Bradach's First Time Skiing

Bradach is spoiled and got skis for Christmas. They are rented for the season, but I told myself the first ski season after he walked he would ski. I wanted to go about a month ago but just now got around to going. Today we went to Pomerelle and bought tickets for the magic carpet. I had prepped Bradach for this by letting him wear his ski boots in the house (anyone who has walked or worn them understands this) and pushing him around the yard in his skis. Well I hauled him up the hill in his sled, poor kid had a mountain of things in his lap. When we got to the carpet, which is like a conveyor belt that you stand on to take you up, he wasn't so sure but got on. He stood up like a champ the whole way, but made me hold his arms. After that first ride up he wanted to stand alone and be a big boy. When we got to the top he was laughing because of all the skiers around him. I held him between my legs and we were off! The kid said "wee" the whole time! He laughed and smiled, and when asked if he wanted to go fast he replied "fast!" I'm so glad he liked it. When we got to Grandpa's he told Grandpa "zoom", and "fast" and "whoosh", oh also "vvrrrrrrrr" for the carpet. I think he had a good day, I sure did, it was great sharing something I love so much with someone I love so much. I started skiing when I was 4 and I thought that its great Bradach beat me. He will be on a JR ski team in no time!
This pic he was looking at a kid eating a sandwich, prob wondering when I was going to feed him
Waiting in line for tickets to the best ride in town!
The magic carpet....sure is a lot nicer than a rope tow!! Check out his tiny skis.

Short vid I know, but I can't be picky when I didn't bring a camera person. Had to get a lame snowboarder to do it! LOL, hey he was a boarder and he was laying on the ground lame.


This sums it all up! This was one of our many rides up the carpet. Tell me the smile on that face says he had a blast.
All done...in the parking lot, one last pic to capture the day. He was great, not one time did he cry. Well one time, when I popped him out of his skis and he hit his forehead on the tip of my ski.That's one satisfied customer!
My first time skiing, the magic carpet there wasn't so magic, lol its just carpet.

Speaking of sleeping (the last pic of him), here is a pic of him in his "big boy bed" the first night he slept in it. Phil made the rails...he did an amazing job they look like they came with it.

Its been a year!

I started my blog a year ago at Christmas. Its been a fun thing, I must admit. I haven't posted pics of Christmas yet so here are some of them and a few others:This is Christmas Eve. Bradach was somewhat the entertainment. He ran around and the older kids followed. Finally they sat down and all took turns asking Bradach to say certain words and do funny things.

When the man of the hour showed up all the kids gathered around and took turns sitting on Santa's lap. This is as close as Bradach got to doing that. But he never cried! I think the fact that Santa's voice was familiar helped. Santa ended up handing out gifts and Bradach got a truck and a candy cane(first and last one of the season).
Christmas morning we got up around 9:30 and Phil made Crepes, we topped them with yogurt, strawberries and raspberries, powdered sugar and whipped cream. They were delicious, I think this will be a new tradition except Steven wont be so happy about that.
Christmas day was great, even more fun now that Bradach gets excited. Santa brought him a "BIG TRUCK" as he calls it. He pushes it everywhere. He also got a few other things, it was a nice Christmas and we are very very lucky to have what we have. Grandpa Rock got the gliding horse from Santa, a gift to him that he was instructed to share with all his grandchildren. We missed RJ and Amy along with Aunt Julie and EJ, TiTi and JJ. Family has always been a big part of Christmas for us and its hard when people are missing.
My dad had his knee replaced a few weeks ago (its about time). And Bradach has been a great help. Here he is raising his leg, doing the exercises with Grandpa. He takes the heat and ice packs to Mamo to put away. He helps pull Grandpa out of his chair when no one else hops up to do it, lol, and puts the slippers on his feet for him and gets the crutches for him. He is a very helpful little boy....don't let this fool you, he started a new game. First he helps Grandpa up, then gives him his crutch and hops in the chair and rocks and rocks.
Our home towns is covered in snow, so I figured the town next door with all the mountains surrounding it would have even more snow. Logical I know, but not right. We packed up the sled and headed to the hills. When we got there there wasn't much snow, but enough for a first timer. Grandpa got him this awesome sled and we had to try it out on something other than flat ground. Bradach loved the sledding, witch happened to be at the rugby field so we tramped over to the sign and took a pic for Uncle Steve.
This sure was a long blog, but its been a while, I will try to do better in the future. Hope all of your upcoming years are great.

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....