Happy 3rd birthday to my happy and sweet girl -- the one who notices everything pink, purple, and sparkly, the one whose wardrobe preference is determined by how well it twirls so she can be a ballerina, the one who tells me multiple times a day how much she loves me, the one who notices each time I'm wearing a necklace, asking if she can wear it too, the one who tells me I'm beautiful as I come out dressed each day. While she may cry at the slightest bit of disarray (or let's be honest, anytime anyone is upset!), and has shed enough tears to flood the plains of Kansas, her spirit radiates happiness! She is my little ray on sunshine and every day is a little brighter when she's around! I'm so thankful God sent her to me!!!
More about Brooke!
She’s independent and strong spirited, yet gentle and kind. She knows what she wants and insists on doing must things ALL by herself.
If you ask what her favorite color is, she’ll usually respond pink – but quickly add purple and red too. Ok, she likes them all! Glittery, sparkly, fluffy, lacey, twirly, the more bling the better.
And no matter how hard I've tried to fight it, she’s a total girly-girl. She loves princesses, ballerinas, mermaids, dolls, ponies, pretty much anything pink or purple she sees she assumes is hers. She’ll accessorize and collect millions of items in a purse, backpack, bucket, anything she can find.
She loves to draw rainbows.
When she prays, she lists all the favorite parts of her day, not missing one single detail.
Of course, they typically involve outings with her two favorite cousins – Quincy and Scarlett!
And she’s a genius. Or at least has a better memory than I do, which I guess doesn’t say much at all. One night Tanner was going to read her a bedtime book, and instead, Brooke started saying she could read it too – and she pretty much repeated the book word for word. If it would have been a book we read regularly, I wouldn’t have been surprised, but it was a fairly new one from the library.
And when we got a new CD filled with kids song – she could tell me which song was next after only listening to is a few times. Now – just channeling all that smarts into something useful!
She finally lets me style her hair! She usually requests braids or pony tails – but I’m just happy she let’s me brush her hair! Her hair is getting so long – it won’t be long until she’s ready for a cut.
Fully embraced the “you’re 3, you’re a big girl now!” Good-bye diapers and paci, hello big girl bed. She even tried to tell me she didn’t want a straw cup cuz she’s a big girl now!
Only downside – now she thinks she doesn’t need a nap. And when she does nap, she’s up forever at night, but still, it’s a hard balance to find. Cause when she’s tired, it brings out a whole new side of her that no one should have to experience. it’s epic!
Potty trained in one day! We started one morning, she had an accident in the morning, and in the afternoon, I heard Brooke screaming for me while I was upstairs. I came downstairs to the bathroom and Brooke told me, “I just went pee on the potty. Can you help me get my leggings back on?!?!” Not to say that she hasn’t had an occasional accident here or there, but she’s pretty much been a dream!
Even at night, she was morally offended at the thought of wearing a pull-up again. After she kept it dry for 3 nights it a row, we gave it a go and she’s done awesome!
They say to wait until they’re ready – and now I’m SOLD – it’s entirely true!
Drama
She’s my reality check. When I get mad or frustrated, she’s the first one to respond in a kind, gentle voice, “Mom, why are you yelling?!?!” Good question Brooke, good question.
She knows how to add DRAMA! to any situation.
Try to get mad and angry at her never ever works. She has a complete and total meltdown! Things get bad and ugly fast – and she’ll be inconsolable and run to far corner of the house. And
When she’s nearly ready to calm down, she’ll still ask for her paci – which has been gone for months – finally! but she’ll still ask for it – her main source of coping/comfort for years.
Fighting her never works. But reasoning and logic works magically. Usually if I just ask her to be happy when she’s grumpy, she’ll flip her mood in a few seconds and just start bursting out with giggles. I need to find out how she does that – laughter is contagious!
She has a sensitive spirit and can’t handle loud noises or screaming. She still gets scared of vacuums and public bathrooms – flushing toilets, hand dryers, all of it!
She cries anytime anyone is upset, Rylee and Tanner included, so things get crazy around her fast.
Cries every.single.time. Rylee pulls her hair. Can’t say I blame her for that one.
“I don’t want lunch. I want a SNACK!” Yep, she always wants to snack on something, but always a sucker for fruit – especially those strawberries! Or fruit snacks. Those are definitely worth climbing the pantry for!
There’s not a day that goes by Brooke doesn’t tell me she loves me. Usually it’s out of the blue, when I’m buckling her in the car seat, helping her get dressed, or just out of the blue. There’s nothing like having a thankful child that warms your whole heart!
Loves books! Especially Pink-a-licious. Anything princess. Or “Mix it up!” or singing.
She's expanding her tv choices – still loves Team Umi Zoomi, she’s also discovered Wonder Pets, Doc McStuffins, and Daniel Tiger.
Pictures from her birthday!
We had a family party filled with her favorite people.
She got a package of princesses she’d been eyeing all weekend. She (along with Tanner) could not possibly wait a moment longer to open them so she got them in the morning instead. She’s in LOVE with them.
From the mouth of Tanner, “Brooke just loves princess's. Everything she has should be princess just for her!!!” Yet when she returns, he promptly tells her, “Brooke, there's lots of cute things to like other than just princesses. Maybe you should like puppy dogs too?”
Originally she wanted a Pink-a-licious cake, but changed it to the purple as I was making it. Thankfully, purple food coloring was just a cabinet away. And it’s purple, even if it looks pink in all the pics!
When it came time to open presents, she put on quite the show! Brooke is no longer the shy little girl she used to be. Look at her pose for the camera! I love all these shots!
I had another outfit in mind today, but of course she wanted her favorite butterfly dress so she can spin and twirl.
But the video is even better :)
When I told our friends, Zach and Sara, what to get Brooke, I insisted she didn’t need more presents, but finally settled that candy was the way to her heart, and that she’s been asking for sparkly nails just like Q’s.
I thought she would be 15 before she’d ask for her nails painted, turns out it’s 3! We gave it a go! As I was painting them, she insisted I use ALL the colors (we settled on 2). When it came to wash hands, she nearly freaked out “Don’t wash the sparkles off!”
Legoland
We went to Legoland before her birthday, well, cause she was still free! Plus, Tanner had Friday off of school so we wanted to do something special.
The kids love the place, but I still loathe it! It’s NOT designed for little kids. But…we still had lots of fun!
Rylee’s first ride! While I was busy shooting villains, she stood up and got us kicked up the ride before it was over. Embarrassing!
They had the coolest Star Wars exhibit – Tanner was stoked!
Rylee must have gone up and down the slide 100 times.
Brooke was busy playing house, this time making some yummy cupcakes for us!
While Rylee was reeking havoc wherever she went, lol!
And this pic of these two girls just melts my heart away!
And I’m pretty sure they’re both too big to be doing this!
The 4D movies are always are favorite. If only Rylee would agree! She was busy trying to pick my nose or escape, not sure which was worse!
And Tanner got to pedal his was through the wizard ride while the girls were very sad they couldn’t go. *sigh*
But craziness for me always equals a super fun time for the kiddos so we were glad we could go!
Birthday Party!
I also put together a simple little party for her closest of friends – Quincy and Scarlett.
We met up for Pizza West – the bestest, yummiest pizza ever! Of course, Brooke was so excited she didn’t touch her food.
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Then we headed to open gym to jump, run, and twirl to our hearts content.
I did a horrible job taking pics, which is really an indicated of how much fun they were having, or how crazy Rylee was being!
She’s such a brave soul – climbing onto the vault and jumping into the pit. I “made” her hold my hand but she was NOT happy about it!
Happy Birthday Darling, sweet Brooke!!!
