October 6, 2009

I can’t believe that last time I wrote something was on Brady’s birthday. Time flies when you’re having fun. I guess you could say we are having fun. Brady is definitely a joy to raise.

Where do I start? Brady was “talking” last time I wrote. Well, now she is talking. I was told “no momma” the other day when I tried to feed her something she didn’t want. The second she feels hungry the word bottle is said until a bottle is given. It’s pretty awesome. She loves to look at you shake her finger and head and say “no, no, no”. Of course I shouldn’t laugh, but I do.

She is so much like her momma. She loves her books and they are the only thing that will keep her quiet if we need to stick her in the playpen for a few minutes. She also loves music and musicals. I got a little teary eyed when The King and I was on the other day and she sat in my lap and just watched the movie when they were singing and dancing. She also will jump up and down when music comes on the TV. She seems to love her momma’s two favorite things which are books and musicals. I guess I need to get out my Disney movies for her. Need to start her love for Disney off now. I am trying. I bought her some pj’s the other day with the Disney Princesses on the front. And we are going to Disney World with the whole family next year for vacation. I’m really looking forward to go and experiencing Disney with my little girl.

She is a crawling fiend. The kid is fast! She loves to crawl everywhere and loves to get into everything. For the most part she is really good at picking stuff up and handing it to us, but every now and then she will put something like a bug in her mouth. Yuck, but such is the life of a baby.

She is officially one year adjusted. This means that she can now have milk and eggs and no bottle (AHHH). I am a member of an online community called Babycenter.com. They send out emails daily and I got one the other day talking about my toddler. What?!? I don’t have a toddler. It’s like they were trying to take away my baby.

She’s not walking yet, but is so close. She actually took her first step last night. She might have taken more, but I scared her when I screamed for Erik. I startled her and she sat down and started laughing so at least I didn’t traumatize her for life. Hopefully she’ll be walking soon, and I am sure once she actually starts walking that I will take that back.

She has had another NICU follow-up and I think she impressed. One of her favorite things to do is give a high five. She will even say “five” when she does it. We were told that she was competent in all areas for her adjusted age. YAY! We still have to go back in six months, but I am so excited that she did so well.

She is also a poster child now. We had the opportunity to help out the MOD with advertisement for a Poker Run. Brady is in the most recent edition of The South Magazine. It has Paula Dean on the front and Brady’s picture is in two places towards the back of the magazine. It’s not every day that you can say your baby is in a magazine that has a 12 state reader base. So, that is pretty much awesome.

October 12, 2009

Had to stop writing and a lot has happened since I started this post. Brady is officially trying to walk. I have an old friend of mine who is a photographer, and she does these mini shoots for different times of the year and we signed Brady up to have picture taken this past Saturday. Well, I decided I wanted some pictures of Brady standing up so I put her on her feet. Well, all of a sudden she just starts taking steps. She got 3 or four before she tumbled to the ground. Stacy was clicking away so Brady’s first consecutive steps were caught. She has been trying hard the past few days, but has not made it past 3 steps yet. She is trying.

Unfortunately she has also been sick lately. Her upper respiratory issues have already started this year. She was on breathing treatments for a week and has had a cough since she went to the doctor. It’s no fun, but apparently the life we will live.

She’s in daycare now. It’s a small in-home daycare that she loves. It’s bittersweet to see your child happily play and ignore you when you walk out the door. Don’t get me wrong, I am so thankful that she does not scream and pitch a fit when we ( by “we” I mean Erik most of the time ) leave, but a bye every now and then is nice.

We are trying to figure out what to do with church right now. We don’t want to put Brady in the nursery during the RSV season, but she is such a chatter box that we aren’t sure if having her sit in church is the right thing to do. Erik is worried about distracting people, which I understand, but this past Sunday I thought she did pretty good. I just don’t want to have to do the whole switching off Sunday routine we did last year. I like going to church with my husband. I like my whole family being in church. I like being able to go to church every Sunday. I like where we are now, but I have to keep Brady’s health in mind. We’ll figure it out.

Brady is also getting her first tooth. Honestly, we were skeptical that it would ever happen, but it is slowly emerging. I was so excited when I found it. We joked that she was going to need dentures, but I guess we were wrong.

We are also excited about her NICU reunion which is at the end of this month. I can’t wait to take Brady to see all the nurses ( who loyally follow this blog ) and fellow NICU graduates. It sounds like it will be a blast. She will get to wear her Halloween costume which is exciting. We’ll get great use out of it between the reunion, her cousin’s birthday party, and halloween. She is going to be dressed in a 50’s sock-hop costume complete with a poodle skirt with her name on it :) I am pretty excited about this considering the fact that last Halloween was low-key because she was a shut-in. In theory she should have been almost and month old and perfectly able to be shown off in a cute little costume, but that wasn’t possible last year so I am thrilled to take full advantage of it this year.

So, I think that’s it. I know I didn’t talk about everything, like the horrible time we are having trying to take Brady off of the bottle. The kid won’t drink out of a sippy cup to save her life.

I hope you are all well! We continue to daily thank God for all of his amazing blessings and Brady is definitely at the top of that list, along with the people who love that sweet little girl.