I Am Brooke

Brooke was very excited to get her tiger cub green belt today.  She proudly accepted her belt from one of her teachers, Mr. Hubbard, and is excited for her first class tomorrow with the new belt.

Some of you may remember that Brooke started going to the dermatologist in August for some small warts that were spreading on her hands.  When we first went and decided upon a treatment plan, the dermatologist said it should take 2-3 months of treatments to get rid of the warts.  Two to three months later, however, we had not seen any improvement.  They were actually getting worse.  What other choice did we have?  We stayed the course.  Today, after 10 months of treatments, the dermatologist finally declared Brooke’s warts to all be gone.  She got a treatment again today just to be on the safe side, but we are finally done!  Brooke has really been a trouper through the whole course of treatments other than a couple of visits she had with another dermatologist when hers was on maternity leave.  I am proud of Brooke’s mature attitude, tenacity, and grace through all of those visits.

For the past week Brooke went on a family road trip up to PA to visit her grandparents and great-grandparents, to DC, and to Charlotte before returning home.  She had a great time seeing the woods, riding the tractors, watching the train set, and spending time with her family in PA.  She really misses her grandparents and was so thrilled to see them again so soon after their visit down here.  Brooke also loved the Smithsonian museum of natural history.  She was so excited about seeing the dinosaur bones, rocks made from lava, live butterfly exhibit (her favorite was the blue morpho), and rocks and minerals.  She was so funny to watch the whole time.  Brooke just kept asking “is it real?” in total awe and amazement.  She also got to ride the Metro and told me that she didn’t know there was anything underground.  I think Washington, DC was a really great educational experience for Brooke.  She also loved getting to visit with her friend Ursula in Charlotte on the drive home.  They had a great time playing and going out for lunch.  Still, Brooke was thrilled to not sleep in a hotel and to get back home.  Even with a plethora of movies to occupy her in the car, Brooke was not a willing road trip participant.  About halfway through the drive on the first day, Brooke asked why we were not going to an airport and pointed out that flying would be much faster.  I don’t think she will be eager for another long road trip any time soon.

Today was Brooke’s last day of preschool at Kiddie Kollege. She has been there for the last two years and really loved it, especially this year. I had been preparing her for the day for a while, and today she had no tears. She just enjoyed dressing up like a clown for circus day and presenting everyone with special gifts. I think she understands that she will not go back to school there and will go to her new school in Hattiesburg. I don’t think she understands that she will likely never again see her friends Caroline, Louise, Mary Alice, and Taylor. If they were older, maybe they would email each other, but not at 4. I think that I was more sad on her last day of school and had to fight back the tears as I said my goodbyes so that Brooke would not start crying and be upset too.

Last night Brooke came into my room crying at about 2 am that she couldn’t sleep because she thought there were monsters in her closet (thanks so much, Monsters Inc.).  I get up with her and go to look for monsters.  When we do not find any, she agrees to go back to bed with the closet light on.  While tucking her in, I notice that her head feels really hot.  She says she feels fine, and I try to rationalize how it could just be that she was crying a lot about the monster in the closet.  Still, I was pretty sure she was getting sick and was fully expecting what came next.  At 5:30 this morning I woke up to Brooke running through our bedroom and towards our bathroom to throw up.  She almost made it…less than 5 feet to go.  At least it proved that I know my child and that my instincts are dead-on when it comes to her illnesses.

She said she was feeling better after having some soup for lunch, and I guess she did not believe me when I told her that her body was tired from fighting the germs and needed a nap.  I heard her up and playing in her room shortly after putting her down for a nap, but then it got quiet and she was in there for much longer than usual.  So, I poked my head in before I got Luke up from his nap and found her collapsed and napping on her bedroom floor next to her tea set.

As with most little girls, Brooke loves weddings.  She loves to play wedding and has two dolls in wedding gowns.  So, you can imagine her delight about attending an actual wedding this evening.  This morning she got up and told me today was the big wedding day.  She is thrilled.

Brooke got her yellow belt at the beginning of April and is loving it.  You can view some pictures in her gallery.  Life has been busy with school, ballet, and TaeKwonDo.  Everything is winding down in the next month, which means there are a lot of things to do.  We are also looking into ways to keep Brooke occupied in June.  Every day she asks what she is doing that day and says it is boring if she doesn’t have activities planned.  I guess she is already exhibiting signs of my illness that does not allow me to function if I am not busy enough, but we really just want Brooke to have fun and be able to experience a lot of different things so she can pick what she likes the best.  I will try to get back into the habit of more frequent posts here.  Maybe Daddy needs to be a guest blogger or I will let Brooke pen her own entry.

Brooke is very excited to test for her TaeKwonDo Tiger Cub yellow belt today.  We have been talking about it and preparing for weeks.  This morning when she came in to wake me up, the first words out of her mouth were “Mommy, it’s TaeKwonDo testing day!”  She is thrilled by the prospect of getting her yellow belt and Tiger Cub patch for her uniform.  Brooke is definitely ready to move to the next belt rank.  She has been doing so well, and everyone comments on how talented she is.  Her teacher, Mr. Leopard, even sent her a postcard telling her that she is a super cub and is doing so well.  We are very proud and happy to see her excel and really love what she is doing.

Brooke’s class talked about Easter this week, and she came home with a lot of wonderful artwork.  They also had a party and egg hunt this morning, which Brooke really enjoyed.  The highlight of the week, however, was the school program.  Her class sang a contemporary worship song, and Brooke was rocking out and singing her heart out.  We told her that she looked like Hannah Montana up on stage.  Everyone was talking about it, and we have enjoyed watching the video over and over again.  We could not have been more pleased or proud of our little star.