I'm in LOVE

Yes.... I am in love. With whom? You may be asking....Brad? Of course. But I'm talking about my other main squeeze. My favorite 2 year old. And no this is not a new kind of in love. I have been in love with him since the moment they placed him on my chest after I gave birth to him. However, these past couple of days I have come to the realization that my baby is not a baby anymore...he is a boy and it is absolutely breaking my heart. I know you think that I am crazy and you would think that even more if you knew that I am sitting here right now crying as I type this. I think that it is just the fact that I enjoy him so much and I feel like these 2 very short years have flown by so quickly and I just worry about how fast the other years of our life together are going to fly by. I feel like I am in a place where I just wish that time would freeze.
I absolutely adore his personality. I love his stubbornness. I love his giggle. I love how he says, "mommy funny". I love the way he says, "hey mommy" every time he enters a room and "bye bye mommy" anytime he leaves. I love the way he tilts his head back, squeezes his eyes shuts and smiles really big showing his gapped teeth when he is laughing. I love the wayhe speaks in third person, Braden toast, Braden shoes, Braden book, etc. I love the way he says, "puh-lease" when he really wants something badly. I love that he sings his favorite songs at the top of his voice no matter where we are. I love when he says, "mommy com'ere (come here)" when he wants me. I love when he comes to me and grabs my thumb and tells me to "hold a hand" when he wants to show me something. I love the way he adores his bedtime bear and calls for him before he goes to sleep each night. I even love the way that he repeats EVERYTHING I say. I love the way he says "mmm good" when he is eating something tasty. I love his giant hugs and the way that when he gives me a kiss it also has noise "MMMMWHHHH". I love how he calls his pacifier "pacipie". I love how he can make me smile even when he is in trouble sitting in his time out chair just by smiling at me and saying, "hey mommy". I love the way he says "God is good..God is great.." if Brad and I forget to pray at the dinner table. I love how when I say "shake shake shake" he says " shake your booty". I love how much he adores his family and how special he can make people feel. I just LOVE my boy.
Last night I actually started crying while we were putting him to bed. I just had this overwhelming feeling my baby was growing up and these precious years with him being young are so fleeting. At first Brad thought I was crazy, but I think that he understands because he told Braden to give me some love and that I needed some extra attention from him and of course my precious baby came and wrapped his arms tightly around my neck and gave me a big "MMMMWHHH" smooch. It was just what I needed to remind me to treasure every moment that I have with my precious baby boy.

Happy Birthday Hubby!

• 
  
  Today is my wonderful husband, Brad's, 32nd birthday! Brad is such a wonderful husband and father. He loves spending time playing with Braden and I truly love that about him. This is all the time that I have for now, but I promise to update about my handsome hubby later!
  
  I love you baby!
  Ok....Some things I love about my hubby....
  
  
• his unconditional love for Braden
  


• he prays with me and for me


• he doesn't mind my crazy crush on Brett Favre


• his dudu brown eyes


• he doesn't think I'm crazy....he thinks I'm weird, but not crazy


• we can have different points of view on issues, but still get along


• he is thoughtful


• he sends me sweet texts to remind me how much he loves me


• his stubbornness...man, is he stubborn


• he DVRs our favorite shows and waits to watch them when I have time


• he is not afraid to ride in a car with me


• his quirky sense of humor


• he would do anything to make Braden and me happy


• he tells me that he loves me


• he likes to get a hug when he walks through the door


• he kisses my cheek each night before he goes to bed...even if I am already sleeping


• his cute behind


• that he writes my nicknames on my Christmas gifts each year


• he cleans the dishes in the kitchen after I cook (well.....not all the time....but I still appreciate it when he does)

Happy Birthday Honey!

Preschool Celebration

Due to camera difficulties I just got these pictures downloaded to my computer.

The Thursday before Braden's birthday I took cupcakes to his preschool class. He attends Heritage Hills Preschool one morning a week. He was so sweet when I came in. He kept saying, "Mommy..Mommy". It was like what are you doing at my school? Everyday we drive by my school on our way home and he says, "Mommy school", but this was like you're coming to MY school! As soon as his teacher gave him the cupcakes he devoured his! It was like the kid had never been given cake before! After his class enjoyed the cupcakes, I spent some time playing with him and the other students and then thanks to his teacher, Ms. Kellie, I was able to sneak out on my 3rd attempt without getting caught! Here are the pics and please don't make fun of my cupcakes.....I am an amateur and have no aspiring dreams to be anything other than that as far as cake is concerned!

Carrot Celebration

Braden is a miniature version of Brad when it comes to the food department. If you don't know what I mean let me just tell you that he is PICKY!!!! I have been frustrated with Braden's eating habits for quite some time. After talking with his pediatrician at our 2 year visit we discussed if he has texture issues or if we have allowed him to manipulate us into eating only certain foods. Well, I finally came to the realization after talking on the phone to a food aversion therapist and thinking back to different food situations with Braden that we have allowed him to manipulate us about his diet (if you know me this was a HUGE pill to swallow!).
Prior to talking to Dr. Miller these are the foods that Braden ate:

• crackers


• fruit snacks


• popcorn


• bacon


• oatmeal


• peanut butter (occasionally)


• mandarin oranges (occasionally)


• apples (occasionally)


• purple grapes only (occasionally)


• Mickey Mouse cheese....yes it has to look like Mickey Mouse (he has been on a cheese strike recently)


• any type of sauce (ketchup, ranch, marinara, etc.)


• any type of sweet or candy

Do you understand my frustration? Well our new plan, along with LOTS of help form my parents and brother since they are with him everyday is:

• no more junk food available


• so long fruit snacks


• he can eat what is offered to him on his plate or not eat


• he gets a small healthy snack in between meals...if he chooses not to eat it, oh well


• limit juice, milk, etc before meals.

The first night (Tuesday) was horrible. I made marinara sauce with pureed carrots and pureed ground beef. I also offered him Mickey Mouse whole wheat pasta and grapes. He cried and refuse to eat his food when he saw his plate, but we were strong and didn't give in so he ended up eating about 5 grapes and that was all that he got for dinner that night. Wednesday my dad made him oatmeal for breakfast and he refused to eat it so he wasn't offered anything else. He had a handful of grapes for snack and he was offered soup (which he refused) , yogurt and oranges for lunch. He ate all of the oranges and half of the yogurt. For dinner he ate peanut butter toast and 3 apple slices. Today he ate a muffin for breakfast, grapes and something else I can't remember right now for lunch. Tonight for dinner I offered him chicken, apples and grapes with a strawberry cream cheese dip and sliced carrots. He ate all of his chicken, apples and grapes and he tried the carrots and ate 3 1/2 carrots dipped in ranch dressing. And he kept asking for more chicken and more carrots and saying "Umm..good...yummy."

For you parents of non picky kids you are wondering what I am making such a fuss about but 1. Braden doesn't try new things and 2. He doesn't eat vegetables. So there......a carrot celebration! I am so proud of my boy!

Braden's Birthday Song

***If you can't hear the video, scroll to the bottom of the page where MY MUSIC is playing and adjust the volume by clicking on the picture of the speaker. This will cut off or lower the background music so that you can hear the video***

Braden has been singing "Happy Birthday" since the Thursday before his birthday and he is STILL singing it! Here is a little video that I got of him on Sunday (his actual birthday).

Braden's Birthday Party

Today we celebrated Braden's 2nd birthday and we were joined by our friends and family to help us celebrate. I had a really hard time coming up with a theme for his birthday this year. I thought about dinosaurs but I have an awesome idea for the cake and I want him to be old enough to enjoy it, then i thought about a school bus theme since he is OBSESSED, but it was hard finding birthday accessories so I finally came up with a construction party theme. I ordered yellow hard hats for all of the kids that said "Happy 2nd Birthday Braden" and I bought tool belts from Home Depot and personalized them for each child. I also made construction lunch bags for each child that had a sandwich, chips, and apples and they were each personalized with a construction name tag that was stapled to each of the brown lunch sacks. My dad and Brad set up a tarp and cones in the back with construction tape and we put some of Braden's trucks out for the kids to play with.

These are the tags for the construction lunch bags....Of course I forgot to take a picture of them on the lunch bags! :)

Braden LOVES "big trucks Vroom...Vroom" so I knew that this would be a great theme for him. The thing that he love most was his AWESOME birthday cake that i ordered from Sweet Treats in Covington. It was designed to match his invitations and it had brownies in the back of the dump truck and before the party even started he climbed on the table 3 times to grab a brownie! He has been singing Happy Birthday to himself since Thursday when I took cupcakes for his preschool party. It is the cutest thing ever. He sang it multiple times today at the part and he has been serenading us with his beautiful birthday song this evening as well. What a sweet boy! He even sings "....Happy birthday Braden, happy birthday to you". PRECIOUS! I hope that everyone had a great time and we really appreciate everyone joining us to celebrate with our incredible little boy.

****Just a side note about my evening....I am crazy about taking pictures and I LOVE my camera. Well tonight my precious camera will join other fallen camera in camera heaven.....my eyes are actually dry as I write this. After I napped, while Braden was napping this afternoon, I decided to transfer my pics to my computer. Well to make a long story short, my card reader messed up (burned up/damaged the tongue& groove in the card) my CF card which damaged my camera when I tried to put it back in my camera. After a complete meltdown about losing Braden's birthday pics (the camera can be replaced, but my pics from his birthday can't) and lots of prayers (thanks mom, dad, Brad and Lori) I called Wollf Camera and they told me to bring everything in quickly. They were able to save my pictures and transferred them to a CD, but it will be $300 to fix my camera and Brad and I decided that we will just put that money towards a newer camera. Also Brad bought me a new flash for my camera for Christmas that was almost $200 so please pray that we will be able to return the flash. We are thinking about changing from Olympus SLR to either Nikon or Canon SLR just because it is so hard to find accessories and parts for the Olympus. If anyone has any opinions on which brand we should get let us know as I will begin researching shortly. Also I have 2 awesome lenses to sell that are in excellent condition if anyone is interested.

My UGA Riding/Singing/Gossiping Buddy

Krysti....aka KK, I really, really missed you tonight. Tonight was my first night back in grad school and even though I am taking an online course my professor required us to attend an orientation so that I meant I had to make the LONELY trip to Athens all by my lonesome.

I am embarrassed to say that I started grad school the semester before Krysti started, but she graduated this summer and I am just over halfway finished.

When Krysti and I met we were both first year teachers at Shoal Creek (along with Kylie and Sarah, the other two best 2nd grade teachers I have ever met). I have been so blessed by all of their friendships, but Krysti really helped to make the long trip to Athens more bearable. Here are several of the memories that I will miss:

• First and foremost: POOP on the LOOP


• Blimpies or Zaxby's? There aren't any stinking places to eat out here!


• Catching up on the latest Creek gossip


• Getting scolded in a certain professor's class


• Singing---LOTS & LOTS of Singing


• That is SOOOOO Redic!


• Grandma stories


• The occasional Varsity visit (along with all that accompanies a trip to The Varsity)


• Complaining about the horrible drivers we passed


• Speeding ticket- Thank you po po...maybe I should have used the I'm pregnant card- oh wait I did to get us out of class early..Karma?


• Can we get a good parking spot this week?


• Oh...can you ever forget the parking ticket and how they denied our written rebuttal


• And MANY MANY more AWESOME memories!

My road trip to Athens will NEVER be the same!

I miss you girl!

My Beautiful Baby Boy

WARNING---THIS IS A LONG POST---POP SOME POPCORN AND SETTLE IN!

One week from today will be Braden's 2nd birthday. I cannot believe that time has passed so quickly. For the past 2 years whenever it gets close to Braden's birthday I am reminded of how anxious and excited and scared I was about giving birth (especially since my friend Michelle is due at any moment- come on Baby Killian!). Brad and I didn't find out if we were having a boy or a girl so I was especially anxious about that. The last 3 weeks of my pregnancy were purely miserable. I had no cervical change, I couldn't sleep, I was uncomfortable and all I wanted was for the baby to get out! I was so tired of being pregnant! We tried everything to get the ball rolling, even eating the eggplant parm at Scallini's and mud bogging to pop the baby out. Of course nothing worked and I demanded to be seen by my doctor on my due date and luckily because my fluid levels were low they admitted in to be induced! Hallelujah!

Tuesday, January 9 (my due date): After my 4:00 appointment I had to be at the hospital at 7:00 pm so I called Brad, my principal, my parents, and a few friends and raced home to get my bags. On our way to the hospital Brad and I stopped by to see my parents and then we headed to check in at the hospital. By 7:45 I had blood work drawn, a port inserted and they started my induction using Cervidel. By 8:00, my parents, Brad's parents, my brother, my aunt and uncle and cousin and his wife were at the hospital to cheer me on and bring me Wendy's. I started having contractions immediately and the night was long and I didn't get much rest. The next morning they checked to see if I had any changes and there were still no changes. I was beginning to get frustrated. Why wouldn't the baby just work with us and come meet us? It was our first indication of how stubborn our precious boy would be.

Wednesday, January 10: By 9:30 my 2nd round of cervidel was inserted and the contraction became more intense. I was able to eat lots of yummy food though- my dad brought me a salad from Longhorn's and Brad kept me supplied with LOTS of mushroom pizza from the hospital cafe. Oh and my mom brought me strawberries. Isn't it weird that I remember the food that I ate? Anyway I had lots of guests to keep me company- Brad, my parents, my brother, Brad's parents, Sarah, Krysti, Kylie, Andy, Cassie and Michelle and plenty of phone calls- the only missing was the BABY! After 12 hours of cervidel, LOTS of painful contractions, and NO pain medication I was still undilated and had NO cervical change. I am not a crier. It takes a lot to make me cry, but this had me crying like a baby. I was so frustrated and I really just wanted to get the show on the road. So my choices were another round of cervidel or they could start the potocin and see where it led. Oh and a potential C section. So after a warm bath they hooked the potocin to my IV port and then they also gave a Statal drip (I know that I am misspelling all of these medical terms!) It was 11:00 Wednesday night at this point. Potocin is HELL. That is all that I have to say. Oh and it had to be invented by a man because there is no way a woman would put others through that pain! The statal didn't do much to help the pain it just made me VERY sleepy and almost drugged. This was when I became the VERY ANGRY PREGNANT woman and I was very mean to my wonderful husband and mother.

Thursday, January 11: By 1:00 am I was in so much pain that I demanded to be taken off the potocin and given a C section. By 1:15 I complained that I peed on myself (EMBARRASSING). Not even 5 minutes after my sheets were changed and I was cleaned up it happened again except at that point my nurse realized that I wasn't peeing and my water actually broke. And I was dilated to a 4. That was when I started calling for an epidural. Too bad the anesthesiologist was on call and asleep at home. Oh and my midwife was snoozing at Newton while I was at Rockdale. 15 minutes later I was dilated to a 6 and by the time the anesthesiologist arrived I was at a 9. He told me that he could give an epidural but I might not be able to sit up and I might give birth before it actually took full effect. I decided to proceed without an epidural and my midwife finally arrived and after 10 minutes of pushing I heard the most beautiful words come from Brad's mouth, "It is Braden Wright Hoffman." Born at 2:03 am. And when they laid that beautiful boy with the dark hair and the huge eyebrows on my chest I knew that I had been given the best gift possible. He is my precious blessing from God. Less than 30 minutes after giving birth I was up moving around and I felt amazing and I actually said, "I think I can do this again. That wasn't so bad" and my nurse told me to not even think about that!

Brad and I brought our amazing boy home that Friday afternoon and our lives have not been the same since! It has been busier and way more hectic...I don't think my house has been clean since he came home! But, it has also been more enriched and happier and content. It is much more fulfilling.

Here are a few pics from his first few weeks.

Braden Wright Hoffman
January 11, 2007 @ 2:03 am

Before Braden's 1st visit to Dr. Miller