I hear BEEPS in my SLEEP!

Brookie has mastered the art of unplugging herself to get what (and where) she wants. This week she loves Hadley's room. Last night we tried, unsuccessfully to keep her contained but she just wasn't having it. If she unplugged herself once, she did it 30 times. I feel like her machine is alarming constantly!!! I haven't quite captured her defiance on video yet. She knows exactly what she is doing when she unplugs herself and she is pretty proud of herself too! She is also cutting 3 molars -- Ouch! You can't even touch her gums without her crying.



Hadley loves to pick out her own clothes. We have a drawer in her room with just her play clothes. I tell her to pick out an outfit and here are a couple examples of her choices. She wore the dress to Wal-Mart this morning.

We got out the pools in the backyard last weekend. We started with Brookie in the little one so she wouldn't catch Hadley's splashes but she preferred the bigger pool. She is fearless in the water. I would hold her on my lap in the big pool and she would try to stand up and walk away or "swim" away. She loves the water. I finally gave up trying to keep her tubes out of the water.

I love this picture. I don't know why kids feel the need to watch T.V. so closely. Hadley is convinced that she can't see the T.V. from the couch or love seat?!?! Last night, there was a bug on the screen and both of the girls were trying to catch it. Of course they were done by the time I grabbed the camera. Brooke loves her big sister and is really starting to mimic things she does.

I have one video this week. I have more, but when I taped them I had the camera turned vertically and you would all have to watch them with your heads turned sideways. If I can figure out how to change them, I will post them. I'm not sure I'm smart enough to do that. The video I do have is of Brooke screaming at dinner. She has also learned how to "kiss" however, Hadley is the only one that ever gets a real kiss.

Other than that, it's been a pretty uneventful week. We've done a lot of inside activities due to the heat. We are hoping to get outside next week. I'll take 83 degrees over 95 any day! Have a great week!

Family Photos

I decided to go ahead and post these pictures now so next week's blog wouldn't be a mile long. We went to Lincoln Memorial Gardens and had some family pictures taken. This has become a tradition in our family. Brian and I have pictures on this path from before we were married, our wedding day and when I was pregnant with Hadley. We have also taken pictures with Hads when I was pregnant with Brooke.

***Note: Yes, Brooke is still on her machine. We just unplugged her for these two pictures.

And She's Off...Again!

Brooke's
accomplishment
for the week...

She is able to pull herself up into the standing position and use the couch or ottoman to get where she wants to go. We have seen her do this from her stool or with help, but today I saw her do it all by herself and take about 8 steps down the couch. What did she want so much, you ask? Toilet paper! Of all the toys we have in this house, she walks for toilet paper.

(I must give Hadley credit for this picture. She was taking pictures this morning and I was standing above her trying to get Brooke to smile, and this is one she took. She takes a pretty good picture, don't you think?)

We discovered that Brooke really likes Cheeto's cheese puffs (the big fat kind). We gave her some the other night with dinner and she did really well with them. I was talking to another mom and she said Cheeto's are what her son ate for a long time while they were getting him to take foods. Brooke is definitely putting more food to her mouth and prefers to do it herself. She eats more if she does it than when I try to feed her.

Well, it's 95 degrees out there today so we are spending the day inside. We played outside for about an hour and a half this morning (we went out at 8:00 and it was already hot!). The girls and I had a couple things to finish for Father's Day and I wanted to make sure we didn't run out of time. We were also supposed to meet Brian for a picnic lunch, but we decided to picnic in our living room instead. It's just too stinking hot out there for a picnic!

Hadley started Fun Shop last week and so far she really enjoys it. We go every Thursday morning at 9:30 for about an hour and a half. Here are a few pictures of some of her favorite things.






We took the girls to the zoo last week. Here they are watching one of the monkeys that was screaming at us. They didn't know what to think because it sounded like a loud siren.



We also fed the goats who were very anxious (to say the least) about getting fed. Hadley loved this, which surprised us. Brooke, on the other hand, dropped the food as soon as the goat touched her. I can't say I blame her. They were making me a little nervous too.






Here they are sitting on the stone turtle. I'm pretty sure Brian and I both have a picture of ourselves sitting on the same turtle when we were little.

Brian got out the sand and water table for us this week. He put it on the front porch and it's been really nice playing with it. Hadley has fun searching for "treasures" in the sand. Hide a penny and you'll keep her busy for a while :) Brooke doesn't know what to think of the sand, but she loves the water side.











This next picture makes me laugh. It was pouring one morning when Brian was leaving for work. He commented that his umbrella was in his Jeep, so Hadley offered to let him use hers. How could he refuse such an offer?



This picture also makes me laugh....now. I took this yesterday during nap. Oh wait, Hadley's not sleeping. She was SUPPOSED to be sleeping but she had other plans.



Happy Father's Day to all those wonderful fathers out there! Enjoy your day and have a great week everybody.

More Pictures!

Here are the rest of the pictures from our trip to Florida. I feel like I'm never going to catch up with the blog. Since we got home we have gone to the zoo, had our first Fun Shop and played with our sand and water table. It's been pretty crazy around here. You might be "pictured" out by the time I finish. :)

Brooke continues to do well with her wean. I changed her PEEP to 7 and she is still doing great. We will let her hang out here for a while and then start working on the rest of her pressures. I can't wait to show you the new video of her crawling ---UNPLUGGED!!! For those of you familiar with our house, she will crawl from the t.v. to the kitchen without her machine (that's as far as I will let her go). It's almost like she's crawling away from it, like she's escaping. She's pretty proud of herself and you can almost see the determination in her eyes.

Brooke also continues to develop quite a personality. Her character trait of the week is annoyance. She is really starting to get annoyed with Hadley trying to boss her around and she isn't putting up with it anymore. She is starting to "yell" at her and even push her. It's kind of funny because she's almost as big as Hadley is. The other morning Hadley was loving on her but getting a little too rough. I asked her to be a little less rough and she looked at me and said "but I'm just enjoying her. I love her." How can you get upset at that? She was just enjoying her little sister. She loves to call her "honey bunny" and "little one." Such a little mother we have here.

OK ... enough talk (I'm just so proud of my girls), here are the rest of the Florida pictures.

I took Hadley to "see" Cinderella's castle at Disney. I wasn't allowed to actually take her into Disney World, so we rode the monorail to the entrance of the Disney and she was able to see the castle. We also got a pretty good view of it from the monorail (the train around the parks). Brian told me (and he was very serious), that since we are going to have all girls, he would like to be there when they all get to go to the castle for the first time.

Here Hadley is playing in the fountains at one of the Disney hotels. They shot water out at different times and she was trying to get a drink. For the girl who doesn't like to be wet, she was having a great time.

Riding the carousel at Downtown Disney

Later that night we watched the fireworks from Epcot. They have a fireworks show every night. The last time Hadley saw fireworks was last July 4. Brian and I took her to the Arch in St. Louis. We had no idea that they shot the fireworks off from a barge right across the river from us. It was WAY too loud and we pretty much traumatized her. Since that night she has talked about how fireworks are scary and she didn't want to see them anymore. She also makes sure she tells everyone that mommy and daddy took her too close to the fireworks.

This time around she was very brave. We were far enough away that you could still hear them but it wasn't too loud and scary.

And now...

These next pictures might just be the best yet. Introducing...

HADLEY, THE GREAT PHOTOGRAPHER

She has really taken a liking to photography. At least once a day, she will spend about 20 minutes snapping pictures of anything she sees. Granted, most of them get deleted, but for your enjoyment, I saved a few. Here they are:

Does Brooke look like her Daddy? Maybe just a little!

Here is the video of Brooke crawling. Like I said before, she is unplugged. If you look carefully you can see where her tubes are. That is where she started. We had waited for about 10 minutes to get her to unplug herself and she finally did. Well, after catching it on video, she wouldn't keep herself plugged in. It got to the point where she was crawling away from us when we would try to catch her. She would even try to escape down the hallway. Oh my goodness, she wears me out. Enjoy!

I will try to get back on a regular blog schedule this week. Pictures of the Zoo, Fun Shop and playing with the sand and water table will be posted by Friday, I promise! Have a great rest of the week. Try to stay cool--it's gonna be a hot one tomorrow.

C PAP-tastic!

Well, I did it, with a little help from Brooke :). When I got home from Florida, I took away Brooke's breaths on her vent. Right now she is doing all of the breathing on her own with just pressure support. She seems to be tolerating it well and the next step will be to take her PEEP from 8 to 7.

It's been a while since I posted, so I have lots to blog about and even more pictures.

I will start by saying congratulations to my cousin Rob Currie. He was drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers in the 12th round of the Major League Baseball Draft. He is a pitcher and will start his baseball career in Helena, Montana. We are so proud of him and can't wait to watch him play!!!

STRAWBERRY PICKING
We took the girls strawberry picking and let's just say it was an experience. Hadley picked anything and everything and Brookie squished anything and everything. I remember this being much more fun when I was younger.

These next pictures are of our trip to Florida. We left on Wednesday (driving with my mom and dad) and flew back on Monday.

WEDDING

Hadley was the flower girl in my cousin Christina's wedding. The wedding was beautiful and Hadley did a great job.

ROAD TRIP
The drive down went very well, as well as it can go with a 2 and a half year old sitting for 8 straight hours. Here are a few highlights from the drive.

This one needs a little explaining. Hadley had to go to the bathroom and she needed to go bad. We got off the interstate at the first exit we could find but the bathrooms left a little to be desired. I wouldn't even use them and I had to go bad too! We had a portable potty with us so she just went right there. I think she thought she was pretty funny because after that experience, she "needed" to go potty about every 20 minutes.





We saw this big cow somewhere in Georgia.




OCEAN
We stayed at my brother's house on Thursday night so Hadley could see the ocean. I must be turning into a chicken as I get older. Again, I remember the ocean being much more fun when I was little. Now, I won't go in past my knees. If I can't see my toes, I'm done!











OK .... I still have pictures of Disney Village and fireworks to post but I have a "To-Do" list with nothing crossed off staring at me and both of the girls are down for naps. I will post the rest tomorrow.