Talk Talk Talk!

Okay, for those of you that I talk to frequently, you have probably heard of the list that I have been compiling of words that Brooklyn knows how to say. Why, you may ask? Because I read a book that children between the ages of 18 and 24 months are supposed to be able to say between 50 and 170 words and understand more than 200. So I've been updating the list as I think of words that she knows how to say. Well, I have passed the 100 word mark, which would make me think that my darling baby girl is above average intelligence. I would list all the words on here, but it would be a long list. Instead I'm just going to post a picture that Nick, Brooklyn, and I took a few days ago using the web cam.

Terrible Twos!

So it seems to me a bit unfair that there is a phase in toddler-hood called the terrible twos. Because, my mom explained to me, that it can happen anywhere between 18 months all the way to 42 months. Sure enough, my daughter started her terrible two stage the day she turned 18 months old. It seems that no is a much more fun word to her now that she is 18 months. Oh, my favorite part of this phase is the constant whine my daughter has. She just wakes up whining, walks through the house, whining. She whines when she wants up, down, food, drinks, you get the idea. Oh, and the joy of tantrums over not getting every single little thing the way you want when you want! Those are truly a gift from God.

I love that little girl, I really do. But sometimes she can just be a little more than I expect. When I get her dressed and she doesn't want to wear clothes, she kicks at me and says 'bit'. I can't help but recoil a bit. I know my daughter doesn't actually know that word because we have completely stopped cursing since we moved. But it's kind of shocking still when it happens.

Oh, lord, thank you for my darling husband who knows not what he teaches. Daddy taught Brooklyn that toilet paper goes in the potty and then you flush it. So that is now one of her favorite games. Let's just put toilet paper into the potty and flush and repeat. She is so cute though. She looks so proud when she does it right. She just gives this big cheesy grin that says 'I know that I'm cute, and you can't really be mad at me when I grin like this'. She has learned to close all doors and only open a few. That's given me a few mini heart attacks. I look for my baby girl and can't find her. Sure enough, she's almost always in the laundry room, the kitchen pantry, or the bathroom across from the pantry. She also seems to be particularly fond of the closet upstairs we use to keep towels in and medicine.

Raising Brooklyn is harder than I expected. I thought that I could just have a baby and everything would go magically as long as I tried. Wrong! Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't change that precious little girl for anything in the entire world, but she is just very opinionated and finicky.

Before bed, she has to say goodnight to EVERY SINGLE BABY DOLL in her room. She wants us to lay them down and tuck them in then she hugs and kisses every single one of them. In the morning when she gets dressed, the only way to get her to do it is to dress her life size Barbie along side her. Some days she loves her grandma and her pop-pop, and some days she just isn't sure about them. Life is full of little surprises lately.

On another topic, Nick and I have found a church that we really enjoy and we are wanting to call home. It's called Desperation Church and it's not a traditional kind of place. First of all, it's in an old warehouse. They fixed it up and it looks really good. When you first walk in, to your right you'll see aluminum fencing attached to the wall. It's their wall of accomplishments, and it just displays artwork of some of the teenagers and even maybe some adults. They have a little cafe and against the wall on the left a little ways back, they have three refrigerator doors attached to the wall that have pictures of the kiddos in sunday school. I know Brooklyn is safe there because all the teachers have background checks and she goes to a class called Beautiful Babies. She absolutely loves that classroom and I think that she also enjoys being around kids her own age. We absolutely love the services. The pastor is AWESOME. His name is Michael and he and Nick are kind of getting to know each other. This past Saturday there was a men's Breakfast and Nick met a lot of neat people. This church is a nice size. Not huge, but not tiny either, and they really make an effort to make everyone feel welcome.

Well, I think that I'm all typed out for a little while. I swear I am trying to get better about posting, so just be patient with me please. God Bless All of you!

Geez Louise!!! Time Flies!

A lot has happened since the last time I posted. Brooklyn is in the phase of her toddler-hood that she likes to try to say everything that everyone says, so her vocabulary is expanding everyday. We bought a potty for her in early January and the day that we bought it she used it twice, but since, we have been lucky to get her to sit on it. We've moved, so my anxiety levels have gone down a lot. Not that I didn't love living with my in-laws, but seven people in a three bedroom duplex with five dogs gets really crowded really fast. Add to that the seemingly endless flow of teenagers that visit and you really do almost have every element you would need for an insane asylum. Today is Valentine's Day, and Nick took me to a local restaurant for lunch and gave me the most perfect present, a cross necklace to help remind me of the steps I am taking to get closer to God. Nick is doing really well in his sobriety. He even quit smoking! All in all I feel like our little family is getting closer and that makes me very happy. But Nick's family really is going through a hard time right now and it's taking it's toll on everyone. Brooklyn slept in her crib for a whole 12 hours last night. It was completely unexpected but thoroughly appreciated. She has to go to the doctor on Wednesday though because she has bumps popping up on her arms and face. Nick has the same thing so we are thinking either allergy or virus. Although if it was a virus, wouldn't I be getting it too? I'm around them both all the time so I am leaning more towards allergy. Anyways, this is my first blog in 2011 and I'm a little scatter brained so I think this is the end of this post for now... Hopefully I'll get my swing back and be posting more frequently now. God Bless everyone that reads this.
P.S. Susan, if you read this, we miss you terribly. And we love you so much.

I LOVE DECEMBER!

All month I have been dressing up Brooklyn in her many Christmas inspired outfits. Unfortunately, I have no pictures of these outfits because I simply have no batteries in my camera. It's a very sad thing for a first time mommy to not be able to show off her pride and joy in a month that I work so hard to make every outfit every day Christmassy. I think tomorrow is going to be a good day because we are going on a Christmas light tour. We are going to go to the Legends and take Brooklyn to a Santa setup they have there where she can sit with Santa and make a toy and reindeer food too. They also have a really awesome lightshow that lasts fifteen minutes and repeats itself for five hours every night. It's going to be awesome. We are also going to Paulie's Penguin Palace and Christmas Card Lane. There are a couple more places that I'm wanting to go but I'm not sure I know where they are. I'm going to get batteries and take pictures of Brooklyn in many of her Christmas outfits. By the way, does anyone have any Christmas DVD's or VHS's that they don't want any more? Our pickings of videos are slim right now and I'm looking to expand for next year.

Brooklyn is back to sleeping in our bed. She got sick a few weeks ago and slept with us for a night, and that was it. Ever since we have the hardest time putting her to sleep in her crib. She cries for two hours non stop. Nothing is wrong with her, she's just stubborn. So I guess we will be trying from scratch sometime soon. That's all for now. I'm tired and have to keep my baby out of things covered in sugar. Not an easy task so close to Christmas. Oh the joys of motherhood.

More Pictures!

Ugh. Everyone around here has been miserable for the past few days. Unfortunately, it was somewhat of my own doing. I contracted a stomach flu bug somewhere last week and woke up Sunday feeling just awful. I ended up going to the ER just to put an end to my misery. That night I was better at 2:30am, but alas, the bug had only begun its evil. Monday morning both my husband and my daughter were sick with the same thing. My mother in law contracted it somewhere between me and them. Heather got it Tuesday, Kurt got it yesterday, and Roy has been complaining that he has it since I got home from the ER. We are hoping that everyone that is going to contract it, has already contracted it. In the mean time, I promised pictures!

 Our Little Fix-It Girl

 4:30pm and already tuckered out! LOL

 My Mother In Law's Setup this Year, A Wedding To Die For!

 The Yearly Cemetary

 Brooklyn's Making a Break for It!

 The Wedding Cake I made for the Haunt!

 I dressed as a Naughty Nun! LOL!

 Nick-O dressed as a Cardinal!

 Brooklyn playing with one of her many "treats"

 Brooklyn isn't scared of this mystery hand!

 This is Nick at his family's yearly Thanksgiving.

 These two are Nick and Brooklyn bonding on Thanksgiving day! Too Cute!

So that's it for now. I'm tired and have a husband falling asleep watching Christmas movies with our Booger Bear. Talk to you soon!

It's Been Awhile...

I can't believe I haven't posted since before Halloween! That seems like so long ago! Anyways, Brooklyn had a great Halloween. It was very cold so we only spent a little time actually outside with the Halloween activities, but she loved what she experienced!

Thanksgiving has come and gone and Brooklyn has discovered a new joy in life other than her daily dose of chaos and destruction. She adores all things Christmas! Lights, garland, just plain ornaments, ribbon, you name it she goes nuts for it. She loves going to the store and looking at their Christmas displays! We have recently been blessed by family with a whole bunch, and I mean a BUNCH, of clothes for our little angel. She has been having the greatest time showing off her new clothes. The greatest thing for me is that there were several things in the bags that were very Christmassy, and I'm quite excited to dress her in every single one of them. I'm going to post some pictures taken since I last posted and then rush off because our little trouble maker is really trying to "help" daddy work on something.

I'm So Excited!

Brooklyn has been doing very well for the past few days with sleeping in her crib. Yesterday at naptime she just layed down and went to sleep. Last night she was tired and ready for bed but didn't want to stop playing with her new baby doll. All I had to say was "Brooklyn, lay down." And poof, she layed down and was out in less than a minute. Same thing happened today at naptime. This is very exciting for me! I have my bed back! I know that she is a baby, but she is such a bed hogger.

Well, I'm also excited because Halloween is this weekend and Brooklyn is going to have so much fun! She has a lamb costume and we are going to buy little things that she can keep to remember this halloween. We have been trying very hard to get her to say BAAAA but she absolutely won't do it.

Today has been a very busy day for me. I had four loads of laundry to wash, dry, fold, and put away. On top of that, I decided that I needed to wash my complete bed set because lately I've been bitten by bedbugs. It's not pleasant at all. So I've washed almost all the pillows(we have eight on our bed) and the sheets, but I still have three more pillows to wash, five pillows to dry, the sheets and pillowcases need to dry, and the blanket needs to be washed and dried.

So I guess I should get off of here and finish what I started so I can sleep in my bed tonight. Oh how I hate having OCD sometimes. Everyone have a happy and safe halloween!(That's just in case I don't post before then.)