Miss Joy

January 2020 Photos

February 22, 2020 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Little Miss, right around her 5th birthday

Mr. Intellectual made oars for their boat. Here are Simon, Mr. Intellectual, and Mr. Diligence, rowing their boat on Orwell Creek.

Miss Joy has discovered a mirror!

She also enjoyed being in a box!

A flower was fascinating, too—for a little while! She quickly becomes bored with almost anything.

We had more brilliant sunsets while the Australian bush fires were sending a lot of smoke this way.

Little Miss loved getting presents for her birthday!

We had a cookout down in the paddock our cows live in when a family from Timaru was in the area. We roasted sausages over a bonfire of gorse branches.

Mr. Sweetie put Miss Joy inside the closet one day.

What fun! A bowlful of greens to play with!

I thought it was pretty cute to see her sitting beside Simon, talking to Mr. Intellectual.

At the end of January, we made another trip to Canterbury. The boys reassembled the trampoline for our friends. They had disassembled it when we were there in November, because it needed fixing.

The younger children played in the sandbox.

Little Miss with one of her dearest friends.

After the trampoline was fixed, they went for a swim.

Apparently, Simon helped Miss Joy wash dishes!

Five months old, and moving around!

Videos of the Children

January 22, 2020 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

The boys were using their forge one day, and Esther took some video clips to send to a little boy who had just broken his leg. She put the best ones together here so Grandma can get an idea of what they are doing.

These are just a few cute video clips of what Miss Joy was doing in the latter part of December. We’re enjoying her so much!

She had just found her feet when I took this video, and while I was taking it she got her toes into her mouth for the first time! That was three weeks ago; now, every time she’s on her back her hands go to her toes–until she decides to roll over and get moving.

Miss Joy, 3 Months

December 7, 2019 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

These first two pictures were taken when Miss Joy was 2 1/2 months old, in early November.

This is her 3-month picture! She loves to taste everything she can get her hands on. When she’s laying down, both hands are up, with one almost always tucked behind her head, as here, while the other tries to stuff something into her mouth.

Her first time in the Bumbo. She likes being able to look around!

She is such a happy baby! She smiles and laughs a lot.

A week ago, I got out this toy that she was given. She likes to chew on it when she can get it into her mouth. That takes a lot of hard work, though.

We had to redo her passport photo for her NZ passport. Here are a couple of the failed attempts.

Little Miss is loving having a live doll to play with!Just for Grandma—a couple of video clips.

Miss Joy

October 20, 2019 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

It’s been awhile since I’ve shared any pictures of our baby! These are mainly for Grandma and the aunties, so if you aren’t in that category, feel free to skip this post.

This was her second time away from home. She screamed for about a minute after we started off—and suddenly fell asleep with this adorable pout on her face!

Four weeks—one of the first smiles.

A month old, wearing a dress from a special friend who drove four or five hours each way, with another dear friend, to share our joy in our new baby!

Five weeks, and getting fatter!

Five weeks

Little Miss loves having a baby sister! Here she was having a party; the cups were the party hats!Six weeks. Esther captioned this one something about hiding from the world. She likes to have her hands near her face when she sleeps.

Six weeks—just another cute picture!Esther tried many times before she was able to get a good passport photo. Keep your hands down, baby!

Getting fat and still very happy!

Seven weeks. Obviously, the love between Miss Joy and Mr. Sweetie is mutual! (Or maybe she just thinks he’s funny!)

Miss Joy at Two and Three Weeks

September 14, 2019 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

We are loving having a baby in the house again! This little girl is a very happy baby, and sleeps and eats very well. At three weeks, she was already 13 ounces over her birthweight, so she apparently gets enough!

Here are my three beautiful girls, when we came home from church on the first Sunday that Miss Joy went to church. She was nearly two weeks old. The second photo was taken a little later, when she woke up.

Mr. Intellectual got help with his school from his baby sister.

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Two weeks old. She was intently listening to her daddy singing, and studying his face.

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Studying Mr. Intellectual…

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…and Little Miss…

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…and Simon.

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Three weeks old. She does very well at holding her head up already, and is very alert—when she’s awake! She often spends a couple of hours awake in the morning, and three-four hours awake just before bedtime, with occasional cat naps; otherwise, she sleeps for several hours at a time, day and night. She’s very happy; nothing seems to bother her much except when she decides she needs to eat right now and gets put off for several minutes! She smiles a lot now, although we haven’t managed to capture that in a photo yet.

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August 2019 Photos

September 8, 2019 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Simon turned 18 near the beginning of the month. We had visitors over to help celebrate, and Esther baked pavlova.

Indian wrestling in our living room! Simon and Mr. Intellectual are pretty evenly matched.

Little Miss wanted to show me her new hairstyle one day! The sticks were her hands.

One morning I noticed this helicopter spreading lime just across the river from our town. There is a company just up the hill from us that has several helicopters, and we frequently see them fly over with the fertilizer spreader dangling underneath.

More heavy equipment going past our house!

Here are several pictures from Miss Joy’s second week.

I love seeing that little head snuggling up to big brother. This is a happy baby, very much a joy to all of us!

She Has Arrived!

August 24, 2019 by NZ Filbruns 4 Comments

We were not anticipating meeting our new baby until at least now, but she arrived four days ago already. We are feeling incredibly blessed to have another daughter! After all the loss and trauma our family has experienced over the past three years, we are rejoicing to have new life in our home.

Maria Joy, who will henceforth be known on this blog as Miss Joy, arrived early Tuesday morning after a relatively easy labor. She weighed 7 pounds, 1.5 ounces, and was 19 inches long, our second-smallest baby. She is very happy so far, waking up every few hours to have a feed, look around for awhile at the fascinating world of light and listen to the sounds around her, have another feed and go back to sleep. She occasionally gets laid down in the bassinet—but most of the time people clamor to hold her! The three teenage boys, especially, argue good-naturedly about who gets to hold the baby!

Here is our precious newborn, just a few hours old.

Do you think they were excited?

Mr. Diligence

Mr. Sweetie

Little Miss finally had the prayer answered which she prayed at least a year and a half ago, for a sister.

The morning after she was born, we compared her feet to Mr. Intellectual’s big toe!

I got to hold two daughters at once!

Mr. Intellectual

Photo-bombers! This is Mr. Diligence and Simon. (Simon, by the way, thinks he is entitled to hold the baby any time he’s at home! He feels like he misses out on a lot because he has to work.)