Stair Master

Today when I got home, Blake showed me this picture he took of Brooke napping. Looks comfortable, doesn't it?
Then, he showed me Brooke's latest trick: going down the stairs. We had a conversation just the other day about how good Brooke is getting at climbing stairs. Then I said how it would probably be awhile before she masters going down them. Well, I guess this proves me wrong. She's definitely not ready for the big staircase, but it's a start.

And yes, she's still in her PJ's from earlier. When I got home I asked if Brooke had even gotten dressed all day and Blake said she likes being her PJ's all day.

Oh Christmas Tree!

Our first married Christmas Blake and I were able to cut down our own Christmas tree. For the 5 years after that we made do with a little fake tree. Last year after we dismantled it, we said our good-byes and off to DI it went. This year it was back on the mountain in search of a perfect tree.

Brooke is all bundled up and ready to go.

We got up on the mountain & it was -1 degrees with a terrible wind. We settled for a tree just off the side of the road and left Brooke in the toasty truck.

Ah! The perfect tree..

It was also really heavy

We realized after we cut it down that we should have brought a trailor to put it on. It was totally rigged in the back of the truck. We were laughing all the way home that it was going to break in half any minute.

Now where to put it? We have a sun room attached to the front of the house that has really high ceilings. We thought about attempting to put it in our living room and the thought of trying to keep Brooke away from it for the next month was enough for me to decide to put it where she can't get to it. We'll fight that battle next year.

We could only find one strand of lights and I didn't have the motivation to dig through storage to find more. So only the middle part of the tree is lit.

Nothing says "Merry Christmas" like walking & leaning over precariously on a ledge high above the downstairs to decorate the top half of the tree!

Here's what Brooke thinks of the tree so far:

Little Helper

I swear my last post was only yesterday. How did it get to be Sunday already? Anyway, ever since Brooke has learned to climb up the step that leads into our kitchen, she is always underfoot while I am working in there, being my little helper in the kitchen. Which tends to result in more playing & less cooking.
Brooke has also started to love her baths. I mean, really love them. Baths have become an extension of play time and it is so fun to watch her explore the water. She loves when we pour water on her and tries to catch it in her hand.

And finally, a picture of her latest accomplishment: standing! She's only done it twice. This second time I hurried to grab my camera and was able to snap a few pics.

Let's Be Honest

I've been teaching for about a week now and our life has slowly adjusted to our new routine. Blake's schedule changed 2 days ago and now Brooke is picked up from her babysitter by mid-morning and gets to spend the rest of the day with daddy until I get home. This gives me so much happiness knowing that Brooke and Blake are together. At first I was more nervous about Blake being alone with Brooke than I was with Brooke and the sitter. I came home and needed a detailed play by play about every vegetable eaten and diaper soiled. But then today I found these pictures on the camera and know that she is in good hands:
Blake is such a good daddy. And a great Mr. Mom too. By the time I get home the house is clean and all is well. It also means on the days Blake works we spend about 3 minutes together in passing as I come home and he leaves for work. But, let's be honest: I kind of like it. Did your jaw just drop in horror that I admitted that so freely? No, our marriage isn't in trouble. Our schedules are only like this 2 days a week. On those days that I come home and he heads off, I am free to have cereal for dinner, and after Brooke goes to bed I shamelessly watch episodes of "Dawson's Creek" & "Grey's Anatomy" that I rented from the library (we don't have cable anymore so I make do). It's kind of nice. It also makes the other days extra special when I do come home and he doesn't have to go anywhere.

Last night I had to take Brooke out right before bed to chase down a dog that had wandered off & Brooke seemed excited for the adventure:
Can you believe I will have a one year old in 15 days?

Turkey, Shopping, Milestones Oh My!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and stuffed themselves sick. I'm sure my Thanksgiving was pretty similar to yours, so I don't really feel the need to write a play by play. Instead, here are a few highlights:

Before we left for my brother's house, Brooke decided to be especially cute. It's only a 13 sec. video so humor me.

Brooke showing us she's "So Big!"

Blake lucked out and had Wednesday and Thursday off so we went to my brother's house. On Wed. we met our good friends Reggie and Ryanne and their kids at the Gateway for some shopping and yummy food at Rumbi Grill.

While waiting for the turkey to cook we played Five Crowns (the best card game ever!):
Brooke was upset we wouldn't let her play (I mean eat) with the cards. Luckily Uncle Ben and Aunt Katie had an extra deck that was missing some cards:

These kept her entertained for quite a while.
Brooke with my mom

mmmm! The turkey was delicious!
Our first Thanksgiving as a family of 3

Today also has been an especially wonderful day. I have no desire to fight my way through a crowd of crazy shoppers just to snag some "must have" toy, but I did have a few things in mind that I wanted to buy for Brooke (my "she won't remember this Christmas, so why buy anything" attitude is slowly melting). I was able to find everything I wanted online and got some pretty good deals too. After, I put in some Christmas music and started getting out the decorations. We bought a tree permit so this weekend we are planning on going up on the mountain to chop down our tree.

Brooke has also learned some new things. There is a step that goes up into our kitchen and she has figured out how to climb over it to get up there. We first had to coax her with keys (she takes after her daddy. Blake LOVED keys when he was little), but now she can do it all by herself. We also had to finally put a baby gate at the top of our stairs after a very sad incident I am trying to erase from my memory. Today I looked over and Brooke had pulled herself up to standing all by herself! Yay Brooke! I went crazy when she did that. Hopefully I'll be able to capture it on camera soon.

Little Person, BIG Personality

These past few months I have really been able to see Brooke's personality emerge. Mostly, she is calm, happy, and mellow like her daddy. However, she does have a streak of her mom in there. Brooke has discovered the power of her own voice. Meaning she has learned to scream at the top of her lungs. Not crying though. She screams as loud as she can and then gets a big grin on her face like, "Did you hear the sound I just made?" I should be teaching her not to do that, but instead I laugh because it's so dang cute. She also screams like that when we take away something from her that she wants to play with--like the twig she found and was trying to stick up her nose. Brooke's latest is to pull all the leaves off our plants. She had two fistfulls of leaves and I took them away from her. No screams. I thought that odd and kept watching her for a minute. Slowly she opened up her little palm and inside was a tiny bit of leaf. I snatched that up and then the scream of protest burst forth. Like mother, like daughter...

Sometimes we just give in and let her have what she wants. Like this 300 page book:
Brooke is obsessed with books. She doesn't want to tear them up (at least not yet). She just wants to hold them, flip the pages, and occassionaly bite them (she still doesn't have any teeth in case you were wondering).

We also have this toy that we get out when older kids come over to play. Brooke has decided that she is not going to be left out any longer:

I had to get a bum shot

Isn't It Obvious

Last week it snowed & I needed to run some errands. So I put Brooke in a hand-me-down snow suit my sister used for her kids. It's blue. So while in the store I get quite a few comments about this "happy little boy" I have. Okay, she is in blue so I let it slide. The other day I dressed Brooke in this camo shirt Blake bought for her (did I even have to add which parent that was from?) and get more comments about my cute little boy. Fine. Then just yesterday I went to the library with Brooke and she was wearing the sweater shown in the pictures below and I get more comments about my little boy baby. Isn't it obvious that Brooke is a girl? To me, Brooke obviously looks like a girl no matter what she is wearing. In the hospital I had a nurse tell me that Brooke was such a pretty baby and also obviously a girl which was so nice for me. I have been floating on that comment these 11 months. Now I am beginning to think that nurse lied to me. I have never had so many comments about Brooke being a boy as I have this past week. (Just so you know, I am really not upset about it, more amused than anything.)

Brooke is 11 months today! She loves to pull the velcro flowers and apples off her playhouse (it's supposed to be for her birthday, but whatever)


She also loves to play with a vase of fake flowers my MIL has. Sorry Deena but those are getting ripped to shreds!

She is eating all table food now. She LOVES, LOVES to play games. We play the "asleep/awake" game where she puts her head down on her high chair tray and then we say "Wake Up!" and she puts her head up. "Go to sleep"--she lays her head back down. We also play the "so big" game. She loves it when she crawls away and we chase her. She can clap in response to us saying "Yay!" She loves to snuggle after she wakes up from a nap. And she charms our Sunday School class each week by crawling around making cute sounds and playing games with everyone. She loves to watch the Baby Einstein dvd called "Baby's First Sounds" It has these animal puppets that make sounds and she just laughs the whole time. She still loves animals and would be perfectly happy letting Daisy and Gunner lick her to death if we would let them.

I can't believe how fast this year has gone! Brooke is learning so many new things and it truly is amazing to be her mother. P.S. I promise I will think about stopping a monthly play by play gush-fest after the year mark. :)