She’s my little ray of sunshine that lights up every single day! She just loves to laugh and smile!!!
Like pink swimsuits and pigtails!! Who couldn’t help but LOVE her. And despite the fact that she’s got a miserable cold– she’s still smiling!!!
What She LOVES
Her absolute favorite thing right now is listening to music, dancing and twirling around, clapping & stomping along. She walks and runs with a dance in her step. It doesn’t matter where we are, she’ll notice music playing. We walk into a store, and she starts bopping her head and shaking it to the “elevator” music in the background.
Here she is at home, after a long dance session. Of course, she’s distracted by the iPhone so this is just a small “taste'” of her skills.
At the doctor’s office, while we were waiting, we turned up Pandora Toddler Radio and these kiddos were having such a good time – Brooke half “jumping” and half “dancing.”
Close second to dancing is reading books. All day long, she brings her favorite books to me and snuggles up in my lap to read. Her favorites are the song storybooks that I sing to her (of course!) and books with flaps for her to uncover – like Dear Zoo, Ears Nose & Toes. But really, she loves all books!!!
Occasionally, all will be quiet in the house. For a moment, it’s blissful, but quickly turns to panic as I imagine what disaster those two are conjuring up. And low and behold – these two were just sitting on the couch, quietly reading through some books. Few things compare to the pure joy I felt!
What WE love about her
I keep saying this, but this is my absolute favorite stage. She’s sweet, loves to please, and is genuinely happy. She’s my lil ray of sunshine, and makes each day brighter and happier!
Even daily mundane tasks are better with Miss Brooke around. Feeding her is pure pleasure. She likes almost anything, and goes CRAZY for some things, like raspberries/strawberries, hard boiled eggs, avocado – and her new FAVORITE – corn on the cob!
Today she saw we were having corn on the cob, and she went absolutely crazy – waiving her arms, squealing, and nearly jumping for joy out of her seat. If you could only see how much fun she has EATING it.
If you just laugh and smile at her, she’ll return the favor. At dinner, she was in such a silly mood – and kept making the same goofy laugh and grin for over 15 minutes! We couldn’t stop laughing, and she kept going. She’s such a riot!
She’s turned into the most social baby—loves people! She’ll wave and say hi or bye to everyone she meets, complete strangers, or heck, even animals. And when people come to our house for a visit, on a few occasions, it’s been followed by tears when they have to leave.
She’s the HAPPIEST, sweetest lil thing!! Which are both words I would not have used to describe her at 9-12 months. She was hard, near impossible some days to get to do the simplest of things, like nurse/drink a bottle and take a nap.
Now she’s a pro – she wants her bottle, a few stories, and then her bed all to herself. And wah-lah, it’s like magic. She goes to bed and sleeps all by herself. No battles, no short naps, no more waking up in the middle of the night. Ever!
But let’s be honest. As much as I can make her laugh and giggle, she’s genuinely the happiest with Tanner by her side.
Tanner loves to wrestle with her – chasing her around the house, tackling her onto the floor, and it’s not always the sweet, gentle kind. And yet, she’ll still be full-out belly laughing, hysterically, all the time, even if she plummets to the floor. Or she even does it to herself as she runs full force and face plants. She’s a pretty tough girl and always manages to be just fine. But tell her NO, or do something else that HURTS her feelings, and she’ll go all out with the drama and have tears flowing down her face. It’s not the loud, annoying screams, but the saddest, softest cries like she’s in real pain.
While Tanner and Brooke will constantly make each other laugh and giggle if they’re running around, playing outside, or another made-up game. But introduce Tanner’s toys into the picture, and it’s near impossible. Legos – naturally she’ll destroy. Or we’ll pull out the Imaginext toys – one castle her and another for Tanner – and she’ll of course always gravitate towards what he is playing with – and some days, it drives him crazy! The tactics we established when she was younger – if she has a toy you want, find another that she’ll like, and switch them out, or play on the table up high where she couldn’t reach – no longer work. Some days are constant battles, and some days are instant successes. These two were both laughing and giggling as they were playing with a new dollhouse – thanks Aunt Kristan for doing some “spring cleaning” and passing down the awesomeness!
But she’s not always an angel. She still has her complete rebellious moments where she tries to throw a tantrum by arching her back and collapsing her body into a pile on the floor – but we ignore her tactics and she quickly recovers – as if nothing was wrong to begin with.
What she’s mastered
Not sure how it happened, but she just grew up overnight! She’s now a toddler and definitely not a baby. She reminds me each and every day.
All babies grow up fast, but Brooke, it was lightening speed. Maybe it’s the fact that she’s huge for her age. She wears 2T clothes, meaning she’s gone through 6 sizes of clothing in the past 12-15 months. At nearly 27.5 lbs (98th percentile) and 32 inches tall (91st percentile), she’s commonly mistaken for already being 2.
But she’s advanced in other ways too. Brooke is extremely smart and perceptive. She always surprises us with how much she understands the world around her.
- Aunt Kristan was trying to get Mason ready to go home – and Brooke comes running in with Mason’s shoes.
- When Brooke has a nasty POOPY diaper, and she runs to the bathroom and tries to take her diaper off so she could go on the toilet (a little late, but still).
- When my mom was watching her, she saw my Papa coming up the stairs, and she got excited. “Hi Papa!” she yelled out. She uses a lot of simple two-word sentences, like, “Up please.” Usually kids are 2 before they start talking this much. And if I give an extra long command, she’ll be my little echo, getting the tone/inflection nearly perfect, but the words, not so much.
- Brooke loves to go outside, so it’s not uncommon for her to bring me her shoes and then run to the door. Well—one day she brought me mine too – so there was no further delays!
- She’s such a talker! She knows LOTS of words, and when she isn’t saying words, she’s jibber-jabbering. She’s notorious for incessantly yelling my name, in a whining tone, “Mooommmm, Mom, Mommmaa, Mmmmmooooommm…” repeated nonstop until I respond, “Yes Brooke.” And she’ll turn that whine into the sweetest, softest lil voice she can muster, and then go on some cute rant “ahhh do dee dahh….”
- Miss Independent insists on doing must things her self – like feeding herself with a spoon or fork, going up and down stairs, grabbing diapers/wipes when it’s time for a diaper change – and my personal favorite – throwing it away in the trash!
And my least favorite – moving around the kitchen barstools so she can climb every where she wants! One morning, she insisted on “helping” make crepes, and was worried she’d either burn herself or pour batter all over herself. I couldn’t leave her alone for a second, no matter how badly I had to pee :)
And some things not so successfully, like putting on shoes (not just her own – everyone's!), or selecting an outfit hanging up from my closet – she can get it off the hanger, but not over her head :)
But for the most part, I LOVE her new found independence. Considering baby #3 is just around the corner, I’m all about her learning to do things on her own. It’s hard enough carrying all 27+ lbs of her & my 7 month preggo belly up and down the stairs, but I can only imagine its going to get harder with a tiny newborn in tow.
Whatever you do, don’t tell her she’s only 15 months. Cause she thinks she’s much older, and is doing her best to keep up with big brother.
Oh my Miss Brooke – as long as you still give me hugs and kisses – I’ll try to tolerate this growing up business!
Each and every day, you have been such a BLESSING to my life. But I have a feeling, this is only the beginning!
