Reading

Bradley LOVES to read his books. The other day we were upstairs in my room, he left to go into his room and I started to follow. As soon as he turned around and saw me coming, he grabbed that door and shut it in my face! So I thought, ok - I'll let you hang out alone for a little bit. About 5 minutes later, hearing no noise at all, I was wondering what he was doing, so I opened the door to find him doing this - SO CUTE! He had got his boppy pillow off the chair, put it in the middle of the room, got a book, sat down in the middle of the pillow and was reading his book... all by himself... concentrating so hard. It was adorable :) Now he's been doing that more and more, going upstairs out of nowhere to go read a book by himself. He is such a sweetheart!!

Comparison Shots

Ok - I really hate posting bare belly pictures, especially this time around because I am all stretched and gross :) But, it's a beautiful thing right?! :) hmph!

I haven't been doing a very good job taking pictures at the same time, but oh well - you can still get the picture - I'm way bigger! :) That's basically what it all boils down to :) (Sorry to anyone who is offended by my bare pregnant belly!)

With Bradley at 16 1/2 weeks With Baby at only 15 weeks With Bradley at 23 1/2 weeks With Baby at only 20 weeks With Bradley at 26 weeks With Baby at 25 1/2 weeks

After looking at all of Bradley's pictures from here on out - I am amazed at how much bigger it is going to get :) Did I block that out of my memory for some reason?? :)

Happy Halloween!

So with everyone being sick this year for the whole month of October, I feel like Halloween snuck up on us and Bradley got a little jipped :( We never got around to going to the corn maze like I wanted to, never got to a pumpkin patch to get pumpkins to carve, and almost didn't get a chance to have our annual party. Luckily we snuck it in just in time. After Bradley lost 4 pounds off his tiny little 24 pound frame it was tricky getting the right size costume - at which I failed :( It was too small! Whenever we put the head part on it was so stretched out it made his neck immobile and he looked so stiff - so he barely had that part on. That's ok, he still looked adorable. Mr B was Mr BEE :) He was a little bumble-bee and we were his flowers :) We had a lot of fun at the party, and Bradley had a blast running around with his friends. I'm still pretty sad about the whole 'no pumpkin carving' thing - I know, I know - Bradley won't even notice... but I do...

New Car

Not for me - I wish :) Our fantastic, wonderful, giving neighbors were out shoveling snow and talking to Kevin and they asked if Bradley would want a little car that their kids didn't use anymore. Next thing we know we are taking Bradley upstairs to go down for a nap when we look out the window and there's this car sitting on our front porch. Bradley got SO excited!!! We told him that we'd play with it after nap, but there was no way he was going to let us put him down after he saw his new toy :) So, we thought we'd let him play with it for just a little bit and then put him down to go to sleep. He played for quite a while, then we had to pry him off of it and take him upstairs :) After a very very long time of him crying "car, car!" we finally gave up and he skipped nap that day :) He loves it. It's so funny watching him because he gets in, acts like he's driving, turning the wheel, pushing buttons, then gets out, walks about 3 feet away then turns around and does it all over again, in and out - in and out :) Man, do we owe our neighbors big time!

Sick Sick Baby :(

So remember how we were all healthy for 1 day? Then the worst part came :( Bradley started having an upset stomach on a Thursday, and still on Friday. I know how dangerous dehydration can be for babies and toddlers, so I was doing everything I possibly could to keep him hydrated and keep him drinking his fluids - which all went down the drain on Saturday when he started throwing up everything I gave him. Poor thing couldn't keep anything down! He was still acting like himself on Saturday, wanting to play and laughing, but just could not eat anything and getting sick all day long! Then Sunday was scary - still throwing up and having diarrhea, nothing in his system for days now, and he had NO energy. He was so lethargic it was really scaring me. All he would do was sit on our laps and fall asleep, he just couldn't keep his eyes open, and he started to not even want to drink anything, because he would just throw up right afterwards :( So, I freaked out and took him to Urgent Care. They said they didn't think he was quite to the point of hospitalization yet, but he needed fluids fast. He had lost a lot of weight - went from 24 pounds to 20 :( They gave him some anti-nausea medicine and told us to try to get him to take as much fluids as possible. The meds worked for a little bit, but he was still too sleepy to even drink most of the time, then that night he started throwing up again. That next morning we took him straight to the dr, and she sent us straight to the ER. Bradley had to get an IV - worst thing I've ever seen :( I hate seeing him sick in the first place and seeing him in pain like that just killed me :( He got 2 rounds of fluids, more anti-nausea meds and the ER doc said he was borderline admitting him or not, but he thought we could try to get him to drink more at home and avoid sending him up to the peds unit when there's so much sickness flying around up there. So we took him home, tried to have him drink 1 ounce of fluid every 15 min that he would take it and hoped and prayed that he wouldn't start throwing up again - which THANK GOD - he didn't! He went back to the dr the next day and we could all see he was improving, slowly but surely. We had to REALLY watch what he ate and push fluids for over 2 weeks, and he still isn't back to normal - but pretty darn close. They said that he had a nasty nasty Gastrointestinal Virus that just hit him really hard. I felt SO bad for him and I'm so thankful that he's feeling better. We've been kind of spoiled with him, he's been a very healthy boy his whole life and we haven't had to see him in pain very much, and that was so hard on all of us. Man, being a Mom is hard! I don't want to ever have to see him in pain, it truly breaks my heart and I wish I could take all the pain myself - ten fold - just so he doesn't have to be sad or feel bad. Now that we are finally all healthy, we can't find flu shots anywhere, so hopefully we can keep healthy through the rest of this cold and flu season. And hopefully I can start plumping my boy back up to his normal weight :(

To Grandmother's house we go...

There is no river, and no woods... just the grassy plains that lead us to Grandma's house :) Grandma takes her annual trip to Arizona every October to avoid the cold Colorado winters, so we had to go visit her one more time before she left. Bradley got a little tired of the hour and a half drive there and I had to switch seats with Craig so that I could sit next to him and calm him down, see his poor little tear streaked cheeks? It was so nice to get to visit everyone, play some games, and eat Grandma's famous roast :) Drew was watching a movie on his portable DVD when Bradley decided to sit down next to him and join himevery now and then he'd put his arm around Drew and pat him on the shoulders - such a sweet sweet boy :) They had 6 brand new kittens out there, and it was cold and windy, so I tried to convince Kevin to let me put them in his truck - just until we left so they could stay warm - but he knows me too well :) he said we'd get home and I would have just happen to forget to take out one of the kittens :)We love you Grandma! Thank you for having us :) We can't wait to see you again at Christmas!

Visit with the Larsen's

Our good friends, the Larsen's, had baby Autumn on June 27th of this year and we finally got to go meet her :) Of course our family was still a little sick at this point so I had to stay clear of Autumn, but at least I got to see her from afar :) She is adorable! Of course Katie and I had to do our belly shot, and Bradley and Connor had a blast with each other!It was a lot of fun and I hope we get to see them more often - we love getting together!