Our Baby Seal

Yes, I'm talking about Brooks. He became our baby seal late Friday night when he came down with croup. It's a horrible upper respiratory virus young children get from colds. If you aren't familiar with this virus, wait until your child coughs. It sounds like a barking baby seal. We ended up taking a trip to the Emergency room Friday (November 26) night.

He woke up around 11pm coughing (like a seal). He had such a hard time breathing that we decided to load him up and quickly (no speeding) drive to the hospital. When we arrived the nurse used an external thermometer which said Brooks had a 104 fever. The nurse then said, "this thing never works." Nice.

They whisked us into the back where Brooks received his first rectal temperature. 101.5. A few minutes later we went to room 18 where we would spend the next 2 1/2 hours. During that time the nurse gave Brooks some Tylenol, a steroid which caused him to spew all over the floor, more Tylenol, a breathing treatment and then another type of steroid. Brooks took it like a champ.

This first picture is when we first got into room 18. In the hustle of leaving the house we forgot his diaper bag. Thank goodness the hospital had a diaper to spare... unfortunately, no change of clothes for the massive amount of throw up that ended up down his front side.


This is video of Brooks during his breathing treatment. He was so tired and not too happy with steam blowing into his face.

The second video is Brooks shortly after his breathing treatment and a 15 minute nap. Most of the time you would rather not see your baby hyper at 1am, but everyone who passed our door stopped to say hello to him. What a ham.

We finally left the hospital around 2am. We had to make a quick stop at CVS to pick up a medicine cabinet for Brooks. Not bad for our first trip to the ER.

Good Doggy

Brooks loves Murphy. He obviously can't understand me when I say "No Murphy or Get Murphy" 100 times a day. I do take the time to let Brooks say hi to Murphy when he comes home from daycare. He gets so excited to see her. The other night Justin tried to let Brooks pet Murphy and he went crazy. He laughed for a good 10 minutes as Justin helped him chase Murphy around the house. Murphy took it in strides, but she's not a super fan of the "petting" or rather grasping of her hair.

Parkin It

Justin and I took Brooks to the park at Folly Beach Sunday afternoon. Earlier in the day I had asked Justin about taking this small venture and he said yes on the condition we watched the first few minutes of the NFL games. Coincidentally, the break in football came right after Brooks finished his nap.

When we first arrived at the park we weren't quite sure what to do with Brooks since he really can't go off an play on his own. First we tried the rocking seahorse. Yes, the look on Brooks face seems to be the same one we get every time we go in public. The "what in the world is going on and where am I" look. We eventually gave the swing a try which worked out pretty well. We weren't quite sure how he would fit... perfectly! And, lastly we sat him on the to of the slide long enough to snap a few photos.

Sorry, the video is sideways.

High Chair Highness

Brooks is growing up. He is now using a high chair. At 6 1/2 months, I'm sure some people are saying, "It's about time." I held off on using it because he would drool the food out of his mouth if he sat up too straight. I used his travel swing for the past two months until... the other day he practically squirmed out of of it.

My cousin Marc and his wife gave us the space saver chair which is awesome b/c it fits in a regular chair and doesn't take up any extra space... thus the "space saver." Anyway, Brooks loves it! And, it makes feeding him so much easier. Why did I wait so long?

Family Affair

The Ball family came to town Halloween weekend for Brook' baby dedication at church. The whole clan included my older brother, Adam, his wife, Mandy and their 2 1/2 year old, Wyatt. My younger sister Rachel lives here in Charleston. And, my young(est) sister, Joanna, her husband, Joseph, and their 10 month old, Lena drove down from Charlotte. Quite the crew.

My mother hired our friend Tara to take some pictures of the family before church that Sunday. Tara is such a trooper to coordinate 19 people (Justin's parents also came), 3 of which are children. We met at the gazebo in the Battery on the Peninsula which is a super place to take pictures. We hustled around for about an hour trying to make sure our smiles didn't turn into fake face stretches. I'd say it went rather well despite a few moments of bribing Wyatt to take just one more photo.

I would love to see the couple hundred pictures Tara snapped just to see the split seconds of everyone not looking at the camera. Tara picked out 60 photos to focus on and edit. It's fun to look at them and remember that moment when Wyatt broke out into song, "This is the day, this is the day," or when 10 people are waving keys making silly sounds to get Lena & Brooks to smile. You will notice Brooks mostly had what Justin and I call the "surprised" look on his face. I can't blame him. It's also fun to see the moments you didn't notice like Wyatt and Lena glancing at each other or Wyatt grabbing Brooks around the neck for a hug or my favorite is Lena looking back at Joseph... super cute!

After our hour long photo session we walked a few "long" blocks to church. Justin and I could help but be a little nervous about the dedication. The pastor calls the family up front, asks a few questions, explains the dedication and then... takes the baby on a walk around the sanctuary (Dun, dun dun). It could have gone three ways. Good, Bad or Ugly. Good, meaning Brooks sits somewhat still in Marshal's arms smiling like crazy. Bad, meaning at some point he gets scared and starts crying. Ugly, meaning he decides to poop as we walk up and then throw up all over Marshall during the walk. It could happen. Thankfully, we timed it well and he started falling asleep. Ha, ha.

Later, everyone commented on what a good baby we have. Awe.