Brooklyn Lately

I haven't talked about my baby on here lately, which is strange because she's my favorite thing to talk about! Sadly, she's not much of a baby anymore. We went to her year check-up in October and she was already 31 inches tall (95%) and 24 lbs 6 oz (93%)!!! I know she's even bigger now. She is completely out of her 12 months clothes and on to 18 months or sometimes 2T! And she's not even 14 months yet. I'm glad she's finally starting to walk because people think she's much older than she is. She took her first couple of steps on Sunday Nov 23rd at 13 months. Now, she can walk the length of the hall/living room on a good run. She does still walk very slowly and deliberately. Sometimes I call her Zombie Girl.


She has become a lot more vocal lately, having entire conversations in her own little language. Sometimes she says things we can understand. The words she says frequently are: mom (not mama or mommy), hi, no, thank you, and yum. Yum has a variety of meanings like "This is good," "I'm excited to eat that," and "I want some of that." It all depends on the inflection. For example, if Daddy is eating or unwrapping something, she comes rushing over saying "yum? yum?" until he gives her some. If she is enjoying her food, it's more of a moaned "yumm...." Today I went to the doctor with her and there is a big basket of dum dum suckers on the check-out counter. I set her up there so I could pay. She saw the basket, her eyes got big, and she DOVE into it exclaiming "YUM!!" I had to make her put back all but one.

She really likes getting in to drawers. We tried to get the little childproof hooks to work, but they're too hard for ME to open, so we just put rubberbands around the door handles. We have a column of four drawers and the bottom drawer is where we keep a box of Tootsie Pops. Brooklyn is very aware of this. She pulls the drawer open very slowly because if she goes too fast, the upper drawers will follow (they're all connected with rubber bands.) She gets the drawer open just enough and pokes her hand in there for a sucker. Often, she is too slow and the other drawers pull out, trapping her arm inside. She doesn't like that very much, but she doesn't give up! She's been successful a few times and I'll find her in a sticky sucker mess sitting on the floor. She can get the wrapper off in .5 seconds flat. I guess I'm a softy cuz I always let her keep it.

I know it sounds like her favorite food is suckers, but it's not. She loves BLACK OLIVES. Oh my goodness, she is nuts about them. As soon as she sees them it's "Yum?! Yum?! Yum?!" She laughs when I put them on her fingers, but that's not why she likes them so much. If we're not careful, that girl will get 5 olives in her mouth at the same time and still manage a warbled "yum?" for more.


She likes to play with us and seems to constantly need our attention. If either one of us closes a door (even to go to the bathroom) or sits down at the computer, she screams. I guess she knows that we're not going to be available to play with her for a little bit. Her favorite game is "tackle" with her dad. She stands up and runs to him and he tackles her to the ground. It's very cute to see. She likes to mimic whatever we do and can often entertain herself for a while if she's got a phone to say hi to, a cup to drink/spill water from, or a brush to fix her hair with.

One of my favorite things that Brooklyn has started doing lately is helping me empty the dishwasher. She really does help! She stands beside the bottom drawer and hands me clean plates, one at a time, while I put them in the cupboard. It's adorable and I have to hold back the giggles so she won't think I'm laughing at her. I just wish she understood the difference between dirty and clean dishes and didn't take them out the whole time I'm trying to load them up.

She now has 10 teeth including 2 bottom molars and hair long enough for a pony in the back, if she'll let me put one in. She's getting better about getting her teeth brushed, or maybe has just become resigned to the fact that screaming won't help. She loves trying to put on her shoes and socks, but takes them off within 10 minutes of getting them on - especially if we go in the car somewhere. I'm beginning to realize I shouldn't bother until we get where we need to be.

In my blogging hiatus, I failed to talk about her birthday "party," her three-day hives, trick-or-treating at the mall, Thanksgiving, Nana and Papi's visit, and I'm sure a bunch more. Jason's in finals right now and I'm not about to kick him off his computer so I can download pictures. Hopefully you'll hear my catch-up when all the tests are over. Otherwise, Merry Christmas!!

Overheard Again

Jason: (putting Brooklyn's toy phone to his ear) Hello?

Jason: (pretending to be the guy on the other end) May I speak to Brooklyn please?

Jason: (handing the phone to Brooklyn): Brooklyn, it's your parole officer.

Cyber Monday!!

Okay, I know I haven't done a "real" blog in quite a while. It's one of those "too much it's intimidating" situations again. I'll try to get up the enthusiasm here soon. Just wanted to tell you that today is Cyber Monday! Like Black Friday but online! Bunches and bunches of stores have specials today, so look around at your favorites. Old Navy is offering 20% off of your order again, with free shipping on ANY order - no minimum! 20% off code is SAVENOW. Free shipping is ONEDAY. The reason I like Old Navy so much is cuz it's cheap and easy to return. Some other online-only stores require you to ship it back to them at your expense if it doesn't work for you. So keep that in mind while shopping. KBToys and ToysRUs are also having sales, along with Aeropostale, Lowes, Sears, and a bunch more! I always check retailmenot.com or promotioncodes.com before checking out to see if there are any additional discounts.

A note on online shopping: There are lots of ways to save like promo codes and sales - I like to check dealtaker.com daily and see what deals people have posted that they have found on various sites. I've gotten a dress for $5 with free shipping, a set of Harry Potter books 1-6 for $14 including shipping, a personalized, VERY cute Christmas stocking for Brooklyn for about $14 total, etc. I'm almost completely done with Christmas shopping and I've gotten great deals on everything. Another good thing to do is to create a cashback account on live.com. You can find a deal on a site, and then access the site through live.com (a search engine) and they will give you cashback on any purchases you make during that visit. Some stores give up to 25% cashback! (That's in addition to any promo codes!) By the way, I only know all this stuff because I spend 24 hours a week glued to the computer for work so I have time to look around. I LOVE A DEAL!!!