The Last Few Weeks

Well, it's been a busy last few weeks. Between work and planning for Brooke's birthday party and her actual birthday, I am surprised that I remembered to breathe.

Brooke's birthday party went off without a hitch. We were missing a few members of Jeremy's family, so we missed them, but were very that we had a great turnout. The cake was absolutely awesome. It looked just like I wanted it to, if not better, and it tasted great as well. Thanks to Aunt Paige for spending the day with me to help decorate the cake. It took about a total of three hours to ice the cake and cupcakes. My hands ended up being dyed purple from the black food coloring. I scrubbed with peroxide, bleach, and gasoline before it finally went away.

Brooke had a great time at her party. She loved seeing the family and being the center of attention. She especially loved that Lily was there. It's quite amazing how much Brooke looks up to Lily. I think it's so cute to watch them play together. They are just too sweet.

On Brooke's actual birthday, we spent the day as a family. Jeremy took the day off, and we went to my mom's work to visit. After that visit, we went to Huber's and ate lunch and picked pumpkins. We got a lot of great pictures. Check back soon for pictures of her birthday party and her actual birthday adventures. After Huber's, Brooke took a much needed nap. Later that evening, we went to GattiLand. We were torn between GattiLand and Chuck E Cheese. The final deciding factor came down to the pizza. Jeremy and I can not even tolerate the pizza at Chuck E Cheese. Not that the pizza is the best at GattiLand, but at least it's edible. Brooke had a great time at GattiLand. Between the pizza and the games, she was a tired little girl before it was all said and done. And to boot, she was a lucky little girl. The games we played at GattiLand were a little old for her, but were all about timing. We played games that when you press the button, it lands on a spot, and you get that amount of tickets. We played several different versions of that game, and she won more tickets then Jeremy and I did combined. It was hilarious.

Last week, Brooke and I went to the grocery together. She has always been really good about staying in the grocery cart until recently. I decided, after multiple arugments, to go ahead and give in to her, and let her get out of the cart. I had about two more aisles to go when I let her out. She got out of the cart, started walking backwards and waved her hands saying, "Follow Me, Mommy. Follow me". It melted my heart. Whenever Brooke says new things like this, I realize how much she is growing up and how much she is more like a little girl, rather than a baby.

Today, I was taking a bath before the UofL game, and Brooke was in the bathroom with me. She realized that I had a hair rubber band on my wrist, and looked at me and said "No, no, Mommy. No bracelets in the bath tub. No, no, no". Jeremy and I tell her that she is not allowed to bring bracelets in the bath tub. So, she was scolding me for taking a bracelet into the bath tub. Again, I thought this was adorable.

I have been teaching Brooke her last name and address this past week. Since she is old enough to remember things, I thought this would be a good time. I worry about her getting lost, or wandering off, so I wanted to make sure that she was able to tell someone where she lived and what her name was. So, when you ask her what her name is, she will say Brooke. Last name? (she tells me what her last name is, but for privacy purposes, I don't want to put it on here). Where she lives? (She tells me the name of the street she lives on, but not the house number, and again, for privacy purposes, I don't want to write it here). The way she says all of these things are just adorable. I am still working with her, and want her to know the house number and either Mommy or Daddy's cell phone number.

I also wanted to tell everyone thank you again. Thank you for everything you do. Thanks for just reading this blog and caring enough to want to know what's going on in our lives. Thanks for being a part of that. We are truly blessed to have such wonderful family and friends. Love you all!!

Shopping Adventure and Muffins Please

Brooke and I went to the Summit tonight in order to look for something for her to wear for her birthday party. We went to Old Navy first, and she was cracking me up! She would walk over to something, and say "I want this", she would pick it up and then carry it away. She would walk over to another item of clothing and say "It's pretty". After we walked out of Old Navy, she spotted the water fountain. Every time we go to the Summit or the mall, she has to throw pennies into the fountain. I gave her a few pennies to throw in...what a cheap thrill!

We hit a couple more stores before our shopping adventure was over. At baby Gap, she wanted to try on shoes. So, we took her shoes and socks off, and she put on a pair of flats. She walked around the store in amazement. This little girl has a shoe fetish already. Boy, Jeremy and I are sure in trouble!

We had a ton of fun shopping. I got a few things for her to wear on her birthday party day, but you will just have to wait to see them!

On another note, my child is not only obsessed with shoes, but also muffins. For whatever reason, Brooke becomes obsessed with a certain item of food for weeks at a time. The first food obsession was yogurt covered pretzels. I finall had to put her through a yogurt covered pretzel detox, to which she came out successful. The next obsession was bananas. Now, the obsession is muffins. She loves the blueberry mini muffins. She wakes up - wants muffins. She eats a little lunch, tells me all done, and then will look up at me with her big blue eyes, and ask in the sweetest little voice with a sweet little smile, "Muffins?". The other night we had pizza for dinner. She ate about half a slice and then asked for muffins. That's all she wants to eat right now. I am thinking about buying stock in the muffin company. Oh, and she also loves the song "Do you know the Muffin Man". LOL - she might just turn into a muffin!! I have called her muffin from the first few weeks she was born. I guess she just may live up to that name!!

Busy Month of October!!

October is so busy for me! I am starting to stress out a little...I know, it doesn't take much for me to stress out. I like to have all my little ducks in a row, and right now I feel like my ducks are straying a little bit. I have a ton of stuff going on at work - HUGE deadline October 15th. I only have 4 more state returns to prepare, but still have to clear review notes, process returns, and get them signed and out the door before the 15th.

I want Brooke's birthday party to be perfect, so I keep planning, and keep planning, and then plan some more. The trial run of her bumblebee cake turned out really great, so I am thankful for that. I can't wait to do the actual birthday cake with the icing. I will post more about the cake once it's actually done. I will take plenty of pictures, I promise! This is a task I have never taken on before, and am sort of looking forward to it - but, I just want it to BEEE perfect.

I keep thinking of more and more things I need to do before the party. Buy this, buy that, don't forget about this, clean the house, finish buying birthday presents, clean the house again, wrap the presents, make the food. And the list goes on and on and on.

I love Louisville football, but am wishing that they didn't have quite so many October games ;). There are two coming up...one this weekend, and one next weekend (the night before the birthday party).

At this point, I am just trying to keep my head above water. Between the party, work, house stuff, and Louisville football, I am sinking quickly. I always do this though - stress out, and then look back when it's all done and wonder why I stressed out about it. Hopefully I will do that again this year. I keep telling myself to take one step at a time and things will be fine. So, here's to another step!!

Talking and Trial Run on Bday Cake

I have been amazed recently about how much Brooke is talking. She is forming complete sentences on her own. Here are a few examples of what she has been saying recently:

- Come on Mommy, let's go
- I throw the ball
- I pet the doggie
- Carson go outside
- We go this way
- I take a diaper off
- Tickle me Mommy
- Swing on this swing, over here
- There's Mommy's Car
- My pink princess cup with water

And those are just the ones I can think of briefly on the top of my head. Each day, a new sentence comes out of her mouth and is longer than anything she has said before. It's so cute to listen to her sweet voice talking in long sentences. She continues to amaze me everyday.

I did a trial run of Brooke's birthday cake today. I am planning on making a bumblebee cake and bumblebee cupcakes. For the longest time, I could not figure out how to shape the body correctly. I knew that I wanted to use a pyrex mixing bowl for the head, but the body was the hard part. I want the bee to look 3D, so the shape is rather important. Jeremy and I went to Bed, Bath, and Beyond last night and he came up with the idea of using a Wok.

So, today, I bought three boxes of cake mix. Baked one box in the mixing bowl for about an hour, and the shape came out great. Slid right out of the bowl too (and it should have for the amount of non-stick spray I put on the bowl). Baked two boxes of mix in the Wok for about an hour and twenty minutes. The shape came out great as well. I am worried, however, about the taste of the cake. Because I had to bake it so long to get the center cooked, I am afraid the outer edges are a little too well done. I hope the rest of the cake is not too dry. I iced the cake with plain white icing tonight, and am taking it to work tomorrow. My co-workers will either love me or hate me tomorrow. Hopefully they will love me!!

A case of strep, and lowered on the family totem pole

Well, last week was a rough one on the family. I was the first one to be diagnosed with strep throat. Thought that we were getting away with no one else having it, until Jeremy started to feel bad last Friday. Then, Brooke woke up on Sunday morning complaining of her ear hurting. Both had strep throat. Luckily, I got the worst of it (and am the biggest baby when I am sick), and everyone else recovered fairly quickly. Hopefully that will be all the sickness we will have for the remainder of 2010...yeah, right! But, I can wish.

I gave Brooke a bath tonight. She has these stacking cups that she plays with in the tub. They are yellow (smallest), white (medium), and blue (large). When Brooke plays with these, she gives Daddy the blue one, Mommy the white one, and she plays with the yellow one herself. It's funny because Jeremy is the biggest (blue), I am in the middle (white), and Brooke is the smallest (yellow). I don't know if it was just plain coincidence that she always hands them out this way, or if she actually correlates the size of the cups to the size of the person. Maybe it's an ordering rule in the house - Daddy is in charge - so he gets the biggest. Mommy is next in charge, so she gets the white cup, and Brooke is not in charge, so she gets the smallest yellow cup. Well, I think Brooke is trying to take my position on our family totem pole. Today, she handed me the yellow cup to play with while she played with the white one. The blue one sat with no one playing with it since Daddy is at work. Not sure how I really feel about it - is she really trying to take charge by giving me the yellow cup? Or does she think she's bigger than me? Time will tell.

Locked out, hit the ball, methodical playing, and not on my belly!

Quite a few cute things have happened the last few days, but I have been unable to post due to strep throat (yuck!!). Finally feeling much better, so decided tonight was a good night to post the last few days' events.

LOCKED OUT

I do corporate tax for a living - meaning that the tax deadline is September 15th, and I hardly ever get Labor Day off. This year was no exception. I went into work on Monday, even though I was not feeling great. This was the first onset of my strep throat symptoms, but since we were so far behind, I needed to go in and get some returns prepared. Jeremy stayed at home with Brooke while I was working. I get a phone call around noon from him. He was panicked. He asked me where my parents were, I told him that I did not know. He told me that he went outside to get something and heard the door slam. Apparently, Brooke had slammed the door, and then locked it. He had no way to get in because all other doors and windows stay locked at all times. I asked him if he wanted me to run home from work and open the door. He told me that he didn't want to wait 20 minutes for me to get home. During this conversation, I could hear Brooke screaming and crying through the door and over the phone. She was obviously traumatized, but a crying baby means a breathing baby, and the sound of her crying was actually a relief. So, Jeremy's way of opening the door: going through the drywall. He went through the drywall in the garage and into the laundry room, and reached his hand around to unlock the door. Took a total of about 5 minutes. Here is a lovely picture of the handy drywall patch work:



Now, Brooke looks at the door and says "Daddy fixed it".

HIT THE BALL

Grandma and Grandpa (my Mom and Dad)took Brooke to go see Aunt Paige play volleyball on Wednesday night. They taught her to say "Hit the ball, Paige". So I keep asking her "What do we say to Paige when she is playing volleyball?". She will turn around and say "Hit the ball, Paige". She gets so excited to say it too! Apparently, she likes to watch Paige play for a little while, but since her attention span isn't that long, she won't sit through 5 games. Either way, it's fun for her to watch her Aunt Paige play college volleyball, and Aunt Paige loves having a little cheerleader come along!

METHODICAL PLAYING

Aunt Mimi dropped Cecily off for a little while this evening so she and Ava could check out a few houses. I was so glad to be able to watch Cecily so that the two little ones could have some one on one time together. They both played really well together and had tons of fun. However, I noticed a difference in personalities while watching them play. Cecily has a huge imagination! She will take a toy and use it in a way that it was not intended. She would take a dog and put it in a basket and say that she was going on a trip. Brooke on the other hand, will only play with toys the way they were made to play with. For example - she won't take a farmer and have him play in the house. She knows that the farmer only plays on the farm - and the farmer stays there. Her imagination has not blossomed yet - but watching her play with toys and the way she plays with them, makes me realize that she likes things a certain way. All of the pieces and parts to one toy don't necessarily have to be all in one place, but she won't play with a piece that doesn't belong with that toy. It cracks me up - mainly because it's so much like me. I only see things the way they were intended to be used. Jeremy can take a broom and make anything out of it and play with it for hours. Me, a broom is for sweeping....and that's it. Makes me wonder if this child will have any creativity like her father....or will be more methodical like her mother. Hard to tell for sure, but at this time, I am betting on more like her mother.

NOT ON MY BELLY

About two weeks ago, I was washing Brooke's hair, got it all nice and sudsy, and had tons of leftover suds on my hands. I took it, showed it to Brooke (to which she said "A Mess"), and then wiped it onto her belly. She really didn't do much, other than wipe it off. The next bath night, I did the same thing, then the next, then the next. Well, tonight, I put shampoo in her hair and was working up a nice lather. She told me "Not on my belly". I started to laugh. So after my hands were all nice and sudsy, I acted like I was going to put it on her belly. She told me, "No Mommy, not on my belly" and then tried to move away. I again moved towards her. She said "No Mommy, wash it off". This child really does not like a mess anywhere. Can we say OCD??? :)

Drawing in circles

This may sound really stupid, but I was so excited when this happened.  Earlier this evening, Brooke and I were playing in the playroom.  She has an eisel up there that she draws on with chalk.  At this age, its really common to draw in straight lines.  Today however, circles were drawn!  I was so excited!!  These were not perfect circles by any means, but they were the prettiest circles I have ever seen.  Two years ago I would have never guessed that I would be so darn excited about circles.  I love watching Brooke learn and grow, and can't wait to see what she does tomorrow. Life is great!!