April

April was a very different month for the Jewells.  It started out fantastic!  The UK Wildcats won the NCAA basketball tournament and we had a beautiful Easter weekend.  Then, illness struck again...

Let's start with the fun times!

It was a Gr8t Day!  On April 2nd, the University of Kentucky Wildcats won their 8th National Championship!  Elliott and Isaac wore their blue in support all day, but slept through the main event.  Since Meme was staying with us, Bob and I pretended like we were in college and drove to campus to celebrate at the corner of Woodland and Euclid, the place to celebrate with UK fans!

Look who we found!

Isaac and Elliott are 18 months old!  One and a half years!  Time sure does fly!

Sassy!

Sweet!

The perfect combination!

Easter weekend was gorgeous!  We traveled to Lebanon on Good Friday, then to Louisville on Saturday.  While I attended a baby shower, the boys visited Poppy.

When we returned to Lebanon, we took advantage of the beautiful day! 

Love these smiles!

Caution--the following photos contain nudity...scroll fast if you are sensitive to baby bathtub cuteness!  I could not censor everything but thought these were too sweet not to share.

Isaac helping Elliott wash his back

An unprompted hug

Silly boys!

I took a TON of photos on Easter Sunday, so that day will have its own post soon!

Daddy's new entertainment!  Be sure to notice the wheels buckling under the weight!

Brother is a little more reckless than Daddy!

The week after Easter, things started going downhill.  Elliott and Isaac started acting differently and sickly.  The developed mouth sores and had very high fevers.  After three trips to various pediatricians (this exploded the weekend after Easter), Dr. Parrott diagnosed them with cold sores.  He said this was the worst case he has seen... again, lucky Jewell twins.  He said they were in the beginning stages of their first outbreak and they would have several more rough days ahead.  He was not kidding!  When the boys tried to sleep, they woke up every 45 minutes in pain.  It hurt them to eat and drink.  They were so miserable and Bob and I felt so helpless!  It was the worst week of our parenting lives so far!  We just wanted our little guys to feel better quickly!!

Poor little face!

Bob and Elliott spent the evenings on the first floor while Isaac and I stayed on the second floor, hoping one would not wake the other during those rare moments of sleep.

Elliott was so tired, he fell asleep while trying to a snack!

Take the sleep when you can!

Fortunately/unfortunately, their 18-month well child (haha!) visit was scheduled the day after their diagnosis.  Dr. Parrott thought it would be a good idea for us to go ahead and come back in so he could do the milestone evaluations and check on their cold sores again. 

That's the fortunate part--to have such a caring and thoughtful pediatrician. 

The unfortunate part--they were in no mood to be at the doctor again, no mood to participate in their measurements (so may be inaccurate) and no mood for pictures!

Isaac's 18-month stats
Weight:  23 pounds, 12.8 ounces
Length:  32 inches
Head circumference:  49 centimeters

Elliott's 18-month stats
Weight: 24 pounds, 2 ounces
Length: 31.5 inches
Head circumference:  48 centimeters

Somewhere in the middle of all this illness, I had a birthday...at least, I think I did!  We did not celebrate, for very obvious reasons.  Finally, on April 23rd, I opened my gifts and tried to get a photo with the boys.  They were more interested in stealing my Tervis tumblers!

The last weekend of the month, after everyone was finally feeling better, we took another trip to Lebanon.  Here are some cute photos from our visit...

Future Wildcats? 

I thought we had a few years before they began fighting over the car??

We recently had technical difficulties and lost most of our home videos for April and May.  I do have this sweet one to share as I close for the night...