one year ago today...moving in

On this Saturday last year our family was packing up and heading to St. Louis to move into our (hopefully) short-term apartment a couple of blocks from Children's. So many thoughts and emotions on that day anticipating Brooke's arrival in just a few days. Today? Today we left our heart baby and her sisters with a sweet and wonderful sitter and went on a date to the football game. Today one thought and emotion outweighs all of the others. Today, I'm grateful. So very grateful. 

I will give thanks to you, Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonderful deeds. I will be glad and rejoice in you; I will sing the praises of your name, O Most High. --Psalm 9:1-2

Brooklyn is doing remarkably well. Physically, she's pulling to her knees and also pulling to standing quite often now. Still scooting instead of crawling but we've gotten her to crawl in PT the last couple of sessions. Our therapist would like for her to develop those crawling skills in order to build upper torso strength and so that her hip joints don't "freeze" from all the scooting. Carpeted flooring encourages at least more of an attempt at crawling. Our hardwood on the main floor encourages more scooting. So, I'd say she's well-rounded when it comes to physical movement. :) 

Grateful for progress, for improved strength and for our physical therapist. 

Brooklyn smiles, claps and babbles all the time. Her first real word (back in late September) was "uh-oh" which she says so deliberately and with lots of facial expression. SO cute. She also says "ma-ma" and "da-da." Hard to say if that's babble or intentional at this point, but we'll take it! She loves when her sisters, her daddy or I come into the room. Lots of smiles, squeals, claps and scooting. So, so sweet! Her personality is coming out more and more. She is generally a very happy baby only fussing when she's tired or hungry...or when we dress her. Hilarious. This girl's gonna take after her big sisters, I think. She'd rather be in her diaper than anything else at all. 

Grateful for progress, for reaching milestones and for Brooke's sisters and daddy doting upon her like they do. 

We are starting regular speech therapy visits again this week to try and address Brooklyn's feeding delays. She still loves her bottles, but we haven't made much progress on anything else at this point. She loves to feed herself puffs but will not swallow them or any other solids. She favors spinach/peas/pears baby food. In fact, that's really the only thing she will eat consistently and without resistance. Not a bad favorite! :)

Grateful that Brooke loves her bottles and for wonderful speech therapists who love my girl. 

Brooklyn has adjusted so well to being around (and even held by) other people. She and her middle sister are even going to the children's program during my Bible study each week. She loves to watch and be close to the other babies. So much fun and such a big deal for her to be well enough that we are comfortable leaving her with other babies and caregivers in that environment. Huge deal! The ladies that teach and care for her are amazing.

Grateful for progress and for Brooke's teachers and their hearts for Jesus. 

Grateful!