Grandparents!

We are all so excited to have Grammy and Grumpy Shepherd here for two weeks! Ben was so wound up when they arrived on Thursday that he wore himself out well before dinner. He hadn't had so much attention in weeks and he was thrilled. Baby Alex has had no shortage of welcoming arms to sleep in but hasn't seemed to notice anything different otherwise. It's wonderful to have so much time to spend together with my parents and watch them enjoy their grandsons.

Here are some pictures from the past week. I'm hoping that I'll finally get myself organized now that Ben has other sources of entertainment and I'll be a little better about posting!

Alex is growing like crazy. He was 8lbs 12oz last Tuesday, so he really has put on 2lbs since he was born. Unfortunately, we were at the doctor to check out a weird bump on the back of his neck and it turned out to be some kind of infection. He's been on two different antibiotics all week (7 doses a day, all around the clock) and we've seen a lot of improvement, but he still had to suffer through having the infection cut open and cleaned yesterday. Poor baby! He was not happy about that at all.

Both of our boys! This is still about as interested as Ben gets, although he was handing out free high fives to everyone yesterday and he even included Alex so maybe they're becoming friends.

Ben's old froggy pacifier is becoming a permanent fixture on Alex's face. I like it because Alex can hold on to it and I'm not constantly popping the pacifier back into his mouth.

We got a package full of goodies from Grandma and Grandpa Kirkham and Ben was so excited to try on some new clothes and decorate himself with stickers. We heard "more stickies" all afternoon!

And finally....the grandparents arrived! Their flight got in here at 5:30am after 24 hours of travel, so needless to say they were pretty exhausted. They have both done great with the jetlag so far, though, so I'm really impressed. It might have helped that there was a new little guy they were looking forward to meeting!


Ben loves having someone new to play with on the playground and at the pool. He and "Gumpy" have had all kinds of fun together.

Since Ben has been helping himself to a lot of Alex's new toys, Alex got to return the favor and claim Ben's new little Elmo for a chew toy. Or maybe he was just trying to let me know he was hungry!