Gotta Love'em

 Brooke is just the girliest little girl. Here she is sporting her tutu and carrying her Minnie Mouse purse. She insists on taking the purse with her almost every time we leave the house.

The other day Brooke fell and hit her head on a cinder block. Here she is with her sad little black eye and cheek. She must have hit her belly first and slid down cause her tummy has scratches all over it too. Poor thing.

 

Little Brooke is just not so little anymore. She can do and say so much these days. She is just a little person now. One day I was wearing a new shirt. When Brooke saw me she said, "I like green shirt." How cute is that, that my 1 year old noticed my new shirt and complimented me on it!

We are working on being polite. When I give her something I ask her to say Thank you to which she replies, "Thank me."

She is loving saying prayers these days. Aubrey mentioned one day that we should raise our hands when we want to say the prayer, something I'm sure she has picked up from primary. Anyway, Brooke will raise her cute little hand when I ask "who wants to say the prayer?" She still talks in a little whisper. She'll say some of her own stuff and I'll supply her with some of it. When I get to the end I'll say, "in the name" and then she'll say the whole ending all on her own, "In the name of Jesus Christ Amen." It's so cute - especially because she has the biggest smile when she says "Amen."

The other day I asked her what her name was and she said, "Cutie Pie." Aubrey and I kept asking her that question through the day and we got a different response every time: "Brookie", "Brookie Bug", "Brookie Cookie", "Monkey pants". I don't think we ever got just plain Brooke. With all of her nicknames the poor girl probably doesn't actually know what her name is!

Today I was trying to do something on the computer and Brooke was playing on the floor next to me. The computer was not cooperating and I made some sort of exasperated sound. Brooke immediately reached up to my leg and patted it. When I looked down and smiled at her she said, "Pat mommy, Mommy sad, mommy cry." How sweet is she!!

Even with all of that sweetness she does have a naughty side too. Her favorite word these days is, "no". She even says it when she really means "yes". Someday I should count to see how many times she says no - it would be a very large amount for sure!

She also really likes to get a reaction out of Aubrey - and let's face it - it's pretty easy to do. She'll poke or pinch or butt heads or knock down toys just to make Aubrey cry. Then she'll laugh or smile and do the same thing again and again. What a turkey. I tried to explain to Aubrey tonight that if she didn't make such a big stink about what Brooke did to her, she would stop doing it. Aubrey didn't really like or agree with that conversation!

Aubrey is still the inquisitive and funny little monkey in the house. One morning she asked me, "Mommy are you getting old?" How do you respond to that one! Actually Jeff fessed up that that question was his fault because he told her that he was getting old.

The other day she had a little flap of skin coming off by the side of her fingernail. She saw it and said, "A part of my finger is coming off. If it comes off, people won't know it's me." As if missing that little piece of her finger would make her completely unrecognizable!

This is a conversation we had the other day while we were driving:

Aubrey: Every day I think about what I want to be when I grow up." 

Me: Well what are you thinking about today that you'd like to be when you grow up.

Aubrey: I want to live at that house where the poo poo and pee pee go.

Me: What are you talking about Aubrey?

Aubrey: Remember you told me that the poo poo and pee pee go some place

Me: Yeah I told you that they go through pipes and then to the sewer.

Aubrey: Right, and isn't there a house there.

Me: I think there is probably an office there.

Aubrey: And do people live there.

Me: Well, people work there

Aubrey: Yeah, that's where I want to work when I grow up.

Quite the aspiration she has! Today we had a similar conversation and she told me she wanted to be a Mommy when she grows up. Even though that's a much better aspiration - she'll still be up to her ears in poop and pee!

Aubrey will pick up big words from us or from shows and then use them in conversation. One day she heard the word distracted. Then she used it in the correct context several times that day. Today I asked her a question and she began her reply with, "Well it's interesting . . " I smiled when she used that big word and she said, "I'm practicing using the word interesting." Funny kid.

A few days ago during quiet time, Aubrey took every item of clothing out of her drawers and scattered them around the room. I was NOT happy, especially since I had just reorganized her drawers a few days before. As I was very angrily picking it up, Aubrey said, "I wrote you a note, can I read it to you?" Her note said, "Dear Mommy, You love me even when I am naughty . . ." I certainly did need the reminder.

Tonight Aubrey read two books to me before bedtime.  She was so proud of herself. My parents handed down to me the books that they taught all of us kids to read with - Wise phonetic readers. We had been working on them about 6 months ago and Aubrey had the first one down. When we started working on the second one she started getting antsy, so I decided to put them away for a bit. Anyway, I got them out tonight and she breezed through the first one. The second one took a bit more time, but she got through it very well.  I'm gonna spend some more time with her and these books, because she has always loved books and I think she would be soooo happy to get to read them on her own and to her sister!