30!

Tuesday marked Brad's 30 years in the world. This makes the 12th birthday I've gotten to share with Brad. There is no one I'd rather share growing older with and I love that Brad and I have gotten to share in life's adventures with each other for all these years now and grow and mature together. I wanted to make this birthday a little extra special since it was a milestone birthday after all. On Brad's actual birthday I filled it with all of his favorite things and that evening gave him his surprise...Saturday morning we'd drop the kids off with my parents and stay the weekend at the Four Seasons in one of their villas. A little mini "staycation". It.Was.Heaven. We did a lot of lounging by the pool, pina colada in hand, reading, talking just being relaxed. We of course walked by the ballroom we got married in which is always special to revisit. Brad said it was the perfect birthday and I'm so glad we could share in such a special weekend together. HUGE thank you to my parents for making it all possible for us to "get away".
Here is a picture of us poolside that Brad took with his phone. You can see him snapping the picture in the reflection of his glasses, ha!
Happy Birthday My Love! Hope all your wishes come true this year!

Medical Mystery

Today was Brady's 9 month checkup. Brady weighed in at 16 lbs 8 oz and 28" long. He is still on the lowest end of the curve possible for weight, however, he is still on the same growth curve as he's been on, so no worry from the doctor. Of course we'll continue to keep a close eye to make sure he's gaining enough. For the most part Brady got a glowing report...meeting all milestones, etc. However, I asked the doc about the small lump on Brady's belly. I had brought it up several months ago when I first discovered it to the P.A. while we were there for one of Brady's ear infections. She seemed a little stumped but her first guess was a hernia and wasn't of concern, but we would just monitor it to make sure it didn't grow. But when the pediatrician looked at it, he immediately ruled out the lump being a hernia. But he was stumped. He stared at it, felt it, stared some more. And just was basically speechless. He said wellll, I don't even know where to start with diagnosing this. Great. He then called in another doctor in the group to take a look and she was stumped as well. He didn't think it would show up on a sonogram so didn't think we should go that route. He thought perhaps it is a cyst, even though the lump is underneath the skin. So, he referred us to a dermatologist. Not sure how I feel about seeing a dermatologist for a lump that isn't even on his skin, but I guess we'll start there and see. So now we wait a month for that appointment. In the mean time more worrying. Can we just get a healthy Brady?? PLEASE!
But to end on a cute note...Brady has started giving kisses. If you ask for kisses and lean in your cheek he opens his mouth and "kisses" your cheek. This boy makes my heart melt on a daily basis.

Mr. Cool

Nickname given by Grandma and Grandpa...I think its pretty fitting!
We went to the mall on Saturday as a sanctuary away from the heat. At one point we walked by the ice rink and no one was on it. Blake asked, "Where hockey go? Where hockey go?" He has such an amazing memory! Awhile later, we walked back by and there was hockey practice going on... Blake's reaction, "HOCKEY! HOCKEY! HOCKEY!" His eyes were GLUED to the ice. Anytime we tried to leave he cried for more hockey. Here is a pic of the way he stood for I think fifteen minutes straight. In toddler time I think that's equivalent to an hour.

Brady's Ear Capades

We woke up at the crack of dawn this morning and had to be at Medical City by 6:30am. I was a little anxious about two things for the day ahead. The first, of course is Brady being put under anesthesia. The other, Brady not being able to eat from his feeding the night before until after the procedure. I didn't want him to be screaming for hours in the morning before his surgery. They had us get to the hospital entirely too early, as they had us registered and Brady's stats documented by 7 and didn't take us down (or up) for surgery until 8. Brad and I were cursing them for not allowing us the extra zzzzzz's! We only had maybe five hours of sleep after an already sleep deprived past few nights and we were tirrrrred. My second fear of Brady not being able to eat was dismissed. Brady was in his true form...smiley, happy and making all the nurses swoon! What a blessing Brady's happy demeanor is, even while going through so much health wise. At around 8 they gave Brady some "sleepy juice" to help ease any anxiety of being taken away from mom and dad. Brady was so entertaining after that. From the time they took Brady away until we were told he did great was maybe fifteen minutes? There was a mom in the waiting room waiting for her little boy who was in heart surgery. I can't even imagine. I felt so silly sitting in there worrying about Brady having tubes put in.
My second fear of Brady being under anesthesia was kind of dismissed. Brady was out and then awake in about 15 minutes, so he did great in that regard. As we walked down the hall to the recovery area where Brady was we could hear Brady screaming his lungs out. I tried holding him, feeding him, rocking him. Nothing worked. I have never heard Brady scream so violently and for such a long period of time. It was heart breaking. He threw up. I felt so helpless for my baby. I was finally able to get him to stop crying and pass out after what seemed like an eternity. Then his oxygen levels fell too low. He had to put on an oxygen mask. We'd try taking him off the oxygen and then back down, mask back on. Rinse and repeat. This had my stomach a little in knots, just wanting Brady to be okay. Brady finally leveled out and after another hour we were able to leave. Longest day ever and it was only 11. We're exhausted but I am grateful everything went relatively smoothly and just pray these tiny little tubes provide a huge relief for Brady.

Blake's Disguise

Mr. Personality

Blake is full of personality. Brad's brother said he is destined to be an actor because he is the biggest character he's ever seen. Blake is also stubborn. I knew Blake was stubborn before he was even born as I walked around 4 cm dilated for 3 weeks (too much info?) and then I pushed for 3 hours before forceps finally were used to pull him out (too much info again?). He probably didn't have a chance with two of the most stubborn people as parents. Well Blake's personality and stubbornness came shining through the other night and I am just kicking myself I didn't remember to take a picture to document the story. Blake has a ball pit and the other day was throwing all the balls out of the ball pit. Brad asked him to stop several times and Blake didn't, so Brad put the ball pit in the corner of the dining room behind the chair and told him he couldn't play with it anymore. Fast forward a few nights later and as we were clearing the table from dinner we hear Blake from the other room, "I miss ball pit, I miss ball pit." CUTE! So I get the ball pit out for him with strict instructions he can not throw the balls out. Blake being the precocious two year old he is didn't listen and the ball pit ended up getting taken away from him...again. This time Brad put the ball pit on top of the dining room table. A few minutes later Brad and I hear Blake from the dining room yelling, "Daddy, Daddy!" Brad quickly called me in to look at my son...he had climbed onto the dining room table and was sitting in the ball pit. I about fell over from laughing. Probably not the right message to send Blake, but I could not help myself. This kid is already outsmarting us at 2, I think we're in trouble!
And for what seems like the weekly Brady health update, Brady is scheduled for tubes on Tuesday. Praying everything goes well and this is just what we need to jump start Brady being healthy.

Nine Months

Don't you just want to squeeze that boy and attack him with kisses??! Brady is the happiest baby I have ever come across. He is just always smiling. And not little half smiles. The best smile you have ever seen. Anytime we are out and about I am guaranteed to get at least one comment on what a smiley happy boy he is. I seriously don't know how its possible Brady is already 9 months old! In a blink of an eye I'll have a 1 year old and both my babies will no longer be babies. *sniff sniff*
Brady has blossomed so incredibly much in the last month. He went from being the smiley cute pretty much non interactive baby to the smiley cute mobile standing up on his own playing with his brother boy. Brady has mastered the crawling business and gets from one room to another faster than Brad and I would really like for him to be able to! He has started pulling himself up to standing and is insanely proud of this new accomplishment, always turning to give you the world's best smile after he's done so. My favorite change in Brady I think over the last month is his interactions with Blake. If I ever figure out how to post video I need to do so because the two of them playing is one of the cutest things you will ever see, and I'm not just saying that because I'm their mom! Because Brady is now mobile, he chases after Blake around the house and Blake will get down on the floor rolling around with him, both just belly laughing away. The sound of laughter fills our house on a daily basis from both boys. I really have to say this is the life I've always dreamed of. I am most certainly blessed.
The 9 months have been filled with so much happiness since Brady entered the world, but he has also brought us a lot of worry and has gone through so much himself. The last 6 months have been rough. RSV, needing an ER trip for IV, swallow issues and therefore not eating, multiple breathing treatments every day, chronic ear infections. The most concerning issue has been Brady's inability to swallow correctly. We have been having to add a special gel thickener to his bottles in order for him to swallow his formula without it entering his lungs. We were given until July 1st for Brady to really start showing improvement, otherwise we would have to do a scope down his throat. This terrified me and I prayed and prayed he would outgrow this on his own. We had our appointment with the pulmonologist on the 1st and he was in agreement that Brady really seems to be outgrowing this. Hallelujah! No scope needed. We will continue to monitor him and continue to gradually take him off the thickener. We are also on a plan to work him off the breathing treatments. Those can't end soon enough!
The pulmonologist looked in his ears and both of them were infected. This was about the 6th infection in the last 6 months so we now have an appointment scheduled next week with an ENT to discuss tubes. Of course I hate for Brady to go through any medical procedure he doesn't have to, but I am all for tubes. He has been on an antibiotic every month for the last 6 months, sometimes more than one round of antibiotics, and I just want a healthy baby and for him to stay healthy. If Brady is this happy when he's constantly sick I can't imagine how he'll be when he feels 100%! Brady is on the very low end of the spectrum for weight, but what do you expect when he has had so many issues with eating?! I am confident he'll start fattening up as he continues to eat more and more solids. It seems we are on the road to having a healthy Brady and I will try to stop being sad my baby is growing up so fast and just continue to smile and take in all of his amazing milestones.