The Proof Is In The Video

I havent posted a video in a while so I figured I'd try to see if Brooke would spell her name while I taped her. It is getting hard to tape her because she wants to see what I am taping, while I tape it ... so as the video runs she chases me around demanding to see herself. This time she was quite cooperative though, patient enough to wait the 22 seconds it took me to tape this before she got to see herself ;)

Aquababies!

The alarm went off at 4:55AM today. After 28 minutes of repeated
dialing I got a ring tone.

Brooke, thanks to the perseverance of her Mommy, is now registered for
one of the hottest classes in town ... aquababies!

She took the infant class when she was about 6 months old, now she
will be starting the 2-4 year old class on October 20th. I'm sure she
will be thrilled to hear the news ... But for now (at 537 am) I'm
gonna try to catch some more z's before the tiny tornado awakes from
her slumber.

Here is a little flashback ... Brooke at Aquababies in June of last year!

The Developments of an Almost 2-Year-Old

Spelling
Brooke can spell her name! Ask her to spell it and she will tell you
"B R O K E". I figure explaining to her there are two "o's" is more
trouble than it's worth right now :)

Social Butterfly
The little girl who has hid from everyone for the past 23 months now
thinks she needs to greet everyone on the street. Including: a bunch
of construction workers coming out of a bar, a heavily tatooed guy
eating a burger and a delivery guy.

Fashion Sense
She will wear any clothes you give her, but has some strong opinions
on accesories. Today, though wearing sweats and a t-shirt ... She
insisted on her "shiny shoes". She is the boss :)

Trains At the Botanical Garden

We went today with Brooke's friend Evan to the Chicago Botanical Garden. The primary motivation was the train exhibit, which we had never seen. I wasnt too sure how they would react ... but here is a little hint: Yeah, they were pretty excited. We looked at the trains for about an hour-and-a-half, longer than Brooke tends to do anything. It was a pretty fantastic setup, 16 trains each with their own models and villages. Honestly, we were probably as impressed as the kids were!



There were a lot of trains that caught Brooke's eye:


But one was her favorite...Thomas!

23 Months Old...

She is going on two years old now, and with that comes a few ups and downs. She is feisty and has some (okay, a lot of) trouble listening. She also can be extremely bossy and high-maintenance. But, she also is getting past that baby/toddler stage and starting to look like and act like a little kid. We have great conversations with her, she is starting to crack jokes, and is experimenting with her imagination.

Physically she keeps getting taller and looks more like she is going on three than two. She grows out of clothes and shoes faster than she can wear them out (which is pretty fast). And her hair is starting to get longer and fill in a bit more.

Brooke has had her hair cut several times (including a one-time screw up), so its not that her hair has only grown this much since birth ... but she still has lots of little baby hairs (notice the wispy bangs) underneath her big-girl-hair that has made it a bit of a challenge to get to the point where we can pull it back.

Add to the fact that it looks like she has her Mommy's baby-fine hair in general, and we have some hair that will not stay put or hold in a barrette or pony tail.

That being said, its a work in progress ... but she is finally getting close to pigtails ;)

Brooke's Halloween Costume

We have been getting a lot of catalogs in the mail with Halloween Costumes. When they come, we tell Brooke she "has mail" and we look through the catalog ... pointing out and naming things she can identify and talking to her about "costumes".

Today we got a new one, and we were all looking through it.

Daddy says to Brooke "You can be anything you like. Which costume do you like?"

Brooke quickly points to her choice.