
What a whirlwind of a few months we’ve had! In September, my cousin Stacy came in to stay with us and meet Brayden for the first time. We headed up to New Castle for the annual Fleming Family Goat Roast. Of course this was Brayden’s first Goat Roast and he had more fun than he could stand. My little cousins kept him busy playing and feeding him and he enjoyed the music and family until he was too tuckered to party anymore.
The next day Stacy and I saw a hay truck drive by and noticed one of the bales was smoking. I ran to get my uncle and by the time they got down to the road the whole hay truck was on fire and the guy had drove into my uncles farm! So the Fleming Family fire department went to work. My brother drove the tractor and was pulling flaming bales off the truck and dumping them in the river, while my dad and cousins shoveled burning hay off the bridge into the creek below. It took more than 15 minutes for the volunteer fire department to arrive and if it wasn’t for my family that guy would have probably lost his truck, flatbed and set my uncles farm on fire! Pics are posted. Shew never a dull moment with this crew.
Brayden is growing like a tiny baby weed. He says dada, mama, nana, ita (for kitty cat.. everytime he sees Phoebe he tries to say here kitty kitty phe phe.. but it comes out ita ita ita). He has 2 teeth on the bottom, one that is poking through on top with another top toofer on the way! He started crawling a few months ago and the very next day was pulling up. He is starting to let go with one hand and find his balance. I swear that little stinker will be walking before we know it. He loves prunes ( i know right of all things.. strange), bananas, anything with apples, puffs of any kinds (but he only likes it if you let him feed himself…very independent little man), crumpled up wheat bread and every kind of fruit. He isn’t big on any of the meats unless it’s paired with a fruit like apples and chicken, ham & pineapple etc. He is a picky little eater and wont open his mouth to anything green.. (he must get that from dada). He loves to play (let’s find mommy) and will crawl from room to room searching for me! He is a little chatter box and will goo and gaaa on and on throwing in mama dada and nana into the mix and changing the inflection of his voice as if he really is telling you something very serious or funny that we have done..ha! He has the sweetest giggle and an infectious laugh! Strangers stop me all the time to tell me what a cutie he is cause my little social man will flash them his 3 tooth grin as we walk by. He is definately a chamber baby and loves to go to work functions with mommy. Lately I can’t show up without him even if it’s in the middle of the day because people ask me where B-Ray is! Oh my am i going to have my hands full with this little booger!
Bless his heart though he has had a rough few months. By the time we got home from the Goat Roast we discovered he had a double ear infection from the cold he had just gotten over earlier that week. He got better from the ear infections then got a horrible stomach flu. By that weekend Ray and I had it too. Thankfully Vanessa took pity on me and drove me to the ER and stayed there with me until 4 a.m even after my momma arrived. You rock Vananna!!! The next week my dad and in laws came over to help take care of Brayden and dad and Sandy ended up with the virus too. It’s a mean one so watch out. Everytime we would think Brayden was better he would throw up or have diarrhea again. So by Thursday the following week he was admitted to the hospital. He was absolutely pitiful and it broke my heart. But finally after 12 days of the virus after lots of iv fluids, meds and a 2 night hospital stay he finally kicked it. He went back to daycare last Wed and by Saturday woke up with a cold again which mommy has too. Sigh… maybe our immunity will finally kick in and he and I will have that powerful immune system everyone keeps telling us will happen! Fingers crossed! Even when he felt horrible my little sweetie pie still managed to smile at the nurses… that is after he gave them a serious once over to make sure they weren’t going to poke him or take his blood! Check out the pics from our hospital stay in the sickly folder. A DB football player came by the hospital and gave him this football. A sick but sweet smiley boy!
As everyone knows, I’m a breast feeding mother and by now everyone at work just jokes about it and moves on. They know what’s happening twice a day when the doors is closed and the blinds are drawn. Well we recently had our windows professionally cleaned so there were people in our building and it threw my schedule off a little bit. I had seen the guy working on my 2nd story window earlier in the day, but after a few hours and no more sightings i thought they were finished. So I closed the blinds, shut my door and commenced to pumping. I was in mid pump when i heard the wet, soggy, slop of a squeege hitting my window! I squealed, paniced, hunkered down in my chair and scrambled to find my top.. slop, slap, squeege, squeege! Now given my blinds were drawn and the lights were off, but you know how sometimes you can see through mini blinds if you are looking down at them on a slant.. that’s what was running through my mind. I disconnected and crawled across the floor to retreive my clothes. When I flung open the door and yelled "are they seriously not done yet"…. Vanessa greated me with a giggle and said she was wondering what I squealed about! Of course everyone here got a huge kick out of it… ah the life and times of Nicole Austin..haha!
This past weekend Brayden and I spent the night at mom’s while Ray was away on his annual leaf trip with the boys. We celebrated mom’s birthday early (since her actually birthday is the day kport celebrates halloween). Dougie, Ambra, and Drake came over and we had a great weekend hanging out with family. I have to say that Ambra and Drake’s gift to mom was the best. "Crapping it Rich" a whole roll of money.. literally. She wrote the funniest poem to go with it. Check out the momma Wanda folder to see it and pics from our weekend. Also my sweet mom woke up in the middle of the night with Brayden and held him from 4 in the morning until 8 so I could get some rest. Since his double ear infection then followed by the stomach virus that just wouldn’t go away he has had a hard time sleeping. He will wake up every hour and a half and scream unitl you hold him. It’s been a long sleepless month and mom said I looked exhausted so she took care of him so I could catch up on some sleep.. now if she just lived in Kingsport we would be in business..haha! Happy early Birthday momma.. i’ll save your real birthday wishes until the end of the month!
So there it is, a recap of our crazy, busy and ridiculously blessed life. We are doing great, but I’m still trying to juggle being a working mommy with a constantly sick bambino and finding the balance in my life! Thank goodness we have dedicated family who are willing to get up before the crack of dawn and drive to K-town to help us when we have needed sitters. Ray and I have missed boocoos of work and without the help of our fam during the week I’m not sure either of us would have a job..ha! So thanks Mom, Dad, Sandy & Gleason (aka Nana, Poppie, Mamaw & Papaw) for your help, love, support and weak immune systems haha.. we love you!
He likes to brush his teeth like a big boy.. tehe!
New pics are posted in fall, family pics, momma wanda, sickly & goat roast. We took family pictures a few months ago but I just recently got them up on the website. As you can see Brayden has grown quite a bit since them. Coming soon fall pics and pics from our Fenders Farm fun!
the shy pumper