Sunday, August 16, 2009

Meeting Benjamin

Laura finally had her baby on Monday, August 10 at 7:21 pm. We knew that, because of work, we wouldn't be able to go to see her and the baby until the weekend after he was born. I took off the Friday after he was born (August 14) so that we could leave Thursday night to go a see him. We left Thursday about 4:00 do make the drive to my dad's house. They live in Flowery Branch, about 20-30 minutes north of my sister. We were staying with them so that they could spend some time with Lorelai (they haven't seen her in about 3 weeks) and because Laura and Gino didn't want any overnight visitors at their house.

Lorelai in the car on the way to Atlanta!

She loves her blankey!

We got in around 8:45 on Friday night to my dad's, so obviously we didn't go to see my sister until Friday morning. He is beautiful! His name is Benjamin Charles Marotta. My dad's name is Charles, so he was super excited to have a grandson carry that name. Here is proud Uncle Matt with his new (and only) nephew!


Holding him, I really can't believe that my baby is so big already. I remember her being this small and holding her like this while laying on the couch. We used to do that every day. Now, she won't snuggle like this at all. On the other hand, it is hard for me to believe that my baby was even SMALLER than this. They just grow so fast!


Of course, Lorelai was being a ham as usual. She was in love with her Daddy's Boston hat on Friday and wouldn't stop playing with it. We put it on her and she looked so cute, as usual.



I was so excited to be there and spend time with my sister because, for the last six months, we've been in very different places. People who do not have kids can't really understand the lives of people who do. Well, we are finally in the same place now - we are BOTH mommy's! Here are the two sisters and the two cousins. They wont be this different in size for long!


Benjamin is just so cute and snugly! I showed Laura and Gino how to swaddle him using the swaddleme and he seemed to really like it! He slept like a rock the whole time he was swaddled. They also put him in his boppy chair for the first time while we were there. We have the girl version of this for LL and we still use it all the time. I think they'll like it as much as we do. Ben seems to already like it!



Laura also asked me to show her how to bathe Benjamin while we were there. He was awake for his whole bath and he did a great job! I think he liked the sound of the running water because he didn't fuss at all the entire bath! He did great and looked so cute snuggled up in his ducky towel afterwards. We also took him outside and sat on the back patio after his bath. He has a pretty bad case of jaundice, so he really needs to be in the sunlight as much as possible. We just left him in his towel and went outside to sit. I propped my feed up on a table, laid him on my legs, unwrapped him from the waist up and we just sat and talked for about 20 minutes. He was so happy the whole time! He was still awake from his bath and he just faded in and out of sleep while we were out there. He would sleep a little and then wake up a little and look at everything around him. He is such a sweet boy!



Laura holding her son and her niece!


Lorelai did so good with Ben while we were there! She did try to grab him a lot and we had to stop her, but she was also very sweet with him. She would even kiss him on the head when we asked her to and she was VERY gentle! It was the sweetest thing ever!

First picture of just the cousins!

Giving kisses to Ben!


When we got back to dad's on Friday evening, we decided to take a walk down their street in the stroller. LL LOVES to be pushed in her stroller so she had an absolute blast. The house that dad just bought came with a little swing set, so we took some time to swing, too.


The swing set also had a slide attached. I have swung at church with LL before, but she's never been down a slide before. Matt tested it out first to make sure that it was okay before I took Lorelai down.



What nobody reminded me of was proper sliding technique. It has been YEARS since I've gone down a slide and I've obviously forgotten a few things. First, this slide doesn't seem like much, but after I hit the first bump, my speed on this thing tripled! We were going so fast! As the picture shows, I obviously think I'm on the world's scariest roller coaster or something. Also, I forgot that you're just supposed to put your feet down at the end to stop. Or I was just going too fast to remember. Either way, I didn't do it. When I hit the bottom, my feet stayed out straight in front of me and LL and I went flying! I flew out about 6 inches from the bottom of the slide before I landed smack on my butt. All I could think was "Don't land on my baby, don't land on my baby!". Well, I didn't! But when I hit the ground, I could NOT stop laughing! I think I was laughing so hard that the neighbors could here. Matt said they could. And of course he just kept taking pictures the whole time. I think they're pretty cute, though. :)











Saturday morning we headed over to Laura and Gino's again. We stayed and visited until about 2:30. We left and went to Discover Mills so that we could get LL some 9 month clothes at the Carter's Outlet there. Everything there is ALWAYS on sale! She didn't have very many 9 month clothes so we've been trying to buy some along and along. Now that fall/winter stuff is coming out, it is much easier. We got her so many cute things. I can't wait for her to get bigger so that she can wear them! At the same time, those clothes look so huge and I can't believe that she'll be that big in just 3 months!

Lorelai in her borrowed stroller (from Grammy) at Discover Mills.


We also stopped at the Bass Pro in Macon so that Matt could do some shopping. I decided to wear LL in and very quickly into it I realized that this is the last time that I can do this. She is so heavy! After about 10 minutes my neck was killing me! From now on, Matt will have to do all the baby wearing.



She loved looking at the fish in the aquarium!

I don't know why, but she looks so cross-eyed in this picture!

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