Brooke turns TWO!!

Brooke officially turned the big 2 on Sunday. We celebrated with the Flemings while also celebrating Brooke's Grandma Mary (GiGi)'s birthday and Gary's cousin Kevins. She had a GREAT time!

It is totally hard for me to belive that she is actually two years old and about to be a big sister. Time has totally flown by...hopefully these next 37 days will too :) Gary took Brooke for her two year check-up yesterday and she is 34 inches tall and weighs 25 pounds. She is around the 73% for height (not a Johnson trait) and the 43% for weight (also not from her mother).

I always think that it is fun to take a quick look at her month-by-month pictures to see how much she has changed. I think that she has grown up so much!

Brooke Year Two

13 months

14 months

15 months

16 months

17 months

18 months

19 months

20 months

21 months

22 months

23 months

24 months!


Happy Birthday Brooke!!!

ONE...Singular Sensation...

I have been so, so lucky the past 28 years to have known someone so amazing as Mary Jerry Geraldine Johnson. My Grandma was one special lady and made sure that each and every one of her five children, 3 daughter-in-laws, 2 son-in-laws, 11 grand-children (plus spouses!) and 7 great-grand-children knew how 'FABULOUS' they were.

I have so many memories of my grandma-she was so involved in everything we all did. She came to every dance recital (and danced and cheered the loudest from the crowd-no exaggeration here), never missed a birthday and while most of my friends were in Cancun for Senior year Spring Break, I was in Naples FL with Gary and my Grandparents-how amazing is that?!!

She taught us to appreciate and respect all Broadway shows-although we had to wait until we were 18 before we could play them on the player piano (do you know how many bad words pop up in A Chorus Line??!!)! I owe all my show-tune knowledge to her.

All of us were her 'sugars' and knew how important all of our relationships were to her. She is ONE woman that has huge impact on my life and I will never forget all of our amazing times together.

Everytime I hear New York, New York, I will think of my Grandma Mary Jerry and know that she is dancing her heart out with many loved ones while keeping watch over us all :)

5,6,7,8.........

It's a Date!

I had a check up today with my OB and he set a date for my c-section! He gave me the option of choosing either the 3rd of December or the 8th of December-this was a no brainer. I had been hoping that the 3rd would be an option (Grandpa Buchheit's birthday) so I picked 12/03/2009 right away :) I am so excited to have a date-I tend to be a bit OCD. (In case you noticed-the 'baby ticker' has been updated to reflect the new date :)) There is always a chance that I could go earlier (36 + weeks would be the very earliest, though) but I never went into labor with Brooke so I think that we will make it to our 'due' date with no problem.

Also-for those of you still wondering about the babies name-yes, Gary has given me the 'go ahead' on name choice #2. I am going to give those of you that DON'T want to know the babies name before December 3rd a chance to leave the blog now....




Are you gone Dad??




One last chance.....




Ok-some people (not me) like surprises. After much back-and-forth, Gary and I both settled on Caroline Marie. Not to be confused with Carolyn. I have always had Caroline in a top 3 position and Marie is my mom's middle name as well as my sister Amy's so it works perfect. Let the countdown continue.....

Halloween Garden Party

This weekend we went to a Halloween party at the Garden. Brooke had a BLAST! She was totally exhausted by the time we got home-too much Halloween :)

Hanging out with Aunt Tracie in the bouncy-by far her favorite part of the party.

Riding on the train with Grandma!

They had a petting zoo, but this was just about as close as Brooke would get to the animals.

Time for Halloween cookies!!

Yes-there was even a pumpkin patch! This was the one that Brooke picked out-she needed just a little help from Dad to get it into the car.

Scary right??

32 weeks and counting

Another ultrasound down and only one more left to go!!

Today Gary and I had an u/s to check on baby F and all looks good! She is measuring 4 pounds even (+/- 11 oz) which is in the 43%. I take all this to mean that she is right on target for being 32 weeks.

Starting next week, I start going to the perinatal center every-single-week. Since I am high risk, I have to get monitored once a week for the next six weeks until baby F makes her grand enterance. Pretty much, I get to go to the u/s location and get all hooked up to monitors for around 30 minutes and then head home-totally wild. I like to think that by having all of these appointments, it will make time go by just a little bit faster :)

Next week is a BIG appointment-we are going to find out the date of our c-section. I am really hoping for December 3rd. Brooke was born on Gary's grandpa's birthday-October 25th. December 3rd is my grandpa's birthday. I was extremely close to him and think that it would be so neat that both girls would share b-days with their great-grandparents. We will not be naming her Otto, though. Actually, December 4th is Gary's grandma Joyce's birthday so that date would work for me too :) We wil have to wait 6 more days to see!

"They" were right

They say that every pregnancy is different. Looking back, I think that I had a pretty easy 9 months with Brooke. Sure I had to take shots twice a day, but I really didn't mind. It was overall an uneventful pregnancy.

This pregnancy-totally different. From the very beginning it has been high maintenance. It all started at the 12 week mark and having to go on bed-rest until week 18. Then came the added medication (including those shots) that I have had to take these last 7 + months. I don't think that there has been a day/night so far that I haven't swallowed at least 5 pills!! Then came the leg cramps-what are those all about?? I mean feeling like you have a permanent charlie horse for hours is just not right!! Oh-did I mention the weight gain with this bambino?? With Brooke I was totally lucky. I gained 17-20 (at the most) over the 9 months. When I left the hospital-no joke-I had already lost 12 lbs. I was thrilled!! Not so with this little lady. At 32 weeks, I am tipping the scales with an added on 20 pds. Yes people-I still have 7 weeks to go!! I am estimating that I will gain 25-30 overall. I am not saying that is a lot or bad, it is just different for me.

Speaking of weight gain, I totally had someone ask me over the weekend if "I was sure I wasn't having twins." What? Yeah, I am pretty sure from the 6 + ultrasounds that I have had that I am only having one baby. Who says that? It is not like I am that big right?? Needless to say, I wasn't thrilled...

More doctors appointments for this week. I have another ultrasound on Wednesday (where I am going to check on the whole twin theory) and will continue to have one-two appointments a week until the big day. Next weeks appointment will actually give us a date which I cannot wait to find out.

Lastly-in baby news-we have decided to go with a different name. I know this will not make some people (Maggie) happy, but Gary was not in love with my first choice and since he does get to have 'some' say in the matter, we have chosen to go with something other then Eloise. I want to share the new name, but Gary told me he is not 100% certain (what is with him right??) but he will be by the end of this week-stay tuned.

Happy Anniversary

Today is Gary and my 3 year anniversary....3 years and (almost 2 kids) later...I guess we should have been trying harder :)

Brooke's Birthday Party

Brooke had a great time at her birthday party this weekend! The weather was perfect and we had a great time with all our friends and family that were able to celebrate the big '2' with us :)

In the bouncer with Lannah-totally a highlight for the day!

(Thank goodness cousin Wade was there to show us how to blow it up...shouldn't have taken 2.5 hours I guess :) )

Brooke's Elmo / Big Bird Cake

Cousin Lannah helping Brooke out with the candles-she was totally ready :)

BEYOND excited over her new baby doll-Thanks Katie!!!

Cake-round 2.

Yes...I let her have just a little more cake that night...she was so excited!