Fun with the Girls

Brooke and mommy's last day together! What a sweet baby...

I know she is thinking, "Mommy - Let go! enough!" I did take about 15 selfies to get a mildy decent one. Problem is that now my zillion moles and wrinkles show up on selfies. Was not the case in college. Wasn't that just last year?

Valentine's Day! Cameron loved all her heart stickers and chocolate candies.



Yummy! These are good. More please.

Where's all the chocolate??????? I said MORE!

I took this pic last night because they both randomly ended up in cherry jammies.

Cameron then got the "Hypies" as we call it and was a wild one. She entertained Brookers for a while.

Our mistake of putting Brooke in bed with Cameron because then she got the giggles and was making us laugh. Tim was supposed to put her down but I kept hearing laughter from the bedroom. Apparently dad was laughing too much and had to leave her by herself to settle down for the night.

First week back to work and I was sick by noon on Monday. Kids. It was a whirlwind and I would have accomplished a lot more if I had felt better.

We have a big day tomorrow. Cameron's second birthday party and Brooke's baptism. A Mickey Mouse double party. Should be fun!

I love my sister

I Love My Baby Sister!!!


Cameron is always so excited to see Brooke. It's the first thing she says in the morning when she wakes up - "Where's Brooke?"

This is a picture of the grandkids with their favorite blankies made with love by Aunt Diann. She makes the best blankies. Cameron would not be the same if she lost her beloved "Boti." If you notice Brooke- she's screaming. She didn't stop for 3 days. But the Monday-Weds she is usually pretty good. Not sure what her deal is.

Aunt Diann and Uncle Tom spent the night last Friday on the way to Arizona. Terry, Scott, Max, and Maddie came down for pizza too. The kids love to run around and play together. I can't wait for summer! It's so nice that they are all about the same age.

I go back to work on Monday. All my other teacher friends have Monday off and are doing a playdate.... Ironic. 2 months off and they had to work. My first day back is their day off....

Should be interesting going back to work. Hopefully I'll get to shower without a screaming baby each morning.

Cuteness

This one is Cameron at 6 weeks or so...

This one is Brooke. I think they look a lot alike, but you may not.

Cheese.

It took many HIIIIIs in a high pitch voice by me and Tim snapping pics to get one resembling a smile.

Miss Cameron got her hair done at daycare. She won't let me near her to do this to her. I barely get to comb her hair. Someone looks sleepy...

Bottle Time

After weeks of trying to get Brooke to at least let a bottle come in contact with her mouth, she has finally adapted to the bottle. She also started freaking out from 6-10pm. What is up with that? Seriously... one kids is always crying! I get Brooke calmed down and then Cameron throws a fit. Tim and I just look at each other like "Did aliens take over the kids???" Saturday was a scream fest, but Sunday was nice and calm. Party because we got Brookers to take a pacifier during her scream time hours. It seems to calm her down so she is not flailing about so much. She is sleeping longer too which is so nice. Up to 3 1/2 hours at a time. That may not seem to be too much to you folks who give birth to sleepers - it used to be every 1 1/2 to 2 hours she was up. Tim and I make colicky, non-sleeping babies. But they are cute! Last night Tim put Cameron down to bed at 8:30 and I had Brooke down at 8:45. It was peaceful and beautiful. We didn't get to enjoy it too much we were sleeping by 9:20! Kids.

We got ourselves and nice computer virus last week and was without a computer for 5 whole days! I felt out of the loop. Thank goodness it wasn't fantasy football season...

I have two more weeks with Little Brookie. Hopefully these will be nice and calm. The last few were the crabby weeks. I have faith. I just don't know how I will get my schoolwork done at 9pm at night - that is my sleeptime... Should be an interesting spring.

Did I Say Blissful?

That was pretty naive of me. Brooke morfed into Hold Me All the Time baby. I wrongly assumed I would be able to put her down for a nap and I could do stuff around the house. Like organize the office/junk room. But alas, it wasn't meant to be. I hold her A LOT while she naps. I am so tired as well so I nap too. We do have a lot of couch snuggling time.

I decided to put her in the car seat last night for bedtime because she seems to like being snuggled - hence the constant holding - and no the Snuggle Me's do not help and she is wise to the tight blanket wrapping to simulate being held, my child is no dummy. She slept from 8-12 last night! YEAH! I could really have used a 4 hour sleep time, but once again that was not meant to be. I got the stomach flu/food poisoning, not really sure which one. But I was so cold, I was shaking uncontrollably even with tons of blankets on me. I finally gave in and puked up my guts. I fell asleep around 10pm or so. So I did get 2 hours of sleep before she awoke. The next time I put her in there she only slept 2 more hours.... hmmm. What to try next.

Well that has been my 3 weeks with Miss Brookie. Cameron is still a fun little girl. Being a parent sort of sucks the fun out of everything. We can't laugh at her bad habits, like suddenly spitting food out at the dinner table. We are getting good at the looking away while we laugh and then giving her a disapproving look move. We have to have good behavior all the time because she mocks us and repeats things we say. No wonder kids think their parents are boring. We are.

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and Happy New Baby!

Brooke Susan Rogge made her debut on December 19th, 2008. It was a fast and relatively easy delivery - thank you Brooke! She was 7 lbs and 2 oz. She is adorable - of course! She is also a really good baby. Calm and content. I am so happy to have 8 blissful weeks with her.

Cameron loves being a big sister. She gives Brooke kisses and giggles when she makes noises. Cameron is demanding of our attention though. We are doing our best to spend lots of time with her. I am not sure if it is the beginning of the Terrible Twos or if she is having a hard time adjusting - even though we are spending more time playing with her than we did before Brooke was here.

It seems as though our babies bring snowstorms and the flu. When Cameron was born we had a major snowstorm and our first night home Tim got the flu. This time we had a snowstorm and on our first night home Cameron had the flu. Poor Tim - he was/is on Cameron duty and she has been sick and not sleeping through the night anymore. Hopefully she'll adjust to the changes soon and begin sleeping again. I think I have gotten more sleep than Tim. Not to mention he also got the flu after Christmas.

Speaking of Christmas, this was a busy, tired, fun holiday season. Since all was going well, we went to my dad's for our usual Dec. 23 celebration. Papa and Nana went overboard once again :) Cameron loved playing with Hayden and Ethan and seeing her aunts and uncles. We spent Christmas Eve at home, tired and unshowered. Probably the most low key Christmas Eve I have ever had. But it was also the most content I have ever felt. Two babies, a warm comfty home and a great husband all together.

It

Christmas Day brought Paul, Jen, Ethan, Hayden and my mom down to celebrate with us. The kids had a lot of fun and we didn't have to travel, so that made it easier for us. Sally and Paul stopped by to say hello and get a glimpse of the new baby.

Unfortunately we didn't see much of Poopa and Grandma Sue this Christmas. Tim's family has been incredibly supportive - as usual, and we owe them a lot of holiday time in 2009!

2008 had brought us a lot of positive changes. Two new jobs, a new home, and a new baby. We have been very blessed this year and cannot wait to see what 2009 brings!

Happy New Year!

The Rogges

Holidays Upon Us

Hello! I had a long Thanksgiving post written and then when I clicked PUBLISH it prompted me to the dreaded "this page cannot be displayed" white screen. AHHHH! I was so annoyed I had to take some time for myself and recover....

In October we took some family pictures at my Dad's house. Cameron usually has a scared look on her face when anyone but Tim or I take her picture. We have about 3 good ones. This is one of Cameron with Hayden and Ethan. Can you tell which one is Cameron? Hayden and Cameron have the look. It think it is cute they look so much alike.

Tim and I had our 4th wedding anniversary and his parents came to babysit Cameron for us.

Unfortunately our household was recovering from the stomach flu so dinner was out. We upgraded our cell phones and caught the new James Bond movie. It was a nice time even without a fancy dinner. And Cameron got to play with Poopa and Grandma Sue, so she was in heaven. She really has no need for us whenever a grandparent is around. We may let us live with her, but we are definitely not her favorites!

Thanksgiving was a lot of fun. My mom came over and cooked a lot of the food. Tim cleaned! Jen, Paul, Hayden, Ethan, and Jen's parents came over for Thanksgiving dinner/lunch. The kids ran around and played together. It was pretty cute. It was the first Thanksgiving we hosted and I no one got food poisoning. Success!

We are into December and have just realized we have a few weeks left before the baby arrives. Names change by the week so there is no point in discussing them yet. I think we will have to wait until she arrives to name her. We did baby laundry and bought newborn diapers. We found a double stroller, some bassinets and I think we are good to go. I am definitely ready to be done and greet the new baby. I think Cameron will have quite an adjustment. She thinks the baby's room is her playroom and all the baby's stuff is her property. She's not good with change - she gets that from me. I hated it when my parents changed the outside of the house when I was growing up. Don't get me started on the time when I my dad shaved his beard. It was a dark day.

Tim did all the Christmas shopping so I take no blame. But I think he did pretty good. We put up our Christmas Tree and Cameron did not partake or care. But now she thinks the ornaments are pretty cool.

FYI - We'll be sending New Year's Cars/Birth Announcment after the holidays. I cannot manage to do two separate cards right now.

Happy Holidays!