July 28/03 Poor John is cutting four teeth at once...all on top. I can see the two incisors (I think that's what they're called) come through the gum. He's had a very congested nose (don't know if it's from teething or a cold). Overall, he's not feeling that hot. He can make a kissing noise now..it's very cute. We also heard him say bye-bye once...well, it sounded like that, but maybe it was a fluke. I went for coffee with Dennis and Jane yesterday and ordered John a kid's order of spaghetti. He loved the garlic toast and even ate a few spoonfuls of spaghetti without gagging. So, I promptly went and bought him some "zoodles" which he did quite well with at lunch today. He continues to torture the cat, but she's getting smart and hiding under the couch somewhat. When we meet new people, John gives them the shy look and buries his head into my shoulder. It's very cute. July 19/03 It's certainly nice to have two vehicles. I don't feel so trapped now! Last evening, John and I went to the Best Western Pool while daddy was at work. John's been very busy. In fact, he's a big accident waiting to happen. He has a scrape on his forehead (where he fell against the sliding doors), a bruise on his cheek (from a kitchen chair) etc. etc. He doesn't want to stand where it's nice and soft (i.e. against the sofa). He picks the hardest surface he can and then tries with one hand to hold himself up! I've only been feeding him two real solid meals a day, because I honestly feel the lunch one is not needed by him. He barely eats at that one. I use lunch to introduce different finger foods and table food. He's tried grilled cheese (had some success), french toast (he chewed off too big a hunk and choked on it..spit it out), tomato soup (sort of likes it) etc. He does better when I stop as soon as he indicates he's getting fussy with it. Otherwise, we have the puke-a-thon. John can shake his head "no" now. It's very funny. He also loves to play with his abc music ball at Grandma's house..and waits for you to sing with it. No new teeth yet! July 7/03 We've had a lovely visit with Uncle Brad, Auntie Cathy and Sara. Unfortunately, the weather didn't exactly cooperate, but we did make an afternoon trip to Blue Lake! John liked having the people around to play with. Auntie Cathy even managed to put John to sleep twice, once in a very strange position on his back with his legs wrapped around her waist. He would have NEVER gone to sleep like that for Mommy. We went swimming at Best Western Pool (Marla, Sara and John) and made it through the horrible storm that went on while we were there. John is not too sure about these Uncles of his. One seems to have lots of hair and the other one...well....They call themselves Uncle Thursday and Uncle Friday. He's not too sure who is who. John got some lovely gifts as well, Baby Bach and Vivaldi Cd's and a Piggyboo stuffie and books! Oh yes, we mustn't leave out the penguin puppet. I'm waiting to see daddy's puppet shows! ..thanks so much! We've bought ourselves a second-hand truck..nothing fancy a 1988 Dodge Ram 4x4. It's in very good condition, considering the age. Now Mommy can have a vehicle once in a while (the car, NOT that truck). John can also say Mom now! It made me cry when he said it for the first time. Mostly he just says MMMMMMM..not sure if he means food or me (giggle). He can actually say mom though. Of course, he says dadadadada much easier! He's pulling up on furniture now and the wall too. You have to watch him closely because his scoot, while being funny looking, certainly works for him. We close the doors to the bedrooms and bathroom and certainly the one to the stairs. He's still teething something fierce and is bothered a lot. He doesn't like to suck on his bottle sometimes because the pressure must hurt his gums. I want those suckers to come through already! June 26/03 John can now wave bye-bye. It's soooo very cute. He sometimes waves with both hands even, but of course, if you tell him to wave bye-bye, he waits and when the person isn't looking then he waves. I caught him in his crib waving bye-bye too! It's cute how he scrunches up his fist and the motion he makes to wave! He's very mobile now and does a very strange sort of side-ways scoot. He's figured out he can go into different rooms now. I'm having to start shutting doors. He's after the cat but she knows she can move a lot faster than he can! I started him on junior foods yesterday and he did very well. His gag reflex is starting to diminish a bit. I don't push it and give him very small mouthfuls and when he gags even just a bit, I stop. We then finish up the meal with the puree foods. He's gradually getting better at chewing and swallowing. We're looking forward to seeing Uncle Brad, Auntie Cathy and cousins Angie and Sara next week. It'll be nice to have someone new for John to play with! He loves to play with Marla...especially her long hair. You should have seen his face when she was all dressed up for her Grade 8 graduation with her hair done up and sparkles. You could see it in his eyes that he wanted to pull that hairdo! We never see daddy anymore (well hardly) because he's working three jobs. June 22/03 Thank God the garage sale is done! That's what we've been busy doing lately. I sold all John's little baby clothes and his car seat etc. He's scooting around quite a bit now...not conventionally crawling. I don't think he likes the feel of the carpet on his bare legs. It's too hot for pants! He also says dadadadadada really loud and sometimes does dadadadadada (and does a raspberry sound with his tongue). He continues to scare the little girl at Mother Goose and this week she put her hands over her ears so she wouldn't have to listen to him. Dad is working hard, covering shifts at work, and working a second job during days off - sometimes both jobs at once (gotta love that double pay!). He is also trying to get a third job with Customs, but even if gets the job (it's between him and 17 others!), it will be 'very' part time - but the pay is excellent. He hopes you like the new format (kinda new format). If not, e-mail telling him to change it back! June 14/03 It's gotten quite warm outside to say the least. John went swimming on grandma's deck today in his little tubby. Of course he does nothing conventionally and wanted to play with the water he was slopping on the deck! He had a nap in the playpen on his sheepskin, covered with a blanket on top to keep out the bugs next to the fountain! What a life! I'd like a bed like that! We've purchased a membership to the Best Western Pool and he loves going there as well. He continues to be very vocal and scares the other babies at his playgroup Mother Goose. He's trying desperately to crawl and does this sort of perching thing before he ends up on his tummy. He can get on all fours, but doesn't know what to do with it yet! Soon! Watch out world! June 2/03 Mom and Dad Kennedy are here visiting John. He didn't really make strange with them at all! Of course, they are spoiling him silly and he has a whole bunch of new toys to enjoy. Thank you! Today we went to the greenhouse to pick up my flowers. John enjoyed strolling around looking at the flowers. I'm trying to get him to keep on his sun hat, but he prefers his baseball style one. I think his first word is "hey"! I never realized how much I say that to him, until he started to say it. I think he can also say "hi". He had the whole church congregation cracking up on Sunday. He was saying "hey" out loud to Father Luigi and did some major spit raspberries during the sermon. He also had to have a major poop and I had to whisk him away to the basement because he started his grunt noise! How embarassing! We also went to lunch today at the A&W with Grandma Memory, Grandma Lorraine and Daddy. John of course was a terrorist. He kept tossing things on the ground and even managed to topple a chair! He's a strong kid! He's teething big time right now and has been a little more on the cranky side at times. May 27/03 We've been in Winnipeg the last few days with John's cardiologist visit. She was pleased with how he healed. He's not in heart failure, has no pulmonary edema and seems well. They're just monitoring his pulmonary valve now. It still reduces the flow of blood and they have to wait and see if it just stays the same, gets better (grows with him) or gets worse. They can't say for sure if in the future he might have to have another operation to cut the pulmonary valve and apply a transannular patch to it. For the time being, he's great though. He's rolling like mad and desires to crawl, but hasn't figured it out yet. He sits pretty well on his own, however still falls over now and again. It's getting easier to take him to restaurants because he can sit in a highchair now. The waitresses are somewhat clueless at times and set things right in front of him. He promptly clears them out of the way. He had a bit of a puke emergency in Zellars. It was my fault really because I let him play with a styrofoam cup and he got a little piece off and stuck to his tongue. He started to gag and before I knew it he had puked all over my foot (sandal) and all over himself. How embarassing because all the little old ladies were coming to goo and coo over him and he was puking! He enjoyed the pool at the hotel, but it was sure hard to get him to sleep. He had a big cry tonight as well. We sure have our ups and downs with the sleep issue. He was a good boy through all his tests and only cried for the chest x-ray..don't blame him..they put him in this awful contraption. John's still a very small eater. He eats 2-3 solid meals a day of whatever (cereal, fruits/veggies, yogurt) and can eat cookies and crackers. He only drinks a max of 4 oz. at a time, but drinks frequently. He's 7.7 kg now and is 70 cm long. May 19/03 John can sit up now! He does so quite well, but sometimes he forgets he's sitting on his own and has a bit of a tumble. He's cutting more teeth. We're not sure which ones because he won't let us anywhere near his mouth, but he's very drooly and has been a little more irritable than normal. He didn't really want to eat his solid foods for a couple of days, but today ate a little better. He really laughs when I play with the cat. He finds it especially funny when she goes around in circles. He sticks his tongue out too (Daddy's trick!). Mom and I are off to Winnipeg this weekend for his 6 week post-op checkup. We hope all goes well. Dad would go, but he has to work Tuesday morning. It was very warm this week (although cold and rainy today) and I blew up John's little pool. He found it a little chilly though. He had fun in the big pool on our swim day. He was flirting with the little girl baby in the pool. He rode his little boat and enjoyed that as well. We didn't get to Mother Goose because he was sleeping. They seem to schedule things during his nap time! I attended a child and infant CPR class this week. May 8/03 We've been "Ferberizing" John which means letting him cry himself to sleep. The first few nights were absolute hell with him crying well over an hour and even making himself sick. The time has been getting shorter and shorter and I must say that tonight he didn't even really protest long before he just went to sleep. He's been gettting up less at night as well. I simply give him his bottle (he still needs it because he lost weight during surgery) and then put him back to bed. He fusses a few minutes and then back to sleep. I can't say it will continue to work, but we have had some successes. I took John swimming at the pool yesterday. He had a blast! He really enjoyed the water and loved "swish, swish". He also liked seeing the other babies there. Today we went to "Mother Goose" a programme of nursery rhymes at Toy Library and John promptly buried his head into my shoulder and went to sleep. So I said the rhymes and he had a nap. It was hilarious. I must say another little guy did the same thing and there were only 3 babies there, so 2/3 of the class was asleep. This reminds me of the days when I taught Grade 8 (giggle) - (Reminds dad for when HE was in Grade 8, 9, 10, and most of 11. Don't recall most of Grade 12 tho, so must slept most of that grade too). John is also enjoying being outside. He played in the sand at Jackie's beach yesterday but seemed frustrated because the sand kept running out of his hand. He's sitting better by himself and can even stay up for several minutes before he forgets he's sitting by himself, reaches for something, and goes off-balance. May 3/03 - It's my birthday today!!! (Wendy's) The weather cooperated and it was a very nice day outside. Mom and I took John to the park and he had lots of fun on the swing. He was very interested in the grass, so I let him sit down and sift through it with his fingers. He didn't try to eat anything (except the rock), but was fascinated with the little strands of dead grass. He continues to do quite well (except for sleeping). Last night he was up frequently and was up to stay at 4:30 a.m. Needless to say, he's sleeping early tonight. I've been trying to let him work it out (cry), but he always manages to have amazing crying stamina (over an hour) and he succeeds in making himself puke. So then I have to change him and comfort him and I'm not really sure I'm ready for this step yet. He's very cute when he's trying to soothe himself. He plays with his hair! I do that when I'm trying to get him to calm down and now he's taken it upon himself to imitate me! We borrowed a really cute exersaucer car from the Toy Library and John likes to play in it except he can't take the rings off this one toy. It frustrates him. He's making lots of new noises ...sort of a VRRRR one and he can do the W sound too. He sort of babbles. He's also enjoying the swing in the tree in the front lawn, although daddy is soon to spoil that fun when he puts new dirt on the lawn and tries to seed the grass again. © 2003 Derek Kennedy

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