Joey's MRI and Ben's First Smile

Thursday we took Joey to Sick Kids in Toronto for an MRI, a follow up to the one he had at 7 months of age. This one required general anaesthetic which is always a little bit scary. He seemed to do fine with it though, despite his cold. We were in at 9am and on the road home at 12:30pm,not bad! The results should be in in about 2 weeks. Here's the little guy in his hospital gown waiting patiently for his turn:


Ben surprised us with his first smiles on the early side, only 4.5 weeks! This was the first one we captured with the camera at about 6 weeks:



So more pictures of the ever-changing Ben:

That's all for now :)

- P, J & J

Another New Walker, Some Cruising and a Healthy Chunky Baby!

Yet another new walker! This was brought last Friday as an experiment, just to see how close Joey was to reaching this level of walker, not really expecting much at all. Well, he surprised us all, check it out:

I think we've reached the end of the line with walkers, which is great news! Not to say Joey doesn't need one anymore, but I just mean that there really isn't another one for him to "graduate" to after this. We've gone from a very supportive walker to one with almost no support at all. The "walking wings" that we're using around Joey's chest almost like a leash is more for safety than anything else. We started off without using them and Joey was just fine, but as he learns how to use it he is prone to moving a bit too quickly and falling so we use them as a way to catch him. He looks pretty happy with himself!

Another new development is that Joey has begun to "cruise" furniture. For those not familiar with what that means it's the stage in learning to walk when a kid uses furniture to hang on to for support while moving from one spot to the next. So far he's only done it in one place but as we've learned with Joey that's how it all begins!





On Thanksgiving we went to Papa Roy's daughter Julie's house for some turkey yumminess. There Joey was met with not one, not two but THREE dogs! Joey has never really shown a fondness for dogs....okay, he's basically cried every time he's around one, and we really don't want him to grow up with a fear of dogs so this was a great opportunity. Two of the best behaved Jack Russell terriers I've ever met were quite interested in him, and after about 10 minutes Joey warmed up to them. Here's a picture of Joey trying to share his truck with Abby:

And on to my sweet little Ben. Or my sweet giant Ben I should say. At his check-up today he weighed in at a whopping 10 lbs 5 oz, an entire 2 lbs heavier than 2 weeks ago! He is in the 75th percentile for both head circumference and weight, 50th for height. Having always had feeding issues with Joey this is a delight for us. He's just over a month old now and still an incredibly easy-going baby. He loves to be held and carried, and if neither is possible he adores his swing:

And now just some general cuteness of both my boys:

- P, J & J

Joey Runs Away from Home

Okay, well maybe he didn't "run" but "Joey Butt-Scoots Away from Home" didn't have the same ring to it.

The playmat you see in the foreground with the polka dots on it has been Joey's safety zone for well over a year. We would take it everywhere and he would pretty much stay right on the mat and rarely stray. If he did go off the mat it was usually to retrieve a toy and he'd scoot right back onto it.

So yesterday Jason was cleaning out the garage and he had Joey set up to play out there. All of a sudden the door to the house opens and Jason yells "come look! he's running away from home!" and sure enough there is my child halfway down the driveway! I thought maybe it was a fluke but he did it over and over again each time we brought him back to the mat. He's certainly gaining confidence!

This was the second video I took. The first one is dizzying to watch because the camera is shaking with my laughter. I wonder what the person in the car that drove by must have thought!

Joey is definitely settling into his role of big brother. He is now more interested in Ben and is surprisingly gentle with him.

Ben is a little chunk. He was weighed again on Thursday and is now 8 lbs 5 oz! He eats ALL.THE.TIME. This is new territory for us, a child who enjoys eating, asks to eat, finishes what we give him to eat etc. What a treat! He's already out of newborn diapers and into size one! Just look how his face has filled out:

Week one home with both boys went much better than expected, though I do have to give a shout out to Gramma Phyllis, who took Joey to preschool on Tuesday and Thursday and also took him all morning on Wednesday. It made getting errands done much easier with just one child. And of course Lori, who accompanied us on our shopping trip on Wednesday and treated me like royalty by carrying Ben in the car seat, bringing in my groceries etc. I finally did tell her that I was feeling great now and had no problems lifting/carrying, but she insisted :)

- P, J & J