I keep saying that I am going to be better at keeping up on my blog. However, life is crazy and I am still no good at it. At least this time I have a little bit of an excuse. Two days after my last post, I had a kidney stone that took me down...hard. To sum it all up, I had three trips to the E.R., was admitted to the hospital twice, had two surgeries with two stents placed, and was dealing with lots of pain!! Fortunately, I think the whole ordeal is almost over! I still have a stent in, but hopefully it will be out soon and the whole thing will be just a bad memory! :)
Although this whole kidney stone experience was no fun, I do have to count my blessings. First of all, I am so grateful for a sweet husband who took an entire week off of school and clinic to take care of Braden and I. And not once did he complain about it or make me feel bad about him missing so much. Also, we are so fortunate to have such wonderful friends here who took great care of Braden. It's at times like this that I really wish we had family close by. However, my friends really were amazing and helped us out so much! The other huge blessing was that Braden was an angel through it all. I was worried how he would behave being passed around from one person to the next, but from what I was told he was great! (unless my friends were all just being nice and telling me that so I wouldn't worry!) Braden also had to be on formula for several days, which he had never had before and I was a little worried he wouldn't like it. But, he took it without batting an eye. Then he went right back to breastfeeding with no problem at all. For this I was so grateful!!
Enough of the boring stuff and on to the fun stuff! Braden is now 6 1/2 months old and SO much fun!! He really has become such a fun baby! In this picture above he wrapped himself up in this blanket a few days ago and couldn't get out. I thought it was pretty funny.
At his six month check up Braden weighed 16lb 4 oz and was 26 in tall. He is still 25th % for height and weight but is growing steadily. He is close to sitting up, but still face plants if you don't help him. He always wants to be sitting or standing now and gets bored if he is laying for more than a few minutes. He is definitely a social guy. He loves being out and about and especially loves all the attention he gets from people. He will smile for almost anyone and he is always getting comments about his big blue eyes. He has become so much more coordinated and loves inspecting everything he can get his hands on!! Braden is also still really ticklish and it is pretty easy to get him to laugh now days. We no longer swaddle him, which has brought on a whole new way of sleeping. He used to never move when he was swaddled. However, now he is ALL over the crib!! I will have to get some pictures of it. He still usually wakes up once a night and takes 3-4 short naps a day.
This past week Braden finally got to meet his Great Grandma and Grandpa Grattan. Grandma had so much fun playing patty cake with him and singing to him. We even caught Grandpa carrying him around and playing with him. ;) We hadn't seen them in a long time and it was so nice to get out of L.A. for a quick break.
Not the best picture of everyone, but the only one I got of them all together. It's so nice being in California where we can visit them occasionally!
We don't have a highchair yet, but we will definitely be getting one soon because Braden loved sitting in it at Grandma and Grandpas. I think he felt like such a big boy!
A couple weeks ago Falycia and Kirk came to visit, which was a blast!! We did all sorts of fun stuff including a super windy trip to point dume up in Malibu. We bundled Braden up pretty good, but we weren't able to stay that long because the wind was blowing sand everywhere!
Braden got spoiled by his aunt and uncle the entire time they were here. Unfortunately we did a horrible job taking pictures while they were here...I guess we were having too much fun to stop and take pictures! We miss them already and really hope we can live close some day. At least not across the country from each other!
One fun thing we were able to do was go to Sea World. Falycia and Kirk had never been before and they both loved it. Braden did too!! He was so good all day long and loved taking it all in.
This past month we started Braden on solids. This was just before his first taste of rice cereal. We thought it would be a big hit because he loves to nurse and he is always watching so closely as we eat. However, this wasn't the case at all. He really didn't like it! He closed his eyes, did a whole body shutter, and gagged with almost every bite. Then he started holding the food in his mouth until it mixed with his saliva enough to just run out all over!! Funny kid. Needless to say, we are still working on it.
Ha!! His face says it all!
This picture just makes me laugh. One of the best dear in the headlight pictures right?! Braden loves hanging out with his friend Evalyn. They are about 7 weeks apart and are quite the little pals. This is usually how it is...Braden doing his own thing and Evalyn totally intrigued by Braden. She likes to touch his head or laugh at him when he cries. It's pretty funny. We are so grateful to have such good friends here.
Braden still LOVES his baths. Sometimes he will play for 30 minutes just splashing and having a grand ole time! He also loves being naked, which is why he almost always cries when he has to get his pajamas on! But, he loves being read to before bed. He usually kicks his feet and screams in excitement. I hope this love for reading continues!!
Jason was on spring break this past week and we decided to stay in California this time and do things close to home. One thing we did was go to the famous Santa Anita Park and watch the horse races. Kinda random I know, but super fun. We loved watching the horses and were amazed by how fast and strong they are. I'm afraid both Jason and I want to own race horses now! ha. And of course Braden loved it because we were outside and there was so much to see!
This was before a race. We didn't get any good pictures of the races, just video. The race track is in a beautiful part of L.A. It was kinda foggy that day, but it backs up right into the mountains and was super pretty.
Jason and Braden just hanging out in between races. Next time we'll have to figure out how to bet on the horses and win some big money, right?!
On a side note, I had to include a picture of our trusty little scooter. We bought this scooter back in Provo, about 5 years ago. We had so much fun riding it in Utah and have lots of good memories on it. However, L.A. traffic is just too scary and we weren't using it anymore. So, we decided to sell it. Hopefully the new owner will take good care of our little scoot. On a happy note, I think we are going to get road bikes instead. There is a nice path along the beach where we can ride. And who knows, maybe we'll start looking into some triathlons too!!
