It has been a busy week here at the Bradshaw house! For My birthday (Monday, March 14), Nick and my Dad did something I was wanting for a while...they redid the surround for my bathtub! I know our house is only 3 years old, but the tub was not put in properly and causing some issues. I got to go pick out the materials last week and they worked on it all weekend!
This is what I picked...tumbled marble and glass subway tiles...
Harper wanted to "help" SO bad:)
Speaking of Harper, my job while they finished working on the bathroom Monday was to corral this wild thing:) While we were playing on the floor watching them work...she took her FIRST STEPS!!! I was so proud, then I realized.... MY LIFE IS OVER! I can barely keep up with her crawling, how am I supposed to keep up with her walking?!?! Here is a video from today...of course once we got the video camera out she wouldn't do ANYTHING but she took a step or two!
Oh, almost forgot to show you the finished product in our bathroom.....TAH-DAH!!!
And...one more picture of Harper, well, just because she is so darn cute:)
ok, ok I promise last thing on Harper! Here she is yesterday getting ready for Easter:) She kept trying to get her ears , but couldn't figure it out:)
Thanks for checking in on us!
If you feel the need to see even more pictures, I put more on our Picasa site,click here.
Harper was scheduled for her 9 month check up last Friday, but when I called in Monday and told them that her ears were still not any better, her doctor said to bring her in Tuesday and we could knock it all out in one appointment. To fill you in, her ears had yet to clear up on 2 rounds of antibiotics and shots of Rocephin. Her blood work and all other well baby appointment stuff looked great, but the ears...not so much. He said they looked just as bad, if not worse! Since they STILL looked so bad, instead of scheduling an appointment with an ENT, he told us to go straight over and they will work us in. They ENT was super nice and immediately made us feel good about seeing a specialist. He sai her ears looked really bad and scheduled her surgery for Friday, February 25 at 7:00. Nick even talked him into looking in my ear (that had been bothering me) and said I had a pretty nasty infetion too! I guess poor Harper comes by it honestly! As mentioned before, we had to be there at 7:00am and could not have anything to eat or drink after midnight!! Seriously??? with a 9 monthold??? Harper was a trooper and other than a little fussing, handled it like a champ. My sweet coworkers brought over a HUGE bag of toys and books that helped occupy her. They brought us back to prep her at about 7:45. Here we are waiting in her hospital gown:)
They took her back to surgery at about 8:30 and went Mom and Dad to waiting room to wait. The waiting room phone rang in about 15 min to tell us he was done and she did great! Really? All of this anticipation for 15 min??? The surgeon came out and told us she did wonderfully and definitely gets the award for the worst ears of the week! He said the fluid in her ears was so thick it was the consistency of airplane glue! Yuck! They warned us that after anesthesia babies are usually really angry, but this is normal. Apparently, Harper is not normal, because she was in there smiling and being her usual "ham" of a self:) She even gave the nurses a standing ovation when we left:) Harper slept alot that day, but has since been very happy! So, thus far, we give tubes two thums up:) I will leave you with some pictures from going to Memphis the weekend before last for and enjoying the warm weather! Nick's sister and family also came in and we spent the day at the park... We Love Y'all! Nick, Rachel, and Harper
Ok, so I spoke too soon in our last post complaining about sicknesses. Last week Harper's daycare shut down early on a Thursday and was closed Friday, so took off to stay with her. She had been coughing some during the week, but was acting like her happy self so I didn't think anything about it. Thursday night she coughed all night and threw up her bottle the next morning. I figured, I was off work, I may as well take her to the doctor just to get it all checked out. Her pediatrician could hear wheezing and said her ears were full of pus...yuck, I know! Well poor thing turned out to have bronchiolitis that was caused by RSV ("Really Sucks Virus") AND another double ear infection. He said that the ears were BAD and if this one didn't clear up with one round of antibiotics then we were going to go ahead with tubes. For the RSV we had to get a nebulizer and start giving her breathing treatments every four hours. Let me tell you trying to keep a breathing mask on a 8 month old is no joke! She actually handled it surprisingly well, and Nick and I are both a little worried about her enjoying it a little too much:) The treatments take about 10 minutes and she usually does great for the first 7 then it takes a three ring circus (Nick + Abby + Jovi) to distract her!!! We were supposed to go to Oxford for Ole Miss baseball alumni weekend, but didn't think sitting at a baseball game in 40 degree weather was going to help her illness. Nick did get to go up Saturday and see old baseball buddies that he had not seen in a long time, which I was so glad! Fast forward to today. Sunny and beautiful. Everyone in the house seems to be well (at least for the moment). We spent most the afternoon outside enjoying the beautiful weather, washing cars, cleaning up, and H and I even went for a run. One of my best friends from Ole Miss got married here this weekend so we have been going all weekend with all of the festivities, so it was nice to enjoy some time to relax and enjoy each other. Here are some pics from today... We hope you enjoyed this weekend as much as us:)
I also have some more pics up on Picasa....click here
Ok...wow....I am not even going to address the fact that we are one day away from February and I have not blogged since Thanksgiving! Our baby girl is now 8 months old and into EVERYTHING!!! But I will start where I left off...
Christmas 2010
Harper's first Christmas was a blast! Jenn and Kyle came down from Annapolis for a little over a week before Christmas, and it was so fun for the cousins to play together:) Reagan and Harper couldn't be more different, it is going to be so neat watching them grow together.
The Bradhaw's, The Viertel's, and The Sponaugle's
Unfortunately, being a new employee, I had to work Christmas Eve:( So, after work we headed to Memphis to spend Christmas weekend with the Bradshaw's. As always, the weekend flew by in all its craziness...but was so much fun! Somehow pictures from actual Christmas have yet to be found, so hopefully I can get more on here soon!
January 2011
This past month has been a rough one health wise. Harper started the month off with a double ear infection, the next week Nick got the flu, who then passed the "flu-baton" to me for the next week. Just when everything was looking good I had a bout with some bad guacamole...then Nick needed a little MORE attention and got a horrible stomach bug, and Harper used this time to get the worst diaper rash I have ever seen AND cut a top tooth. That pretty much sums up our month so far, but one positive...our pharmacist knows me by name:) Enough complaining...
Harper is now 8 months old!!! I can't believe how fast everything is passing me by! She is now a professional "cruiser" and will even let go of her support and stand on her own from time to time. I am not sure she will ever walk because she cannot stop "dancing" long enough to take steps! (Not that I am ready for her to...she is already hard enough to keep up with!) I went to the bathroom for 5 seconds and cam back to the living room and she was behind the TV chewing on the cable! As I said before she has now cut her top front right tooth, and feels this gives her passage to eat whatever is on Mommy's plate (she has already figured out I am the weakest link). She has tried all kinds of food and loves everything (gets that from her Mama): tater tots, ice cream, pizza, kibbles and bits (oops!). As I have said before, I am scared what we will have if God blesses us with another child because she is such a good baby! She is sleeping from around 8:00-7:30 (roughly) every night, eats good, poops good, and is always HAPPY! She is such a joy in our lives, I don't know what we did without her.
She has now learned to give kisses on the lips. Well, our lips, usually her tongue...I guess Abby taught her this...cute none the less, but feel free to turn it down if she offers you one:) She will also wave bye-bye and is working on blowing kisses! This is actually really funny because when she does she sucks her lips in and looks like an old man who forgot to put his dentures in! I am fairly sure she will say Dada first since she says Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba all day long now. lkWell thanks for checking in on us! Here is a link to our Picasa site to see more pics.
P.S. Before I go, I have to brag on my husband! I told him I wanted a sofa table, and look what he whipped up last weekend:) We love you all! Nick, Rachel, and Harper
Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and weekend! We had a wonderful time staying here in Mississippi. Since I just started work, I didn't get any days off except Thursday (what happened to getting the whole week off like the last 24 years of my life???). Still, we had a great time seeing family here and managed to eat a miserable amount of food! Here are a few pictures from Harper's 1st Thanksgiving (which also happened to be her half birthday...I can't believe I have a 6 month old!!)
Harper's first try of Cool Whip!
Of course she needed something to wash it down:)
After stuffing ourselves, she wanted to do a little Black Friday shopping
Here is a link to more pictures http://picasaweb.google.com/RachelVBradshaw/Fall2010#.Harper has hit some milestones in the last week or so...her first tooth FINALLY broke through and she has started "crawling". Well crawling may be a little strong...she gets on all fours and inches around, but its a start!
I hope to be better at posting during the next few months (since it is the holidays)! We are heading to Memphis this weekend for me to run the St. Jude 1/2 Marathon again and spend time with Nick's family, so check back for more posts/pictures!
Hello friends! Hope that everyone is having a wonderful Fall so far. We are starting to enjoy the cooler weather and leaves starting to change here in Mississippi. A lot has happened since I last blogged, so let me catch you up. I took my licensure exam on October 27th and found out I passed the 29th. I took a Physical Therapy job at one of the hospitals here in Jackson, and start MONDAY....real world here I come!!! So I have been rushing around doing everything that needs to be done before I start...I have been a daycare registering, vet taking, dentist going, clothes sewing fool:) I am also running the St. Jude half marathon again in December with some girls from church, so TRYING to get back in shape!
Nick was scheduled to take his engineering exam on Friday the 29th. His exam is different than ours: it is only given twice a year in Vicksburg, is 8 hours long, and you can bring any materials you want in with you...open book. Well, Nick left our house around 6:00 to be there for the 7:45 exam time. When it came his turn to enter the test, they would not let him in to the exam because his driver's license expired 7 days before on his 29th birthday!! He was soooo frustrated, and I was too! So now he has spent time studying, paid money, and can't try again until April. I felt awful for him! In the last month when we WEREN'T studying (which was rare) we...
watched football...
(the look on their face shows you how our Rebels have been doing:()
Carving pumpkins... Enjoying the fall weather... Nick's parents came to visit and brought Harper a toy chest that he built for her... Dressing up for Halloween...
The first picture is of our friend Carrie and her baby boy, Grady, who is a few weeks older than Harper. Grady was a pea in a pod, and Harper was a football:) She also wore the costume Saturday night to the Ole Miss vs. Auburn game (I forgot my camera)...and was a big hit. One good thing about a baby is an excuse to leave a football game after 3rd quarter when you are getting killed without looking like "just a bad fan":) It is so much fun to see Harper get more and more personality. She is such a happy baby! She is over 5 months old now! She is already wearing me out...I don't know what I will do when she can walk! She wants to crawl so bad, but can't quite figure it out so she just rolls or belly crawls everywhere. She can sure move though! She has started choking down her green veggies now, but her favorite foods are carrots and avacado! We started applesauce yesterday and it was a HIT! I couldn't shovel it in fast enough:) She has now graduated to her high chair that GG and GPaw gave her...
Abby just sits like an alligator under a bridge waiting for something to fall.
You may ask, "don't you have another dog? where is she?" Why yes, we do. I took the girls to the vet for their yearly shots and checkup today and Jovi had to stay overnight because she flips out when they try to cut her nails. They are going to sedate her to do it...does anyone have a prescription for doggy Xanax??? Haha...such a "special" dog:)
Well, thanks for checking in on us! We love you all! Nick, Rachel, and Harper
Hello friends! I hope everyone is starting to get some awesome fall weather...it has been beautiful here this week! We even broke out one of Harper's hats this morning when we were outside!
Well, as I mentioned last post, Harper had her 4 month check up (and shots) on Monday. Here were her stats: Length: 25.25 inches (80th percentile) Weight: 14lbs 5 oz (70th percentile) Head Circumference: 40.5 cm (35th percentile) Our pediatrician said everything looked great and after assuring me that head size is not indicative of brain development, I felt much better:) He even said that her strength and development was that of a 6 month old! As we were talking about her "rolling off the bed" incident, Harper took advantage of this opportunity to show the Doctor her rolling trick (luckily he caught her by the leg before she rolled off the exam table!) She took her shots like a champ. Didn't cry at all with the first one, but the second one burned and she let loose!
The pediatrician said that since everything with her development looked great we may want to go ahead and start her on "solid foods". After she mastered the spoon with rice cereal, I broke out my blender and got to puree-ing. I made peas, green beans, avocado, broccoli, carrots (Anything I had laying around that I thought could be baby food). Of course I had to freeze them all because you can only introduce one food at a time...i guess I got a little excited:) Anyway...we picked peas to be the magical first food and grabbed the video and regular camera.
So excited to try something new!
Not so sure about this...
What in the world????
This may take some time:)
Everything I read told you to feed them their milk first, so they don't fill up on the solid foods at first. So after feeding her, her whole night time bottle we decided to try the peas...rookie mistake. The peas triggered her gag reflex which then invited her entire bottle to come up with what little peas she got down... I will spare you those pictures, but lets just say her bumbo seat ended up in the shower:) Guess this will take a little time.
Every day she seems to get more and more active! I am already dreading chasing her around, but it is still so fun to see:) Here she is in her sassy seat...she LOVES it! Especially to watch Abby and Jovi run around her.
This morning we were out on the porch and it was cool so I put her hat on (she looked so cute)! Of course then she soiled her outfit, so soon she is wearing nothing BUT her hat (which is her favorite way to be:) We are now all watching the Ole Miss game (GO REBELS!!!!). Hope everyone enjoys their weekend! Thanks for checking on us, we love you! Click here for more pictures on picasa!
And...one more picture of Harper, well, just because she is so darn cute:)
ok, ok I promise last thing on Harper! Here she is yesterday getting ready for Easter:) She kept trying to get her ears , but couldn't figure it out:)
