Welcome, Benjamin James: Already 7 Weeks Old!!

Surprise, surprise!! Benjamin is still growing like a champ. At group today he weighed in at a whopping 11 pounds 10 ounces!! And, while we were at group - he had a major blowout! Poop came up the back of his diaper and dripped out. He was only wearing a diaper! Luckily - it only got on my nursing cover and the floor - somehow I stayed clean! Since then, we have bought a new brand of diaper that has a flap in the back to catch those types of poops!!

On to other news. We made our first long car ride over the holiday weekend. We went back to see my family. On the way there, we broke up the trip and stayed in North Liberty on Thursday night. The trip went very well. We only had to stop 2 times for feedings and Benjamin didn't get too fussy!!

Then, Friday morning we headed up to Waukon to have lunch with a neighbor lady. After lunch, it was off to a friend's house for pictures! I can't wait to see how they turn out... she does an amazing job! Then, my entire family joined up at Mom & Dad's for a barbecue, bonfire and fireworks. This was very exciting as Dad, Brad, Kyle and all of the kids hadn't seen Ben yet! We had a very nice night!

Saturday afternoon, we headed down to my Grandma Shea's house for some baked goods! She spoiled us rotten and Benjamin got to meet Great Grandma, Great Aunts Teresa & Mary Jo, and cousin's Geoffrey & Patrick. After some sweets at Grandma's it was off to Arlington for a picnic in the park with the Fedeler's. It was unseasonably cool outside - so we had to keep Benjamin snuggled up in his blanket... but he did just great!!

Sunday morning - we hit the road again for Kansas City. This time, we made the 7 hour trip in one leg! And, Benjamin did so well. We stopped a couple of times for him to eat and for us to use the restroom. He only had one fussy meltdown and we pulled onto an off ramp to soothe him. As soon as we put him back in his carseat after he cooled off - he fell right asleep. I spent a lot of time in the back seat with Ben - but it was worth it.

Oh - Benjamin started smiling and cooing at us over the weekend. Steph & Grandma ended up getting several smiles out of him!!

Here are some pictures from the weekend: