Aunt Michelle Visits

Andrew's sister Michelle has been on the east coast, visiting from Seattle, for the past week and we were able to spend some time with her from Friday until Monday, both in NJ and also at our house in PA. She was nice enough to babysit for Benjamin while we were at Lauren's wedding on Friday and from the looks of some of the photos she took, Benjamin really enjoyed his time with his aunt!

Here's a photo of Ben just hanging out in his swing on Friday afternoon while Michelle babysat for him at my parents' house.

Once we were all back in PA, Michelle and I gave Ben a bath so here are a few photos from that. The baby really loves his bath now - he sits up in his infant tub, splashes and plays with all of his bath toys. I bought him a bathrobe last week that he looks really cute in!

Reading the Saturday paper with his dad:

He must have spotted something funny in the circular they're reading. Either that or Aunt Michelle and Mommy are making Ben laugh!:

Showing off all of his fun toys to Aunt Michelle:

Family photos (Barney too, in one of them!):

Having fun laughing, cooing, and smooching with Aunt Michelle!:

"It's so much fun to have a doting aunt to play with and hold me!"

Ben was in a fussy mood on Monday and it seems as if his (soon-to-be) teeth may be hurting him recently, so I decided to try giving him the vanilla-flavored Soothie pacifier that Aunt Loretta Martin had sent to us. Ben used to like a pacifier and then decided he didn't want one at all; some babies in the same situation often prefer the Soothies since they taste good. Unfortunately, he didn't take it too well last week when I first tried it but this time the new "binkie" seemed to be growing on him. He was biting down on it really hard and actually keeping it (somewhat) in his mouth so we're hoping he'll start to enjoy it so that maybe it can help soothe him when he is really starting to teethe!

Finally, Michelle and I did a little shopping on Sunday and found this cute Hawaiian print button-down for Benjamin at Baby Gap so we couldn't resist it (plus it was on sale so we really couldn't resist!). Here's Ben looking cute in his new shirt with some khaki shorts:

We all had such a good visit with Michelle and hope to be able to spend some time with her again very soon!

Lauren and Gordon's Wedding

This past weekend we were in New Jersey to celebrate my cousin Lauren and her fiance Gordon's wedding. I was the Matron of Honor and we all had been looking forward to the day for close to a year and a half, since they were first engaged. Lauren looked beautiful and everything about the day was perfect!

The wedding party was myself, Gordon's sister Patti, my cousin Chris' fiancee April, and Lauren's friend Jessica. For the guys, there were Gordon's brother Andy, my cousin Chris, and two of Gordon's friends, Brian and Chris. Our dresses were such a pretty color green and the flowers looked beautiful with them.

The whole bridal party:

Father of the bride escorting Lauren to the altar:

April during the processional:

Some photos during the ceremony:

Gordon and Lauren during the recessional, followed by myself and Andy Robertson, the Best Man:

Me at the church after the ceremony:

The reception was at Macaluso's in Hawthorne, NJ. The setting was beautiful and the food was delicious -- I've never seen so many hors d'oeuvres and desserts in my life!

Introducing Mr. and Mrs. Gordon Robertson:

A few shots of Andrew and me at Macaluso's:

Lauren and Gordon's first dance - Songbird by Fleetwood Mac:

The Best Man and I both gave toasts to kick the evening off, so here I am giving mine:

The beautiful wedding cake:

My brother Mike's girlfriend, Chang Liu, came to the wedding with us and they both were seated at our table. Here are two photos of Mike and Chang and one of myself and Chang:

Uncle Mike Visits

Today my brother Mike took the day off from work and visited for the day. He hadn't seen Benjamin since he was just over four weeks old so it was nice that he was able to spend some time with us. Here are some photos of Uncle Mike and Ben together:

Bed Head

We thought these were cute photos. Benjamin woke up this morning to this wild case of bed head...it won't comb down for anything! I couldn't help laughing as he lifted his head up to greet me when I went to get him in his crib this morning. His big gummy smile with his sticking up locks made my whole morning!

Retro Blog

Recently, we rediscovered some of Andrew's old baby clothes, toys and books and among them was a striped Santa hat that Andrew wore for Christmas 1977 when he was three months old. As some (all) of you may have noticed, Ben really resembles his dad so we thought it would be fun to post some pictures of father and son sporting the exact same Santa hat, only 29 years apart! Benjamin is four months old, so about a month older than Andrew was at the time. We thought all of you would enjoy seeing some of these "retro" pictures, especially those of you who knew Andrew back then!

See if you can figure out which photos are of Andrew and which are of Benjamin (hint: the complete Santa suit is no longer in existence, merely the hat). We actually think Ben resembles Andrew even more in some of his younger photos so we will have to post some of those soon, too.

Checking out those hands...
Those big eyes...

One final cute one of just Ben - Wheeeeeee!!