One week old!

Yesterday was Benjamin's 1 week birthday!  We were hoping to celebrate with a Broncos victory over the Patriots, but alas, that was not in the cards :)  

Ben slept through the game anyway.  

Clearly, he was very upset about the outcome of the game:

On Friday, we got a special visit from my cousin Aaron and his fabulous bride-to-be, Anne.  They were in town on their way up to Breck for the weekend, so it was great to spend a little time with them (and look at her gorgeous engagement ring in person!) and have them meet the newest addition to the Monroe family!

In other Larsonland happenings, my mom was finally able to come up and meet her very first grandchild!  We had a good time hanging out with her (and Jason and Ethan), though Matt and I are still in a sleep-deprived haze, so I can't say we were much fun.  Ben slept through most of it but loved all the attention! 

Lincoln having another encounter with his little brother... still a work in progress:

And of course, I've been having fun taking pictures of our adorable little guy.  I mean, he's cute, right??  We did have to head back in to the pediatrician on Friday and found out that BW was still losing weight, and a little more than "the norm" they'd expect.  This, of course, is because my breastfeeding abilities are limited, so he just wasn't getting enough food.  So, after many tears (on my part, of course), we finally started him on a formula regimen to get his weight back up (and no, I haven't given up on nursing, it's just becoming more apparent that I probably just physically cannot produce enough thanks to my surgery in college... despite all of my prayers and willing for it to happen).  We took him in for a weight check again on Saturday morning (actually, dad did it all by himself!), and he was finally up a couple ounces!  It was a big day :)

But, did Benjamin care?  This is how he felt about it at the doctor's office:

At one of my favorite stores in our neighborhood, I randomly found this little baby 'thing' (I'm not sure what to call it!) on the sale rack a few months ago.  Low and behold, it's become BW's favorite thing in the world.  One side is black, white, and red, and the other is color, so for now we just set up the black and white side and let him get a little tummy time while watching the blinking colors.  Yes, he's only a week old, but I really think he's been tracking the lights and panels every now and then!  He's already a genius :)

Other cute pictures of the little turkey before moving on:

An accurate representation of how we feel most of the time:

On BW's 1 week birthday, Matt and I also treated ourselves to a little time out of the house while BW enjoyed a nap and didn't even notice we were gone.  My good friend Keri's baby shower was in the morning and it perfectly coincided with Matt getting to catch some English Premiere Soccer with the guys.  My mom and sister stuck around the house to watch the sleeping baby, and it was nice to see our friends, even if just briefly.  We're so excited to meet Baby Westra, so I couldn't miss being there to celebrate his/her arrival!