Reese loses her first tooth

Friday was a big day.  First, Emily's surgery and then Reese's loose tooth was just allllmooost ready to come out so Daddy just yanked it out.  Here's the proud girl with her new smile.  By the next morning she was $2 richer.  Apparently the tooth fairy has kept up with inflation.

 Soren is our first thumb sucker.  Adorable and actually kind of practical given that he is able to self soothe instead of waking me up :)

Love this one of Asher and Soren sharing a brother bonding moment.

Contrast that with this other brother bonding moment circa late 1984:

Emily has eye surgery

Emily had her eye muscle surgery on Friday (to correct her wandering/lazy eyes).  She has the problem in both eyes so had two muscles in each eye cut and then reattached to correct the alignment of her eyes.  The surgery was in Missoula so CK and I got up early and drove with Emily Friday morning.  Here she is in pre-op in her cute little tiger gown.

The surgery (and the anesthesia, which I was more worried about) went fine.  Immediately post surgery she was a bit agitated but fell right asleep in daddy's arms (see below) while we hung out for monitoring for an hour or so.

After that she was cranky, but otherwise ok (just starving since she wasn't allowed to eat after midnight and it was now 1p).  She gobbled up some applesauce and graham crackers and we headed home.  This is a picture from the car ride home with our smiling (and now straight-eyed) little girl clutching her surgical teddy bear.  The staff at the surgery center was great and overall it was a pretty easy experience.  Definitely more anxiety leading up to the day than the actual day itself, but I'm still relieved it's over.

 Emily will still wear her glasses for farsightedness and we'll monitor her vision.  This may not be the end of her eye fun but she's happy and healthy so we're happy.

Smiling kids

Nothing's better than a bunch (and yes, we now have what I believe qualifies as a "bunch") of kids smiling and laughing.  They're not always this cute with each other but when they are I try to take pictures to get me through the other times :)

 Soren's getting more animated (and, in my completely unbiased opinion, more adorable) every day.  Some recent smiles:

 And a picture of the boys doing tummy time together.

New nephew

Hunter William Lageman arrived last week (May 21st)!  Our newest nephew has a lot of hair and luckily looks like his Mommy so far (just kidding Dan).  We're thrilled everyone is happy and healthy.  3 down, 1 to go... ;)  Congratulations Dan and Venus and welcome to parenthood!

Sarah's baby shower

CK, Soren and I headed to Connecticut this weekend for Sarah's baby shower.  We stopped in Minneapolis for one of my projects and had lunch with CK's friend Mike, whom we hadn't seen in years.  It was a great trip and MANY MANY thanks to Jan for watching the other 3 kids so we could have a relaxing trip.  Soren was an easy traveler and it was great to see all of my siblings and my Mom since I don't see them often enough.  Here are some pictures from the fun weekend:

Soren testing out baby Salling's new swing (which is really more like a baby roller coaster)

Diaper four-wheeler

the amazing cake (A Little Imagination Cakes, Middletown, CT)

Becca, Judy, Alison (and Robin)

The amazing elephant minky blanket from Aunt Kim

the proud parents-to-be

Mom introducing Robin to the Tiffany's blue box....uh oh

Fred and Sarah got me a beautiful necklace

The youngest four grandchildren...two in...two out

Judy, Nick, Robin, Alison and Steve

Big Sister and Bigger Sister