Brooklyn 9 months and Hip Update!

Brooklyn turned 9 months old on Monday! I can't believe it has been that long already! She is growing up right before my eyes! The week before she turned 9 months she learned how to clap her hands! It is the cutest thing to watch her clap. She will wave her hands all over then put them right in front of her face like she is trying to remember how to do it again. Then she will clap her hands together like 3-5 times! It is so cute! She does it every day, several times and I love it! I keep trying to get a video but she stops every time she sees the camera.
She is also getting really good at eating her food with her fingers. :) She does pretty well when introduced to new foods. She is starting to get more vocal and I am wondering if she is going to be a fast talker like her brother. She also loves to make funny faces with her lips. And blow bubbles with her spit. She is such a joy in our lives! :) The other day I asked Isaiah if he loves his sister and he said, "Yes I do. I love her a lot!" :) We all love her so much!

We went to see Brooklyn's pediatric orthopedist on Wednesday and they did more x-rays. I was so proud of her for holding so still for her x-rays! Her hips haven't imporved at all since the last visit so he thinks it is best to go ahead with the surgery. As parents it is hard for us but we both agree that this is what will be best for her in the long run. She will go in for Surgery on May 9th. They will put her to sleep and inject a needle into her hip socket. They will inject some dye and this will show them a clearer picture of what is going on inside the hip socket (better than what they can see on the x-rays.) Anyway from there they will go ahead and put her hip into the correct position and cast her up in a full body cast AKA a Spika cast. It will go from her arm pits down to her ankles. She will be in this full body cast for 6 months. It will definitely be a long interesting journey ahead of us trying to figure out the best way to care for our sweet girl in a massive cast. :) But hopefully in the end it will be fixed and we won't have to do any more surgeries and she will be able to live a normal healthy life after this.

We want to thank all of those who have been fasting and praying in our behalf. We have definitely felt an extra amount of comfort and help from above in facing this difficult time.

Here are some pictures of her lately: The pics that I got of her on her 9 month old day were not very good, so I decided to add some more pictures from the past couple weeks. :)

These first pics of her were taken yesterday! So this is what she looks like most recent! Isn't she getting so big!

Love this sweet smile! She lights up my life.

She is pretty much always smiley and happy.

Love those big blue eyes.

Laughing while trying to grab the camera

Snapped a few pictures of her after I got her dressed one day. 

I forgot to put her brace back on until after the photo shoot. :) 

She was all smiles!

9 months old exactly

playing toys with her brother with food all over her hands and face. lovely. :)

Sweet girl on the day of my birthday.

Love her little personality!

Typical food all over the face picture. :)

Enjoying bath time with brother for only a few more days. After she gets her cast she will only be able to have sponge baths, so we are trying to take as many baths as we can and she loves it! And Isaiah loves putting bubbles all over his sister's head. She loves it too! So fun! I am going to miss giving her baths!

Legoland!!!

A few weeks ago we got invited by our friends to go to Legoland! :) We were so excited to go! It was a beautiful day to go and even better we only had to pay for parking (which was $12!!). Our friends had a free ticket for us from a previous visit that was about to expire so we all went and had a great time! Isaiah loved it! And it was even cooler than I thought it was going to be! The kids did great so we ended up staying all day! We got there at about 9:30-9:45 and didn't even get home until 5:30 that night! I was amazed the kids did so well! I was also amazed that we got there so early! That in itself was an accomplishment! We stayed way longer than I was planning on because they were having so much fun and Brooky was happy because she took a long nap in the stroller! I'm not sure if we will get a chance to go back, but we would love to! I would take them all the time if it wasn't so expensive because we are lucky enough to only live about15 mintues away! Here are a TON of pictures showing you only SOME of the cool things we saw and some of the rides we went on! Hope you enjoy!

Entrance to the Park

Beautiful Weather with one of the rides in the background

Isaiah checking out the cool stuff!

Gaby and Zaya checking out the cool elephant that sprayed water!

I couldn't get him to look at the camera. :)

Isaiah and Brooky with a big fisherman

Now that Brooky is looking Zaya wasn't. :)

Giraffes

Tate, Kali, Riley, and Zaya playing in the big dinosoar footprints.

My little dinosoar hatchling. :)

Getting ready for our first ride. The Safari Ride.

Seated in the back behind our friends

Zaya all ready to go

First animals along the safari trail.

Girrafes

Ostriches

Rhinos

Wildabeasts

Monkeys

Pandas

Lions

Lioness

Huge Albert Einstein (I think?)

Isaiah shaking the lego lady's hand

Getting in for a closer look. :)

Cali with Wendy from Bob the Builder.

These were taken after we watched a cool Bob the Builder (in 3D) show. Complete with wind, and dust and snowflakes falling in the theater! It was neat, but Zaya wouldn't keep his glasses on. :) Go figure.

Zaya with Bob

"Can we fix it? Yes we CAN!"

A big roller coaster for older kids.

King Tut made of legos

Camel and Arab man?

Zaya took a ride

He loves riding things like this! :)

Then off to the next "real" ride! I think this one was one of Zaya's favorite! He was laughing the whole time and thought it was a blast!

Our friends Gaby and Aline.

Having fun on their airplane ride!

Tate and Riley 

Zaya and Mom

See the smile on his face?

he thought it was a blast zooming around the corners fast!

Tate and Riley checking out the Presidents

Gaby and Zaya having fun!

Washington DC!

The Pencil Point

Jefferson and Abraham Memmorials

Zaya thought it was so fun to push the button that made this boy and his dog go round and round.

Capital Building

The White house complete with a helicopter that spins its blades

The full on marching band behind the capital building. It was so cool how everything was animated!

The kids all loved the farm and pushing the buttons that made everything move and make sounds!

And Zaya LOVED this train! He crossed the fence a couple time trying to find it! OH man! WE almost had to leave after that, because I was so embarrassed! But he was good after that! He loves trains way to much!

Fun water band

Another view of the park!

Las Vegas BABY!

Eiffel tower and MGM and others

Look closely and you will see the little boy hanging off the ship! It was fun watching him go up and down!

Statue of Liberty

Excalibur

Tropicana

Luxor

Welcome to Las Vegas

Isaiah loved watching the cars drive around NYC (I think) I have never been there, but I think that is what this city is. :)

All of the kids having fun watching all the vehicles

Taxi and Postal Truck

More Cars

The big Sky scrapers

Fire truck

School bus

Darth Vader with Sadie and Aidan

Zaya loving this ride!

He had so much fun!

Not wanting the ride to be over.

Lizard in the jungle

Snake (It was dark in this room, but with the flash you can't tell.)

Egyptian Pyramid

Sadie and the kids looking for the lost keys of the tomb.

Aidan the mummy

Checking to see if the lost key is in the chest.

Then you enter the ice room and there are wolves

A fun little mail box to the igloo that Zaya loved! He loves mail boxes! :)

This polar bear would come in and out of the cave and growl at us.

Little Eskimo and penguin on ice.

Seal under ice

Ian, Aleisha Cali, and Riley

Cali and Zaya pretending to get into their life size volvo. :)

Now this next ride (The Lego Cars) cracked me up! I didn't realize that the kids drive the car themselves or I would have told Zaya how to do it! He only made it around the track about a total of 1 to 1/12 times because he kept crashing and trying to figure out how to drive for the first time! It was cracking me up! :)

Driving his little lego go cart. 

Zaya crashed into the fence.

Tate doing laps around zaya with the worker coming to the rescue.

They basically had to follow him and help him the whole way around the track! :)

Cali has got it all figured out and even smiled for the camera! :)

Cole Zooming on by

All of them zooming around the track!

The whole day Brooklyn loved Tate and his hat! She would crack up evertime and try and tease him and grab his hat! He making her laugh just as much as she loved teasing him! It was so cute.

At the end of the day when we were getting ready to go home I heard Tate tell her not to forget him. It was so cute! Good thing they can still see each other on Sundays and at play group.

Zaya had tons of fun riding this motorcycle that made real motorcyle sounds. It was in the play ground area. I never got a picture of the train or him playing doctor with Aidan. But he loved riding the train and playing! We  had a blast! Thanks again Aleisha for inviting us to come along and getting us into the Park for FREE! We owe you big time! We have such awesome friends here!