Our Pictures Came In!

What happens at Whataburger

Templeton

          About a week ago I went out on our porch to feed Staci's cockatiel, 'Behr'. That's when I found out what's been stealing his food, because I caught it in the act! --A RAT!

Actually, I caught him in the cage by accident. Several times we've found his cage left open so I put a lock on the door to keep it from happening. It only opens about a half inch which was enough for a rat to sneak in, only to drop the door down and capture him inside with the bird. At first he tried to stay motionless while we took pictures, then it started to rush the door so we closed the apartment door and watched him push open the hatch enough to dart away! Good thing cause I had few options of how to handle that thing with our bird inside with him.

My guess is they're roof rats. My apartment is on the third (top) floor of our building which was built in the early 90's. Luckily we haven't had anything nasty like that indoors! And from now on I guess we can't leave Behr out on the porch.

Our little sweetheart

Our little baby Brooklyn is SIX MONTHS OLD today! We can't believe how fast she's growing. Today Brooklyn is in the 75th percentile for height, and 50th in weight. Since I'm missed a crucial time posting for the last few months, here's some pictures to make up for it. Enjoy!

 

Proud papa

 Proud mama

num num num

Easter dress

TX Blue Bonnets

Laughing hard!

 

She can keep herself propped up without This bumbo if she's interested in something!

She started Rice cereal about a month ago

We catch her doing things like this often!

She can roll over and get on all fours, and she's been rocking forward for a few days but can't move too far yet. Thankfully! We still need to baby proof!

Happy half-birthday Brooklyn!

coo-coo-cachoo

That's right, A DOUBLE POST! Okay, jump below this post for the previous one if you're chronologically inclined. Or don't. It's up to you.

Baby Brooklyn started 'coo-ing' the other day. It's the cutest thing I've ever seen. I caught this on my phone, hope you enjoy it.

Can you believe it, Brooklyn is 10 weeks old today!

There's been a few times we've caught her laughing in her sleep. I'll try to grab some video to post on here, but it's usually around the 6 am diaper change when we're half awake ourselves. What I wouldn't give to know what she's dreaming about :)

The Lymph Node: A Hospital Story

These past few weeks have been a roller-coaster of emotion for our family. We were so blessed to have members of our family from both sides come in for Brooklyn's baby blessing on the first of the new year, with my side of the family making a reunion out of it. (since we hadn't spent more than a few hours together since we moved to Texas 2 1/2 years ago). It was a lot of fun, and as soon as I have pictures I will post them.

Last week was a little scary for us as Staci developed some sort of infection in her lymph node above her right collar bone. It was so painful for her she couldn't turn her head to the right or pick up anything [including Brooklyn :(   ] with her right arm. We thought it was just the result of a cold she had, and since her fever broke after two days we assumed it would go away. When it didn't we thought to go have someone check it out at an urgent care but our insurance only covered ER visits, so instead we had Brooklyn's Grandma Ardis watch her while we went to Centennial hospital where Staci delivered just two months prior. The picture below is "the Node"

What happened next surprised us both; they took blood-work, an x-ray, a CT scan, a complete medical history and then had us wait until the on-call doctor came in. He had a puzzled look on his face, only to say "we found an irregular spot on the top of your lung, but we don't know what it is. It could be a lot of things. We don't know. But it could be a contagious disease, so we're moving you to respiratory isolation." (A form of quarantine)

Anyone coming in or out was asked to wear a mask but I declined. Several times. I mean seriously, I'd been around her almost every moment, around the clock for weeks. If she had anything, I surely had it already. They finally gave up after several repeated attempts. Staci thought some of the masks looked cool (see below), while others looked like duck bills. I honestly didn't think there was enough filtration on those things to stop an airborne microbe anyway.

Ultimately it took them more than five days to figure it out, doing a biopsy of the lymph node, a bronchoscopy (Lung/ camera-scope and biopsy), more bloodwork, and a urinalysis. We were simply frustrated because we had nurses, our PCP, the Pulminologist, a Pathologist, and our Infectious disease doctors all coming in at random times to explain their own take on the situation. They finally came to the consensus that she had some mega strep infection (or staph infection?) that lodged itself in the lymph node and top of the lung. They gave her a perscription for some expensive antibiotics and discharged her after 5 1/2 days of tests. it's SO GREAT TO BE HOME! Thank you all for your prayers, fasting, temple names, and any other good vibes sent our way. We appreciate it greatly.

Whilst we were in the hospital Grandma Ardis had a fun week with little miss Brooklyn. Here's a picture we didn't see until Facebook of grandma taking her over to Bryan's house to 'watch' the Saints game with his newborn son!

And the rest are of us finally back at home! enjoy, and thanks again for all your support.