I Am Brooke

Last week we got a call that Brooke has been accepted at one of the preschools we picked for her to attend next year.  We are a little concerned about how she is going to handle being at school all day every day, but we do believe this is the best educational environment for her and hope that she will thrive in her new school.  I am hoping that we will be able to get a tour there next week to make her feel more comfortable.  I have been talking to her about how she would need to go to a new class anyway with different teachers next year and that she will still have school, ballet, and TaeKwonDo in her new town.  Brooke told me that she is sad about leaving her teachers and friends, so we are doing our best to make her feel as excited as possible about the move.

Brooke has been so excited for Valentine’s Day.  She started asking about in in January, and by the first of February we ended up finding a Valentine countdown calendar online to help her understand how far away Valentine’s Day actually was.  Every day we would cut out a paper piece of candy with a number, put some glue on the back, and stick it on a picture of a candy box with different shapes and numbers for the daily piece of candy.  Brooke was anxious each day to put on the candy and to count the number of days remaining until Valentine’s Day.  We picked out Valentine cards and gifts for friends in her preschool class as well as ballet and made Valentine cards for her teachers at school.  Brooke even brought us some lovely Valentines home from school yesterday.  Thankfully, almost all the candy is gone, but she is already asking when we have our next holiday.

You can see pictures of Brooke and Ollie here.  On Friday when we got home from school, Brooke made sure that Ollie got a good nap before TaeKwonDo class.  Ollie sat in a chair outside class watching through the glass.  Then Ollie came home and ate dinner before going to bed.  The next day Ollie got up and went to Birmingham with the family.  He got to go into the Apple store to look around at all the fun toys.  Ollie really seemed to like the imac.  He also had fun playing in Brooke’s room with all her toys while he stayed with us.  All of Brooke’s dolls enjoyed his company.  And then Ollie got to stay an extra day because Brooke was too sick to go to school on Monday morning.  On Tuesday morning it was time for Ollie to go back to school so he could visit with another friend from class.  We all hugged him, thanked him for being no trouble at all, and sent him on his way. I told Brooke that maybe some day we will get our own stuffed owl, and I suggested naming him Hedwig like in Harry Potter. 

For weeks Brooke has been telling us about how one of her teachers has this pet owl named Ollie that goes home with people in class.  Brooke has been sad that she never gets to bring Ollie home, and my assurances that she would get a turn too seemed to land on deaf ears.  So, you can imagine the excitement in the house over having Ollie at home with us for the whole weekend.  We have been home less than an hour but are already diligently journaling about his stay with us and making sure he gets lots of hugs and rest.  Brooke is also guarding him from the dangerous hands of the Luke monster.  More to come on this fun development.

A couple of weeks ago we took Brooke to the Children’s Museum for a karate demonstration.  She did really well and liked it, so when they called and said she won a free week of training we decided to let her go.  She came home saying that she wanted to go to TaeKwonDo every day.  She went a few times during the next week and wanted to continue, so she signed up and got her first uniform and white belt.  We are really happy with the mix of training and fun as well as a good dose of discipline.  Brooke is thriving in the environment, and we hope it will help her to learn to be a little more assertive when warranted as well.