What a wonderful day....

Before I begin, the first picture is proof that Brakston still makes the "crazy face" and the second picture is from his birthday party with Aunt Erin and Uncle Gordon back in July. (Boomer finally loaded his camera pics onto my computer)

Yesterday, Brakston and I went to Greenwood for his very first band contest. This was special to me, that's how I grew up, spending countless Saturdays going various places to contests, it was awesome as a child and I loved it. I didn't know how he would react, would he be scared, timid....no need to worry, he absolutely loved it and provided entertainment to everyone who was there. I took his walker with us, which used to be my nephew Aidan's (I bought it years ago at a garage sale for $2.00, Aidan loved it, and now we are using it until Noah is old enough) and he spent almost an hour chasing Aidan around the parking lot. Aidan was great with him, and tried to share the walker with him, but B would have none of that and when Aidan wouldn't let go, he growled at him (that's what happens when you spend a lot of time around dogs I guess). When it was close to the time of the performance, we went up in the stands. My mom was holding Brakston, who wouldn't stop dancing when the band started. I finally let him down to stand at the railing and the kid just went nuts. He danced and danced, making everyone around him laugh out loud. It look like a "booty" dance, as he held onto the railing and shook his butt for the whole world to see.

I cried, it was so perfect, which sounds a little silly to some I guess, but I loved seeing him be a part of something that defined who I am. Boomer calls me a "band geek" and I laugh. I loved every second of it, am proud of it, and miss it like crazy. It's forever a part of who I am and watching Brakston enjoy it was just the best feeling....He had so much fun yesterday and I loved watching him explore new things. I was reminded once again how God chose the perfect child for us.

I read other adoption blogs and it just seems so crazy to think that some of these babies aren't even home yet. Our recovery nurse is traveling this week to pick up her second son from Guatemala and he's one day older that Brakston, a day older, and still not home....I often wonder why we got so lucky.....Brakston is the love of our lives and I can't remember life without him. Someone asked me yesterday "how motherhood was treating me?" and I just found that to be a really odd question. Did she think my answer was going to be something other than "it's wonderful?" Yes, life is good here and Boomer better watch out, I think we have a future musician in the making..........

Where did my baby go?

Oh my goodness, who took my baby and replaced him with this crazy toddler????

You would never know today that he had the "snip snip" surgery yesterday. This kid has been into everything today, it's 2:20 and I'm exhausted, good thing Grams (Penny) is coming tonight. He has taken a great interest in my keyboard and does everything in his power to get to it, moving everything that I use to block it out of his way. He walks with his walker everywhere and hardly ever crawls. Now, he just needs to let go. As you can see, he loves his Harley, that poor dog takes a lot of abuse from B. Today Brakston threw my books from my bookshelf all to the floor, everyone that he could reach. He loves cassette tapes. I found some that I forgot to put in the garage sale and he has great fun opening them and closing them...whew we just had a tug-of-war as he's trying to move a storage container away from the computer so that he can reach the keyboard.

He now says "Cassey" for both dogs, we're still working on Harley. He says "no," "mom," "dad," (with a huge emphasis on the final D), "fish," "please," and "yes." He signs "more please" when he wants something. Using two signs together is a huge step, I've very proud of him for moving on to two-word phrases so quickly. (On average, typical children start using two-word phrases between 20 and 24 months) He signs "more" and/or "please" every time he wants something now, we just don't always know what he wants.

We've now been home over 5 months, that doesn't seem possible. He's such a blessing, but boy, I need a nap!!

Oh, the lion picture is us practicing for Halloween. He loved his costume.

New Pictures

I finally got Brakston's one-year pictures taken. There was a 9.95 special at a place in Metropolis and I posted a few of the ones from the CD we received. The other pictures are from Brakston practicing his spoon skills at dinner last night. I guess I should have paid more attention to him, and less to cutting out my coupons.

For my wonderful husband....

These pictures are from our first family trip to the zoo on Labor Day. Don't my men look cute!!

I just wanted to take a minute and blog about my wonderful husband. I was talking to my grandma this week and she said that she thought that parenthood and really "changed" LT. I disagree, I don't think it's changed him, I just think he shows his softer side more now that Brakston's here.

The reason for this blog is because LT and I had a conversation this week that really made me think. It was about a couple we know and how it seemed like the husband wasn't thinking of his wife's needs, or safety and I said "there's never been a single time that you haven't taken care of me" and I think my poor husband was absolutely speechless (amazing, I know)......but it's true. LT has this tough exterior,but inside, he's a "fixer." He wants to make everything right. I remember when I had to testify in court a couple of years ago and LT didn't like how my car sounded so he rented me a car for the day because I had to drive all the way to Martin County to the courthouse. When Morgan, our beloved white boxer, died right before my birthday two years ago, he searched the Internet until he found a black boxer puppy because he knew that I had always wanted one, and he drove to Missouri to get him (he told me he was taking our friend to pick up his Harley, which was true, and that's how Harley got his name) and he surprised me when he got home. He put up with me during Brakston's adoption process, he probably deserves a medal for that. He arranged a babysitter on my birthday without me knowing and we had our first dinner date without Brakston since we had come home from Guatemala. He decided a Mini Cooper was just too small for the three of us, and too hard to lug a baby around in, and bought me a new car (He now drives my truck). Most of all, he always, always, keeps me, now us, safe.

It's funny, when my mom met my dad in highschool, she decided that he was it, she found who she was going to marry, and that was that. That's exactly what I decided after my first date with LT. He was it, I knew it immediately. He was what I wanted, and I'm stubborn and usually get what I want. We had a couple of breakups, but I just knew.

I love life right now. I love watching him with Brakston. I love being a family of three.

It's amazing to me that LT and I met 11 years ago and will soon be celebrating our 9th wedding anniversay. Time goes by so fast. So, this blog is for my beloved husband. I'm pretty sure Brakston thinks he's great too. This morning when he got up, he signed "more" and then said "dad." I thought maybe it was a fluke, but at lunch today when I went to take his plate away, he signed "more," so I gave it back and he continued eating so I think this morning he really wanted more of his dad (LT usually gets him up, but since he was sick, I was at home and LT was already at work.)

Sick again!!

We had a scary night last night. At 9:30 when I was putting a cranky Brakston to bed, I realized he was hot!! We took his temp and it was somewhere between 101 and 104 (those ear thermometers are worthless). I called out doctor at home, who's luckily a friend of ours, and after talking with him, Boomer went off to the store. I gave him Tylenol at 10:30 and then when I woke him up at 12:30 for the Motrin, the fever was gone and it stayed away, until this afternoon when it was back to 102. Ugh!! Brian told us to come in this morning at 9:00, which we did, and he has an upper resp. infection, but his ears looked good. Two weeks ago it was a double ear infection. It seems like as soon as the antibiotics were done, he was sick again. Oh the joys of daycare!! I hope when he wakes up the fever is back down. I made the mistake of not giving him any medicine after the doctor visit because his fever was back to normal. Guess that wasn't a good idea.

The pictures are from last weekend. We had dinner with Pops, Nana, and LT's stepsister Paula and her boyfriend Nick. Paula hadn't met Brakston yet. They got along very well as you can see from the photos. (Pops=Larry, Nana=Margie).

UPDATE: His temp is down again, thank goodness. Hopefully it stays that way.