Braxton is 1 Year Old!

Can you believe it? Can it even be true? My sweet little boy really turned one? A whole year old??? I'm so proud of him and all the things he's learning and doing every day!

Let's start out this post with his sweet stats from the doctor's office.

Height/Length:    30.75"
(which is the 75th percentile)
Weight:                22 lbs 0 oz
 (which is between the 25th and 50th percentile)
*Even though he doesn't look it, apparently he's 'long and lean' lol!

He's growing each day and its hard for me to believe it, but he's really doing great. He's completely off baby food and has been for almost 3 months. He eats whatever we're having, but most days he'll only like one thing. He rarely has a little of multiple items, and its usually a crap-shoot to determine his meal. Most nights he'll pick one thing that we're eating (corn or mashed potatoes or chicken) and only eat one of them. Now he'll eat a ton of that one (finishing a solid 3/4ths of a can of creamed corn just last night), but not touch the other items. Each meal that item changes. Today he might love chicken, but tomorrow won't eat it. In the morning he might devourer bread but turn up his nose to it next week. Its quite an adventure. When asked (by the doctor) if he's a good eater, my reply was 'sometimes' because if he won't eat what's at the table, then he doesn't eat. So some meals he eats great, and some meals, well, we'll just say 'not so much'. haha.

He LOVES playing with his sister.

And his Paw Paw.

And outside.

He ESPECIALLY loves playing with his sister AND his Paw Paw WHILE being outside.
lol

He's able to walk pretty much anywhere he wants, and climbs EVERYTHING.
Things that I didn't even realize were 'climbable', I'll find him halfway up them. He can climb all the way up the playhouse stairs, by himself, with out any hesitance or encouragement. Most days there is at least a time or two where I just smile, roll my eyes and shake my head as I remove him from the top of a staircase, rocking chair, couch or table. One of his favorite things to do is to move things closer to other things so that he can climb on the first thing and get up on the second thing. True story. :) *little rascal*

He's been in 12 month clothes since November, and some of them are starting to get tight. Most of the 18 month stuff I've tried on him is too big though (like really too big), so I'll probably squeeze him into 12 month stuff for a month or so more.


For the most part, we're DONE WITH BIBS!!!! Some of you might not know the importance of this statement, but its a very big deal to me. My sweet little man has been a slobber. machine. Seriously, since about 2 months, he started slobbering so much that we would go through 4-6 bibs a day and at least one outfit change, just because of slobber. And everyone would tell me, over and over and over, that he was 'just teething' and yet, no teeth arrived until 11 months! Long story short, in the last few weeks, he's gotten control over the slobbering, and no longer wears a bib 24/7. YAY for pictures without bibs!

Speaking of teeth, he has 2!!!! The little stinker got them both within a week or so of each other, one at 10 and a half months and the other at 11 months. They are his 2 bottom middle teeth, and they are pretty much adorable!

He's wearing size 5 shoes now and only in the last 2 months has he really been wearing shoes at all. We've had issues because he's got pretty wide feet, so if he fits in a size 3 width wise, then they're so long that they fall off easily, but if he's a size 2 length wise, then you can't get his foot in them. Thankfully, we're getting to the shoe sizes that you can buy 'W' shoes, so that will help.

He just started sleeping through the night again! Literally the few days before his birthday, he slept through the night ('through the night' being 9 pm to 5 or 6 am) He had started sleeping through the night at about 8 months, but then after falling out of the car and me having to wake him every 4 hours for 48 hours, he wouldn't go back to sleeping through the night and started waking up around 2 again every night.

He sleeps in his crib for night time, and for some naps, but if I want him to sleep as long as his sister, then I have to put him in his swing because that always gives me an extra 30-45 minutes of napping!

He was on breastmilk right up until a year! I'm really glad that I can say that, and now I'm done pumping too! He's having to drink soy milk because of his lactose intolerance, but hopefully we can switch him to whole milk in a few months. They keep telling me to 'test him' every few months because most children grow out of it. We'll see!

He had tubes put in his ears earlier this month, and he did really well! This was him still waking up from the anethesia. He was so stinking cute!

He can clap!! This is his newest accomplishment and he's still getting the hang of it, but he can definitely do it and can do it on demand! (that's when we say they can do something, when they can do it on demand)

He can wave 'hello' and 'goodbye' (even saying "hi" or "bye"), and it's pretty much the cutest thing ever.

Scratch that, him blowing kisses is the cutest.thing.ever. And then some! He even makes a kissing noise when he does it and always gives you a huge grin when he 'throws' the  kiss your way! I swear I could eat him up!

He LOVES Ice cream. And makes quite a mess eating it, but who cares when you look this cute with ice cream all over you???

Braxton James, we love you so much and are sooooo grateful for you! You're an amazing little boy

and a gift from God!

Grandma Gwen's 90th Birthday!

A fee months ago, my Aunt Debbie came to me to tell me that a few weeks before that, Grandma Gwen had asked them to pick up her prescriptions for her, and in the process of doing so, found out her date of birth was 9-9-21, meaning that she was going to be 90 years old this year! For the past several years she's been telling us that she's turning 81, 82, 83, etc and we all thought she was going to be 84 this year, so we were shocked to find out she'd been lying to us! She's so silly!

On her birthday, she had to have a procedure done, so I took her to the doctor and then took her out to brunch. We went to Denny's which is right across the street from her house and is 'one of her favorite places to go' because - get this - there are always a lot of old people there. Really Grandma Gwen? :) She said it made her feel comfortable. *note* that all of these old people that she was pointing out were like 65 ish. A full QUARTER CENTURY younger than her. lol I guess when you become an adult those gap really do get smaller!

The next day we all met for lunch at Olive Garden to really celebrate (since her birthday was on a Friday and ppl work). We had a great time enjoying the whole family. Here's a pic of Uncle Mitch with sweet Abbi, and then one of Freddy helping Grandma Gwen out to her car. :) I'm so thankful for her and how sweet she is. I'm grateful that the Lord has provided for her all these years and is still doing so!

 

Happy Birthday Grandma Gwen! We love you!!!

Braxton's Tubes

At the end of November, my sweet, sweet boy has had one very long ear infection, lasting for a full 6 weeks. We went through 5 oral antibiotics and 2 different ear drops. I first realized he had an ear infection because his ear drum busted and there was green gook coming out of his ear. Nothing was working and nothing was helping and the whole month of December, our little man was pretty fussy most of the time. A few days before Christmas the pediatrician referred me to the Ear Nose and Throat doctor (the same one that Brooke went to) and they agreed that it was very much time for tubes! I was really hoping they would say they could do it before the end of the year, but that was very unlikely anyway, and they did schedule it for January 4th.

We kept him on antibiotics through the first of the year, but he still had the ear infection when his surgery date came up. He developed a fever the day before his surgery, and there was a chance that they could cancel the surgery because of it, but THANKFULLY the anesthesiologist agreed that it was likely caused by his ear infection and the surgery was the best way for us to get rid of the infection. Mitch and I were up and at the hospital around 6:30. Little man was all bundled up and so stinking cute!

The whole process went MUCH smoother than with Brookelynne's surgery, and we were in the back for pre-op before any of the grandparents arrived to see us. They took him back around the time that Mitch's dad and my mom arrived, and we stopped in the waiting room to see them for a few minutes before going back to his little room to wait for him, they told us he'd be back in 20 minutes. Dr Maddern and the anesthesiologist came by to see us before he came, and let us know that everything went great. :)

When he arrived back to us, he looked like he was sound asleep! He was so sweet, drinking his bottle. Once we both held him for a minute, and loved on him, Mitch went out and let my mom come in, and then we switched, Mom headed back to work, and Mitch and his dad came back to see Brax. The nurses came through and gave Brax a Hess truck and race car, and sent us home. The whole thing only took a few hours and we were home before noon. Little man slept all morning, but by early afternoon he was pretty much back to normal. So thankful he's done so well! And we've been ear infection free since then!

Black Friday Antics!

Most people who are friends with me on Facebook know that we spent the week before Thanksgiving camping out at Best Buy to get some good deals. :) But many people have asked me about the details so, here they are!!!

My mother in law has gone to Best Buy 4 out of the 5 years that Mitch and I have been married on Thanksgiving morning, or the night before to 'camp out' for deals.  We always do Thanksgiving with them the Saturday before, so she's free for the day anyway and has gotten some really great deals. This year when the ad came out saying that they had a $200 42" tv, we talked about joining her, camping out Thanksgiving day again, but some crazy person decided to set up tents at the northside Best Buy on Sunday night, by Monday night everyone in the city was getting the idea. We went ahead and decided to wait until Tuesday and headed up there Tuesday morning. I borrowed a tent from my friends and picked up my brother in law (who was saving our spots for the majority of the time) and set him up at the Best Buy in Regency.

When we arrived there were several people in front of us, namely 5 tents. There was 3 small tents that were supposed to have 1 person each, then a tent with 2 guys, a tent with 4 people and then us, making us 12-14. (people wise). As the time went by, the numbers changed for all but one of those tents and by Wednesday there was some very frustrated people. The people in the first three tents hadn't been there at all Tuesday night, and had shown up in a camper in the parking lot Wednesday morning. They were claiming that they had 20 people buying and that was NOT going over well with the people who had been sleeping on the ground for 2 days while their tents sat empty. Not to mention we had no way of knowing if they had one person or 20 people in that camper to begin with. The basic rule had been that as long as you were putting in time there each day or had someone saving a spot for you, you were good and each person could basically save a spot for themself and one other person. So, by the time Wednesday night came around we had decided we would have 4 people buying instead of 3 because everyone else had changed their numbers anyway. So Wednesday night, Mitch's Mom, Mitch's brother and I all slept there, and I have to tell  you that it was a lot of fun! We talked to each other, played games, one guy brought a 40" flatscreen and an XBOX, so several people were playing games. By Wednesday night there were about 40 people in line.

Thursday morning, I stayed while Mitch's mom and brother went to get showers, and then I headed to my mom's for Thanksgiving brunch with my family. Mitch met me over there with the kids and we all went to brunch. After eating, Mitch rushed back to Best Buy so that no one could get mad that we didn't have everyone there. I planned to go to my sisters for a few hours but after Brax blowing out 2 outfits and getting a late start on brunch to begin with I didn't see how I could drive out there and make it back to Regency by 2, so I just took the kids with me over there for a few hours and after my mom got some rest, she came and got them around 4:30. Here are some pictures of them playing at Best Buy with Nay Nay and Aunt Jen!

By 4 pm. the line was wrapped around the side of the building. By 7 or so we all started taking down our tents and putting things away. At 10 pm we had to be ready for them to come out with the vouchers for the big items. (like the tvs) Around 9:30ish, people started lining up their chairs closer together so as to mark exactly who was in line and who was not. (ie kids or parents who were just there to help carry or pay) (there were 2 15 year old boys who had been there since Tuesday with one parent, so the other one's parent came around 9 since she was paying, but he was the only one in line).  By this time the parking lot was filling up and the line was around to the back. There were also several people who would just stand in front of the doors like they were going to get to bypass the line. Ha! When the manager asked us to line up single file, we all started putting our chairs against the wall and standing up, when this black women came and stood right between the people in front of us and the group in front of them. OF COURSE, that didn't fly and we were all pushing to get in front of her and telling her to move. She started yelling and pushing saying "I've been here. You can't skip me!" And we were all like "Um, no." The police officers came over and asked what was going on and we told them, and they told her to go to the end of the line. Actually, they said "Go to the end of the line, or get arrested". She left. :) They started coming out with vouchers at 10, and passed them out if you wanted that particular item, until they were out. Computers, tablets and cell phones, blue ray players and the like for 45 minutes or so. Finally they came out with the vouchers for the tvs that everyone had come for! We were expecting them to have about 40, but as they started passing them out, it became obvious that there were much fewer than 40. We were numbers 17, 18, 19 and 20, and we were the last people to get vouchers.

We felt really bad for the people behind us, but all of our tvs were spoken for. :( When the doors opened at midnight there was some pushing from people trying to get past the front people, and there were some guys in the line who just grabbed the other people by the collar and said "Don't get yourself hurt by being stupid, because I won't let you trample these people". I thought it was very interesting. We ran once we were inside and got the xboxs, leappads and ps3s that we wanted and then got in line with our vouchers. The lines were ridiculous and we were there until 3:30 or so. Mitch had to work at 7, so he got home, slept and hour and then left for work. Talk about a long day! We did get everything that we wanted though, so that was good. We sold a lot of the stuff we bought on craigslist and ended up making about $600. We kept a tv and a 10.1" tablet for ourselves and are definitely loving them!

It was a lot of work, and a lot of fun, we'll definitely be doing something for black friday next year too, but I doubt it will be that big! lol