Joël had a rough start in life. He was such a happy and complacent baby that, as first time parents, we were unaware he was not “feeding well” until his 6 week checkup. At that time he was diagnosed with “failure to thrive” and Elizabeth was given the not so tactful diagnosis from the pediatirician of “breast milk failure”. As you could imagine, this was quite a blow to us. We were then sent into a frenzy of an around–the–clock pumping and feeding schedule (one meal every two hours, even at nighttime) to get Joël back on track to good health. Not to mention that the timing couldn’t have been worse as Jacques was scheduled for one of his rare business trips when we received the news. Thank God Elizabeth’s Mom lives close enough to help out when needed.

Looking back we came to the conclusion that, at the same time that Joël was going through a growth spurt and demanding more breastmilk, Elizabeth’s milk supply diminished greatly due to severe post partum depression. This happened somewhere between the two week checkup and the six week checkup. The good news is that Joël quickly recovered and Elizabeth was able to nurse him until four months of age when we switched to formula. He continued to be a happy and complacent baby and was easily amused by his new world.

Joël, at three months old, sees his first Christmas tree. You may notice that he still looks a little pale and not quite recovered.

Right after Christmas we all went to see my parents’ longtime friend Annemarie who lives in the hills near Pasadena. She has known Jacques since he was a baby and now she is getting to know the next Kilchoer generation!

Joël is five and a half months old now, and what a difference! In his car, with his sunglasses, he is the quintessential California baby.

At eight onths Joël is still kind of bald, but he’s starting to find his way around the house. He seems surprised to be caught on camera! Joël is past the initial problems that he had earlier (failure to thrive) and now he’s in tip–top shape.

Joël has fun at the park and doesn’t even complain when we make him wear a hat! He really causes no trouble. Like his parents, his skin is very sensitive to the sun and we have to be very careful in the California summers.

Joël at nine months

Here you see Joël sitting on a turtle in a small fountain that the kids can play in. This fountain was in an outdoors shopping mall just across the street from his father’s office. Joël often came to see him at lunchtime and we enjoyed seeing him run in the water (if you look closely, you can see water coming out of the turtle’s mouth).

Elizabeth stayed home with Joël in his first year, but finally she had to go back to work. Of course, we needed someone to take care of Joël, and after investigating our options and talking to local day care facilities, we decided that we would have a nanny at our house to take care of him. An agency recommended a young Brazilian woman, Danielle, that you see here in the photo. Danielle hopes that her family in Brazil will be able to see this page and where she works. Danielle is great and we really like her.

Joël loves the water, and as you see here, he’s not shy when it comes to drying himself in the sun in public.