March Madness Comes To An End

I am watching the NCAA championship game out of the corner of my eye as I post tonight. Tyler was sleeping by 8:30 PM tonight (an amazing feat for us!) Brian and Drew are "watching" the game. More accurately, Brian is trying to watch the game while dodging Drew's spit up...actually more exciting to watch than any basketball game. :o)

As most of you know, Brian loves NCAA March Madness! So, a lot of the past month has been spent following college basketball. We went to the Knapp Center to watch the Selection Show with the Drake Bulldogs and then watched their first round game on television. This photo was obviously taken before their disappointing last-second loss to Western Kentucky.

Our family took an impromptu mini-vacation to Michigan for the third and fourth rounds of the NCAA tournament with my friend Laura. Laura had Davidson connections and was able to get our family some seats in the Davidson section for the game against Kansas. Despite all of Tyler's cheering, Davidson wasn't able to get past Kansas. It was a very fun game to watch and Drew cooperated by sleeping in his sling from the national anthem until the final buzzer. We also visited the science center and zoo while we were in Detroit.

We attended a few Easter egg hunts earlier in March. Tyler is a pretty big fan of any activity that ends with eating chocolate! The boys posed with the Easter Bunny at the preschool egg hunt.


Grandma & Grandpa Carlson attended Easter service with us at Hope on Saturday night. Brian wasn't feeling well on Sunday, so I took the boys to Stratford to spend the day with G&G and great grandma Alice.

Tyler was excited to find a pair of red Lightning McQueen shoes in his Easter basket. He is quite enthralled with anything related to the Cars movie right now.

Drew is growing, growing, growing. He was 24 1/4 inches long and just shy of 14 lbs at his 2 month appointment. He smiled for the first time on March 2nd and flashes us several big smiles each day. He is sleeping 8 hours straight each night...lucky us!


Well, Kansas won...time to go to bed.

One Month and Hundreds of Diapers Later...

It has been a fun first month with two little boys at home. We came home from the hospital on Saturday, February 2. My parents, Alan & Linda, stayed with us for a week and were a big help with Tyler while Brian and I were getting adjusted to life with a baby again. Brian's parents, Joe & Barbara, came for a weekend visit to meet their newest grandson. Barbara gave Drew a beautiful quilt which we hope to take monthly pictures on to track Drew's growth. Here is the the Month 1 picture:



So far, Drew seems to be an easy-going baby. He is sleeping for 6+ hours stretches at night and is pretty content during the day. After a lot of effort and thanks to some great advice from friends, breastfeeding is now going really well. Drew was back up to his birth weight by two weeks and has been steadily gaining weight each week.

Tyler is a very proud big brother and adjusting well to sharing Mom & Dad with his little brother. He was excited to show Drew off to his preschool teachers and class. He likes to be a helper and frequently asks, "How's the baby going?" and "Where's my baby?" Brian and I both attended Tyler's Friendship Luncheon at his preschool.

I am feeling great and keeping up with the pre-Drew routine fairly well. It definitely takes a bit longer to get out of the house in the morning, though. Brian even let me go to a scrapbooking night with friends.

Brian is doing a great job being a Daddy to both Tyler and Drew even though he often complains of sleep deprivation and too many diaper changes.

The four of us had fun at a recent visit to the Des Moines Botanical Center.







Thanks so much to all the people who have visited us, brought gifts and meals, and helped us out during the first month. You have helped to make the transition from three to four go very smoothly.