Snarfles

Snarfles is a name that Jarom has taken to calling his daughter, the result of some strange snorting noises that she sometimes makes when she is crying or eating. Most of you won’t understand this, but the closest approximation I can give you is that she sounds like our friend Melissa Ross when she laughs. My poll of the week for you readers is this: Is snarfles a cute, endearing pet name or is it mean-spirited and the cause of far-off self esteem issues?

And now to catch you all up on the last week. Last Friday evening Alixa’s parents and younger sister arrived at the hospital to begin their 4-day visit. Jenna is grandchild number one for the Hegewalds, so they were especially excited to meet her. And to throw a little spice into the situation, they camped in the Winns home during their stay. That makes for a lot of grandparents in one house, and Jenna can only be held for twenty-four hours each day. But everyone behaved themselves and there were no territorial fights (that I saw) over the grandchild. It was nice to have lots of family here to play games with and golf with and chat with, and it is nice to have so many volunteers who are willing (read begging) to take a baby off your hands. The Hegewalds had to leave on Tuesday morning so that Mario could get back to work, but we were glad to have them for a few days.

Week 1

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Slowly but surely Jarom and Lix are learning how to be parents, and Jenna is becoming more interesting every day. She moves around more and more, and has developed a decent array of facial expressions, including smiling. This will have to do until she can learn how to talk, which should be pretty soon. At her doctor’s appointment this week we found out that she got a 9 on her APGAR test, which tells us that she inherited her father’s test-taking ability and is pretty much a genius. And we’re pretty sure that a scoring error is what kept her from getting a 10.



While her brain is developed far beyond her age, her body is about 3 months behind. She was born a week overdue, but didn’t spend any of that time growing. The outfit that Lix packed in her hospital bag was designed for a newborn, but it might as well have been a sleeping bag for her. Most of the clothes that the Jenna has are in the 0-3 month size, which may not fit her until January. For right now, Jamie has graciously sent Jenna a box full of premie clothes that fit her pretty well. We are hoping that since she eats 28 times a day she will rapidly grow into the clothes that we have for her.

A few examples of what a runt Jenna is

As for me, I am suffering from “older child syndrome”, which just means that I no longer get any attention. To add insult to ignorance, Jarom went out and bought a lock for my cage because of continued concerns that I will eat Jenna. Just because I am a snake doesn’t mean I don’t have feelings, and they are a little hurt right now.