Just some pics

Exactly four weeks old!Such a pimp in this sweaterTiny hands

Happy baby!

1 month!

Since he was born, Grayson...

• Gained about two pounds!
• Began studying everything with wide, open eyes
• Met everyone in the family except Bronwyn, Ted, and Nanell's family
  
• Took his first long-distance road trip
• Showed his Mom just how gassy one little baby can be
• Mastered the arts of eating (finally!), pooping, peeing, and sleeping

New Parents' Guide to Babies

Tip Two: Don't travel with baby until right after
you've fed and changed him.

We took Grayson down to southern Utah over the weekend to meet the rest of my family and enjoy slightly warmer weather. We left SLC Sunday night (February 23) and pretty much drove in a blizzard until after we passed Fillmore. It was awful. Combine that with our first ever long-distance drive with a newborn, and you had a very worried and frazzled Paige in the back seat. I kept worrying that he needed to be changed and fed, even making Josh pull over on a snow-covered freeway so I could check his diaper. We didn't leave until after church got out, so it was dark outside and I went crazy not being able to see him without the interior light on. And need I describe the frustration at trying to pump in the dark? The trip down turned into one of the longest and worst drives I've ever had, and I wasn't even the driver. I'm so grateful to Josh for being so patient with me.

Here is a very boring clip of Grayson peacefully sleeping on our drive back. I fed and changed him right before we left, and he slept the entire 4 hours home. And since it was daylight out, I pumped easily and even got some homework done in the car. I guess it's really not that hard to travel with babies this age, is it?

All in the Family

This is the reason we couldn't name this kid. Every time I look at him, all I can think of is my father.

Grandpa Doug and his Mini-me

It's funny because we look at Grayson and say to ourselves, "He's my father, through and through!" but before my father's name carried these genes, they belonged to his mother's line. My father told me that his mother just looked at him one day and started to cry, because he looked just like her father. What's even wilder to think about is where these genes came from before they reached her family line. And Grayson's body shape actually comes from my mom's mom, and yet I always attribute it to being my current family's trait because that's what I am. And one day, when Grayson has kids, his traits will hang on Josh's last name and mine will join my grandmothers' as inconsequential maiden names that carry no meaning.

No wonder people do genealogy. I'm absolutely fascinated, just looking at this baby, and wondering how many traits of people I've never met he carries with him.

I'm such a shallow mother. I have purposefully avoided posting pictures of the kid on more than one occasion because he wasn't wearing cute clothes. See, I have one million and one super-cute outfits that are far too large for him - the 0-3 months clothes make him look like a drowned rat - so we've been cycling through the same four preemie/newborn size gowns since we came home from the hospital. Very blah.

So God must have felt sorry for the kid, because he sent my dear friend, Rachael, to the rescue. She brought us a slew of darling little outfits to borrow for a few weeks while Grayson puts on some weight and grows into his own clothes (cross your fingers that they'll fit before winter is over). Check out Rach's blog post on February 11 for a little trip down memory lane she recently took of her son Caleb, who was born several weeks early.

Grayson and Rach

Listening intently to Rachael's wisdom

Not buying it, though

Here's Grayson in one of Caleb's outfits. And since he's wearing pants, I put the shoes Pam gave us on as well. Too darling!