Vacation: Part 2

Brooke learned to go down slides on her tummy.

While Ryan and I went to San Diego, Brooke stayed in Longview with grandparents. The first night she stayed with my parents. They took her to the Caldwell Zoo in Tyler the next day. She had a blast and everything was a 'dog'! She now has begun to differentiate between animals, but just a few weeks ago, anything with 4 legs was a dog. They took her in the petting zoo area and she wanted to touch all the goats! The rest of the week she stayed at Ryan's parents because my dad was out of town and my mom had to work. Although, my mom got to spoil her in the afternoons.

Unfortunately, Brooke was sick the first part of the week. At her 15 month well visit, the doctor found fluid in her ears. She wasn't acting sick at the time and I decided to just wait it out. I did have the doctor write a script for amoxicillin just in case she got sick while we were away. Ryan's mom had to get it filled during the week and after she started the antibiotics Brooke started to feel better.

More fun at the park

She was nicknamed the baby that never sleeps. This was the first time we were away from her for so long, so I was wondering how the whole sleep issue would go. Brooke is a baby of routine and if her routine is different in any way it is very hard for her to adjust. I have not had any trouble in months with her sleeping through the night, but I think she woke up at least once every single night we were gone and didn't want to go back to sleep. Despite her lack of sleep she still was full of energy and loved going to the park and playing with the dogs. Ryan' s parents have 2 dogs and they are also babysitting our dog, Sam, while we are trying to sell our house. Annie, Ryan's parents boxer, growls a lot and Brooke learned to growl back at the dog. It is really funny to watch her. Bath time fun

One day, Ryan's mom took her to meet her 2nd cousins at Pump it Up, an indoor bounce house. I have taken her to one in DFW before and she loved it. She had a lot of fun, but I think some of the obstacles were a little large for her. She also enjoyed a trip to the indoor play gym at Dairy Queen and a visit to Ryan's brother's farm. He has donkeys, a horse, goats (which she learned to say), sheep, dogs, and chickens.

The big bounce house

After returning back home and getting back into a routine, she has gotten back to a normal sleep schedule. She has also made leaps in her language skills. She is mimicking lots of things that Ryan and I say. Her recent words include baby, shoe, sock, lemon, biper (for diaper), boo (when we play hide-and-seek or peek-a-boo). She has said a lot of other words, but these I have heard her repeat multiple times. If you ask her where is her belly button or nose, she can point to them. She can sign eat, all done, and bath time.

I had to take her to the doctor this week for a check up visit to make sure her ear infection had gone away. Once again he noted cloudy fluid in her ear and gave her another round of antibiotics to make sure all the bugs are cleared. Even though she is not acting sick in any way. He wants to check her again in a couple of weeks and if there is still fluid then we will evaluate whether we need to consult an ENT for possible ear tubes. I hope that everything clears up because this is really bad timing with us moving and changing doctors.

Speaking of moving, we will be finally moving on June 30th. We are so excited to be moving back to Longview. We close on our house in a couple of weeks. We have had no luck selling our house in Arlington, so please continue to pray that the right people will buy our house in the near future!