Thirty Five Weeks

Well it is official - the Raguckas' own a camper! We had been thinking about buying a popup camper for about a year but then we started looking and ended up going with a 29 foot trailer! It is really nice and we know that we are going to have a lot of good memories camping each year with Brody as he grows up. We found out quickly that most of the state parks in Michigan book early for the summer. I had been checking for the past few days for cancelled sites so that we could camp with my friend, Barb over the 4th of July weekend and we were lucky last night and one opened up! We are so excited - although Jim is a little nervous about backing the 29 foot trailer into a site that says the max is a 30 foot trailer - but I'm sure he will do fine (even if it takes a 20 point turn to get in!).



We attempted to take Brody's 8 month pictures this morning - I think we have a few keepers and one that shows his two bottom teeth! I hope everyone is having a great weekend!

It's amazing how perfect Brody's posture is

I thought this picture captured how intrigued Brody is by EVERYTHING!

I thought I would include a picture of our house - all of my plants are starting to bloom and Jim is actually somewhat happy with the lawn (I don't know if the day he is satisfied with the lawn will ever come!)

Not the best picture of Brody - but you can see the two bottom teeth!

Thirty Three - Thirty Four Weeks

Happy Father's Day!!!

It seems like I am turning into the every other week blogger! I was doing so well but now that the weather is so nice it seems like we don't spend a lot of time sitting around at night. Brody has had another eventful two weeks. The day after I posted last time we ended up taking Brody into my work in hopes that there was a doctor around at 7pm on a Friday night because he was wheezing again! I may be a little more paranoid since he was hospitalized the last time he sounded like that - so I am sure Jim thinks I am crazy at times! Luckily one of the physicians was just finishing up for the night and he saw Brody - he ended up getting a breathing treatment and a steroid shot before we headed home. We followed up with our primary physician on Monday and it was decided that some further testing should be done to rule out Cystic Fibrosis since he has had so many respiratory infections. So we took Brody in for the Sweat Test last Thursday - it was pretty interesting to see what they did. They hooked two electrodes to his arm for about 6 minutes to stimulate his sweat glands and then we had to wait for 30 minutes while this little device on his arm collected his sweat. They then would test it to see the level of chloride in his sweat which would tell whether he had cystic fibrosis or not. Lucky for us I work at the doctor's office so we got the results by the end of the day on Thursday - It was NEGATIVE!!! So now we will just wait to see a pulmonologist to see if they think that Brody may have asthma. Until then we have everything we need to give him breathing treatments if he starts to wheeze again. He is sounding a lot better now - the only thing we are dealing with now is that he doesn't want to eat his formula anymore...so we have been struggling to get him to eat even 4 oz at a time.

Brody enjoys hanging upside down and being thrown in the air!

Jim had a nice 1st Father's Day yesterday. My parents and brother came to have a cookout and then Jim and I headed to the local park with Brody. It was an eventful trip! Lucky for us the park is only about 5 minutes from our house because by the time we got there we went to get Brody out of the car and he had poop everywhere! It was in his hands and all over his seat! We got back in the car and headed home! After we cleaned him up we headed back out and actually got to get out of the car. Unfortunately we forgot to bring the camera but I put Brody's feet in the lake for the first time and Jim took him down the slide. I think it was probaly more fun for Jim and I then it was for Brody!

He still loves to smile!

Brody knows exactly what to do when mom gets out the camera!

I hope that everyone had a great Father's Day weekend! I will try to post closer to a weekly basis!!!

Thirty One - Thirty Two Weeks

Brody and Uncle Neal with Daisy the Donkey

Sorry for the delay in posting. Memorial Day weekend seemed to go by so fast (with few pictures taken) so I didn't end up having a post last week. Brody is finally back to himself after his stomach bug. It took almost a week for him to get back to his smiley self. He has also had a growth spurt in the last week eating 6 tablespoonfuls of cereal and a vegetable each night. Since we started stuffing him full of food he has slept through the night two times!


Jim traveled to Indiana this week for work but was only gone for one night (the first night Brody slept through the night). Then on Friday we headed to my parents and Jim and Brody stayed there while I went on to Detroit to see my friend Barb. It was my first night away from Brody and I have to say that I did pretty well! It helped that my friend has two daughters (Skylar, 3 and Sydney, 5 weeks). Barb and I actually headed out with some of her neighbors on Friday night for a few drinks so it was nice to get out and catch up on each others lives and tell old stories from college. We both agreed that we hoped her daughters did not do some of the stupid things we did! Brody did very well with Grandpa and Grandma - he slept all night for them!



Last night was my Grandma's 95th birthday party so Brody got to meet a lot of family on my mom's side. Then this morning we went over to my brother's friend, Angel's house to show Brody her donkeys and horses. He sat on a few of them and petted them - it was pretty cute.


Here are some pictures from the last few weeks (one of the HUGE turtle that was in the road over memorial day weekend).


Hope everyone had a great last few weeks!

The huge turtle that was on it's way to our yard! He brought all the neighbors out of their houses last weekend. Jim and one of the other neighbors transported him back to the pond area across the street.

Brody's first donkey ride (and maybe only!)

Brody's first horse ride!

Brody and me with Daisy and Duke (they were more interested in him than he was in them)