Starting it off with a Bang

This summer started on kind of a shaky note. The Saturday after school ended for me, I took Brooke to the grocery store where she realized for the first time there is food there. She kept doing the sign for "eat" every time I put something new in the cart. She also started reaching for things off the shelves and was not content like she usually is to just sit in the cart. She was the same way when we went to the library next. Then as soon as we got home Brooke broke a glass bottle of salad dressing all over the floor and cut her foot. The cut wasn't bad, but I had to mop the floor 3 times in order for it not to be a sticky mess anymore. Then we had to go back to the store beacause I forgot something and while there Brooke lost one of her new shoes. I couldn't find it anywhere. (the store called on Sunday and they found it) Then that night I realized Brooke had chewed a hole through her last binky! So totally unexpectedly and sooner than I had planned, it was round 2 of Brooke going binky-less. I am happy to say that the nights are getting better and I think this time it's actually going to stick.

Things got better on Monday and Tuesday. Blake and I decided to celebrate our anniversary (7 years!) by going into Salt Lake. We stopped at Cabela's where Brooke loved to watch the fish. And spent some time at Thanksgiving Point walking through the gardens and seeing their little farm animals they have there.

Brooke's favorite part of the whole thing was playing with these little trees

Blake's sister kindly offered to watch Brooke for us so Blake and I could enjoy a night out together. We stuffed ourselves sick at Rodizzio Grill (YUMMY!). Tuesday morning we got up and went to the zoo.

Brooke was on the go from the moment we got there!
This orangutan came over to say hello to Brooke. When she finally noticed it was there, and it was a live thing behind the window, she started laughing.
My favorite part was definitely the baby elephant. So cute!
We also got an upclose and personal look at the tigers. Usually they are always sleeping and hiding when we go. Today they were right by the fence. The 3 cubs from last year are all grown up and really playful. We got to watch them wrestle in the water.
I think it's safe to say Brooke wasn't the only one exhausted on the ride home! I am not sure how Blake took this picture while driving, but we are safe and sound back at home!

Schoooool's Out For Summer!!

That was the song the administration played over the intercom as the last bus pulled away. Can I tell you how excited I am for summer? I definitely have a little more spring to my step today. It is such a great feeling knowing I can have some time to relax and enjoy the nice weather (if it ever decides to stick around). A student of mine left this farewell message on my board:

If you can't read it, it says "you rock are world"

A nice compliment, yes, but I couldn't help but cringe just a little. It was all I could do to not correct the student's spelling. It was the last day so I let them get away with it.

Oh Summer, I've missed you! Bring on the heat, swimming days, vacations, BBQs, and those warm summer nights!

And we also have Miss Brooke who loves her milk...

Every...last...

drop

She found an empty carton sitting on top of the garbage and decided there were still a few drops left. I had just barely thrown it away, so the "cuteness picture opportunity" ratio won out over the germy "you got that from the garbage" ratio.

Testing My Limits

It's hard to believe this sweet little face can be the source of so much unrest!

Today we survived church. Barely. For the past little while Blake has been on a schedule that did not allow him to come to church with Brooke and I. And I admit during that time I was a little lax with the things I let Brooke get away with. In my defense, it was all I could do to get us out the door on time and I always sat in the very back row, on the end, by the door. It made for an easy exit as well as gave Brooke some extra space to roam and play. Her roaming, however, is getting out of control. There are no limits to where she can roam because I didn't set any. When I was by myself it was just easier to let her make friends with the people sitting in front of us than to try and contain her and fight a battle that would result in she and I out in the foyer with her screaming.

But now it's come back to bite me. Big time. Brooke thinks the whole chapel is her playground and that she should be free to roam wherever she pleases. And I definitely don't want that. I've been foolishly telling myself that she is still a baby so it's okay. But now, she's getting old enough to learn that she can play in the space in between Blake and I on the bench or floor, or sit in a classroom with one of us holding her and not able to get down at all. We definitely spent more time doing the latter today. By the end of sacrament Blake and I just looked at each other with an exhausted "we made it" look on our faces. We've been doing this for about 3 weeks now and while some days are better than others (today not being one of those) sometimes I swear it would just be easier to give in and let her roam around. Then I have to remind myself that she has got to learn this, and if not now, then when? 3 years old may still be a ways away, but I feel like if we just let Brooke do as she pleases, she's going to be a primary president's worst nightmare. But knowing that doesn't make it any easier. After sacrament, Brooke ran (literally) down the hall to nursery where she was in heaven for the last 2 hours of church. Also, the only time Brooke is content to sit with us is when we are singing. Then she likes to sit on our laps so she can see the chorister and mimic like she is leading the music too.

Here are some totally unrelated pictures of Brooke with my great-aunt Ruth & her cats. Thanks sis for sending me these!

I love Brooke's facial expression in this picture.
Then I think the cat must've said something funny...

I think these cats were happy when Brooke and my niece Olivia left & stopped torturing them.

Tid-Bits

Nothing very exciting is happening in our lives, but here are some tid-bits of what's going on:

Blake: I don't think I ever mentioned that Blake is finally out of his sling. He goes to physical therapy a few times a week and is making tons of improvement. He is dying to go fishing, so I'm sure when his arm is well enough, that's what he'll be doing most evenings. We are trying to plan a few fun family vacations together this summer.

Courtney: I am so ready for school to be done with! Next Friday I will be a free woman!
I walked into work on Wednesday and there was another teacher patrolling the hallways as the students mingled before the first bell rang. I smiled at the other teacher and this teacher all of a sudden makes a beeline towards me and says:
"You have got to start wearing different clothes"
How rude! I think to myself. But say, "why?"
"Because you look just like a student! As you were coming in I thought, 'hmm I don't know that girl. Then as you got closer I thought, 'oh yes I do, it's Courtney."(BTW, this other teacher's comment has nothing to do with me being ready for school to be over. I really like this other teacher and her comment made me laugh!)

Brooke: She pointed to her eye and said "eye" last night!! Another proud parent moment. She is also really good at signing "eat" to us when she is hungry. We have some fun summer activities coming up. A 2-week mom and me swim class and a 5-week kindermusic class. Plus I am going to attempt to take her to story time at the library. I figure a few structured things for us to do will help us both make the most out of our summer and keep us from becoming hermits. Brooke's hair is getting longer (finally) and I have started practicing my little girl hairstyling skills
As you can see, Brooke is not even remotely interested in me or the camera because she is watching a baby-einstein dvd. I've learned that if I want to style her hair, it's got to be while she's watching this show or while she is eating in her high chair. Otherwise she won't sit still long enough for me to do anything.
And for those of you who didn't believe that Brooke is obsessed with q-tips, here is a video to prove it. She's gotten into so many that we never know where they will show up!

and after all that struggling, Brooke finally did make it up into the chair. Here she is inspecting her most beloved object: a Q-tip

I feel the need to explain that it was Blake's day for watching Brooke so that explains the onsie and jeans.

Wish me luck as I try to survive the last week of school!

16 going on 17...

(You can click on the collages to make them bigger)

We took these pictures around the temple. Unfortunately the gate was locked so we couldn't actually get into the grounds. But Brooke figured out that she was small enough to slip between the bars. There was one time where I just barely managed to catch her before she ran away on the other side of the fence! And see the picture of her at the doors? That's her knocking on the door of the temple.

Where has the time gone? Brooke is growing so fast and learning so many new things, it's getting harder to refer to her as "my baby" as I watch her explore new things (even though she'll always be my baby to me). Like for instance, today in nursery I was helping out and during singing time they lay out a little mat and have all the kids come sit on it and sing songs. The other 2 kids in there will be 3 this summer, so they are quite a bit older than Brooke. I was doubtful that Brooke would come sit during singing time, but she did! She even started mimicking the motions to some of the songs. She is constantly surprising us with how much she knows and learns from just watching. Here are some other things Brooke has learned:
* she is obsessed with q-tips. Seriously. She knows exactly where they are in the drawer and anytime she gets a chance she will run and grab one and try to clean out her ears.
*She has also been trying to figure out how to put on her own shoes. As soon as Blake or I take off her shoes, she will sit down and try to figure out how to put them back on again.
*we call her "slough" from the Goonies (lovingly, of course) because she only has 1 front top tooth and then her 2 canine teeth. So there are big spaces where her teeth are missing. Her second front tooth is finally breaking through. But then it will be tiny compared to the one next to it which has been growing for a few months.
*She attempted to drink from a regular cup when I accidentally forgot her sippie when we were having dinner with Blake's cousin. Of course the water was spilling all down her clothes. Then Brooke stops, looks at Blake and I, looks back at the cup and promptly tips the entire cup upside down, purposely spilling the rest of it all over her.
*Brooke loves water! Here she is happily entertaining herself with the tiniest leak coming out of the hose faucet while Blake was watering plants. As you can see, she still managed to get soaked.
*and her latest: thinking she can fit into this tiny tupperwear container that we use to keep some of her toys in. She just all of a sudden decided that there was enough room for herself and her blanky in there.

Eating My Words

I had a post written in my head that I was going to title "Gerber, You Idiots!" and now it looks like I'm going to have to eat my words. You see, last Saturday while shopping at Smiths I was so mad to find out that Gerber raised their prices on their pasta pickups from .99 to $1.59! What!! The only difference was that instead of an easy microwavable tub that you could dump the pastas onto the high chair tray, it now came in a "convenient toddler tray" shaped like a TV dinner. The idea being you would microwave them and then set the entire tray on the highchair. I decided to boycott and vowed to never spend $1.59 for toddler food. What baby/toddler is going to keep the food in the tray & not just dump it out anyway? What a ridiculous idea! Well, apparently, mine would:

Brooke has decided that she can feed herself. She's been grabbing at the utensils for a while now. Usually I have to give her her own spoon/fork to make her happy while I feed her with another one. Tonight, though, she refused to eat her mashed potatoes unless she was doing it. And surprise, surprise did not once dump her food out of the tupperware.

I would be lying if I said I wasn't swelling with pride at her latest accomplishment. Apparently, the amazing baby syndrome hasn't left yet! After a while, the novelty for Brooke wore off a little. She started flinging fork fulls of mashed potatoes onto the floor!

And PS-I still think the people are Gerber are idiots & I'm still not buying their overpriced pasta.

Fantasy Canyon

Since Brooke is getting a little older, we decided it would be fun this spring/summer to do a little exploring. It sure beats just sitting around the house on weekends, which is what we did all winter. We heard about this place called Fantasy Canyon and decided to go check it out.

Brooke is ready to go with her binky, blanky, and toy phone. 3 things we never leave the house without.

I'm sorry to say it wasn't all that fantastical. When I hear the word "canyon" I think of of tall mountains and steep cliffs glaring down at you from all sides. Where we went was pretty much just a desert with a few interesting rock formations.
The rocks are a petrified group of coral reef left over from an ancient sea. So seeing that was pretty cool. See that stick thing off to my right? That would be a snake. We saw it right after getting out of the car and the snake pretty much tainted the rest of the trip. I was super paranoid about Brooke getting bitten by a rattler.

Lucky for us, it was just a really big blow snake--but that still didn't ease my paranoia

In other news, Brooke went to nursery for the first time yesterday. It was very bitter-sweet. Brooke does pretty good in church except that she is very busy and wants to go up and say hi to all the people, go through their purses, and has a knack for persuading all the ladies to take off their jewelry and give to her to play with. She has quite the collection by the end of relief society. A while ago the nursery leader told me that it would be okay if Brooke came into nursery a little early since there are only 3 kids and not all of them come all the time. I was more reluctant, but Blake convinced me to just let her try it out. She did great! She went right in and started playing with the toys. There was another little girl who was older and she started playing with Brooke. When I went back to pick her up, the leader said Brooke really liked snack time (no surprise) and that it was like she had always been there. I knew Brooke would do great because she loves kids and to be social, it was me who had the hard time. We are hoping that being in nursery might help with talking. It seems like Brooke's vocabulary is shrinking instead of getting bigger, so we are kind of worried about that.

Also at church yesterday, Blake was teasing Brooke and giving her wet willies. A little while later, Brooke was sitting next to us on the floor playing with some toys and all of a sudden she gave herself a wet willie! Just out of the blue--she didn't even know we were watching her! Blake and I both saw it and we immediately started laughing. We were supposed to be listening to the speaker, but what can you do? Okay, one last story. Brooke also loves her pink blanky. It is our "cure-all" Sad, frustrated, sleepy? Just a wave of the blanky sends Brooke running with a grin on her face. At church Brooke was testing her boundaries and was getting pretty far away from us. Not wanting to make a scene, I tried pulling her binky and a some other toys out to see if it would coax her back. No luck. But as soon as I pulled out her blanky and started rubbing it against my face, Brooke came a runnin'!