Leslie Family Reunion 2012

For Memorial Day weekend, we took Evan on his first out of state trip.  He's now been to SC, NC, and TN.  Our trip started out around 8:20pm on Friday night.  We traveled to NC and around mile marker 14, traffic came to a complete stop at 9:45pm.  A semi truck hit 7 cars and another semi and shut down the interstate.  We were parked on I-40 for 3 hours, but luckily, right beside the NC rest stop.  Around 11:30pm, Vince walked over to the rest stop to use the bathroom, then I went after he got back.  Evan slept the entire time.  All the cars were turned off and we slept for a while.  Around 12:45pm, traffic started moving slowly.  We arrived at Uncle Alan's at 1:30am instead of 10:30pm.  I was so glad that Evan slept the whole time.  He was up by 7am, but luckily, I felt pretty rested by then.

We had 45 relatives over the weekend at Uncle Alan's house.  My dad & his siblings & their families, plus my in-laws joined us.  Evan got to meet all kinds of cousins, even some I had never met before. Folks came from SC, VA, TN, AL, and LA.  We ate so much good food.  Everyone brought drinks & snacks to share.  Uncle Alan & Aunt Linda provided the meat and some sides.

 Evan sleeps in his port-a-crib the first night.  But spent the night at the hotel with Grandmama & Papa Saturday & Sunday night on his first sleep over.  He did great for them.

 Cousin Stacey & her twins loved Evan.

 Aunt Connie & Uncle Ken visit with Evan. Uncle Ken is Dad's oldest brother.

 Auntie Ann & Uncle Robert visit with Evan.  Uncle Robert is a year younger than dad.

 Uncle Richard's daughter Sandra & her husband cooked crawfish.

 Cousins Stacey & Brock.

 Aunt Linda, dad's baby sister, holds Evan.

 Cousin Brian holds Evan.

 Uncle Alan, dad's youngest brother & his granddaughters (also my goddaughters) love Evan.

 A lot of us gathered for this photo, but a bunch of family was away at the hotel or at the creek.

 Farewell breakfast at the local diner.

 The siblings.

On Sunday, Vince & I went on a hike with some of the relatives while our parents watched Evan. It was nice to get out & about to enjoy nature.

On Monday, we drove home & stopped by the Biltmore on the way.  Evan slept the hour there, then woke up at Cedric's Tavern to eat.  We took him by the front of the Biltmore house to get his picture.  Then he slept the hour drive home.  He is such a good traveler!  He turned 12 weeks old this weekend.  He is almost 10 pounds, sleeps from 9pm to 6:30am, smiles at us when we smile at him, and developmentally is on track for everything. He is such a good baby.

Greek Festival

Vince & I took Evan to his first Greek festival last Sunday.  I met my book club on Sunday afternoon in downtown Greenville while Vince & Evan took a stroll down to the falls.  After my book club meeting (we discussed Snowflower & the Secret Fan), we went to the Greek Festival.  They have entertainment, shopping, and good food.  Evan is too little to ride any rides, but we showed them to him.  I bought some olive oil & we had some great food.

Happy Baby

I know I keep going on about it, but Evan really is the happiest baby I've ever been around. He wakes up happy and only cries when he's wet or getting a little bit tired & even then it's only for a minute or two.  He is really smiling more & more every day. Vince can get him to smile all the time.  He usually smiles at me when he's on the changing table & just got a new diaper on.

I went back to work on Monday.  It went by fairly quickly & I had a good day at work.  Barbara & Jerry did great with Evan.  He is going to thrive with so much love around him all the time.  We are so blessed to have such a good happy baby!

Last Week Home

This is my last week home with Evan before I have to go back to work.  I can't believe my 11 weeks is almost up.  The time has really flown by.  I keep hoping to win the lottery in the next few days, but I don't think it's going to happen.  Evan has slept from about 9pm to 6am for the last several nights in a row.  That is such a great trend & I hope he keeps it up for when I'm back at work. This week he has been busy trying to grab toys.  He still isn't quite grabbing them on purpose yet, but when he gets one, he doesn't like to let it go. They are now going toward his mouth when he grabs them, but his aim is a little bit off. 

He is eating 2 to 4 ounces with each feeding.  Today I tried him on a slow feed nipple on a regular bottle instead of his special nipples.  He did great with it!  So we are graduating to the regular bottles starting tomorrow. He has been using a nipple designed for cleft palate since he was born & did not tolerate the other nipples without choking. These special nipples are called "Y" nipples and are hard to put together so it will be nice to not have to put them together any more.

We practice tummy time every day.  He can no longer use the boppy as he likes to crawl up over it in about half a minute. So we have to do it on the floor now. He has some strong legs & they are ready to take him somewhere. He smiles every now & then now too.  Not as often as I would like him to, but he does smile.  I'm waiting for him to really start laughing along with his smiles.

I've had several cake orders the last couple of weeks and I have several more for this coming weekend.  Between the cakes and the baby, I have a full day. And here are some cute pictures for the week.

Mother's Day Weekend

I was so thrilled to experience my first Mother's Day with my family here in town.  Billy, Mom, & Dad arrived Friday evening.  Dad picked up Kim in Atlanta on Saturday and brought her back here.  It was the first time Mom had all three of us together with her on Mother's Day in a long time. Evan is smiling more & more every day and gave everyone smiles this weekend.  He slept at least 7 or 8 hours both Friday and Saturday night.  It was so nice.  Although, I keep waking up throughout the night when I hear him making noises in his sleep. I do fall asleep more easily when I don't get up with him, so it's nice when he stays asleep.

Evan is learning to look at toys and grab them on purpose.  We're trying to get him to do it with more of a focus instead of when it happens to hit his hand. He grabbed a few toys this weekend.

 

Billy bought him a matching hat & blanket.  He is sporting the hat in this picture.

 Evan has some funny little grins.

 Papa liked making faces with Evan.

 We dedicated Evan at church on Sunday morning.  He woke up just a few minutes before church started so he was awake during the whole service.  I changed him right after the dedication hoping he would last through the service. He made it about 35 minutes and then started crying due to a wet diaper.  He almost made it through the service without fussing!  They have a nice changing room at the far end of the children's wing of the church.  I also fed him while we were in there and he went right to sleep in the car on the way to lunch.  We had a great lunch at the Rose Cottage where we snapped lots of pictures of us all dressed up.  I was hoping to get some pictures in the garden, but it rained all day.

 Grandmama & Papa got lots of smiles out of Evan this weekend.  Papa managed to capture them on the camera.

I have only one more week home with my little baby.  It's going to be hard to go back to work full time without being part of his daily schedule. I keep buying lottery tickets in hopes of winning big so I can stay home more with him. It's nice since I know his schedule & when he likes to eat, sleep, or play.  I hope he keeps up a good schedule so that he continues to sleep well at night.