It helps me to say these things aloud, I think.
You are currently browsing JeniQ’s articles.
Some recent pics of the boys, more Linus than Henry. Henry must be harder to photograph because he never stops moving. I realized in looking at the recent pictures on the camera that we take an awful lot of pictures of Linus with contraband in his mouth. So I included a pic of some of the items we’ve had to remove from circulation. There is also one picture of Henry and Hudson (and Mike) watching a fox in our back yard! Kudos to Henry for spotting the little fella out there.
Here are his stats:
How do I describe this kid? He’s awesome. He is super smart, very sweet, obedient, funny, articulate, curious. His vocabulary is just amazing. He knows so many things, and asks tons of questions about those that he doesn’t. He can count to 10 well, and recognizes both letters and numbers. He loves to read, and be read to. He loves to kick balls and “play soccer.” He loves his little brother. He is a champ when it comes to Lego building. He has very imaginative play with his toys, and can play for an hour by himself when he’s engrossed in his creative imagination. He also loves to help me cook.
He puts his dirty laundry in the laundry basket and hangs his towel up after his bath. He brushes his teeth. He clears his dishes after dinner and asks to be excused. He goes to sleep at night with his door open and stays in his room. He’s really a good kid.
Except for all the times he isn’t, of course. He has a tendency to be whiny, stubborn, intractable, destructive, and just plain bad. But the good definitely outshines the bad in this kid.
I love him so much. I enjoy being with him so much. He is really, really terrific and I adore him. Happy birthday, little man.
Linus is a very happy baby. As we see more signs of his personality, we are seeing a few more aspects of his emotional tempermant. He gets very angry when something he likes is taken away from him. He gets shy whenever new people are around, but in a flirty kind of way, not like he’s really scared. He seems to be pretty attached to me at the moment. He loves books and putting objects into containers. He has a great time with all his toys.
His motor skills are really developing, especially for someone who was in a cast for three months. He’s got an amazing throwing arm; he throws balls better than Henry does. And now, six weeks out of his cast, he is finally crawling on all fours!! (He has been dragging himself around, quite speedily, while he had the cast and since then.) He is also pulling up to stand on everything and crawling over everything. This morning he climbed up to the fifth stair for the first time ever!
His appetite is phenomenal; we have to cut him off because he doesn’t know when to quit. But his taste buds are not so much like Henry’s. He is a “meat and potatoes” kind of guy. He rejects almost all fruit and prefers crunchy, savory snacks. Since we don’t always have hamburger casseroles waiting in the wings, sometimes he can be a challenge to feed! He still takes a bottle in the mornings and at night. He is quite a messy boy with a sippy cup.
He is a sweet, sweet little baby and I do love him so. I am so lucky to have him in my life.
I am so excited! Tomorrow Dave and I and our friends Mike and Nicole are all going to see Gordon Lightfoot in concert! I am a huge fan and I’m terribly excited to get to see him in concert. I was raised on Gordon Lightfoot. I know must of his music by heart. He is truly a folk god, and I just can’t get over the fact that we’re going to see him. This is so thrilling for me. I’m gonna cry buckets at the show, most likely.
Plus, he reminds me of my dad. Can you tell which is which?
Today Linus had his cast removed! He had a spica cast for 11 weeks. We are so happy to be free of the cast. He will wear a hip abduction brace when sleeping only.
He is a super trooper and we are so proud of him.
Some recent (and older) videos. 🙂
Recently we had a big party to celebrate Henry’s and Hudson‘s birthdays. Hudson is Henry’s best friend. They have birthdays a month apart so we decided to party together. It was a blast! We booked the party room at Tots to Teens, where they have what might be the world’s largest playset.
Some of Henry’s best buddies were there. The kids went crazy running up, down, and all around the playset. We kept it simple with PB&J and snacks for the kids and pizza for the adults. And there were some fun beverages available for adults, as well! We cut into the cake early into the party so the kids could burn off all the sugar.
The cakes were handmade by our neighbor and good friend Jackie at Jackie Force Cake Art and featured the boys favorites, Buzz and Woody.
If you have a baby in a spica cast, let me tell you that no one in your house is going to be happy unless you have a decent place to put the youngster. After several days of struggling with what to do with Linus to keep him entertained, Dave built Linus a little chair and table! A big shout out to our neighbor Brandon who helped by donating his time, tools and design know-how, and to Joy’s parents for sharing their designs.
Aside from needing to decorate it, we’re pretty much finished with the construction.
The table is a wood top that is mostly protected with contact paper. The corners have soft bumpers attached, and the edges have a little railing that helps prevent toys from rolling off. The table has five legs for added stability, and a “U” shaped cut out. The cutout is the most important feature. A baby in a spica cast cannot lean forward at all. The cutout allows the child access to a greater surface for playtime.
The chair features unique supports that put the child’s weight on the cast, not the diaper area. It has a wide, “toe-friendly” base that keeps the chair stable. The child is secured to the chair using a buckled strap or bungee cord.
Linus has now undergone his fourth surgery this year. Earlier this year, we found out that his left hip was completely dislocated. Last week, a pediatric orthopedist from UNC performed a hip surgery to reduce the hip.
We were lucky in that the only repair necessary to fix the hip was an adductor tenotomy, one of the least invasive methods of getting the femur head back into the hip socket.
After one has a surgery such as Linus’s, it’s standard protocol to apply a hip spica cast. This cast places the femur head in the socket and secures it there. For developing children, this position is important because it is the presence of the femur head in the hip socket that helps the socket grow into the correct shape. That is why the hip spica cast must be applied for a significant length of time. Linus will have his cast for 3 months.
Linus did really great with the surgery. The day after, he was pretty uncomfortable and upset as he tried to move around and his body wouldn’t respond. He had just learned to crawl the week before.
Nearly a week later and he is really adjusting to his new confinement/challenge. When placed face down on the floor, he can spin around and is even managing to make a bit of backward/forward motion. I hope he’ll figure out crawling in the cast; he’ll be so much happier then.
The big question most people have is how to manage the diaper! The cast is made with an opening at the groin for a diaper. The diapering process includes a small diaper stuffed inside the diaper hole, covered by a larger diaper on the outside of the cast.
Here are some pictures from surgery and beyond.
The season’s first snowfall.
