I am so glad that Christmas is over! We had a great Christmas but the day was just crazy. Braeden woke up at 7:00 am to open presents. Well, he didn't really get up to open presents he was just ready to get up for the day so I helped remind him that Santa came the night before. Here are pictures of our early morning fun! Braeden opening one of his 50 presents. Woohoo! Kristy is the greatest gift giver in the WORLD! Look at all the stuff in this box. Braeden's ATV. All of Braeden's gifts. Here is what Travis got. My gifts. Isn't that OSU picture sweet!?! My awesome boyfriend picked that out for me! It wasn't long after we opened the gifts that we had to leave to make it over to Travis's sister Carla's house for more Christmas fun. Braeden had a good time playin' with Tatum's new doll house. He got a huge front end loader from Travis's sister Krista but was too into the doll house while we were there to play with it. The front end loader. Braeden and Teagan playing with the doll house. A few hours after getting to Carla's house we had to leave so that we could make it to see my mom and the rest of the family for yet more gifts. This year it only took about an hour and a half to open presents which is a vast improvement over the 3 hours from last year. Braeden was being very antisocial and I ended up opening his presents.He would go into another room to play with a Dora vanity set that Mackenzie got for Christmas. I don't know what his deal was with playing with girl toys yesterday but it was getting a little bit out of hand. Braeden and Bethannie getting ready for presents. Braeden wearing the OSU hat that Travis got for Christmas and his new Harley sweatshirt from Papaw Chasteen. That's right those are cake pans. I am thinking about baking a cake or two this year. Finally at about 7:00 pm we were on our way back home to play with the presents that Braeden had accumulated. I was excited to get to play with the new shake and go crash-up racetrack that Santa brought for Braeden. I built the track with plenty of time to spare to take a few laps before Braeden had to go to bed. Here is a picture of Braeden and I racing the cars.
Tonight was Braeden's Christmas program at daycare. I was so excited to go in and see Braeden and his little friends singing songs. I took a half day so that I would be able to make it in time for the performance. When I got there Braeden was passed out in the corner because apparently he didn't take a nap at nap time. I got there about 20 minutes early so I let him sleep a little longer so that he would HOPEFULLY be in a good mood when he woke up. While he was sleeping the teacher painted his nose since his class was supposed to be singing Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. Well....he was not even close to being ready to wake up and sing a song when it came time. I gave him to his teachers and ran to the back of the room to take a little video and pictures. They finally came walking out looking totally cute but guess who is crying. That's right Braeden was crying and would not stop. He got up just as the song started and tried to get back to me crying the whole way. Oh well maybe next year will go a little bit better.
After one day and $100.00 I have my car back. I don't think it looks too shabby. If you just take a quick glance you wouldn't be able to tell that I just had that accident. Braeden had his surgery today to have tubes put in. I wasn't near as nervous as I was with the scope he had before. With this procedure they were only going to be using gas and it was only going to take a few minutes so I wasn't a nervous wreck when we went in today. When we first got there Braeden did cry a little bit because he was tired and wanted juice but it didn't last long. He almost fell asleep on Dianna while I was speaking with the anesthesiologist. Shortly after that they gave Braeden some drugs so that he wouldn't remember what was going on. I remembered that stuff from the last time we were there. It makes him act soooo silly. He was just sitting there giggling for no reason. They finally came in to get him and he sat on the bed like a big boy as they wheeled him out of the room. I couldn't believe that he wasn't crying! While he was gone they had us watch a movie about how to take care of the tubes and as soon as that was finished the doctor came walking in. He said everything went well and that he wanted us to put drops in Braeden's ear twice a day and have him lay down for 5-10 minutes on each side. Um yeah right! Braeden came back to the room shortly after chillin on his bed drinking juice. He has been a little bit wobbly today but he doesn't seem to be in any pain. Just to let ya know he HATES the ear drops. Here are a couple of pictures from the hospital.
Here he is just after the medicine. Mr. Giggles The big boy chillin after surgery.
The past few weeks have been crazy around here. As if the Christmas season isn't normally crazy in itself. Last week Braeden had an appointment with the EENT who said that he wanted to do tubes to stop the ear infections. I am not thrilled about it but hopefully it will help since he has had 4 ear infections since July. Not only does he want to do tubes but he wanted to get them asap. Braeden is scheduled to go in this Wednesday to have the surgery. It should only be a 5 minute procedure once they get him in there. We were supposed to be taking a trip this week and would not be back until Wednesday so I decided to just come back a day early. Well, that was until the snow storm on Saturday. Saturday Braeden and I were on our way over to my house after running to the bank and store when we had a little car accident. That morning a few inches of snow had fallen and the roads were pretty slippery, I was only going about 25 miles an hour when I started to slow down for a big turn. Just as I put my foot on the brake my car began to slide off the road towards a telephone pole. There was no stopping the car so I told Braeden to hang on we were going to crash and BANG we stopped. It didn't cause the airbags to come out and we were both fine. It did freak Braeden out for a minute but he wasn't hurt at all. Since the car was still running I decided to try and get out of the ditch. I got the car out of the ditch and got out to check out the front of the car. My bumper was barely hanging on so I tore it off and threw it to the side and drove my car the rest of the way home. My car was making an horrible sound as I drove it home because the plastic from the wheel well was rubbing my tire. Here is how my car looks now.... I think it looks pretty bad but Travis said that I really didn't do that much damage. He just happens to have friends who own a body shop so the car is down there today being patched back together. We aren't trying to make it look new because I was already planning on looking for a new car after I get my income tax. Since I had the accident obviously I now am not able to take the trip to see my grandparents. I am just stuck in the house for a day or two without any transportation. Luckily it should only be a day or two and I already had this time scheduled off. One other piece of important business...... DANIELLE HAD HER BABY!!!!!!!! Alexander Donovan Copeland is here! He came a few weeks early but she was expecting that he would. He was born on Dec. 13th and weighed 6lbs 1 oz. He has a little virus so they are still in the hospital but should be home before Christmas. Welcome to the family Alex. Braeden is soooo excited to see you.
Last Wednesday I thought it would be fun to try a craft project with Braeden. Since the next day was Thanksgiving I thought that we could make turkeys with our hand prints. I went out and bought paints, glue and feathers to make "turkey hands." Braeden was VERY excited. He loves to color so I thought that painting would go over pretty well. He loved painting but didn't want to make "turkey hands" the way I wanted him to. He would rather paint his hand and then paint the paper with the paintbrush. Things went well until I put the paints away before he was finished painting. We did have a little bit of a meltdown but after a short timeout we got the feathers on the turkey and a finished project. It may be a while before we break the paints out again but we ultimately had a good time with our little craft. Here is a short video and pictures of our exciting time.
This week has been fun with just a pinch of crazy sprinkled on top. The week started off pretty slow with just work and sleep until we got to Thursday. Now let the fun begin! Braeden's daycare center was having a Thanksgiving FEAST that the parents were invited to attend. How dang cute is that! It was a pretty good time eating in tiny chairs, playing with tiny toys and watching the kids fight over each tiny toy. Here are a couple of pictures of my daycare adventure. Hannah kept trying to hold Braeden's hand but he was having no part of it! His girlfriend wasn't there for the party. :(
Braeden's teacher Mrs. Keisha thought he may need a little help looking out the window since he is so little.
Braeden and Mrs. Nikki (another teacher) eating some yummy food.
Braeden showing me the shaking eggs.
Who doesn't like a game of Ring Around the Rosie.
After daycare on Thursday I had made an appointment to take Braeden up to the mall and meet Rachel and Gavin to have pictures taken. Last year we had the boys picture taken together and we want to try and get them done every year. Last year the boys really were not into getting their pictures taken. If it wasn't Braeden crying then it was Gavin. This year was not much different. Gavin was REALLY good for the pictures. I can not say the same for Braeden. He FREAKED OUT! I have no idea what his deal was but he kept crying like he was afraid to stand on the fabric that they pull down as the backdrop. Rachel and Gavin got their pictures taken together first to see if Braeden would calm down. He was still not feeling it when they were finished so we decided to give him a little time and then try again. About an hour and half later we tried again. We did actually get some pictures taken but it was a serious workout. All I have to say is if I have another kid I am skipping the 2 year pictures! Here are a couple of the pictures that were done. Friday was yet another exciting day this week. It started like any other day of the week when I have to work. Braeden wakes me up and demands a pop-tart, milk and cartoons. As we wre watching The Many Adventures Of Pooh he turned to me and said, "Mommy ear itching." I asked if it was itching or if it was hurting he said hurt but then turned back to pooh so I thought it may just be an itch. About 5 minutes he said it again and started to rub it and whine. GREAT! I called our doc.'s office and they were booked but told me to call in the morning and they have call-ins only on Saturday. By this point Braeden is crying and rubbing at that ear. I decided that I would take him into the urgent care rather than waiting until Saturday to have him checked. I got to Children's at 11:30am and Urgent care doesn't open until 5:00pm so I had to go and sit in the ER. We were in the ER for about 2.5 hours before we saw a doc. By the time the doctor got to the room that we were chillin in Braeden had just passed out. She checked him out and said that yes he had another ear infection. She didn't say it like that it went a little more like this..."His eardrum is bulging with puss." She then made this face where her cheeks were puffed out. GROSS! Once again we are on an antibiotic and go in to see Dr. Thomas in 2 weeks. We are sure to see a EENT shortly thereafter. The ending of the week was awesome! Why? Well I will tell you just in case you were trapped under a rock this weekend. OSU beat the crap out of Michigan! Heck yeah, GO BUCKS!
I know I am late but the saying goes "Better late than never." Right? This week has been a little bit crazy because I am a procrastinator and I had nothing ready for Halloween. We finally got everything together by Sunday. Braeden had been with Grandma Taylor on Saturday since I had to work and they wanted to have a little birthday party for him. Trick or treat was also on Saturday so I sent over Braeden's costume so that they could take him out. Well when they tried to put his costume on he started crying so they took him to a couple of houses in his regular clothes before it started raining. On Sunday I wanted to carve pumpkins so after I picked up Braeden we got to it. At first Braeden was not so excited about carving the pumpkin but that passed quickly once we gave him the scooper to get those "guts" out. It didn't take long before he was following Travis and just putting his hand down in there to grab out the guts.
We didn't carve the faces of the pumpkins until after Braeden went to bed that night. The first one I carved quickly because I really didn't have any idea what I wanted it to look like. It did turn out better than I thought it would.
While carving the first pumpkin Travis had the idea to make the next one look like we had cut the top of its head off. What a great idea! We decided to try and make this pumpkin look a little like Frankenstein. I had the task of drawing the face onto the pumpkin while Travis cleaned, carved and perfected the look. I think it turned out pretty sweet.
Here are the two pumpkins on cute little stands that Travis's mom bought for us.
On Tuesday Travis and I took Braeden out trick or treating in Centerville. I was excited because the costume I had bought for Braeden was super cute and could not wait to see him in it. Let me tell ya Braeden did NOT like that costume at all. He SCREAMED his head off as soon as I put it on him. It wasn't just a cry but a scream like someone was hurting him and it went on for about 10 minutes until I finally got him settled down with candy and Wiggles. After that outburst we didn't have any issues with the costume. We went out to Centerville and met Travis's boss and his family to go door to door with our buckets. We were out for about an hour and a half and got a TON of candy. Braeden had a great time and now we are trying our hardest to regulate the candy intake. Here are a couple of pics from our trick or treating adventure.
Once again I fail to blog on a regular basis and I am very sorry! When I have a few minutes to sit down and actually blog I really can't think of anything to write. It is like my brain takes mini vacations in the evening. Well, since the last time I blogged a lot has happened....
First my sweet, handsome man Travis had his 31st birthday! We really didn't get a chance to do anything on his birthday because I was at work until 10:00 pm. I did have a chance to get him a little something for his birthday. I bought him a pair of thinning shears that are supposed to last FOREVER and they better for as much as they cost.
The day after Travis's birthday the three of us took a little trip to the zoo. It was a beautiful day for a stroll through the zoo. We actually made it through the whole zoo without any major issues. Many of you may remember the last zoo trip ended with Braeden throwing up while we were in the cat house. Braeden LOVES to check out the monkeys while we are there but I think that this time the polar bears were his favorite. We just happened to be walking by them when it was feeding time. It was pretty cool. We got some pretty sweet pictures of them tearing into whatever it was they were eating.
Braeden and Travis chillin in the shade. How cool is this picture of Braeden and the polar bears? Braeden the turtle! Mommy and Braeden going for a little stroll past the waterfall.
Since the zoo not much has happened other than Braeden getting sick once again. I bet you could never guess what is wrong. It's an ear infection. This time it is in his left ear rather than his right. We went in to see the doctor last week because Braeden had a runny nose and had been throwing up with almost every meal. When we came out it seems that seasonal allergies were causing the runny nose, he is back on Pepcid for reflux and he had an ear infection. It seems like every time we go in we come out with an ear infection. I did ask the doc. what the likelihood is that Braeden may need tubes since my brother had them when he was small. He told me that if Braeden has one more ear infection before January or two before July that we would need to see an EENT. Oh wait that is not all....One week after this appointment the daycare called to let me know that Braeden was running a fever of 101.5 and it was rising. GREAT....what now? My doc.'s office was booked so I took him in to urgent care. That doc told me that Braeden has blisters all over the back of his throat that are caused by some virus and that his ear infection does not seem to be getting any better. She decided to change the antibiotic that he was on to something stronger and let me know that there was nothing to be done about the blisters, they would just go away in a few days. That would pretty much bring us to today.....
What is today? It is Braeden's birthday! He is 2 today. When I woke him up this morning I told him Happy Birthday and he told me NO! I guess he doesn't really get how great it is to be a little kid on your birthday. We had planned to go to Young's Dairy Farm for his birthday with the family but since it has been raining non-stop for two days we decided to switch the location to Chuck-E-Cheese. We had a good time after everyone finally got there and Braeden stopped freaking out and saying he wanted to go bye bye. He really got into the games and by the end of the night he wasn't totally freaked out by the robots on stage. His favorite game tonight was probably skeeball. He thought it was cool that he could walk up and toss the balls into the holes. I think he could have played it all night long. He came up to me at the end of the night saying "More money mommy." Crazy huh? Here are a few pics and a video of our night.
Here is our birthday boy and his "pantakes" (cupcakes). Braeden, Uncle John and Travis cheesin it up. Gavin playing with balloons. Hurray a Diego toy! That's one happy mommy.
Finally I thought I would just throw in a few pictures of my two men working together to build a bookcase.
