Brooke's prayers

We try to do a nighttime prayer with Brooke every night when she gets into bed.  We started saying prayers with her when she moved in to her big girl bed last year.  Our prayers started out pretty simple and I always said them at first.  I would thank God for all the members of our family.  Sometimes I would pray for a sick friend or pray for some other need.  But I always kept it simple. 

It is amazing how far Brooke has come in her prayers just in this past year.  Now she likes to say the prayers herself most nights.  She prays for all of her family members and never forgets her grandparents.  She'll also pray for her behavior. She will ask God to help her be a good girl.  She'll pray for her school and Audrey's school.  She can be such a sweet girl and it is the highlight of my day to end it by listening to her sweet prayers.

I am a C...

Another video of Brooke singing one of her favorite songs.

 

Here are the words:

 

I am a C
I am a C-H
I am a C-H-R-I-S-T-I-A-N

And I have C-H-R-I-S-T
In my H-E-A-R-T
And I will L-I-V-E E-T-E-R-N-A-L-L-Y!

Sleeping position

Just like her sister, Anna Grace gets into some interesting sleeping positions.

Unlike Brooke, Anna never took a pacifier. She prefers her thumb and blanket.

Update - 2012

Well, 2012 turned in to a pretty eventful year. It was the year of the hospital visit for our family. First, I went into labor on February 16 and gave birth to Anna Grace on the 17th. She had to spend her first few days in the NICU. Once I was discharged, I has to spend a few more nights in the hospital with AG.

We were home about a week before we had to return. AG was running a temperature which requires a hospital stay for a newborn baby. Needless to say, those first few weeks were pretty stressful.

In November, Trey had a scheduled outpatient procedure to repair a hernia. That outpatient procedure turned into a two night stay in the hospital. Those couple of nights were rough.  I do not know how single mothers do it. Even after Trey was released from the hospital, he was not able to assist much at home and could not lift AG for a month.

Our final hospital adventure was ear tubes for AG. Luckily, this was a very easy procedure. The doctor warned us that AG would be inconsolable for the first 20 minutes or so after surgery. However, she didn't even cry. It was such a relief to see her so happy after the surgery.  Here's a picture right after surgery.

Other than issues with her ears, Anna Grace is a healthy 11 month old.  She's had a rough year, but she is the sweetest baby.  She started crawling at 6 months. She is close to walking, but not quite there yet.  She doesn't seem to be quite as verbal as Brooke was at this age, but she still babbles a lot. She says dada, mama, and bye.  She likes to clap and dance to music.  Her hair is coming in more slowly than Brooke's.  It is lighter than Brooke's and looks like it might have a little curl in it. She loves to be with Brooke.  I love watching them play together.  Brooke is actually very good with her. 

Brooke had her 3rd birthday in November.  We had her first friend party at Mechie's.  It was a lot of fun, but also a little crazy. We definitely will not do the friend party every year. 

 

Brooke is growing up so fast.  She is learning to spell and write her name.  She loves to sing.  Her favorite movie right now is the Sound of Music. We watch it all the time and she loves to sing the songs.  Here's a short clip of her singing some songs:



 



 

The other big news from the end of 2012 is that Trey and I have decided to lose weight. We started in November.  I have lost 20 pounds and Trey has lost 30 pounds.  I'm doing Weight Watchers.  I'd like to lose about 20 more pounds.  



A day at the park

I need to update, but for now just a picture from the weekend.

Close your eyes, be still and go to sleep

Those words are spoken often at our house these days starting around 8pm every night. Of course, I didn't expect to be getting a lot of sleep with a 10 week old in the house. The surprising part is the 10 week old is sleeping better than the 2 year old. I should have never bragged about Brooke's sleeping patterns because she is paying us back now. The good news is once she gets to sleep, she pretty much stays asleep and stays in bed all night. However, the last couple of night it has been a two hour process just to get her to stay in her room and go to sleep.

As I said before, Brooke was a great sleeper in her crib. The problems began when we transitioned her to her big girl bed in January. We start the bedtime process around 8pm. We read a book or do story time on the kindle fire, do bedtime prayers, turn on her music and tuck her in. After we leave the room, she'll stay in her bed for a few minutes before she opens her door and starts her list of excuses. Some of the most common excuses: "I'm scared." "My insert body part here hurts. Kiss it." "I have burgers (aka boogers). I need to blow my nose." "I thirsty. I need juice." When we go to her room to take care of her complaint, she begs us to lay down with her. So I believe our first mistake was laying down with her when we first started the transition to the big girl bed. Now she expects that every night and she doesn't go to sleep when you lay down with her. She still wants to talk and sing. Trey has been taking toys/stuffed animals away from her when she comes out of her room now, but this now appears to be a game to her. Now she'll come out of the room and have a toy ready to give to him. So I think our next approach is just to ignore her. We will just put her back in bed, leave the room and ignore her. Hopefully, this approach will work.

My little girl looking so grown up 

playing before bedtime

I feel bad for her because she has had a big change in her life with a new little sister in the house. She is showing signs of jealousy towards AG now, so I want to be careful with her. If any of you moms out there have any suggestions on how to handle this problem, please let us know.

AG has been sleeping from 9pm to 4am the last few days. She still naps a lot during the day as well. I'll be returning to work full-time on the 14th and I will miss spending my days with her. She has the same primary care giver that Brooke had in the baby room at her daycare center, so I know she will be in good hands. She is starting to smile now and show some more of her personality. She looks so much like Brooke. It will be interesting to see if that changes as she gets older.

mini Trey

Welcome Anna Grace and an Update

It has been so long since our last post, but so much has happened. The biggest news is the addition to our family. Anna Grace arrived on February 17th at 12:45am. She weighed 7 lbs 1 oz and was 19 inches long. I was scheduled to have a c-section on February 27th, but like her big sister AG could not wait to enter this world. Unfortunately, AG's lungs were not fully developed so she had to spend a few days in NICU. She made great progess in the NICU and was able to be moved to the Pediatrics floor when I was released from the hospital. So we spent a few more days in the hospital just to make sure she gained weight before heading home.


My two precious girls


We were home for a little over a week when we had to return. I noticed on one Saturday afternoon that AG had a fever. She had been fussy for a couple of hours as well, so we called the pediatrics hotline for some advice. I figured they'd tell us to give her some tylenol and watch her closely. I was wrong, though. After talking to the nurse, she said she'd have our pediatrician give us a call. He called and asked a couple of questions and then said "ok, meet me at the hospital on the pediatrics floor." I was a little bit shocked and asked why we had to go to the hospital. He said AG would have to be admitted since she was under 4 weeks old. They had to do several tests on her and immediately began antibiotics. Thankfully, all of the test results came back negative so it appears it was just some sort of viral infection.



I was so glad to be back home after that hospital stay. AG was fussy and cried a lot for the next couple of weeks. Now at 8 weeks, she is a pretty content baby. She rarely cries and is sleeping well. She is not consistently sleeping through the night yet, but she has given me a few nights with 5 hours of uninterrupted sleep. I've gone back to work for a couple of mornings each week. I will go back full-time when she is 12 weeks old. I think this will help both of us get adjusted to our new schedules.


My sweet Brooke has turned into a sassy, strong-willed two year old. Some days she can be so sweet and precious. Other days I just want to give up and wonder where we went wrong with her. I have talked to other parents with 2 year olds and all assure me that their 2 year olds are the same way. So I am patiently waiting for this stage to pass.



Brooke loves to sing and dance. She loves princesses especially Belle. She also loves Dora the Explorer. She can count to 20, say her ABCs and sing too many songs to list. She also has an enormous vocabulary and loves to talk. ALL THE TIME. She rarely ever stops talking, but I love that about her. I could listen to her all day. She loves her baby sister. She loves to give her kisses and as she says "pet" her. She loves to wear dresses and most days refuses to wear anything other than a dress or skirt.



My greatest joy is that Brooke is developing a love of Jesus. She loves going to church and even asks to go during the week. She sings songs about Jesus, says bedtime prayers and prayers at meal times. On Easter, we asked her who has risen and she'd respond with Jesus. I pray that she will continue to love Jesus.


Easter 2012