Real Easter

First- good news from our pediatrician appointment yesterday- both boys are doing great! They are both gaining weight very steadily. Ben is now 8lbs 60z and Jack is up to 7lbs 10oz! Even better news for me is that we don't have to go back for a month! We are so happy that they are doing so well. The pediatrician explained that with a lot of preemies, they use a separate chart for height and weight than they do for full term babies, but they don't need to do that for our boys since they are doing so well. Granted, they are in 3rd and 5th percentile for weight, but at least they are on the 'regular' chart! It's such a contrast to Mairead who has consistently been in the 90s for height and weight percentile. But, I think the boys will get there, too!

For 'real' Easter Sunday, we went to Lee and Jean's house- thanks, Lee and Jean! Both boys had their very cute little while outfits that my mom bought them, and they each a cute Easter bib from their aunt, Katie. They were very well behaved for our visit. Can you guess which one is which?

(If you said Jack first, then Ben, you are right!)

Mairead was also dressed up for the occasion in an adorable dress that my mom found. And, of course, she had to have a hat to match. She LOVES the hat. She was wearing it around our house prior to Easter, even with pajamas, and insists on wearing it still. She looked very 'Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm' in these pictures. She is just beautiful and we are so amazed by her every day.

Once again, we have messy pictures of Mairead eating. This time it was cake. Also, she said the word 'cake' for the first time on Sunday... she has a lot of new words lately including cake, hat, hot, car, and bubbles. Also, she is saying 'thank you' all the time, which we are very proud to see. She is learning to use 'thank you' to get what she wants, though. For instance, she will bring me her empty juice cup and say, 'thank you,' which means that I am supposed to fill it up again. How can I say no?

These pictures are from the day after Easter when she went out to play with Dave, but would not go without the hat. Looks cute enough from behind, right? Well...

How about now?

It was chilly so she needed to wear her warm hat, but she wouldn't go without the Easter hat, so she put it on her head on top of her winter hat and wore it that way. She is so damn cute!

Thanks to all of you for checking in! Enjoy the nice weather this weekend- we definitely will!

Monaghan Easter

Also affectionately referred to as 'Fake Easter,' we celebrated the holiday on Saturday this year. We tend to have our holidays whenever we can get everyone together, and we don't mind moving them.... except Christmas... you don't mess with Christmas.

Anyway, this was the boys' first trip up to Lowell. I hadn't been there myself since early February so it was a long time coming! We loaded up the van with the ten thousand things we needed and headed up 93. Everyone was very well behaved for our first long car trip with all three kids.

The boys were very happy to pose for pictures- even this one with the giant Easter Bunny. Ben is on the left, Jack on the right.


They are pretty good about having their eyes open for pictures. If you have tried to get good pictures of ONE newborn with his eyes open, think about trying to get good pictures of two with their eyes open at the same time- no small feat!


Mairead also had a few Easter Bunny pictures, but she was more interested in taking apart the eggs than she was in looking at the camera. I really wanted pictures of all three kids together, but Mairead has better things to do, apparently.

After dinner on Saturday we had a visit from lots of Donahues! Thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Donahue, Josh, Becky, and Ailish for coming to visit (you too, Christin!). It was great to see everyone and it was fun to watch the girls together. For those of you who don't know, Josh has been a friend of mine since 7th grade, and now his daughter is only 4 months younger than Mairead, so maybe we have started the next generation of friends! It also works out really well since we love the Donahue family, and now that Brian and Christin are dating, we get to see them a lot more.

They put their heads together for this puzzle. Mairead was pretty good about sharing, but some of the puzzle pieces Ailish had seemed to end up in Mairead's hands.

This was Mairead's first introduction to the giant stuffed bunny. I love when she is this excited- it show you what pure joy and excitement look like.

She was also very excited about desserts. That is cupcake frosting she is wearing.

She also loved the sugar cookies Katie made that were shaped and decorated to look like bunnies. Two desserts in one day- it was a good day for Mairead!

Isn't it awful- I have no idea which baby Mike is holding. In my defense, I can't really see his face. I swear, I really can tell them apart!

Mairead LOVED Jen's boots. When she first saw them she got this look of amazement on her face and ran over to touch them.

She also loved her hat. She had been wearing it around the house in the week prior to Easter, and she has been wearing one at home since Easter ended, too. I'll post those pictures as well as pictures of 'real' Easter Sunday when I re-charge my camera battery

While in Lowell, Nana gave baths to Ben and Jack. Ben loved it in the big sink- he actually fell asleep while he was in there! Jack (in this first photo) was his usual self- looking around very curiously at what was going on.

Ben could not have cared less what was going on- he was so relaxed!

Thanks to everyone for a great Monaghan Easter- it was fun to see everyone and to spend time with our family and all of our kids. We went to Lee and Jean's for Easter Sunday and I will post pictures of that day (and Mairead's other cute Easter dress) when I can. Hope that everyone had a great Easter weekend!