Jacqueline's Weight-Loss Program

Jax began acting a little sad and cranky a few days before Jonathan's return. She perked up a bit at his arrival but then the mystery illness came back full-force; continuing for six weeks, causing Jax to lose lots of weight, worrying us, confounding doctors, until at last she recovered - a much lighter child (she dropped from the 95th percentile in weight for girls her age to the 35th percentile), and she temporarily lost her language skills, but everything seems to be coming back to normal now. Her first healthy day was a happy one for all of us, and prompted Jonathan to exclaim, "Oh - she doesn't just cry all the time!"



We laid pretty low during those weeks. We did manage to squeeze in a "Welcome Home" party for Jonathan, though! (Of course, Jax was so sick and needing so much attention that I was a complete stressball by the time Jonathan got home from his day's appointments - he saved the party with his help with the many last-minute preparations. He now maintains that his next party must be a surprise party...)

Apart from all that, though, thanks to the illness Jax now has a new set of "first" words - and Jonathan was happy to be included this time. Her new set began slowly and by the end of May she had three words: mama, dada, and "mai" for Michael. By the end of June her vocabulary would increase to include "look!" (when she sees something that she wants to show others), "that!" (when she wants to know the name of something), along with some almost-unintelligible sounds that mean squirrel, trees, birds, shoes, and book.