Visit to Faust Park

Brooke and I are spending some time in St. Louis. We went to Faust park on Sunday with Grandma and Grandpa. Brooke had a blast in the Butterfly house, riding the carousel and playing on the playground.

Looking at the butterflies in the Butterfly house

Watching the geese by the pond. (I squatted down to be on Brooke's level so she had to also!)

Heading to the playground. I think this picture looks like a celebrity picture in People magazine!

Binkie update: Brooke is still doing well without her binkie, although its been harder for her in a new environment. When Grandma said she heard she was a big girl, she announced: "Mommy and Daddy threw away my binkies!" (she used to say, "I threw them away!") So, now we are getting blamed! She still isn't asking for it though.

Bye Bye Binkie!

For the record, I HATE the word binkie. We used "pacifier" since Brooke was born. When she started talking, she called it her "petie or pete" which we then realized had come from binkie. She learned this at day care, NOT at home! After Brooke's doctors appointment last week we decided we would give it a shot to get rid of it cold turkey. We tried without much effort one night and she just cried, "I want my binkie, I want my binkie, PLEASE!" (Its hard to say no when she asks so nicely!) Since that wasn't going to work, we decided to make a big deal about getting rid of it.

So, last Friday night we made a big deal about throwing away the binkies. Before she went to bed, she said bye bye to them and threw them in a trash bag (clean, in case of emergency :) She was very brave and threw them away without any hesitation. Her first few nights/naps she cried some and had a harder time going to sleep, but she NEVER mentioned the binkie again! You could tell she was sad about it but she understood she had thrown it away so she wouldn't ask for it. She wants to be rocked now, which we haven't done forever, but starting 2 nights ago (only 5 nights after the big event) she went to sleep after less than 5 minutes of rocking and without a cry. She has gone down fine every night/nap since then! Its pretty amazing that she knows she threw it away, so she doesn't even ask for it. Tonight at dinner we told her she was a big girl for throwing her binkie away and she said, "my binkies are all gone." I really thought it would be much harder than this!

On another 2 year old milestone note, Brooke LOVES peanut butter, which makes her peanut butter-loving mom very happy!

Reading...

Tonight when we were cleaning up from dinner, Brooke went in her room, got a book, sat on her Dora chair, read it, then went and got another book. She repeated this with at least 3 or 4 books. I'm not sure why she had sunglasses on her head, she had been wearing them all afternoon! By the 4th book, I had come in the room with her but she wasn't really paying attention to me so I was able to get this video of her reading Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What do you hear? She is talking quietly because she is reading to herself but if you turn up the volume you can hear some of what she is saying.

2 Year Check Up

Brooke had her 2 year check up today. Her new stats are:
Height: 34 inches (57%)
Weight: 25 lbs 15oz (35%)




Here are 2 quick stories, too:
- When my parents were here last weekend we were trying to get Brooke to count for them (she can get to 14 now, but once she gets there she says, "fourteen, fourteen, fourteen...like a broken record!) Anyway, she started counting, but in SPANISH! She got to five! We had no idea she even knew that. Gotta love Dora and Diego.
- Tonight at dinner she was eating her "Diego yogurt" and describing what she saw on the container. She said, there's Diego, and some monkies..and then she says, "and there's a pygmy marmoset!" A WHAT??? Again, thanks Diego!

Happy Birthday Brooke!

Saturday we celebrated Brooke's 2nd birthday. She had a wonderful time at her party and we were very lucky to get to spend it with all of her Grandparents and Great Grandparents as well as her Aunt Arianne. She was so excited before everyone got to our house, she kept walking around saying, "I'm ready for my party!" and getting upset that we weren't leaving for her party. She didn't quite get that the party was coming to her! In the picture to the left, she is literally waiting at the door for her party!

Below are a sample of pictures from the party. Click HERE to see more of them!



Brooke absolutely loved having all of her grandparents there. When she woke up from her nap, she asked Grandpa Stuart where all the grandpas went!

Passover

Grandma Barb and Grandpa Stuart came to visit this weekend for Brooke's birthday. They arrived on Thursday so we were able to celebrate Passover with them as well. Brooke had her first family sedar and got to search for the matzah as well. She loved the matzah ball soup!

I'm missing something...

Sorry, no pics right now, but I do have a few funny stories to share. We took Brooke's 2 yr pictures today and her birthday is Saturday, so I will have plenty of pics to post soon!

Brooke's new phrase is: "I'm missing something..." usually it is her security blanket or her "binkie" but she won't ever tell us what it is. Sometime its a toy or whatever she decides she is looking for! It's really funny to hear!

Tonight Jason was tickling Brooke and she kept saying, "save me,mommy, save me!" (I've told her before that I will save her from daddy's HORRIBLE tickle attacks), so I "saved" her and picked her up and walked away..as we did this, she blurts, "your back is hurting." My back was fine, but I must say that a lot when I pick her up! (She's quite heavy these days!)

We had parent-teacher conferences at day care tonight. Its nice that the have them even in day care and her teachers are wonderful, so we always enjoy hearing their stories as well. They told us that Brooke teaches the other kids in her class things (she's younger than them) and the best was they asked us what pets we have, with great curiosity. We told them 2 dogs and a cat and they told us that Brooke has told them that she has a turkey at home and a horse! They thought maybe we had a farm!!!! She may have been referring to her play horse she can ride, who knows! Apparently she has told them multiple times about the turkey! The only thing I can think of is that we have a paper turkey that she made around Thanksgiving time hanging on our fridge, so maybe that's what she means..who knows!

She continues to amaze us and make us laugh constantly! Pictures coming soon....

Visit with Nickell Grandparents

We had a nice visit to Staberry last weekend. Brooke was very excited about seeing her Grandparents and Aunt Arianne. She had a great time dying Easter eggs and having an Easter egg hunt. The weather did not cooperate with going to see the cows but she got to watch them out the window.

"Ta-Dah!" I'm not sure what she was doing here, it may have been blowing kisses. But she is always saying, "ta-dah"(when she builds a tower, puts a toy on her head as a hat, anything that may or may not warrant and exclamation!) I thought this was too cute not to include!

Spring Snow

"I need mittens! My hands are wet!" (She has refused to wear mittens all winter!)


We missed the big snow while we were in Stanberry this weekend, but there was still a little left when we got back Sunday. We haven't had any real good snows this winter for Brooke to play in so I couldn't pass up the chance for her to at least get to wear her boots and snow pants once! The most snow was left on our deck so we played there for a while and built a pathetic snowman! Guess we'll have to wait for next year to go sledding!