Brooke Quotes

M-Brooke what do you want for breakfast?
B-Scrambled eggs and Steak
after laughing
M-Let me be more specific. What kind of cereal do you want?

B-I wish I could walk holding my sister's hand
M-Someday hopefully soon you can
B-But I want her to crawl and walk

B-Mommy where are you going?
M-Nowhere I just needed to get ready
B-But you look pretty
M-Thanks Brooke
B-I love you Mommy
M-I love you too Brooke

As we are on our way home from Brooke's last day at preschool.
B-Mommy, I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up.
M-Don't worry you have plenty of time to figure it out.
B- Well, I think I will just stay home.
M-You have to work to have money to buy the things you need.
M-Well, you and Daddy will have money.
M-What about when you get married and want your own house.
B-The boy will have money.

Preschool Then and Now

Brooke has really grown and now looks more like a little girl than on her first day of school.

Epworth Preschool 2010-2011

More Playground Pictures

I am sure there are plenty more to come but here are a few more playground pictures.

Lindsey was amazing holding on my hands and walking around the playground. She would climb up the steps, go down the slide, grab my hands, and walk back to the steps to do it all over again.

Happy with the new eye doctor

I haven't tried using Lindsey glasses for a long time. She wouldn't leave them on for more than a nano second and I just couldn't win this battle with her. There were other battles I was more concerned with. I can't say why but I just wasn't convinced they were necessary at this time. When I heard about an excellent pediatric opthamologist that recently opened an office in the area I decided to just switch. It wasn't that I didn't like her current doctor. I just can't justify spending hours, I mean full afternoons in an office that was not kid friendly with two kids. These appointments were torture for me. The last appointment we were there for over 2 hours and she didn't even need to be dilated. Craziness I tell you.

So long story short we went to the new eye doctor. I was amazed and even more frustrated with the other office. He told me that there is no need AT ALL for glasses at this time. While she is a little near sided it is nothing to worry about at this time. As far as the crossing goes. Yes, she does do it occasionally and he did witness it with some of the tests he does but said that it is so mild he compared it to a freckle on the skin. They rate it and he said she is maybe a 10 where he is not concerned until someone is over 20. He told me that it usually appears worse with kids that have down syndrome because of the lack of a nose bridge and the epicanthal folds. One thing he did recognize that I had never heard of was watching her rubbing her eyes. Apparently people with Down syndrome have a high incidence for needing corneal transplants. He thought her rubbing was more her covering her eyes being shy and that her eyes were dilated.

So what I like the most? He was so good with Lindsey. Explained everything in detail and came highly recommended. We were done and out in an hour. Everything was kid friendly which always makes it easier on us mamas.

No glasses. No astigmatism. No problems at this time.
Makes for one happy Mommy and one happy Lindsey.

A Daddy Trip to the Zoo

Tim took the girls to the Zoo. When he was back home he handed the camera and apologized. I thought he did something to it. Nope, he went crazy taking 103 pictures. They were everywhere that day and looks like they had fun. Since I have no first hand account of the day here are a tiny portion of the pictures.

Brooke all posing it up for the camera when Daddy is taking the pictures and she is sitting on an ape.

Can I just mention again how excited I am to see this girl up in so many pictures?

Lindsey standing

I was working on Lindsey's newest thing her PT recommended. Standing with her back against the wall reaching up for bubbles. Brooke was so thrilled that I let her blow bubbles in the house. She was also so happy to see Lindsey reaching to pop them that she wanted to take some pictures. I guess she has seen me whip out the camera a few times. Lindsey loves bubbles so much she was laughing not even realizing what it was she was doing was work.

Pictures by Brooke

When Lindsey does decide to walk it is going to be a celebration. I am talking a cake and ice cream kind of party.

Preschool Park Play

Brooke's first year of preschool is coming to an end. I cannot believe how time flies. It seems like I was just taking her first day of school picture and watching her sing at Christmas time. Already she is getting ready for her first of many summer vacations. Friday was the preschool picnic at a local park. The afternoon started off with pizza and crafts. Lindsey was not happy when she finished her chocolate chip cookie and her Daddy didn't have another waiting to go. She let it be known that she wanted another cookie. Another cookie she got! Once we could get Lindsey away from the cookies we headed over to the playground.

Brooke is almost on her own when it comes to pumping those legs.

She prefers to be pushed so she can go even higher though.

Lindsey LOVES swinging and made everyone around us smile with her squeals of laughter.

Ready to go side by side down the slide.

Brooke's won on account of Lindsey's shoes scraping all the way down slowing her up.

The ever so popular twisty slide.

Planting Flowers

Today was a nice day for a change. Full of sunshine and no rain. Tim needed to get through the jungle that had formed in our yard compliments of all the rain. It was a perfect day for planting so Brooke and I headed out to the greenhouse. She jumped, tromped, and ran through every mud puddle in that place looking at all the flowers. Oh Mommy, I like this. Oh Mommy, this one is pretty. Ahchoo, Mommy this one makes me sneeze. Once I was able to round up what we really did need it was time to get them in the ground. Brooke started out all happy to help. A few digs and she spotted some worms. No big deal. She told me she likes worms. I told her about how I used to chase my sister around with worms. She thought that was just the funniest thing she had ever heard. She is coming for you Carrie! Another dig and she found and ant. Ahhhh. One more dig and a spider. Ahhhhhhh. No more digging.

Brooke moved on to watering. She started out with her little can. She kept going back and forth filling it since it only held enough water for two flowers. I didn't have the heart to tell her to find a bigger one. She was having so much fun with it and I was able to stay ahead of her. Eventually she wised up and found my big watering can.

Once Lindsey was up from her nap she came outside to join us. Happy as can be to be in the shade. No dirt, no worms, no bugs. Just music from her toys and a snack.

Wordless Wednesday

Caterpillar to Butterfly

Brooke's last 3 weeks have revolved around butterflies. She knows quite a bit about them by now that she was able to see the caterpillars' mature, change into chrysalides, and finally emerge as butterflies.

The caterpillars started out so tiny. I couldn't believe how fast they grew and how big they were. Hungry Caterpillar for sure. Once the butterflies emerged Brooke took care of them for a few days. She was constantly picking flowers and giving them sugar water. I knew that eventually we were going to have to release the butterflies so I kept prepping her for it. She has decided this spring that she hates bugs more than ever. Brooke shrieks at the site of an ant 5 feet away. A bee is sure to send her in tissy. It will be a long summer if she doesn't get over the bug thing. With this new found fear I wasn't sure what she would think of these butterflies once we were letting them out. Brooke kept talking about putting one on her shoulder like she saw the lady do in the video. Brooke also reminded me to make sure there were no birds around since they like butterflies. Nala and Maize kept the birds out of the yard. That would not have been a pretty site after she has been taking care of these things for so long.
Needless to say she let the butterflies sit on her shoulder, crawl all over her dress, and was happy to pull them out of their little house to let them fly away.

Brooke was worried about the birds as the preditors when really Lindsey may have been the one to watch out for. We had one sitting on the deck next to her and in true Lindsey fashion she grabbed it and tossed it. The butterfly was unharmed eventually flew away and Brooke was oblivious to the incident.

Jelly Shoes

I am a child of the 80's. Complete with the stonewashed tapered jeans-we still felt the need to cuff, big hair-complements of perms and aqua net, stretch-stirrup pants, knots tied to the side of our hypercolor tshirts, hammer pants, and jelly shoes.

Most of these trends I will be happy to never see again. But when Brooke spotted a pair of pink jelly shoes she fell in love with them. She was begging to take them home, "Mommy these are beautiful". If it were up to her I would have had scissors in my purse so she could have worn them right out of the store.

As a child of the 80's who loved her jelly shoes I also love to see my child sporting her own pink jellies in 2011.

Lindsey is up

Lindsey is up and off. She is finally willing to stand and walk with our hands. She was all over the place at physical therapy yesterday.

Lindsey is just as excited about it as we are.

Virtual Journal

As you may have noticed I have been much better about blogging. Looking back at how many posts I have had over the years or in particular months the numbers have been almost cut in half. I recently bought my first printed copy of my blog from Blog2print and let me tell you it is great! Blogging has become an online journal for me. The baby books sit in a closet in need of some work while this online world has allowed to me to document my girls day to day. Some small everyday things and other milestones that are something to celebrate. When Tim paged through the book he called it the "ultimate baby book". So with that I am determined to keep at it because each one of the posts are a memory that I never want to forget.

This book is just the first year before Three Girls and Tim.

Wordless Wednesday

Happy Mother's Day

We managed to have a Mother's Day celebration at my parents. All three girls together as moms with our mom. I was able to sleep in on Mother's Day. Ahhhh. Although since when did 9am feel like sleeping in? That would have been unheard of pre mommy.

Brooke surprised me with breakfast.

Mother's Day was a fabulous sunny day. We spent some time outside soaking it all in.
Flowers, sunshine, bubbles, chalk, and my little girls.

Mother's Day Celebration at Preschool

I received a tulip construction and tissue paper invitation from Brooke for a Mother's Day celebration at her preschool.
The afternoon started with cookies frosted and sprinkled by my special little one.

Once there were mere crumbs left from those yummy cookies we were invited in the classroom where Mommy's sat on the shapes in the carpet and the kids stood in front of us singing their heart's out putting on a show.
The card Brooke made for me at preschool.

She made sure to decorate the heart just like me. The purple is my hair bow and the blue dot is my tongue.

I am blessed to have two sweet little girls that make me one proud Mama!

More Feeding

Walking and feeding are big topics around our house. Everything comes in small steps and many days I need to remind myself of this. Frustrating as it may be she will get it figured out. There has been a lot of questions about Lindsey's self feeding. I have no reason why she won't do it. Texture always seems to be the answer. I tend to disagree. If the girl will pick the food up to throw it on the floor over and over she can pick it up and put it in her mouth. Lindsey has her own terms. I try and find my own tricks. Yogurt is her favorite. She will do whatever it takes for some yogurt.

See what I mean? This girl can do do utensils or not she just won't.

Stubborn. No clue where she gets that from.

A video since I have been slacking on the videos.

Help Yourself

Wordless Wednesday

The Easter Egg Coloring

There has been so much going on I just realized I never even posted pictures of the annual egg coloring.

We were crammed for time and it just so happened to be Lindsey's nap time. I wanted her to participate but I was pretty certain there would be more dropping, throwing and yelling than coloring. Chances are Brooke would have wanted her removed from the activity. Since it does involve dye I opted to have a little one on one time with Brooke coloring eggs.

This year she has shown how much she enjoys activities like this. There was no dropping, no splashing, and she decorated them like she was a pro. No smock needed. Brave on my part.

Brooke even did my favorite which was holding half the egg in one color and flipping it to hold the other half in another color.

"Oh, Mommy these are going to be just beautiful"

Apparently every easter bunny needs a crown for their ears.

Bathtime Paint

Brooke and Lindsey are having fun with their bath time roll on paint. Maybe too much fun.