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...)

Status quo.

I know. I've been MIA for a bit. Apologies. But I've got a good excuse reason:

There's NOTHING going on. I repeat - we haven't done a thing in weeks.

We went from holiday to holiday for months, all capped off by one very crazy birthday party. Our lives were jam-packed for weeks with friends and relatives and parties and general chaos. Brooke's schedule was, in a word, out-of-whack. We were busy bees. But since then? Nada. Not a thing. I'd be lying if I said there wasn't a day or 2 where Brooke-o & I didn't change out of our sweats the whole day.

Case in point: In the first 15 days of Jan 2010, I took 243 pictures of Brooke. In the first 15 days of Jan 2011, I've taken 20. (And I took all those pictures last year with my point-&-shoot, didn't even have the fancy camera yet.)

OK, I guess we've done a few things. Nothing monumental, but I did take 20 pics of something, right? So let's think back to what we've done in 2011 so far...

Well, there was some adorable eating of Big Girl foods...

...and some help with some very, very early spring cleaning (or I guess you could argue it was very, very late fall cleaning)...

  (Has anyone ever been this excited to vacuum or change sheets? I don't think so.)

...and just some general walking all over our house to find more ways to get into trouble.

And of course there was the obligatory thank-you note writing and the occasional Christmas gift returning. The husband had a few basketball games and I went to the grocery a few times. (Are you as bored reading about our January as we have been living it?)

Oh and there was also a trip to the pediatrician a few days after her birthday. A trip in which they said, "You have the largest 1-year-old in the history of babies. You really should contact Guinness." To which I replied, "Duh. You should try carrying her around all day." Seriously, though, she's still giant. The doctor was all "She hasn't really slowed down, has she?" and I was all "LIAR!" (That first conversation didn't really happen, but this one did. I called our pediatrician a big fat liar for telling me she'd "slim down" once she started rolling/crawling/walking/ running.)

She's currently in the 50th percentile for weight...for 33 month olds. The 5oth percentile for girls her age is at 21 lbs. Brooke weighs 29 lbs 6 oz. Her growth curve, while the perfect shape, is just a tad above the rest, wouldn't you say?

Still no cause for concern, as she's growing appropriately and is still proportionate. She is 32.5 inches long, which is still way off the charts, but not as drastically. And, in my opinion, crazy because that means my baby is almost 3 feet tall! The doctor was super pleased with all of her progress. She knows so many more words than is expected of her, especially since signs are included in word count. She flips through books on her own, turning pages and pointing at things while trying to say what they are, which are important 1-year-old milestones (apparently.) The doctor was glad to hear her sleeping habits are pretty awesome now (always being put down awake, taking allstar-long naps, etc.) To sum up, she rocked her check-up. (It's my right as her mother to brag about her, no?)

Still more nothingness on the agenda until, well, Easter. No plans, nothing exciting going on around here. So try to keep your expectations low on the blogging frequency, mmmkay? Thanks :)

Just kidding. I'll try to take more pics and post more often. No promises.

Then & now.

Then:

 Now:

 Then:

 Now:

Looking at pictures of Baby Brooke reminds me so much of how much Toddler Brooke has grown. Was she really that teeny tiny? (Relative to now, that is. I realize she was never teeny tiny.)

Celebrating 1.

Brooke's birthday was such a fantastic day. Our gorgeous Big Lady had so much fun the whole day, starting with a yummy pancake breakfast and finishing with birthday cake blueberries (cake didn't go over so well, so instead she had fruit.) She had such a delightful time at her birthday party, so blessed to be surrounded by so many people that love her. Here's the party run-down in pics :)

The birthday girl in her party outfit! (Yes, it was 100% necessary to put her in a tutu for her birthday. I mean, how much fancier could you get?)

 The Sesame Street theme was a success, much thanks to the help of Brooke's Aunt Sus (the decorations) and Grandma (the cake.) Everything looked pretty darn cute, if I do say so myself!

Happy little family :)

 A mountain of gifts. Such a lucky girl!

She opened each present by herself, spent a minute adoring the contents, thanked every single gift-giver (with no exception - so polite), and then moved on to the next one. She was a very efficient gift opener!

 Next up: cake time! More exciting for Brooke was the singing. We'd been practicing singing "Happy Birthday" to her all week so she would recognize the song and not be afraid. Worked like a charm. She LOVED being the center of attention (cough cough like mother like daughter cough cough).

 She scanned the room as we sang, looking at all her adoring fans :)

 "My very own little cake to smash in my face and consume with wild abandon and make a crazy mess with? Eh, no thanks! Wait...there are blueberries? Yes! Gimme!"

 No sense in wasting a perfectly good cake... Let me remind you that I pushed this kid out after 46 hours of labor and survived a full year of toting around a giant baby - I earned this.

 A very tired girl at the end of the party. Off to bed she went, 2 hours before the rest of us rang in the New Year.

Thanks to everyone who made Brooke's 1st birthday such a lovely day. We love you all :)

Birthday Babe.

Dear Brooke,

Happy, happy birthday to our sweet baby girl! You're the happiest, funniest, craziest little thing we've ever met. You have more personality than we ever could have imagined. We spend all day laughing with you, as you are a hilarious little monster. This has been a huge month for you developmentally. You've mastered walking, you've starting talking so much more (both speaking and signing), and your intelligence is shining through. You've definitely grown, as you've moved into size 5 diapers and some of your 2T clothes are getting snug. You finished out your first year with 8 teeth that you love to use to chew your way through just about anything. Even though you're a full-fledged toddler now, you'll always be our baby. Here are a few of your favorite and not-so-favorite things this month.

Favorites
Milk - Boy do you love your milk! Your face lights up when you get to have a bottle of milk. You can both sign and say the word "milk", and you start asking for it first thing in the morning. It has become your answer to the question "Brooke, what do you want to have?" You're completely switched over from formula to whole milk, and so far you seem to like it! We're slowly easing you into drinking it cold (vs. the warm formula), and then we'll transition you out of bottles. I don't think you'll mind, as long as you get your milk! You'll have strong bones, indeed!
Walking - Crawling is 100% a thing of the past. You walk EVERYWHERE now. We officially deemed you a "walker" a couple weeks ago when you figured out how to stand up in the middle of the room by yourself. You still fall down sometimes, but it's becoming less often every day. When you're really excited to get somewhere, you even pick up your speed a little bit into a jog. This new-found freedom is awesome for Mommy & Daddy, too, as you're even more independent now. (On the other hand, you move so much faster so we have to be a little quicker ourselves.)
"Using" Utensils - If you're resisting eating something, usually we can offer it to you on a fork and you'll eat it without reservation. You love to "use" utensils. You haven't figured out how to stab food with your baby fork, but if we do it for you, you can get the food into your mouth. And you're super proud of yourself when you do it, too.
Opening Presents - If we've learned anything these last two weeks, it's that you love to open presents. You can open a present from start to finish all by yourself, it just takes you a few minutes. You aren't one of those babies that just wants to play with the box; you appreciate the gift inside, too. Sadly for you, most of your gift-opening for the year happens in the same week (and that week is now 51 weeks away!)
Saying "hi" - You are the friendliest little thing. You say "hi" to anyone that will listen. It has evolved into this sweet little girly "hi" versus the low-pitched boyish greeting we used to get. One of Mommy's most favorite things is when you tap her on the arm and say "hi", simply to get some attention for a minute. Or when you'll say "hi" to Daddy as many times in a row as it takes to get his attention. So so cute :)

Not-so-Favorites
Cake - I don't think anyone would have ever guessed that you wouldn't like cake. You adore food, especially sweet foods. Fruit is your favorite. You have devoured the few cookies you've been given. You said "more, more, more" to get more of Grandpa's cinnamon roll on Christmas morning. But cake? You can live without it. Perhaps it's the mess of having to feed yourself that you dislike. Maybe we should try cake on a fork...
The Vacuum - Though you're slowly getting over this fear, you've never been very fond of the vacuum. We're not sure if it's the noise or the actual machine that scares you more. Lucky for you, it's underused in our house.
Baby Food - You are so over baby food. We've replaced strained fruits & veggies with real ones and baby cereal with Cheerios. You eat what Mommy & Daddy eat at meal time. And when we go out to restaurants, we sometimes order you your own kid's meal (grilled cheese is your favorite so far!) We love offering you new foods to try and figuring out your tastes.
Wiping Your Nose - You do not like having your nose wiped. And you make it very difficult to do, by abruptly turning your head in avoidance. Thankfully, you haven't had too many colds yet, but when you do, it's the saddest thing for Mommy & Daddy.
Olives - It's practically a Reeder family tradition to love olives, but you are NOT a fan. (And Mommy doesn't blame you...)

This has been, without any doubts, the greatest year of our lives. You bring so much joy into our house, Brooke Mary. Mommy & Daddy have never known love like we now do with you. It's hard to believe that your first year is over, but we are beyond excited to see how your 2nd year will shape up. So happy birthday, baby girl. And as Mommy tells you every single night as we head up to bed, we love you times a million zillion.

Love,
Mommy & Daddy