8 months

Can't believe that it has been 8 months since Braxton was born, time has flown by.  He is now sitting up, crawling, eating food, and drinking from straws and sippy cups.  My little boy is growing up, won't be too long before he is running after his brothers.

Since late January Liam has been studdering very frequently, even closing his eyes when doing it.  I had voiced my concern to his therapist and she has been working with him on it even though she wasn't sure if it was a true studdering problem.  Then over the last few weeks it has almost stopped.  I no longer see him closing his eyes and only notice it a handful of times during the day.  He also is getting a lot better with consonant deletion at the end of words.  It is so nice to see progress. 

Swimming championships are this Thursday, Nathan will be doing freestyle, kickboard, and backstroke and Liam will be doing freestyle and kickboard.  I had been debating whether or not to let Liam swim freestyle but on Friday he swam 25M with grabbing along the wall when needed.  We will be practicing a couple more times before Thursday just to make sure he will be okay.

Finally the tooth is out

The last two days Nathan's tooth has been extremely wiggly, like it was holding on with a thread.  I told him I could pull it out for him, something my Mom always did for us.  I told him to go get a washcloth and to lay on my lap.  He did, I pulled of a few seconds and his hands pushed mine away.  This has happened more than a handful of times to both Matt and I.  I finally told him that I wasn't going to do it anymore if he wanted it out he would have to pull it out himself or just let it fall out by itself.

Well I leave to go grocery shopping this evening and as I pull into the parking spot my phone rings.  It is Matt saying my son wants to talk to me.  Nathan gets on the phone and tells me Liam pulled out his tooth.  I couldn't believe it after all the fussing he has been doing everytime I go to pull on it he let his brother do it without any problems.  Matt said that they both walked into the living room Nathan holding his tooth and Liam holding the washcloth he used to pull it out.  It will he a story Matt and I will never forget.

Stomach Bug

Been pretty fortunate that with 3 boys we really don't get too sick but this week Braxton, Liam, and I all caught a stomach bug.  Braxton started us off on Saturday and finally was feeling better by Wednesday.  This is the second time in a month period that he has caught one.  Luckly I was able to keep the diaper rash under control this time around.  Nathan and Liam never were sick with stomach bugs at his age, I think it has to do with him being a thumb sucker.

Then on Sunday I woke up sick as a dog and stayed in bed most of the day but felt better by the evening.  I was so glad it was a weekend so Matt could take care of the boys.  Then on Wednesday Liam was sick, acted totally normal but just had to use the bathroom quite a few times then towards the evening I felt the same.  Told Matt last night that he will probably be lucky and catch it time for the weekend:)  Hopefully it will skip him this time around since last time Braxton had it, Matt was the only other one to get sick.

Other than the stomach bugs Braxton has really been pretty healthy.  Both Nathan and Liam were always sick they would start out with colds that would then lead to ear infections.  I told Matt I really think Braxton's health has to do with me breastfeeding for the first 6 weeks, something I never attempted with the others.  Looking back I do regret not trying with them as well as not going longer with Braxton but I can't change the past:)

Looking forward to a lazy weekend, first one in a while.

Alligator Farm

Yesterday we went to the St. Augustine Alligator Farm, not exactly what I expected.  It was over crowded and extremely smelly.  Defintitely not worth the $40, thankfully I only paid half price for my ticket otherwise I would of been mad.



Valerie, Braxton, Nathan, Liam, and Vincent



The kids had a good time overall, since it took less time than we had thought it would take we did a little shopping.  We went over to the St. Augustine outlets and found good deal on school shoes at the Striderite outlet, got two pairs for $50.  Nathan picked out a pair of Slimmer light up shoes and Liam picked a pair of Slimmers that has slime that changes color when you touch it.  They wanted to wear them home but I told them they had to wait until the first day of school. 

Braxton has finally finished all the veggies and fruits so the other night we tried beef and gravy.  He totally hated it wouldn't take more than a few spoonfuls before he started gagging.  I then tried the chicken and gravy and the same thing only this time it wasn't just a gag, up came some formula.  After cleaning him and the chair up he had his normal veggies and rice cereal for dinner and later that night I returned all the rest of the meat and gravy jars.  Wasn't going through that again.  Last night we tried Chicken and Rice dinner and he enjoyed it.

Cousins came to visit

On Wednesday Vin and Val came to stay with us for a few days.  They had a blast playing 4 players on Super Mario.  I tried to play with them but it was mass chaos with them jumping around like maniacs and dying every two seconds.

Then on Friday my brother, Anthony, his wife, Dena, and sons, Christopher, Jonathon, and Landon, all came up for the day.  In the morning, while Matt was at work, we went to the zoo.  Thank goodness it was only in the low 90's.  That evening we went to the Freedom Fest at our church.  They had tons of bounce houses, fireworks, and food.  The boys jumped all evening long and were exhausted by the time the fireworks started.  To my surprise both Braxton and Landon loved the fireworks and just stared at the different colors.  We finally got home around 10:00.

With our family over a hour away, the boys really enjoyed spending a couple of days with there cousins.

Oh and yesterday I got my new washer and dryer.  Been wanting a front loader for years and finally decided to purchase them.  Have been doing laundry most of the day and totally love them.  Can't believe how little water they use.  It will be interesting to see if it effects our water bill at all.