First Day of School

Today Reed started his first day of K-3 at Hope Academy. I got him up at 7:00 this morning got him dressed and Graham brought him downstairs to eat breakfast while I got ready. As soon as he walked downstairs he went straight to his book bag and put it on and walked over to the front door and said "ok daddy I am ready to go to my school". Graham then had to explain to him that he couldn't go to school until he ate breakfast. He kept his book bag on until we got into the car. Once at school Graham and I walked him into his classroom and as soon as he saw the play dough sitting on the tables he dropped his book bag and started playing. As soon as i was able to get up enough courage to leave him I knew he was going to have a good day cause we told him bye and he wouldn't even acknowledge us. Reed will only be attending school 3 days a week from 8:15 to 12:00 so I hope when he wakes up tomorrow morning he isn't to disappointed that he won't be going to school.

Cereal

Today we started Braydon on cereal! I was very surprised how well he did eating off of the spoon. When we first tried to feed Reed cereal we had a lot of difficulty and finally had to resort to giving him his cereal in a bottle for a little while. From the way Braydon started out today it looks like he is going to adapt to the spoon quit easily. He didn't eat to much but I wasn't expecting him to. I was able to get some pics of him. i wanted to take some video but Graham was preoccupied both times I fed him and it is a little hard trying to hold a video camera in one hand while trying to feed a squirmy baby. Hopefully I can get some video of him this weekend cause every time he saw the spoon he would either squeal or give a big smile. If he gets this excited over cereal I can't wait to see what he does when we give him baby food.

4 months

Yesterday I took Braydon for his 4 month well check. He is developing just like he should be. He has complete head control and he can grab things when put him front of him. He is also growing very well. He is still having issues with his reflux but just as long as we give him his medicine we can usually keep it under control. He still cries a lot but that is slowly getting less and less. We are going to start him on cereal so I am hoping that this will help with the fussiness. The doc also said that the cereal will help with his spitting up.

Here is the comparision of the two boys growth charts at 4 months:

Reed
17 lbs 5 oz - 91%
26 1/2 in - 93%

Braydon
15 lbs - 45%
26 1/2 in - 90%

So needless to say Braydon is gonna be our basketball player cause he is gonna be tall and skinny!

School

Today I signed Reed up for 3-K. He will be attending Hope Academy which is located on Woodruff Rd. about 1 1/2 miles from where we live. I met with the director this morning to learn about the programs that they offer and from everything that she was telling me this sounds like the perfect school for Reed. I was a little worried that he wouldn't be able to start school this semester because he is still not potty trained but she told me that is doesn't matter just as long as we are making an honest effort to do so. Reed will be going to school 3 days a week from 8:30 to 12. They will do anywhere from 4-8 fieldtrips in a school year which include going to a farm and picking apples and pumpkins as well as seeing some of the childrens plays at the Peace Center. I am so excited for him he is going to have so much fun! Now we just have to meet with his teacher so she can do an assement and then we have open house the thurs. before labor day and he starts school the week after.

Belly Issues

Ever since we put Braydon on formula he has been having issues with his belly hurting him. The first time I took him to the dr. about it they thought it was from him having reflux issues so they put him on Zantac. They told me it could take a couple of weeks to help him. After two weeks he wasn't having problems with reflux anymore but he was still fussing a lot and spitting up a lot and I could tell that his belly was still hurting him so I took him the dr. again. This time the dr. switched his formula to Similac Sensitive because he thought he might have a lactose sensitivity and the formula is lactose free. At first he seemed to be doing ok but after about a week he started fussing again and we also noticed that he was crying from about 7-10 every night and still having belly and spitting up issues. Because of all this we unfortunately had to cancel a trip we had planned to go up to Cape Cod to see our family. We didn't really feel safe leaving Greenville knowing that Braydon was having belly issues. We also have been extremely tired because of not being able to get much sleep at night so we didn't think it was to safe to drive for 16 hours with the kids in the car. Once again after about a week on the formula Braydon started to get bad again so once again I called the dr. and he told me to switch his formula to Isamil Nutramigan, which is the most expensive stuff. So far he is doing ok and he has been one it for a week now. We are also convinced that he has colic and the dr. has this suspicion has well. But the new formula is supposed to help this as well. I just hope that he will start doing better and that his colic goes away soon. They say it usually does between 3-4 months.

Brothers

This morning I turned the cartoon Max and Ruby on for Reed to watch. Well the colors on the tv caught Braydon's eye so I got his bouncey seat and put it in the sitting position so he could see the tv. After doing this Reed went and got his chair and put it right next to him. It was the cutest thing. Reed loves his little brother so much and he gets so tickled every time he does something new.

Beach Weekend

At the last min. Graham and I decided to take a trip to Myrtle Beach with my sister and her family and my dad. We decided that we wanted to take a family vacation before my sister has her surgery. I left with my dad on thurs. morning and Graham arrived late fri. evening. Reed had a blast playing with his cousins at the beach. Fri. morning was the first venture to the beach and all Reed wanted to do was play in the sand. To him the beach was one big sandbox. After a while though we were able to get him to go into the ocean. Reed now loves the beach and the ocean. I can't wait to take him up to the Cape at the end of the summer he is going to have so much fun. On sun. before we headed home we took the boys to Ripley's aquarium and of course Reed didn't want to leave. All in all we had a wonderful time and it was so nice to spend the time with my dad and sister.

Reed being buried in the sand


sliding down the walls of the sand castle we were building


two tired boys


daddy I got tickets!


If you couldn't tell Reed loves fish



Daddy look!


Touching horseshoe crabs


Having fun sliding


Hey daddy!


Having fun at Broadway at the Beach

been awhile!

I have been so busy lately trying to manage 2 kids that I didn't realize that it had been over 3 weeks since I posted something. Sorry to all those that follow my blog that I haven't kept you informed about what we have been up to. Here is one new post and there will be many more to follow.

UPDATE:
I received the results from Reed's allergy testing a couple of weeks ago and unfortunately the first results were right. So he is allergic to soy and peanuts which now means I have to look at the ingredients of everything before I give it to him. Monday he went to a birthday party at Monkey Joe's and I had to find out from the mom who was throwing it what food was going to be there and where she was getting the cake from so I could check the ingredients. I will admit that at times this has been a hassle but when it comes to your child's health you will do whatever you need to do in order to keep them safe. One thing that has definitely helped me out is that all restaurants list ingredients and food allergies on their websites so now I know where we can and cannot eat. The only problem that I have run into is that Reed doesn't understand why he can't have certain foods so I just try to keep him away from those situations.

2 months old

Yesterday Braydon turned 2 months old! It is still hard to believe that God has blessed me with two beautiful boys. Braydon is now smiling and cooing and he is starting to finally get on a good sleeping schedule. He still doesn't want to go to sleep until about 10 every night but it is sure better than midnight. I am now convinced that other than the reflux problem he is a colicy baby. Every night between 7-8 he starts fussing for no reason and it takes us over an hour to get him calmed down to where he is just whining a little bit. It can be a little frustrating at times but I know that he will eventually out grow this. All the books say that colic usually goes away between 3-4 months.

The Little Gym Block Party

On Friday I took Reed and his cousins(Chris, Adam, Danny,Zach, & Katie)to the annual Little Gym Party. They had a blast and did a good job on wearing me out. The had all kinds of stuff there for the kids to do. The had the Critter Keeper, inflatables for the kids to jump on, a DJ, characters, and of course they had the gym open for all the kids to play in.

Allergies

This morning I took Reed to the allergist to find out if there was something that we could do about his seasonal allergies. They of course asked me a ton of questions about his family history and if we had noticed any other allergies. They ended up testing him for seasonal allergies, animals, and certain foods. He did pretty well except for the fact that he kept wanting to scratch his back where they pricked it. When the test was done we found out that he was allergic to tree and grass pollen, which we already knew. We also found out that he was allergic to dogs which was kind of a shock because I actually thought he was allergic to cats but that test actually came back negative. The biggest shock though was when the doctor said that his peanut and soy allergy test came back positive. He asked us if we had ever given him anything with peanuts in it and of course we have and he had never had any kind of reaction. The dr. said that you can sometimes get false positives but he wanted him to have some blood work done to double check the results. He also told us that his exzema could be a result of a peanut and soy allergy. We find out the results of the blood test in about 2-3 weeks. Until then we have to keep Reed off of peanuts and soy just in case that he really does have an allergy to them. After we finished at the allergist I took Reed to Toys R Us and let him pick out a toy. I figured it was only fair after getting his back scratched and then having his arm stuck, which by the way was probably one of the hardest things I had to deal with other than when he was born.

Reed's new toy

Giddy Up Horsey!

As promised here is a video of Reed being silly.

Doctors Appointment

This morning I took Braydon to the dr. for his one month well check-up. Everything went well and he is growing like a weed. Here is a comparison of how the two boys are growing.

Reed:(1 month)
weight=11 lbs.
height=23.5 in.

Braydon:(1 month)
weight=10 lbs. 6 oz.
height=22.25 in

Braydon is not to far behind Reed and he is growing at about the same rate. If Braydon wouldn't have been 3 weeks early I have a feeling that he would be just as big as Reed was at this age.

Mommy's big boy!


Whose that handsome little man?

Happy Mother's Day!

Sunday was a wonderful day! I got to celebrate being a mom of two beautiful boys. For lunch we went downtown to Mary's at Falls Cottage. Then for dinner Graham took me out to Mimi's Japanese Steakhouse. Needless to say I got spoiled for the day. I also got some pretty awesome presents. The boys got me some charms for my Pandora bracelet and Graham got me a new camcorder. It is really cool because instead of using a DVD to record onto it it records onto a SD card. It is also supposed to be user friendly which means I will be able to start putting videos of the boys on my blog.

checking out one of the fountains downtown


playing in the water with daddy


sleepy baby


hanging out with daddy before lunch


mommy and her boys


mommy's newest edition

one month

Saturday Braydon was officially one month old. It is hard to believe because it feels like I was just released from the hospital. Not much has changed since he was born. He is still not sleeping well at night. I can tell he has gotten bigger because of how he fits in his clothes but I am not sure how much he has grown. His one month well check is Friday so we will find out then.

Spider Bite

This weekend went a little differently than planned. On Fri. Graham showed me a spot on his leg that he thought was an ingrown hair. Then on Sat. morning when he woke up I noticed that he was limping. The bump on his leg was bigger and swollen. I forced him to go to the dr. Turns out he got bit by a spider. The dr. said it wasn't poisonous but that the bite had gotten infected. She gave him an antibiotic and just told him to keep an eye on it. Sunday morning when he woke up the wound had gotten bigger and was turning black. The area around the wound was bright red. We decided that he needed to go to the er to have it looked at. The dr. in the er said it looked like he had been bit by a brown recluse spider. They ended up giving him iv antibiotics and prescription for another antibiotic. Monday afternoon I had to take Graham to see a surgeon. The surgeon was able to drain a little bit of fluid from the wound. He has to go back to see the surgeon next week just to make sure it is healing okay. He has been on two different antibiotics, pain med., and ibuprofen for the swelling. He is doing much better now.

3 weeks old

Congratulations!

This morning Graham got a phone call from his little sister, Alida, with some wonderful news. Her and her boyfriend, Jose, got engaged last night. Graham and I are so happy for the two of them. Congratulations guys! I know the two of you are going to be very happy together!

one week old

Today Braydon is one week old. In the past week he has been a busy little baby. The day after coming home from the hospital we took him out for the first time, of course it was just to the pediatrician's office. Even though he was born one day before 37 weeks he was still considered premature and because he was born a little premature he was a little jaundice. We had to take him to see the dr. for the 1st three days he was home to check his levels to make sure that his liver is functioning ok. After yesterdays appt. the dr. is sure that everything is just fine now. We also took him to have his pictures done when he was 5 days old. We did this with Reed because the hospital pics are horrible and expensive so we figured we would do it with Braydon too. Yesterday was Graham's last day at home before he had to go back to work so we figured we would go out and do something as a family. We took Reed to monkey joes to get some of his built up energy out. He went full speed for an hour and then crashed. Braydon still has his days and nights mixed up but hopefully he will get that corrected soon. Other than only getting a little bit of sleep at night I would say this past week has been pretty good. Of course I have to give Graham's mom, Frances, all the credit for that. She has been here since last thurs. and been helping out with everything. She has done a wonderful job keeping Reed entertained and not feel left out. She is leaving sat. to go back home and I don't know what I am going to do without her here but I know that with a little bit of time I'll be just fine.

one week old


Reed at Monkey Joes