Friday smiles :)

6 reasons to smile on this lovely little Friday:

1. Brooke enjoys watching "Pinnie the Wooh". Yep, she says it just like that. Say it to yourself that way and try not to smile laugh hysterically.
2. Joe gave me a sweet little laugh this week. Music to my ears.
3. The husband is off every Friday for the rest of the year.
4. Joe's wearing a Thanksgiving sleeper today with a turkey on the butt. Too adorable for words.
5. We will be in the Happiest Place on Earth in one week. Like literally sitting on Main Street at Magic Kingdom staring up at Cinderella's castle & watching Brooke's mind be completely blown by the awesomeness surrounding her...in just 7 days...from right now. (!!!!!!!)
6. This happy face:

Happy Friday!

Things Brooke says.

Some of my favorite Brooke-isms of late:

~ She loves to "get comfy" on "me couch" with a "blanquet." She has claimed our big couch as her couch; the loveseat is "Mommy's couch". Sorry Daddy and Joe, no couches for you.
~ When she's mad or frustrated or upset, her phrase of exasperation - and I'm totally not kidding about this - is the lyrics to the Baby Bumblebee song. She'll be mid-tantrum and you'll hear between cries "I'm bringing home my baby bumblebee!" This is one of the most hilarious/ridiculous things ever, and I laugh almost every time.
~ Full-blown sentences & conversations are goin' on these days. "Look Mommy! There's the moon. Up in the sky!"
~ Everything is "I need" these days. She uses it interchangeably with "I want." Most commonly it's food-related: "I need my milk" or "I need animal crackers".
~ For some reason I was floored when I heard her use the expression "soakin' wet!"
~ Disclaimer: the husband takes full responsibility for this one. One afternoon, I was holding Joe while sitting right next to Brooke's high chair, close enough that she could hear my stomach growl. Her response: "Woah, Joe's gassy."
~ "I be right back" is the phrase of the week. I've heard this, at minimum, 12 times today. The novelty of it hasn't worn off though - it still kills me every time.
~ "Sleeping Judy" is one of her favorite Disney princesses.
~ This conversation actually happened. Me: "Brooke, do you want to help me make banana muffins? What do you think we need to make them?" Her: "Flour, sugar, eggs, banas [bananas], milk..." Me: "Wow. Anything else?" Her: "Cinnamon, water, and butter." Though we didn't follow her recipe, her muffins sound pretty tasty. (Reminder: this child is not even 2 yet.)
~ The latest smile-inducing phrase she's come up with is "Good to meet ya, Mom!" She even sticks out her hand for a shake. I swear I don't know where she picks up some of these things.

Healthy boy!

This precious boy was checked out at the pediatrician today! His 2 month appointment went swimmingly :)

The stats: He was weighed in at 14 lbs 6 oz, putting him in the 97th percentile for weight (hooray! on the chart!) He's 25.5 inches long, taking him off the charts for height. They had to measure him twice because they couldn't believe the first measurement was correct. (For comparison's sake, I went back and checked out Brooke's 2 month stats. She was almost a pound heavier and almost an inch shorter. I knew this boy was longer and leaner!) His head measured 16.5 inches, putting him in the 92nd percentile for head circumference. Everything else was great! There were no concerns at this time other than some cradle cap and the beginnings of eczema. 

Joe was pretty upset about his double shots (2 at once, 1 in each leg) but quickly recovered. However, he has been mad as a hornet the rest of the day, screaming out in pain out of the blue. Such a sad little man! I've given him some Tylenol to help with the pain, which I can only assume is belly-related (she warned us that one of his shots might upset his stomach....great, just what we needed.) I'm hopeful that a good night's sleep will give us our happy little baby back!

Brooke tagged along so she could observe a doctor's visit without the fear of being poked and prodded, and also to get her flu shot. She was very interested in what our pediatrician was doing with Joe. We tried to really talk it up before we went and the whole time we were there, especially pointing out how "brave" Joe was being. We talked about how both she and Joe would be getting shots to make them "healthy". When Joe's exam was over, she wondered when it was her turn. We told her that the doctor was leaving but that a nurse would come in to give them their shots. She greeted the nurses with a very joyful "Hi, Nurse!", not knowing what they were really coming in to do. I asked that we do hers first, giving us the best shot (no pun intended) at her sitting still enough to do it. She cried, but not too terribly long, especially once we promised her a sticker (a real one, not just the one they put on her leg.)

I'm very grateful to have 2 healthy kids today, even if they aren't so happy.

2 Months!

Dear Joe,

Hi there, big guy! And I do mean big! You've grown so much this month, looking more and more like a big boy instead of our tiny little newborn. You are long and lean, without any fat rolls just yet. But you're still very heavy - around 14 lbs. You seem to have hit a growth spurt recently and just can't get enough to eat! You're still a great, efficient eater - Mommy feeds you about 5 times during the day and once at night (usually not until 5 or 6 am because you're still an A+ sleeper!) Everyone is amazed at how content you are. You are so calm and alert most of the time, letting very little bother you. These are a few of your likes and dislikes this month:

Favorites
Pacifiers - You are definitely a pacifier baby! Since almost Day One, you have been so comforted by a pacifier. You still haven't mastered keeping it in your mouth. But when we can keep it in there, you are happy as a clam!
Loud Noises - The hairdryer, the vacuum, the dryer - all make loud noises that you just love. You seem so fascinated by the sound, as if it's familiar to you. (We're told that continuous humming noises simulate what you heard while in the womb, so it makes sense.) Sometimes Mommy just lets the hairdryer run while trying to get ready to keep you calm.
Chats with Daddy - You and your Daddy have become good buddies this month. No one can get you to coo and make noises like Daddy can. He sits you on his lap, holds your hands in his, and you two tell each other all about your days. It's one of Mommy's favorite things to watch :)
Cuddling - You are such a cuddler! When you're tired, you just melt into the chest or shoulder of whoever is holding you.
Your Swing - You have a become a pretty big fan of your swing. You love to stare up at the bug and the sun that hang down from it. You will last up to 15 minutes in there before you get bored. Your big sister loves to come over and turn on the music for you while you swing.
Mommy's Sleeper Hold - Mommy has a magical hold that has about a 99% success rate at calming you down and getting you to sleep. You lay across her arm with your head nestled into her chest and one arm dangling down. Add in a pacifier and you can't keep your eyes open.

Not-so-Favorites
Bath Time - You still hate to be cold, so undressing you for a bath is the worst. The second we pull the diaper off and you are an official Nudie Judy (I promise I'll try to come up with a more manly term for this...), you let out an electrifying scream. And it doesn't get any better once you're dipped into the water! Only about 10% of the time are you actually okay with the whole process. Lucky for you, we only bathe you about twice a week!
Riding in the Car at Night - Boy do you dislike evening car rides! You do NOT like the darkness, and you let us know with some killer screams. Much to the dismay of your big sister, we often turn the interior car lights on to try to help calm you down (we have no idea why she doesn't like having the lights on.) I hate to say it, but this is only going to get worse as the days get shorter and the darkness sets in earlier.

Joe, your smile is absolutely the sweetest thing in the world. You grace us with smiles and almost-laughs all day long and we adore it. Quite frankly, we adore every last bit of you. The greatest part of being a parent is that the present and the future are equally exciting...we are loving this stage with you and can't wait to see what comes next. Happy 2 months, buddy! We love you to pieces!

Love,
Mommy & Daddy

Halloween '11.

I feel like we celebrated the crap out of Halloween this year. It was a month-long event for us (not really a terrible thing - I love my holidays, after all.) Mamarazzi was out in full force all month to capture the fun :)

We did some pumpkin picking at Irons Fruit Farm again this year.

 Joe slept through most of the pumpkin patch in the carrier, but he was awake for apple donuts :)

 All month long, he spent some time being super cute in festive sleepers.

Something tells me that getting a Christmas card picture is going to be a bit of challenge... (p.s. let's talk about how they are holding hands. can you handle the sweetness? because I can't.)

Happiest. Little. Pumpkin. Ever.

As you've already seen, we also carved our pumpkin. (Pumpkin singular because the other ones were rotting before Halloween. Thanks for nothing, pumpkin patch.)

Finally, Halloween arrived and our princess and her little frog were all decked out for trick-or-treating.

Perhaps not his happiest froggy moment, but still a stud.

By the way, did you know that princess wands and Halloween buckets are the toddler equivalent of liquor and gambling for adults? Because they are. Best $3 (total) I've ever spent.

Love her face. She loves her brother.

We did a little trick-or-treating in our neighborhood. She was so, so, so excited to do it, although I'm not sure she totally got it until that first piece of candy fell in her bucket. It took us 30 minutes to hit 4 houses, the furthest of which was 4 houses down. Oy. Why I didn't have the foresight to grab the stroller is still a mystery. Because that boy is heavy.

As we walked up to each house, we'd have this conversation:

Me: OK, so what do you say when they open the door?

Brooke: Trick or treat.

Me: And then they'll give you...?

Brooke: Candy!

Me: And then what do you say?

Brooke: Thank you.

And then when we got to the door and the person opened it, this happened:

Brooke: complete silence

This is how Joe trick-or-treated the rest of the night (we drove to grandparents' and friends' houses.)

How many more years do you think they'll let me dress them as a themed couple?

1 yr & 10 months.

Another month has passed. Brooke has been gracing us with that gorgeous little smile for 22 months. Here are some of her latest happenings:

~ The other day I was upstairs showering while my Mom was kindly watching the kiddos downstairs for me. My Mom tells me that Brooke sat down on the fireplace, put the Boppy pillow around her waist, pulled up her shirt & said "I feed Joe now?" Phenomenal. It happened again last night. Quite honestly, I'm shocked it took 7+ weeks for this to happen.
~ She has recently rebelled against eating. Um, I know. Craaazy. She has put herself on a diet, I guess. Eats a few bites and then it's "I'm all done." The pediatrician told me that as long as she gets 1 good meal a day she'll survive, so I'm not terribly worried. The only time I give her any grief about it is if she's not eating because she's distracted by something else. If she's just not hungry, that's fine with me...there will not be a "clean plate club" in this house!
~ Brooke has inherited her mother's love of, scratch that, obsession with holidays! Everything we do/read/watch lately is Halloween-related by request. Something tells me she's going to love Christmas just as much as I do, too :)

This is her scary witch face...or maybe it's just her "cheese" face. The 1st explanation is more fitting.

~ This just in: girlfriend can now reach the light switches to turn the lights on/off, walk up and down the stairs, and open doors (my worst nightmare.) Growing up seems to be happening a lot around here lately.
~ We've recently started Time Out with Brooke and it's going...okay. I've started counting to 5 as a means to give her a chance to correct her behavior. If I get to 5, she knows that means she's heading to Time Out. She has to sit at the bottom of the stairs for 1 minute (since she's 1 year old.) I think it's working pretty well. The counting works most of the time; we've only made it into Time Out a handful of times. And each time she has had to sit on the step, she cried the whole time - which, to me, says she knows she's in trouble. Consistency is going to be key, so hopefully we'll successfully keep up with it.
~ She just recently discovered how strong she is and now she is climbing up on everything! This includes, but is not limited to, our tall kitchen chairs, the TV stand, and the oven. Yep, the flippin' oven. We have the kind with a drawer under the oven; I watched her stand on the handle to that and pull up on the handle on the oven door. I immediately made her get down and very forcefully told her never to do it again. (Try not to worry - I am always very mindful of where she is when I'm in the kitchen cooking, so she should never be able to do it while the stove or oven is actually hot.) I have a feeling this climbing habit is going to get her in trouble...
~ I still find myself amazed at some of the things she knows. Examples: this morning she pointed out "polka dots" on a butterfly. Yesterday, she told the husband she saw a "red hydrant" while pointing to a fire hydrant. And a few days ago, after asking for more Cheerios in her milk, she said to me, "Mommy, these are crunchy." This girl is just a sponge - she soaks up EVERYTHING she hears.

That's all for now! 2 months away from being 2 years old...yowza!

Are we a hot mess first thing in the morning or what?

Wearing Mommy's shoes :)

Punkin Carving.

We let Brooke help us clean out her pumpkin this afternoon. She was quite helpful...in her own little prissy way. It was "yucky", after all. I'm actually surprised she helped at all. She probably wouldn't have had she not seen the pumpkin-carving episode of Special Agent Oso about a million times in the past 2 weeks. (Oso is a pretty cute Disney Jr. show about a bear that helps little kids learn how to do something. She has actually learned a lot from this show. Ok, I'll stop defending the fact that I let my toddler watch probably too much TV now.) She was very excited to help and even more excited that she got to stand on the kitchen step stool while she did it. Big thanks go out to Daddy for doing most of the pumpkin-carving grunt work this year!


(Not sure why she told me that she was going to be a cat at first. And she has been telling us for weeks that Daddy should be a chicken and Mommy should be a duck. No idea where that came from. Oh, and she does like candy, don't let her fool you. She had some for the first time yesterday and, let me tell ya, the girl took those Smarties to the face.)

Joe slept through most of the event, but woke up just in time to check out the finished product. (That face either says "I'm not really awake yet" or "Why did you just sit me down on a bunch of seeds?")

Have a safe and happy Halloween tomorrow!