Alexander's First Airplane Flight, Trip to Colorado, and First Time Meeting Grandma, Grandpa, & Uncle Matt

My brother Matt decided to visit my mom in Colorado as a surprise for her birthday and invited me and Alexander along. (We were afraid Benjamin might accidentally rip the PICC line out of my mom's arm). There was a blizzard on Thursday night when we were supposed to go. We rescheduled for Saturday morning. I'd never been away from Benjamin for more than 16 hours when he's spent the night at Gram and Gramp's (Ryan's parents) so I was a little worried to be away. He didn't miss me too much... just wanted me to bring him home a present. I brought Sarge's Boot Camp Doc and Sheriff from Grandma and Grandpa and that was a satisfactory gift to make up for my trip. Ryan was great and worked long hours for two weeks so he would only have to work 1/2 days while I was gone.

Alexander slept most of the flight. Benjamin would have nursed the whole flight at that age. I am much less of a human binky (I swore I'd never use that word) to Alexander. He'd take an artificial pacifier over me most of the time unless he's hungry.
I had to take Alexander out of the sling because according to the FAA it's apparently safer to have a loose baby flying around the cabin in the event of an emergency than a baby strapped securely to his mother.

Matt got into CO on Friday night and hid out at the Trilca's then drove their SUV to pick us up at the airport on Saturday morning. My mom saw us out the window of the house behind the hospital they were staying at in Ft. Collins and thought we were Jehovah's Witnesses because she couldn't imagine who would be visiting them unannounced. She ran back to change out of her pajamas and we walked in. She was very surprised.
For a woman who recently had brain surgery, she looks great!!! You're an amazing woman Mama!

At the Zoo

We met a few of the the Bradley Girls at the zoo. Benjamin was off by himself for a lot of the time while the girls played together... I wonder if he'll have "cooties" as they all get older.

Family Portraits

My mom wanted a family photo for her birthday and we didn't have time to get professional pictures taken.

I'm not sure if Ryan pinched Alexander to make him smile or what, but it's pretty funny.

Our boys!

More Benjamin Photography

Benjamin really needs his own camera!

Alexander Smiles!

Alexander really smiled for the first time today. Sister Tomi Barrett was visiting teaching at our house and got some huge grins out of Alexander. She said it was because of her Japanese accent. I think it's because she loves babies.

Benjamin Built His Own Track

I've been slacking on our blog and have a month's worth of posts to update.

This was the first track Benjamin built by himself. I only had to add/rotate 3-4 pieces to make it a loop.

A Day I Thought I'd Never See

I've been out of the AF for 2 years as of last month and had yet to see a going away gift. I was pretty bitter about the whole thing, which I shouldn't have been because I am so blessed, but I had paid $175 in Squadron dues, there was a photo of me holding Oz's who left at the same time I did and I was promised one. I contacted someone from the Squadron about the litho for the last time a year ago who almost made it feel like I was begging for a gift. As I write this it seems a bit trite and I was mostly over the whole thing by now.

Anyway, Ryan had been talking for months about how he was going to find out what was going on with it. I kind of brushed it off becuase I figured he wouldn't follow through. (He had mentioned it enough times without acting). So he just got called as Young Men's President in our new ward at church and mentioned that he needed to be better about following through. He said that he had called the 45th a week ago and asked around about it. Today he brought the litho home. My guess is that it did get ordered a year ago and no one bothered to call and let me know it was in. Surely there wasn't a week turn around for it.

Anyway, it was a huge surprise. Ryan is an amazing husband! It's funny becuase he keeps saying "And you have a litho" everytime he sees me. He's the one who took the photos of it. So there you have it. I have closure. The sad thing is that there isn't a spot on the wall in our office for it, so I'm not sure if it will get hung up.

It's been a month already?

Alexander is one month old today. The month has flown by.

He likes to be carried around all the time still and doesn't like the swing nearly as much as Benjamin did. Maybe it will grow on him. I have discovered that he sleeps fairly well sitting in front of the running dryer. Maybe I'll be able to get some ironing done that way.
He met Great Grandma Royster and "Poppa the Great" for the first time.