Playdate & fun new things! ! !

Today Brooke and I were able to get together with a friend of mine, Colleen, from my grade school days. It was so fun to meet up since I had not seen her in such a long time or met her ADORABLE son Mark! He is incredibly cute and him and Brooke played so well together-he is older so he totally showed her what's up.

Mark introduced Brooke to his Grandma's pantry as well as to pretzels...Brooke was amazed at how delicious these new treats were!

They shared a nice picnic of pretzel rods! We cannot wait until they are in town again to visit more!!

Brooke also recently discovered that she has books in her room and that they are facinating! Here she is 'reading' a favorite, "Ten Little Ladybugs."

She also has a new friend in the bathroom toilet-they are so fun. I didn't know when I was taking this picture that the toilet lid was actually up...awesome parenting moment...

Bathtubs are also a new 'find' and incredibly cool. Luckily, for this picture, she wasn't surprising anyone in the shower as that tends to be a fun peek-a-boo trick now...

Last, but not least, who could not love the toilet paper roll...how much fun it is to unravel the paper for mom to have to re-do!! Good times :)

Supporting the Colleges!

I swear Aunt Maggie, I do love my sweatshirt, I am just sick of my mom making wear jeans and tennis shoes!!!!!!

GO TIGERS!! Too bad we totally blew the game...at least one fan was looking and feeling FABULOUS!!

Seriously, who loves the socks?? I can give you the brand..every MU fan needs a pair of these babies!

Brooke's rough day :(

Brooke had a bit of a rough 24 hours starting last night. She was playing in her room while I was putting her laundry away and tripped forward and hit her gums on the hardwood floor. She hit just the right spot...right above where her front tooth is coming in!! It really hurt her...and it was the first time mom and dad saw her bleed which was really, really sad :(

She had a really hard time sleeping last night. We aren't sure if it is just the remnants of her cold from last week, or simply an un-fun phase she is going through, but by three a.m. we caved (I know, we are bad) and let her snuggle in our room. We all were in desperate need of sleep still getting over the Fleming Family cold (Gary stills has it the worst). I left the room around 5 or so to watch some tv after not being able to sleep, around 7:45 in the morning I heard Brooke crying a bit and figured that she had just woken up for the day (she always fusses a bit). This was not the case, though, as Brooke had fallen off of our bed...we are bad parents huh?? She cried for only about 10 seconds, though, and then seemed totally fine. She has a pretty big bump on her head, but that was all. I still called the DR as I am a worry FREAK and they gave me the run-down of things to look for (dizziness while walking, vomiting, dilated pupils, etc) all of which she has not had throughout the day. In fact, she has been on her A GAME today! Girl is getting into everything!! I will continue to keep an eye on her tonight, but I think that things are looking just fine...I am a total worrier, though, so let me know if any of you have experienced a fall with a toddler :)
In other news, poor Jack broke out in hives at my house on Monday. Amy is not sure (nor was the DR) what it was due to, but at least he had his 'hat' to make him happy. Yes, he found the colander and believes that it is his hat-looks good right??

See-great mood today :) Brooke is loving life and playing on her new pony. She has figured out how to get on it by herself and has started to understand how to move backwards, but the forwards part is still a bit tricky....

Seriously...does she look like she just cut her gums and bumped her head?? That's what I thought :) Brooke just LOVES the tutu that her Aunt Amy made for her for her birthday. She found it at our house today (I mean, how could you miss all of that pink right?) and she put it over her head..I think that she will be in to dress up clothes in the near future!

Birthday Maddness!!

This weekend we celebrated Brooke and Lily's First Birthdays!! Lily's actual b-day was on the 8th and Brooke's is yet to come on the 25th, but we wanted to celebrate them together when we had both Godmama's in town. Everyone had a GREAT time and the girls were spent by the end of the day!!!

Brooke looking fabulous in her couture tutu made specifically for her by Aunt Amy! She actually seemed to like wearing it! We kept it on until I started to find traces of lunch and cake within the tutu...it was time to take it off...

Digging into her first cake! She did pretty well, but she only had a little bit and she was DONE!!!

Absolutely LOVING her new chair from mommy and daddy! She thinks that it is hysterical that there is a piece of furniture just her size!! Where do parents find this stuff huh??!! She has also made a new best friend in her doll from Wade, Lisa and Lannah-she will not put it down!

Thanks so much to everyone that was able to make it to the party to celebrate Brooke's special day!!!

Under the Weather

The Fleming Family is sick :( Brooke developed a cold late Saturday night which has progressively gotten worse since. I took her to the doctor on Monday and was almost hoping that it was something other then a virus or cold so that she could get some medicine to help her. The Doc said that it was a virus and that we had to let it run its course. I have since caught what she has and I fear that Gary is right behind us. Last night was by far the worst with Gary taking care of Brooke well through the night. She just cannot seem to get comfortable on her own-whether we are holding her or putting her in her bed she tosses and turns and simply cries because she is so uncomfortable...it is so, so sad!!!

In better news, this past week and weekend were a Ton of Fun! On Wednesday, Brooke and I were able to meet up with my friend Nicole and Brooke's new friend Charlie! Charlie was one month old last Wednesday and he is terribly handsome. Don't you think that he and Brooke make a good looking couple?? Yes, she does look like an amazon woman next to him, but he will catch up soon!!

It was actually pretty funny seeing Charlie because he was almost the same size when he was born (7 pounds) as Brooke was when she was born (7.7 pounds) yet when I met him he seemed sooooo much smaller then Brooke was when she was born!! Now that she is almost 1 year, I cannot get over how big she is and how much time has flown...I think that I want another little one....ok-remembering last night and how many sleepless nights we used to have-over it..I will wait until Brooke is a bit older :)

She is going to KILL me when she is older and finds out I put such funny pictures of her on the internet! This is Brooke getting ready for bed and walking...beginning to run...around the house. I had just taken her hair out of its pony tail-doesn't she look like she has a comb over??? Too Funny!

OH MY GOSH!!! Seriously...as I am typing this a CRICKET or a GRASSHOPPER (is that the same thing??) just leapt onto my computer screen....NO I am not outside...so where did it come from?? I seriously think that I just almost had a heart attack!! I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to kill it...computer screen or bug death?? Luckily I was able to handle it without breaking the screen...back to my blog...

As a last note, I have to wish my husband a happy 2nd anniversary! I totally don't think that he reads this blog, but I will wish him a happy anniversary anyways and thank him for my very sweet gift. Love you!

Hope everyone is having a GREAT WEEK!

Fun, fun weekend!!

What a fun filled weekend the Flemings had! On Saturday, Gary, Brooke and I attended my first "Mom's in the City" event at the pumpkin patch! Brooke was in awe of all of the orange. I think that she had a pretty good time and she loves, loves, loves to people watch so she was in heaven with all of the kids running around! We bought her a few small pumpkins-her first ever!


I don't know how much she liked it when I dropped her off amongst all of the pumpkins-a little overwhelmed I think!! I was going for the picture op!

This weekend was also a celebration of my friend Lindsay's birthday. Gary and I went out to dinner with Lindsay, her husband Craig and their friends. A great time was had by all..I think that I was starting to get a little tired, though :)

Also...HUGE NEWS...Brooke finally got two more teeth! I think that I can call it official since her top left tooth as well as her bottom left (next to her two middle) have broken through!!! I think that the worst has passed...for these teeth at least. She is also walking a TON more and therefore keeping Gary and I very, very busy!

I hope that everyone's week is off to a great start!

Still Waiting...for the teeth...

How long does this teething process take??!! When my niece Lily gets into her teething vibe, she will cut that tooth (in her case those 14 teeth!) in a day or so. Brooke, on the other hand, starts to teeth and the process takes weeks! I feel so, so bad for her!! I am hoping that these 4 teeth will break through in the next 1-2 weeks. I can seriously see the 4 teeth (two front on the top and the two side on the bottom) right below the gums...maybe she has really thick gums and it takes a lot of work to break through the surface...thoughts??!!!

In other Brooke news, yesterday I took Brooke to Laurie's (best shoe store in St. Louis-just a shout out to the Waldman Family!!) to get her feet measured. I had kind of been guessing on her shoe size and I thought that I better figure out exactly what size her little tootsies where. I was thinking that she may be a size 3 or perhaps a 3Wide. Well, I could not have been MORE wrong!! Brooke seems to have a 4 1/2 size foot-doesn't that seem huge??!! She also may have a bit of an issue with the shape of her feet. The insole of both of her feet seem to not only go inward, but outward a bit too-odd sounding huh?? The next time that we go to the pediatrician (which will be next month) I will just have to discuss this with him to see if this 'issue' will self-correct or if she is going to have to wear orthopedics and/or braces for awhile...I am so hoping for self-correction. She just started learning how to walk (and she is only 11 months-TODAY!) so my gut reaction is self-correction. I brought Brooke into my work after the 'diagnosis' and I had one of my aunts take a look since she has experience in the shoe industry and she agrees with me.

Of course I called my dad to let him know of his grand-daughters day and he thought that I was over-reacting..."Kelly, she hasn't even gotten all of her teeth yet, I don't think that you need to worry about braces at this point." I guess most of my conversations lately have been about Brooke's teeth...don't worry, I haven't called the orthodontist just yet (but so something that I would do..).


In other news, yesterday Brooke and I decided to have a surprise visit to Great-Grandma Meiners house! It was so fun to see Brooke's Great-Grandma and Brooke got to show off her walking and talking skills. We think that she was very impressed! Brooke shares a birthday with her Great-Grandpa Meiners which we all view to be so, so special since he is no longer with us. It will be something very special that we will be able to tell her when she is a bit older :) Thanks for having us Great-Grandma and it was so fun to see you and Great-Aunt Diane too!!!

Check out the sweet all white, old school nursing shoes that Brooke has-your all totally jealous right?? We sooo prefer our cool Pumas from Aunt Bethany!

Brooke-working the MIZZOU top and Jeans-and playing with a piece of wood...don't you wish that your life was that simple and that you were so easily entertained???