Vocabulary.

We are amazed on a daily basis by Brooke's vocabulary. She is so expressive, using body language and voice inflection appropriately. For example, even if she is just babbling, you can tell if she's trying to ask a question because her voice gets really high, she turns her head to one side, and she furrows her eyebrows. We've already gotten to the point where she gets frustrated sometimes when I don't understand what she's trying to say. Luckily, between speaking and signing, she can say most of the basic words we use on a daily basis.

The emails I get say she should be speaking about 3-5 words at 14 months. Well, here's her current list:

Daddy (pronounced Da-ee)
Mom (pronounced A-mom)
juice
milk (both spoken & signed)
cheese (pronounced deez)
please (pronounced peez, both spoken & signed)
more (both spoken & signed)
bath (pronounced baff)
Elmo
book
ball
bow (as in hair bow, proud of this one)
spoon (pronounced poon)
nose
Drew (as in Uncle Drew)
two (still no "one" though...)
no
hi
bye
teeth (pronounced teef)
baby (pronunced beebee, both spoken & signed)
me
bear
hot dog (thanks to the Hot Dog Dance on MMC)

On top of these she can tell you what sound a cow, horse, dog, cat, & sheep make, as well as Santa & a train (Ho & choo, respectively.) If you can't tell from the list, she's pretty much mastered the long "o" and long "e" sounds.

I've been meaning to post this for a while now, not to brag about Brooke's genius (like "OMG can you believe how smart she is?"), but to document it so I can a) get it into her baby book at some point and b) keep an eye on her progress. And, also, so I can compare her progress with any future children we have, because, let's face it: parents compare. I'm pretty sure our future children will fall short, but only because she's our firstborn. (Birth order studies? Yeah, they're super accurate. I'm married to the definition of a firstborn.) She gets all of our attention; we read books all day, ask her questions all day, point things out to her all day. She just soaks it all in and doesn't have to worry about siblings distracting either her or us. It's a pretty sweet deal, and we keep telling her to enjoy it while it lasts :)

And because I'm seriously lacking in the picture-taking/posting lately, here are a few from Valentine's Day. Let's talk about how SHE HAS A PONYTAIL!! I love it. I think she looks like heaven. The husband disagrees, but clearly I don't care. So so cute!

Oh, and also...OMG can you believe how smart she is???

My valentine.

This precious little one has my heart.

Before she was born, her Daddy had it. And I had his. 

Then she came into this world and stole them both.

But that's okay.

Because we have hers.

And it's bright & innocent & so full of love, just like she is.

Happy Valentine's Day, Brooke Mary. Mommy & Daddy love you!

Broccoli & stuff.

Brooke-o has a new nickname in our house: the Broccoli Monster. The girl adores the leafy green veggie. She inhaled it the other night, like seriously inhaled it. Which isn't a bad thing...until the next day. I swear to you the smell of that diaper made the paint chip right off the nursery wall.

Speaking of food, how soon before she's strong enough to actually open these doors?

I'm terrified the answer is "a few weeks." This happens multiple times a day. She's usually saying "muk" or "djoose" (milk & juice, in case you don't speak Toddler) as she pulls on the handles. Apparently, she's thirsty a lot.

And she's so distressed while she does it, which is highly unnecessary considering I give in to her liquid demands most of the time. The faces she makes are hilarious.

This last picture KILLS me.

In other completely unrelated, yet equally (un)exciting news, we have begun the transition from 2 solid naps a day to just 1. *Tear* Although I plan to fight it with every ounce of my being because I cherish that free time in the morning, I'm afraid we're moving into play-it-by-ear territory. Yesterday, the girl wanted no part of a morning nap. She played happily in her bed for an hour before I finally let her get up.

And it's not like she has toys in her bed. When I say "played", I mean she happily hung out with her bunny, her pacifier, 2 blankets, and a glowing seahorse. How she entertained herself for a full hour is beyond me. And she does this all the time. She rarely cries in her bed anymore; it's either sleep or play. And if she does start crying, 9 times out of 10 it's because she threw her own bunny or pacifier over the crib onto the floor and just wants it back. Hilarious.

Sorry. Killer tangent there. Let me continue. So she didn't take a morning nap, and guess what? She was the most pleasant child ever for the rest of the afternoon. We played, we ate lunch, we giggled - such a delight. (And when it was time for her afternoon nap, the girl was asleep before I got through the 2nd round of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and - bonus - slept for, like, 2 hours.)

Then today? She took a 2 hour morning nap. Go figure. As nice as it would be to have a little more flexibility in my mornings sans those naps, I guess we'll just have to take it day-by-day. It's very nice to know that if we can't fit one in I can still have a very pleasant 1-year-old. But trust me - I will cling on to this morning nap for dear life.

Let me finish with this last little piece of Brooke trivia (there are cute pictures, don't worry...you deserve them if you've read this whole post.) The little lady is just that: a lady. Such a girly girl already. She carries around a purse all day. She has 2 of them, and she's rarely without one anymore. She likes it to hang on her arm, just like big girls do. So flippin' cute.

Those are all the ramblings I have for today. You are welcome. (This is what happens when I only blog once a week...it all just spills out in a big hot mess. Apologies.)

My 1st fight.

Brooke got into a fight the other night....with our marble windowsill. Check out the nice big bruise on her forehead right between the eyes. She only cried for a minute or two; a little milk and some Elmo seemed to be the remedy (plus a little Advil for the terrible headache we're assuming she had.) Luckily, she let me put an ice pack on it for a few minutes which I believe helped make this look a lot better by morning (when the picture was taken.) Between this and the silly cold she can't seem to shake, it's been a rough week for the Big Lady!

13 months.

Didn't we just have her birthday party, like, yesterday? Yikes! And now, she's already a month older. While I'm not doing monthly Letters to Brooke and we don't have anymore onesie pics, I still wanted to recognize this little milestone. Because, well, we all survived another month (and what a long month it has been...I think January has become my least favorite month.)

Random 13-month facts:

*Brooke-o is still a little ball of crazy most days. She runs around like she owns the place. (Oh, who am I kidding? She does...)

*She loves to brush her teeth (and subsequently flick the bristles so spit flies in her face, which, to a 13-month-old, is laugh-out-loud funny.)

*She loves to shove as much food in her mouth as possible. This afternoon it was 4 Sesame Street crackers (2 Elmos & 2 Big Birds, in case you were wondering...) And tonight, I'm pretty sure she had 5 carrots and a piece of chicken in there. Surprisingly, she can usually chew it all up without any problem.

*We are 100% bottle- and baby food-free. Hello, toddlerhood.

*Size 5 diapers. Sigh.

*She blows on her food if it's too "hot". She has seen me do it before, so now she does it, too. Only she doesn't get the "hot" part; this morning, she blew on her peaches.

*Mickey Mouse Clubhouse has become a morning staple in our house. Brooke adores the Hot Dog Dance at the end. (If you don't know what I'm talking about, consider yourself lucky. Hot dog, hot dog, hot diggity dog....)

Here are some random pics from this month. The first 3 are from the Snow Much Fun event down at the Rec last weekend...it was her first time in a bouncy house :)

This last one is a favorite :)

Lunchtime chat.

Just a typical day in our house: eating, laughing, and constant Q&A sessions to keep that little mind stimulated.

Happenings.

The title of this post might imply that exciting things have, indeed, been happening around here. Not true. Unless you consider watching your firstborn blossom right in front of your eyes exciting. Oh, you do? Yeah, me too :)

Here are some of my favorite Brooke "things" these days:

- She is 100% obsessed with her Daddy. Or, as she calls him, "Da-ee". And she says it with the most ginormous grin on her face. If I tell her Daddy's home from work, she immediately runs (and I do mean runs) to wait by the garage door. She has become a major Daddy's girl! Well, except for between the hours of about 9 p.m. & 8 a.m. when she wants nothing to do with him. Meaning when she wakes up in the middle of the night Mommy is the only one that calms her. (Still waking up most nights...will she ever sleep through the night for good? Sigh.)
- She says "no" now, though only uses it correctly about half the time. I realize that eventually this word will plague me, but right now I love to hear it from that mouth and watch her crinkle her nose as she says it.
- She leans her head back when she thinks she's being funny (and at the frequency with which we laugh at her, she has reason to believe she's hilarious.) I guess it's hard to explain, but she tosses her head back with a giant laugh. The best part is that sometimes it causes her to fall backwards. (Relax...she thinks it's funny when she falls, too. Plus, she's got plenty of padding back there to cushion the fall.)
- She loves to brush hair. It was a dream of mine to have a girl that would enjoy brushing/playing with hair. Call me crazy if you want, but it's the greatest feeling ever. Euphoric, I tell ya. So imagine my incredible delight when I realized my chickadee loves to play with Mommy's hair. (And Daddy's, too - lucky guy!)
- She can blow kisses, like legitamately kisses her hand and sends it your way. This is a brand spankin' new trick, just debuted tonight. I swear to you, I almost cried when I heard those little lips make that sweet kissing sound. (The kiss was directed at Da-ee, btw. I'm like chopped liver over here now, for reals.)
- She chooses the most hilariously random items to carry around like it's her BFF. You know, like baby wipes...

...and potatoes...

...and cans of Pepsi.

(That's some wicked-awesome hair in the potato picture, eh? Clearly she hadn't brushed her own hair that day. I keep telling myself that one of these days it will grow in on the sides...one of these days...)