Bradach is a year and a half today!!

This entry is mostly a diary type entry for my family to see how Bradach is doing at 18 months. I use the blog to keep far away Grandparents and Aunts and Uncles updated so this might not seem so exciting to some, and its very long. But enjoy anyways!
Bradach is awesome, he is always doing something. In most of these videos he is always moving while I'm filming. It amazes me how fast he learns. I know for the most part it is mimicking but he is a professional. Bradach's favorites include: trucks, trains, balls, dogs, cats, feeding horses, fruit of any kind, "All Dogs Go To Heaven", music and reading. He is running, climbing, feeding himself, helps do chores, and is a little performer. He does some sign language and can pronounce almost every letter in the alphabet. I'm trying to teach Spanish along with his English and its pretty fun for me. Some of the Spanish words are easier so he uses them....this ment Grandpa Rocks horse's name got changed from Red to Rojo.
Here are some video's that I took over the last week. I know this is just a brag blog, but like every mom I think my little guy is the best.

The obvious Once There Was a Snowman. He also does Itsy Bitsy Spider, 5 Pumpkins, Patty Cake, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and some wacky banana song with Grandma (mamo).


Its amazing to see his mind work through his actions.


I know the film looks rigged, but I swear he picks out all the blues, no matter where they are.


Here are some of the many animal noises he does....I tried 3 times to get the second part of the animal noises on, and it wouldn't work. I'll try to get it on a post later. I love the "ck" he does on truck and Rock. He is good at articulating the words he does use, but when he is on camera its hard to get him focused.



The book is full of pictures that he loves to point out.
Well that concludes my movies. Except my favorite one, and I will see if I can get it to work when its not 1 in the morning. When I started the blog he was 18 months, now he is 18 months 1 day.

A Nasty Little Bug!

Wed morning, the week before Thanksgiving, I woke up to a little boy that was vomiting. I gave him fluids and he threw it up, he was throwing up every 20 minutes or so. Bradach is a light weight to begin with so I was worried that he would dehydrate fast. And in my medical training they drill into us that hydration is a big thing. So I took him in to the clinic and they did a strep test that came back positive. Poor little guy, since he couldn't keep down fluids they started an IV, they gave him a full bag and then sent me home with a bag to give him later that night.

Here is my sweet set up. Reminded me of when I was prego and got out of staying in the hospital because I know how to run fluids and handle an IV.
Daddy and Bradach layed there and watched All Dogs Go to Heaven...well dad watched it anyways. Check out the spatchula keeping his arm straight. LOL, normally there would be a little board doing that....but I don't keep little boards handy.


The next day seemed better, Bradach kept down some fluids that morning and a couple of saltines. But by that evening he was crashing with a fever. Not to mention he started the diarrhea that day along with the vomiting. So my little guy got to go back to the clinic where they admitted him to the hospital. They tested him for Rotavirus and it was positive. 80% of kids get this thing and almost all of them go through it without even thinking it was more than a bout of the squirts and maybe some vomiting. Bradach however takes after his mom and if he gets it he goes the extreme. The nurses and everyone had to gown and glove up before coming in the room. The sign made me laugh because "stop" was in Spanish and English, now who doesn't know what red stop sign signifies? LOL.

This was after Bradach got some Tylonol to bring down his fever and got his new IV. He was like holding a fireball. His dad felt bad and kept trying to play with him, but the little bug was in no mood to play. He lost quite a bit of weight for a little guy, going from a whooping 22.8 lbs to low in the 21's. A week after all of this he weighed 21.13. A cute thing was that he kept calling the IV fluid juice. We were calling it water, but he thought juice was better. By day 2 in the hospital, day 3 in the ordeal he still hadn't eaten or drank anything. So we called in the Grandpa. Grandpa brought some of his favorite snacks, dried apples, and a banana by the time he had finished Bradachs belly looked like Grandpa's.
He still didn't feel great when we brought him home the next day but he was eating and drinking. For the next few days we just layed in bed and watched movies and read books. All is well now, we still are bleaching the toys and house everyday. The virus lives on surfaces for 10 days. Most of his toys are in quarantine. No one is contagious anymore, after I got it and Phil got it.

Fun news is that Bradach turns 18 months on the 7th so I'm going to try my hardest to get some of his cute tricks on camera.

1st place!

This week I went to an EMS conference. It was a good conference except the fact that I missed my kid so much. They offered a skills competition for anyone. Now people at this conference ranged from first responders to Paramedics, I'm in the upper middle of the categories right under the Paramedics. We didn't know what we were getting into, but we did get to meet our patient the night before. He was a SIM man, now he is an earlier model but these things are cool! They talk to you, they have bowel sounds, pulses, heart and lung sounds, the chest rises when he breaths. The newer ones even sweat, throw up blink and the pupils react. So we met our victim...lol, and came back the next day to compete. We went in and it was a full code, meaning he lost his pulse and stopped breathing so we had to do CPR. My partner Darren and I did end up winning the competition, I think it was his excellent intubation. But we were graded against everyone, even the Paramedics. Our reward was some chocolate, and year memberships to St. Lukes Air, which means that I get to fly free if I get in a situation I need life flight, oh and I got a t-shirt too.

Random pics

I went to my parents house and got my rocking chair from when I was a little girl. Bradach likes it and I took some pics of him in it. I couldn't help posting.

Also Grandpa and Bradach have been having fun on the tractor. Grandpa thought Bradach needed to look more like a real man while working so he got him a Carhart coat, thanks Grandpa! Here he is waving hello.


And now waving bye-bye!

Trip Up North

This week Bradach and I got a special treat. Tuesday through Friday we went up to visit family in Coeur d'alene and Spokane. We stayed and Amy and R.J.'s so we could get to know their newest bundle of joy, Mardianna Maria. She is a bruiser at 1 month weighing in at 6 lbs. She is a champion sqeaker and eater. We had fun one day with Grandma Chris and Aunt Catrina. Here are some pictures of our trip.
Here Bradach is playing with Uncle RJ's belly button, this was about the first time Bradach even went around him. He was very scared of Uncle RJ the whole trip, which is new to RJ since most kids see him as a big jungle gym.
This was the funniest pic I thought of Bradach playing with the balloons.

Bradach "playing" with the baby Flic (not his cousin). I say "playing" because it was more like stealing and running. We started with one balloon, went to two, one for Bradach and one for Flic. We had to make three just because he could only fit two in his hands.
The two cousins. I think Bradach is going to be the underdawg in this relationship later. LOL.
I threw this pic in because this is kinda how it was the whole trip, Bradach is thinkin who is this? Mardi is thinkin get him away. I'm thinkin, Bradach be soft. He did help burb her, only because its a version of hitting to him. Cousinly love....

Some Artsie Fartsie Stuff

I must be sick if I spend any more time in the kitchen than it takes to make mac and cheese or a peanut butter sandwich. So I guess I've caught something because I made cupcakes. Nothing special compared to Martha Stewart, or even some of my other mom friends but they were a big thing to me.
If you can't tell its a bloodshot eyeball. The red in the middle is a cherry and the pupil is a chocolate chip. If you are going to do this one don't cut up the cherries....they work better whole, or just cut off a small portion.
I also tried the melon baller on the pumpkin, if I was a crafty person I would have had a bow to tie around the pumpkin, and I would have used a taller pumpkin with a stem.

Bradaculla for short

Tonight we went to the Boo Tacular at the ISU ball room. First off we went to Grandma and Grandpa's work to get all scaried up. Grandma did Bradach's makeup and hair. He thought he was getting lotion on his face and a doo, so he was super good. If you are wondering what he is, he is my offspring, lol. Since I am a vampire bat and I don't have babies I must have off spring. After a few pictures we picked up Britney and Tigger (Drake). Then we headed down to Pocatello. The carnival was fun, and if the boys couldn't do the game the "carni's" made it really simple for them to earn the prize. Bradach got a balloon, put his hand in slime, shot some hoops, won the cake walk (which we declined the cake since I didn't have that many hands) and he was a finalist in "Best costume" for ages NB-two and a finalist in "scariest costume" all ages. All in all it was a fun time! I think the only thing that would have made it better was another set of arms to hold the baby. Uncle Steven did show up toward the end of our fun, so he took a turn at holding the little offspring. It was a pretty fun night I thought, just wish Phil could have made it too. Getting all scarried up, or bootiful for the night.

What a Cheeseball!
Playing his Grandpa cards
The finished products!
Tigger and the vampire bat offspring, Bradaculla for short.

Bradach THE Man

Growing up and being drug to the mall by my mom I always saw a ton of kids playing in the play area. I swore that I would never take my kid there, no way, no how. The place had to be crawling with germs, and I thought those parents are sooooo lazy! Get out with your kids! Well, the other day as my son was playing in the mall play area, don't be so judgemental, it was cold outside and I was drained of all energy. There were only a few kids in there and one of them looked to be Bradach's ability level. She was his height, blue eyes, pink top, and a great runner and climber! Anyways, I was watching Bradach pretty close to make sure he was playing nice. I looked at the other moms...they could care less, sippin their sodas talking about what ever,they were obviously more practiced at this than me. As I was following Bradach and his little friend around they went in one of the tunnels. So I'm crouched there watching Bradach just jabber on and on to this little girl while pointing to the wall of the tunnel. I'm thinking wow, this kid must have built tunnels in his past life because he knew it all! The little girl was so sweet and just sat there like she cared what he was saying then he stopped talking, I got closer thinking a hit or a shove was coming but nope! The little devil kissed her! My little turd got his first kiss in with a little girl after knowing her for a whole 5 minutes. After that they saw little of each other but the breakup was mutual. They met at the crazy mirrors stopping only briefly to say hi then running off. Oh young love....

Fall Fun!

I thought since our yard is covered in leaves I would take some pics. This is Bradach's first real fall, where he can walk and really enjoy whats around him. He loves to throw the leaves, and have them thrown at him. The look on his face is so surprised, and innocent. He is totally one with nature. I haven't ever taken any special pictures with this camera but I found a feature that makes colors more vivid, which is perfect for the fall occasion. I love hanging with my little guy every day. The more he learns the more fun he is. I can't wait for Halloween to actually be here, but be prepared for lots of dress up pics, we are scheduled to dress up for three different days. Phillip promised for my birthday that he would dress up on Halloween and take me on a date....cross your fingers that he gets the day off! He has been working all the Saturdays for weeks now.
Not loving the facial expression, but I totally love the colors, I wish I knew how to enhance his baby blues!My fuzzy headed snuggle bug...man, did I ever say how much I love this kid?!!!

The other morning when we woke up it was grey and foggy all around the cemetery. When the sun broke through the grey it was so beautiful. My wonderful husband was thoughtful enough to take these pictures. And I think they speak for themselves, what a beautiful place we live in, head stones and all.
In lew of what has been going on in with our family and the whole sexton thing, thank you to all of our family and friends that have stuck up for us. The city says they are behind Phillip 100% and that he does a wonderful job. Amidst all of the stress right now we are so grateful for this opportunity that Phillip has a job, and that his job allows him to stay so close to his family.

Bradach's five little pumpkins

Halloween is my favorite holiday of them all, so we start early in this house. We bought Bradach two Halloween books, one of The Five Little Pumpkins and the other one a collection of Halloween things . He has really taken a liking to pumpkins even pointing to the paper ones everywhere. So we bought him a little pumpkin to play with. I'm just waiting for him to throw it hard enough to break on the floor. Anyways, he loves his books and we read them at least a million times a day...Its really cute how Bradach picked up the actions we were doing and I thought I would show them to you.

WARNING!

Ok, so it has been a long long time! In my defense, I like to look at the blogs with pics on them and I haven't had a camera that was charged. Well I found the charger to my camera and am going to purchase a dilly whapper that takes your pics from your phone and puts them onto a computer. Also thanks to a blog put up by Misty, I have had an itch to be more "domestic goddess" like, so hopefully I will have some fun creations to show off soon. Anyways, just thought I would warn you all!

A day at the ball park

Today we went to the Chuckars game in Idaho Falls. I haven't been to a Chuckars game in a while. We knew we would leave early because of Bradach, but it was still fun. We saw a lot of people from Blackfoot...hmm, must have been Blackfoot night at the ball park. Bradach got to dance and see the lights and once in a while he saw the ball. That was about it for him, ohh and the hamburger he ate, and dad gave him ice cream, soda and french fries and if you know me that's a big no no. However everyone survived and Bradach is on his way to dream land. his way to dream land. I also got the last of my motocross gear in the mail the other day so I felt like posing for the cam. I love my riding pants because they zip off into shorts. I haven't got to ride this summer since my ankle has been messed up but I plan on getting out before the end of the summer.

Bradach the funny man!

Bradach is getting to the age where he likes to be the center of it all. Weather that's by crying or making us laugh he doesn't care. So here are some things that have been going on around the Meline home. Today there was a spider in the corner of the room, Phil being the man (and the only one on two feet) went to kill it. Now if you know Phil you know he is a manly man, but did you know that Phil is afraid of spiders? Not to the girly point of the screaming and dancing but he does not like them. Any ways he had Bradach in his arms and told Bradach to be brave for him, when he smashed the spider Bradach broke out in crying. I don't know if he was sad that the spider was dead, or what but man that kid cried and cried!
Another thing is that when we are at Grandma and Grandpa Moldenhauer's house he always grabs grandpa's flip flops and takes them to him so they can go out side. At the Sunday dinner he always has to laugh loudest when a joke is told, we all turn and he gives the cheezy grin.
Today, since I'm on crutches, I was changing him on the floor. After it was all said and done I asked Bradach to throw the diaper away, and you know what the turd did? Walked straight in the kitchen and dumped it in the garbage. I was very proud of him.
He loves to dance, anything with a beat from commercials to radio to baby motzart. His new fav is dancing to Mario Kart Wii. He squats and bobs and twists. He also has picked up air drumming. He loves to air drum to Celtic Thunder. I really need to set up a cam and get this head banging and drumming to Celtic music. We named him an Irish name but I never thought he would take it so seriously! He can sit and listen to or watch on you tube this group for as long as you will let him. He knows the Irish anthem, and can pick it out. I don't think he could do that with the USA anthem....so sorry. Anyways, that's whats been going on. There are always those funny moments but they might not be so funny to others. So I will keep them for myself.

Some stolen pics

I was cruising all of the blogs and found pics of my son on my sister-in-laws page. She gave me the ok and here they are. Bradach got this police car from Aunt Amy and Uncle RJ until their little rug rat is ready for it. He loves to sit in it and get pushed around. I think he has the right idea. Thanks for the pics Nikkei!He is sooo serious about his job...lol.A rare moment of relaxation on the job...hes thinkin about his mommie I'm sure

3 Dollar Fun

We went shopping yesterday and saw the little pools on sale for $3 I couldn't pass it up. First of all we got Bradach a big blow up pool for his birthday. We spent more money than we should have on it but felt better about spending that money when we purchased some insurance on the thing. Go figure the day after we set it up the thing got popped and we never used the insurance to get it fixed. I know...we are wasteful, needless to say Bradach never stepped a foot in that pool. So after yesterday I vowed broken ankle and cast and all I would take the child to play in the pool. He is a natural water dog. He loves getting in and out, throwing and splashing. He especially liked to tease the dog with the ball. So my conclusion is no more spending oodles on something you can wait to get for 3 dollars.

A Broken Ankle And Being a Mom

Well Softball season started for me and ended. A few weeks into it we were playing a team and loosing, I hate loosing. I got too aggressive and when I got up to bat I hit a good solid hit into the outfield. The aggressive part comes when I, instead of holding at third rounded to home. Now I could see the catcher getting set up to catch the ball I knew it would be close. She got the ball blocked the plate and I slid. I slid right into her, she was a lot bigger than me and even with all of my force sliding into her she did not move. I ended up breaking the dome of my talus, witch is the bone that your tibia (leg bone) sits on. Luckily I'm good on crutches from all of my experience. But no amount of experience can prepare you for a 13 month old never sit down always into something type of boy. Crutches took away my hands, I could no longer walk hand in hand with Bradach, let alone carry the boy when he needed it. One of the worst things is that if he was asleep in the car and I was alone I would have to wake him up and make him walk into the house. It was sad. But I was at the store and saw this kid whiz pass me on this contraption. He was in a cast too....I knew this thing was for me. So I went to Maag and they hooked me up. Its called a knee scooter and it has made me a mommy again. I can sit Bradach on the front when we walk, he walks to the side of me holding my hand, I can prepare and carry meals. I still am limited on a few things but it has made life so much better. Here are some pics of this scooter. I love it.

Asking for prayers

One of my crew members is going through the fight of his life. His name is Dale he is my crew member witch makes him my brother. He used to have a pace maker in his chest but they took it out. Now the leads that they left in have floated down to his lung and have caused massive infection and scar tissue. The docs have put him on antibiotics for the next 4 weeks to see if that does anything, however the chance of the medicine helping is slim to none. The next step is to remove part of his lung, they are looking at taking half of it but told him chances are good that they will have to remove all of it. If they do that then he will have a 10% chance to make it through surgery. Dale is very determined to beat this thing, he said if it does get to take his life then it will have to fight him every step of the way. Dale is a great man who will give everything for a friend and has done so for me. Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers.

Come on People!

This morning in the newspaper there was an article about how a lesbian couple and their kids tried to get the family rate for swimming at Lava Hot Springs. The swimming complex denied them the discount because the state does not recognize same sex couples. ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!!!! Who cares! by law they might not be a married couple but that doesn't make them any less of a family! They live together, eat together and do all the family things. The kids do belong to the one lady since she got custody of them from her sister. At least give her and the kids the family rate. The kids were young how do you explain to them that they don't count as a family just because they have two mommies? How much money is Lava actually saving by denying them the discount? Is it really worth the negative publicity?

06/07/08

06/07/08 is the day Bradach was born. Today is the day we had a party for him. I told myself I never wanted to do b-day parties but I thought using that date was a good reason to have a barbecue. I made up invitations sent them out and the people came. I wrote no presents on the invites and some of the people said that they didn't know how to follow instructions . We had a good turn out and I got to see people that we don't get to see very often. The theme was camo and water. The camo was a go but the weather was rainy and cold so we moved the party inside. We had some great food to eat and Bradach opened his gifts. Then we got pics of all the kids together it reminded me of Austins b-day party because Bradach was the only one in the pic that was crying. He finally calmed down for a pic. After pics and presents we stripped the kid down to his diaper and put the cake in front of him. It was really cute to see him taste the frosting. I made him a banana cake witch was just like banana bread except with the cake texture. He loves banana bread and loved his cake. He actually tried to bypass the frosting to get to the bread. I get alot of flack for the healthy way I feed my child so he doesn't get much refined sugar. He was bouncing off the wall after the cream cheese frosting. He was running around saying daddy (he was actually saying doggy but its hard to tell). He layed down for a nap with grandma and the rest of us went to the grove to jet ski. Call us a bit crazy but it was so much fun! The weather was rainy and some lightning but really far away. We had to even take a break to let the storm pass through. The sign said it was 47degrees but the water was warmish(60's). After you couldn't feel your shins it was great! When we came home we all hopped in the hot tub and got our body temps back up. So all in all it was a great day. One to remember.

We are so lucky!

Well that time of year is here again, Memorial Day weekend, or hell week as I like to call it. For most people this is a good time, but if you live in the cemetery its not such a good time. So Friday afternoon we took off to go hiking. We are so lucky to live so close to great places! We drove 20 minutes to Pocatello and went hiking up City Creek. Now its not a hike hike but when you are still a bit out of shape and have a 19 lb baby on your back its just right! And its beautiful, you walk up the mountain in the canyon and the cross the creek numerous times. Bradach loved pointing to the trees and the creek because of the noise it made. Nakeeta our dog enjoyed the creek and chasing some of the other dogs up there. Phil enjoyed being away from the cemetery and me I enjoyed the burn I felt walking up! Here are some of the pictures we got, I really like the one with Bradach alone in his Carrier. He is such a cheeser for the camera.