Jocelyn and Perry Olum News

• Thursday, 7/25/02, 2:00 p.m.
  We came home from the hospital Tuesday afternoon. On Wednesday morning we went to the pediatrician. Jocelyn had neonatal jaundice (common in the first few days) and needed to be in the hospital for phototherapy. She's there now but we are at home. She is getting breast milk pumped by Judy at home and taken to the hospital, plus some formula. We expect she'll be back home tomorrow.

  Perry was just weighed at the pediatrician's. He is just under seven pounds; about the same as yesterday. This looks like his minimum weight and now we expect him to go up.

• Friday, 7/26/02, 11:00 a.m.
  Jocelyn is home! Yay! She has to go in tomorrow morning to make sure that her bilirubin level has not gone back up. Her weight is back up to 5 lbs 7 oz from a low of about 5 lbs, so she's gained 70% of the way back to her birthweight.

• Saturday, 7/27/02, 2:00 p.m.
  Jocelyn had slightly higher bilirubin levels today than yesterday but not enough to be a matter of concern, so she does not have to go back to the hospital. We're very relieved.

• Sunday, 7/28/02, 11:00 a.m.
  Jocelyn and Perry are one week old. They are both gaining weight, and we don't have any doctor's appointments for 72 hours.

• Tuesday, 7/30/02, 3:00 p.m.
  Jocelyn and Perry are nine days old. They are already growing and changing. In the last few days they have started being asleep for up to 4 hours and awake for significant periods instead of being always half awake or going very rapidly from one state to the other.

• Wednesday, 7/31/02, 3:00 p.m.
  Jocelyn has regained her birthweight. Perry is 7 lbs. 5 oz., which is a good rate of growth, nearly 1 oz. per day since last Thursday.

• Monday, 8/5/02
  The official due date, which means nothing, except that Jocelyn and Perry were conceived 38 weeks ago. Now they are 15 days old and thriving.

• Tuesday, 8/6/02
  Judy is recovering from giving birth and from sleep deprivation and was able to go bicycling today! Don't try this two weeks postpartum unless you have a recumbent bicycle.

• Wednesday, 8/7/02
  Jocelyn is 6 lbs. 1.5oz and Perry is 7 lbs. 11 oz. Both had good weight gain in the last week and Jocelyn is catching up. Jocelyn is still having some trouble nursing -- she's getting plenty as evidenced by the rapid weight gain, but it takes a long time. We finally got a lactation consultant to come see us, and she gave us various ideas to try.

• Thursday, 8/15/02
  Allan Wechsler and Jeannine Mosely lent us a fine double-beam baby balance, so we can weigh our own kids. We can even weigh them before and after to find out how much milk they are getting. Perry is about 8 lbs. 4 oz., and Jocelyn is about 6 lbs. 15 oz. She's gaining fast - the spread is down to 21 oz. from 35 oz. at birth.

• Wednesday, 8/21/02
  Perry and Jocelyn are one month old today. Perry weighs about 8 lbs. 9 oz. and Jocelyn about 7 lbs. 7 oz. Perry has been gaining about an ounce a day and Jocelyn about 1.5 oz. a day. She has made up half the original weight difference of about 35oz.

• Monday, 8/26/02
  Judy went waterskiing today!

• Wednesday, 8/28/02
  Jocelyn is occasionally smiling at people and things.

• Sunday, 9/1/02
  6 weeks today. Jocelyn weighs about 8.5 pounds, so she has gained more than half her birthweight. Jocelyn likes to stand up on your lap if you hold her under the arms, and she can hold up her own weight on her legs. Perry doesn't do it quite as much but is starting to. We think that Perry calmed down when he was upset about being by himself and Valerie said "I'm coming".

• Tuesday, 9/3/02
  Jocelyn seems to have noticed and tracked her hand for the first time today. We hope she is now on her way toward advanced abilities such as not putting her hands in her mouth while nursing. She also seems to have quieted upon hearing someone say "I'm coming".

• Thursday, 9/5/02
  Perry is smiling at people today.

  There was a loose adjustment on our scale, so the weights I listed on 9/1 were not accurate. Perry weighs 9 lbs. 11 oz. today. He has gained 1.2 oz. per day over the last 2 weeks. Jocelyn weighs 8 lb. 15 oz. She has gained 1.6 oz. per day over the last 2 weeks. The spread is down to 12 oz., which is only an ounce or two more than the typical amount by which boys weigh more than girls at this age.

• Sunday, 9/15/02
  Jocelyn slept last night from 10 p.m. until 3 a.m. and then from 4 a.m. until 9:30. According to some definitions, "sleeping through the night" means sleeping for 5 hours; under that definition, she slept through the night twice last night. Their usual schedule is more like 4 hours sleeping, 1 hour nursing, 3 hours sleeping, 1 hour nursing, and then anything between 1 and 3 hours sleeping.

• Saturday, 9/21/02
  Two months old today. Jocelyn weighs about 10 lb. 3 oz. and Perry weighs about 11 lb. 2 oz. They have both gained about 1.25 oz. per day for the last two weeks.

  Jocelyn can roll from her back onto her side.

• Thursday, 9/26/02
  Our pediatrician was so impressed with how rapidly the twins have grown that he said "What have you been feeding them? Miracle Grow?" Naturally we said "yes".

  Then he got all concerned because Jocelyn's head is in the 70th percentile for girls of her age, while her length is only about the tenth percentile. He sent us to have an ultrasound of her head to make sure she didn't have hydrocephalus. We thought it was almost certainly unnecessary, and in fact she was just fine.

• Tuesday, 10/1/02
  Jocelyn and Perry are continuing to gain well over an ounce a day. Jocelyn weighs about 11 pounds and Perry about 12. Somebody told me that when a baby gets to 12 pounds he will start sleeping through the night, but we don't seem to be there yet.

• Wednesday, 10/2/02
  Today we went to court and got Valerie officially appointed as a guardian of Jocelyn and Perry, so now they have 3 parents and guardians.

• Friday, 10/4/02
  Jocelyn weighs about 11.5 lbs. - double her birthweight. Perry weighs about 12.5 lbs.

  Perry can roll from his side to his front.

• Friday, 10/11/02
  Judy went to work today! We fed Perry and Jocelyn a total of 23 ounces of previously frozen breast milk over the course of the 8 hours that she was gone.

• Tuesday, 10/15/02
  Jocelyn is sometimes rubbing her eyes when she is tired, which means that she knows how to get her hands where she wants them. We hope that she will do it more as a signal that she is tired and wants help getting to sleep, and then we won't waste our time trying other things when she is fussy.

  Both Jocelyn and Perry seem to be able to get their hands in their mouths with reasonable reliability.

• Thursday 10/17/02
  Both Jocelyn and Perry wave their hands in the vicinity of an interesting object that they see. Jocelyn is occasionally able to hold onto a rattle briefly and bring it to her mouth.

• Over the course of the third month
  Some changes happen slowly, so they tend not to get recorded here. Over the course of time, the percentage of their (and our) lives that Jocelyn and Perry spend nursing has gradually decreased. Judy now has a significant amount of time even in late afternoon and evening when neither of them is nursing.

  They have also essentially learned to keep their hands out of the way when nursing, which means that Judy can usually get them on without help.

  Jocelyn is often very upset and we need to carry her around and sing lullabies. The usual cause seems to be that she is tired and can't get to sleep (or at least the most common end of this situation is that she sleeps and wakes up happy), but sometimes she seems to recover from her problem without ever sleeping. Some of it may also be a cycle of frustration. She is hungry and then gets too upset to eat, and she has to relax before she can get what she needs.

• Monday 10/21/02
  3 months old today. We wrote a survey of Jocelyn and Perry at three months.

• Tuesday 10/22/02
  Perry can reach out and sort of take hold of something which is hanging in front of him. Jocelyn seems to be learning it too.

• Thursday 10/24/02
  Jocelyn and Perry notice each other much more than they used to. When one cries, the other often looks to see what is going on. Today they looked very interestedly at each other and had a bit of a "conversation".

• Monday 11/4/02
  Both Perry and Jocelyn can grasp an object that you bring to their hand and put it in their mouth.

• Thursday 11/7/02
  Jocelyn was playing with a some linked rings and looking at the baby in the mirror. When she brought the rings to her mouth, she was fascinated to see that the baby in the mirror had done the same.

• Sunday 11/10/02
  Jocelyn is having a hard time today. We think she might be having a bad reaction to antibiotics that Judy is taking.

• Monday 11/11/02
  We are feeding Jocelyn milk pumped earlier before Judy was taking drugs. She seems to be much better today.

  Today Jocelyn transferred a ring from one hand to another for the first time.

• Tuesday 11/12/02
  Conception day! Perry and Jocelyn have existed as distinct living organisms for one year.

• Thursday 11/14/02
  Perry knows how to hold a rattle and make noise with it.

• Over the course of the fourth month
  We are gradually developing a schedule. Perry and Jocelyn typically go to sleep at 10 or 10:30 p.m. and sleep (with occasional help getting back to sleep) until about 4 a.m. Then they nurse for half an hour or so and sleep until something like 6:30 a.m., and then they are often awake for half an hour or so before they get hungry again. They typically have a morning nap of 45 minutes or so around 8:30. There are many variations, including waking up at 1 a.m. instead.

  Jocelyn seems to be getting better at recovering from being upset without quite such a struggle.

• Saturday 11/16/02
  If you put Perry into a sitting position he can balance there for several seconds.

• Tuesday 11/19/02
  Jocelyn is definitely teething. She likes chewing on our fingers, but doesn't have much interest in teething rings. She was very unhappy yesterday - we aren't sure if teething was the cause.

  Jocelyn can keep herself in a sitting position for a few seconds.

• Thursday 11/21/02
  4 months. Perry weighs 16 lb 4.5 oz (78th percentile) and is about 24 5/8 in. (40th percentile), putting him in the 90th percentile of weight for length. Jocelyn weighs 14 lb 13.5 oz (also 78th percentile) and is 23 7/8 in. (36th percentile), putting her in the 87th percentile of weight for length.

• Friday, 11/22/02
  Perry can pass a rattle back and forth between his hands.

• Sunday, 11/24/02
  Perry and Jocelyn have a cold. It is pretty mild, but they don't like it.

• Tuesday 12/3/02
  Their cold is hanging on, or they are getting a succession of them. Fortunately the symptoms are pretty minor.

  Jocelyn rolled over from her front to her back!

• Tuesday 12/10/02
  Jocelyn has gotten very good at reaching out and grabbing objects, such as eyeglasses and other toys.

• Monday 12/16/02
  Jocelyn and Perry went without nursing for 7.5 hours from when they went to sleep at 9:30 last night!

  Jocelyn seems to be getting over being so unhappy so often. It still happens sometimes, but less often, and she is better able to get in a good mood again.

  They both have colds again (or still).

• Saturday 12/21/02
  Happy Solstice, everyone! Perry and Jocelyn are 5 months old today.

  We returned our borrowed baby scale, so we can't get accurate weights at home, but the we measured their lengths (which unfortunately isn't very accurate to start with). Perry was 26 1/4 inches, which is 70th percentile, and Jocelyn was 24 7/8 which is 45th.

• Tuesday 12/24/02
  They seem to finally be over their colds.

• Sunday 12/29/02
  We spent 2 days in New Hampshire at a square dance weekend - Perry and Jocelyn's first overnight away from home (not counting the hospital). Being there was fine, but they cried quite a bit in the car on the way home and we had to stop several times.

• Monday 1/6/03
  Perry had his first taste of solid food today in the form of rice cereal. He seemed to like it.

• Tuesday 1/7/03
  In just one day of eating solid foods, Perry has learned to open his mouth when he wants more, shut it tightly when he doesn't, and swallow the great majority of his food instead of pushing it out onto his chin.

• Wednesday 1/8/03
  We got an accurate scale again. Perry weighs 19.4 lbs. (89th percentile) and Jocelyn weighs 17.4 lbs. (86th percentile). Perry is about 26 inches long (48th percentile). This is 1/4 in. less than what we measured 2 weeks ago, not because he has shrunk, but because length is very hard to measure accurately because it isn't a natural position for a baby to be stretched out. For this length, Perry is in the 97th percentile of weight.

  Jocelyn is about 24 7/8 inches long (31st percentile), which puts her in the 96th percentile of weight for length.

• Saturday 1/18/03
  Today we started Jocelyn on rice cereal. She likes it, but she's equally interested in playing with the spoon, putting everything else in sight into her mouth, and so on.

  Perry is now eating quite a lot of rice cereal, bananas, and avocados.

• Tuesday 1/21/03
  Happy half-birthday to Perry and Jocelyn! We wrote a survey of Jocelyn and Perry at six months.

• Saturday 1/25/03
  Jocelyn can stand if you set her upright and give her something to hold on to.

• Tuesday 1/28/03
  Perry is increasingly fussy. Some unknown problem seems to be making him uncomfortable. We have tried eliminating his foods one by one without success.

• Tuesday 2/4/03
  Perry weighs about 21.8 lbs. and Jocelyn weighs about 19.4. Collectively they have tripled their birthweight.

• Friday 2/21/03
  7 months. Perry weighs 23.2 pounds (97th percentile) and is about 27 1/4" long (58th percentile). Jocelyn weighs 19.8 pounds (92nd percentile) and is about 26" long (37th percentile).

• Monday 2/24/03
  Jocelyn can hold herself in a hand-and-knees position if you put her there. If you hold up her belly, she can make a little crawling progress.

• Tuesday 2/25/03
  Jocelyn and Perry got their second colds last night. They are not very sick, but it's hard for them to sleep.

• Sunday 3/2/03
  Jocelyn can make a little creeping progress when she is on her tummy. She can move a foot or two, usually sideways or backwards.

• Over the course of the sixth and seventh months
  Jocelyn has gradually become less fussy. In particular, it seems that the frustrating situation in which she is too hungry to sleep and too tired to nurse has mostly abated. Meanwhile, Perry has become fussier, and cries loudly when things aren't to his liking. Having something done to him (diaper changes, etc.) when he'd rather be going to sleep is the most common cause.

  Both Perry and Jocelyn want to be comforted by people they know, not by strangers, when they are upset and tired. As a result, it's harder for mothers' helpers to be useful, especially in the evening.

  Jocelyn prefers Judy. She sometimes cries if Judy leaves the room, or if Judy is in the room but not holding her. She's happy with Valerie or Ken if Judy isn't around.

• Thursday 3/6/03
  Jocelyn has learned to raise her hand to say "Hi".

  They seem to be over their colds.

• Friday 3/7/03
  Now that Jocelyn has learned to wave "Hi", she does it all the time, for example to our cat, who unfortunately cannot wave back.

• Saturday, 3/8/03
  Perry can make some creeping progress.

• Thursday, 3/13/03
  When Jocelyn is sitting, she can turn around in a circle by pushing with her feet.

• Sunday 3/16/03
  Jocelyn has her first tooth!

  Jocelyn can wriggle backwards fairly rapidly. She finds it frustrating because she's trying to go forwards and because she backs into things and gets stuck.

  Perry can eat with a spoon, sort of. You have to get the food on the spoon, but then he will bring it to his mouth and eat it. He seems to have some idea that the spoon needs to go alternately into his mouth and the dish.

• Thursday, 3/20/03
  Perry and Jocelyn went to their first peace rally today, and also had their first time at a restaurant. Both went very well. At the restaurant they sat in highchairs and had rice.

• Friday 3/21/03
  8 months. Perry weighs about 24.4 lb. (97th percentile) and is about 28" long (63rd percentile). Jocelyn weighs about 22.2 lb. (97th percentile) and is about 27" long (52nd percentile).

  Perry rolled over from front to back!

• Friday 3/28/03
  Perry has some understanding of books. He looks at the pages when you are reading to him and may have some idea that what you are saying is connected with what's in the book. He also can enjoy a book by himself: he picks it up and opens it at random and looks at a picture and closes it again. His favorite books are "Good night, baby" and "Elmo's friends".

• Saturday, 3/29/03
  We took Perry and Jocelyn to a huge peace rally and march in Boston. They were excellent babies. They smiled at everyone and nursed happily on the subway. Perry slept through the entire actual march, never mind the helicopters, the megaphones, and the brass band.

• Sunday, 3/30/03
  They have another cold.

• Saturday, 4/19/03
  Jocelyn rolled from her back to her front!

• Monday, 4/21/03
  Nine months. We wrote a 9 month report.

• Wednesday, 4/23/03
  Jocelyn can cruise! (Cruising is walking sideways by holding onto a piece of furniture.) She doesn't try to go very far, but she can slowly work herself several feet. She still is not crawling.

  Jocelyn understands containers. She can spend quite a while dropping something in a bowl and then dumping it out again.

• Sunday, 5/4/03
  Perry can stand up quite well if he has something to hold onto, and can transfer his hands from one object to another.

  Jocelyn can take a few crawling steps. She's somewhere between using her feet and using her knees.

• Tuesday 5/6/03
  Jocelyn can really crawl now! She still has an awkward gait where she uses both her feet and her knees, but she can pretty much go where she wants to.

  Both Perry and Jocelyn can stand unsupported for a moment.

• Wednesday, 5/7/03
  Jocelyn crawled up a step today.

• Monday, 5/12/03
  We think that both Perry and Jocelyn made the sign for "milk" (i.e., nursing) today. We have tried to teach them a few signs: milk, eat, drink. This is our first success.

  Perry is saying things that sound just like words. So far we haven't recognized any of them, though.

• Saturday, 5/17/03
  Perry can stand unsupported for several seconds.

• Sunday 5/18/03
  We went on an overnight trip (our first since December) to Western Massachusetts. Jocelyn and Perry were fine and did not make too much trouble in the car.

• Wednesday, 5/21/03
  Ten months. Perry weighs 27.2 lb. and Jocelyn weighs 24.2 lb., both 98th percentile. Perry measured 29 3/8", which is 71st percentile, and Jocelyn measured 27 3/4", which is 40th percentile. We don't really think that Jocelyn failed to grow at all in the last month. Measuring lengths is fraught with errors.

  Jocelyn can stand quite well and can even bend down and pick things up while standing.

• Monday, 5/26/03
  Jocelyn has her first upper tooth.

  Valerie wrote a summary of Jocelyn and Perry at ten months.

• Wednesday, 5/28/03
  Jocelyn can walk! She took her first step a few days ago and can now toddle a few feet.

  Perry can stand up without assistance in the middle of the floor.

• Friday, 5/30/03
  Perry can crawl! Just a few crawling steps so far, but he is able to go forward.

• Thursday, 6/5/03
  Perry has his first tooth!

• Friday, 6/6/03
  Perry can really crawl now. He sometimes flops on his belly, but he can get anywhere he wants to go. He also sometimes moves by sitting upright with one leg in front and one leg behind and bouncing up and down.

• Monday, 6/9/03
  Both Perry and Jocelyn can put a wooden block into a mailing tube and tilt the tube so the block slides out the other side.

  Jocelyn has learned to turn around and crawl backward down a single step. She doesn't always remember to do it, though.

• Tuesday, 6/17/03
  Jocelyn is really walking now. She will hold on to something if it is available, but when she runs out of table or couch she will just continue walking.

• Thursday 6/19/03
  Perry can make a tower of 3 alphabet blocks!

• Saturday 6/21/03
  Eleven months. Perry weighs 28.2 lb. (percentile 98.6) and measures 29 5/8" (62nd percentile). Jocelyn weighs 24.6 lb. (96th percentile) and measures 28 3/8" (43rd percentile). Even with errors due to daily fluctuation, it seems that her weight has started to level off, as we expected it would when she started crawling and walking.

• Wednesday 6/25/03
  Jocelyn crawled up and down the stairs to the second floor.

• Friday 6/27/03
  Perry took his first step today!

• Monday 6/30/03
  Both Perry and Jocelyn can (sometimes) demonstrate their toes when asked.

• Saturday 7/5/03
  Over the last week or so Jocelyn and Perry have started a somewhat regular nap schedule. They typically sleep an hour or an hour and a half at 10:30 a.m. and again sometime during the afternoon.

• Monday 7/7/03
  Jocelyn and Perry have quite a bit of receptive language. For example, Jocelyn can understand the request "Bring Daddy the giraffe (puppet)" and distinguish the giraffe from the caterpillar.

• Wednesday 7/9/03
  After many, many attempts on our part to teach her, Jocelyn has learned to pet the cat. That is to say, she's learned to pat the cat (rather hard) with her hand open, instead of grabbing the cat's fur. She also transferred the same skill to patting Perry instead of grabbing his hair. Neither Perry nor the cat seems to object to the new treatment, whereas the old one was terrible.

• Thursday 7/10/03
  Both Jocelyn and Perry know the names of all their books. You can ask for a book by name and either of them can get it for you.

• Monday 7/14/03
  We believe Jocelyn is saying "up" (actually more like "ap") when she wants to be picked up.

• Tuesday 7/15/03
  Perry has greatly improved his walking and can now go several feet.

  Jocelyn nods her head for "yes".

• Monday 7/21/03
  Happy birthday, Jocelyn and Perry! Happy birthday to us: we made it through the first year. We wrote a 1 year report.

• Wednesday 7/23/03
  Jocelyn says "ball" and we think "no".

• Thursday 7/24/03
  Perry may have said "cookie".

• Friday 7/25/03
  Perry may have said "again".

• Saturday 7/26/03
  Jocelyn is starting to use a lot of words. We made a list.

• Thursday 8/7/03
  We think Perry is saying "yeah".

• Friday 8/8/03
  Perry has learned to crawl down the stairs!

• Saturday 8/10/03
  Perry can zip up a zipper.

• Thursday 8/21/03
  Thirteen months. Jocelyn is about 30" long (66th percentile) and weighs 25.8 lb. She gained only about 0.2 lb. last month and is now in the 95th percentile. Perry is about 31" long (74th percentile) and weighs 29.4 lb. He gained 0.4 lb. last month and is now in percentile 98.0.

• Friday 8/22/03
  Jocelyn now has all her incisors.

• Monday 8/25/03
  Jocelyn learned to understand the word "draw" (on the driveway with chalk) from only a few repetitions as we explained what the chalk was for.

• Monday 9/1/03
  Perry spent 20 minutes playing intently with a beads-on-wires puzzle.

• Thursday 9/4/03
  Jocelyn walked up a single step without holding on to anything.

• Sunday 9/21/03
  Fourteen months. Perry is about 31 3/8" long (73rd percentile). He weighs 30.6 lbs. and is back in percentile 98.6. Jocelyn is about 30 5/8" (71st percentile) and weighs 27.2 lb. (97th percentile). Both children gained more than a pound last month after gaining less than half a pound the month before, which probably means that we weighed them at an especially light time of day last time and an especially heavy time this time. They both seem noticeably more slender to us, even though they have gone up in the percentiles, probably because all children are slimming down at this time of life.

• Thursday 9/25/03
  Jocelyn has learned to hide things behind her back.

• Tuesday 10/21/03
  Fifteen months. Jocelyn is about 30 3/4" (61st percentile) and 27.6 lb. (96th percentile). Perry is about 31 3/4" (71st percentile) and 30.8 lb. (percentile 98.2). The gained much less this month than last, probably meaning that last month's readings were high. Standing up, Jocelyn is about 29 1/2" and Perry is about 30 1/4" high.

• Thursday 10/23/03
  Jocelyn understands "big" and "little". Given two rings she can (at least sometimes) point to "the big ring" and "the little ring", and will identify the same ring as "little" or "big" depending on the size of the other one.

• Thursday 11/6/03
  Perry got his last incisor.

  Jocelyn has gotten much happier. She still fusses plenty, but she's happy much more often than not.

  Both Perry and Jocelyn are using lots of words. Very many of Jocelyn's begin with B (bear, bottle, baby, etc.) and she pronounces them all "buh".

• Friday 11/7/03
  Today Perry ate soup with a spoon, filling it up and bringing it to his mouth all by himself.

• Monday 11/10/03
  Jocelyn said two sentences today: that (is) brother "da buh" and more book "mo buh".

• Wednesday 11/12/03
  Jocelyn has all her first-year molars.

• Friday 11/21/03
  Sixteen months. Jocelyn is about 31 1/2" (71st percentile). She weighed 27.6 lb., unchanged from last month, 94th percentile. Perry is about 32 1/2" (79th percentile) and 31.8 lb. (percentile 98.6).

  Perry is learning lots of words: more than one new word per day.

  Valerie wrote a sixteen month report.

• Sunday 11/23/03
  Jocelyn can blow bubbles with a bubble wand.

• Monday 12/1/03
  Jocelyn knows her name. She pronounces it "dja".

  Both Jocelyn and Perry have some idea of the alphabet, or perhaps the sequence of things in an alphabet book. After you read "A", they go "buh", and after you've read "B", they go "ca".

  Perry can supply many of the words of his favorite songs and books if you stop and wait for him to give the next word.

• Wednesday 12/3/03
  Already they have different tastes in music. Jocelyn likes "row, row, row your boat" and Perry likes "baa, baa, black sheep" and "old MacDonald" (which he calls "E I E I"). They argue about which song they want next.

  Perry learned to make the "k" phoneme, and in the last 3 days he's acquired 8 new words beginning with it (which he pronounces pretty much identically), along with 7 or 8 other new words.

• Saturday 12/6/03
  In the last week Jocelyn has become very interested in make believe. She wants to put stuffed animals to bed, give them a drink, put diapers on them, and so on.

• Monday 12/8/03
  Both Perry and Jocelyn have said about a hundred different words, and we have stopped counting them.

• Wednesday 12/17/03
  Perry has some idea of color and can reasonably reliably hand you a yellow, red, or blue object.

• Saturday 12/20/03
  Jocelyn now also seems to understand colors.

• Sunday 12/21/03
  Seventeen months. Perry weighs 32.2 lb. (percentile 98.4) and Jocelyn weighs 28 lb. (94th percentile). They measured the same as last month, Jocelyn 31 1/2" (59th percentile) and Perry 32 1/2" (69th percentile).

• Wednesday 12/31/03
  Jocelyn can count to 3! If you show her 3 blocks and say "how many blocks are there" been she will point to one of them and say "Wuh". Then you say "One..." and she points to the second block and says "Tuh". Then you say "Two..." and she points to the third block and says "Vree". Sometimes she says different things like "1, 2, 1" or "1, block, block".

• Saturday 1/3/04
  Jocelyn can do a jigsaw puzzle (the kind where each piece goes in a separate hole) all by herself.

  Perry and Jocelyn know lots of the letters (i.e., if you show them a letter they will tell you its name or the sound it makes).

• 1/?/04
  Jocelyn understands that the sad and crying and especially the tired baby in the "Baby Faces" book need their mamas.

• Wednesday 1/21/04
  Eighteen months. We wrote an 18 month report.

• Friday 1/23/04
  Perry's enunciation has gotten much better in the last week or so. He can say "two" correctly instead of "tuh" and things like "happap" (happy) and "turtuh" (turtle) instead of "ha" and "tuh".

  Today Perry has been saying two word phrases with a long delay between words, "sit...down" and "two...pieces"

• Tuesday 1/27/04
  Jocelyn can unscrew the (large plastic) screws in the workbench.

• Friday 1/30/04
  Jocelyn has all her baby teeth except for second-year molars.

• Tuesday 2/10/04
  Perry is routinely using two word phrases.

• Thursday 2/12/04
  Perry and Jocelyn have had colds and very runny noses for about a week. Now Jocelyn has ear infections and is on amoxicillin.

• Monday 2/16/04
  Jocelyn's ears are much better, and she and Perry and are slowly getting over their colds.

• Saturday 2/21/04
  Nineteen months. Perry gained a pound last month. He weighs 34 lb. (percentile 99.1). He measured 33 3/8" long (66th percentile). Meanwhile Jocelyn's weight was 1 lb. less than last month, 27.8 lb. (87th percentile). Probably some of this is due to measuring at different times a day or other fluctuations, but when she was sick she didn't eat very much, so she probably has lost weight. She measured the same as last month, 32 1/8" long (54th percentile).

• Tuesday 2/24/04
  In the last few weeks Perry has had an explosion of language. He can say his name completely (although he tends to accent the second syllable). He can say a 4 word phrase, and he often goes around the house repeating the titles of books and phrases from them. He can recite an entire nursery rhyme without prompting, although some sounds are still missing. "To ma, to ma, to bah a fa pih. Ho'geh, ho'geh, ji ji."

• Tuesday 3/2/04
  Jocelyn can climb the 1-foot square mesh at the playground. She can go down the steep slide on her belly without assistance and often lands on her feet.

• Saturday 3/6/04
  Jocelyn is gradually improving her language ability and now occasionally says 2-word phrases.

• Sunday 3/14/04
  Jocelyn can (sometimes) walk down the stairs without holding on.

• Monday 3/15/04
  Jocelyn has had (we think) two stomach viruses over the last week, but now seems finally to be getting well.

  Perry is saying long sentences and "reading" whole books from memory.

• Sunday 3/21/04
  Twenty months. Perry weighed 34.4 lb. (percentile 99.1). He measured 34" long (78th percentile). Jocelyn weighed 28.4 lb. (88th percentile) and measured 32 3/8" long (50th percentile).

  Perry's ability to recite books sometimes combines in an interesting way with his limited pronunciation ability, for example in the following excerpt from a popular Dr. Seuss book: "Wu wuh wiy way. Wu duh wiy way. Wu wuh wih way. Wu duh wih way."

• Sunday 3/28/04
  In the last week it seems that Perry and Jocelyn have become much more independent. It is much easier now for one adult to care for both of them, take them out in the car, and so on.

• Wednesday 3/31/04
  Jocelyn is continuing her steady development of language and now routinely uses 3-word phrases.

• Wednesday 4/14/04
  We cut Perry's hair for the first time. We just cut a little bit off in front so it stays out of his eyes.

• Sunday 4/18/04
  Jocelyn continues improving her language and can now "read" a whole book by herself. Both Perry and Jocelyn now have more sounds in their words, often including the one at the end (reD, dowN, etc.), which makes them easier to understand.

• Wednesday 4/21/04
  Twenty-one months. First thing in the morning Perry weighed 34.6 lb. (percentile 98.9), nearly the same as last month, and measured 34 3/8" (78th percentile). Jocelyn weighed 29.0 lb. (88th percentile) and measured 33 5/8" (75th percentile), more than an inch more than last month. We can see that the height difference is much less than it was.

• Wednesday 4/28/04
  Jocelyn understands the rule for making plurals. We know because she says "sheeps".

• Sunday 5/1/04
  We have been taking turns by counting to 10, so now Perry says "1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10" to mean "I want a turn."

  Toddlers often have food fads, but Jocelyn and Perry might be unusual. At the moment they want to eat nothing but tofu all day.

• Saturday 5/8/04
  Jocelyn is speaking in full sentences with articles, prepositions, and present and past tense. She can say pretty much anything.

  Today Jocelyn sat in Dad's chair, told Dad to sit next to her, and read a book to him.

• Sunday 5/9/04
  Jocelyn tried to feed Perry a cracker. Perry: "Put it back in the box". Jocelyn: "No, you eat it."

• Monday 5/17/04
  We cut Jocelyn's hair for the first time. We just shortened it in front to keep it out of her eyes.

  Valerie wrote a report on Jocelyn and Perry's language.

• Thursday, 5/21/04
  Twenty-two months. Another month, another half inch and another half pound, more or less. Perry weighs 35.2 lb. (percentile 99.0) and measures 35" (83rd percentile); Jocelyn weighs 29.6 lb. (89th percentile) and measures 34" (75th percentile).

  Jocelyn says "self", meaning "I want to do it myself" all the time, even about things like brushing Perry's teeth.

  Jocelyn told her doll "if you stop crying I'll pick you up."

• Monday 6/7/04
  Perry has all his primary teeth except two-year molars.

  Apparently Jocelyn has an imaginary friend "John".

• Monday, 6/21/04
  Twenty-three months. Perry did not gain weight last month. He weighed 35.0 lb. (percentile 98.5) and measured 35 3/8" (84th percentile). Jocelyn measured shorter than last month: 33 3/4" (59th percentile) and gained weight: 30.4 lb. (91st percentile).

  Perry has memorized large numbers of books. He declaims the text in a loud voice while holding the book at arm's length and turning in circles.

• Sunday 6/27/04
  Perry and Jocelyn went camping with Judy and Valerie. They had a good time.

• Saturday 7/10/04
  Jocelyn can swim! That is to say, wearing water wings and front-and-back flotation she can go wherever she wants to go and seems completely comfortable in the water.

• Monday, 7/12/04
  Jocelyn can now swim with either front-and-back flotation or water wings.

• Wednesday, 7/21/04
  Two years. Happy birthday Perry and Jocelyn! We had a birthday party with lots of guests -- mostly their regular babysitters. We had pizza and birthday cake and they had a good time.

  We wrote a 24 month report.

• Saturday 8/28/04
  We went on a car trip from Sharon to Ithaca and Amherst. We had no trouble at all on the way out, and only a small amount of fussing on the way from Ithaca to Amherst. Jocelyn often talks about seeing waterfalls in Ithaca and her cousins in Amherst.

• Saturday 9/4/04
  We went to the World Science Fiction Convention in Boston. Perry and Jocelyn had a good time. They took their naps in the stroller and even spent some time in the babysitting room while we were elsewhere.

  Jocelyn's language is nearly that of an adult. See the end of this page for examples.

• Monday, 9/6/04
  Jocelyn has apparently she has learned to hold her breath. She twice let herself fall into the water from the ladder on the dock, her head went underwater and she did not come up coughing and spluttering.

• Sunday, 9/12/04
  Jocelyn can swing by her hands from rings intended for that purpose.

• Tuesday, 9/14/04
  Perry did not nap yesterday. He was up from 8:30 until 11:30 with no substantial difficulties. Today he had a nap at a normal time.

• Tuesday, 9/21/04
  Jocelyn can do somersaults.

• Thursday, 10/21/04
  Twenty-seven months. Perry is nearly the same weight as three months ago: 36.4 lb. (98th percentile). He measured 36 1/4" both lying down (74th percentile) and standing (81st percentile). Jocelyn gained a pound to 31.6 lb. (88th percentile) and measured 35 1/4" (62nd percentile) lying and 34 1/2" (51st percentile) standing.

• Saturday 10/23/04
  Jocelyn peed in the potty!

• Sunday, 11/7/04
  Jocelyn can ride a tricycle.

• Monday 11/15/04
  Jocelyn can do a 12 piece jigsaw puzzle.

  Here is a story that Jocelyn told us this morning.

• Monday 12/01/04
  We went to California (by plane) for 9 days. All things considered it went very well, although there was a lot of fussing at the end of the (long) outbound trip. On the day before we left to come home Jocelyn said that she wanted to stay because she was having fun. Presumably the fun part was meeting lots of new people and going to new places.

• Tuesday 12/28/04
  Jocelyn had a real telephone conversation in which she was able to make appropriate replies to the person on the other end.

• Saturday 1/1/05
  We all went, as usual, to the New Year's square dance in New Hampshire, but we had to come back a day early because Jocelyn was too fussy.

• Tuesday 1/11/05
  Perry got out some blocks to build a tower and when he was finished, with no prompting from anyone, put the blocks away again.

• Friday, 1/21/05
  Two and a half years. We wrote a report.

• Saturday 2/5/05
  Perry now has all his baby teeth. (Jocelyn has had hers for quite a while.)

• Tuesday 2/22/05
  Perry is writing his own poetry. "To market, to market to buy a fat cat. Home again, home again, jiggety jat." He also seems to be learning to carry a tune.

• Saturday 4/2/05
  Perry has mostly got his pronouns (I vs. you) straightened out.

  Jocelyn is partly potty trained. She wears diapers about half the day, by her choice.

  Perry seems (again) to be giving up his nap. He's only napped once in the last 5 days.

• Saturday 4/9/05
  Jocelyn is potty trained!

• Thursday 4/21/05
  Thirty-three months. Jocelyn measured 35 3/4" (37th percentile) standing and 36 1/4" (41st percentile) lying, and weighed 34.6 lbs. (90th percentile). Perry measured 37 1/2" (71st percentile) standing and 38" (75th percentile) lying and weighed 39.6 pounds (percentile 98.6).

• Friday 5/13/05
  Perry is suddenly speaking in complete, complex, correct sentences with all the articles and so forth in place.

• Sunday 5/29/05
  Jocelyn can sing along with the piano. (It isn't really a singing voice, but the timing is right.)

• Thursday 6/9/05
  Perry can swim (with front-and-back flotation and water wings).

• Friday 6/10/05
  Perry peed in the potty!

• Friday 7/1/05
  Jocelyn requested her own room and slept there all night.

• Thursday 7/21/05
  Three years old! We wrote a report.

• Sunday 8/7/05
  We survived a 10 day trip to the northwest U.S. The only real problem was that Jocelyn did not want to get on the plane after we changed in San Francisco. Our fellow passengers probably feared that she was going to scream for 6 hours, but in fact she went to sleep and after her nap everything was fine.

• Sunday 8/21/05
  Thirty-seven months and Jocelyn and Perry are weaned. See the end of the breastfeeding story for details.

• Tuesday 9/6/05
  Perry and Jocelyn are in preschool at Sharon Country Day School.

• Wednesday 9/7/05
  Perry and Jocelyn are now wearing glasses.

• Tuesday 9/27/05
  Jocelyn can write her name.

• Friday 10/14/05
  Jocelyn is no longer in preschool. After being excited for the first few weeks, she decided she did not like it. We don't know why.

• Friday 10/21/05
  3 1/4 years. Perry weighs 42.4 pounds (percentile 98.3) and is 39" tall (69th percentile). Jocelyn weighs 36 pounds (84th percentile) and is 37 1/2" tall (44th percentile).

• 12/26/05
  Perry and Jocelyn are very slowly getting closer to reading They (usually) know all the letters and their most common sounds, and can occasionally sound out a simple word or answer questions such as "What rhymes with cat and begins with B?". Perry can pretty reliably tell you the first letter of a word he's never heard before (except for mistakes with letters that make the same sound).

• 1/21/06
  Three and a half years old. Perry weighed less than three months ago: 41.6 lb. (96th percentile) and was 39 1/2" tall (66th percentile). Jocelyn weighed 37.6 lbs. (85th percentile) and was 37 3/4" tall (36th percentile).

  Jocelyn appears to be back in preschool.

  Perry can read 10 or 20 different words.

• 4/3/06
  Backlog of news:

  Jocelyn and Perry got their first professional haircuts on January 27.

  At the beginning of March they started having lunch at preschool one day a week. Now they have added a second lunch day.

  They moved into their permanent rooms on the third floor of the house on March 29.

  Perry can read a lot of words, and is obsessed with spelling. He will often ask you to spell an entire sentence. He can spell a lot of words, answering both "how do you spell 'cat'?" and "what does C-A-T spell?"

  Perry is able to write several letters semi-legibly.

  We have two new cats, whom Jocelyn enjoys but Perry doesn't much care for.

• 4/21/06
  3 3/4 years. Perry weighed 42.8 lbs. (95th percentile) and measured 39.5" (50th percentile). Jocelyn weighed 37.4 lbs. (78th percentile) and measured 38" (27th percentile).

  Perry can read a simple book. Mostly he memorizes the words, rather than doing it by phonics, so first he has to ask about the words he doesn't know, but then he remembers them.

• 5/1/06
  Jocelyn and Perry stayed with a babysitter in the evening through bedtime for the first time.

• 5/8/06
  Jocelyn can pump herself in a swing!

  Perry can write his name!

• 5/21/06
  Jocelyn got a small fish tank with a goldfish, which she is keeping in her room.

• 6/3/06
  Jocelyn's goldfish died mysteriously yesterday. She seems not to be upset, but did want a new fish. We got her a betta this time (Siamese fighting fish), which we hope does better with the temperature swings in her room.

  Perry appears to be making real progress towards potty training, despite loud objections that he doesn't want to be potty trained.

• 6/30/06
  In recent weeks, Perry has replaced his obsession with spelling for a new obsession of driving directions. He will ask (many times) which road we are on, and when we will turn, and sometimes repeat back long complex directions of turns and roads.

• 7/18/06
  We've been on two trips so far this summer, with two more scheduled for August. Birthday in 3 days, they're very excited.

  Perry is very interested in taking walks around the neighborhood, sometimes as long as several miles.

• 7/21/06
  Four years old! We wrote a report.

• 8/20/06
  Judy updated the vacation page with our next two trips.

  Perry is appears to be completely potty trained now.

• 8/28/06
  Perry, having had dry diapers at night for two weeks, slept last night with no diaper! (And no accidents, either.)

• 9/29/06
  Perry can read!

• 12/9/06
  We took another trip to Ithaca a couple of weeks ago, with a stop at Howe Caverns on the way, visiting several tourist attractions in Ithaca.

  Perry has been combining his love of driving directions with his rapidly improving reading ability into a new obsession with maps, and often wants to be shown the route we took to various destinations.

• 1/3/07
  Valerie writes up her amusing experience putting Jocelyn to bed tonight.

• 1/21/07
  4.5 years. Jocelyn weighed 40.2 lbs. (72nd percentile) and measured 40.5" (39th percentile). Perry weighed 45.2 lbs. (90th percentile) and measured 42.5" (70th percentile).

• 2/3/07
  Both Perry and Jocelyn were accepted into the Sharon Alternative Elementary School under a lottery system, so they will go either there or the Sage School next year.

  Valerie wrote a report about Jocelyn and Perry's vision issues.

• 4/8/07
  For kindergarten, Jocelyn will attend Sage School, and Perry will attend the Sharon Alternative school.

  Both kids have been interested in arithmetic recently and Jocelyn can do simple multiplication (e.g. 2x3).

  Both kids have decided to grow their hair long. Perry says, "I'll never cut my hair!" We put up with this as long as they let us wash and brush it regularly, and trim their bangs.

• 7/14/07
  Jocelyn can swim!

• 9/8/07
  Here is a (late) 5-year report.

  Perry and Jocelyn started kindergarten last week. Perry is going to the Sharon Alternative Elementary School and Jocelyn to the Sage School. So far everything is going very well.

  Jocelyn likes running. Recently we've been going for runs instead of walks. She can run half a mile with some brief stops.

  Despite earlier protestations, Perry has had his hair cut.

• 10/8/07
  Jocelyn and Perry can count to 1000 and can add, subtract, multiply, and divide small numbers.

  Jocelyn appears to be making rapid progress in learning to read.

• 11/19/07
  Jocelyn can read!

• 1/21/08
  5.5 years. Jocelyn weighed 44.6 lbs. (65th percentile) and measured 43" (35th percentile). Perry weighed 51 lbs. (88th percentile) and measured 45" (67th percentile).

• 3/18/08
  Jocelyn learned downhill skiing. By the end of her second day she was zipping down the hill and having a great time.

• 6/18/08
  Both kids got "summer haircuts", Perry's quite short.
  Judy took Jocelyn on another trip to Storyland.
  Jocelyn lost her first tooth! 6/16/08.
  

• 7/21/08
  At 6 years, Perry measured 3'11" (78th percentile) and weighed 55 pounds (89th percentile). Jocelyn measured 3'8 1/2" (37th percentile), and weighed 46 pounds (58th percentile).

• 9/28/08
  Valerie wrote a report on Jocelyn's horse-riding experience.

• 2/21/09
  Jocelyn measured 3'9 1/2" (27th percentile), and weighed 50 pounds (61st percentile). Perry measured 48 1/2" (79th percentile) on 2/8, and refused to be weighed.

• 4/11/09
  Perry wrote a crossword puzzle.

  Jocelyn had her first sleepover.

• 6/16/09
  Jocelyn bicycled without training wheels.

• 7/21/09
  Jocelyn measured 3'10 1/2" (26th percentile), and weighed 53.4 pounds (65th percentile). Perry measured 4'1 1/2" (76th percentile) and weighed 59.2 pounds (83rd percentile).

• 8/10/09
  Jocelyn bicycled 13 miles on the Cape Cod Canal Trail.

• 9/10/09
  Perry and Jocelyn are now in second grade. Jocelyn is at Sage, Perry in a mixed 2nd and 3rd grade at Sharon Alternative. Jocelyn started yesterday; Perry started Wednesday last week.

  Jocelyn rode her bicycle to school today (5 miles).

• 10/22/09
  Jocelyn is a Free Range Kid, having ridden her bike home by herself from an after school program.

• 4/6/10
  Ken introduced Perry to combinatorics

• 4/25/10
  Jocelyn now has a pet mouse. She is calling it Zippy, because it runs so fast on the wheel.

• 12/3/10
  Backlog of news:

  Jocelyn asked for a kitten and we acquired one in July. Her name is Tiptoe.

  This year, Perry is schooled at a homeschooling resource center called Perduco Education. Jocelyn is still at Sage.

  Our pet mouse died on November 20. We buried it in the backyard.

• 5/22/11
  Perry bicycled without training wheels.

• 10/6/11
  Our fish died. We think it was probably old age.

• 10/15/11
  We got a Sunflower sailboat. Jocelyn is learning to sail.

• 12/3/11
  Jocelyn has been learning the piano. Today she played Christmas carols while guests sang along.

  Perry wrote a program (in MOO) to find the median number of turns in the solitaire version of Star Force.

• 6/24/12
  Jocelyn learned to waterski!

• 9/30/13
  We had a very full summer of camps. Perry went to internal Drive, Explo, Moose Hill, and eMagination. Jocelyn went to Kids for the Earth, Moose Hill, Wabasso, and Long Lake Camp for the Arts. At Long Lake, she performed in Pirates of Penzance and the circus.

• 11/7/13
  Jocelyn was one of two grand prize winners in a Sage middle school competitive recitation of Poe's "The Raven" from memory.

• 11/19/13
  Perry has been spending most of his time programming. He started with Code Academy, where he wrote a battleship program in Python. Then he went off on his own and added many features to that program. Then I gave him Land of Lisp, which he went through in a little under 3 weeks.

• 6/2/14
  Jocelyn has decided not to return to the Sage School next year. Instead she will go to Perduco, where Perry has gone for many years.

• 6/30/14
  Jocelyn went to Portland, ME on the bus by herself to visit a friend from camp. She got there and back without incident and had a good time. Originally we wanted her to go on the train, but Amtrak doesn't allow you to travel alone on the Downeaster until you are 16.

• 8/24/14
  Jocelyn went to SJ riding camp and had another great session at Long Lake Camp for the Arts, appearing in the circus, Annie, improv and the horse show. Perry went to Explo and eMagination.

• 8/25/14
  Jocelyn got her ears pierced.