Bumps & Bruises

Awww....Mr. C took his first spill at school today. He fell and hit his mouth on the rocking chair. After some love from Ms. Kathy, all was good. A bit of a puffy lip, but it doesn't seem to be bothering him too much (as long as Mommy stops trying to pry open his mouth to look at it). He's tough! (And I think I got all the blood out of our favorite Cubs shirt - whew!) Looks like he hit right above his top tooth, again helping it to pop out a bit more. (We first noticed his tooth after a fall last week at home). One more spill and this kid will have all of his teeth! :-)

They filled out this cute "Bumps & Bruises" report at daycare. I'm sure the first of many! :-) I do really like that they document stuff like that though so we know what happened. Another reason I'm so glad that we chose this daycare. We're very happy with it!


Oh - and we finally brushed those pearly whites for the first time tonight! :-) He just wanted to chew on my finger/brush. We'll need to keep practicing!

Random pics

Just some random pictures from this month!

Catching up

A lot has happened in the world of Mr. C in the past month.....let's see if I can remember the highlights.

1. New infant class - On 6/1, Carson moved to the Infant II class! This one goes up to 15 mos. It's a very active room and he LOVES it. Most days, he's too busy playing to take his naps. I'm glad he has friends, but it sucks for Mom and Dad because he falls asleep on the way home and we have trouble waking him for dinner! Cuts into our play time at home for sure. But I'm sure as he continues to adjust, that will get better. There are good days and bad. But he seems to love his new teachers and all of his new friends.

2. Pulling himself to standing - He's been crawling all over for a while now. He has definitely mastered that! He is FAST!! And somewhere in May, I believe he pulled himself up, but we had yet to see it for ourselves. Well it didn't take long. We caught him pulling himself up the week he started his new class. Here's the first picture we were able to get.
And then...sure enough....I put him to bed that same night. He apparently wasn't sleepy and I came back to check on him and found this......
So I pulled him out while Lucas lowered the mattress again. I think we have one more setting to go. Probably should've just lowered it all the way and gotten it over with. :-) Anyway, after that, he was pulling himself up all the time. And now....you cannot keep him down. He's up on everything!

3. Table food and teeth - Very slowly, we've begun table food. They do table food in this new class at daycare so I told them to go ahead w/ the softer foods. Unfortunately, he tends to sleep right through their table-food lunch. But he's had some of the snack foods. I need to be better at home so he gets the practice. We're finally getting the hang of the stage 3 foods (little chunkier) and we've had all kinds of other little things (green beans, mashed potatoes, toast, cheese, etc.). He's getting very good at chewing and he's doing really well at feeding himself puffs, etc. Oh and he loves mum-mums! Someone at daycare recommended it and they're definitely his favorite. His bottom two teeth are fully in (and sharp!) and just last week (6/23), I discovered his top two! The one on the right is coming in for sure - I can see the white and feel it. And it looks like the one right next to it won't be far behind. No white on that one, but I can see the bump. :-) So with 3 teeth (and soon to be 4), he should be a pro at table food in no time. If Mommy can stop worrying and let him try more things!

4. Grass - We went to our first little league game (cousin Dylan's) and I realized that Carson had never been in the grass before! He seemed fascinated. And provided me with a good opportunity to get pictures of these chunky legs! I love them!

5. Throwing - Carson is becoming a pro at throwing things......usually his ball. He's got a pretty good arm too. We're hoping that develops into something and we can retire young. :-) He usually laughs and laughs each time he throws it. And apparently, bouncy balls are his favorite thing at school too. Ms. Kathy said that he and Max sit in the corner with one of the rubber balls and bounce it back and forth laughing the whole time. Wish I could see it! However, he has discovered that he can throw other things besides balls........sippy cups, bottles, food...you name it. I should probably be happy that he's learned a new skill, huh? :-) The ball-throwing is cute.....I could live without the bottle being hurled across the room though. Oh well! He's still pretty cute so he can get away with it!

Guess that's it for now! I'll try to be better about updates. :-)

Our First Father's Day

Well, like I posted on Mother's Day, this wasn't really Lucas' first Father's day (since we've had Emma for 6 years now). But this was his first with our precious baby boy. :-) So happy father's day to the best daddy that I know. (And he's a pretty great husband too. But don't tell him that. Wouldn't want him getting a big head or anything. :-) ) But seriously, I am so happy that our kids have such a wonderful daddy.

The kids got Lucas some personalized picture frames and I ordered copies of all our "Daddy and Carson" pictures. And Daddy got some books to read with Carson along with a Barnes & Noble gift card to get some grown-up books. We spent the day just hanging out at home.

I'll try to be more creative next year honey! But hope you had a good father's day!

9 months!

I've been away from blogging for a while.......I'll probably need to catch up in a series of posts. But to start, Mr. C turned 9 months last week!

We "celebrated" by getting sent home early from daycare with a (mild) case of hand, foot and mouth disease. Yay. Our first "disease". (Sigh) Seems that if it's going around daycare, Carson's going to get it. I keep telling myself that he'll have this amazing immune system by school time.....fingers crossed. But it could have been much worse. A couple days of fever, couple nights without sleep and 3 days out of daycare. :-( Not great, but like I said, it could have been worse. One "benefit" of being sick.....extra cuddles. Poor guy! (This was on Father's Day. Fever came on out of the blue).


But here he is 2 days later (the day we got sent home early). Still not feeling great, so not terribly "smiley" in our pictures. And still a challenge to get a good picture with this darn elephant! :-)

Can't believe he's 9 months old already!

Tyler Samuel Bradstreet

"Tyler Samuel Bradstreet, 14 days old, of Washington, Ill., died at 3:54 p.m. Thursday, June 10, 2010, at his home.

Although perfectly and wonderfully made, Tyler lost his battle to a genetic disorder."

There really just are no words. Our hearts break for our friends. Tyler taught us all a great deal in the short time he was here. More than ever, we will treasure every moment. We just want to thank Bob and Mandy for sharing Tyler with us. We are sincerely honored to have been a part of his beautiful life. We will always love him and we shall never forget him.

Celebrating one week

Tonight, I'm celebrating one week of precious life. On May 27th, at 6:08 p.m., a very special little boy entered this world. Tyler Samuel Bradstreet. 5 lbs., 2 oz. and 18 1/2 inches long. Tyler is our "nephew", Carson's cousin, and most importantly, our very best friends' (Bob and Mandy's) precious baby. We looked forward to that day for almost 38 weeks. And Tyler is truly a miracle. And he is so very very loved.

On Sunday, Bob and Mandy received the official diagnosis of Trisomy 18. My heart continues to break for them as I type this. Our hearts are broken - we had so many dreams of our boys growing up together and being best friends just like we all are. But it goes without saying that Bob and Mandy had infinite dreams and hopes for their little baby and I know that their hearts are completely shattered. I cannot express in words the pain and sadness I feel for them. And for Madisyn and Dylan. And for their entire family. I simply cannot even begin to imagine what they're going through. And I wish with every fiber of my being that they did not have to experience such pain. It's devastating. It's unimaginable. It's not fair.

But I know that, despite their pain, they are cherishing every moment with their beautiful baby boy. And I'm so grateful to God that they have been given these days. And I pray for more. I pray for God to give them strength and peace and to continue to help them through the most difficult time of their lives.

But today marks Baby Tyler's one week birthday! And that should be celebrated! He was even able to be weaned off of the ventilator today and is breathing on his own. What a miracle! He is such a gift to all of us who have the privilege of knowing him. And I will follow Mandy and Bob's example and just simply be grateful for every moment that he's able to be here. Happy birthday Baby Tyler! We love you SO MUCH!

Bob and Mandy have also set up a Caring Bridge site for Tyler if anyone would like to follow their story: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/tylersamuelbradstreet