Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Bluebonnets and Easter Fun!!

It is hard to believe that this month it has been one year since Brooklyn came home from the NICU. She came home last year on Good Friday. I am amazed at how much she has progressed and changed since we have had her at home. She is almost walking. She cruises around the couch and gets brave and lets go for a couple seconds and then grabs the couch again. She is so fun to be around. She makes all kinds of silly faces and chatters jibberish all the time. I would love to know what she thinks she is saying. She is almost off of her bottle!! We are down to just the bedtime bottle. I'm thinking sometime next week we are going to start getting her off of it too. She is doing really well with the sippy cup and even an open cup with a little help. Another important stride was finally having enough hair to put in a pony tail.

We found some beautiful bluebonnets in our backyard. Well, almost in our backyard. Our neighborhood has a walking trail and greenbelt that runs throughout and someone planted a patch of bluebonnets along the trail.





Easter was so much fun. We met my parents for church up in Denton and then we went to their house for Easter dinner. It was yummy!! We managed to get in a Easter egg hunt before the rain showers hit.






Friday, March 16, 2012

Spring is in the Air

Well time sure has flown by since the last post. I will try and catch you up on the past few months. Brooklyn is growing like a weed. She is now 22.5 lbs. and 29 inches long. She is almost walking. She can cruise around the couches but she hasn't gotten brave enough to let go just yet. She is eating regular table food and she is drinking 2 percent cow's milk now. She got excellent reports at her 15 month checkup back on Feb. 29th. She also got a great report form the Pulmonologist (lung doctor) and the Cardiologist ( heart doctor). She is cleared from the Pulmonologist and she doesn't have to go back for anymore check ups with them. She will always have to be followed by the Cardiologist but it will become less frequent as time goes by. This Saturday marks the one year anniversary of her open heart surgery. We are so thankful for all God's blessings on her. She is doing amazingly well. I remember this time last year was such a stressful time in our lives. This year we have really enjoyed each day spending time with our sweet Brookie Cookie. We took her to the Botanic Gardens in Fort Worth after her Pulmonologist visit on Wednesday. It was strange to be back at Cook's with a one year old in tow knowing that this time last year she was a patient there.

This time last year we were trying so hard to get Brooklyn to take her bottles and ultimately she ended up with the g-button. Now our goal is to get her off the bottle and drinking from a cup. So strange. I keep thinking but we just got her to take the bottle....She is doing really well with the transition. We have gotten rid of the morning bottle and one afternoon bottle. She does a pretty good job of drinking from the cup. I'm a little worried about her bedtime bottle. That one might be hard for her to give up. We will see...

I almost forgot. She has a five word vocabulary. She can say mama, daddy, pop, neigh, and okay. You can ask her what sound a horse makes and she will say neigh, neigh. You can also ask her where her ears are and she will grab her ears. She continues to love to be read to. Her favorite book is still Brown Bear by Eric Carlie. This is the first book we read to her in the NICU. She can also clap her hands, she can wave at people, she can do the touchdown sign (thanks to her dad for teaching her that), she attempts to snap her fingers and she makes a clicking sound with her tongue.She also tries to imitate us when we make funny noises or do things like clap or snap our fingers.

Here are some pictures from the last few months.

 Valentine's Day 2012
 Taken in our neighborhood nature trail area.
 Future ACU student!!
 My Favorite Valentine!!
The Two Loves of My Life!

 Brookie and Mommy and Fort Worth Botantic Gardens.
 Brookie and Mommy standing by the gate at the Botanic gardens where mommy had one of her bridals taken all those years ago.....
 Happy St. Patrick's Day!! 2012






 St. Patrick's Day 2011! Before Surgery

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Monday, January 2, 2012

Christmas 2011

We started the long two week break with Brooklyn's one year checkup at the Pedi's office. That was quite fun. She is officially 19 lbs 12 ozs and 28 inches long. She is healthy and doing great. She is crawling everywhere and now she is pulling up on the furniture. She got five shots while at the doctor's office. She got her last dose of vaccines for awhile and her first dose of the RSV vaccine.

What a wonderful Christmas it was this year. We were so thankful to get to spend Christmas with Brooklyn at home this year. It was a wonderful time. We had both our families come over to spend Christmas with us. Matthew's family came on Friday to spend the whole weekend with us. My parents  joined us on Saturday for Christmas Eve candlelight service and then Mexican dinner at our house. Then they returned on Christmas Day for Christmas dinner. It was an eventful weekend full of food and fun.




 Our little family
 Matthew's Family
 My family.
 Brooklyn opening a present.

Santa's gifts to Brooklyn.

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Thanksgiving Day

We celebrated Thanksgiving with both sides of the family at our house. After dinner we had a little celebration for Brooklyn. She got a little cupcake with a turkey on it. She had fun playing with the icing.

I wanted to update you on her stats now:
Weight: 20 pounds
Length: 29 inches.
Teeth: Two Bottom front in full view, three on the top poking through, and two more on the bottom poking through
Food: We have transitioned to cow's milk and are introducing real food even though she mainly still eats baby food.










Friday, December 9, 2011

November Update

It's hard to believe we celebrated Brooklyn's first birthday and second Thanksgiving!! She was born last year the day before Thanksgiving and this year her birthday landed on Thanksgiving Day. This year was the best Thanksgiving Day ever. We had both sets of grandparents over for dinner at our house so we could celebrate Thanksgiving and Brooklyn's birthday. Then the Saturday after Thanksgiving we had a party for close friends and family to help us celebrate Brooklyn's birthday. She started crawling the Monday before Thanksgiving so she was able to show off her crawling skills to everyone on the day of her party. She now has two bottom teeth and I can see the tip of five more teeth poking through. She is also starting to pull up. We have also had to put up a gate in our living room to keep her away from the Christmas tree and to keep her contained in one room since now she likes to crawl all over the house. We are looking forward to a wonderful and exciting Christmas at home this year.