Matthew's Wonderful Week with Family!

Cousin Grace and Aunt Bonnie came to stay for a week. Matthew thoroughly enjoyed the company, the extra smiles, the bath time help and added stories. Matthew spent some quality time with Daddy while the girls headed to the ocean to enjoy the scenery and fresh air. Matthew spent more time with Daddy when Grace and I went rock climbing, go cart racing, bat cage hitting, lazer tag chasing and mini golfing. Matthew's favorite part about the week had to be the aquarium. Cousin Grace held him up to see the sharks, which startled him (and her!). He LOVED the little orange turtles swimming about the cage. He fell asleep during the neat sea lion show and saw a bit of the beluga whales. He loved it so much I suckered into buying an annual pass so I can take him to walk around more often.

Grace was such a joy to have. She has matured over the years and was such a great help. She cleaned without being asked, cooked when she saw I was behind, and really helped out during bath time fun! She even spoiled cousin Matthew with additional toys and books.

We went to the casino and again left Matthew at home. It was nice just being able to walk around with the girls. We all spent a day at the seaport, Matthew in tow. He was a bit cold until after a feeding I realized I had a snow suit in the truck. Once he was bundled and in my carrier, he was happy the rest of the day. We saw giant whaling ships. Matthew even opened his eyes in the sunshine! That's a first!

Unfortunately, we also hit other firsts this week--Teething! Matthew has started to teeth. This has caused not only mouth pain, but ear pain, excess drooling, and a very runny nose! Aunt Bonnie was the savior when she was able to rock him, get him to eat from his bottle (nursing was a no-go!) and informed us to give him tylenol and orajel. Both seemed to do the trick! He was cranky all night and all the next morning. I attribute the next morning crankiness to the fact that his two favorite people had to get on the airplane and go home. But all in all, we had one majorly fantastic week!

Matthew is a smiling happy little man. 15 weeks 2 days now and his weight one week ago was 10 lbs 9 oz. He's definitely a bundle of awesomeness!