35 18 and 3

Every day Kerri and I both think, wow we are lucky to have each other and two great kids. It's hard to believe we have been married for almost 3 years, Lauren is a year and a half old and Taylor is already three months old.

It's been a while since our last post. Kerri would say it is because we are living in a constant mild state of chaos. There always seems to be something going on. At first I thought that maybe there would be some synergies with two kids. An actuarial colleague had informed me that this wasn't necessarily true. I'm starting to understand why. If child #2 is being fed, it might mean that child #1 is going to make a mess or have a slight accident. We do however try and mitigate these events with the big purple monster, Barney. Lauren may be slightly addicted to him and might have the occasional Barney marathon while we are in the car on the way to Brainerd.

Lauren is loving summer. One of her favorite activities is to play in her pool and swim in the lake at Grandpa and Grandma Albrecht's. One of Lauren's new words which could be taken out of context in the wrong situation is beach, pronounced by her, Beechee.

She also enjoys watering everything with the hose, including herself.

In addition to watering flowers Lauren also likes to smell them, and pick them occasionally. She wasn't too fond of this one though.

Great Grandma Sell reading Scoobi Doo.

I feel like Taylor is growing up fast. She already sleeps through the night. (knock on wood). For the last two weeks she has been sleeping almost 12 hours at night. The trade off however is that she graces us with her very much awake state for most of the day and avoids taking naps for longer than 20 minutes.

Lauren ensures that Taylor has enough toys while she sleeps.Taylor enjoys some company in her crib.
Taylor didn't think too highly of this photo opportunity.

Another milestone for Taylor is that she started rolling over. She has successfully mastered rolling from her stomach to her back, but is still working on going from her back to her stomach. She has also learned how to move around her crib. She goes to sleep with her head facing one direction, and it's anyone's guess in the morning in which direction she will be facing.

This past week Kerri returned to work. She had a long 4 day stretch, something she doesn 't usually have to do. Keep in mind she plays mom all morning and then goes to work until 11:30pm.

This weekend Grandma, Grandpa, Charlie, and the two dogs will be coming to visit. Partly to watch me do the Lifetime Triathlon, but more so to visit Lauren an Taylor and celebrate Grandmas Birthday.

Father and Son reflecting on the Day, while mom and Grandma take care of the girls.

Summer is Here

As the weather continues to warm up we all enjoy all of the time we get to spend outside. Lauren especially loves exploring the yard for things. She also recently learned that she had a sand box, or as she like to think, a box fully of sand to eat.

Lauren has done couple a funny things lately. She isn't quite sure that she's ready to give up some so of her things for Taylor. Recently she decided that she could still use the swing. Being the great parents we are, we thought it was funny to watch her get in the swing and even took pictures, only to find out that Lauren interpreted this as behavior to be praised and now has to be reminded that the swing is for Taylor.

Some of Lauren's other hobbies include Dental Hygiene and reading, lots of ready. We may currently have a few fines at the library. Until we make it back there to pay our $12.25, we are cut from reserving any more spot books.

Lauren is also a fan of the sippy cups. She's even been caught with one in each hand.

Taylor has started a new trend in sleeping. She no longer enjoys staying up until 3am. Instead she goes to bed around 10pm and sleeps until around 5am. After a brief snack at 5am, Taylor goes back to be for a few more hours then gets up around nine to have breakfast with Lauren. We really enjoy the new schedule.

As Taylor continues grow up, we get more and more smiles each day, but so far she has been a little camera shy.

The last picture is a typical Sunday morning with the girls watching some Paula Dean while we wait for mommy to get up.

Week 6

I'm finally getting around to posting this post...a week after I started it.

Life Continues to fly by in the Albrecht house. Taylor is six weeks old today, and Lauren is almost 16 months. Here's the recap off all that's gone on in the last two weeks.

We recently had a major change in our back yard. We had a giant maple tree that hung over the house, more specifically the two nursery's which also blocked all of the after noon sun from the back yard. We decided we'd had enough raking, shade and picking up sticks, so we had it cut down. The tree cutters we had come in meant business. They brought a 25ft crane with them, and took the tree down in 2.5 hours.

Lauren is starting to like Taylor more and more each day, and is very generous with her toys. She even shared one of her favorite monkeys with Taylor.

Taylor continues to be a night owl. She sleeps for most of the day, and stays awake till usually about one or two o'clock. Below are some of her favorite sleeping spots.

Lauren went to the doctor last week. Everything checked out alright. She was in the 80th percentile for height, weight and head circumference. The funniest comment from the doctor was that she said Lauren was "Sturdy." We're still trying to interpret what exactly she meant.

This past weekend we made our first trip to Brainerd with the two girls. We didn't' try to make the trip on our own though. We brought reinforcements. Leah and Ty came in from Chicago and joined us on the ride up. Leah was a blessing to have in the car. She was there to entertain Lauren as well as clean up her puke after she lost her breakfast. Lauren + Barney on an Iphone= puking. Dad took this as a learning experience to completely dismantle the car seat.

Grandma and Grandpa spoiled us as usual. They even stayed up with Taylor until 3am on Saturday so Kerri and I could sleep.

Lauren enjoyed playing outside, but she was disappointed that she couldn't go in the lake. I had to hold her back from trying to jump off of the dock.

For the rest of this week Leah is helping out around the house until she heads back to Chicago on Wednesday. Each day we remind her that Long Lake would be a great place to move to.

Four Weeks

Taylor is now four weeks old. The lack of blog updates is pretty much due to the crazy zoo we have here. At any given time someone is either eating, being changed, being rocked or being played with. But we love it all, even if it means giving up a little sleep. Lauren is currently winning the sleep competition with a nightly average of 11 hours. Mom is currently is last place given she is the main food supplier.

We did have one milestone last night, or maybe anomaly is a better word to use. Taylor slept for 6 hours straight. Unfortunately the sleep started at 8:30 so we only got to take advantage of about 4 of those hours. Hopefully we'll be able to replicate this again tonight.

So what have we been up to the last two weeks:

Grandpa and Grandma Albrecht stopped by for the weekend.

Lauren has started to get a little stir crazy in the house and has more and more energy every day. She has decided that she likes climbing on the furniture and at any given time has a bruise or two to prove it.

We have been taking advantage of going to the park quite a bit. Taylor likes the fresh air and Lauren loves to be outside. Lauren has now learned that if we say we are going to the P - A - R - K it means we are going to the park to play and she brings us her shoes and socks.

This past weekend we went to a new park for Lauren, which also happened to have a lake. We knew Lauren liked the pool but this weekend we found out that she also very much likes the lake. The 70 Degree day heated up the shallow area enough that Lauren played for about 15 minutes in the lake. We ended up trying to bribe her with treats to get her to come out.

Charlie has officially moved out. He has been enjoying his time up in Brainerd and has taken up fishing as his new hobby. Charlie will be coming to visit this weekend, so we'll see if his behavior has changed.

Week Two

Two weeks have flow by fast. I have enjoyed the time with Kerri, Lauren and Taylor.

Aunt Kim had Spring break this week and came out to visit us. Lauren enjoyed hearing her read some stories. Currently Spot is one of her favorite book series.

We took advantage of the nice weather as much as we could. Lauren and Taylor enjoyed our daily treks to the park.

Sunday was Easter. Lauren got to wear her Easter dress, while Taylor stuck with the comfortable sleeper. We went to Aunt Kathleen and Uncle Mike's place for the afternoon along with the rest of family. Taylor wasn't too interested in socializing though, as she slept for most of the afternoon. Lauren loved exploring in the woods with Uncle Mike and Uncle Jim.

Finally on Monday Dad had to go back to work. Kerri wasn't left alone though. Grandma Mary was here to help and on Tuesday evening Grandma Albrecht came down to stay for the rest of the week.

Tuesday the Swiderski's brought us dinner along with their daughter Clair. Lauren thought Clair might need some rocking in her bouncer.

Two proud dad's. Clair is about 6 week older than Taylor.

Things I've learned over the last two weeks.

1. When Asked. "what am I going to do when you go back to work" Don't respond by saying "your going to have to step up your game."

2. Taylor has exceptional pooping power. She could win the distance event if there were such a competition

3. Charlie is getting evicted. His forwarding address will be Merrifield, MN. Home of Grandpa and Grandma Albrecht

4. Lauren is able to give herself a bloody lip simply by falling 5 inches from a kneeling position to a lying position

5. Charlie is overweight according to the vet.....Lauren must be feeding him too many chicken nuggets.

6. The doctor says Lauren needs to cut down on the whole milk. She no longer gets 20oz per day plus meals but instead 12 oz per day plus meals. Maybe now she'll be more interested in eating at meal time

7. Kerri's new favorite treat are candy coated cadberry eggs.

One Week Old

After after a fun filled weekend of visitors I am finally getting a chance to publish another post.

It's hard to believe Taylor is already one week old. This past week as gone by fast. It will definitely be difficult to go back to work on Monday. I've really enjoyed the time that I get to spend with Mom, Lauren and Taylor.

This past weekend Grandma and Grandpa Albrecht, along with Great Grandma Sell came to visit. We really appreciated the extra hands, and Lauren liked spending time with them as well. Historically Lauren has been a Grandpa's girl, but this weekend she decided to latch on to Grandma.

Great grandma Sell enjoyed her time with Taylor, but still loves Charlie. She continues to be his advocate, although he remains on the short list for eviction. He might be headed to a colder climate, were two springer spaniels reside.

In addition to the visiting grandparents Taylor got to meet two of her aunts. Both Aunt Kathleen and Aunt Kelli came to visit. You'll notice how tan they are. On Taylor's birthday both of the aunts were relaxing on the Mexican Riviera. Maybe if we can hold off on having any more kids, we can go next year.

Aunt Leah has been requesting a Web session for a few days now, but given Taylor sleeps all day we haven't been able have one. We might need to start considering scheduling one for 2am.

Taylor continues to enjoy being held at night, but prefers the basset during the day. Fortunately we have a comfortable chair to rock/sleep in. We are hoping this is only temporary.

Life At Home

I was able to get released from the hospital only one day after coming into this world, but before I left I got to have a bath and Grandpa Lynch came to visit me.

In order for me to leave the hospital I had to agree to have a nurse come and visit me the next day at home to make sure my billy bop levels were normal. The first test in the hospital was leading them to believe that I might have some mild Jaundice. Unfortunately the tests came back worse on Wednesday, so I had to go in to the clinic for another billy bop test. Finally after the third test on Thursday, my billy bop levels have stabilized so hopefully I'll start loosing some of my orange tint.

The accommodations are much better at home than the hospital. No one wakes me up from my naps, unless it's time for to eat, and I have mom and dad on call 24/7. My favorite time to be awake is from 11pm to 4am. During this time I eat about every 90 minutes.

My sister Lauren still isn't quite sure what to think about me. When I came home on Tuesday she was pretty shy.

I think she might like me though, because she has already started sharing her books and her treats with me.