Road trip, family reunion & nutrition - plus photos from bday party!

Here are some pictures from the birthday party:
This card sings the 'eensy weensy spider.' He loves it! He rocks and bops to the music.
This is one of the gifts...clothes and a shape sorter.
Mmmm...banana cake with cream cheese frosting...
Lovely cake a la Amy (not Martha Stewart that's for sure!)

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This week my family will have a reunion of sorts - my paternal grandmother passed away on Friday night. Grandma Jean had been declining for over a year and a half and so her passing was both a welcome and a sad event. She had recently turned 90! But really the past few years were not of great quality. She had dementia, had an eye excised and other issues. It is an end of an era and passing of the torch. I have no grandparents left, I realized! Now my parents are the main trunk of the family tree. It will be something to process over the next weeks...

On Wednesday we will pick up my brother from the airport, pack up our car and make our way up to Michigan. It will be Christian's longest car ride so far. I'm kind of anxious about it - he doesn't like to be strapped in for very long. We hope to time it with his afternoon snooze. If not, his uncle can maybe entertain him for the 2.5 hours.

I am excited that he will get to see and play with his cousins and second cousins. Catching up with the cousins is always a good time. And this will be his third time with my sister's kids. We will see everyone at the wake and dinner following and then also at the funeral services and lunch. We will also be going to a waterpark for a couple of hours (not really a reverent outing but sounds fun! our hotel doesn't have a pool or anything).

So we'll see how he relates to the family at large and then also to swimming. He loved it when he was 4.5 months. We'll see if it stuck!

As for the weaning process - I packed up my pumping materials! However, I will continue to nurse in the morning and evening for awhile. It seems like we have been feeding Christian constantly. He's always got a snack or something. I noticed that he is definitely taller; my mom said he looks a little chubbier on his face. We will see what the doctor says in three weeks.

When he likes something, he bops up and down with his upper body and hums a 'yum' of sorts. SO CUTE:)

More later...