 3rd grader. They played to a draw.

Happy and Healthy

Look who found his thumb!

I took Aaron to the doctor yesterday for his "2 month" checkup. He's actually only 7 weeks, but who's counting? He's up to 10 lbs, 7 oz and 22 inches. Height, weight and head circumference are all 25th %ile. Seems huge to me, though, after Genevieve. The doctor was very impressed with his muscles--she says he will be turning over soon. He was very good for her--quite alert, smiley and talkative. Have I mentioned how he "talks" constantly? He's the noisiest little thing. Constantly cooing, gurgling, grunting, squeaking...

Here's an example of him trying to communicate:

And here's my first ever photo of him smiling. (He's been responding to people for a long time and smiles a lot now, but it's hard to get on camera.)

Of course, he doesn't always smile. After the checkup he got his immunizations. I hadn't heard about the new rotovirus vaccine. What a great thing! Rotovirus is that awful stomach virus that causes 2 weeks of absolute misery. Plus it's an oral vaccine that apparently tasted great. The 3 shots were not so popular. The worst thing was the look on his face when he got stabbed for the first time. He's almost never been hurt before in his life, so this was a shock! And then he turned red and screamed silently for a minute before remembering to breathe. So sad.

Here's approximately what that face looked like. I love the contrast between the two kids in this picture:

This week we finally got some decent weather and I was able to take Aaron outside more than just running between the car and a building. We went to the park with Genevieve one afternoon:And another day we took a walk on the Erie Canal path.

Like a good baby he slept through the majority of these experiences.

Milestones

Aaron is one month old today. He's around 9 pounds now, and we're transitioning from the newborn clothes to the 0-3 months size. In addition to getting bigger, I think his look has changed a bit. He still has the blue eyes and lots of dark hair, though. These days he is awake and alert much of the time. He seems to react to noises, such as music and looks at things, especially people and light/dark contrasts. Sometimes I swear he laughs when we talk to him.

Genevieve lost her first two teeth in the past couple of weeks. She is so excited about it. Most of her friends and classmates had lost teeth long before, so she was feeling left out, and now she feels grown up. Both teeth were plucked by her teacher, whom I hear is "the best" at it. Definitely a good skill to have when you teach 1st grade. Both teeth made it home safely thanks to little plastic tooth holders that they gave her, but amazingly she managed to lose them somewhere in the house before bedtime BOTH times. It's a good thing she doesn't believe in the Tooth Fairy, or I might have had quite a situation on my hands.

John had a major milestone himself at the beginning of the month when he turned 40. It was less than a week after Aaron was born, though, so we didn't do much to celebrate other than make a cake (which was surprisingly difficult). I feel bad about it...I always thought I'd throw him a big party or go somewhere really cool for his 40th birthday. I will have to come up with some way to make it up to him!

My two babies

I knew that Aaron looks a lot like Genevieve when she was his age, I just didn't realize how much until I went back and looked at the old pictures.

Does this look familiar?