It is hard to believe that our littlest man is 2 months old.  His due date was only two days ago on May 2nd and we have had him home from the NICU for a full 4 weeks.

Today, our cousin, Liv, had her first holy communion party with the family.  Johnny was able to meet some family – including one of his great-grandmother’s!  Jimmy and Daddy also headed to West Chester to meet up with Aunt Abbie for the Relay for Life.  The whole family also went to Angie’s parents’ home for dinner — one of many 1st’s for Johnny.  This past week, Uncle Bob came for a visit and met Johnny too!

Johnny’s month was filled with doctor appointments.  We keep getting great news at each one.  His visits with a couple of cardiologists went well.  Though he still has a fast heart rate, he got the thumbs up that the heart rhythms are all normal.  He is now on the monitoring plan, where he continues with regular follow-up appointments with re-testing to check for any changes.  We have hope that this may just be a phase he outgrows, as his heart matures from being a preemie.  Speaking of maturity, his eyes are now mature!  After a couple of visits to the eye doctor this past month, we were relieved that John’s eyes are now fully developed.

With all of the appointments, we determined that we did need a double stroller.  We got one this past week and Jimmy really enjoys it.  He likes turning around to check up on Johnny.  With the new stroller, it is now feasible for Mommy or Daddy to go for a stroll on our own with all of boys — including Dunder Dog.

Jimmy’s transition to being a big brother is still going well.  As shown in this month’s pictures, Jimmy plays with Johnny.  He reads to Johnny and will even hold the phone up to his ear.  We give constant reminders to be ‘nice’ and ‘gentle’ — slowly he is learning.

Each year, a half a million babies are born too soon. March of Dimes is an organization that is on a mission “to help moms have healthy, full-term pregnancies and to give every baby a healthy start in life.”

This year, we joined the Abington Memorial Hospital Team in the March for Babies! It is the biggest fundraiser for the March of Dimes. Everyday, we have a reminder of the research funded by the March of Dimes with our two healthy baby boys. While I was fighting to stay pregnant and when our babies were born, the medicine and therapies we received was developed from research from the March of Dimes. It is a wonderful organization that has been providing research over 75 years for babies — including our two sons. It was a remarkable feeling to know that all those walking were marching for the same cause.

We could not have asked for a more beautiful day for the 3-mile walk (or stroll for both Jimmy and Johnny). Aunt Meghan, Uncle Andrew, and Pop joined the walk too! We are looking forward to participating next year, as this is truly an organization that touches our hearts.

Our Township hosts a day where the community gathers for games, rides, and fun at the local park.  The weather this weekend was beautiful, so we were able to bring Johnny.
We had a large crew join us for the festivities — Uncle Tim, Uncle Mike, Pop, Grandma, Grandpa, and Angie’s roommate and friends from college – Victoria and Dan.  We went last year with Jimmy and made it only to the firetruck before he decided it was nap time.  This year Johnny was the one napping!

The highlight of the day was experiencing Jimmy going on a pony ride.  At first he was a bit timid, until we pointed out that the pony was like a larger version of Dunder Dog.  After patting his fur, Jimmy was holding onto the saddle ready to go.  As he ventured on each lap, he had family and friends cheering for him around the entire loop.

Although he is not yet big enough for most of the activities, there was an inflatable toddler ball pit and a petting zoo that also sparked Jimmy’s interest.  He was also able to check out the fire truck.  Since we were at the park, he was also able to show off his jungle gym skills to Pop and his uncles!  As always, the blue tunnel slide was a hit!

Afterwards, Jimmy and Uncle Tim cracked open the huge chocolate bunny that Uncle Tim and Mike gave to Jimmy at Easter.  For weeks, Jimmy was waiting for this day and he seemed to really enjoy it.  We then ventured outside to play with a bubble maker with Pop.  Jimmy loved not only chasing the bubbles, but laughing at Dunder chasing them too!

Next year will be fun with both boys sharing in the excitement of the day!

We are going on a little over a week since Johnny has been home and Jimmy is still intrigued by his baby brother. He is surprised each morning when he is reminded of his baby brother when Johnny’s makes a peep from his cradle. We set up his picnic table bench as a look out stand. It is much preferred than the alternative of having Jimmy attempt to climb on the sides of the pack-in-play. With this new set up, Jimmy spends much of his day checking on Johnny.  He has even convinced Johnny to play with him a few times too!

In addition to being big brother, he has also taken on the role of best helper. He is always eager to grab a diaper and pick out which pair of socks Johnny should wear. Whenever, he sees a bottle or pacifier for Johnny, he rushes right to Johnny with it. He thinks that it is always time for feeding Johnny — even if Johnny is full.  We even had to move all the hand sanitizer bottles far from Jimmy’s reach, as “washing our hands” is one of Jimmy’s favorite activities.  We are working with Jimmy to learn what it is to be gentle and nice; however, he hasn’t figured it out completely, so we are limiting his interaction to only touching Johnny’s feet and kissing his hair.

We temporarily have Jimmy on break from daycare this summer in hopes of avoiding any illnesses that might come home with him if he was in enrolled in daycare. With this new schedule, Jimmy’s bedtime is now 9:00 pm! The bed time rhythms now include brushing his teeth and reading “Good Dog Carl” among 20 other favorite books. We could not have imagined a better transition for Jimmy in his new role as big brother. We are very thankful that Jimmy is so welcoming.

Johnny is six weeks old today!  He had quite a busy week last week with two doctor appointments.  Last Monday, he had his first doctor’s appointment with the pediatric group.  At five weeks, he was 6 pounds, 3 ounces.  It was our first outing as a family.  We have a picture below of Daddy’s new look — carrying both kids!  Then on Wednesday, Johnny went to the cardiologist for a follow up appointment.  The appointment included a repeat of the heart tests that he had in the NICU.  His ticker is still fast, but no cause has been determined.  Hopefully, it will slow down to a normal rate as his heart matures.  In the meantime, it will be monitored through follow-up appointments.

Other than doctor’s offices, Johnny had his first big outing yesterday.  We went on our first neighborhood walk and stopped by the local frozen yogurt shop since no one was in the shop.  Johnny slept through the experience.  Jimmy seemed quite confused and disinterested.  In time, both will realize what a cool shop we have right in our backyard!

Here are some pictures over the past month.  Our personal favorites include Jimmy checking out the big backhoe.  The smile on his face is precious.  There are also a few pictures of him picking up sticks in the backyard.  He really is a best helper!

The weekend kicked off with Jimmy’s participation in the neighborhood Easter Egg hunt with his friends.  It was a wonderful Easter weekend with family. Angie’s family from Ohio and New York came for a visit.  Aunt Elise, Uncle Fran, and Anne met Jimmy and Dunder Dog.  Johnny also had several visits with family over the Easter weekend.

The Easter Bunny even came with some goodies for both Johnny and Jimmy.  The children’s book “Duck and Goose” was the theme, complete with egg shakers (mini maracas in the shape of an egg).  After playing with the egg shakers, Jimmy was a bit confused as we were decorating the dyed eggs — these eggs did not make any music! The decorating of eggs with stickers did not last long.  Jimmy attempted multiple times to eat the stickers.  We quickly moved to the next activity.  Maybe next year we can show pictures of fully decorated eggs!

Dunder was definitely the most enthusiastic about the holiday. His excitement was solely due to an Easter egg hut with Jimmy. Plastic eggs were scattered across the living room. These eggs were filled with Dunder’s favorite – animal crackers. Dunder was very careful not to destroy the eggs and gently pawed at them until they cracked opened.

We look forward to Easter next year with both boys home!