February Musings

In contrast to her normal “bubbly baby” personality, Jocie has recently been a much more subdued, calm, quiet, and very cuddly baby. Although I’ve loved this recent character trait, it is indicative of a more pressing issue. Compounded by our daughter’s entrance into our room this morning announcing that her head hurt, my wife took the whole family to the Pediatrician this morning.

A double-ear infection for Jocie is the culprit for the change of personality, and Jessamyn has been stricken with ‘strep throat.’ Joey was luckily exempt for illness as should be expected by his rather intense concoction of drugs, antibiotics, and allergy medicines prescribed to help treat a chronic sinus infection aggravated by allergies.

Stuck in the middle of the “Winter Blues”, I guess this is as good a time as any for our children to be sick, though, it is hard trying to get a good night’s sleep in our household.

Here are some updates on the family members:

Joey did amazingly well at his second skiing lesson of the year and even earned himself a pair of Scott goggles, which he has been proudly wearing (with helmet) around the house claiming that he is either a Power Ranger, FireFighter, or Soldier. On my cube wall now hang the output of his imaginative artistry from this past weekend as he colored me several paintings of firefighters spraying black tipped hoses gushing blue water that seems to move in directions I’ve never thought possible. I’m sure my mother often dotted her own private spaces with similar creations in my youth. It adds to the hundreds of photos of my family and our vacations that line my office walls.

Jessamyn is sort of experiencing a pre-teen ten-year early attitude disorder where she gets very moody, crosses her arms, scowls, and will not participate in anything. She did this last Saturday during her weekly ballet class. In watching through the window, we noted that for most of the hour she would be seen standing in this position and ignoring the rest of the surrounding class. It’s as if she is trying to say “I’ll ignore you and act mad until I get what I want.” Oh, it assuredly is just a phase, but, a tough one to deal with as “Ms. Nice” seems to involve herself in everything and when she gets scolded or can’t affect change on the rest of the family, out comes “Ms. Temper Tantrum.” Most of the time, though, she is just as sweet as can be and continues to be a great helper and caretaker over her little sister. Ask anything of Jess, and she'll most likely do it.

Jocie refuses to learn to walk, following a similar pattern of her elder siblings whom also refuted the task as long as possible. Instead, she opts to Stand, Clap, Fall to Knees, Crawl to next destination, and Repeat. Nice and cute… ‘till I started noticing the DVD player in the bedroom having an odd desire to keep coming to life sometime between the morning and when I come home from work, whence I turn it off again. We even tried teaching her to descend stairs, but this seems to end in a few stairs down and ten stairs up to the top, and she’s gone playing again.

Jenny and Brooke continue their momentous schooling endeavors with constant studying and discussions about what teacher said what, who did what in their class, and just how much they can’t wait to be done with class.

Me? Well, I’m still trying to decide if I’m going to stay on the fire deparment. I’m taking pictures every chance I get (and reading lots of books to try to improve my abilities). Someday soon, I hope to play drums with my friend Scott.

jp