My Nanny

This has been a tough week for us. My aunt/godmother Debra passed away on Saturday after battling cancer. She was my dad's younger sister. I will miss her terribly and I know my family will as well. She and her husband came fairly often in the last year for her treatments at MD Anderson, so I was able to see her a little more than normal, which was nice. I take comfort in knowing that she is no longer in pain and in peace. I will cherish the memories I have of her forever.

Something pretty weird happened today. I went outside to get the mail and there was a bag from "Party Lite" (sorta like a pampered chef thing I think) with some jelly's, a vase, a cheeseball mix and some scented oil. And there was a sticky note inside with only one word on it..."Debra". I don't know about you, but I think that is a pretty strange coincidence. Of all the names in the world, it was hers. I know it was random, but maybe it was a sign from her saying that she is ok. I have contacted the only person in League City that sells Party Lite in the hopes that I can return the items to the rightful owner.

So this makes 3 funerals (Grandma and Grandpa Bratton and Nanny) we have attended this year and it's only April. I'm hoping we are done for awhile. Poor Charlie is only 6 months old and has gone to 3 funerals already. But I think he makes people smile in a time of sorrow and that is a blessing.

On too brighter subjects, Charlie is 6 months old today (no picture yet, maybe tomorrow)! He got his shots today and only cried for a minute. He weighs 16 pounds, which is in the 25%. The same curve he has been on, so not concerning. We upped his reflux meds just a little and now we get to start real food! 3 meals a day! This may be a challenge, but we'll do our best.

We are headed to Fredericksburg tomorrow to spend Easter with Jeff's family. We are hoping that Charlie's cousin will make an appearance so we can meet him/her while we are in town. Jeff's sister, Carrie was due yesterday, but no signs of baby yet. We are all hoping it will happen soon, especially Carrie!

Happy Easter, everyone!

Easter Pictures

So here are the Easter Pictures we took last week. It was early in the morning and kinda cold, so we didn't get the usual smiles like normal. But I think we got some good ones. The yellow outfit was Jeff's from when he was little. Good think we didn't wait any longer to put it on him. It wouldn't have fit!

More pictures

So, I've been taking a few pictures and thought I would share. We put Charlie in his "high chair" and he is doing great sitting in it, but still not sure on the eating in it part. I currently feed him his cereal while sitting on the couch with him propped up in my lap on the boppy. We can't do this forever, so I would like to get him used to eating in the high chair. He keeps his head down, which makes it extremely difficult to feed him the cereal. Not sure what to do about that, but just keep trying. I have given him a few "table" foods and he likes to play with them more than eating. Maggie hovers like a vulture, waiting for him to fling the food on the floor. The beginnings of a beautiful relationship! ;)

Last week we had an Easter photo session, complete with live bunny and everything. I should be getting the cd with the pictures on it today, so I will post them then. I can't wait to see them! I saw 3 of them and they came out great.

Anyway, here are the pictures:

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

We had a little photo shoot today in honor of St. Patty's Day. Enjoy!

Medical update

I had my checkup at MD Anderson yesterday with the results today. I got an all clear from the Doctor! Yay! This was pretty much expected because if there is anything there, it wouldn't have had a chance to grow big enough to see it yet. So good news today and I will go back sometime in June.

I have been lax in taking pictures of Charlie, but I will try to do better. He is sleeping through the night, going to bed around 8-8:30 and then waking up around 4-5 am to eat, then will go back to sleep until about 8. Very nice! The time change has kinda screwed up our schedule, but hopefully it will get back on track here in the next few days. He loves his oatmeal cereal, which he gets 2-3 times a day. He is on the verge of getting a tooth. He has some white showing through on his bottom gums, so I'm anticipating an eruption sometime soon. He continues to be a very happy, smiley baby. We are working on rolling from back to front and sitting up unsupported for longer periods. I think he is also "scooting". In his crib anyway. We put him down to sleep at the bottom of the bed (towards the right side) and when he wakes up, he is at the top (on the left side). He wakes up because he has scooted so much his head has hit the end of the bed and he gets mad! So anyway, lots of things going on. Here are some pictures I took the other day.

5 Months already!

Charlie is 5 months old today! It's hard to believe. He has been learning new skills like crazy and it's so much fun to watch. He now rolls from front to back pretty regularly. Mainly in his crib when he's sleeping. He sleeps on his tummy and rolls onto his back and ends up waking himself up, which is no fun at 2am when he should be sleeping. :( I'm hoping he starts going from back to front soon so we don't have to keep flipping him over so he'll go back to sleep. He is grabbing things, putting everything he can in his mouth (mainly his hands) and sitting up supported for a good amount of time. He's also starting to laugh, which is so cute!

We had noticed that he was spitting up quite a bit lately, so I took him to the pedi. He had not gained very much weight in the two weeks between his 4 month apt and that day. We decided to change his medicine and start him on cereal to try and see if the thicker food would stay in his stomach easier than just plain breastmilk, which is pretty thin. Well, needless to say, he hated the cereal about the first week we tried it. He would cry! But if at first you don't succeed, try, try again. And we did! Today he finally seemed to be interested in it. Not to say he actually swallowed anything, but he didn't immediately spit it out and start crying. Baby steps...He's not getting any nutrition out of it anyway, it's just to help keep the milk down. It's been about a week since we changed medicine and started the cereal and it seems to be working. He's spitting up less and he gained about 1/2 pound in 6 days. So he is 5 months old and weighs 15 pounds. Hopefully he'll outgrow the 3 month clothes shortly! ;)

He has been going to Mother's Day Out on Tues/Thurs from 10-2. This has been really great. It gives me a chance to get out and do errands and things and he gets to be around other kids. It kind of throws his routine off a little because he doesn't take great naps there, but he is pooped when he comes home and usually takes a really long nap as soon as we get home. This gives me more time to get things done. I'm hoping this trend keeps up so I can use this time to sleep when I go back to work (whenever that is, not sure yet).

I will leave you with some pictures that I thought were pretty cute.



Charlie using his feet on his playmat:



Bathtime! He decided he wanted to naw on the side of the bathtub:



First try at cereal. He likes the empty spoon best:



Jeff and Charlie relaxing. Charlie had a stuffy nose. :(


I think he got a little tired in the excersaucer. Decided to rest his head:

Grandpa Bratton

Yesterday morning we got some unfortunate news that Jeff's grandfather had passed away earlier that morning. He was a great man and loved by many. We know he is in a better place and has been reunited with his wife, Grandma Bratton, for Valentine's Day. We are happy that he got to meet Charlie, if just for a few short months. Here they are just a few weeks ago.




I hope everyone has a Happy Valentine's Day!