Brooke @ 18 months

Our 'baby' is turning 18 months on Saturday. It has gone by so fast! So fast, in fact, that I have barely written down all the {super} cute things (and some not so cute) that she has been up to!

• Little Miss Opinionated --- I know that this is to be expected..She is a girl after all, but seriously how do kids come up with an opinion about everything at such a young age?!? She will not eat white fruit snacks. If she puts it in her mouth, she takes it out and hands it to me EVERY TIME! And right now, she only wants to drink out of her princess sippy cups. She knows exactly what she wants and when she wants it.
• Sesame Street Lover --Recently, we have started turning on Sesame Street since she'll finally sit still for a while. She LOVES it! The cutest thing ever..One night we had it on and she was lounging on the couch (leaned back with her arms spread out..one of her fav things to do) and the episode had Destiny's Child singing a song about walking. They sing, "I got a new way to walk, walk, walk," and Brooke couldn't help herself. Her little happy feet were walking in the air. She loves to dance and bounce her booty.
• Did I mention she's a climber? She loves to drag around kitchen chairs and stand on them..makes me nervous everytime! 50% of the time she listens when I ask her to sit on her bum..the other half? She hangs her toes over the edge and I get her down...and she climbs up again. She has learned to climb from the chair to the table..trouble! {knock on wood} but she hasn't had a fall/accident yet associated with climbing. I hope I didn't jinx us.
• Smiley, happy girl! She loves smiling at people until they look at her and just loves attention. She likes acting shy and turning her head away when someone looks at her..and then looking back and smiling at them.
• Copycat -- This stage {for now} is so fun! She'll try to mimic whatever we tell her to say. Words she say that actually sound like what they are supposed to: mama, dada, dog, grandma, grandpa, nana, papa, hot, Tate, up, this, that, NO, yes, woof, neigh, all done, and probably some others I'm forgetting. She uses sign language to say "more," which also happens to be the same sign she uses for "please." (We always tell her to say more please as we do the sign so she thinks it means both things :)
• {Fairly} Good Listener -- For several months, she has been actually pretty good at following directions! She loves to pull things out of the cupboards (especially lids) and when she starts to walk away, I say, " Brooke, please put it away" and she {usually} puts everything back and closes the cupboards. So far, we have gotten away with not child proofing any cupboards. When I say all done with bath, as soon as we pull the drain she starts putting her toys away. She is starting to follow multiple step directions and it's so fun how much she is learning!
• Total goofball! She loves to join in laughing when anyone else is laughing. She has an adorable fake laugh. Her laugh is contagious! If you ask us what we do for fun, we pretty much just laugh at all the cute and funny things Brooke does. She is our main source of entertainment!
• She just got 2 more bottom teeth a couple weeks ago bringing her total to {drum roll} 6 teeth! She got the late-teething genes that all my siblings had. We were all traumatized as kids because we never got to put on name on the Tooth Chart since we didn't start losing teeth till after that was all old news..it's looking like Brookie will be traumatized in the same way. We love asking her if she is going to get more teeth and instantly she says, "Yesh" with her adorable little lisp! The not-so-cute thing--when I ask her to show me her teeth, she feels to need to spit. At first I couldn't help but laugh (even though I didn't want to), and that might have something to do with the fact that she still does it.
• She is such a trooper! We took her on a 10-day crazy trip back east, and with only naps in strollers and car seats, and not nearly enough sleep at night, she did surprisingly awesome! (We did have a few rough nights..but let's not talk about those). She is really an easy going girl most of the time and goes with the flow. I love that about her. She mostly loves being moving in her stroller and loves looking around at people and everything going on around her.
• Loves kids -- I was so happy that she got along so well with her cousins. She got a bit picked on by them this summer so I was a little worried. But they had so much fun together! Cooper seriously cracked her up. There were times when the 3 of them would just be playing together laughing. So cute! (Since Brooke will be in nursery in 2 weeks, I was glad to see that she can play good with other kids..hope it continues!)
• Obsessed with dogs. One of her favorite words is "dog" said repeatedly. We pretty much have to pet every {nice} dog that comes semi-close to us. And for the most part, she is pretty gentle with them. She also loves horses and today when we were by some ponies, she was waving at them and squatting while laughing. She loves animals! I'm just glad she isn't afraid of them. It helps that Nana and Papa have 2 dogs that Brooke loves to follow and chase around.
• Sad sick girl -- We wore her out so much on vacay that she came down with a cold, which of course turned into an ear infection. (Her 5th one this year) So on antibiotics once again. Except this is the first time we've had trouble getting her to take them. We can't even trick her into taking it by mixing it with juice. She is getting too smart. So basically, we have to pin her down, stick in her mouth, try to keep it in while she's spitting it out...yeah, not fun. Which reminds me..she thinks getting her teeth brushed is bloody murder. Without fail, she cries, clamps her mouth shut, and spits..hope she grows out of that one soon or she's going to have lots of cavities!
• Loves books. Every night, we ask her to bring us books to read and she loves to do it! She brings us a book, and then puts her arms us to be picked up. She is getting to be a good cuddler (which we LOVE!!) and her favorite books right now are "What?" from Aunt Lisa, and "Where is Baby's Belly Button?" and also 10 little monkeys jumping on the bed where she gets to pop the little plastic push things on each monkey. We love reading stories together and it's my favorite part of our bed-time routine!

We really love this girl and can't believe how much fun she is! We feel so blessed to have her in our lives! She has so much fun energy and I wish I could remember every cute thing she does...But this will have to do for now! My next post will be {another} marathon post about our awesome trip!