Update

I know I keep commenting on how big Brooke is getting, but it absolutely amazes me. She says new things every single day. She learns new things every single day. She picks up on things so easily now. She is such a great child.

On Halloween, Brooke dressed up as a bumblebee. Trick or treating in our neighborhood lasted from 6-8 that evening. At 6:00 we had our first little trick or treaters. Brooke happened to be standing at our glass front door as the kids walked up the front stairs. She started crying hysterically. Imagine this....you are two years old, have no idea what halloween is all about, and three kids walk up to your front door. One is dressed as a princess, one is dressed as a toy story character, and the other as some scary goblin. Poor little Brooke had no idea what was going on. All she saw was that a scary goblin was coming to her front door. Once we went out trick or treating, she was a little better until she saw very scary costumes. She would ask, "What's that mommy". I would tell her that it was just a person dressed up in a costume. She was okay with that answer, but would not go up to the door by herself. I had to hold her the entire trick or treating adventure, but it was worth it. I think she enjoyed herself.

We have sort of been working on this whole potty training thing. I have not pushed it really hard, but we have been asking her every hour or so if she has to go potty. When she sits on the potty, she will go pee once out of every four times on the potty. She keeps her diapers dry for hours at a time, and then when I ask if she has to go potty, she will sit on the toilet and actually go. We have not gotten to the point yet where she will tell me that she has to go. I have to keep reminding her to sit on the potty. We try to make it a very big deal that she is going to the bathroom on the potty. At this point, I am just trying to figure out the best next steps to take. Do I go ahead and put her in big girl panties all day long? Do I just keep doing the pull ups and asking her when she has to go potty? Not really sure...but time will tell what works for us. I am hoping that she is going to be pretty easy to potty train. Afterall, she has been pretty easy to train on everything else. I couldn't ask for a better little girl.

We went up to Dover this past week to visit Chris, Jenn, Abby, and meet baby Lizzie for the first time. We had a great time. I loved watching Brooke and Abby play together. They are so close in age, and are into the same things, so it was fun watching them interact with each other. Lizzie was the sweetest. She hardly ever cried, and was content just being. I loved holding her, although Brooke did get a little jealous and kept telling me to put Lizzie back in her bouncy seat. Brooke wanted to help Lizzie whenever she didn't have her pacifier ("pass seat" as Brooke called it). She was trying so hard to help, but was very rough with Lizzie. I thought it was sweet that she was very concerned about Lizzie not having her pacifier, but she was a too rough for my liking...it made me very nervous! I sat Brooke down and told her that Lizzie was not a toy and that she had to be gentle.

Brooke did extremely well on the car ride up to Dover and on the way home. She played in the backseat by herself for a while, but when she got cranky we let her watch movies on the portable DVD player. It worked wonders! She loved watching movies in the car. I just hope that she doesn't expect to watch a movie everytime she is in the car now. Momma ain't playing that game ;).

I am enjoying my time off before I start back to work at Ernst and Young. I wish that I would have taken some more time off....two weeks is flying by! I am able to get things done around the house that I have wanted to do for a while now. I still have more things on my list, but have a few more days to complete them. That's all for now...time to do more stuff around the house!