Here's the "Bebe"!

This weekend was no exception to any of our last few weekends...extremely busy of running around and introducing Brady to more friends and family.

Adam's cousin Hannah and her daughter, Isabelle, came up from Atlanta this weekend to spend the night and spend time with their new cousin Brady. Isabelle has been awaiting Brady's arrival for quite a while. It was not long ago when she would kiss my belly and say "Hello Bebe". Cute, I know! Towards the end she began to get a little impatient as she would lift up my shirt and try to find him that way.

When Isabelle finally met Brady, the initial meeting was not what I expected. Isabelle was more interested in playing with the jewelry that Nana Tex had pulled out for her to play with. As our visit went on, she finally showed the reaction that I had hoped for. She wanted to hold Brady and have her picture made with him. Of course, she would only allow you to take the picture if she could take the next picture. She was so sweet! I loved how she knew Brady's name, and was very eager to be around him...if she was not playing with jewelry or telling someone what they should be doing. They will be good playmates when Brady gets older.




Brady also attended his first birthday party, went to the church nursery for the first time, met my great aunt Helen, and Adam's great grandmother, Granny.



Unfortunately our Sunday evening was rather unpleasant as Brady was very fussy and running a small fever. He is feeling slightly better today, but he better regain his strength, as he will be attending the Smith Family Reunion in Burlington this coming weekend. It will be another grand adventure!

Viva La Resistance

Jetta: Ok, so I have let everyone know of my displeasure of the new pet taking over my mother's lap. Since the day I was brought into this house, that has been my spot, and my spot only. Now that squirmy excuse for a homo sapian is always in the spot that is rightfully mine. I have tried other areas in the house, but none are as peaceful as mother's lap.



I have had it, and it is time to reclaim my favorite sleeping place. The other night, I attempted my most daring act of protest since the new pet has made himself comfortable in my lap. From now on, an occupied, or a non-occupied lap, I WILL be on it!! Granted, the lap did get a little crowded and I did not have the space to roll around and curl up as I used too, but that is not the point. The point was to show the new pet, that was here first, and I refuse to give the lap up so easily to sack of potatoes. I think I proved my point.

Another busy weekend

Our weekend began quite special on Saturday morning. Here is a little lesson on cause and effect...it must be the teacher in me and the fact that I have been out of work for a month now.
Cause: an event that happens
Effect: what happens as a result of said event
O.K. now that is out of the way and everyone is following along:
Cause: Brady gets a tickle under his chin while sitting in the bed with Adam
Effect: Brady gives his first smile as a reaction to something we did, and not just smiling as a result of gas or good milk.

Brady is starting to interact more. It still takes a lot to get him to smile, and so far it usually takes the chin tickle. I have been trying to get him to smile at faces that I make, but that seems to make him look a bit worried at his mom's distorted face. He has no sense of humor.

Later on Saturday we got a visit from Poppy and Dee Dee (Ronnie and Denise). We had a nice visit and I'm glad that Denise was able to see him as this was only the second time she had seen him since the hospital. After a few hours, we all loaded up and headed to McLeansville to see Mama B, Paw Paw and to finally meet the horses. Icy was quite curious about him, smelling him carefully. Brady cried. I am going to pass that off that he was hungry and not that he was scared...because then I would be worried if we brought the right child home from the hospital.



Sunday Brady, Beau, and I loaded up once more to take a walk in the park. Only this time, Grandpa Bud, or as Johnathan calls him, Pa Pa, joined us for a fine day at Country Park. The weather was perfect! Before heading home, we then stopped at Nana Nell's house where Adam was already waiting and the Carolina/Duke game was already underway. I have to say, Adam behaved himself quite well and I only heard 5 death treats to Coach K.

Our busy weekend was over and we finally headed home. Now we are looking forward to next weekend where Brady will meet his cousin Isabelle. There should be a good story next weekend!

Brady is giving mommy gray hairs!

Since Brady has been born, he has been trying to worry his parents constantly with medical problems. We were worried before we ever met him as the doctor shared concerns about his ability to handle the labor due to an irregular heartbeat. The irregular heartbeat continued for his first few days of life. Even though the doctors were certain the condition would fix itself, it still left Adam and I worried about our new son. Of course the doctors were right, and soon the problem fixed itself.

Next was Brady's thyroid test. It had come back borderline, and we would have to take blood again. Like the first time, the doctors were confident everything would come back fine, which it did.

Most recently, we were sent back to Brenners Children's Hospital for an upper GI test. Brady has had a lot of spit up, and the night before we were going in for a routine doctor's visit, Brady had some yellow in his spit up. This made the doctor a little concerned that possibly something from his intestines or liver was backing up into his stomach. They sent me and Brady to the hospital that afternoon. Luckily Adam was able to get off work and join me.

Once there, Brady experienced and awful procedure. First they had to insert a tube through his nose and to his stomach to inject the barium. He was strapped to a board, stretched out with his arms above his head. Once he was ready, the X-ray machine stopped working. The young doctor (whom I believe to have been on his first day) had no idea what to do. I stood there with my screaming child as they tried to re-boot the system. It was clear that it was not coming back on. They had to take the tube out, move us to another room, strap him down again, and insert the tube a second time. It was almost too much for me watching him go through that a second time. Finally they had things rolling. The rocked the board back and forth while taking a syringe that looks like it was for an elephant, filled it with air and pushed it in and out of his stomach. I was allowed to stay at his head. All I could do is put my fingers in his little hands that were strapped above his head. He held on for dear life. The procedure felt like it took forever. In the end, it was decided that Brady has problems with reflux. Luckily it is not bad enough to need treatment, and there is really not much I can do for it.

Brady has put us through enough scares in his first month of life, then some children give their parents in several years. I don't think I can keep taking such a little body being poked and prodded on. At least every time it comes out to be nothing. Better safe than sorry, but it sure is hard on mommy!

Snow day

Today, our family woke up to the most beautiful snow we have seen in several years. We got around 5-7 inches. I went out briefly (without Brady of course) to play with the dogs. Rusty of course remembers several great snows and seemed happy that it was there. Being almost 14 years old, he still remembers that he loves for me to kick the snow at him. He did his best to jump at it and bark as he used to, however, he is not as flexible as he used to be.

Beau on the other hand, has never seen anything other than a dusting. He thought that snow was absolutely great, but also a little cold. He immediately tried to find all of this buried toys under the cold blanket. He ran circles so quickly that snow blew up behind him. I wish I could spend more time with him out there, but I get uncomfortable leaving Brady in the house, even if he is asleep. Hopefully he will get some good play time out there when Adam gets home.

Brady's first sleep over

This past weekend, Brady had his first night away from home and daddy. Mom and I took Brady to meet Marcie. It had been a long awaited meeting for myself and of course for Marcie. She was so excited to see us pull up to the driveway. She opened the door to meet us as I'm sure she was waiting our late arrival (which of course my mom was responsible for, haha).

Brady did very well being in a new place and enjoyed his visit with Marcie. Like most other babies, he found her very comforting. Her magic fingers that I so fondly remember soothing me, went to work when he was fussy. Her steady rock in the chair that I know from experience to be lulling put him to sleep. I believe he found Marcie to be just as wonderful as the rest of us have always known her. Maybe it was not coincidence that he began flashing his handsome smile more often after his trip to meet his great grandmother.

First day at the park

Thursday was so nice, that I took Beau and Brady to the park for a much needed day out. I have been getting rather stir crazy since it has been too cold to take the little man out. Beau has been feeling the same as we can't get out with him as often as we should lately. So I packed up the car and headed off for Brady's first adventure. The car was loaded to the max with baby, stroller, diaper bag and monster dog in tow.

I was kind of worried as to how I was going to be able to control a stroller and such a large, excitable dog. However, once we were walking, Beau proved to be such a gentleman, that our walk was very enjoyable. So enjoyable that I didn't want to stop. We walked almost 5 miles!! Brady slept the entire time. It will still be a while yet before he will be aware of what is going on while he is in the stroller. However, Beau and I took it all in and were so happy to be out of the house. I can't wait for our next day out!!