A very small visitor

On Sunday two of Francis' friends from work visited: Barb and Jen. Jen brought her 7 week old daughter, Krysten! She is just adorable. Gavin was intrigued by seeing another baby, other than Evie, in his house!

Barb and Jen brought some cute sun hats and sunglasses for the kids. Evie missed the whole thing - she slept right through!



Jen, Krysten, and me


Barb and Gavin in his new hat

"I'm ready for the beach now Mom. Do I need swim trunks or am I cute enough in just my diaper?"

Friday Cuteness

It's Sharon... here are a bunch of cute random pictures from the last week or so. They didn't really fit into a themed post so I decided to do these "random cuteness" posts once in a while. Enjoy!

Evie is deep in thought.



Big smiles for Uncle David



Gavin is going to start eating more than cereal soon (more on that next week) so we got out his highchair. He looks a bit intimidated!

Evie has these 2 pairs of pants with words on the rear:

Evie is doing more things with her feet, like trying to grab the toys on her mobile with them. She can get them into her mouth, too!

Gavin: "Dad, I think you should go with the red tie instead."

Gavin likes being up high on Uncle Kevin's shoulders.

Gavin cuddling with Daddy shortly after waking up.

Francis got these denim hats for the kids last time he was at Babies R' Us to return some stuff. He just can't go into that store with out buying something for the kids.

Francis also got a bunch of new teethers, hoping one of the kids would like them. So far, they are more into their fingers than any teether toys.

Don't forget to scroll down to check out the "Thing 1 and Thing 2" post below! (I couldn't get it to load properly yesterday, so it didn't publish until this morning.)

Cutest "Things" Ever

The kids received these great onesies from Pat Whitworth, one of Francis' secretaries at the State's Attorney's Office. Thing 1 and Thing 2 are characters in The Cat in the Hat. Evie should be wearing the Thing 1 onesie (since she is one minute older) but the Thing 2 outfit fit her better!







I took Evie to her pediatrician today for her 6 month physical. Luckily, she only got 2 shots this time instead of 4. She also just had to check out every other kid in the waiting room... her home nurse (Nancy) calls her "Miss Nose-etta" because she is so nosey. She just has to know everything that is going on.

Her doctor suggested I try oatmeal cereal, since she was opening her mouth for rice cereal but then spitting most of it out. So that's what I did when we got home, and it turns out she likes it! Just like Gavin. Gavin took a good nap for Grandpa Vic, who came over to watch him while Evie and I were at the doctor's office. Here they are reading Gavin's favorite book: The Very Hungry Caterpillar (Gavin's holding his stuffed Caterpillar from the story):




Evie still loves her Bumbo seat... especially with the new toy from Daddy that suctions onto the tray so she can't push it off!

First Easter

The twins were happy to have their first visit from the Easter Bunny (and the Easter Bovine, at Grandpa & Grandma Cordes' house). While Evie was happy to gaze at the bunny on her card, Gavin promptly started destroying his. Shortly after these photos were taken, his card was in 2 pieces!

Evie with Nana & Grandpa Cermak

"Grandpa, I sure like the flavor of these strings!"

Evie & Nana

The Sox and the Twins

The Legendary Twins were happy to watch the Minnesota Twins get beaten by the White Sox in the Sox home opener yesterday. Grandma Cordes made a special trip to bring over some of Evie's new formula and started teaching them about the ball-strike count and the 7th inning stretch. The kids were especially fascinated with Grandma's Sox 2005 World Series ring:

Gavin was very excited to see his first grand slam home run! He was still up in the 7th inning but Evie was already asleep. Maybe the Sox can hit another one just for you, Evie!

An Ounce a Day Keeps the Cardiologist Away

It's Sharon...Nurse Nancy came over this morning to check on Evie. She gained 3 ounces over the weekend! We are so relieved that she did not lose any more weight. In a last ditch effort to try anything to avoid putting that feeding tube back in, we gave her a different brand of formula on Sunday, and she seems to like it! Nancy will be back on Wednesday, so Evie still needs to eat, eat, eat! Her cardiologist wants her to be "fat" before the next surgery and wants her to gain an ounce each day.

Nancy listens to Evie's heart & lungs.

Evie tries out a new a hairstyle (now that she has a little more of it!)

Uncle David visited last week and got Gavin thinking about standing up.

Gavin thought he needed to learn more of the keyboard numbers & shortcuts.


Uncle David thought it would be funny for the kids to wear their burp cloths on their heads.....

Auntie Di and Uncle Kevin came for a visit on Sunday.

Evie Rolls Over!

It's Sharon...Yesterday Evie rolled over not once, but 3 times! She actually rolled over for the first time on the day before her surgery, but she has not done it since. Being in the hospital for 2 weeks really set her back physically. When she came home, we started tummy time again, but it seemed like we were starting almost from scratch. The first few times I put her on her tummy, she would just lay there and cry. Here's a video of her rolling over:

Here is a sequence of photos from tummy time earlier in the week. She was really working at it!

She also ate one tablespoon of rice cereal yesterday. Again, before the surgery I was giving her a tiny bit when I fed Gavin. But we had to start over with cereal too - I think she forgot what to do with it!

Evie has also found her voice - she has learned to yell! Here's a short clip:



Her other new trick is pulling her socks off:



Gavin was so excited about all the new things his sister is doing that he wanted to call all his friends! First he tried his toy cell phone, but quickly moved on to Daddy's:

The only "bad " news is that Evie has lost weight - 5 ounces since removing the tube 2 days ago. However, the home nurse wants to let her keep trying to eat by mouth over the weekend, and she'll come back Monday to see how Evie is doing. Keep chugging your bottles, little Evelyn!

Evie's New Jumper

Below are several picture of the pink jumper that Francis could not resist getting for Evie. She's just about tall enough for it, if she really stretches her legs. I took these pictures in the morning before the home nurse came out and we removed her feeding tube. The tube is still out, but she's not eating as much as I had hoped. We'll keep trying all day today, and the nurse will be back tomorrow morning - if Evie has lost any weight, I am sure we'll have to put the tube back in.

Francis says she has "crazy eyes" in these pictures. I was laughing out loud as I took these - she is SO funny!

"I'd like to thank the Academy...."

The yellow vacuum is my new best friend. When I turn it on, Evie stops fussing and plays nicely with her toys! Sometimes I don't even have to turn it on, I just wheel it out and she calms down!

"Okay Mom, I give up. I'll stop fussing."

"OK Evie, you can hold my hand. I can't catch girl germs on Thursdays."

Gavin was just chilling on his playmat while his sister got all crazy in her new jumper:

"Don't hate me because I"m cute"