The First Six Weeks

Wow! The first six weeks of Garrett's life have flown by! We've had so many visitors and had such a great time. I'll try to catch everyone up to where we are today.

The first two weeks were spent mostly in bed bonding with both Matt and me. It was a blissful time and one that we will never forget.

Matt's grandparents happened to be in town the second week of Garrett's life and came over a few times. It was great to see them and to show Garrett off. Seeing three generations together is always fun. Willie, Jen & Kyle were with them too! Kyle was soo sweet to Garrett, giving gentle kisses and being a bit shy.

Our neighbors Gabby & Paolo stopped by as well, Gabby gave birth to their second child, Isabel, 13 days after Garrett was born. We'd had a grand time being pregnant together. When it was ridiculously hot a few weeks before the babies came we filled Teo's kiddy pool up with cold water and sat on the porch with our feet dipped in, we got many laughs from the neighbors. We were quite a site with our huge bellies! We had an impromptu tapas party the night before Garrett was born, and will have many, many more now that both babies are here.

Pauline & Toby came and brought Zachary's Pizza (one of my favorites)! We bored them, I'm sure, with Garrett's birth story and constant baby chatter.

Katrina and Micah brought Papalote (YUM!) burritos to celebrate Cinco de Mayo! Here's a shot of Matt and his 2 burritos.

My mom came out the weekend before Matt went back to work to help me out. She was here for two weeks and did all manner of cooking, cleaning and laundry. A real godsend! I was able to focus on Garrett and not have to worry about how I was going to get my next meal! Garrett loved having her here too; he did lots of gazing and smiling at his grandma and vice versa.

The first day she was here we went to the annual Awakenings picnic, it was our first outing and though it was shortlived (it was cold and windy) we had a great time seeing all of the babies and parents!

The next day was Mother's Day, we headed down the hill to a restaurant for brunch with my mom! It was nice to celebrate my first Mother's Day with my own mom.

Matt's transition back to work was hard for me, I had gotten used to having him around. No surprise to me, he is a fantastic dad. I knew that I would be falling in love with my baby during this time, but I had no idea that I would also be falling deeper in love with my husband. His evening routine after returning to work became to come through the door and before even setting down his briefcase he would grab the camera and tripod and declare that we had the cutest baby in the world and start snapping away!

Ed, Jenni and Thorn stopped in to say hello and bring all sorts of goodies!

Susan and Randy, expecting a baby girl in September, came by with a wonderful Mexican meal!

Claudia dropped by and delivered an amazing Mac & Cheese dish.

Darcy came over for dinner one evening and Garrett was lost in her arms for most of the visit!

The weekend before my mom was to leave my Grandmother, Lolly, my dad and my sister joined us. We had a great time introducing Garrett to them.

Lolly made Garrett the cutest duck blanket, he loves to lay on it and stare up at his mobile.

My dad got to meet his namesake and it was fun to see Garrett interacting with everyone. By this time he had started deliberately smiling and cooing at people.

We were joined for lunch by my Great Aunt Jeanne and second cousin Ted, it's always fun seeing them!

Before my parent's left we threw them a 40th anniversary dinner - it was a surprise to my mom and I would say a success gauging by the tears!

Over the next week my sister, Jennifer, and I lounged about the house and basically did nothing. It's safe to say that Garrett fell in love with her. Maybe it's because she makes all kinds of silly noises or because she dresses him up in funny homemade t-shirts. In either case, it was amazing to see his reaction to her!

We went on a hike the last day that Jen was here, it felt great to be back to doing the things that I did before Garrett was born. We brought Gus, and although it was a challenge to figure out the seating arrangement in the car, it was well worth it! We all needed the fresh air and sunshine!

This last week has been a good one for me. I've been alone during the days for the first time and am becoming more confident about going out with Garrett. Just thinking of packing up all the gear for a short trip to the store made we reevaluate if the trip was even necessary - do we really need milk that bad? How important is going to the post office? I finally got over the hurdle and decided that getting out and about WAS essential regardless of the reason. I'm learning that Garrett doesn't love the car seat, but will calm down if the windows are open. He falls asleep pretty quickly when put into the Ergo Baby and generally likes being in motion.