Happy Birthday Ben!

Mallory seemed to have a good past several days at Mrs Carole's, I really think this will be a good place for her. Her crabbiness has waned, so I'm not sure if perhaps some of her teeth were moving around a little or what, but she's acting more like her normal little self now!

I weighed her Friday morning and she's now up to 10 lb 7.5 oz! She's gaining well and has well passed all the Newborn outfits and has moved right into the 0-3 and 3 month stuff!

Saturday was Ben's first birthday as a daddy! He turned 34. We gave him his cards (Mallory got him one too!) early Saturday morning and then we packed up to head to Elkton for his birthday dinner with my family. He had requested Mom's famous chocolate homemade ice cream for his birthday. So this was to be the first night that we've spent the night away from home with Mallory, so it took a little more packing than normal, but not too bad.

Ben got beer, brauts and chocolate ice cream, so he was a happy boy and Mallory did well in the cradle that was mine as a baby that mom had set up in the bedroom we sleep in. I didn't even know until now that my Granddaddy Caughlin made that cradle for me when I was born and shipped it from California to Kentucky. Amazing the things you learn after the fact. Either way, she slept fine, I think I felt the need to get up and check on her quite a bit since she wasn't snuggled in her little infant sleeper like at home, but she did fine.

This was also the first trip with me, Tucker and Mallory all in the same vehicle. We got this guard thing to put up that keeps Tucker in the back of the SUV, I put his bed back there and he did fine and that way there was no way he could jump back and forth through the seats, so it all worked just fine.

Ben drove separate to Mom and Dad's because he had to catch a flight to SD so he could then drive into MN to where he has training this next week. So he left Elkton around 8 am and then Mallory and I headed back around 11:30 so I could go to a friends baby shower here in Owensboro.

I finished up "The Devil Wears Prada" audio book, which I really enjoyed and now I've moved onto the Laura Bush autobiography. I didn't realize that her twin daughters were 5 weeks early and also spent time in the NICU when born. Just seems like preemies pop up all over the place now. Even Laura, who was an only child, would have had 2 brothers and a sister, but all 3 were born 2-3 months early and in the late 40's early 50's, none of them lived for more than several days. Amazing that dad as a little 4 pounder himself in 1949 in rural Arkansas was able to make it and thrive! Makes you realize some things are just meant to be!! It's also funny that the picture of dad as a baby that Mom has up with all our other baby pictures, well, Mallory looks just like dad! Obviously those Caughlin genes run strong! Ben may have his hands full with 2 strong women in the house if she picks up that Caughlin personality as well!

So all is well and we will count down the days until Friday when Ben gets back from MN!

Oh yeah, I finally found a cleaning lady who doesn't think I live too far out and she starts on Wednesday. Hopefully she will work out well!!

Here's a few pictures of Bean from the past couple days!