Our IvyRose Spica Chair + Brooky 10 months old!

Spica Chair

Our new custom built IvyRose Spica chair came in the mail today! But before I could unbox it or put it together, I had to clean out Brooky's cast. She had her first big blowout in it. And there is nothing I could have done to prevent this. There was just so much poop that there was nowhere left for it to go, but up her back and into the cast. Gross. I know! So after about half a pack of wipes, the stick of my spatula, a blow drier on the cool setting and some old burp rags, and 2+ hours of my time, we got my sweet girl all cleaned up and dried out. The last thing I wanted was for her to stink and get sores, so I made sure to do a thorough job cleaning it out! So once we got that all taken care of I got to open our long awaited chair. Although it really wasn't that long. Especially for getting it less than two weeks after ordering it. We all love the chair and it has already changed everything. Although Brooky was happy before we got it, she can now sit up normally once again and eat her finger foods and play with her toys like she used to! It is so nice! Even Isaiah loves it and he kept asking for his turn in the chair. He enjoyed eating his snack in it while she was taking her nap! Love our cute little watermelon chair and can't imagine what we would do without this thing! Out of all the different chairs we could have picked we decided to get a watermelon because our Brooky is sweet, juicy, and heavy just like a watermelon! :) Plus we thought it was cute and would be cute for the summer! So check out our pics! This is a must have (in my opinion) for anyone going through a kid in a spika cast!

Isaiah fell in love with the chair immediately. He loved helping me screw it together with the tools (screwdriver) and then he couldn't wait to sit in it and play with his sister!

I love this face! Cracks me up every time I look at it!

Enjoying some cheerios together

She has a huge fistful of them! 

Isaiah eating his orange for snack time while his sister was asleep.

After she woke up she got to try out her new chair!

Zaya wanted in too!

These shots are without the top lid/table piece on.

Love how they put her name on the back at no extra cost! :)

She totally loves this thing!

On the reverse side it has chalkboard paint so they can draw! So fun!

It says To Brooklyn with love

10 months old (this is the other side of the lid...the top)

This is a view of the bottom/underneath so you can see how she sits in it with her cast on.

So happy to be rockin' in her new chair!

Love this face too!

Sweet smile

10 months old. I think she is adorable!

Brooky 10 Months Old!

~Since last month Brooky has put on a couple of pounds! LOL. pretty sure she didn't gain too much wait except for the additional 7lbs of cast! 

~Her hair is getting longer in the back. When her hair gets wet it gets curly. YAY! I think she may have wavy or curly hair like me, but it is still a little too early to tell for sure. I wouldn't be surprised though!

~She is also starting to voice her opinion! When she doesn't like something she lets you know by screaming. Usually because she needs a diaper change or is board, or because she dropped a toy that she can't reach. When she does this Isaiah tells her "No Brooklyn don't do that!" :)

~She is also starting to talk. I am not sure if she knows the words or not, but she babbles a lot and she has said, mama, dada, muma, and Iyaya! I swear she is yelling for Isaiah all the time. And I can't believe she could be talking already, but the more I hear her babble, I really think she is saying these words for real! She also says baba a lot too! Don't know if she really knows the meaning and connects them to us or not, but hey, maybe she will be like Isaiah and since she isn't mobile yet maybe she will be more concentrated on learning sounds and words instead of cruising around the house. I swear that is the reason Zaya picked up words so quickly, but maybe not, it is just my best guess.

~Her favorite games are peak-a-boo, reading books, and rocking back and forth. She still does it even in her cast! She also enjoys watching videos with her brother. Which I don't think is a good thing!

~She is still my happy baby and I love her more each day!

Wagon ride and Eclipse

Here are just a few random pics from the past few weeks that I wanted to throw in here.

Thank You Aline for letting us borrow your wagon while we found a good stroller. It was nice to be able to still get out of the house to go for walks in that transition time! 

Sitting on pillows and a blanket

My cute cupcake!

Love this pic of big brother pulling the wagon!

This wagon worked perfect for fitting her and other stuff too! Even Zaya could get in with her! I think my friend bought it at Cosco for anyone who might want one to go to the beach or to haul their spica baby around in or whatever else your little heart desires. :)

Here is what she looks like without any clothes. :)

Love that they left the front of the cast off, so I can still see this cute little belly popping through!

We just happened to be outside and catch the solar eclipse on Sunday

Pretty cool!

This is right outside our apartment.

Isaiah Turned 3

Happy Birthday to my big tall boy! Last week we celebrated Isaiah's B-Day. I feel bad that we didn't get out and do anything too special. Although I don't feel too bad because I felt sick and he still had a good birthday, so I guess it was all okay in the end. Since I wasn't feeling well we just stayed home and I spoiled him here instead! He got lots of juice and all his favorite treats (but not too many, because we had to leave a little room for cake!) He also got to spend forever watching his favorite videos and took a really long bubble bath. So we all had a pretty relaxing day. Then he helped me make his ice cream cake which he loved! We had over one of the families in our ward that are our good friends. I wanted to invite more, but we didn't have room for a huge party in our place and with Brooky having her surgery just the week before his birthday I didn't want to plan a huge party in case I wouldn't be able to pull it off. Now I am glad I didn't because I had that horrible cold and nausea! And what do you know the nausea was pretty much only there when it was time to eat the cake! :( Just glad no one else was sick or got sick! Also glad the Passmores joined us and I know Isaiah loved having them over to help open presents and eat the cake! 

                                      

Opening Presents

Happy Girl on her brothers b-day! Love these pics of her so much I had to post them!

So sweet. Love her blue eyes!

Getting ready for the cake!

Lighting the cake

Stealing more M&M's from the cake.

He loved it!

Olive and Zaya playing some music. :)

Enjoying his new play food! We go play shopping everyday now.

His facial expression shows how excited he was about this!

Opening the card

Another present

And another. This is one of his favorite parts, unwrapping the gifts.

Gathered around opening presents

He was so distracted by his new monster truck that he didn't want to open his other gifts. :)

 His new monster truck

I forgot to get pictures of the balloons I hung in his doorway. I put them up the night before his birthday so he would be surprised when he woke up! He loved that too! Wish I would have been feeling better so I might have taken a few more pics. Oh well. 

Can't believe my big boy is growing up so fast! He still loves watching videos and taking bubble baths. He loves playing with trucks and trains. And he is starting to like bugs. He kills the spiders for me and he actually let a lady bug crawl on him! He always likes looking for rolly polly bugs and lady bugs, because they are the nice bugs. Also he loves to pull all the snails off the walls around our apartment outside! He is starting to ask lots of questions and bossing me and his little sister around! Not good! He is always telling her to be quiet and to not do stuff or taking things away from her saying that she doesn't want them. But the worst is now he pretends that he can't do stuff that he can do and then he says, "Mom I need your help. Mom help me. Mom! Come help me right now! So now he is threatening me to help him or he will spank me! Silly kid. I have had to take a step back and re-evaluate my parenting skills and also make sure he knows he can't talk to me that way. Oh these kids sure keep me on my toes! But I love them!

Day 1: Post Recovery

I feel truly blessed. I feel like I have had so much support and help and that has made all the difference. But not only that, but I cannot tell you how blessed I am to have such a wonderful happy baby! She truly is a one of a kind GEM! I think there is good reason we named her middle name Ruby after her great grandma because she really is my Gem. I couldn't ask for a better disposition for a child especially while going through all of this. One of the main reasons I was so concerned about her getting in the spica cast was because I thought for sure we would have a horrible first week (or longer) with a cranky baby that couldn't get comfortable. But not so. She has been pretty much all smiles. She is totally back to her normal self today. She has been laughing and playing and going about her normal silliness just like before. She is even still trying to do her favorite move. She used to sit back on the couch and rock back and forth and slam her head into the couch. Well now she lifts her head off the beanbag and then slams it back and does it in a reclined position. She lights up my life and I feel like the fact that she has been so resilient and bounced back so quickly is not only a huge blessing but I just love her even more and think she is so amazing. Her sweet disposition just makes me want to be a happier better person and I think it is because of her that I will be able to get through this. Somehow whenever I feel down she always seems to put a smile on my face.

She slept really well last night, although she did wake up 6:45 this morning and she usually sleeps until 8:30 or 9:00. She didn't even wake up when Isaiah woke up twice in the night when his cold was bothering him.

So far I haven't noticed any spots where the cast seems to be irritating or rubbing on her skin. The diapering is going pretty well, and she even fits in the wagon my friend let me borrow to see if she would fit. So now we just need to see if she actually likes going out in it and then we may get one if it works. Isaiah is really excited to go on a walk tomorrow especially after being stuck at home all day. Also her rasping from the tube they put down her throat is all gone, so she doesn't sound funny any more either.

Just want to say thanks again to everyone who has been praying for us and thinking of us. It truly has made a world of difference. There is no way I would be coping this well otherwise. Let's hope that the rest of these months will go by as smoothly as today. 

Here's proof that she really is still my happy baby. :)

My big marshmallow just laying on the couch

Loving her big pink bean bag that we got at Target

I love how they didn't cast her belly so I can still feel her soft skin and blow on it and tickle her! :) You can kind of see through the onsie where the cast doesn't cover her belly.

I can barely snap this size 24 month onsie over her fat cast. Especially the left leg because the cast it a little thicker on that side.

Wanted to get a picture of her feet in the cast now to see how much her legs grow out the bottom by the time she has her next cast change.

My sweet babe! There aren't words to describe how much I love her!

Oh yes and I weighed this heavy girl this morning. She weighed in at 27 lbs. She feels way heavier than that to me though. I think it is because the weight distribution makes it feel so much heavier. It also doesn't help that she is so awkward to hold. Love this girl despite how heavy she is! :)

Here's to a good tomorrow!