Week of March 28, 2010

As I'm a bit behind, I'm going to condense the events of this week a bit. On Sunday, our dear friend Mike brought Grady a cradle. Mike made the cradle himself, his wife Patrice made the mattress and his daughter Sarah made blankets. We are overwhelmed by the efforts of the entire family! Grady had a particularly fussy night on Sunday - he actually cried for 5 hours straight. I couldn't do a thing to console him, and it broke my heart. All of the reading I've done says that babies will have fussy, bad times - particularly in the evenings from 6:00 to whenever. Ok, so I know that, but I wanted to cry myself at his sadness. Instead, I broke one of my first rules and headed to Target on Tuesday for a pacifier. Yuck! It does help soothe him, however, so it's worth it. My dear friend Kathy said I wasn't selling out, I was simply being a flexible and receptive mother. Isn't it wonderful to have supportive friends?!

Kathy with Grady on March 18.

We had an eventful day on Tuesday: Grady went with me to a hair appointment, which he patiently slept through, then we went to RFHS to visit friends and, finally, we headed to Target to do a gift registry. Grady was amazing the entire time! Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures from that day because we dropped the camera on Sunday, and it broke.

Grady did something new on Wednesday. While I was feeding him his bottle, he actually turned his head and looked away from me. Seriously, I was a bit shocked at first as we've spent this first month gazing lovingly into each other's eyes as he eats. Then I remembered my friend Chris' research on gender differences for our master's program. Researchers have discovered that boys and girls have different cells in their eyes. Chris' article states, "The ganglion cells in our eyes are of two different types—P and M—each having very different jobs. M-cells, which are larger, are wired to rods and are primarily simple motion detectors. P-cells, which are smaller, are concentrated around the fovea, or the center of the field of vision, and are responsible for collecting information about color and texture.

Only very recent microscopic analysis of the eye has revealed that the retinas of male and female eyes have vastly different concentrations of these cells. Female retinas have a much higher concentration of P-cells (responsible for colors and textures), and male retinas have many more M-cells (responsible for tracking movement). Sax puts it this way. P-cells (denser in females) answer the question, “What is it?” M-cells (denser in males) answer the question, “Where is it going?” The interesting thing is that these are large differences that hold true across species. Every male animal has more M-cells than every female animal." If you're interested in reading more, here's a link to his article and our newest venture We Teach, We Learn: http://www.weteachwelearn.org/2009/05/the-eyes-have-it/

I reread Chris' research and felt absolutely relieved. Grady is doing exactly what he is made to do!

The temperature was 77 degrees on Thursday, so Grady slept outside in the stroller while I did a bit of gardening. He also had his morning bottle on the deck. Hard to believe it's only April 1. Later that evening, we went to Kathy and Mike's for a pizza party. Amanda and Maddie were enamored with Grady, and he certainly thought they were beautiful. It's so fun to see these two young women all grown-up ~ John had each of them as high school students.

You've probably noticed that these entries don't say too much about John. He spent many of his hours this week at his mom and dad's house while Pat completed his last week of radiation and chemotherapy. As soon as John walks in the door at home, he holds, hugs and loves Grady. We are experiencing such a wide range of emotions: joy and sadness, new life and illness. Through it all, however, we know the Lord is in control, and His peace and love give us great strength.

Aunt Diane and Uncle Scott came to visit on Friday morning. It was so great to spend time with them. It seems we all get so wrapped up in our own lives that we don't even see our own siblings enough. Grady already knows that Uncle Scott will be the man when it comes to teaching him about fishing, canoeing and kayaking!

Peeking out after his morning bath.

Grandma Arlene and Grandpa Gerry also came to visit on Friday. My mom called and said she wanted to see "her baby." My response, "Oh mom, that's nice. I want to see you, too." Her reply, "I meant Grady." Hmm... funny how those things work! Needless to say, we are thrilled with our parents' desire to see and hold Grady. He is truly everyone's love!

Side note: Grady slept from 9:00 p.m. to 3:00 a.m. on Friday night. It's a record!