2 Months Old!

On December 5th (which is admittedly not today) Evan hit the 2 months old mark!  It has felt like time is just flying by with him and it seems like each week he is hitting new milestones.  In the last month Evan has started smiling and cooing, begun to laugh, is able to identify a me by voice and maybe by sight, and has started to show interest in toys.  He can hold his head up for short periods of time, would really like to sit up on his own (but he really isn't that close to accomplishing it) and is getting better every day at getting his hands to his mouth, which is possibly his favorite thing to do other than eat.

Although sometimes getting Evan to sleep can be an issue,  he generally sleeps like a champion during the night and is rarely up more than once a night, and pretty much never more than twice.  Sometimes he does want to get up an hour or two before I want to, but overall I am feeling pretty lucky that he is such a good sleeper.

We had his 2 month check up last week and here are his stats:
Weight: 10 lbs, 15 oz (25th percentile)
Height: 23 1/4 inches (50th percnetile)
Head Circumference: 15 inches (25th percentile)

His percentiles are holding pretty steady from his post-hospital follow up appointment and he is a healthy happy baby!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

We finally got the snow that we waited for in vain all last winter.  Madelyn was beside herself with excitement to get out there and play in the snow.  So, after a short 15 minutes of getting all the winter weather gear on, Madelyn, Aubrey, and I headed outside to play! (Aubrey begged and begged to go out with us, so the fact that she looks miserable is really her own fault...)

Madelyn was really excited to build a snowman, but since she has only one good arm and she refuses to put her thumb in the thumb part of her mittens, she had a pretty hard time getting a grip on anything to help.  But, she patted the snow and went to find sticks so she did participate :)

We built the snowman about 10:30 am and by the time the snow stopped falling the snowman was actually up to his midsection in the snow.  Madelyn looked out the window in the afternoon and said "where did the snowman go?"  I pointed out his head peeking out of the snow and she was confused about where the rest of the snowman went :)


We also spent some time last Friday making Krumkake (a Swedish cookie) with my mom and watching White Christmas, which has been a holiday tradition for me since my mom got her own Krumkake iron.  It was fun to share the tradition with Madelyn.  Maybe next year she'll be more interested in actually rolling the cookies!

It really is starting to look and feel like Christmas!

Storytime and a New Cast

I have a couple of stories from today :)

1. Every night before bed we read Madelyn and Evan a bedtime story (or two, or three...) and lately Madelyn has been getting very involved with the stories.  She asks questions about the pictures and the characters and why they are acting a certain way or doing what they are.  A recent popular choice for story has been the Berenstain  Bears and the Spooky Old Tree.  In this story 3 little bears go into a spooky old tree and end up waking up a Great Sleeping Bear who gets angry and chases them out.  Madelyn has been very concerned about the angry bear and why he was so upset.  A few days ago when I asked her why she thought he was upset she decided that he was probably hungry.  So tonight, when we were reading the story and we came to the part with the Great Sleeping Bear, Madelyn said "He needs some crackers...some fruit snacks and some crackers...then he would feel better."  I had to smile :)

2. We had our follow up appointment today with the orthopedic specialist at Gillette Children's.  They
took off the cast and re x-rayed Madelyn's arm.  It is looking good and is healing well.  They put on a new cast and she has an appointment in 2 weeks where it will hopefully come off.  This time, since it was a full plaster cast now that the swelling has gone down, she got to choose her color.  When she found that out she was much more willing to have them put a new cast on.  She walked right into the casting room saying "I want a pink one!" We tried to get a couple of pictures tonight of her with the cast, so here are the best ones we were able to get.

It's Here, take 2!

Madelyn had the opportunity to model for Target again this fall and the ad came out yesterday!

Here is the link to the online ad and the picture :)

The best laid plans...

We had a plan for Thanksgiving.  Since we were going to drive hours north to see my grandma and my aunt and uncle my mom came up with the idea that she and I would drive together earlier in the day on Wednesday and then my dad and Justin would follow when they were done with work.  That would allow us to get the kids settled in at a reasonable time and hopefully make the trip a little less painful for them.

We were going to leave from church after my mom had a rehearsal at 10 am.  However, during the rehearsal when Madelyn was playing in the sanctuary, she fell from some risers.  After trying to console her and her protests that her arm really hurt I decided that she needed to be seen.  I called Justin and he got her an appointment to see a pediatric orthopedic doctor at the same hospital that he is working at on this rotation.  Madelyn was a trooper and we were able to get her mind off of the pain by distracting her with shows that she likes while waiting for the appointment.  The x-rays showed that she did have a hairline fracture right above her elbow, which we learned is common in children her age when they try to break a fall with their arm.  Madelyn cried most of the time that we were there until one of the nurses brought her a container of toys and she was left alone for a while.  When she wasn't thinking about how much her arm hurt she was doing really well. 

After they got her in a cast we realized that there was no way we were going to be able to get her back in her shirt.  I would guess that we aren't the first parents to have this dilemma - they said "no problem" and brought us a hospital gown to bring her home in.  After a quick conference to decide if we were still going to make the trip we decided to go ahead.  I went back home to pick up my mom and Evan and we hit the road about 5:30 pm (only 6 and a half hours behind scheduled).  With Tylenol to help the pain and some distractions on the ipad for Madelyn we finally made it it Fosston a little before midnight.

On Thursday we visited my Grandma in the nursing home and then headed out to my aunt Judy's for a fabulous Thanksgiving dinner.  Friday we made it home.  Madelyn is adapting well to her cast and doing things one-handed.  She gets frustrated with some things, but overall she is pretty resilient

Madelyn sporting her cast

Aubrey performed an important function as lap dog

Evan and his great grandmother

Doing a 60 piece puzzle... seems a little ambitious

Evan and Madelyn

5 and a half weeks into my maternity leave I am starting to feel like the kids and I are finding some patterns and some ways of coping.  By the time I need to go back to work I should have this all figured out...

Evan continues to be a happy and relaxed baby except from about 6 pm-10pm when he gets really fussy.  For a while we were managing to get him to bed not much after Madelyn, but over the last 5 days or so he has become much more unhappy and unwilling to go to bed.  He had his first bottle last week and thought it was an excellent way to eat.  I was afraid he would struggle with nursing after the ease of the bottle, but so far so good.  He loves to be held and wants to be where the action is, even if he ends up sleeping through it.

initially Evan was not thrilled with the photos being taken

take 2 went a little better :)

Madelyn is settling down some into the routine of me being home and having Evan around.  We have also really stepped up the potty training so that has been another change in her life.  She is making progress daily and only wears a pull-up during her nap and a diaper overnight, otherwise when we are home she only wears underwear.  Most days she has at least one accident and she is a pretty hesitant about pooping in the toilet, but when I am with her I am pretty good at picking up on her signals and reminding her to use the toilet and not to go in her underwear.  Yesterday she was accident free all day, but today has not been as good.  Still, overall I think she is improving and she is starting to be proud of herself for keeping her underwear clean.

Yesterday, with the snowfall, Madelyn wanted to get on her winter boots and go play in the snow.  I had to tell her that she did not yet have winter boots since she had grown out of the ones from last year and we just hadn't purchased any yet this year.  She looked at me and said "Mommy, I need snow boots."  She is getting more verbal all the time.  Today we got her some boots :)

don't you think the giant bandaid adds a lot? She has a small cut but she won't leave little bandaids on, thus the giant one covering her entire forehead.

Goodbye Prizm - Thanks for the Memories

On Wednesday, the Prizm died for the last time, these are Justin's thoughts.

In honor of the death of the Prizm I have decided to create a Top Ten List of the most memorable experiences I've had with the car over the past 12 years.

10. Watching the odometer turn over to 200000 miles.

9. Parking it next to the Mercedes and BMWs in the doctors VA parking lot

8. The time some hooligan thought it would be a good idea to steal my windshield washer fluid container. Yes, that is right. They didn't take my stereo but they took the windshield washer fluid container thingy.

7. I then spent the better part of the next week searching junk yards with my father-in-law for a replacement for said fluid container thingy. We found one, but apparently Geo made different adapters for different years and we had to MacGyver the connection...we may have even used bubble gum and a safety pin...you bet it worked.

6. Shockingly this connection did not hold out indefinitely and I have spent the better part of the last 2 years waiting for rainy days to drive my car out on the highway and use the spray kicked up by other cars to clean the windshield

5. The time the alternator broke down for the second time in one month. This second time was notably at the Mile Run exit on Highway 80. I say notably because it was the middle of the night and there is absolutely nothing at this exit or within 50 miles. This is not hyperbole. Oh yeah, it was like negative 10 degrees out. I did not yet live in MN so I didn't know that some people consider that a balmy evening in late March.

4. The time the car broke down (oh there were so many times) a half mile away from Katie's parents house when I was already late for an extended family dinner. Now it takes AAA about an hour at the fastest to get someone out to tow you (even if you are a valued customer since 1998 as I am). Disaster! But I did not lose heart. Luckily MN is as flat as a pancake and the Prizm is a glorified go kart, so I was able to single-handedly push the car the remaining distance to my destination.

3. Road trip with Zach LeFeber to Boston after sophomore year of college. For some idiotic reason I refused to put oil in the car the entire trip (and apparently for a ridiculously long time before that as well). Not surprisingly the engine blew up. Luckily this was just as I was getting home from the trip and not in the middle of it.

2. After the engine blew up, a good friend of the family, Sam Pilato aka "Uncle Sam" was able to procure a new engine for practically pennies. Basically I was instructed to have it towed to an undisclosed location where his "boys" would take care of the rest. The next thing I knew the car was back in my driveway with an engine with 50,000 less miles on it. This story deserves its own Top Ten List. Thanks again, Uncle Sam.

And the number one, greatest memory involving this ultimate driving machine...

1. This car had the honor of being the setting of my first kiss with my future wife. Junior year - 2001. What can I say? I am a high roller and Katie could not resist the raw sexual magnetism of your's truly in the ambiance provided by the 93 Geo.

RIP buddy. You will be missed.

Great Day for UP

Part of Madelyn's bedtime routine is that we read her a story or two (depending on how long the books she chooses are).  Tonight she wanted to read "Great Day for Up" by Dr. Seuss.

On one of the pages it says "up you worms!"  and Madelyn asked Justin what a worm was.  He said "a small creature...they're wiggly...a worm is a multi-cellular organism..."  Evidently this is how we explain things to our 2 year old :)

4 Week Update

Evan is four weeks old!  He is spending more time awake during the day watching what is going on around him.  He is also starting to settle into some schedule patterns.  He likes to take a long early afternoon nap, and he usually goes to bed 30 minutes to an hour after Madelyn and then is up to eat 2-3 times before we get up in the morning.  He likes the bouncy seat, sometimes he likes the swing, and he likes to be held.  I got out the Baby Bjorn carrier this week and he likes to be carried around in that while I am doing things around the house.  Here are Evan's four week pictures:

Things have gotten more challenging with Madelyn.  She is acting out more, and doing a lot of things to try and get attention.  She has also starting taking out some frustration on Evan, trying to hit him and throwing things at him several times a day.  Despite time outs, losing toys and treats, she continues to escalate her behavior.  I am working on making sure that I spend some 1 on 1 time with her as well, particularly if Evan is content to be in the swing or bouncer for a while.  When I make an effort to give her attention separately from Evan things tend to go better.  I am still learning how to balance having both of the kids, especially since Evan needs so much of my attention at this stage.  I am so thankful that my mom has been coming on the weekdays when I don't have a babysitter for the late morning and afternoon to help manage both of the kids and also giving me a chance to do things like throw in laundry in the basement, and maybe even get a couple of things done around the house without worrying about the two kids. Slowly we are adjusting to the new normal of having two children.

Happy Halloween!

On Wednesday Justin took Madelyn trick-or-treating around our neighborhood.  This the first year that she has been and she was very excited.  They met up with some of our neighbors and went up and down our block.  It took about 30-45 minutes and she ended up with a pumpkin full of candy, so it seemed like the perfect amount of trick-or-treating.  She was also very excited to look through all of her candy when she got home :)

Here are some pictures of the kids in their costumes :)

This was Madelyn skyping with Mommom and Poppop and trying to trick or treat through the computer!