Brooke Has Something To Say

(Translation often need for those that dont speak Brooke: "Happy Birthday Uncle Brad")

You Know Its Hot When ...

You are playing at the park and your toddler makes a beeline for her stroller...



Climbs on in...



And announces "bye bye!"

Before She Tells Whole World...

Brooke has been feverishly texting all of her friends...



to spread the news that she is gonna be a big sister!

You know how kids these days are with technology. I had to post on here before she starts tweeting to the world. So in the coming months Brooke is going to have to learn to share her blog ... in addition to a whole lot of other stuff ;)

Ups & Downs

Brooke has been sick since Saturday. Its been a rough few days and we have been trapped in the house doing a lot of television watching (and crying). This morning she was a little better in spirit. Her temp seemed to have stopped with the ups and downs and she was happier than I've seen her in days. To celebrate, I figured we would go out for a nice walk and get some new barrettes for her hair ;) The walk was great and Brooke picked out several barrettes - 3 animals that she is familiar with and one with her initial on it (she thinks all letters are the letter b, so technically would have been happy with any letter ... Mommy had to help a bit here). She wanted to hold the barrettes and kept trying to put them in. I put one in, she took it out and either wanted the same one back in ... or one of the other ones. I let her try out all of them and hid each one after she wore it for a bit, so that we didnt have to keep repeating the pattern.

The Bow Show

Frog	"B"
Monkey	Fish

After a bit of shopping, Brooke felt like getting out and walking for a bit. Despite the fact that she hasnt eaten a real meal in days, she still had the strength to push her own stroller.

It didnt last, and she decided that I needed to carry her the last few blocks home (while also pushing the stroller).

We got home and Mommy was feeling a bit optimistic. We had a great outing and she still seemed to be in a good mood. I put her in her high chair for lunch and gave her some grilled cheese and mango. She took a bit of the grilled cheese (yay!) and ate the three pieces of mango on her plate. I got her a bit more mango. She refused it. She then refused yogurt, crackers and a bagel. She ate three blueberries and started crying. Lunch was over. I took her temp and it was back around 102.

So I think she is getting better, but I still cant keep her temp down. I'm not too sure what is wrong with her. She isnt sleeping well (in fact, crying in her crib right now ... only an hour into her 1.5-2 hour nap and I'm hoping she goes back to sleep), isnt eating well, and just feels miserable.

So she got some nifty new barrettes, but I think we might have celebrated a tad too early :(

Starbucks Lovin

Brooke has been going to Starbucks since she was a few days old. Despite the fact that she has now known some of the employees for her whole life - over 19 months - she still gives them the evil eye every time she sees them. She will wave and blow kisses at complete strangers, but if a Starbucks employee talks to her she shies away, turns her head, or gives them a dirty look.

One particular employee works very hard at trying to win her over. The other day Brooke had her Mickey Mouse doll say "bye" to her ... which was the warmest she has been (she would not personally acknowledge her, only Mickey would). This morning the employee gave it another shot, by giving her not one, but TWO little Starbucks cups. Brooke wouldnt say "thank you", but did say "bye" to her. I think she found her way in ... bribery.

Showing off her cool cups


Taking a drink

Flying High

Enjoying a little fun at the park ...

Another Zoo Trip

The Lincoln Park Zoo is not only close to us, but its also free. So on a nice day I often take Brooke there. I think she gets more out of it than running around at a park (of course, we do that too!) and I find the experience equally enjoying.

Today's trip, while enjoyable, was a bit more than anticipated. As the end of the school year approaches every school in the Chicagoland area must be squeezing in some last minute fieldtrips. Though not there long, there were no less than 20 or so schools walking around. This makes the zoo very crowded and loud, but the biggest problem is just the lack of supervision of a lot of these kids. They would scramble in front of Brooke to see an animal, walk into us on the walkways and yell and holler (sometimes with obscenities). Instead of a relaxing time at the zoo it was a bit hectic and chaotic ... but Brooke didnt seem to notice.

We met Gina, Paige and Evan there. All Brooke was worried about was Paige. She wanted Paige to hold her hand at all times. She wanted to sit next to her while eating lunch. She didnt let her out of her sight. In addition to keeping her eye on Paige, she managed to see a few animals too :) Overall I'd say she was pretty happy with our trip!

Due to the crowds and confusion I wasnt much for picture snapping and didnt get a single pic of Brooke. I did get a picture of a momma duck and her ducklings cruising along in a new pond being built.

Elmo Live!

Today Brooke went with three friends (and their mommies) to see Elmo
Live. It was quite the day!

We carpooled with her friend Connelly (and moms friend Kim). We have
an extra carseat for travel so daddy installed it for Connelly to
use. Daddy figured Brooke would notice Connelly was forward facing
and so we decided to make the big move ... Brooke is now forward
facing too!

The ride went great. Considering the girls didn't even look at each
other in the car, I'm pretty sure Brooke woudnt have noticed her seat
position ... But we were trying to figure out when to flip it anyway
and this gave us our opportunity.

The show was great. Brooke sang and danced and called out character
names. She blew kisses towards the stage too! It was a little long
for her and she tried to leave (on her own) several times. She also
yelled "bye bye" after each song, assuming it was time to go. It
took some work, but we made it through the whole show ;)

On the way home, Brooke and her new Big Bird cuddled up and took a
little snooze.

One, Two, Three!

Brooke has been very into the concept of counting. We count things with her often, generally up to the number three. She likes to count things on her own, but usually just points out things and says "one". Then she mumbles other random things for the other numbers, or just gives up counting after that :)

Occasionally she says "one, two" depending on her mood or how excited she is about counting. If we ask her to repeat us, she can easily says "one, two, three", but I had assumed that it was a little beyond her and have not tried to push her in any way.

This morning we went to Starbucks. We let Brooke walk (versus taking the stroller), and it must have been the longest walk we have ever taken. Brooke had to stop to smell every flower, point at every car, and step on every item she saw. At one point she found a short wooden picket fence, with each picket being about as tall as her chest. She touched each one as she walked and counted "one". She kept repeating "one" as she went along ;) I gave her a little help and started counting for her "one, two, three" and then started over at one again. She listened to me talk as she touched each one and walked along. The next house had wooden paneling on the front.

Brooke walked up to the paneling, touched the first one and said "one"

She moved onto the next one and said "two"

And moved onto the next one and said "three"

Before you know it we will have her working on her addition, subtraction and multiplication tables ;)