BROOKE ABIGAIL FAITH!

Oh my goodness, Brooke is wearing me out! Her full name comes out of my mouth about 200 times a day. I think I have worn a path in the carpet from the kitchen to her vent because she unplugs herself so much. It's almost like she is running when she knows she is free. By the way, that's another picture by Hadley (kinda blurry but it shows her sassy side).

Here is the video I have been promising. Hadley was supposed to be getting ready to take a nap in her room and I was trying to get Brookie to wind down as well. If you watch carefully, you will see Brooke unplug her tubes at the very beginning of the video.

Let's see here... I think we are officially ready for the baby to be born (as ready as we're ever going to be). We spent last weekend, going through and washing all of the baby clothes and putting finishing touches on her room. We also hung a ceiling fan in Hadley's room, which she asked for but now scares her. Hadley's new toddler bed is now put together but not being slept in regularly. I think she is getting me ready for waking up with a newborn. She sleeps for about 2 hours and makes her way to our room. I walk her back to her room where you have to lay on her floor until she falls back asleep. Just when I get back to sleep in our room, she's back again. The other night I fell asleep in her room and woke up pretty sore. It's not so much fun sleeping on a floor when you are 36 weeks pregnant.

I don't know a lot this week so I have three things to share about each of the girls:

I will start with Brooke:

1.) We have a little model in the family. The company that makes Brooke's vent has asked her to be in their calendar. I had to submit several pictures of her out and about and they are going to use some of her pictures for their 2010 calendar. They were looking for a child with personality and Brooke definitely has personality.

2.) Brooke has two new tricks. She likes to take things off the refrigerator and throw them in the trash can -- All of this while unplugged. She makes her way to the kitchen and starts taking anything she can reach and tossing it in the garbage. She also likes to hide things under the couch. The other day we found an entire puzzle (with the pieces out) shoved under the couch. I spend my day digging through trash and looking under the couch!

3.) Her eating has really started to improve. She sucks through a straw and is starting to swallow what she drinks. She really likes warm Wild Cherry Pepsi. I really don't let my girls drink soda, but whatever works with Brooke is fine with me. She also puts anything food in her mouth. She has a good chew and her tongue is really starting to manipulate her food better. I just know that when she gets this eating thing, she won't want to stop.

And now for three Hadley stories...

1.) So I told you that Hadley has been waking up during the night. Well, she tells us that she is afraid of the cat that is in her room. We don't have a real cat, a stuffed animal cat, or any other kind of cat in our house so we have no idea where this is coming from. Anyway, the other night Brian threw the "cat" out the front door and Hadley was excited to have it gone from her room. That is until she comes out and asks, "What is the monkey going to do now?" WHAT?!?! Was the cat taking care of the monkey?

2.) We were playing babysitter the other day with her dolls. She brings me her doll and asks if I can watch her for one week. When I said sure, Hadley informed me that she would be at the hospital having a baby chicken! YIKES!

3.) We had a few errands to run the other night, so we all four went. Brian and Hadley ran in to Lowe's for a piece of trim while Brooke and I waited in the car. When they were about ready to pay, Brian said "Let's blow this popsicle stand." How do you explain that to a two year old? When she gets out to the car, she wanted to know when we were going to the popsicle stand. We did go ahead and get Dairy Queen (what pregnant woman doesn't want ice cream every now and then) but when we pulled in she was pretty upset because it was Dairy Queen and not a popsicle stand!

Here are a few pics from the last week or so.

I took Hadley to the Children's Museum in Decatur. We both had a good time. There was so much to see and do.

That's her being a weather girl. Now she thinks she is a weather girl and likes to keep her "eye on the sky" for me.

We went to the Fair parade last week. Hadley asked what we were going to ride in this time.

It was a really long parade and we didn't even stay for half. Brooke was getting bored and mad because she just wanted to walk around.

Swimming and playing in the sprinkler in the backyard.

We made a "Countdown to Pre-School" this week. Only 14 more days. She's pretty excited!

Thank God for Grandparents!!

We have been pretty busy around the Tweryon house. We are down to about six weeks before the baby is born and we had some final things to do around the house. Last Saturday we (Brian and Bill) painted the baby's room and re-arranged furniture while my mom, Patti, and I organized, organized, organized (in between chasing Brooke around and keeping Hadley occupied). My dad was out hunting for a storage unit to house all of my school stuff until I get back to work. We were BUSY, BUSY, BUSY and we couldn't have done it all without our parents. I have a few pictures from the day.

















All of the girl's toys had been in the baby's room while we finished the living room and dining room. This picture is of our little helper Brooke. Let me just tell you, it's not very easy to organize and put away when you have little helpers who just want to play.



Hadley is helping with one of the three coats of paint it took in the baby's room. None of us realized it would take so long to paint this room.

After a while the girls were growing restless so Grandma Patti took them out for a walk. It had rained earlier and this is what they found.




Here's a video of them playing in the puddles.

Hadley, Brooke and I have been meeting Brian at one of the lake parks for lunch on Wednesdays. We eat lunch with Daddy, then the girls and I go feed the ducks after he goes back to work. Last week we went for a picnic dinner and all of us fed the ducks.

Here's a video of Brooke being sneaky with her bread. Notice how she looks away when she knows she's not supposed to do something.

We have started to notice a mischievous side of Brooke. She is becoming a little instigator with her sister. Hadley will be playing with a toy and Brooke will make her way over to her and try to take it, all the while acting like she is the innocent one. In 20 minutes, she had pulled Hadley's hair, hit her in the face with a toy airplane and thrown a Little People toy at her. Hadley took all of that pretty well (she was having a good day:) On a normal day, she would not have been so kind). Brooke is also walking everywhere. She doesn't really crawl anymore. I still don't have a video to post of her walking. What kind of mom am I? But, trust me, she is a walking fool. She will even walk and hold on to her tubes, ready to unplug them if she can't go any farther. She is spending more and more time unplugged. One of these days I am going to keep a tally of how many times she unplugs herself and how long she stays unplugged. The longest we have timed is 4 minutes and she doesn't really seem to care! All she knows is that she can go wherever she wants to when she isn't tethered.

Just a couple pictures of Brooke being silly.

Lately, Hadley has been talking a lot about being a ballerina . I'm not sure where this came from, but she really likes dancing like a ballerina--she didn't get it from me, that's for sure. We even found a show that teaches you different ballet moves (see video below).

Here is the video... Check out the outfit and the shoes. She wears her ruby red slippers because she doesn't have any ballet slippers...yet. She doesn't know it, but her new little sister bought her a pair.

Friday night, Brian and I took Hadley to the Muni to see High School Musical. We went out to dinner at O'Charley's (her favorite restaurant) first and then went to see the show. This was Hadley's special day with Mommy and Daddy before the new baby comes. Brooke's special day will be coming soon. She did really well at the show and even stayed awake the entire time.

After the show, Hadley got to go up on stage with Rachel, who played Martha in the show. She is a student at Rochester High School and she gave Hads a tour of the backstage area. Thanks, Rachel. Here she is with Rachel.

I am officially tired all the time. These next six(ish) weeks are going to be tough, but I do know one thing. If one more complete and total stranger says any of these things to me, I am going to smack them. I took both the girls to Wal-Mart the other day and I think every person we passed was thinking it, they just didn't say it. Lucky them!
1.) Boy, are you going to be busy!
2.) Are you crazy?
3.) You are going to have your hands full.
4.) How old are they/How close are they in age?

I can't believe school is getting ready to start. Pretty soon my baby will be starting pre-school. How is that possible? Have a wonderful week!