Dad's Bday BBQ

We celebrated Dad's Birthday and Grandpa & Grandma's Anniversary with a BBQ last weekend. Great spending time with family and delicious food. Enjoy the pictures!

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He Smiles :)

Grady has started smiling all the time! It's so adorable, especially the huge open mouth smiles. He's full of "coo's" lately too. His new thing the past couple days is to blow spit bubbles. He's getting big so fast. I took him to the doctor last week to check on his baby acne :( and he already weighs 12 lbs 8 oz!!

This is one of his first smiles, it's a little one but I love that he's smiling at me!

Grady's First Bath

We were anxious to give Grady his first bath after his umblical cord fell off and his circumcision healed....he wasn't so anxious! We were able to get a few pictures before he started having a fit, this boy does not like to be naked.

Grady gets kisses from his big brother everywhere!

Mmm...S'mores!

We brought out the fire pit on one of our sunny evenings to introduce Dawson to s'mores. I had a couple mini heart attacks when he got too close to the fire, but he had a blast chasing the smoke and yelling "hot!" Grady took part in the fun also, he's zipped up in my jacket sleeping :) Mmmmm!!!!

My Cute Little Sleeping Bums

Happy Mother's Day

So it's a little late but we had a great day! I spent the morning playing with my two boys and once Chad woke up (he's still on night shifts) we took a picnic to Fairhaven Park. We lucked out, it was a beautiful day and the park was practically empty. We sat on the grass and had a yummy lunch then spent the rest of the afternoon playing and walking around. I'm so lucky to have my two beautiful healthy boys and a wonderful husband to celebrate Mother's Day with!

Dawson really tried to climb this little rock wall on his own but couldn't quite do it.

He'd stand up at the bottom of the slide so he could jump off.

How cute are they?

Oh, and my Mother's Day present...a gift certificate for 3 massages!! Exactly what I need after being pregnant with the big boy Grady! When we finally got home that evening both boys passed out together on the couch.

Precious!

A Little Update

Life as a family of four is going great! Very, very busy but that is to be expected. Dawson is still loving his baby brother and to this point has been behaving well besides a few meltdowns. Right now Chad, Dawson and Grady are all napping so I'm either going to join them or attempt to tackle the mountain of laundry that has accumulated in a few short days. Here are some pictures of what we have been up to...

So sweet and cuddly when they sleep!

The first outing with both boys-my mom and I went to Costco.

Daddy & Dawson sporting their new aprons from Debbie to cook Mom and baby dinner.

Dawson's not sure what to think of Chad working night shifts during this turnaround. He knows he's behind the closed door but that he's not allowed in. This is what I saw when I looked down the hall a couple days ago, I think Dawson wanted to read books with his daddy.

Grady's napping spot: a blanket on the kitchen table with his boppy. I can't leave him anywhere alone that is within Dawson's reach.

This picture really reminds me of Dawson! I'll have to dig up the almost identical one with Dawson in this same hat.

Grandma gave Grady his first bottle while we were out celebrating Great Grandma Hope's birthday.

Dawson feels like such a "big boy" to me now that Grady is here. It's made me realize that my other baby is getting all grown up. We went to Fairhaven the other day to enjoy the sun and instead of riding in the stroller Dawson wanted to walk with Daddy.

The Toy Garden in Fairhaven, Chad loves the idea of him & Dawson learning to play the guitar together someday.

Love this!! Dawson has discovered pockets recently and is always walking around with one hand or both tucked in.

It's a BOY!!

We are proud to introduce our new baby boy, Grady Michael Bennett. Grady was born by c-section on April 24 at 2:37pm.

He weighed 9 lbs 6 oz and was 20 3/4" long.

For those who haven't heard the story...I had a doctor appt on the 23rd and my doctor said that I had grown a very big baby and it was still very high up and was not showing any signs of wanting to come out on it's own. Since I was already a week overdue and baby was only going to keep growing the doctor gave me the decision to wait it out (max another week to see what baby would do), get induced (because my body was not favorable he did let me know that I had a 50-70% chance of it ending in an emergency c-section) or just choose to do the c-section. I had a lot of concerns about getting a c-section, mainly on how it would effect my ability to lift and play with Dawson once we were back home, but I didn't like my odds with the other choices.

When we got home from the doctor appt we were able to pack our hospital bags and make arrangements for Dawson without the crazy rush we had expected. Of course I hardly slept at all knowing that the following day we were going to have a new baby in our life. We had to call at 6am to make sure there was a room and nurse available at the hospitals childbirth center...there was not. So we were told to call back at 8:30...just to find out again that they were very busy and still had no room. At this point we were already at my parents dropping Dawson off and to have to sit and wait not knowing if we were going to get to go in or not was so difficult, Chad was pacing back and forth. Finally at about 12 we got a call from my doctor telling us to head in.

The best word I can think of while I was getting prepped for the c-section is "terrifying". It was really difficult to willingly walk into a small, sterile, scary room knowing what was about to happen to me. The only thing that got me through was knowing I was minutes away from meeting the baby I had been growing for the last 41 weeks. Chad sat by my side until the doctor held baby up over the sheet and said "Look what it is!" A gorgeous baby boy. It felt right. Dawson was going to have a little brother that one day I hope he will be best friends with.

My parents brought Dawson to the hospital and he got to come in on his own first to meet his little brother. When he walked in he pointed at Grady, smiled and instantly wanted Chad to lift him up to give Grady a kiss.

A happy mama with her two boys!

That's all I have time for now. I'll try to post soon to update how life is going as a family of four. The next post below has all our pictures from the hospital and our first couple days at home.

Grady Michael

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