Braxton Jeffrey Cragun

(Braxton's Birth announcement/picture behind announcement)

Everyone, I would like you to meet Braxton. Braxton, I would like you to meet everyone. Now that I have introduced all of you, I will tell you a bit about this special litte guy!


Mr. B, was born in September of 2003. We hadn't planned on having a child so soon (we had only been married a little over two years when he was born), but as soon as I heard that little guy cry I wouldn't have had it any other way.

A few days after he was born, we had to take him to Primary Children's to make sure one of his hip sockets had fully formed around his femur. Fortunately, it had and we didn't have to worry about that. (Now, we just know that Braxton is extremely double-jointed)

Braxton also had colic from about the age of 2 weeks to around 4 months. We also noticed that he seemed to sound very congested all of the time. He had laryngo/trachea malasia - which was something we were told he would outgrow. That condition however, did cause him to be hospitalized when he was three months old because he was having a very hard time breathing on his own.



He was such a happy baby! He had a squeeky laugh. He would laugh, and laugh and then ... squeek at the end. It sounded like a little rubber toy. It was so adorable. Everyone said that he looked like Jeff. (Not what I wanted to hear.) It wasn't a bad thing - I just wanted to hear that he looked like his mommy, too. But, to this day ... I think I've heard maybe twice from strangers that he looks like me.

Little did Braxton know at the age of about 9 months that he was headed on a very long journey! We were moving to Toledo, Ohio for graduate school. It was about a 28 hour drive with all the stops. We decided that it would be hard, but better, to get it over with as soon as possible. So, we made it a two day trip. Our little guy finally had had it about a 1/2 an hour before we made it to Toledo. Really, no joke, he only cried about two times that whole entire trip.





Braxton has celebrated all of his birthdays here in Toledo. A few months after he had turned one, I decided that I would like for him to learn sign language. It took about four or five months, but he started using it. His first sign was "more." We were visiting Utah for Spring Break and his signed "more" because he wanted more food. I was so excited!




Braxton was around 20 months of age (about two months older than the picture above) when he started recognizing letters in the alphabet. I made some homemade flashcards for him and he had all of the uppercase alphabet memorized in about a week.



It didn't take us long to realize that Braxton LOVES to learn. He soon could recognize upper and lowercase alphabet, numbers, and even cars. We'd drive by cars and he would say, "that's like aunt Brittnie's car" or "that is Grandma and Grandpa's car." and it was. He has a wonderful memory and can't wait to go to school. All of this was shortly after he turned two. He may look like his daddy - but he's got his mommy's knack for memorizing things!

He now knows so many things: the colors of the rainbow, his primary colors, his vowels, the names of the planets (in order), he can read about 40 words (that includes his colors), he knows what plants need to grow ... it is just a never-ending story with him.

I am so happy to be this little guys Mom. I look forward to everyday because I just can't wait to see what he is going to surprise me with next.