Life, as we know it

Not much has been going on lately. My mom has been around, as her car broke down not too far from here and Rex can't quite figure out what's wrong with it yet. So she's been here the whole week and will be back next week (with Brad's truck) until she gets her car back.

Life, as we know it, has been pretty mundane. Although, I say that...and then I remember that I have had to go back to the eye dr and now WITH glasses I am seeing 20/50. He says I have another flare-up (the virus just lays dormant and can 'flare up' at any point) and is treating again with steroid drops. I am back to going to office visits once a week ($20 copay ea time REALLY gets old). It's frustrating....in a "I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired" kinda way. I have 30 more days on my glasses to return/exchange if my prescription changes so hopefully it'll figure itself out by then.

Bailey has returned to mostly normal I suppose. He is still on his special kidney diet food and after he finishes his month supply of that, we will return him to his previous previous food - not the food we think caused all this. So, we'll see. He has yet to gain back all his weight...still feels skinny to me, but we hope he'll get there. His spirits and activity level are back to normal, so we're happy. $500 in vet bills later, but we're happy our little guy is back to feeling good.

(here he and Brooke are in his formal attire...haha)

Brad is clunking away at work. Needless to say, thanks to the vet bills and eye doctor bills, it doesn't look like we'll be taking a vacation with our garage sale money. I'm sorry...what garage sale money?

*sigh*

We are, however, going to be spending a few days with my sister and family at a huge double family size rm they booked at Great Wolf Lodge in a couple weeks. I am super excited about that - it looks like a super fun, plus we have built-in babysitters! Yay! We will probably splurge and scoot on over to Fossil Rim Wildlife Ranch again, as its such a hit with Brooke and I'm sure Brenna will really love it this year as well. We just can't be that close and not go to one of Brooke's favorite places.

And the girls...

Well, Brooke is finishing out her summer school session next week. She had a blast this summer with endless water days at school, watermelon days, dance classes, museum classes, pinata day, nacho day and more. She is also now reading on a 1st grade level and doing simple addition. The papers she brings home are amazing! 4+5 = ___ and such. Plus the reading and writing. I love seeing the notes she writes me. Her spelling is not always English dictionary correct, but it is phonetically correct. She is so smart. I only wonder what will happen when she goes into 1st grade, after she finishes kindergarten at Montessori, and she is on a 2nd or 3rd grade level. Ahhh....if only Ms Lydia would teach through high school. :) The Fall school schedule starts up again mid-August, so we'll have a break of about a month in there. She will also start Kindermusik up again in the Fall...she'll be in the class where she will actually begin to learn to read music!

In Brooke's spare time, she is loving her trampoline (during the not as hot hrs...which are very rare...or with a sprinkler turned on her) and has learned a 'knee jump'. I recently took her to see "Up - 3D" and while I wasn't that amused, she had a blast, so we will probably try to go see "Ice Age - 3D" before it leaves the theater as well. However, next week will be a bit crazy as its time for Vacation Bible School! She is super excited and even more excited to have a friend going with her. So that ought to be fun!

(here's everyone watching Ice Age 2)
Brooke has also been curious and curious-er. She is constantly asking questions about Heaven here lately. "Are there cars in Heaven?", "Does it get dark in Heaven?", "Are there swings in Heaven?", "Are there stuffed animals in Heaven?", "Do we eat in Heaven?", etc etc etc... I answer them to the best of my ability, but it's a little eery.

She still naps every day for a couple hrs in the afternoon but it doesn't kill her on the rare occassion we have to skip a nap for some reason. She sleeps good at night, waking up when I wake her to get ready for school at 7:30 and going to bed at 8:30 + Daddys' storytime.....(sometimes that takes a while)...

She loves Daddy to tell her stories. Right now the going favorite is the Secret Agent Sister stories. Secret Agents Brooke and Brenna have to fight off Dr Evil and all his schemes and plots. She also loves to hear the tales of Star Wars from Daddy and many more. Hey...he only has girls, so I let him have his fun with story time.

(here she is after she put on his clothes...all on her own, no coersion from me at all)
She loves coloring and writing notes as I mentioned. She still loves to play her computer and Leapster and still, unfortunately, likes to watch 'shows' on TV. As in a 30min Mickey Mouse or something. She might get to watch one every other day or something. Or every once in a while, we'll watch a movie. Recently we watched Ice Age2, so we can be ready and go see Ice Age 3D in the theater.
But otherwise, she just enjoys playing with her sister. In the playhouse or on the trampoline or with babies or dancing (they are particularly loving Michael Jackson records now) or rolling balls or whatever. She just really enjoys playing with her. And that warms my heart. She is really more than we could hope for in regards to a big sister. She loves her genuinely and so much!

(here they are both riding the Sit N Spin together)On the rare occassion we have a babysitter (my mom or Brad's mom or something), people tend to ask where our kids are when we're out without them. So we joke, that "oh...we left Brooke in charge." We joke, but really its not that far off. Haha. She really does look after Brenna and makes sure she has things she needs and keeps her away from things she doesn't. So, the other day, we went out to eat while my mom was here. I told Brooke as I left to be sure to help Nana with Brenna. The next day, we were talking in the car about what a great helper she is with regard to Brenna. And she told me, "Yea, Mommy, but you know...NaNa did a pretty good job with Brenna yesterday all by herself. She really didn't need my help at all. I was proud of her. She changed her diapers all by herself and everything."

Good to know. :-)


(here she is pushing Brenna around the house in the boat - aka bean bag chair)

Brenna...
Well, Brenna is Brenna. She is constantly challenging us and showing us the dangers of our home. Most recently, she drank some hand sanitizer, crawled....er, I mean, flipped.....over the bathtub, and started pulling off all the outlet covers in the house. She is a climber! She loves to crawl and climb over everything! My mom got her a little fold out kids' couch that she loves and it provides her with at least some outlet for her need to climb.
And no.... For all the people out there asking. She is not walking! Yes, she is 14 mos old. But she is not walking. You know, and just because your kid walked at 6 months doesn't make them special. It makes them more dangerous at an earlier age. I really don't care that she's not walking. But I am tired of people asking! She is very close and probably could, but just doesn't want to let go yet. We catch her standing alone often for several minutes at a time and she leans into that first step, but I'm sure one day soon she'll take off. In the meantime, I'm enjoying my last few days or weeks of somewhat containment. She does enjoy grapping a finger and going walking. It is kinda wierd, bc she is normally so daring. But not with walking - she is very timid. She also has the tiniest feet - I swear there's no way those tiny feet (I'm telling ya..she wears a size 2 or 0-6mos in shoes!!!) could support her walking endeavors. Brooke had tiny feet too and she didn't walk till 15 mos. So we'll see....

She is signing like crazy though! Milk, More, Water, Drink, Eat, Finished/All Done, Banana, Apple, Brooke, Cracker, Book, Baby, Ball, Phone, Elephant, Dog, Cat, Monkey, Tiger, Bird, Duck, Horse, Cow, Rabbit, Sheep, Lion, Bear, Jump (for the trampoline), Thank You, Please, Help, Sorry, Good, Cold (cold is her funniest one by far), Change (as in diaper), Bath, Play, Brush Teeth, and Sleep...just to name a few. ;) Now, granted, we teach her the correct sign but it doesn't always come out perfect like the ASL videos online, but you can get what she is saying. And everything's in context. Most recently, she even signed "Poop" and then really did go poop!!! Wowzers! So, take that you and your 6-mo old walker! Haha.

(here she is signing "thank you")
She doesn't actually TALK much, as in verbal words. She says "BayEEEEEE" (for Bailey) and then does the sign for dog for Barkley, as to differentiate. She says "DaEEEEEE" for Daddy and "Mama" and "Hi" (when prompted) and a couple times she has said "Uh-Oh". But that's about it. She does shake her head 'no' or 'yes' (correctly) in response to a question. Her 'yes' is very deliberate and big. She nods her head about as far up and down as it goes and her eyes get real big - so funny.

(I just like this picture, because Barkley is trying to hide his bone in Brenna's couch while she's not looking)
She knows all her major body parts and can identify them. As in, if you ask her where her eyes are, she blinks really dramatically several times in a row, squeezing her lids together very tight. Everything else she'll point to - ears, nose, mouth, fingers, hands, feet, toes, etc.

She still loves loves loves books, loves babies, loves baths, her toy house and shape sorter and she loves shoes (thats my girl!). Though I find it very difficult to find (and afford) shoes that actually fit her feet (they are tiny and fat) that are good for walking. The tiny shoes that they sell are usually just for dressing up newborns and such. The only good shoes for pre-walking/early walking that they sell that tiny are $40 a pr! They don't make much else that fits her feet. But the other day I painted her toenails pink for the first time and she loved it - kept staring at her toes - and in response, we were supposed to say, "Ohhhh...so pretty". In fact, it kept her up through her nap...she just kept looking at and playing with her toes the whole time.

She makes us laugh often - she is oh-so-funny almost all the time. Her looks, her responses, her expressions. She is also very LOUD in the car, in restaraunts and otherwise. She enjoys hearing herself talk and blow raspberries at her sister. She is still enamored of Brooke, though sometimes is now starting to get frustrated with her. She has even bitten her once! Yikes. I hope that's not a trend. She is getting 4 new teeth - all at the same time! - so maybe that's it. But she does do the swatting thing when something frustrates her. Ahhh...terrible twos here we come!
(here she is talking back to the TV - I wish I had gotten it on video - she was really giving them a talking to!)She is still a sweet sweet baby though. She loves to cuddle and give hugs and kisses. It's so sweet. She is really enjoying Kindermusik now (we are enrolled in the Summer class and again for the Fall). She loves to dance and if she hears the tiniest bit of music (even in a store or something) she goes to dancing away! It's so cute! And the girl still loves her food. Bananas are her favorite by far. She signs for a banana every time we eat and any time she sees one. But really, she likes just about anything you can give her to eat. And the girl can put away some food! Again, while my mom was here, we went out to eat at Tx Roadhouse. She had a full kids meal, which included TWO mini cheeseburgers (they were ea the size of a happy meal burger at McD's), and a bowl of applesauce, plus about half of Brooke's mac and cheese, plus some of my potato and bread of course. And then yesterday, we had pizza - she had 3 slices of pizza by herself, along with a helping of pasta and crackers for dessert. Geesh! The girl can eat! But she is still comparitively small for her age so I let her go for it! She is still a good sleeper too...she takes two naps a day generally (one about 10a for about an hour and the other around 1:30 for a couple hrs). And she sleeps a good 11-12 hrs at night, going to bed at 8:30 and waking up at 8, only because I have to wake her up so we can take Brooke to school. Otherwise, she'd still wake up at 8:30 or 9 probably.

Anyway, that's good for now I suppose. We are still trucking along this Summer and are looking forward to our getaway with the sis in a couple weeks. Glad Bailey's better and are extremely pleased and fortunate to have our kids growing and getting bigger and better! Keep praying for my eye and hopefully one day it'll go into a permanent 'remission'. In the meantime, we'll be trying to stay cool in this hot Texas heat doing lots of indoor activities and being thankful that our AC works well.