Brooke got her glasses

On Friday the 4th Brooke finally got her glasses. She looks so cute in them. For the first 2 days it was misery getting her to keep them on but I think she finally realized she could see better with them. She still has her moments of taking them off and playing with them. But all in all she is doing great with them.

New Year's at the Beach

Me, Tim and the kids headed out for the beach on Dec. 28th. PawPaw and our neighbors Jay and Janene joined us. Also our friends Gary and Melinda came in on Saturday. We had a great time. Football games galore of course. Alot of shopping, eating and just kicking back and having a good time. Ben learned to ride his bicycle without training wheels while we were down there. I'll try to upload some video. We went to the Wharf for New Year's Eve. Ben rode the giant Farris wheel for the first time. He loved it. He was not scared at all. Ben and I also took on a little ice skating. This was a major work out for me. Ben did not support any of his weight. He couldn't keep his feet under him. It was the funniest thing. We managed not to fall. Thank goodness. We headed back to the beach house to watch Auburn. Jay and Janene are fans. Tim and I managed to make to New Year's. It went a little something like this. What time is it? 1202 Happy New Year, I love you and then we rolled over and went to sleep. Boy, that's some celebration. We just hope for less stress the next year. 2007 was full of stressful times. More so than the norm. We came back home on Jan. 2nd. I finally took down all the Christmas decorations and tried to get the house back in some kind of order.

The Giant Farris Wheel

Tim, Jay, Melinda, Gary, Ben and Janene waiting in line

Our graceful ice skating performance

Ben was beside himself to sit on this motorcycle at the Marines booth

Waiting on Ben to slide

Christmas Morning

Santa was good this year. The kids got a load from him. Ben loved it. The sheer excitement on his face from the gifts was priceless. Brooke just like playing with the paper. Which we were constantly digging out of her mouth.

Ben loved the motorcycle riding gloves and shirt Paper anyone?
If we only knew what he was thinking

For lunch we headed to Tuscaloosa. We always have Christmas lunch with Tim's family at his aunt Angie's. We had the traditional food again. By this point we were ready for our lighter home cooked meals. The girls always plays dirty Santa but this year we decided the guys needed to play to. So guys bought for the guys and girls for the girls. It was so much fun and we had so many laughs. The most memorable was while the girls was playing. There was this extremely soft throw that the kids had fallen in love with. They couldn't keep there hands off of it. I'll try to keep this short. My gift was stolen and I ask Ben if he wanted mommy to get the blanket or open a new gift. Of course he said he wanted the blanket so I stole it from Nanny (Tim's grandmother). We got the evil eye. Then Nanny was the last so what did she do she stole the blanket back from me. I had already told Tim and his mother that if anyone stole the blanket from me that Ben was going to get upset and cry. That's how much he loved it. And what did Ben do he started crying hysterically. Okay sobbing. It was so sad I told Ben we would go out and buy one for him. Well what does Nanny say to Ben "it's for girls anyway" (from one child to the next) you just have to know Nanny. Of course that sent everyone into a riot laughing so hard. Thank goodness for Tripp he saved the day he ask Ben if he wanted to go play trucks. Thanks Tripp. We then went back to Tim's parents and opened gifts with them. And back home to crash. We were all exhausted. Thanks to everyone for such a great Christmas.

Nanny and Brooke

Bret was tickled

Hunter and what he thought was just a book

My little camera hog

A few snaps at MeMe and PawPaw's

Brooke and Miller

Christmas at Granna & Pop's

We went to mother and Chopper's on Sunday before Christmas. We had a great time the kids of course got way to many toys. But they had fun. After opening gifts we went to my aunt LaVonne & uncle Jimmy's for lunch. This was Thanksgiving and Christmas lunch combined. Since we didn't get to have Thanksgiving with them this year because Jimmy was recuperating from his open heart surgery. He is doing wonderful now. We had the traditional meal. After we all loaded up and went to feed the goats. Yes. goats!!! Mother and Chopper have 18 goats. Ben had a blast and it is always so much fun watching him. After a long day we headed back home and enjoyed Christmas Eve at home.

Can you tell she loves it?

Ben, Granna, Brooke, Pops and Jaylee

Ben feeding the goats

We've been out of town

I know I am way behind but we have been out of town. I hope to bet things caught up within the next week or so. Hope everyone had a Happy New Year.

Ophthalmalogy Report

Today was Brooke's rescheduled appt with Dr. Cogen. We have noticed that she has intermittent periods when she looks cross eyed and one or the other eyes focuses inward. Dr. Cogen did a full eye exam dilation and all. He said we had 2 choices either wait and see if it got any worse or go ahead and treat for strabismus. Which meant glasses. He said it was a hard decision to make. I looked at him and said this was an easy decision considering where we started with the CMV til now. Especially if the glasses was the only thing that she had to have. It was a no brainer for me. Of course I opted for Brooke to go ahead and get glasses. He is unsure if this is from the CMV or if it was inherited from Tim. No one will never know. I went ahead and got her fitted and she should have her new glasses the first of the year. Dr. Cogen said that I had made the right decision because of Brooke's history. He is unsure if this will correct it or if she may have to have surgery one day. If the glasses correct the strabismus she will have to wear them until her teenage years. The glasses are going to be so cute. They are pink of course and they have Minnie Mouse on them. As soon as she gets them I will post some pics.

Physical Therapy update

Today Brooke had another therapy session. As usual Kristi was impressed with how well Brooke was doing. She totally has crawling down and keeps up with Ben pretty darn good. She is also pulling up on everything in site. She has started cruising the furniture and is doing pretty good. Kristi said "Brooke has a determination about her unlike no other child". She never gets frustrated and works extremely hard ever session. With Brooke doing as well as she is her therapy sessions are being cut back to once a month. What great strides Brooke has made since Kristi started coming in May.