Random...

Let's see...what's been going on? Beau and I were able to get out of town for the weekend for the first time in...well I guess a year. We just went a couple of hours away to The Grand Hotel in Point Clear (LOVED it) but it was so nice to be able to have conversations and to not have a million things to do. I got to get a little (probably too much) sun at the pool so now I have a little pigment in my skin...which we can all be thankful for. I needed it badly. My parents came up and stayed with the boys...I think they enjoyed it.

Gaines has been having a problem with his reflux again so we've been dealing with that the last few days. I think I reported that in my last post but since then, its gotten better and then gotten even worse. My guess is that it's got something to do with his teeth coming in. The second one just broke through so I'm hoping it gets better soon. I got so frustrated with it all yesterday...I just feel so much pressure for him to gain weight and not only is he not doing great with it, he's doing pretty terrible. I think its (now bear with me...crazy talk about the devil here) the devil putting that in my mind so that I forget about all the progress that Gaines is making. He's doing great on his oxygen and developmentally he's doing awesome. Actually he pulled up to standing tonight (another milestone, check!)...so far he's done it 3 times so its not a fluke. I got off track there but the moral of the story is that I'm trying to focus on the positives rather than the not so positives...which only seems to be gaining weight at the moment.

Now that Gaines is a little more mobile with his crawling, big brother is having to learn to share "his" toys (of which, several belong to Gaines). I thought I might have to break up a fight over a dinosaur book tonight. We've also had a couple of instances of Reed watching cartoons in his little chair and Gaines crawling over to him and...get this...touching him...the nerve. Reed will sit perfectly still and call one of us in the room and say, "Gaines is touching me". If we ignore it and don't immediately move him, he'll tell Gaines, "Stop touching me Gaines!...Move Gaines!" And Gaines just laughs. He loves his big brother and deep down, Reed loves him too.

What else...Gaines' baby dedication is this Sunday...the day after his first birthday. I think the date is very fitting as he was originally dedicated in the hospital on the day he was born when they didn't think he was going to make it. I kind of feel like this is him coming full circle. His dedication is at the 11:00 service at our church and we are having brunch for our family afterwards.

But speaking of birthdays...can you believe that Gaines is going to be one on Saturday. It blows my mind. I'll have to do a special post dedicated to that but wow...a whole year of Gaines and all that's come with him.

I stayed home from work today because Kristen was sick and couldn't keep Gaines. It was kind of nice being a stay at home mom for a day. I'm pretty worn out but I got SO much done. My house is spotless at the moment but I bet it doesn't last very long. Either way, its a good feeling. A clean house with windows open and two sleeping boys. Life is good.

I guess that's about it for now. After all my scurrying around today, I'm going to relax.

Love to all,

Brittany