Update!

Hi there!

Just wanted to update everyone on the whole tube situation. Bryson had the procedure on the 23rd and it went VERY well. While Jeffrey and I were a little nervous (ok, who am I kidding..it was just me) Bryson was absolutely fine. All the nurses even commented on what a perfect little patient he was. The procedure was literally over in just a few short minutes and in no time we were back talking with Dr. Bouknight (who we LOVED!). She told us that when she went in to put the tubes in, his ears were just horribly infected and full of fluid. She was really surprised that Bryson wasn't in pain before the surgery. She said if she had any doubts that we were jumping the gun on doing the procedure, that they were completely gone when she saw the condition his ears were in. This was absolutely the right thing for us to do and I'm SO glad it's over and behind us now. Bryson recovered within an hour or so after the procedure and then he was back to his normal self. So far so good! I'm hoping this is the end of ear infections for good!!

In other news... since my last post Bryson has been pulling up like crazy on everything he can get his hands on. I guess he fooled me when I thought he might skip this step. Walking is getting closer and closer!

It is SO hard to believe that in just 2 days, my baby will be a year old. Not to mention, I'll be a whole year older tomorrow also! AGH! Time is just flying by so quickly! This time last year I was sitting here, big as a house, thinking I still had a couple weeks left of pregnancy. Then wam, bam, here I am a year later, and my almost toddler is asleep in the next room. Wow. Ok, I think I may cry if I think about this anymore tonight. I'll just live in denial for the next couple of days until his birthday actually gets here!

In the mean time, here are a few recent pics:

Rootin on the Gamecocks!

Putting on my game face

Hangin out, watching the game

Waiting for my surgery

That's all for now! Love you all!

Infections, molars and tubes...oh my!

Well we have certainly had an interesting couple of weeks. A couple weeks ago we started noticing some big changes in our sweet baby boy. He was starting to be "not so sweet!" I quickly noticed (while he was screaming his head off) that his entire top gums were completely swollen. I just knew this meant his 1 year molars were coming in. To top that off, we started noticing his eyes were becoming pinker and pinker and sure enough, another bout of pink eye had arrived. We ended up having to take him to the doctor on Labor Day during emergency hours to get some meds for his eye. At that point we also found out he had another ear infection. WOW. He was MISERABLE to say the least. Fortunately, after a few LONG nights and endless screaming, we made it through the weekend and he was slowly but surely feeling better and better.
Thursday we had our appointment with the ENT which went very well. The doctor agreed that tubes are our best option at this point and we scheduled the procedure for September 23rd. We feel very comfortable with this decision and absolutely loved our doctor. She put my mind at ease letting me know that he will be put under with gas for around 5 minutes and then the procedure would be finished. No biggie! Phew!!!
The ENT also confirmed that Bryson is in fact cutting his top molars. Poor little fella! He has just had a rough time lately. But I'm happy to say that he is back to his normal self now and is happier than ever. I think the worst is over at this point.
I also have another huge announcement to make. We have now graduated to exclusively using sippy cups! No more bottles for my big boy! I do have to give the daycare workers a lot of credit on this one as they have worked hard on getting him transitioned over the past couple of weeks. He is now drinking better from his sippy cups than he EVER did from his bottles! We even had to increase his ounce intake! We are so proud of our little man.
We are still keeping our eyes peeled for Bryson's first attempts at walking. He seems to be a little bit on the lazy side at this point. He does not have any interest in pulling up on objects that are taller than he is. However, if something is level with him (say a laundry basket on the floor) he will grab hold and push himself into standing position. He even will attempt to stand up by keeping his head on the floor and extending his legs completely like an upside down V....imagine a teepee if you will. But he just refuses to "pull" himself up. Who knows, we may be skipping this step all together!
It is hard to believe that in a little over 3 weeks, my little baby boy will be 1 year old. How fast the time flies!! This has been the most wonderful year of my life by far and it only gets better each day. I'm so sad that this year has come and gone so quickly, but I'm so excited to see what the future brings for us and Bryson. He is growing into such a sweet and wonderful little boy. I feel absolutely blessed and honored that I was chosen to be his mother!! Thank you God!
I don't have any pictures to share right now as I'm at work and don't have any updated ones here. I will be posting new pics within the next few days though!
As always, thanks for checkin in :)

I'm beginning to think he doesn't like the camera...

Well...maybe he does just a little bit.. :)

No time for talk!

Long time no type

Yes, yes I realize it's been a month since my last post! I'm sorry! Man I'm bad at this. Here I thought I was getting better and I've fallen off the wagon again. Please, please forgive me. (Is anyone even still reading this?!)

Well, it's been an eventful month. Bryson is now a full-time crawler and he rarely stops moving. He is all over the place at full speed ahead. It is so funny to watch his little self crawl around and follow us all over the house. He knows now that he doesn't have to sit and wait for you to come back...he can go find you himself! So far he has been very good and hasn't gotten into too much stuff. He knows the meaning of "no" and fortunately obeys it very well. He does like to test us though! We have not witnessed any pulling up yet but I think this may be happening at daycare. But we all know it doesn't count until they do it at home for Mom and Dad! So we'll keep waiting on this.

All four top teeth have come in now! It's so weird seeing all these gigantic teeth in his mouth. I am so glad that these teeth have come thru though. He had such a horrible time with them...and no wonder because they are 10 times bigger than the bottom teeth! And talk about sharp!! He also HATES having his teeth brushed. I'm really hoping he'll grow out of this because I dont want to have to chase him around the house with a toothbrush when he's older!

Now for some bad news. About 2 or 3 weeks ago, after a couple nights of Bryson screaming his head off, I knew we probably had another ear infection on our hands. Unfortunately after a dr's visit, we found out that he had not only one, but two infections. He was MISERABLE to say the least. We were so relieved when those cleared up. But our relief was short lived. Over this past weekend we noticed that Bryson wasn't drinking his bottles and he was quite a bit moody. Not really fussy but he sure had an attitude about him. Well Monday we made a dr's appt and sure enough we've got another infection. This time we had to dicuss the "T" word....that's right...tubes. Our little baby boy will need tubes in his ears. We have an appointment with an ENT next month to find out all the details. While it scares me, I know this is the best thing for him. He needs a break from these nasty infections!

In other happier news, Bryson has also learned the song If Your Happy and You Know It, which he looooves to clap to. How cute is that? We haven't gotten the stomping or the Hooray parts yet but I'm sure those will come. I think I've almost got him saying Mama too so of course I'm excited about that after months and months of hearing "da-da".

What else can I say? My precious boy is such a blessing! Every day I love him more. When he crawls up and gets in my lap and gives me a hug it just melts my heart. He is so sweet and loving, and he is most definitely Mama's little boy.

Here are a few pics taken earlier tonight.

Watching his favorite show, Sesame St.

Making snootin faces at Mama during dinner

Ha ha!!! Check out those chompers!

Til next time....

And we're off!

There have been big developments in the past week! Bryson finally decided to join the crawling world on Thursday! Fortunately we were able to witness his first attempts and I couldn't be happier about that. I was so afraid I'd miss the big moment but God was watching out for us! Jeffrey and I, along with our friends Brian and Kristen and their daughter Aubrey, all got to see Bryson's first crawl. :) I was so proud of my baby boy I could have just burst! That was by far my proudest Mama moment yet. Even though he's started making his way around, he is not quite the pro yet. He is also very lazy and would rather not crawl than crawl....but he's slowly getting the hang of it! Of course, after not having baby proofed the house one bit, Jeffrey and I rushed out on Saturday to get all the necessary supplies. Being the procrastinators that we are...we're still working on it. Oh well! We'll get it done eventually. And now, for your viewing pleasure, here is a video of the first crawling attempts!

Also, this past weekend, we took Bryson to the park with our friends Carey and Tony and their son Torrin. The boys had a great time riding in Torrin's wagon and eating snacks. Torrin was so nice to share his snacks and even help feed Bryson! That was the cutest thing. Bryson even had his first swing ride, which we are pretty sure he enjoyed but his face gave away nothing. It's always serious business with him! We even went down the slides. Overall, we had a great time at the park! Here are some pictures of our time.

Teeth, teeth and more teeth

Well, I was wrong in my last post when I said two more teeth were coming in. There are two coming in...plus two more. 4 whole top teeth coming in at once! That is just crazy to me. Poor little Bryson has had a really tough time with these but hopefully they'll make their way through and the hard part will be behind us. It sure is tough watching your baby suffer like that! We've had several loooong nights but I think he's finally getting back on track with his sleeping. (Thank goodness!!)

His 9 month appointment was last week and it went well! Dr said he looks perfect as usual! He weighs 18 lbs 13 oz (I thought for sure this would be more) and he's 28 inches long. 50th percentile for height, 25th for weight, and.....drum roll please....90th for head. Who didn't see that one coming? He is beautiful and healthy and that is all that matters to us. He's just got a lot of brain power!

He learned how to clap last week and he is loving that! We even realized he knows what the command "clap" means. We don't even have to show him what to do, we just say "Bryson, clap!" and he claps away. That is just amazing to me! I'm trying hard to teach him to blow kisses but right now I've figured out he'd much rather do his Indian impression instead. He is also starting to "dance" to music. When he hears a tune he likes he immediately starts bouncing. TOO CUTE! I've been singing songs to him all day just to watch him bounce. Unfortunately I don't know many children's songs so the only songs I know to sing are the theme songs to the Disney cartoons he watches. (pathetic, I know) Jeffrey laughs at me all the time because I know the songs. It's amazing how into these things I can get now. Even if Bryson goes down for his nap, I can't turn the channel! I have to see if Tigger and Pooh solved the mystery or if Manny and the tools were able to fix their project! Ahhh motherhood....it changes you in so many ways.

Anyways, here are a few pictures from bathtime. (still the most enjoyable time of the day!)