Easter

Owen reaching for Noel's hand.

Love my kids.

Easter was pretty low key around our house. My family gathered together all under the same roof for the first time in several years. Seems as though schedules, location, and duplicate families has made it difficult for everyone to gather during the holidays; but we did it! Eric and I cooked a delicious ham, with all the trimmings: mashed potatoes, steamed asparagus, fruit salad, green salad, frosted jello salad, and my specialty one HUGE apple pie! The evening was successful. The family was fed, full, and happy. It was great getting everyone together. Laughing, watching movies, and of course ooohing and aaahing over Owen and Noel. Between the two of them they offered up more entertainment for the evening then we could have ever expected. Owen was his cheerful self; playing with "big blocks" (large legos), and wanting everyone to participate in building a "big tunnel". Noel did a lot of sleeping, but was awake for a brief moment, enabling her to say hello to Aunt Kelly for the first time.

Since our last post, both Noel and I have had our 2 week postpartum check ups. All is well, better than well!! As a rule of thumb, newborns goal is to get back to birth weight by the time they show up for their 2 week appointment. My dearest Noel impressed them when she tacked on an additional 3oz, and weighed a whopping 9lbs 5oz at her two week appointment. The nurses and doctors were impressed with her size. She was 21inches long, growing like a weed!

My two week appointment went well. If you know me, you know I have allergies in the worst way and should probably spend my days in a bubble. So it would come as no surprise that I had an allergic reaction to the tape they used to hold my "wound" together along my incision. Which is the one place you don't want to break out in a rash as you can't scratch let alone touch that area being so tender. So I dealt with that, days later, I broke out in a full body rash!?!? I am one of those people who has to use Free and Clear laundry detergent and fabric softener, but when I am pregnant my allergies cease to exist, so when Eric changed fabric softener sheets to some wonderful smelling lavender scent and I didn't break out in a rash, we kept using them. Upon my arrival home, I slowly started breaking out, almost like hives...it was BAD! It didn't take long to discover the culprit, and I am now happy to report, no more full body rash--oh man, it was everywhere! Lastly, the Friday before Easter, I went to bed with my lips feeling slightly chapped. I loaded on my normal chap stick, loaded!!--and called it a night. When I woke up, my mouth felt like it was on fire and my lips...Eric referred to them as Angelina Jolee lips...yea. They were HUGE! I immediately stopped using the chap stick, which I loved, loaded on the abreva, and am happy to report as of today...normal lips, no more burning. If bad things come in threes, lets hope this is the end of my "torture".

Other than that, things are going so well around here. We are surviving! The first day with out Eric was rough, seemed like every time I went to feed Noel, Owen was getting into something he wasn't suppose to. But now, I'm happy to report we have a wonderful system in place, Owen is being such a big helper, and things are running smoothly!

Next doctors appointment for Noel and I are at the end of April, our 6 week check ups. Noel's first series of shots, hopefully she does well and it doesn't mess with her sleep routine too much. I am happy to report she's sleeping anywhere from 4-6hours at a time, thank goodness!! Makes the adjustment easier to handle. Mommy and Daddy aren't feeling too sleep deprived.

We have yet to make a BIG family outing, with the exception to the doctors. Grocery shopping is done by mommy while Noel sleeps and Daddy plays with Owen. Maybe we'll get our act together enough in the near future to make at least one outing, even if it is just to my parents house or out to Redmond to visit cousin Lucas :)

Hope everyone had a fantastic Easter! Looking forward to the month of April, spring flowers, and all it has to offer.