Hoppy Easter!

We hope you and your family enjoyed Easter! Lucy loved the Easter bunny- Madeline said, "Mommy, let's get out of here." Sooooo....we only got a photo of Lucy.

It was a beautiful day today and we took full advantage. Here's a look at how we spent our day.....easter baskets, egg hunt, chalking, bubbles, and a wonderful dinner brought to us by Gramma and Grampa Maslow. Madeline's favorite cousin Alex was here today, too. Madeline and her chalked each other onto the driveway. I sure hope warmer weather comes soon. It's time to be outside everyday!

Seizure.

Today- happy girl again.

Madeline suffered through a Febrile Seizure yesterday while she was at school (She goes to early preschool 2x per week). She had just waken from naptime, was at the table reading books when she got up and laid down on the floor and the teachers say that's when it happened. Evidently this type of seizure is quite common among children and it is brought on by a sudden rise in temperature/fever. Receiving that phone call, and being told your daughter has had a seizure and the ambulance is on it's way...heartbreaking. I may have stopped breathing for a few minutes myself. Fortunately Lucy had just been fed and changed and so I was able to race out the door quickly- we arrived at the same time the ambulance arrived. I ran to her classroom to find her surrounded by staff and police officers- lying on the floor with a towel under her head, unconscious. I quickly left the room to try to gain some composure, which wasn't going to be easy. The compassion the staff had for her was visible in their tears, which of course made it harder for me to hold it together. I had to pull it together and went in to her, laid on the floor next to her. She came to- I put my hands on her. She was so hot, and so blue. The paramedics told me that the way she was acting; tired and generally out of it, was very normal. NORMAL? No part of this was normal as far as I was concerned. Because of the length of the seizure, 1 minute 20 seconds, they wanted to take her to ER for further tests. More scary. Lucy- I have Lucy! What am I supposed to do with Lucy? Can I take her in the ambulance? No. John, their daddy...he's on his way but he's not here yet. The great people at Primrose accepted Lucy into the baby room until her dad could pick her up and bring her to the ER to meet us. Madeline, in the meantime, was in the ambulance. This is the first time I've been in an ambulance and I pray the last. The ride is a blur. John tells me that I must have texted several times reminding his to get Lucy. Entry into the ER is a blur. Lots of questions from lots of people. But the only information I had was that for the first time in her life she was being treated for an ear infection. Blood draw, urine draw, swabs for strep, influenza, chest xrays....when was this going to end? Madeline would cry, then fall asleep, cry, then fall asleep. Finally after all that, the doctor says she believes the ear infection never cleared and the infection caused the fever and that in all likelihood this would never happen again.

We picked up an orange popscicle and headed for home.

Last night I couldn't get the image of her lying on the floor, her coloring, her cry....I can't get it out of my head! Argh. What if I would have known she had a fever that morning, what if I had let her sleep in that morning rather than waking her for school? What if I would have kept her home? So many what if's......could I have prevented this, is this my fault? I'm sad.

Today her fever has been up and down, seems to be controlled by alternating Motrin and Tylenol. She's been spoiled with bedtime and naptime in mommy's bed.....a mistake we will no doubt pay for later when it's time to go back to bed in her bed!

Easter Eggs.

Sunday afternoon we colored Easter eggs- a fun afternoon indeed. Lots of dye, lots of spills, lots of smiles. We had Madeline's favorite "uncle" over, Paul. We had the pleasure of meeting his new girlfriend, Kendra. Lucy kept entertained watching the egg-tastic fun, too! We followed up this event with bbq chicken on the grill. The next day, it snowed.

Princess Party.

What a fun morning and afternoon we had on Saturday at our friend's daughter's 5th birthday! She had Sleeping Beauty at her party! They had face painting, story telling, dress up, dancing and of course pizza, cake and ice cream. Madeline wasn't at all afraid of meeting Sleeping Beauty, in fact, she made sure she was front and center of "Princess Aurora" the entire party. Here's a few photos from the day. You'll find that Lucy made the cut- she was having a private moment in the corner and I couldn't resist a shot of her facial expression......and oh, in the group shot of all the little princesses, Madeline was missing because she was busy playing with her baby sister. So sweet. When the princess had to leave, one little girl ran to the window and said, "Why is Sleeping Beauty leaving in a car? Where is her carriage?" It reminded me of when I was that age and we had Santa Clause visit us at Gramma's house- I never understood why he landed on the roof in his sleigh, but left in a mini van?

The girls.

OH Lucy. Juicy Lucy. Lulu. Little sister....Lucy is 6 months now. Her weight, 21 lbs. Her length, 27.5 and her head....it's big. Just like Madeline. Actually, her measurements are quite in line with her big sister's at that age. Whoever says Lucy is chubby is right, she is! She's been given the nickname "Porkulous". I shall keep that person's name a secret, however. She's a healthy babe. Doctor says she's impressed at how well she sits up and stays balanced. While Lucy is having some difficulties in the sleeping department, meaning, she doesn't....and when she cries it's not a small whimper but a full out scream, and while she's challenging us on so many levels of patience, she is a very sweet baby when she's happy. She eats her cereal and her fruit and some veggies like a champ and she puts anything she can hold onto into her mouth for a suck, a chew and a taste. She loves to laugh at her big sister. She loves to watch Jersey and Sophie puppies in the house, and if they get close enough she'll grab onto their fur and pull. Her eyes light up when she smiles- and even on the worst of days, the most tired of days, the most I'm-annoyed-at-you-Lucy days....when she smiles her whole body smiles and that makes it okay....for that moment anyway ;-) Madeline is 2 years and 8 months now- her weight, 32 lbs and her length is 36 inches. Her head has caught up with the rest of her and she's doing fabulous. She's a chatterbox, she speaks so clearly most of the time and usually in complete, or somewhat broken, sentences. Madeline...sweet Madeline. She's a gentle-hearted, charming little girl. See that...."little girl". She's not a baby anymore, and hardly a toddler. Where does the time go? It goes fast, that's where. Madeline is into a name phase now- Daddy is John. Mom is mommy for the most part, but lately it's been Jeff....I correct her and tell her Bubba's name is Jeff. Then she just calls me "Jec-ca-ca." It's pretty funny actually- and of course when she does it we laugh, which only makes her want to do it more. She is a wonderful big sister. She's nurturing and for the most part very gentle with little sister. Occasionally they get into it, like sisters must (I wouldn't know, I don't have one). Lucy pulls on Madeline's hair, tries to chew on whatever Madeline is holding- Madeline likes to take whatever Lucy has in her hand and say "mine". Madeline, if she doesn't think I'm looking, likes to sit on Lucy and tickle her. I'm sure someday the tickles will turn into a full blown push, I'm sure the hair pulling will undoubtedly be reciprocated into a full scuffle and I"m sure the phrase, "it's mine..", perhaps followed by a thud.....will be a familiar one in years to come. For now, it's sweet to watch. I'm going to find myself some lunch now. Tuesday is a "school day" for Madeline and Lucy is still napping in her carseat from her appointment this morning. Have a lovely day and thanks for reading.

Florida

Dateline - Savage, MN. Today is March 23. The high temperature was 33 degrees. When I look out my window, I see 4-6 inches of wet snow blanketing my yard. How did we arrive here? Why did we decide to come home.

Yesterday, we returned from Florida, everyone in tact. Lucy and Madeline were very good little travelers. In fact, many people commented how well behaved our children were. This feedback is very comforting since traveling with two young kids, 4 carry on bags full of toys, and two tired parents, melcholony parents can make for a long day. Lucy slept most of the trip while Madeline played on her new iTouch and watched Mickey on the DVD.

As for Florida, it was, as usual, a beautiful time. The temperature was warm, the skies were blue, and the grass was green. It's been a long time since we've seen that where we live.

Nana and Papa took very good care of us. Madeline had her own room equipped with a princess bed. While she loved her bed and room, some things never change. Once daddy arrived, or as Madeline calls him "John" to get his attention, Madeline wanted him to sleep by her on the floor. Lucy had a lovely crib set up with very cozy pillows. I need to somehow steal this crib because Lucy hasn't slept that good since birth. It must be the Florida air.

Our days were filled with sunshine, swimming pools, walks, beaches and lots of different activities. For the most part though, water was part of every day. Ironically, our little Madeline wanted nothing to do with swimming. She was comfortable putting her feet in the water and wading in the swallow end, but the mention of swimming with mommy and daddy seemed to frighten her. It's ironic because when I was in Florida a year ago, I couldn't keep her out of the water. As for Lucy, she might very well be a swimmer. We could've put her in her her floating star and left for the day and she would've been just fine. She absolutely loved the water.

Of course some things never change, for example, Mickey Mouse seemed to be playing continuously no matter what we were doing. Madeline and Mickey are pretty tight these days. When Madeline wakes up, she says, "Mommy, watch Mickey." Everything seems to be "I wanna watch Mickey." It's good thing considering the next trip to Florida in May 2012 we'll be to Disney World. For today though, next May seems so far away considering the weather.

Make sure to check out our pictures below. We took some of the same poses with Lucy that we did with Madeline when she was a baby. Click the links below to compare and let us know what you think.

Go here: http://themaslows.blogspot.com/2009/03/day-at-beach.html

Go here: http://themaslows.blogspot.com/2009/03/chillin-in-pool.html-

Go here: http://themaslows.blogspot.com/2009/03/turning-7-months-old-in-florida.html

Lucy is 5 months old today!

Lucy has reached another mark in her short life- 5 months!

At 5 months she has both her mom and dad pulling out their hair with her incessant screaming and fussiness. However, when she is happy, she is very happy and so much fun to be around.

It's fun to look back on my blog here which was started prior to Madeline's birth. Here's a link to Madeline's 5 month mark.

http://themaslows.blogspot.com/2009/01/im-5-months-old.html


It would appear that they are both following the similar track in terms of developmental milestones. Lucy has just started sitting up independently but topples rather easily too. She seems to want to do though, always ends up on her tummy hoping to go somewhere, but she gets stuck and let's us know. The toy shown in Madeline's post, that too has become one of Lucy's favorites. Lucy hates rice cereal- loves all fruit and I've slowly introduced vegetables. So far, the sweet potato is the winner. Peas make her gag. She really is quite a chunky baby. Unsure of her measurements yet, but next month we'll find out!
Let's see- Lucy loves to watch her big sister jump around and really gets the giggles when she watches her at bathtime or while she's dancing around the living room. Lucy was sleeping through the night pretty solid, but lately she's hit a bit of a bump. I suppose it was too good to be true when she was sleeping all night so young! Madeline is going through some phase where she likes to wake a couple times each night too- as my husband said this morning- Sleep has become a luxury in our household. And I thought massages and pedicures were a luxury.
Cabin fever has set in so I'm packing up the babies and taking them to my parents in Florida next week for 10 days. John is meeting us the last couple of days down there. I can't wait.
Here's a few photos of the girls. They really are sweet babies.