The Joseph Catch-All Post

In an effort to catch up a bit and get some really cute pictures out there I thought I'd try to do a summary on Margaret and Joseph while we're waiting for William to do something really interesting like smile on cue.

The top picture here is very emblematic of Joseph's crazy imagination. I was working in the bedroom one afternoon while Eric played with the kids. When I finished what I was doing I found my two kids as you see them in that picture. Joseph had decided that they were going to be in a race together and needed racing outfits. They picked out their racing shirts, racing hats, racing gloves, and racing leg warmers all on their own. Joseph's costumes are not usually this elaborate. He'll often play for an hour with a piece of silk, a blanket, a scarf or a baby sling. He has "rest time" each day in our sun room. He almost never sleeps these days but makes up stories and games for himself. When I came to get him a few days ago he had wrapped a piece of silk around his head and gathered it in front into a long tail. "Mommy, I'm an elephant!"

Sometimes, Joseph does still conk out after a busy "rest time."

He'd probably looked at all the books strewn around him. Then he built himself a fishing pole out of Tinker Toys. Then he fell asleep.

We've gotten lots and lots of snow this year. I could write a whole post on winter in Minnesota but I've been fighting the temptation because I try not to be whiny on this blog. Eric has gotten plenty of opportunity to shovel and whenever he hasn't had to rush off to work he takes the kids out to "help" him. Joseph doesn't usually go out in his wheelchair, actually. Maybe this picture was taken before he got snow pants. The kids, inexplicably, like to lie on their stomachs and tunnel through the snow. Margaret cries and comes inside after a few minutes of this. Joseph would probably stay out as long as we let him.

Joseph adores his new baby brother and the feeling is mutual. Since Joseph actually understands how to hold a baby we can let William hang out with him for longer stretches. William loves Joseph. He almost never cries if Joseph is holding him and last week he fell asleep in Joseph's lap. It's really neat to see them together and I'm looking forward to watching them grow up together.

And, in the milestones department . . . That is Joseph's foot (next to Margaret's foot). We were at a playgroup last Friday and Joseph was playing hard with the other kids. He wasn't wearing shoes--just thick socks--and his big toe was hanging a bit over the edge of the footplate on his wheelchair. No one--including Joseph--is sure of what happened. But we assume he crashed hard into a wall or projectile of some sort. He smashed his toe really hard. Another mom saw blood everywhere and called me over. Joseph has no feeling in his legs or feet so he hadn't noticed. Eric came and brought him to the ER where, after a six-hour wait, Joseph got eight stitches in his toe and a nice bandage to go with them. Since he wasn't in pain he thought the whole thing was pretty fascinating. He'll be fine as long as we can keep him from banging his foot around too much. You'd be surprised how much foot banging a paralyzed four-year old can do!

So there's a bit on Joseph . . . Some photos of Margaret and some good news coming up soon.