9 MONTHS OLD!!!

We just returned from a 2 1/2 week trip to Michigan to visit with friends & family and to bring my 11 year old step daughter back to Georgia with us for a month.  The boys and I flew there one way.  I was nervous about flying alone with the two of them but it went really well.  Brayden behaved himself on the plane and Cameron slept in my lap almost the whole trip.  Of course, before we even got on the plane, we missed our first flight and had to spend FIVE HOURS in the airport before we could catch another flight!  That part was pretty painful because they were both bored, tired & fussy.  I brought the double stroller because I thought that would make the most sense.  It worked out well EXCEPT for "it" being the reason we missed our flight.  Apparently our "bus" of a stroller is too big folded down to fit through the conveyor belt/x-ray at the airport.  They had to take it to a special area to be thoroughly swabbed down and every inch of it inspected.  This took at least a half an hour and by the time they finished and we had to take the train to the opposite end of the airport.  We literally RAN to our gate and upon arrival, I watched our plane back out.  So, I spent 5 hours riding back & forth on the train, walking the airport, changing poopy diapers, taking Brayden to the bathroom because he either had to pee or poop about 50 times, looking through gift shops, spending $20 on chicken strips for lunch, etc. 

A couple of days after we got to Michigan, Brayden came down with a runny nose and then before we knew it, the whole house was sick!  It was pretty much a horrible sore throat for a couple of days, followed by lots & lots of snot & sinus congestion.  Dad got the worst of it and he's still coughing several weeks later.  We enjoyed our visit though inspite of illness and I was able to see some friends that I haven't seen in YEARS.  While we were there, I swear Cameron grew up overnight.  He's been crawling for a while now but more of a froggie hop crawl where he moves his hands one at a time and then with both knees together, kind of hops his back end up to meet his front end.  Well, he totally mastered crawling the "normal" way and moves very quickly all over the house.  He also just decided it was time to start pulling himself to the standing position on anything and everything. He's meeting all his developmental milestones early like his brother did.  He really prefers standing to most anything now.  He turned 9 MONTHS OLD on Friday and again, "I can hardly even believe how fast this time is flying by".  I always said I wish we could hit a button and slow down that first year because it's one of my favorite times of their lives just watching them change, grow and learn new things daily.  Cameron also went through a growth spurt while we were in Michigan as well.  He had started to get skinny like his brother and all of a sudden he's filling out again and seems to have gotten a lot longer to me.  He still doesn't have any teeth yet!  He also learned a new word this week....I've been saying "uh oh" when he almost falls and now he'll say "uh uh"...it's sooooo cute!  He's also turned into a real lover.  He loves to hug and kiss and he'll kiss you all over your face for a long time....he opens his mouth really wide and slobbers you to death! I'm soooo thankful that BOTH of my boys are affectionate.  They love to give kisses & hugs.

Brayden also seems to have gone through a growth spurt.  He has NEVER been a good eater even as an infant and he's always been shorter and skinnier than most kids his age.  All of a sudden he has gotten this appetite and wants to eat, eat, eat....he's still skinny but seems to look a little more filled out to me as well. I think he's gotten taller all of a sudden as well.  While he was swinging in his swing on Grandma's deck in Michigan, he got his first ever bee sting.  It stung him in the meaty part of his hand between the thumb and fore finger.  He screamed bloody murder for a few minutes and then it was all over with.  He was fine and it stopped hurting once I iced it.  He also got quite the shiner on his eye when he ran into the bottom of his brother's swing.  It looked horrible but thank GOD it didn't get him right in the eye ball and it healed very fast.  He has always been a super fast healer (thank GOD) despite the fact that he doesn't eat a very well balanced diet. 

I've been having terrible problems with my stomach and I've had two gallbladder tests and just had an upper endoscopy done this past week.  They aren't sure what's going on and I'm still scheduled for another test yet.  I've had horrible nausea, not very much of an appetite and everything I eat seems to make me feel horrible.  I'm also having a lot of fullness in my upper stomach behind my sternum and some pain radiating between my shoulder blades.  The nuclear scan (HIDA Scan) I had done on my gallbladder showed that it's functioning at 36%.  Anything less than 35%, they usually recommend taking it out.  After all the tests come back, that might still be the next step.  It's sure acting like a gallbladder problem to me.  My mom, sister, Grandmother, mother-in-law & many other people I know have had their gallbladder out and they had the exact same symptoms I'm having when their gallbladder started acting up.

Like I said earlier, we brought my step daughter (Rachel) down here for her summer visit and she will be with us for about a month or so.  Brayden is really enjoying having a "playmate", although he's been picking on her pretty bad.  We are all enjoying having her here and Cameron has started to really get attached to her as well.

I guess that's pretty much it for this update.  I'll now add some recent pictures, including some we had done of the boys at Portrait Innovations while we were in Michigan.

These first pics are from the park where we went to feed the ducks:

Can you tell that he got a kick out of feeding the geese?

My step daughter Rachel feeding a goose

The whole family

Grandma stealing kisses

Aunt Shelley getting smothered with kisses

These next few pics are from Brayden's run-in with Cameron's swing:(

This was after a couple of days when the sore was scabbed & already healing

Misc. Pics

Cameron trying to give Grandma's dog kisses

Spending time in the garden with Uncle Jeff

Uncle Jeff & his favorite little guys

Pictures we had taken at Portrait Innovations.  I bought the boys matching outfits before we left for MI and they are soooo adorable...I wanted so bad to get pics of the two of them together with their little surfer hats but it didn't work out.  Cameron was VERY tired and not in the mood for pics that day: