Binky Free!

Could it really have been that easy?  It appears the answer is a resounding "yes."  As I posted last week, Aubree, all on her own, threw her binky (she only found the one at the time) away in her trash can.  That night, she fell asleep with Duncan in our bed.  I was able to move her to her own bed without incident and she slept the whole night without waking up.  The next morning I heaped praise after praise on her but all she could think about was getting the "dancing baby with the belly-button" out of the garage.  I had gotten it at Target back in January during the sale and clearly she had not forgotten about it.


During nap time, she put up a small fuss about wanting the binky.  When I told her, "But Aubree, you're a big girl now."  She responded "No, I'm not.  My clothes are still tiny."  We quickly distracted her and that was that.  And really, there was very little whining after that.  Honestly, you could knock me over with a feather that it was this easy.  I thought for sure we were in for it because she was even more attached to that thing than Calleigh was.


The whole experience presented me with one of those situations that is bound to be repeated over the next many, many years.  When I gave Aubree the dancing baby, I also gave Calleigh a present because of her support to Aubree.  After the next successful night for Aubree, I gave her a second present, albeit something smaller.  When I said there was just a present for Aubree, and not Calleigh, Calleigh laid this doozy on me, "But you only gave me one present when I didn't have a binky any more (a true fact, I believe.)  You love Aubree MORE than you love me."  Great. Just great.


Last Saturday night and pretty much all day Sunday were spent trying to pretty this place up.  My goal was to get the place looking good enough that we could take pictures to place an ad.  Our thought is that we'll be renting it out starting September 1.  Duncan had a handy man come in a few weeks back to give us an estimate on how replacing a few faucets, among other things.  It came back at somewhere around $500 (just for the labor).  Duncan was pretty disgusted and although he himself would tell you that he's not necessarily a handyman per se, he stepped up and ended up doing it all himself.  Quite well, I must say.

Brady assisting Daddy...sort of.

Man, the place looks so nice all clean and shiny.  Maybe we don't want to move...

Then again, maybe we do.  Still waiting for the stone work to be done but it's coming along.

The bigger happening on Monday was that Aubree went to the dentist for the first time.  She had no qualms whatsoever about going back for the exam and cleaning all on her own.  When she came out, she marched right over to me, put her face about an inch from mine, barred her teeth and said, "Look, see how sparkly they are."  She was pretty proud of herself.  Neither of the girls had any cavities.  Yay!  Also, I was happy to learn that Aubree doesn't have an extra upper front tooth like Calleigh does. One less hassle at least.  One the other hand, the dentist does think both girls will ultimately need braces. Not because of crocked teeth but because of an overbite.  The binky damage has been done.  Welcome to my world (although it was a thumb for me).

Goodie bag from the dentist.

Tuesday was the day I was not looking forward to.  The dreaded trip to Shands in Gainesville so Brady could see the immunologist.  Considering that he hasn't been sick at all since he got rid of the cough in November and considering that he was drinking out of Camden's juice box during camp meeting while Camden was in the midst of a terrible fever and throwing up and he did not get sick, it seems like he is NOT suffering from a weakened immune system.  Nevertheless, I decided to go just to be on the safe side.  I dropped the girls off at Ron and Elaine's at 8:00 and went from there.  It was actually a pretty quick two hour trip and Brady slept a good portion of the way.  

The first thing I thought of when I walked into Shands was "Boy, they need to spend some capital on getting this place into the 21st century."  It seemed old and dated but I'm sure this was no reflection on the type of care Brady would receive.  In fact, everyone I encountered was perfectly lovely and seemingly very capable.  We did have to wait about 30 minutes in our room for the doctor.  During this time, the door was left open and Brady spent the whole time crawling between the room and the hall so he could wave at every passerby and say "bye."  All this in his diaper.  He was pretty cute I must say.  When the doctor and her assistant finally came in they kept remarking on how happy he was.  This is probably the comment I get about him the most.  I sure hope he stays that way.

The "funny" thing was when the doctor first started going over things with me she said "Ahh, does he drink almond milk and have a sleep apnea problem?"  Of course, I said no.  "That's what I thought," she said.  "In the middle of his records that the pulmonoligist sent me, there are some pages about a 13-month girl.  Major HIPAA violation."  She then said that she didn't really trust anything that they sent now.  I couldn't blame her.  Anyway, that being said, after looking over the records, for what they were worth, and asking me some questions, she thinks he's fine.  As she explained, if he's had all the regularly scheduled vaccines, which he has including MMR and Chicken Pox last month, and he hasn't gotten sick from those, then his immune system is working fine, low t-cell count or not.  The only thing she wants to do is have him get one more round of blood work just to make sure those vaccines have created antibodies like their supposed to (which it appears they have).  Fortunately we can get those done at the hospital here and assuming all is well, we will not have to make another trip to Gainesville.  So hopefully all is well that ends well.  Oh, incidentally, Brady weighed in at 17 lbs, 11 oz. A seven ounce gain in a month...

After the appointment, little man and I had lunch at Crispers (should have gone to Panera) and then it was back in the car for home.  Despite the long drive, it was actually kind of nice to be out and about with just he and I.  I suppose the more kids you have, the less often you get to do things with just one of them.  So this was nice despite the circumstances.

Tired out at Grandma and Grandpa's after a fun filled day.

Thursday was my day for the dentist so Grandma had all three kids this time  They went to the playground, Publix, and then back to their place for lunch.  When she brought them back home, I told her it was a good thing she's a young Grandma. I know how much work it can be to haul around three kids and I'm used to it!  Anyway, thank goodness for Grandma is all I can say.

This morning we had a good old yard sale day.  Usually yard sales slow down during the summer months but it's been fairly decent.  The girls got a few goodies including a pink wig that Calleigh has been proudly wearing today.  Duncan has already shot down her idea about wearing it to church tomorrow.  

I think that's about it.  I'll just add that I think Brady is getting closer to walking.  He's taking about a step each time.  I'm hoping he'll be walking by Nova Scotia.

He sure likes to walk around with his sisters!

Have a Happy Sabbath!

"Hurry up Mom, and take a picture."  says Calleigh.  "Look how cute we are."  Aubree was really ticked off that she wasn't holding Brady.