Potty training!

At the risk of my son one day needing therapy because of this blog post, I'm going to dive into this, because it's a topic that lots of people wonder about, and few people have the courage to ask about.

Most people know that spinal cord injuries affect a body from the bottom up. If you hurt your spine down low, you lose feeling in your feet. If you break your neck, you become a quadripalegic. But actually, the first thing to go when the spinal cord is injured is bowel and bladder function. All kids with spina bifida have bowel and bladder problems to varying degrees even if they have no other physical problems. In fact, we've been told that the greatest threat to Joseph's long-term health is kidney failure, if his bladder doesn't get emptied like it should (and we thought the tube in his brain was a concern!). Bowel management is highly individualized and varies greatly. I won't go into that here. Bladder management is often very simple, however, and we began that adventure yesterday.

We all took a trip to the urologist's office to learn a procedure called "Intermittent Catheterization." A catheter is a very thin, very flexible tube inserted through the urethra into the bladder so that the bladder can be completely emptied. Eric and I were both pretty anxious about learning how to do this and we were concerned about effectively prepping Joseph. We told him, "Tomorrow we're going to the doctor and they'll show you how to pee like Daddy." He ate it up and was excited all morning.

The visit was all-around wonderfully positive. Inserting a catheter is about as easy as can be. Eric and I both learned in less than five minutes. Joseph thought it was great to be able to pee like a big boy. This is a major leap forward in quality of life for the whole family. Previously, Joseph was in diapers and would leak urine very unpredictably. We would never know if he was about to drench a diaper and his pants and whatever he was sitting on. It was pretty stressful for all of us. Now, every three hours, we "cath" him, empty the bladder, and he's dry in between. That's the goal, anyway. The nurse told us to give it a couple weeks to make sure he can stay completely dry in between cathing. Some kids need to cath more often and some kids do need medication to help them stay dry.

But, Joseph is really loving this and we're helping him to participate in the process as much as possible. Most intelligent kids can learn to cath independently. Our doctor has patients as young as four who are completely independent. And, consider yourself warned, if you are someone who ever takes care of Joseph for more than a couple hours, you will need to learn to catheterize. It is not gross and it is not difficult and it is very important that Joseph not get the message that there is anything to be grossed out about. It's very simple and there is nothing very "medical" about it--it's not even sterile!

So, obviously I don't have a picture for this post! Here's a cute one of Margaret enjoying some incredibly crumbly cookies I made yesterday.

Joseph's imagination

Joseph's imagination has really taken off. All day long he is pretending. He loves to be read to and all the time we're not reading to him, he is acting out the last book he heard. This morning he spent a good deal of time being "Sal." First he took off his socks and shoes, then he dug some clams, then he found a baby clam and threw it back in. Then he found a big clam and asked me to break it open for him. Sometimes "Sal" also offers me an ice cream cone or requests clam chowder for lunch. Anyone know what book we've been reading, lately?

The picture above is from a slightly less-well-known book, "Lentil" by Robert McCloskey. That book features a boy (Lentil) who plays the harmonica. Fortunately, Joseph owns a harmonica, so pretending to be Lentil isn't too much of a stretch. This morning, he decided to act out scene involving a whole marching band. The yogurt container is his "tuba hat," but I guess he couldn't find a boy big enough to serve as a tuba, so he settled, instead, on being a piccolo player.

Then there's Margaret who, today, is teething and very sad. Lately, though, she's been a bundle of giggles and fun. Quite a change from her former serious self. She has really gotten into peek-a-boo. When I'm reading on the couch she stands below me and peeks around one side of my book. Then she runs around my knees to the other side of the book and peeks around that edge. This goes one for quite awhile. Joseph has only just barely stopped thinking peek-a-boo is funny, and I think the fun has been resurrected by Margaret. I had trouble getting a good picture because the camera distracted them from their game, but Margaret was playing peek-a-boo with Joseph around his highchair yesterday. They were both shrieking with laughter and having a great time. Fun kids.

No one even tried!

I thought Robyn would at least take a stab in the dark in the hopes of getting some cookies in the mail. I thought Amy might remember that we were planning to look at some family baby pictures over the weekend. Oh well.

All three pictures are of "Grandma Carol" my mother's mother. We were pretty floored at the likeness. We've looked at so many baby pictures trying to find Margaret. For the first few days of her life she bore a startling resemblance to Eric's mom, but that faded quickly. Who knows how Margaret will develop, but Grandma Carol still looks pretty good, so I'm optimistic!

The verdict on Joseph, by the way, is that he strongly favors the Johnston line.

Pictures from our week in New England to come soon!

She wasn't switched at birth!

We've had a running joke for awhile: Margaret must have been switched at birth because she doesn't look like anyone in the family. This joke breaks down when we recall that Margaret was born at home and, as far as we know, the midwife didn't have any other babies in those big bags of hers.
We've done a bit of photo research on this trip to New England and we think we've found a likeness!




There will be a prize for anyone who correctly guesses which ancestor of Margaret's is pictured here. Enter your guess by Wednesday. You are not elibigle to win if you were with me when I scanned these pictures.

We're back!

Our move went very well. We had an amazing crew of volunteers and moved most of our furniture via mini-van and pickup truck by lunch time. A few folks stayed behind to help us and we got a lot of unpacking and setting up done by that evening. Three weeks later, we have just one box left to unpack and a few pictures to hang on the walls. We also have to organize all our books--but that's sort of fun.

I'll post a virtual tour as soon as the camera batteries are charged. We'll also send updated address and phone number in the next few days. We only got phone and internet service yesterday, so communication has been a bit tricky.

In the meantime, here are a couple cute pictures from just before the move that I never got a chance to post. Joseph loves to pretend he's a priest. He comes up with some way to pretend he's a priest almost every day (lately, by giving us "Jesus bread" at every opportunity). On this particular day, he built a cross out of some other toy and was processing around the room with it. He built one for Margaret, too. We're still working on the "girls can't be priests" thing. For now, I'm just glad whenever they happily play together.



Then there's this last picture: Margaret grinning impishly because she knows she's not supposed to bite her brother's toes.

and by the way

I changed the blog settings to allow comments from those of you without google accounts. So, feel free to send gushing remarks about the kids, or my writing skills . . .

Move in progress . . .

. . . and therefore, limited time to blog. Things will be slow over the next couple of weeks as we transition and wait for phone jacks. That's right--our new place has no phone jacks. We're only the third tenant since renovation and, apparently, no one else ever wanted phone jacks. Anyway--here is a bit of a preview.

I'll send an address via e-mail, but the new apartment is roughly in our same area of the city. It's about one mile from our current place in a "transitional" neighborhood. A bit more rough around the edges, but perfectly safe. We're excited to watch things develop over the next year.

The front door opens onto the longest hallway ever:
The kids already love racing up and down this hallway. It's too narrow to use for anything, unfortunately. There are two bedrooms, then a bathroom and one more room at the end of the hallway. I didn't take pictures of the bedrooms. They are boring while empty, but each has a window and a closet. They are a bit on the small size: roughly 8X10. We'll be in one and Joseph will be in the other. The bathroom is pretty standard. The last room will be the "study" but also has a laundry closet with large (!) washing machine. There is back door out of that room with this view:
Sorry, it's a bit blurry. There is a bit of a patio where we will soon be putting a little grill. There is a small side yard where the kids could play. Across the street, you can see the vacant, overgrown lot. Ahhh, urban blight. This would be an awesome neighborhood if all those vacant lots were developed.

The other room, to the right of the front door is kitchen/living/dining all in one. The kitchen is at one end:
That's all of it. Pretty small, but very beautiful. I'm so happy for the nice counter tops (I really hope that formica is out of my life for good) and the gas range. I'd definitely take more cupboards over the microwave and dishwasher, but, oh well. Next to the dishwasher is the world's largest refrigerator:
This thing is crazy. It also almost completely blocks the window behind it. We uncovered the top part and we like the urban view of brick walls. The other end of the main room looks like this:
That is, more or less, the living room. The whole room is about 20X13. Definitely small, but I'm glad that I'll be able to work in the kitchen while visiting with guests or watching the kids. Plus, since the dining room table will be, essentially, in the kitchen, I'll have more surface area for working that way.

We are really excited about this place. The configuration is a bit odd, but works well for us. Eric's study is so far down that hallway that he'll never hear us during the day while he works. And, sleeping kiddos won't be disturbed by noise in the living room. So, for example, when we pack up all our stuff again in one year, the sound of the tape gun won't bother anyone.

I'll try to post again more specifically about the kids soon. But, keep us in your prayers as we move Saturday!