Swimming In Lake Michigan!

Brooke is spending the day with her cousins at the beach. Despite the fact they all have names, they have all become known only as "big girls" (and right now, the coolest people on this planet).


She had a lot of fun playing in the sand, swimming, and just hanging out at the beach.


Brooke also had a lot of "1st's" today:
- First time in the water of Lake Michigan (including 1st time under the water ... on accident)
- First taste of BBQ potato chips (she approved)
- First time eating corn straight off the cob, after a demonstration from her three cousins. Since they are so cool, Brooke had to do it too.
- First time eating ribs off the bone (though she was basically chewing on a bone that Daddy had already cleared off pretty good already!).

Brooke also dipped french fries in ketchup. Although she has done it before, in the past she hasnt liked the ketchup. Again, since her cousins were doing it, she did it too. Now she apparently likes ketchup :)

Brooke had one other big 1st today ... the first time we were able to transfer her into her crib from the car! We didnt get home until 9:30PM, she fell asleep in the car around 9:00PM. (That is about 1-1.5 hours later than she normally goes to bed). We figured getting her out of the car and bringing her into the house would wake her up, because it always does, but not today! She had such a fun and exciting day in Michigan that she was just too tuckered out to wake up. I carried her up into her bed and she drowsily said "Hi" to me a couple of times, but never fully woke up. She is now peacefully asleep in bed, probably dreaming of all of the fun she had today.

Brooke's Wish List

Time is flying by and Brooke will be 2 before we know it! I figured I would start compiling a list of things she wants (technically, at this age, she has no "wants" ... so these are things she doesnt have that Mommy and Daddy deem appropriate) for those who might be shopping for her Birthday or even Christmas ;)

I'll link this post over on the right side of the blog so it can be accessed at any time and will try to add to it whenever I think of anything new. Right now the list is short, but hopefully it will grow over the coming months.

Books
She loves books and we could definitely always use more!

Clothes
Brooke is outgrowing 2T and will be in 3T soon

Play Doh Sets
Brooke likes Play Doh but all we do is roll it, squish it, and use cookie cutters on it. She is ready for some more advanced play ... but nothing too complicated ;)

Transportation Vehicles
She loves busses, trucks, motorcycles and airplanes. Toys, books or clothes featuring them would likely win her approval.

Step Stool
Brooke cant reach the sink in her bathroom and needs a step stool. Since she will have to share that bathroom with a sibling, a personalized step stool is a great idea!

Tag Junior
Since she loves books, Tag Junior is a great next step for her!


Mr. (or Mrs.) Potato Head Accesories
Brooke just got a Mr. Potato Head and it only comes with a few parts. She could really use more accessories ... eyes, ears, noses, etc :)

"Lifelike" Dolly
Brooke might appreciate a dolly that is more lifelike, maybe its eyes open and close, maybe it makes noise, whatever. Especially with the new baby coming she might appreciate one of her own.

No-No's
The following items are things that should not be purchased!

Stuffed Animals
Yeah, she loves them. But we have plenty :)

Ride On / Bicycle
She has several ride on toys, and Mommy and Daddy will be getting her a bike next spring.

Kitchenette
A certain fellow dressed in red has this on his list already ... as long as she isnt on the naughty list, of course.

Kids Just Dont Get It

It's 5pm and still hot and humid out. Despite the fact that Brooke
was out most of the day with her sitter, she begged (ok, demanded) to
go out after her nap.

I figured we would multi-task and take the dog around the block ... A
distance that usually wears the both of em out. It worked on the dog,
but not on Brooke!

We got back and she still wanted to play. Regardless of the fact she
was a sweaty mess ... And so was I :(. So we hung out in the backyard
and did some nature exploration. Finally I convinced her to come in
for some agua ... Which always sounds more exciting than plain-old-
water.

PreDinner Swimming

Brooke started hounding me about swimming when she woke from nap. She
is a hard girl to distract so I gave in.

Just put her swim diaper on and took her out in a t shirt and the
diaper ... But she decided she needed to wear s hat as well.

What the boss wants, the boss gets ;)

25 Weeks Down, 15 To Go :)

Its interesting to compare what I wrote about my last pregnancy (on this blog) with what is going on now. I remember with Brooke I was having a lot of Charlie Horses ... that is actually not true this time around. I've had maybe one, but with Brooke they were pretty frequent. So despite the fact that I have had more trouble this time along, at least I'm not getting all the pregnancy symptoms I could possibly get!

I had my 24 week appointment last Friday, which was almost at 25 weeks. My appointments tend to be all over the place due to my schedule, whereas with Brooke they were pretty much spot on to development. Anyway, I had my glucose screening test and a quick visit. Turns out I have actually lost two pounds since my last visit. I'm pretty sure I can thank my recent puke-fest for that. Anyway, I weighed myself this morning (as I do every Monday morning) and have had no additional gain.

I am up a total of 14 lbs as of today, with a suggested 25-30 total lbs of gain for a whole pregnancy. Two visits ago I was told I should only gain about .5lbs a week from now on. I remember with Brooke I pretty much either gained nothing, or 1 pound. There were no 1/2 lbs anywhere :) Well, assuming I do gain the recommended .5 lbs a week from now on, that is 7.5 more lbs (assuming I dont go over my due date). That would put me at a total of 21.5 lbs of weight gain for this whole pregnancy. That would be less than I gained with Brooke ... and even less then the recommended amount. Do you know what that means???


That means I have a few extra pounds to spare :) It's cookie skillet time!

Called Out At Starbucks

The people at Starbucks see me daily and most of them know me by name (yes, I'm that cool). That's not my point though ;)

Anyway, they see me more than anyone else besides Brooke and Jeff I would assume ... so they notice things like new haircuts, when I'm tired, etc. Today, one of them commented on the fact that I now have the "pregnant waddle". I'm getting comments left and right these days :)

And though I mentioned the comment(s) yesterday too, they aren't really that bad. I think its worse how I feel like I look. I feel bigger, like my babysitter commented yesterday. I'm uncomfortable. I cant sit right anymore. I dont walk right anymore. And its still really early in the pregnancy. I know it got like this with Brooke, but it wasnt until much later!

Last night I went to dinner with a friend and she asked me how I compare size-wise this time to when I was pregnant with Brooke. I said my weight gain was about the same, but that I was a little bigger, but "not much". After I said that to her last night and thought about it more, I think I was wrong. I didnt take measurements or anything, so I dont really know for sure. But I was looking through my blog for the same time period ...

I am due one month later than I was with Brooke. So, if today is July 22, then I was about the same number of weeks around June 22 in 2008. I remember this post (and event) specifically in which I went to get my teeth cleaned and I had to tell the woman I was pregnant and she had commented that I didnt look pregnant, that I merely just looked a little bit heavy :) That was on June 17th and I was 24 weeks along with Brooke. Im about 24.5 weeks along right now ... and there is NO WAY you could look and me and ponder "Is she or isnt she?".

So I think I need to go back in time and re-answer that question from my friend. Um, I think I might be huge compared to where I was with Brooke at this point in time :( Whoops!

Imagination!

Brooke pit these two Lego pieces together, ran them across the floor
and said "choo choo!". I said, "is that a train?" and she nodded yes.

A few minutes later she told me it was a boat.

Pretty cool :)

The Little Things People Say...

Brooke's sitter came today, she hasnt seen her in almost 2 weeks since we were out of town last week. She was so excited to see her when she walked in I think she almost passed out. She couldnt figure out if she wanted to show Ana her toys, talk about Wrigley, or tell her about her trip. She did all of it, including demonstrating the seal dance, which is awesome. She was a flustered, rambling, excited, mess :) It was pretty hysterical.

She gave Ana a few minutes to say hello, talked about the seals and whales and the beach in California, then ran to the front door yelling "SHOES!!!" as she grabbed Ana's shoes and practically whipped them at her. I guess she assumed it was time to go out and play.

While Brooke was putting on her show, Ana said to me:

"You got bigger" as she patted her stomach

I know I did ... but did she have to point it out? It's not like I'm feeling all cute and glowing these days ;) She didnt mean any harm and she is the nicest person you could ever meet (obviously, since Brooke prefers her to Mommy ... and Mommy is pretty awesome if I do say so myself), but that wasnt what I wanted to hear at 9AM this morning.

Does that counter even work??? I still have 109 days to go? Sheesh :)

Language Explosion

This wasnt a sudden thing, but we have noticed a lot over the past week how much Brooke's language development has grown. Not only is she saying and repeating every word, and calling out words for everything she knows, but she is now combining several words to form sentences! We noticed it a lot on vacation and she just keeps talking more and more since we got home. She is also "telling stories" by putting several words together to explain something she saw or something that happened. For example, we saw sea lions at sea world, both during a feeding time and during a show. She talked about it a lot afterwards. We would ask her about the seals, or she would bring them up. Her conversation typically goes like this:

"seals!"
"arf arf arf" (her sea lion noise"
"treat" (because we told her the sea lions were making that noise for treats)
"dance!" as she shakes her tooshie (because the sea lions danced during the show)

She is also saying "Hi Mommy" "Bye Wrigley" "Hello Daddy" "more milk" and a bunch of other things like that. Its been pretty great listening to her talking and having conversations and its hard not to laugh when we see how serious she is as she tries to explain things to us.

The Route Home

Heading to the airport! Brooke is loving her trip on the bus and has
been talking about the airplane all morning ...

More Beach Time

After a rough night, early wakeup and early nap, we spent some time at
the pool. Brooke hasn't taken to sleeping in the room real well, so
we decided to take a drive to a beach a bit farther away to give her
another opportunity to nap.

We are at the beach now, but Brooke doesn't want to go near the water
or touch the sand ... So she sits on a towel while mom n dad bring the
beach to her :)

Beach & Road Trip

Brooke woke up at 5:45 this am ... Again :(. So we had a little
breakfast and then hit the beach for a stroll.

After the beach we took a roadtrip (and Brooke tool a much needed nap)
up to visit "Ah-Nee", Brooke's Great Great Aunt Irene. On the way
back now, and with 1 1/2 hours in the car, Mom and Dad hope the
singing chatterbox takes another little snooze!

It Was Too Much ...

The suspense was too much, she exhausted herself with all that hand
biting.

(Or, it was the fact she barely napped yesterday and woke up at 5:30am
today. Either way, the kid who never sleeps in her stroller anymore
is out like a light)

Shamu!!!

It's quite a suspenseful show ...

First Boat Ride!

On a water taxi heading to Sea World :)

Heading to the beach

On a plane ;)

Soccer FAIL

This morning we arrived at soccer a few minutes late because Brooke refused to get in the car and tried to hide in the garage ... good start, right? We get there and her "field" is empty. There are balls and nets, but no kids and no coach.

A guy came up to me and told me that her coach had car troubles and we should join his group, who are the next age group after Brooke. I dont know where the other kids in Brookes group were, but we were the only ones who showed up this morning. Perhaps they knew it was going to be so hot and humid and (wisely) decided to ditch class that morning. Regardless, we joined another group of 2-3 year olds that also looked a bit low in attendance ... there were only two of them.

Brooke is still warming up to her old group so this change was not accepted well. The two other kids could run and kick the ball and were clearly a bit older than her. They could also talk and communicate with the coach, something that someone without the ability to put two words together yet has a little difficulty with ;) The coach kept trying to interact with Brooke but she didnt want anything to do with him. Each time he tried to talk to her she either grabbed my hand or hid behind my leg. Three different times during the 40 minute class Brooke actually started running from the group back towards the car while announcing "bye bye!". She clearly was ready to get out of there as fast as she could.

Brooke wouldnt kick the ball. She wouldnt stack cones (so that she could kick them). She wouldnt go near the coach. She did play Red Light - Green Light, because she could hold Mommy's hand while crossing from one side to the other. She also popped a few bubbles.

At the very end the coach announced "Who wants stamps?" and Brooke finally paid him some attention.

She gave him a high-five in exchange for a lady bug stamp and we got out of there as fast as humanly possible.

Fun On The 4th

Our neighborhood had a block party on the 4th of July, which didnt involve a whole lot of Brooke-appropriate activities ... until the fire truck showed up :) Brooke made a beeline for it, doing her siren sound, and we had a hard time getting her out of it. I can see why, she looks pretty great in that helmet!