Meeting Dean

We finally got up to Tennessee to meet our newest cousin Dean! It was a whirlwind trip—and kind of chaotic with the Nashville Marathon, which Austin ran with his sister Hallee—but we were so happy to get to visit with Rosie and her family and to be there for Dean's blessing.

Phoebe has been so very excited about meeting Dean...and then spent most of her time playing with Oaklyn and Ireland. But that post isn't about that. It's all about Dean!

Here's Phoebe with Dean (he has two sisters right around Phoebe's age and has learned to be a little nervous around kids that size):

And Alex with Dean:

And Zoë with Dean:

There are rumblings about shipping Zoë up to Tennessee for a week sometime this summer to be a mother's helper. 

We'll see if it comes to fruition—it would make Zoë so happy (and would hopefully give Rosie some breathing room because—man, alive!—three kids five and under is hard...can confirm).

Let's see...who's next? Benjamin!

And here's Miriam looking on with some longing while Rosie took a turn holding Dean:

He fell asleep with his hand on his chin like that, which we all thought was funny (he likes to sleep with his eyes open sometimes). Here's Miriam getting a turn:

And here's Rachel with Dean:

I was lucky to get to hold sleeping Dean a few times—he likes contact naps over solo naps and has the Third Child Schedule down pat (which is...there is no real schedule because he's at the mercy of all the schedules of the rest of the family: school drop off, school pick up, doctor appointments, speech therapy, play dates, and so forth).

He's a super chill baby! My babies all had severe reflux so they were screamers and terribly, terribly spitty. Dean is not a screamer and does not spit up. I don't really even know what to do with a baby like that!

Here I am holding Dean the way I used to pace the floors with my GERD-y babies (pitched backwards away from me rather than nestled against my shoulder, which always seemed to make them spit up more):

He didn't mind it. But, honestly, it doesn't matter what position you put him in—all of his milk stays inside!

It's like the deluxe baby model (while my kids were like fussy, leaky knock-offs)! 

He's seriously a dream baby (though still exhausting for his parents).

Finally, here's Andrew with Dean:

And...here's Andrew introducing Dean to Cheetos at the ward party we went to (Rosie and Austin's ward boundaries were just changed so it's a brand new ward and Austin was called into the bishopric—the poor guy was hobbling around post-marathon trying his best to talk with everyone).

Dean wasn't so sure about that Cheeto. Or perhaps he was wary of Andrew. We'll never know.

And here we are together just before leaving:

More to come! After I finish my final paper(s)! I have two left...