More Birthday Fun!

I think the sign of a good party may be the lack of pictures. Too much time enjoying the fun and not enough time to document it all. That was the case on Saturday at our good friend Emma's first birthday party! Mommy went above and beyond to make a FABULOUS party, with a Little Bo Peep theme. There was even a petting zoo! Seriously... a petting zoo! Blake was out of control excited. Loved loved loved it. Both boys had an absolute great time between the animals, play area set up with great toys and a bounce house. Blake didn't want to leave and I saw the world's most epic melt down building up when we were trying to get him to leave, when I remembered the party favors I had spotted...a stuffed animal sheep! How cute is that?! I told Blake he'd get a present if he left and that was all it took. By the way the rest of the weekend, he's been obsessed with his party favor (due to loving the actual sheep that was at the petting zoo) and has been loving on it and giving it "bottles" all weekend. Pretty sweet.
Have to share a few pictures of the sweet birthday girl at her cake time (pretty much the only pictures I snapped at the party). She is an absolute doll!

And thankfully Emma's mommy managed to snap a picture with her AMAZING camera skills of Mr. Blake and shared it with me. Love it. And can't wait for her to snap some more amazing photos of my kiddos soon! Right Kristin?! :)

Sentimental

*picture of Brady today covered in chick-fil-a bbq sauce...yum*

Brady turned 18 months on Tuesday. Time is flying by faster and faster these days. (By the way, I can't believe Blake was a month younger than Brady is now when Brady was born. Crazy.) I'm feeling kind of sentimental tonight. I don't know if it is just the age and where he is at developmentally or if its because (dare I even say it...knock on some serious wood) Brady has been healthy for 4 weeks straight or a combination of the two, but Brady has done some big time changing in what seems over night. He's interacting even more with us and Blake, he's added even more words and phrases into his vocabulary and his personality has just blossomed so incredibly much. He's my sunshine. Such a sunshine in my life and everyone's lives he is a part of. The medicine Brady is on to help his appetite is also working and he's taking in more food which I think makes him even happier (it at least makes me happier) and I may be crazy, but I swear I can already tell a difference in how he looks. Do you think his face looks fuller in that pic?
Brady is leaving the pieces of baby he's been clinging on to behind and becoming more and more of a big boy every day. He wants to be independent and is starting to push mommy away so he can do things on his own. This week I have to say I have never been happier about my decision to leave my career behind to stay at home with these two boys of mine. I truly feel I am starting to see Brady thrive and I really think a part of that has to do with him staying healthy long enough to do so. I have been witness to so many wonderful things this week with both boys...memories to fill my heart with everlasting joy.
Here is my little recap of what you are up to these days Brady:

• You love telling everyone you see or even walk by at the mall or at the store, hi. Or bye. Very cute.
• You are still a mama's boy. Even though you are becoming more independent, you still love to snuggle me and let me hold you. Couldn't love it more.
• You hate being told no, its earth shattering to you when you hear it.
• You love to pretend talk on the phone. Well you pretty much use anything as a phone, like a remote, baby monitor, piece of paper, whatever. You carry on long conversations too.
  
• You love books. Every day you pull out a book and sit and flip through it and "read" out loud.
  
• Your words are mama, dada, darcy, bay for blake, shoe, sock, wa wa for water, wa for waffle, key for cookie, more, ball, goal, pay for plane, hi, bye, no, moon and as of a few days ago you started saying all done. Probably a few more that I'm forgetting :)

I got some really great video footage of the boys tonight "mowing" the yard. Hilarious. I went back and was looking at prior video footage on the camera. I saw the first minutes after Blake was born and then footage of him sleeping on my chest. Footage of Brady as a new born baby and it just seems like it passes by in an instant. Yeah, I'm a big sentimental pile of mush tonight. And so grateful for my two amazing boys.

Why I Can't Leave the Room...Even for a Minute

I left the boys unattended *gasp* while I went to throw clothes on. I came back to find Brady sitting in a pile of oats he had some how managed to get out of the pantry...and open...and dump the entire contents all over the floor. He was happy as a clam, playing in his little version of a sand box. I, was not as happy.

Weekend Fun

We continued our party-palooza on Saturday with our neighbor's little girl's 3rd birthday party. It was at Frisco Commons park, which by the way is the best park ever. Seriously. If you ever find yourself in Frisco, go. Thank me later.
The boys had a B-L-A-S-T! There was of course all the park had to offer and a bounce house, which never disappoints a three year old boy. The weather could not have been more perfect. We were there from 10 to 1:30!

Blake and the birthday girl bouncing away
Then there was playground play, which includes giant sandbox fun
Some eating
And time looking at the pond and the fishies (and Blake holding the world in his hands)
Such a fun day! And to end this, I have to share this photo I snapped yesterday morning. Blake went into the study and snagged several briefcases/laptop/camera bags and put them on and also the camera tripod for some reason and said, "Bye, I'm going to work now, have a good day!" Brady replied, "BYE!" and waved to him as he walked down the hall. Cutest thing ever.

Two is the Magic Number (and Brady's health update)

Lately I've had a mild case of baby fever. My guess is seeing our neighbor with their brand new baby girl did it to me. Brad was not amused with these thoughts. Let me tell you what though...this week has completely cured whatever fever I had. I'm even close to the point of making the decision permanent. This week has been rough. Parenting can be rough. Yes, it has endless joy and rewards too, but its hard work. I want to do best for my boys. I want to get through the days with teaching them, playing, with them and even having to discipline them without screwing them up royally. Blake has tested me in major ways this week. I've been beating myself up about his behavior. What am I doing wrong? Are all days going to be like this? My always insightful friend Heather pointed out to me, that 1)its the age 2)he's testing his boundaries and limits with me since we are in this new ballgame of me staying at home every day with him now. However, it are the days like I had yesterday (NIGHTMARE) that she said will make me stronger and in the end will build a stronger bond and relationship between Blake and I. She's right. The day ended with Blake wanting to snuggle me in his bed and as I was getting up to leave he said "I want to keep you mommy. Stay." Normally he kicks me out to have his daddy time. It washed away the bad day, gave me the desire to start again the next and to believe in the words Heather told me. I'm not a failure as a mommy, I am doing what I feel is right for my children and that's all I can do. We are all allowed bad days. I'll give Blake a pass on yesterday.
Brad pointed out to me as well, "Could you imagine having been pregnant for the last nine months? Everything we've dealt with with Brady, could you imagine having been pregnant through that all?" I can't. And I can't imagine having another baby and going through even half of what we've gone through with Brady again. Two is starting to sound more and more like the perfect number.
Here is a run down on our doctor appointments this week:
Pulmonologist Highlights:

• Very concerned about his weight (what got me the most down), but wanted to defer to gastro for his thoughts.
  
• Even though Brady has had a lot of respiratory infections it did not surprise him due to where his immunity levels are at and should be what I can expect for the next cold/flu season and possibly the next few after. (BUMMER) HOPEFULLY will outgrow it by 3 but if not HOPEFULLY 4 or 5.
  
• Still having to thicken Brady's liquids. When he has a healthy window again we will try to ween him off the thickener and if it is unsuccessful will have to do a bronchoscopy (scope) to investigate the airway/lungs. PRAYING we do not have to do this.
  

Today's Gastro appt highlights:

• Even though his weight was not where he would like to have seen it (he's gained about 1 lb since January 11th), he is not too far off from where he should be on his own growth curve. Not sure if I've mentioned on here before or not but in the midst of Brady's bugs over the last month or two he started refusing his formula from bottle or sippy cup and only thing he will drink is water. The extra calorie formula he was on provided approximately 500 additional calories a day. And with those gone, even if he's made up for some of that in extra table food, he's missing a lot of calories. He feels if he had stayed on the formula his weight would be right where he would have liked to see it.
  
• Good news, he has grown 1 1/2 inches in height! The doctor actually made the nurse re-measure to make sure it was accurate because was shocked (in a good way) he had grown that much in this amount of time. YEA! Because of this, he did not feel we needed to be referred to an endocrinologist like he had mentioned at our last visit.
• He said he hates to put him on another medicine, but he's going to. He called in an appetite stimulant to hopefully encourage Brady to consume additional calories.
  
• He said I'm a conservative doctor and basically all of his tests (and there have been a lot of tests) have come back normal, he looks healthy, acts healthy and developmentally is right on track, and I feel if we can get him to gain additional calories he'll get to where we need him to, so now...we wait. I said, well I am not patient and am over waiting and the worrying if I have a healthy child or not. His response back was, please leave my office reassured that Brady is a healthy child and I am confident he is on track and we will help boost him to where he needs to be. Okay, I'll take that for now.
• We will do a weight check in 6 weeks.

So that is the latest. I am going to relax, stop with so much worry and just continue to do all I possibly can for this sweet boy and we'll take a day at a time....