Lucy's 2nd Birthday and Easter 2009

On Saturday, April 11th, Lucy turned 2. We opened presents in our pj's in the morning. Here she is with her new Aquadoodle and first set of golf clubs:

In the afternoon, after our hair cut, we headed to Eden Prairie to Aunt Rox's house where everyone was getting together. Lucy loved playing with the other girls, Kate and Olivia:

Nana made her a pistachio birthday cake, and here they are blowing out the candle:

Kate and Max:

Grandma T. and Max:

Easter morning:

Lucy in her Easter dress before church:

Lucy and Max before we head out:

After making it to church in just the nick of time (thank goodness those Lutherans leave the front pews empty just for us latecomers!), we went to Minnetonka to my cousin Brenda's house for Easter dinner and a kids' egg hunt. It was a gorgeous day out!

On Monday Lucy had her 2 year and Max had his 2 week doctor's appointments. They are growing fast! Lucy is "average" and is 2 feet 9 inches tall and weighs 25.8 lbs. Max is up to 9 lbs. 5 oz. and 20 3/4" long. That means he's eating like a champ and I told him he could start sleeping through the night if he wanted!

After the appointment and only one shot for Lucy, which she did well at, daddy and Lucy went out to the car to watch a video while mom and Max went through the hassle of another PKU draw. PKU aka "heel stick" is a blood draw they take after a baby is 24 hours old, called a "heel stick" because that's where they usually draw the blood from the infant. The sample is then sent to the state for a variety of metabolic tests and most people never hear back on it. I was called last week that the sample they sent was "invalid" and needed to be redone. It was an administrative hassle (I was assured the paperwork would be there and all I had to do was go to the "hospital lab" except noone knows just where that is and I ended up checking him into the ER to have it done of all places). No longer a heel stick, Max had his first IV blood draw. What a trooper as mom held him down and he sucked eagerly on the Nuk while they put the IV in. The thing about getting shots or "trauma" at this age is they sleep for a looong time afterward. Glad that is over with!

Things are slowly getting back to some kind of normal around here albeit we're all tired. Lucy is going through a bit of a difficult phase and I wish I had more alone time with her and I wish she'd come home potty trained one day too! She's not taking it out on her brother, rather she's just getting the aftereffects of having to now share the time that used to be devoted to her alone. We're still sending her to daycare 3 days a week which is good for her to get out and play and have attention on her for a while. Max and I are going to be attending Baby and Me playgroup on Wednesday afternoons (same as I did when Lucy was born) so we'll get out and socialize. And the weather is thankfully heating up so there are outdoor activities in our future!

Birthday Fun

On Saturday we celebrated Eric (March 28), Troy (April 4) and Lucy's (April 11) birthdays. Papa Paul made his homemade pizzas for dinner and Max slept through the entire event.

Lucy opens up her new mini van! Troy and I were hoping there was a matching one parked in the driveway, but not this year...

Lucy on her new scooter. Mom is a little worried about this toy and the great outdoors. Must get helmet and knee pads and make sure we park our cars at the bottom of the driveway to create a barrier between Lucy and the street...

A gift from Abby the dog to Troy - the "Snuggie"!

Papa and Max:

Uncle Eric and Max:

Chef Paul creating his pizza masterpieces:

Politely waiting for cake:

Max Kenneth Lovestrand

Yes, we had a baby!

Sorry it has taken so long to post. I sometimes forget about the blog now that Facebook has arrived in my life :) There will probably be a couple posts to recant all that has happened in the past week.

Baby Boy Max Kenneth Lovestrand was born on Monday, March 30th at 2:37 pm weighing in at 8 lbs. 5 oz. 20 1/2" long and apparently a rather large head.

Barely a minute old:

The "true knot" in his umbilical cord. Our doctor said she had only seen 4 in the 800+ deliveries she has done and moments after delivering him and seeing this said "it just shows you how precious life is":

See, not REALLY that big, they round up on the weight:

Lucy calling up everyone to tell them the good news:

Proud daddy:

Our first baby. I labored and delivered and recovered in the same rooms Lucy was born in. Same doctor, same anesthetist too:

Grandma Val, aka "the Colic Whisperer":

Resting up before going home:

We came home on Wednesday, April Fool's Day and Lucy couldn't be more excited:

Being April Fool's Day, the joke was definitely on us. We believed the rumors that #2 is easier than #1, so we put Max down to bed and went to bed ourselves. For like a minute. He proceeded to scream through the night until morning. Then slept all day to get energy for a second night of screaming through the night. At my wit's end, in tears, tired, etc, we made an appointment on Friday with the doctor. Hoping it was acid reflux (he hated being in his crib and lying down) and some baby Zantac would cure it, the doctor looked into our eyes and said "I think it's colic". We went through colic with Lucy but her peak time was 7-11pm and then she'd finally sleep. If this was going to be colic during all the dark hours, we were going to be in trouble!

I called in my mom, Grandma Val, for the weekend so we could get some sleep in at least and figure out a plan of attack. She must've had a talk with him because a moment in grandma's arms cured the colic (so far). OR, my theory is it was April 3rd, his great-grandpa Kenny's (and his namesake) birthday and they had a talk to rid him of this foolishness!

So this is Max and this blog will now be postings of the adventures of our family and the joys and pains of big sister/little brother!