Little Discoveries

Over President's Day weekend, I went to SLC to meet my friend Ryanne and her family at the Disovery Museum for kids (I know, this is a late post). I went there once with my sister and her kids a few years ago and was so excited to one day take my kids there. At first I was wondering if I had just wasted $8 taking Brooke in because there were so many things for older kids to do. But Brooke was so mesmerized by all the things going on, and there were plenty of things for her to do, like:
play with oversized blocks. She loved stacking them and knocking them over; Playing in the "garden" taking veggies out and attempting to eat them.

And here is a little side story: You might remember a post a while ago boasting about taking away Brooke's binky and how well she was doing? Well, right after that Brooke got a cold with a cough and we gave the binky back to help her sleep and keep the cough under the control. Plus, let's face it, life is so much easier with a binky! I have every intention of taking it away again this summer. I want to wait until after my trip back east. I have a feeling a binky is going to come in handy while flying and sight-seeing. I mention this story, because there are incriminating pictures of Brooke with her binky above. Don't judge me! j/k :)
Playing in a baby sized tree-house with friend J.
They had a special area just for kids under 2 with padded mats and little slides. Brooke saw some older kids climbing up the slide so she was determined to climb up it to! It was so fun to watch her attempt it. She also liked playing with these magnetic gears and wheels upstairs in the science area.
Brooke and I standing in front of the life-size doll house. We had a great time playing and visiting with friends. It's always nice to get out of town once in a while, even if it's just a few hours away.

Love this Girl!

As a new parent, Blake and I are constantly in a reality check like "whoa, can you believe we are parents?" After 5 years of it being just the two of us, we cannot believe how much our lives have changed in just 14 months. And most days are just normal days: we live, we laugh, we get frustrated, we cry. And some days, like today, I am overcome with emotion for how much I love this girl. I just want to hold her in my arms all day and snuggle and kiss her cheeks over and over again. I love her curiosity and laughter. I love seeing the world through her eyes. For example, today Blake shaking out a new garbage bag to replace the old one threw Brooke into a fit of giggles on the kitchen floor:
Brooke was in such a silly mood today! She is constantly making Blake and I laugh at the things she does:Brooke turned 14 months this week. She still loves music and to dance. She loves any kind of game you will play with her. She has had a cold and believe it or not, loves to have her nose sucked out with the blue bulb syringe. She laughs while I am sucking her nose out and when I am finished she will stick her face out like "do it again!" She is still not walking and only has her two bottom teeth so far. Her silly mood and the fact she was wearing a cute outfit, made today perfect for a little photo shoot of our growing girl (you can click on the pics to make them bigger).
And this is my own little tribute to Daisy, who was Brooke's best bud.

Just Us

We finally got our family pictures back and I am really pleased with how they turned out. I was bummed at first because we had to do them inside because there was a bad inversion the day of our shoot, so we couldn't do them outside. The photographer was great and pointed out that since we had such a small family an indoor shot would look just as good since she would have to zoom in close to our faces anyway. These are scans of the originals, so they quality isn't the greatest, but you get the idea. It's so nice to finally have a good shot of all 3 of us.
It was also my birthday this week. Blake surprised me by getting me a two-child bike trailor that converts into a stroller. I am so excited to use it and now I can't wait for spring!

This isn't the exact one I got, but since mine is still in the box until warmer weather, it will have to do!

It was a good try at least...

Blake and I have given up on the puzzle. We did a lot of it, but we are not patient enough to put together the 500 all white pieces needed to complete the picture. Plus we had our little "helper" coming around to check all of our work. So back into the box it went.

Brooke is also getting more confident standing on her own. Usually she will pull herself up using some furniture, get distracted by a toy or something, be standing on her own perfectly fine, realize she is standing without support, and immediately sit down. Over the weekend she was having fun standing up, falling down, and then standing up again. The video is after a few minutes of doing this, so she's a little tipsy! But we are so proud of her newest accomplishment:

Sometimes 30 seconds is a lot to ask when browsing through a blog, so here too is a picture:
Ignore the purple slippers. Brooke always takes her socks off during the day. These slippers came from Blake's cousin and have little sinchers (is that even a word?) that make them tight around her ankles so she can't pull them off.

And I found this picture on my camera. It was taken a while ago, but it made me laugh. It's Brooke copying our facial expressions (a scrunched up nose look):

Boo Whoo

My sister in law will sometimes do a post on her photography blog highlighting some of the things that annoy her (boo's) and things that make her happy (whoo's). I have had a lot of those lately so I feel the need to share them. Sorry, V, for stealing your idea! But before I get to those, I need to pose a deep, philosophical question along the same lines as "If a tree falls in the forest and there is no one around, does it still make a noise?" Okay, are you ready for my question? If Blake has to work Sunday night will I still watch the Super-Bowl? I've been pondering the answer to that for days.

Now for my Boo's
1. Gerber raising the prices on their toddler line of food. They got me hooked on a $1 for their pasta pickups that Brooke loves and how they are $1.25!! Grrr...
2. Going 2 places to find Diaper Genie refills and both stores being completely sold out. I rigged a regular trash bag in the diaper pail and trust me, it does not work as nearly as good! Today the store had some in stock and I bought tons so I would never run out again.
3. Getting Brooke off her binky. I don't want Brooke to be 2+ and still dependent on a binky. We took it away Thursday night and she cried for 2 hours before finally going to sleep. Friday during nap was better and last night she went right to sleep. I am nervous for church tomorrow. The binky not only soothes a cranky baby, but acts a filter for things Brooke might find on the chapel floor and keeps her from putting them in her mouth.

Whoo's
1. Tax refunds. Blake and I have always heard about these "mythical" tax refunds that people were getting. Ever since we've been married we can't figure out what we were doing wrong. This year must be our lucky year because BINGO! We are getting the biggest refund we've ever gotten before.
2. Brooke has front tooth #2 emerging on her bottom right.
3. Getting to spend some quality time with Blake
4. Friday Night Lights. We've been watching seasons 1-3 on DVDs we rented from the library and we are hooked. I can't wait for season 4 to start on NBC in April.

A little bit of ordinary

Last night Blake and I went on one of our favorite dates. We went to the grocery store and stocked up on all of our favorite treats: candy bars, ice cream, soda etc.. then rented a movie from RedBox (Night at the Museum II) and gorged ourselves on junk food. We used to do that a lot as poor college students and now that we have Brooke, this tradition has come back into effect.

I have also been on the search for a good book to read. I was talking to a friend recently and we both said we had been reading a lot of Young Adult Lit and were YAL-ed out. As much as I enjoy it, I am a little tired of the "coming of age" story lines. My sis-in-law recommended this book called "The Kabul Beauty School" It's a non-fiction story about a woman from Michigan who goes to Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban in 2001 to try and help the women over there. Being a hair-dresser all her life, she wonders what she could possibly offer these women. I haven't started it yet, just got it from the library today. But I am looking forward to reading something new. I am also reading the book "The Four Arguments" that was recommended to me by my brother-in-law. It's more of a self-help book but pretty interesting so far. If you are like me and need something new to read (that is not in the YAL category) I would recommend these books to anyone: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, These Is My Words, or A Thousand Splendid Suns. All are amazing stories.

And speaking of YAL, Blake and I were discussing my birthday that is coming up in a few weeks and he asked me what I wanted. I have a big trip coming up at the end of March, so I told him, of course, I wanted what any wife and mother would want:
Although it doesn't officially come out until March 20, knowing that it's been pre-ordered and it's on its way is good enough for me!

Brooke and Blake playing before bed:

Brooke is trying to get Blake to put his sweatshirt string in his mouth

"Here Dad, I'll show you how to do it":
This picture caught Blake a little off guard, but it was so cute of Brooke snuggling with him!

The Long and Short of it

My sister requested that I post a better picture of my new haircut. I was waiting until we got our family pictures back, but who knows when that will be so...

I just got home from work so it definitely doesn't look as good as it did before I dealt with 60 kids all day long, but you get the idea. It's longer in the front and stacked shorter in the back. Pretty much it's just barely long enough for me pull back into a ponytail. Who cares? You may wonder. I have had long hair forever (even though you wouldn't know it since I usually wore it up almost everyday) and my sister knows that chopping my hair off is a huge deal for me. And since we no longer live 20 minutes apart (more like 3000 miles) and I cannot show it off in person... I must blog about it. That's what blogs are for, right? For a good before and after shot, refer to the picture of Brooke and I on my sidebar. I am loving the shorter hair.

Brooke got a new hairdo as well. I went to pick her up from the sitters the other day and her teenage daughter decided to see if Brooke's hair was long enough for a little pony tale, turns out it was!

Can you spot her little ponytail?And if you use a magnifying glass, you can spot Brooke's little tooth poking through. This is the only picture I've been able to get of it.

Here's to new hairdos!

Okay, enough of the hair. If for some reason the hair post didn't scare any male readers away, this sure will (TMI alert!!) So I was at Wal-Mart today after work buying some "womanly supplies" and that was the only thing on my list to get. But I had to get a full size shopping cart because Brooke was with me. So I'm heading over to the aisle and I am thinking "Oh please don't let any of my students see me!" The bright blue packaging is going to make for an awkward moment. I mean, teachers are supposed to be robots and live at the school, not be shopping at Wal-Mart and especially not for anything that has to do with bodily functions. So I head over to that section and there is a woman there with her husband and the woman is explaining to her husband all about the different kind of flows women get and why there are different types of tampons. The man says, "I still think a popsicle stick some toilet paper will work just fine." I'm sure he was joking but I couldn't help thinking to myself "You might be a redneck if..." Anyway, so the weirdo couple finally leaves and all of a sudden I hear: "Hi Mrs. M!" I turn around and low and behold 2 of my students are right there. Luckily both of them girls, but trust me there was no small talk or fawning over Brooke. I said my hello and got the heck out of there, making a beeline for the register and passing a fellow male teacher on my to the cashier!