Breaking the silence

I've been awfully quiet over here lately, but I have not taken many pictures lately (bad mommy) and we haven't been up to anything all that exciting. What Brad and I have been doing lately is enjoying a lot of time as a family and soaking up our time with the boys. We have a lot more exciting things going on over the next few weeks and so lots of pictures will be in your viewing future! For now here are just a couple of ones I've taken.
The weekend before last Blake enjoyed his first bowl of cereal and he's officially hooked. Nothing better than a Saturday morning, eating a bowl of cereal and watching cartoons!

Brady didn't want to be left out of trying new things, so we finally started putting him in his high chair. He loves his baby food that I make and here are a few pics of him chowing down on some green beans... The face he's making in the last picture cracks me up!

Lots of firsts

Brady is trying his hardest to catch up to his older brother! This week Brady has sprouted his first tooth (and working on a full mouthful more at the moment), started scooting (bye-bye luxury of leaving in one place) AND started saying DaDa! Very exciting stuff for our family!
Thursday morning Brady had his follow up swallow study to determine if he was still aspirating. Good news, he was not. Not as great news is he's still not swallowing as he should. Much like the pulmonologist had suspected. Fingers crossed and saying our prayers Brady will outgrow the issue by our July 1st deadline.
Brady had been to the doctor two weeks ago for a swollen gland and found he had an ear infection. At his pulmonologist appointment the following week his ear had not improved so he prescribed a stronger antibiotic. Brady was still messing with his ears and shaking his head, so I took him back to the doctor Saturday morning to get his ears rechecked. His other ear had an infection. Two rounds of antibiotics without working, so the doctor gave Brady a shot this time instead. We are going back tomorrow morning for another shot and possibly again Wednesday for another. We are also praying this does the trick. If he gets another infection close to this one, off to the ENT we go, probably for tubes to be put in his ears. For as easy of a baby Brady is and happy and easy going, he's sure had his dose of sickies and worrying his momma. We're over it.
As I type this though, Brady is bouncing away in his jumper having belly laughs at his big brother. Best sound ever.

Cute Booty

This is how Brady sleeps most of the time, with his little booty up in the air. So insanely cute!

Brady has also started rocking back and forth on his hands and knees and scooting, getting ready to crawl. He's growing up too fast!
And on a side note, Blake's 2 year checkup was this morning. He got a glowing report and is in the 97th percentile for height and 90th for weight. BIG BOY! The doctor also said a general rule you can follow is multiply his height at 2 years by 2 to get his approximate adult height. That would put Blake at 6'2"!

CELEBRATION

We have had such a wonderful birthday weekend celebrating with our big two year old! Friday we had a party at Blake's school with a luau theme. All the kiddos were super cute and we really enjoyed celebrating with Blake's class.



After his party Brad and I took Blake to do something we've been dreaming about since we found out we were going to be parents...ice skating for the first time! We didn't have high expectations, as we learn not to do with a two year old. Anything can happen. Tantrums, freak outs, you name it. But Blake LOVED it! Anytime Brad would stop to take a break he would say, "More! More!" And when it was time to get off the ice he started whining, "SKATE! SKATE! SKATE!" Brad and I will never forget this special day with Blake as skating is such a passion for us and we loved getting to share that with Blake, and seeing his love for skating emerge totally melted our hearts. Here are a few photos...


After skating we picked up Brady, enjoyed pizza as a family and opened presents. The next morning Brad and Blake took one of Blake's presents to the park to play with...a kite. Blake has been asking for a kite since he saw it in his Curious George book! They had a blast...well until Blake let go and the kite flew away!
After nap time we went to Blake's girlfriend Sophie's house. Sophie and Blake have been in the same class since they were 8 weeks old and are two peas in a pod. Sophie's birthday was Saturday and her mom and dad were nice enough to include us for her party. I can not tell you how sweet these two are together! I absolutely loved getting to see them interact and hope we have more play dates in our future. Here are some pictures from the party...

Birthday Girl!Sophie got Blake a present for his birthday too and here they are opening it...

Blake slaving away in the kitchen while Sophie was out shopping!
Hugging goodbye

Sunday we went to my parents house for brunch to celebrate Mother's Day which was so nice and then after Blake's nap we celebrated his birthday yet again with my parents, Brad's dad and my grandmother. We enjoyed yummy cake, from our favorite Stein's, and opened MORE presents!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY BIG HANDSOME TWO YEAR OLD BOY! We had such a fun weekend and now I am EXHAUSTED!

HAPPY TWO YEARS BLAKERS!

I know I sound like a broken record, but where does the time go?! How is it possible that I already have a TWO YEAR OLD BOY!
From this...
to this...


to this...
to this...
to this...
to this...
to this...
HAPPY BIRTHDAY BLAKERS!!!! From the moment I saw you on the sonogram I felt like you were my miracle. The doctors had said I couldn't conceive you or keep you if I manged to and then there you were, waving at your mom and dad. Blake you ARE such a miracle. Such a blessing. From that moment on you have brought endless joy to your dad and I's lives. Every day just gets better and better with you. Watching the world through your eyes Blake is magical. You learn new things daily it seems and the joy it brings you is so beautiful to be witness of. Your vocabulary is now too large to list what words you know. Two weeks ago you started telling your dad and I (and grandma and grandpa too) "I love you!" Nothing better than hearing those three words from you my love. You love to point out "big trucks", birds, airplanes, the moon, cows, trees, etc. as we drive. You can say the ABC's and count to 10. Well kind of. You like to say, "1,2,3,6,8,9,10!" Its ok, you are just now two today so I think you are doing a pretty awesome job! You are very musical and LOVE to dance...one of your favorite things these days. You dance anywhere and everywhere if there is any sort of beat. Probably one of the cutest things in the world. You are also very athletic. You love to kick the soccer ball, throw the football and shoot hoops with the basketball. You love to play hockey around the house and if there is hockey on t.v. you shout in delight, "HOCKEY!! HOCKEY!!" Plain and simple you love to have fun, laugh, be silly and bring joy to everyone you come in contact with. Your dad asked me the other weekend if being a mom was how I pictured it would be when I was younger. No, it's not. Blake, you have made being your mom a million times better than I ever thought being a mom could be. I love you and love watching you grow! HAPPY BIRTHDAY buddy!

Love,
Mom

Sweet Boy

Our pics from Brady's 6 month photo shoot are finally online!!

http://Bludoorimages.com/gallery/jones-6mo-821401

Absolutely adore this boy's smile. Can I please keep him this size forever?! Brady is such an easy going baby. He even had a blazing ear infection and didn't let on at all that he had one. It was only discovered because he had a swollen lymph node and I decided to take him to the doctor Saturday morning to have it looked at. He's been on an antibiotic since Saturday. This morning we had a follow up visit with the pulmonologist regarding his swallowing issues. He looked at his ears first and his ear had barely improved. Again, Brady didn't let on at all. He's almost too good of a baby! He prescribed us a stronger antibiotic so hopefully that does the trick.
Well, I wasn't really expecting great news at today's appointment, as Brady still has the rattling going on. The doc wants us to repeat the swallow study in a few weeks and we will see if Brady is still aspirating or not and if the thickener is still necessary in his bottles. We will go back to see the doc July 1st and if his symptoms have not improved by then, we will have to have the bronchoscopy. I have been praying Brady can outgrow this. I DO NOT want to have to put this little man under anesthesia. The doctor feels since he'll be 9 months in July he should have outgrown the issues by then if he was going to and also doesn't want to do the bronchoscopy as we approach cold and flu season. I will continue to pray Brady can get over this on his own in the next two months. I would give anything for this sweet boy to not have to go through this anymore.

Boo Boos and Rainbows

As a mom of two boys I know I have lots of bumps and bruises I'll be kissing better in my future. Blake already has a constant line of bruises up and down his legs and now that its warm enough for shorts he has what seems to be permanent skinned knees. What I don't think I'll ever get used to is the sinking feeling I get when one of my babies comes running in screaming and bleeding. I have two boys, one who I already know is fearless, and I know I have many more of these moments in my future. But will it ever get easier? I don't know what happened because I didn't see it, but all I know is Blake was running in the kitchen one second and the next had fallen and cut his gums some how and blood was pouring out his mouth. Luckily it quickly stopped and didn't require a trip to the ER. Thankfully as well my husband is much better in situations like this and with his calm nurturing ways Blake quickly stopped crying and was quickly back to his smiling self. Shortly after the scare inside we discovered such a beautiful site outside. Blake was very excited and was shouting out all the colors in the rainbow..."RED!!! YELLOW!!! GREEN!!! BLUE!!! PURPLE!!!" And just like that all was perfect again in the world.

This one's for you Aunt Rhonda...

For the last two weeks every time I talk to my Aunt she bugs me for a new posting of pictures of the boys. I really have nothing to say for once, so here are just a couple of pictures I managed to take over the last few days. Blake's never ending cold it seems finally started to turn into an ear infection which caused him to stay home from school on Thursday and make a trip to the doctor for an antibiotic. I kept him home Friday as well to make sure he could get plenty of rest and make a full recovery. I secretly enjoyed the time with just Blake and no one else around and Blake even let me sneak in a few snuggles. By Friday afternoon Blake was back to his old self bouncing off the walls. I was doing something in the other room and when I walked back in to find Blake, he had snagged a roll of paper towels and had destroyed the roll. Messy, but I couldn't help but laugh. And snap a photo.
Saturday we took Blake to get his hair cut and cut off all his beautiful long blonde hair. I almost cried. I hate it. Brad loves it. I can't wait for it to grow back. He looks even more like a little man now which makes me want to find the pause button even more. My baby will be 2 on Friday. TWO. How is that possible?! I didn't take many photos this weekend, but hoping to get some my dad snapped today to really get a good look at his new look. Saturday was also my mom's birthday and so we all shared a Mexican dinner together...Blake's favorite. Here is Blake with enchiladas all over his face with his new smile everytime you try to snap a photo... What do YOU think of his shorter hair?

And here is Brady today hanging out at Grandma & Grandpa's.

What a funny face!

Next on the Jones Family agenda? Celebrating our little dude's 2nd birthday!