Week 5: One Month and a Wedding

Sunday, November 9th, 2014

This past Wednesday Grant turned 1 month old!  And boy what a month it has been.  We had been properly warned about how difficult it would be, and how little sleep we would get, but hearing about it is one thing, and actually going through it is another.  It is very emotionally draining, because you experience so much love, fear, anxiety, joy, pride, and frustration...and I am sure there are more.  It is also very physically draining for obvious reasons.  I wish that I could stay home with Katie and Grant everyday, so that I could experience all of Grant's firsts that will be happening in the near future, and so that I could help Katie during these important first months.

In order to commemorate each passing month for Grant, we got him monthly dinosaur neckties.  Each month we will be taking pictures of him in his neckties while he sits in his little chair.  And when I say sit, I mean we prop him up in the chair and try and snap the picture before he flops around.  Here are the pictures commemorating his big first month of life.

Grant also witnessed the marriage of his Uncle Dan to his new Aunt Mary.  It was such a fun weekend because Grant was able to meet so many people!  The wedding was up in northern Virginia, near Washington, D.C.  We got there on Thursday night and spent a relaxing night in the hotel.  It was Grant's first night in a hotel, and unfortunately it is probably the nicest hotel he will stay in for a while, so hopefully he won't expect them all to be like this one was.  He immediately took advantage of the comfortable bed.

The next day was the rehearsal and the rehearsal dinner, and Grant was looking sharp.

The rehearsal and the rehearsal dinner were both a lot of fun.  We were able to spend some quality time with our closest family and friends while eating delicious food.  My parents hosted the rehearsal dinner at a restaurant named P.J. Skidoos, and it was the perfect place for our group.

Grant met Katie's good friend, Tom, and his son Damien.

And his daughter Caitrin, who was So excited to meet little Grant.

Grant met one of Katie's best friends, Mabel, who has already monogrammed so many things for him.

He also met his Great Aunt Rini.

And he also met his Great Grandmother, affectionately known to all of us as Mimi.  She was so excited to meet him, and she was dancing with him while in her chair.

 

 

We were also able to get a great Pearl Family picture, with my parents, all of my brothers and their spouses, and the four grandchildren.

And we got an awesome 3-generation picture of Katie with her mom and her son.

The wedding was very special.  It was the third wedding in our family in the past 11 months.  Katie and I were married 11 months ago, my brother Jim and his wife, Val, were married 9 months ago, and this weekend my older brother Dan was married to his new wife Mary, who happens to be a great friend of Katie's, and has been for over a decade.  I was the best man, and hopefully I gave a speech worthy of my older brother.  I have always looked up to him and viewed him as a role model, and I am so happy for him.  Grant is lucky to have such great uncles and aunts.

The Pearl family is now 15 strong, going on 16 in April.  It consists of Papa and Grammy, 4 of the 5 brothers now have wives, and then there are 4 grandchildren, with a 5th on the way in April.  This special occasion was also the first time Grant was able to meet his cousins B, C, and G.  They were shy at first, not really sure what to think of Grant, but eventually they got curious enough to crowd around him.

What a fun week it was for Grant!