Visits and Vaccinations

Last week, Jason's brother, Jim, and his wife, Emily, came up to visit. Emily is expecting their second child in June so they used the trip as a "babymoon" and to visit baby Sam.

Jason and Jim look very similar and I think, by the look of this picture, Samuel was pretty comfortable on Uncle Jim's chest.


Emily had this onesie (along with a burpcloth and a little green hat) custom made for Sam. I put him in it the very next day because I loved it so much!

Burrow males...
We had quite the busy week. I discovered places to breastfeed all over the city!! I thought this statue in the Metropolitan Museum of Art was an appropriate tribute to the afternoon I spent with Sam in a quiet handicapped bathroom stall.
Jim and Em saw 2 shows: "Spiderman" and "Phantom of the Opera." We visited Grand Central Terminal, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and an Italian market called "Eataly." We went to Chinatown and had some amazing hand pulled noodles that we heard about on the Food Network. We had brunch in the middle of the week and made a stop at the maternity store for Emily. But mostly, we talked and spent time with Samuel.

He spent most of the week in his sling but here he is making an "appearance" at dinner one night; or at least his fingers are.

We are so lucky to have such wonderful family who will come visit us. I guess it helps that the city we live in is such a hot ticket item!
Here's one for the grandparents' mantle! Thank goodness New York City is such a "small" town; we ran into a friend, Shannon, outside Central Park and she snapped this shot of all 5 of us. Thanks for the visit, guys!
Our friends Neil and Michelle came by last weekend with their daughter, Tabitha. She's 18 months and completely adorable. She made sure all of Samuel's toys were suitable by going through all of them and playing with them. And when Sam finally made an appearance, she really enjoyed lightly tugging on his little tufts of hair. He didn't even notice...
Vaccinations!! Samuel got his first set this week. I thought I'd be a little more torn up watching him go through this but I was actually ok. Poor little guy.
It's ok!! It's all for good; I promise!
And here are some more "angelic" shots I took one day while he lounged on his changing table. He loves that thing! He could spend the whole day there if I would let him.

Grandparent pictures

The following are all pictures taken with someone else's camera. Both of my parents have been here in the past month and these are some of the shots they got with their camera.

This was taken right as they took Samuel out of the operating room to the nursery to get all cleaned up. So fresh!!

And here we all are leaving the hospital. Notice my camera around my neck. I'm pretty sure I didn't take any more pictures after this moment. I was too busy walking slowly down the hall because of my c-section scar.

Thank goodness my mom was there to take pictures of all the important moments!

Jason's sister, Juli, and her husband Josh were kind enough to help us home in their car. It was so nice to not worry about a cab with all the car seat drama.
This is a present I made for Jason to give to him at the hospital. It's a sling I designed and made especially for him. It's wool pinstripe suit fabric on the outside and a blue plaid shirting fabric on the inside- very manly.
I spent most of my downtime like this once I got home. And our cat, Gypsy, was just so unsure of the new screaming meatloaf we had brought home, she tended to stay close to me to feel safer.
Do all babies look like old men at first?

So after my mom left in February, we had to start talking about when we could get my dad up here to meet Samuel. He came up in mid-march to spend a long weekend meeting his grandson.
We got out and about a lot! Samuel's firsts are very exciting. Baby's first park avenue visit!
I got a sling for me to "wear" Samuel in. He pretty much loves it. I only wear it if I'm going to be out a pretty short time and the stroller really isn't feasible.
Peek-a-boo!!
And Jason can wear it too! Sam really loves it. He just snuggles down and passes out.
Baby's first NYC subway ride! This isn't really his first but oh well. He's definitely used to it.

Our friend, Caroline, had a birthday while my dad was here so we all went down to have brunch with her and a bunch of friends. Samuel was a hit...and fairly well behaved.

We're very grateful that Samuel has met both sets of his grandparents. Love you guys!!

Happy 1-month!

Our friend, Bobby, has been out of town since last summer and recently returned. He came over tonight with our other friend, Aaron, to meet Samuel so I got Aaron to snap a few shots of the great "meeting".

This one looks like Sam's singing to him. HA!

Nice to meet you, Aunt Bobby!!
And my dear friend, Jenni, came to visit last week. We have such amazing friends here who have been and continue to be so supportive. We are completely blessed and so thankful for all of them.

Last weekend our friend, Jamie, surprised Jason by flying up for a quick weekend in the city. His boss down in Arkansas sent him up here for a conference. I knew about it all week and had to keep it secret from Jason. He was soooo surprised. Well done, Jamie!

More supportive friends: This is Caroline, another friend from the barn. She has been amazing during this whole process. She was our unofficial "doula" the last few weeks of my pregnancy. She would go for walks with me and talk with me about the birth process.

She's great with babies so we will probably be calling her ALL THE TIME to babysit. We love you Caroline!!
And now, the main attraction. I snapped a few shots today to commemorate the 1-month birthday. They're a little rough but he's still pretty good looking. Pay no attention to the slight face rash. Silly newborn rash...it disappears as fast as it appears.

I kept some of the little white shirts the hospital put him in. I think they make him look like Obi Wan Kenobi. The force is strong with this one.


This is a sweater that our friend Louie's mom made for Samuel. I've never met Louie's mother and I almost cried when he brought it over. I thought it was so sweet that she made us something when we've never met her.







And...cloth diapers!! I'm pretty excited about this venture. There's a service here in New York that drops off clean diapers and picks up dirty ones every week. You pay a weekly fee and they basically take care of the rest.

Every monday night, we put out the dirty diapers from the week. Sometime between 9pm and 4am, someone comes to our apartment door and takes our dirty diapers and drops off clean ones for the next week. Very exciting. I remember using cloth diapers with my baby brother, Grant, and I loved feeling like I was doing a little something to help the environment.

Marymount's show this year is "Hairspray". I took Samuel to rehearsal a few saturdays ago and he was a hit!! He was such a good baby. I wore my sling and he just slept all day, even through most of the big group numbers!


These kids are so awesome. They're very well-adjusted and so mature! They feel more like friends, than highschool students.

Aren't these two cute?! They're dating off stage. Who doesn't love a good show-mance?!