Funny Story

So the girls have a small obsession with spoons. To hide them from each other they get very creative. Today, as I was dropping the girls off at child watch at the Y, I looked down at Parker's shirt and thought it looked funny. I looked down her shirt and lo and behold there was a spoon. She thought this was very funny. Then when I went to pick her and Emma Jane up she kept saying "spoon, spoon" and there was yet another spoon hidden down her shirt. What made this even more funny was later- hours later- when I was changing her diaper, I found a third spoon basically at the bottom of her onesie. I personally think it would have been quite uncomfortable to walk around with three spoons down my shirt... but I'm not a two year old.

The girls had a great Halloween. We went trick or treating for the first time and experienced the most involved trick or treating I have ever seen. One of our friends recommended we go to a neighborhood a few streets up for a "true" St. Louis Halloween. We weren't disappointed. The streets were blocked off so no cars could get through and everyone sat out in the very decorated yard with their fire pits and buckets of candy. I've never seen anywhere that was so serious about Halloween. The girls were brave enough to go get candy from people, but didn't speak a word the entire time they were there. I think they had fun though and I know they have enjoyed the candy. The girls were ducks- more specifically they were "Gossie and Gertie" which is a really cute children's books.

"Eating" a candy apple prior to trick or treating

This is Gossie. This is Gertie. Gossie wears bright red boots. Gertie wears bright blue boots. They are friends. Best friends.

Enjoying the fruits of her labor.

October has also brought us exciting news about Broge Baby C. We now know that Broge Baby C is.... A GIRL!!!!! The thought of three girls under three is a tad overwhelming but we are excited. Most importantly she looks healthy and everything is going okay so far with this pregnancy. We are 19 weeks in and hoping for 20 more.

And last but certainly not least, the girls have two new girls cousins! Jason's sister Heather had a little girl, Reagan, on Oct. 31. She is doing wonderfully. The very next day my brother Mark and his wife Teela welcomed their little girl, Lily, into the world. She is also doing wonderfully and I even have some pictures of her. Congratulations to Mark and Teela on having a full term baby :)

Mark looks a tiny bit tired here...

Good Times

So, in case you missed it in the last post, the Broge family will be expanding by one this time! We are very pleasantly suprised and excited. I am currently 16 weeks along and so far so good. This time around, things are very different. Of course the biggest difference is there is only one baby. Second, I am being watched like a hawk. I am going to the doctor every 1-2 weeks, seeing a high risk OB, taking what feels like a ton of meds, and getting oh so many ultrasounds. Of course, Jason and I are both a little on the terrified side since we REALLY don't want a repeat of last time. So our biggest prayer request, after a healthy baby, is a full term one. I want to be big, fat, and miserably pregnant.



The girls of course have no idea what is going on other than they are getting to watch a lot of more TV than usual. This is not bad news for them as their new current obsession is Elmo. We have been able to do some fall activities this year with the girls which has been fantastic. Last weekend, in the great tradition of most St. Louisians, we went to Eckerts Farm for apple and pumpkin picking. We had so so much fun. The girls rode their first ponies, ate funnel cake, watched a pig race, and of course picked apples. Here are some pictures of our fun.

Parker loving the pony ride. She had a little tantrum when she had to get off.

I was pleasantly suprised that Emma Jane actually got on the horse and then had fun!

They were in apple heaven.

Pumpkins are clearly for sitting on.

A great time was had by all!

A few things worth mentioning...

So, just to give you a heads up right now, there are no pictures in this blog entry. I know, I'm sorry, but I'm not at a computer with pictures available. There is, however a video worth watching at the bottom. At least I think its worth watching, and you probably will too once you've seen it. Hey....you let me know once you've seen it and you can tell me.

The girls are silly.

I know, this should be obvious.

And it is.

But what is so much fun for me is how they are silly in different ways.

Silliness oozes out of Parker without her being aware of it. She sees something and thinks it is funny and does without much thought. Perfect example. The other night Mary Jane was singing Jesus Loves Me with the girls and teaching them little motions. Some of them the girls were catching on to, and some were quite obviously over their heads. When Mary Jane made the Bible one (picture someone opening their hands like a book) Parker lost it. She thought it was the funniest thing ever. She insisted in putting her hands into Mary Jane's as they opened. She laughed and laughed. She was being silly.

Emma Jane is completely different. Silly is a much more thought out thing for her. Emma Jane seems to think about silly, and purposely be silly. Examples? They abound. She was the first one to make a silly face, because it is a silly face. And when she did it, she wanted me to copy that face so that she could see what it looked like. She quickly turned this into a game. For months (and months) now Emma Jane and I have had this silly face game that she started. There are two faces we will rotate through. Emma Jane has a game with Mary Jane too. Mary Jane got into the habit of saying "Hi Baby" to her (often in them mornings or after nap time). At some point in time Emma Jane picked that up and has turned that around. This is not just her copying Mary Jane. When Emma Jane walks in the room goes up to Mary Jane and says "Hi Baby" she is not just copying. She knows what 'hi' is and she definitely knows what a 'baby' is. She makes it clear, she is playing a game, and she is so excited when Mary Jane plays back.

Anyway...all that is just blathering. Some things worth mentioning....

Speaking of which. Have you seen this preview? It doesn't come out for a while, but I think Mary Jane and I are going to need a baby sitter when it does.

This view of the preview might be better

And then they were two

Two two year olds. Its so hard to believe. For the past three years, August 30th has been an emotional day. I remember almost every detail about August 30th, 2008. They took me off the continuous monitors that morning. It was the day I got to get out of bed and take a shower. I got to put on real clothes. I got to eat. My mom, Jason, and I were going to have a big day and watch "Emma" (my favorite movie). In my head, I was settling in for what I hoped was a lengthy hospital stay. Paul and Emily brought us all lunch from Bread Co. But for some reason I ate a cheeseburger for lunch instead. As we were all sitting in my hospital room talking, I could tell something bad had just happened. We called the nurse. She came in. She went to call the Dr. In the time it took her to do that (which wasn't long), things got worse. Overwhelming fear came over us like I have never experienced before. Dr. Tuuli rushed into my room and said we have to go now. And within 45 minutes, Parker and Emma Jane were here. As of the time I am writing this (8:30), I had only seen them as they wheeled them out of the room. But they had both been baptized by now by Pastor Bierman. My question over and over again was when can I see them? My nurse that evening said as soon as I stop shaking (no one told me about that part!) I could go. It took until about 5am and I was over there!

... Fast forward two years and...

Happy Birthday Parker and Emma Jane. Wow. Words can't express how miraculous, wonderful, crazy, and beautiful these two are. So on to the birthday. We actually had two parties this year. One in Chattanooga and one in St. Louis. We had owl themed parties that tons of fun!

Parker is currently in an Elmo phase. I let them pick out their own party hats!

We got to ride the carousel in Chattanooga. It was the first time for the girls. At first they were a little unsure, but then they loved it!

You should know, I didn't put a single one of these accessories on :)

The girls got a kitchen for their birthday.

Simon brought the girls sunflowers :)

Blowing out candles.

Birthday morning. They went straight to the kitchen. Interesting fact: Parker picks out pajamas for herself and Emma Jane every night. Sometimes they match (like Emma Janes) and sometimes they don't. Parker loves this particular pajama shirt because it has a puppy on it.

Opening presents birthday morning. Another fun fact: You will see in Emma Jane's hand "ducket". This is a duck blanket that actually is monogrammed with Parker's name- alas Emma Jane has adopted it.

The girls also got dress up clothes for their birthday. Parker is obsessed with shoes so she got dress up shoes. Despite being too big, Parker has already mastered walking in her shoes.

Emma Jane was taking a picture of me with her "phone".

New pajamas.

All in all very fun birthdays. The girls are very two. A day doesn't go by without a temper trantum and someone hitting someone. My most common phrases are "Get that out of your mouth", "Get down", and "Don't hit".

A little tid bit on both girls:

Emma Jane- she loves to climb and is now pushing objects around to climb on to get what she wants. She loves babies and prefers real ones over fake ones. She loves looking at pictures of babies too. She is a weird mix of independent and "hold me all the time". Emma Jane knows what she wants to do, and does it. She is confident. She is more conversational in her talking than Parker, but she is harder to understand. Emma Jane loves to talk on the phone to anyone and loves saying hi to anyone she meets. She generally dislikes doing what you tell her to do.

Parker- one word= emotional. Parker has little control over them, but fortunately she is normally happy. Recently she has started to love dancing. I have tried so many times to capture this on film but I whip the camera and she stops. She also likes singing which is great. Parker never sits still unless you are reading a book to her. Parker likes to go around the room and name each person in it. This is done multiple times a day.

Well this blog post is now entirely too long. We are looking forward to an another exciting year!

Finger Painting

These speak for themselves- who wants to paint on paper when you could paint on yourself!

4th of July and Ow-eees...

July has been a busy month for the Broges (hence the lack of blog posts). The girls are learning more everyday and in this past month their vocabulary has increased ten fold. It seems they are learning a new word every other day. One of Parker's new favorite words is "oweee". And she has had so many in the past couple of weeks. I don't have a picture of what she currently looks like, but she looks like she has been in a bar fight. The most recent injuries have been the corner of a picture frame to the forehead and somehow (I still don't know how this happened really) ramming her cheek into the corner of a stair. Parker points out where her oweees are multiple times/day. They are very stressful to her. Not to be left out, Emma Jane has some pretend oweees which of course need bandaging too. The other night I put steri strips on Parker's forehead and Emma Jane would not rest until she had a steri strip as well. I asked her where her oweee was and she pointed to her nose...

Parker's oweee (its right before bedtime... thus the sleepy face)

Emma Jane's pretend oweee

We also had tons of fun on the 4th of July. The girls got to hold their own popsicle for the first time and they LOVED it. It was of course quite messy but well worth it.

Here are some pictures of Emma Jane and Parker's fourth of July dresses and of them eating their most favorite fruit- watermelon!

I repeatedly told them not to eat the green part... then I realized they were doing it as a joke....because disobeying is funny :)

They were watching a video which is currently the only way I can get them to sit still next to each other!

Anyway, despite some injuries and illnesses (Parker had roseola with a fever of 104.5 while we were in a hotel room in a city where we didn't know where anything was) we have had lots of fun this summer!

Water

The girls are funny.

Well, that almost goes without saying.

But specifically they are funny about water.

Oh, they like water, but they like it in significantly different ways. Both of them like bath time, but when it comes to various outdoor water activities they are night and day. We ran into a perfect example of this the other day at the kids park in the botanical gardens. Somewhere in the midst of the labyrinth that is the kids area is a sort of splash fountain.

Now I am sure the rest of you in America know what this thing is actually called, and have seen a million of them. But being that this is the first summer where we can go places and explore with the girls, I really haven't seen this sort of thing before and have absolutely no idea what it is called--hence the term "splash fountain" Basically this is a big area for kids to run through and every so often water will splurt up out of nowhere and get the kids wet. It kind of reminds me of the fireswamp in the Princess Bride--but, you know, without the fire and death.

Anyway. The girls ran in to check it out. At first both of them seemed fairly delighted by the sudden spurts of water. But it didn't take Emma Jane long to rethink her decision. Before we knew it she was climbing up the walls to get away.
Meanwhile Parker was taking the "soak me" approach, choosing to run up to each of the splurts and try to get wet.


The funniest part was when Parker would try to get a drink out of the splurt. She would see one come up and run up to it with her mouth open, but ineveitably get there too late to drink. The water would dissapear at the exact moment she thought her thirst was about to be quenched. She would begin to look around dejected and confused, stepping forward just a little bit, and then, of course, the next splurt would come right up her....

well...

it was funny.

All this might give you the impression Emma Jane really doesn't like water, except that at swim lessons its pretty different. She's the one floating along and kicking, while Parker is holding on for dear life like we are going to let her go and see if she drifts off to the grey havens......not going to happen.

This is the point of the blog post where one might expect to discover the point of all this babble. If you are one of those people I have some sad news for you. No point. Just some observations

blessings