Brooke's First Halloween

Well, the weekend didn't start out great for us. Friday morning Brooke was running a fever of 102.8 F, which scared me to death because she has never run a fever and that was the highest I had ever seen. Actually, her pediatrician told me that 102 is a normal fever for children, but I was still concerned. It just seemed to be a viral upper respiratory illness. Ryan and I decided to continue our trip to Longview like previously planned. Brooke surprisingly didn't act all that sick aside from a runny nose and waking up at night because she couldn't breathe. On Saturday, Brooke and I enjoyed a lunch with her Big Mama (Ryan's mother), Great Granny (Ryan's grandmother), and Aunt Sara. It was neat to have 4 generations all together! Afterwords, we went shopping for coats for Brooke. I am having a hard time finding a coat for Brooke. It seems like the stores that have thicker coats only have them in sizes 12month and up. Brooke is still a little small for the 12 month coats, so I am going to have to do a little more shopping. Hopefully, I will be able to find something around DFW area. After her afternoon cat nap, we headed to Nana and Poppie's (my parents) house. They were very excited to see Brooke because they haven't seen her since she has been crawling. She crawled all over their house. They have a sunken in living room with 2 steps and Brooke just climbed those like a pro! It was a little trickier getting down, but I am sure with a little time and practice she will get it. After she ate dinner, we got her dressed up in her costume which was a fairy, complete with wings, tutu, and a wand! She looked so adorable. I had originally wanted to dress her up in a pumpkin costume, but I am glad Ryan convinced me to change my mind because she was too darn cute!

I also started feeling bad on Saturday and yep, sure enough I caught Brooke's illness. Luckily now, we are feeling much better, but still coughing up some junk and in a couple of days should be back to normal. I now understand how difficult it is to deal with a sick baby, while at the same time being sick.

I took Brooke on a walk this evening at the park near our house and we saw many other dogs, all of which she squawked at when she saw them. It was really cute. I know she is going to be a dog lover.

Everything else is going well. We are starting to prepare for our next transition in our life. Ryan will be completing residency in July '10 and he is currently considering a couple of jobs in the East Texas area. This also means that we are starting to think about moving and everything that goes along with it. I am ready to finally settle down in a place for a long time. I have felt like the last 13 years have always been temporary places with a defined end to the time I would be staying there, so I have been hesitant to make close friends because I felt like I would just be moving in a couple of years. First, it was undergraduate college for 4 years all of which I moved each year and then it was pharmacy school of which I moved 3 times and then to DFW for Ryan's surgery residency for 5 years. During the last four years, I worked full time until I had Brooke and the schedule I worked was alternating evenings and weekends so I felt like I was never on a set schedule and it is very hard to get involved in any church or social type organization with a schedule like that. I am ready to finally make some roots and get settled. I am looking forward to our next transition.

Enjoy some pics of Brooke's halloween costume.