11 Months Old

Another month older already..this is the last month that I will keep track of her monthly birthdays..so crazy almost 1 year as already gone by. Last year at this time I was wondering what she was going to look like, if I was going to know how to raise a child of my own, and so many more questions..Now, I don't have time to even think of questions..life just happens and quickly at that!
Let's see..what is Miss Braylea up to these days..

• Still no teeth in sight so the food options are minimal. She has come to love turkey and cheerios. She already eats like her daddy..double fisting food and shoveling it in as fast as I can get it on her plate..much like her mom as well since she LOVES food.
• Still no interest in walking. She can crawl so fast that who needs walking to get places?? I thought she was fast but didn't know any different, but my aunt and cousin talk as well at how fast she can disappear and be clear across the house playing in a room in just split seconds. When she sets her mind to something, she does it!
• Speaking of daycare..Braylea LOVES going over to play with her cousin, Mallory, all day and I LOVE knowing she is in great care!
• Braylea's first Halloween costume is going to be a lady bug. Her Gma Lorie got it for her and probably a good thing because I'm not the most enthused with the holiday..but I'm trying!
• Braylea has never been a great napper but it has really dwindled down to almost nothing somedays. She figured out that she can sleep for 12+ hours at night and be refreshed for the whole day. When I pick her up at 5 she is normally a grouch though since she is ready for bed by then..I normally try to hold her off until at least 8ish. I'm curious how this time change will effect her.
• I couldn't take it any longer and broke down and bought her a big girl carseat. I could barely get her straps around her arms when she had a jacket on, so I was sick of it and also just really wanted to be able to see her in the car. We recently upgraded our family vehicle. We were growing out of my little Honda, so we went with an SUV (no van!) and I love it! I'm still getting used to parking and turning sharp corners since my car fit anywhere but it is nice to have something bigger.
  

She loves it!!

Now for some more pictures of the silly girl..

If you notice in these pictures, they all have something in common..food! :)

Climbing up the refrigerator..

Mom..I want in my highchair!

Now it's about time to start the planning of a 1st birthday party..of course we have to go all out, right?? :)

Until next month...

Little Personality

Well, I had a cute little video to go with this post but for some reason would not download! Anyways..here's some pics of Miss B!



Of course..always the happiest at the dinner table! Ha..

Parent's Worst Nightmare..

Well, I'm sure there are several candidates for 'worst nightmare' but I feel like I had one that would be on the hit list..
I tossed back and forth on if I should share this story but, for one, I want it to be documented, and, two, who am I trying to protect??
Sunday evening I received a call from my cousin, Kari. For a little background, Kari sends her son and her boyfriends' daughter to the same daycare that I sent Braylea. She had just gotten off the phone with a helper at the daycare that she previously knew. She informed Kari that she just quit and for various reasons that she felt like she needed to inform parents about. To take a step back from that, I want to mention that Kari and I both have not been very pleased with the way our children have been taken care of since we started daycare. But, being first parents and never dealing with a daycare, we just thought..it is just daycare life, get used it...now I know that a parents' instinct is (normally) always right and in this circumstance, it was. The kids would smell when we picked them up..almost like a wet dog I would say. They most always had a wet or dirty diaper when picked up..didn't matter what time of the day. Their bottoms were irritated because they were never wiped completely clean. Now I kick myself for never saying anything but I never want to tell anyone their faults..so I let it go.
Back to the lady..and before I go any farther, I just want to confirm that this is not completely verified as the truth yet..she told Kari that our kids are being mistreated..not abused but more neglect. She does this to all 'non-talking' kids. We found out that she used the houses' old garage as a 'playroom' for the babies..we were never shown this room even existed let alone find out that our children stayed in there all day. The room has no heat/air..plywood for the walls and no ceiling..bluntly..it is freezing in the winter and muggy in the summer. This daycare has too many children so supposedly this room is a hiding place to keep kids if SRS might come along to survey. This room doesn't have a real door attached...hence why we never knew the room existed. It looks like a little pantry door with a broom hanging from it. We were also told that when we had the terrible rain two weeks ago that the room flooded with our kids in there and two days later..the kids were back in there with the wet floor underneath them. They are normally kept in a playpen or a walker all day because they are not supervised at all times...
These are the main highlights of what we were told and it is enough for any parent to get beyond upset about. After being told this..I tried to talk myself into believing the lady was just mad and made up all of this to hurt her daycare. The more I thought about it, the more the little things started making sense...
When I drop Braylea off in the mornings..I NEVER have seen another kid, let alone HEAR another kid. Kari gets off an hour before I do and has never seen Braylea except asked once to see her and she was in the big kids playroom in a jumpy with kids running crazy around her and she was crying. She would push you out the door when you picked up your kid..so I never felt welcome. Braylea was sick for a whole month with an upper resp infection and eye infection..if in a damp room all day that possibly has mold in it would explain all of that. Her bottom always red and full diapers explains the lack of care. Braylea has really not developed much in the past two months of going there...if in playpen or walker all day..no chance to learn. Braylea never seemed happy when picking her up and always wanted to leave right away.
As any parent would know..this has to be one of the most horrible feelings that ever could take place. I have had several break downs but also several spells of just getting down right angry.
Monday I told daycare she was sick to get a day to get more info. I spoke to the lady that Kari spoke to and heard the same but some more details about Braylea and couldn't handle it. Bryson, on the other hand, just gets angry when it deals with his baby girl so he went to the daycare and knocked on the door. I helper was there and he requested to see that room and she told him he couldn't right now, so he demanded she call the owner because he has every right to see a room that his daughter has been in. (Bryson believes there was a child down there because he went outside while she was trying to get ahold of the owner and when returning, a child was in the living room) She came and let him in. She swore that she had told me about this room and that they just opened it up a few weeks ago...lie lie lie. She said that the little kids only go down there when they do arts and crafts so they dont pick up things they shouldn't....BUT Bryson said there were at least 3 playpens in there, walkers and several highchairs. For not going down there much..that is a lot of stuff! She ended up calling me and trying to convince me that nothing was wrong and she was not trying to hide this room. She said it was state inspected and passed but my gut just does not want to believe her. I told her that Braylea would no longer be there under the circumstance and she seemed fine with that, so I'm assuming there was no bond between them. I just picture myself with a daycare and feel like I would have a connection with each and every kid and for her to let it go that fast seemed odd.
The one and only good thing about this situation is that my aunt and cousin are watching Braylea again and we are ALL sooooo happy about it!! It is definitely an answered prayer from above that I thank God everyday for. So...Mallory gets to teach Braylea all kinds of new tricks! :)

10 Month Update

I'm a little late on this post but better late than never, right?! Let's see what is going on in lil Miss Braylea's life:

- Still pulling up to everything and walking while holding onto things. No big interest in walking yet, she knows she can crawl faster than trying to think about how to walk right now.

- Still NO teeth..we are starting to wonder if she will ever get any. I remember back when she was a few months old thinking that she had all the symptoms of teething and nothing came through..I just lost hope now.

- She is 'talking' none stop and seems like everyday she has a new sound. I want to say she knows what 'mama' means because she really says it when she is sleepy or whining but who knows..

- We had our first rash last week and still fighting it. It started in her diaper area but was diferent because it was spotted almost like chicken pox look. We watched it for a few days and it started to spread to her legs and a few spots on her arms and face..these were just very small spots, barely noticeable but she was scratching at them. I took her to the doctor because it was getting worse and diarrhea followed with it. The doctor was pretty sure it was a food allergy of some sort but I wasn't sure what it could have been! She hasn't had any different baby foods but we are guilty to giving her little bites from our food here and there, so we are trying to be better at that.

- I've noticed in the past few weeks that Braylea is requiring less sleep throughout the day. She sleeps great through the night..she has a 7:30 alarm clock no matter what time she goes to bed. She used to take at least two one to two hour naps daily and recently it has been one long nap or two short cat naps. There is too much to see and do during the day..she might miss out!

- Her personality is really showing now and I love it! She is such a happy baby and so fun to watch her explore things. Bryson and I can just sit and watch her play and crack up at the facial expressions and sound effects that come from her. She is getting better with strangers. She would normally just give them her 'stare' when they would try to talk to her but now she normally will give them a good smile. Along with the personality has also brought out a lil attitude that I'm sure will just progress. She can be a bit sassy at times when she is being told 'No'. It is pretty humorous!

Last weekend Bryson's best friend got married. Braylea was a trooper. It was a catholic wedding (so it lasted at least an hour if not longer) then we had the reception shortly after. Did Braylea take a nap..negative! But she was very good and I love getting opportunities to dress her up!

This is the bride and groom with Braylea at their rehearsal dinner.

This was at the reception..Braylea dancing with Aunt Lauren.

Aunt Lauren and Bray..she was SO tired!

Sherri had brought a little bed for Korvin, Braylea's friend, to the reception, so they took a little nap together...too cute!

Nighttime Pics

I've been a slacker mom lately with the picture taking, so after a bath and cute new PJs, I thought it was a perfect time to take some pics.
Nothing new lately..just having fun hanging out. Braylea and I had a few extra hours yesterday..I left for lunch - it started pouring and pouring and pouring, but didn't think too much about it - went to head back to work and the roads were literally flooded. I can't believe I made it as far as I did but I stopped at my cousins because I saw cars stalled and knew that could be me at anytime, my luck couldn't last. I called into work to tell them that I will be there when it slowed down and was told not to come back because the front office flooded! I guess there was standing water everywhere in the office. I went to work today to everything lifted off the floor and just a plain mess. Steamway had several blowers all over the place so it was a noisy mess all day! I was glad when 5 came today!
Enjoy Bray's pictures..

Hi!

Kari and Kamden came to visit tonight and Kamden was not happy when I got the camera out!

Bye Bye Cold

Braylea has had a pretty good and progressive cold for the past 3 weeks and we were ALL tired of it..it just lingered on and would not go away! When it all started she had the fever with it and the nasty runny nose..she fought off the fever in a few days but the runny nose with a cough would not go away. Finally after a night of coughing all night long, I decided to take her back to the doctor to just make sure nothing else was wrong. She acted fine but you could tell the cough was so deep that it was uncomfortable. We have been going to Dr. McFarland in Chanute since birth and I was pleased with her but didn't like having to drive 45 mins one way for a visit. Parsons just got a new pediatrician and I know of her family, so I thought I would try her out. I was very happy with her! She was great with Braylea and checked her over throughly. I'm glad I did take her because she did have an ear infection so we are on antibiotics. I hate giving her medicine but was, in a way, happy because only after 2 days of it, her nose is clear and barely coughing. She slept all night without a peep!! Yay!

Other than that, nothing new has really happened. I don't expect it to be long before Miss B is walking..she is up on her feet same if not more than her knees. In the past 2 weeks, she has figured out how to walk along the coffee table and couch..she thinks she is pretty cool stuff!

9 Month Pics

This round of pictures we went with a new photographer and were just as pleased with them. She had a different style of photography and was neat to see a change. It was really fun since she got to take most pictures at our home and then some in town..Braylea seemed more comfortable in her own surroundings. She had lots of neat ideas and Braylea cooperated for most of the pictures..there are several that she gave the 'Braylea stare' but they are still cute. She took tons of pictures so I'm nervous on how I'm going to be able to choose since they all are so good! Thanks Kelli!!

To find the slide show go to www.kellicarnahanphotography.com then click on 'website' then on 'proofing'..the password is 'stacie'.

Enjoy!