Thank You, Sue!

Brooke had her last physical therapy session this week. Sue has been her therapist since she came home from the hospital, 2 1/2 years ago. She has helped her in ways that I cannot put into words. When we were working on simple things like holding her head up or putting weight on her legs, Sue was there. When we were working on harder things like peddaling a tricycle and jumping off a stool, Sue was there. There were days that Sue would WIPE her out and Brooke would sleep the rest of the afternoon. There were days when Brooke would be none to pleased to see Sue walk through the door. But, looking back, Sue has helped Brooke come SO far and we are so thankful. Sue, we appreciate you more than you know and we will miss you! Thank you for your hard work and dedication to our little girl.

Brooke's Birthday Celebrations

Brooke turned 3 last week and we celebrated all week long! We had her party on Saturday at our church. I had been looking for something fun to do for her party and came across something with the Springfield Art Association. They have kids decorate a picture frame, dress up and get their picture taken in a photo booth. However, when I called for information, they explained that they like the kids to be 5 years old. Bummer! I was disappointed, but thought why not try it ourselves? So, we gathered a bunch of dress up clothes and accessories, painted frames for the kids to decorate and made a "photo area" for the kids to get their picture taken in. The party was a lot of fun! The best part wasn't the dress up or frames though. We hired two high school boys to provide the entertainment. They aren't just regular high school boys, they are two members of the State Championship football team! Dan Camp and Riley McMinn were GREAT!! They far exceeded our expectations of what they would do with the kids. I'll get to that later though... Here are pictures from Brooke's party.

Our little miracle is 3! I still can't believe it's been three years!

Picture frame decorating...

Dress up area

Britton

Brooke

Hadley

David

Addalyn

Reagan

Nicole

** I wasn't able to get all the kids pictures taken in the photo area **

Kami Lu

Ok, so when we hired Dan and Riley, we knew they were bringing balloons for balloon animals. We also found a few kids CD's for the kids to dance to. We thought it would be fun if they would dance with the kids. Well, did they come prepared or what?!? First of all they were dressed as a King and a Knight. When Brooke first saw them she told them "NO boys allowed!" She warmed up to them and let them stay though ;)

After the balloon animals, they sang some songs... 5 Little Princesses Jumping on the Bed, I'm a Little Dragon (sung to the tune of I'm a little Teapot), and an original song about how they became a brave King and Knight.

Then, we played "Knight, Knight, Dragon" (duck, duck, goose) and Kiss the Frog. They had the kids put on lipstick and kiss a paper frog taped to the wall to see who could get their kiss the closest to the frog's mouth. Those games are on the video camera, though. The kids really did have a lot of fun and I am so glad we had such entertaining entertainment. Thanks Dan and Riley!!

Hadley bought Brooke her own set of Bitty Twins. Hadley loves her Jimmy and Molly and now Brooke has her own set of twins. Meet and Abigail and Ryker, Sam, Bobby etc.. The poor boys name changes every day.

Trying to get the kids together for a picture...

On Brooke's actual birthday, she had a special birthday cinnamon roll on the special plate. I don't know if I've ever given the background on the "special plate." We (I don't remember who actually won the plate) won this plate when I was very young at the Blessed Sacrament Church's festival of some sort. Every time I would get the plate, I would sing/chant "I got the special plate, I got the special plate." My dad gave it to me at our rehearsal dinner before our wedding and we use it still. You always get it on your birthday and sometimes you just get it. The girls really enjoy when they are surprised with the special plate. You can tell it's age by the colors in it :) It may not look special but it really is!

Brooke had a boo boo on her lip and insisted I give her a band-aid for it.

Blowing out the candles on her cookie cake. Notice the band-aid moved to her cheek now.

Kami making a big mess!

Our little Brooke is 3 years old and we couldn't be more proud of her! Today is Sunday, March 27th and we reached an important milestone last night. She slept ALL night WITHOUT her ventilator!! We decided we would try it and see how she did. She satted fine and slept all night, with no real issues. We did have her in our bed though so I could keep a very close eye on her. Brian says we are trying it again tonight too. This was the first time in her three years that she slept without some sort of breathing assistance so it's a HUGE step forward.

Brooke -- we are so thankful for you and are so proud of you! Happy Birthday sweetie!

No Turning Back...

I did it, I finally did it! I scheduled Brooke's sleep study. On Tuesday, May 10th we will be heading to St. Louis to spend the night in the hospital. We check in at 5:00 p.m. and that's about all I know right now. Well, I also know that I am already nervous. I also know that with each day Brooke seems to breathe better while she sleeps. I have never had a sleep study done, but I did receive a little explanation of one when we met with Brooke's doctors last month. She will be hooked up to about a thousand wires to monitor things like, heart rate, oxygen saturation, brain waves, carbon dioxide levels. I just hope she's able to sleep, because I know I won't!

On Wednesday evening, Hadley developed a pretty high fever and really didn't feel well. She pretty much had the fever the whole next day and night and said her belly hurt. She didn't really throw up but she tried because I think she thought that would make her feel better. Brooke had a lower fever throughout the night too, but never really complained of anything hurting. By Friday morning, she was back to her normal crazy self. I had heard from a couple pre-school moms that their children had the same thing. I am so tired of germs!

On Friday we had a pool party in our living room. After Kami's experience with the big pool at our hotel last weekend, we thought we would bring our little pool in and give it a try. She loves the bath, so we figured she wouldn't have a problem with it, and we were right. The girls spent almost three hours in the pool! We brought in their water park toys and they had a blast. I was really surprised at how long they stayed in the water. We would take a bucket full out every so often and replace it with warm water because the water would cool off and get chilly. They even got to eat ice cream sandwiches and drink lemonade in the pool! We were breaking all the rules, Hadley explained.

Poor Kami burned her finger on my hair straightener this weekend. I ALWAYS shut the bathroom door, but of course the one time... I had left the bathroom for a minute to change clothes and what do you know, she grabs the cord, pulls it down and burns her middle finger on her left hand. She screams for a few minutes, we put her hand in cold water and she was playing within five minutes. It did blister, but we continued to watch it. This morning, the blister had split and was looking a little yucky so I decided to take her to the doctor. I was more worried about it getting infected than anything. She didn't act like she was in pain. She would let you touch it and she was bending her finger just fine. At the doctor, they cleaned it up, put some burn cream on it and covered it with special gauze. She was such a brave little girl. Me, on the other hand, not so much. As the tech was cleaning it, he starts talking about a little boy that had been brought in with burns from boiling water. He's talking about blisters and oozing and puss, I'm looking at her blister, and I started feeling pretty queasy. The room got really warm and I started sweating. I tell him that I don't feel very well and he thinks I'm going to get sick. Then, he looks at me and sees how pale my face is and calls for help. A nurse had to take Kami. Brooke is looking at me like I'm crazy. They made me lay down while they finished covering the burn. It is amazing to me how I can handle certain things, worse things, but others make me feel like such an idiot! Her finger already looks better this afternoon. And, you will be happy to know that I was able to clean it and dress it myself after we got home. :) Even though I did have Patti's phone number pulled up on my phone ready for Hadley to dial if I passed out!

Kami loaded up her wagon with toys and was ready to play.

Kami sat with her paci in backwards for 20 minutes!

On Saturday, we went to our friend Addalyn's 3rd birthday at Cheer Zone. Unfortunately they had double booked the facility so we had to share it with another birthday party. The kids always have such a fun time with all the activities.

Waiting for the fun to start...

The Birthday Girl

Parachute fun!

The obstacle course

The trampoline... the girls that were instructing the party were having the kids try toe touches and pikes and things that 2 and 4 years old just can't do like the big kids. They sure tried their hardest though. At one point, Brooke just started somersaulting down the trampoline!

Check out Brooke's hair in this one!

I am really hoping the weather people get this warmer weather by the end of the week prediction right! We are in desperate need of some fresh air and time outside! Have a wonderful week. Brian's birthday was yesterday, my brother's is today, we are having Brooke's birthday party this Saturday, and mine and Brooke's birthdays are next week. March is birthday central around here! And, we might have a new nephew sooner than later. He's not due until April 3rd, but I have a feeling he's coming early! March could get even more busy--stay tuned :)