I'm still waiting to get Brooke's 9 month pics done along with her doctor visit. But don't worry, nothing has changed. She's gotta still be in the 90th + percentile for height/weight. When I weighed her the other day, she was 24 pounds. She's such a little chunker and carries all her weight in her bottom. In the past month, she outgrew the 9 month clothes, then the 12 months, and we're now transitioning to 18 month. She's practically the same size as her cousin Q who's a full year older than her.
Our Little Foodie
Loves to feed herself, anything and everything. She learned how to use her thumb/forefinger to pick up food at 6 months -- so she's definitely mastered the art of feeding. Which also means -- she's mastered art of dispensing unwanted items on the floor.
You know she's a Callison -- cause she loves her some spaghetti.
Offended by formula -- even if it means going to bed without anything at all. She likes to hold out for the "real' stuff.
But with two little teeth that popped up in October, she's aggressive!! She loves to bite into anything but gets frustrated she can't eat things as fast as when she's spoon fed -- so luckily -- she still lets us spoon feed her too. And she quickly devours every bite.
And when I'm not paying attention, she'll look for little bits of "leftovers" in the crack of her high chair and eat them too. Yummy!!!
Social Butterfly
She prefers playing with people more than toys, anyday! Whenever anyone enters the room, she's the first one to notice. She gets the most excited about seeing Scarlett -- she has a serious crush on her, or maybe just her pacifier. Either way, she just wants to get her hands on her and those beautiful locks of hair! We're still waiting for Scarlett to recipricate the "crush" but maybe when Brooke learns to play nice and not be "Bam Bam" all the time, things will change. These girls are destined to be best friends.
Tanner can make her laugh the most. We get can her to do "courtesy" laughs all the time, but Tanner can get the pure, authentic, full out belly laughs anytime.
People just make Brooke get so excited. Not just a smile, but streams of JOY rock her whole body -- she'll be flapping her hands, leaping out of my lap, clapping her hands, she just gets so excited she can't contain herself. Until you try to pry her from my arms. Then fear takes over for a second (she prefer to "crush" on others from afar. She is getting better by leaps and bounds. She'll finally let other people love on her and hold her.
Movin' Around
She loves walking around toys and furniture, but apparently, crawling in beneath her.
Just recently mastered rolling over. Sure, she did it a few times when she was just a few months old, but then never did it again, and then only did it here and there periodically. She can do it -- but it's not her favorite thing to do -- and takes some coaxing.
Her preferred method of commute -- sitting up, reaching for whatever she wants, and if that doesn't work, she'll go from sitting to crawling until she gets it. Or she'll just cry and Tanner will come running over to her aid and hand her the beloved item. She's a little spoiled.
She is being to "crawl" but is still in the early stages -- more like moving backwards until she gets stuck and someone comes to her rescure. And just the other day, full body plank position.
I think she was jealous of me going to pilates without her.
Look out, here I come!!
Prefers to empty out anything in site. Changing her, she loves to grab onto her dresser drawers and empty out the clothes. Her box of toys -- she prefers emptying herself. Tanner's Legos -- that's a goldmine. Only happened once -- and we're doing our best to keep it that way.
Yes, Brooke, you've been caught!
Pulling the clothes out of her drawer like its no big deal.
She LOVES to stand up and play with toys or to hold onto your fingers, or grasp on to couch/drawers, anything. She just starts to smile and laugh and thinks is the best thing in the whole world, second only to her LOVE of food.
She's kept her balance for close to 10-20 seconds when she lets go, can "walk" holding onto our hands. I have to admit -- seeing her do this has aged her to me. She looks so much older -- but I still don't want to picture her walking. Once that starts, my whole world will be tipped upside down and there's going to be NO stopping her.
New Tricks
A few weeks ago, she learned how to clap her hands. See how cute she is:
And now she does it when ever she gets excited or we start to laugh. In the morning, there's nothing better than waking up to a sweet baby girl that's eager to please and pulls out all her tricks, just to make us smile. Like I said -- such a social baby!!
She is learning how to wave hello and good-bye too. She does it about half the time, the other half, she just starts clapping. Anything to get some attention -- and she knows it works!
She also started doing Tanner's notorious super intense smile. The kind where she stretches every muscle in her face to smile and makes her whole body shake -- until you think she's going to have a hernia. She did this seriously 100+ times a day. Grandma Callison was the first one to get her to start around Christmas, and from there, it just didn't stop. She would have the whole room laughing hysterically and sersiously do it 100+ times a day, until I got so worried about her pulling a muscle or something that I had to stop responding to it. And sadly, in just the past week, she doesn't do it nearly as often -- so I"m still working on capturing it on camera. And once I do, I promise it will not disappoint.
She also says Da-da and Ma-ma. On purpose too. In the morning, she's super excited when she wakes up and Anthony is still here. She just watches from our bed as he gets ready and ddoens't taker her eyes off of him, and just keeps blurting out, "Da-da, Da-da." And when she's super tired or hungry, guess who she wants? And guess who she asks for? That's right folks, her "Ma-ma!" Oh yeah, this little girl loves her momma, maybe to the point of obsession. But don't worry, it's mutual -- this momma loves her right back!!
What is there not to LOVE about this lil chunk of happiness! I love the light and enery she brings to the world, one smile at a time.
What is there not to LOVE about this lil chunk of happiness! I love the light and enery she brings to the world, one smile at a time. 
