Easter 2008

A few of our favorite moments from Easter weekend.....

Dyeing Easter eggs

Picking out Alex and Maguire's Easter outfits for their first trip to church

Getting loved on by Papa

The boys' first trip to a restaurant -- don't they look pumped?

Hanging with Grammie and Papa

Indoor Easter Egg Hunt -- it is South Dakota in March, after all!

Everyone decked out for church on Easter -- He is Risen!

Two Months Old!

We are so blessed to have two little healthy men -- Alex and Maguire had their two-month check up last Thursday, and both boys are in perfect health! They are in the 25-50th percentile in height, weight, and head size for full-term male infants, and if you use their adjusted age of 5 weeks (since they were 4 weeks early), they were in the 75th percent! Looks like we are going to have some big boys on our hands! Alex weighed 10 lb 7 oz, and Maguire is almost closing the gap at 10 lb 4 oz! Both boys were troopers while getting their first round of immunizations, but I decided that next time Chris will be required to be there, since it was nearly impossible to console both boys while they were in different places. I could hold one after the shots were over, but the other one was still on the table getting his shots -- not quite enough hands!

We have started seeing some real smiles from the boys, and they are cooing and making a lot more noise. Today Ellie informed me that "When Alex said 'Pleh,' it means that he's saying monkeys live in the jungle, Mom." Duh!


Don't be fooled -- Maguire is still smaller, just closer to the camera!

Good News!

One thing that kind of got pushed to the wayside during the boys' hospital stay was Maguire's potential kidney problems. I know Chris briefly mentioned it in a few posts while I was pregnant, but on several ultrasounds they saw cysts on the right kidney of Baby B (Maguire). And in the last ultrasound I had before the boys were born, they were not able to see his right kidney at all. They told us that was not unusual, and that 1 in 1000 people only have one kidney. Since kidneys are such efficient organs, you really only need one to work. And when something is not developing right in utero, sometimes the body just reabsorbs the organ. Weird, huh? Well, we went to the hospital last Friday for some follow-up tests to make sure everything was okay with his remaining kidney. The urologist had told us if there were abnormalities, that surgery or medication may be a possibility to keep the kidney working well.

Maguire was such a trooper, he had to get an IV and a catheter for the two tests. The nurses had sugar water to dip his pacifier in, but I think he must have remembered that the last time he got that, he got circumcised, because he didn't want anything to do with it! Okay, I know babies can't remember stuff like that, but maybe for an event that traumatizing....

We found out yesterday that everything was completely normal with his kidney, praise God! The boys have their two-month check-up on Thursday, so we will have all their latest weights and measurements then. They are growing like little weeds -- when they weighed Maguire at the hospital, he was 10 lb. 1 oz! Thanks to everyone for all your prayers during pregnancy and after for this kidney stuff -- Maguire might only have one kidney, but Alex can tell you (if he could speak) that it must be working great because he gets peed on quite often!

Imagine how you'd feel if you got tubes and radioactive material put up into places we won't even mention! (I didn't know they even made catheters that small!)

A Few More Random Snapshots....

A little more tummy time fun. We would have had a few more cute shots, but the camera died just as both the boys were getting really into it.

Ellie and her new favorite pasttime, throwing snowballs at us on walks. Thanks, Papa, for teaching her that! :)

The babies' first trip to the library -- big excitement for them, can't you tell?

Our Life at Home

So we are busy settling into a new normal (thanks to my cousin Emily for that phrase) here at the Studer house. I have been trying to decide how to divide up these pictures into several posts, but have run out of good ideas at the moment and they're all going up at once! Blame the lack of creativity on lack of sleep, I guess! Life is good here at home, I am loving being at home like I anticipated, but am definitely ready to be out and about more! The boys have their 2-month check up next Friday, so hopefully the doctor will give us the okay to venture out a bit more. Here's what we've been up to over the last few days......

Alex, somehow managing to spit out his pacifier and land it in the center of his forehead. And remain asleep the entire time. I promise, this was not staged!

Alex again, suffering the effects of Maguire's projectile vomiting. Sometimes living in close quarters with another baby isn't all it's cracked up to be......

We even had some visitors the other day -- Morgan Mueller holding Maguire.

Ellie baking brownies

Check out the extreme joy on Ellie's face to be leaving the house!!!! She spent the day on Saturday with her best friend Mariana. Bless Mariana's parents' hearts, they sprung Ellie from her baby-induced prison for a day of swimming, pizza, movies and popcorn. Needless to say, she had a blast.

Ellie has been having lots of fun teaching the boys all the joys of tea parties and The Little Mermaid. Here they are enjoying tea and Ariel with big sister.

Tummy Time Part II

Okay, so Maguire kind of lost out on the photo ops the other day, due to lack of participation in tummy time. So last night we took the time to try a new round, with some excellent results.
















We've found that the boys seem to sleep more soundly when they are about piled on top of each other, and who can blame them -- they lived that way for 9 months! It might not seem real comfy to us, but it sure makes for some funny and cute pictures.






















The pictures of Ellie are from her stint as "Dr. Ariel" -- a fun game in which Chris and/or myself are made to lie down on the couch and get poked and prodded until she decides we are well. She even has a reflex hammer (is that what those things are called?) thanks to Grammie and Papa (we think-- who knows where they came up with it)! She has such a big imagination for a little girl -- she can spend hours pretending to be a princess. We get cast in the various roles of the wicked stepmother, King Triton, Ursula the sea witch, or any of the seven dwarves -- and we'd better not break character, or we get reminded "No, Mommy, you're the wicked stepmother!" On the plus side, I have gotten her to pick up toys and (try to) sweep the floor by suggesting a game of Cinderella -- maybe next Chris will try and get her to do the dishes!

Tummy Time

The boys are officially 6 weeks old today, and as of the time I'm writing this, 6 weeks ago exactly we were hustling around the house (I was sprinting and out of breath, and Carrie was cool calm and collected as always) getting ready to head to the hospital. What a ride it's been so far, and we're not even two months in.

The boys have been wonderful, healthy, and growing. We had a little "tummy time" today, but it didn't go so well. Mostly because Maguire's got a massive head and can barely lift it up. Alex can hold his head up for a few seconds, and I tried to catch a couple of snapshots of it.

We went for another walk yesterday to a store a couple of blocks away because it was about 40 degrees! Heat wave! And because Carrie and Ellie get a bit of cabin fever because they don't leave the house much. Today Ellie ran up and down the hallway about 500 times singing, "I'm Ariel (The Little Mermaid) and I'm Human!!" She really needs to get out more...

So here are a few of the pictures we've taken in the last couple of days...enjoy!