Brooklyn-29 Months

Brooklyn turned 29 months on Friday. I don't typically celebrate month birthdays past the age of 1, but I felt like an update was in order. I haven't blogged much about this little one lately.
I am amazed how much she has changed in the 29 months of her life. From birth to 18 months, she was the most laid back child. She even had to be kept on oxygen in the nursery for almost 48 hours after she was born because of her breathing. After many tests and x-rays, it was decided that she was just taking her time breathing. She was happy no matter what she was doing. She was EASY! At 18 months, a new child appeared. She had an opinion and a strong one that needed to be heard.

Brooklyn is the cutest, little curly blonde haired girl I have ever seen. That "cuteness" helps her get away with more than she should. Over the past 2 weeks she has stuck a popcorn kernel up her nose and dropped one of my weights on her toe. She said "no!" to me at least a million times. She sat in time out more than ever before. She pushed Emma's buttons beyond what Emma could bear. As my sister in law said, "she is a little pistol". BUT, goodness me, such a cute pistol! :) She is 2 and I have to get that through my adult mind quite often these days and give her a little grace. And then balance that grace with some discipline too. It is hard.

Brooklyn has a love for life just like her sister and Daddy. She finally went down the big slide at McDonald's today and when she came down and heard us clapping for her, her smile was worth a million dollars.

She follows her big sister around everywhere and tries her hardest to keep up with Emma and her friends. She wants to be in the middle of all the fun. She thinks her sister is the most fun person in the world.

She thinks if you have jewelry on, or something pretty in your hair, or a dress on that you look like "Barrrrbie". She often thinks of herself as "Barrrbie" when she thinks she is looking pretty too.

She is my cuddle bug. She is on the move a lot, but in the morning and after her nap, she requires cuddle time. I would not trade it for anything! In fact, I schedule things later in the morning, so that we don't have to rush out the door if at all possible. I don't want to miss that time. I think I need it as much as she does.

She is wearing pull ups now and going to the potty some of the time. I haven't taken the plunge and bought panties and gone full force with potty training. I can't decide if it is because we have been to busy for me to work on it with her or if I'm stalling because she will most likely be my last one in diapers. She is growing up.

Brooklyn changes outfits from the dress up box at least 15 times a day. Visitors at our house can attest to this. She has learned from the best on how to dress up! (Emma is a pro)

If Brooklyn is at home, she is either in a "dress up outfit" or is naked. We have chosen not to fight her on wearing pj's to bed. She likes her birthday suit. We will save that fight for later on in life when we really need her to cover herself.

She doesn't say a whole lot of words clearly, but this little girl can understand entirely to much! She is actually saying a lot more words than even 2 months ago, but still not putting them together. We are working on it daily.

She eats whatever I make! I praise her for this every night after dinner. Emma is so picky and often makes meal time not a whole lot of fun. Brooklyn, on the other hand, will eat anything we put in front of her. She loves soups and salads, fancy sandwiches, chicken pot pie, spinach, etc....She is going to make for a great lunch buddy next year when Emma is in school. We can go out and split soup and salad. After having 2 little girls that eat totally differently, I have decided that there is nothing you can do to make them eat good things. I have done everything the same with their eating and they are so totally opposite. I'm just hoping that at some point, Emma will thank me for at least putting the veggies on her plate.

Brooklyn loves gymnastics and she is pretty darn good. She flips over the bar all by herself and has only been taking for 2 months. She walks across the beam with hardly any help from her teacher. She can do a killer forward roll and jump into the foam blocks like a champ. It her favorite night of the week.

Brooklyn still has the chubby lines in her thighs and I love them! I will be so sad when they are gone.

Brooklyn loves to sleep. I usually have to wake her up at 9:00 so that she will take a nap that afternoon. The times that I have just let her sleep, she has slept til 10:00. She still naps for about 3 hours each afternoon. My kind of girl.

Although Brooklyn has been getting in a lot of trouble lately, she is such a joy and a completion to our family. I love her very much.

These are just a few fun things about Brooklyn at this age. I realize this was long, but again, it is for the scrapbook and will be something fun for her to read later in life. It will also be something good for me to look back on during the days that she is fighting me and I need to be reminded of all of her sweetness.