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!!!

California's Proposition 8

A quote by Elder Neal A. Maxwell given at a BYU devotional in 1978.

"Make no mistake about it, brothers and sisters, in the months and years ahead, events are likely to require each member to decide whether or not he will follow the First Presidency. Members will find it more difficult to halt longerbetween two opinions. President Marion G. Romney said, many years ago, that he had 'never hesitated to follow the counsel of the Authorities of the Church even though it crossed my social, professional or political life.' This is hard doctrine, but it is particularly vital doctrine in a society which is becoming more wicked. In short, brothers and sisters, not being ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ includes not being ashamed of the prophets of JesusChrist. . . . Your discipleship may see the time when such religious convictions are discounted. . . . This new irreligious imperialism seeks to disallow certain opinions simply because those opinions grow out of religious convictions. Resistance to abortion will be seen as primitive. Concern over the institution of the family will be viewed as untrendy and unenlightened.... Before the ultimate victory of the forces of righteousness, some skirmishes will be lost. Even in these, however, let us leave a record so that the choices are clear, letting others do as they will in the face of prophetic counsel. There will also be times, happily, when a minor defeat seems probable, but others will step forward, having been rallied to rightness by what we do. We will know the joy, on occasion, of having awakened a slumbering majority of the decent people of all races and creeds which was, till then, unconscious of itself. Jesus said that when the fig trees put forth their leaves, 'summer is nigh.' Thus warned that summer is upon us, let us not then complain of the heat."

I am so grateful for modern-day prophets and apostles.

Overheard

Brooklyn was happily sitting on our bed, looking at a book. Jason came over and started to "read" to her from it. The story went something like this:

Once upon a time, there was a little girl who liked to play with butterflies. But in the trees, there was A BIG HUNGRY BEAR!!! The little girl ran for her life, but her legs were too little. The bear caught her and ate her for lunch. STAY OUT OF THE FOREST, OR YOU WILL DIE!!!

This was all accompanied by growling sounds and the random tossing of Brooklyn's giggling, squiggling body onto the bed. I guess that's one way of teaching life's important lessons.

oldnavy.com

I apologize for not writing this blog sooner - stuff is selling out as we speak! (er... read) Old Navy is having a huge online clearance sale. If you spend $100, you can use the promotion code GETMORE to get a 20% discount on already clearanced prices. If you spend over $150, you can also use the code FREE150 to get free shipping. Otherwise, it is a flat $7 rate. I just spent $213 on 21 items, including a full-priced $90 peacoat I've been wanting for my birthday. Oh, and free shipping. So that's an average of $10 per item, including the coat. I'm quite impressed with myself. It's stuff we've been needing/wanting too, like new shoes, dresses, and a coat for Brooklyn, a coat, some shirts, and some PJs for me, and a few sweaters, work-out clothes, and 3 hoodies for Jason. If you want to return anything, you just take it to the store - no biggie! They even have maternity!! I got a few things for my time growing baby #2. No, that is not an announcement. Happy shopping!

Nose on the Toes

I heard that Brandon Hughes can find his nose and was very impressed. So, I decided to try to teach Brooklyn the same thing. This morning, I was lying on our bed and letting Brooklyn play around beside me. She LOVES being on our bed. After a little bit, I touched my nose and said, "nose" and then touched her nose and said the same thing. She looked at me funny so I did it again. Then, I said, "Brooklyn, where's my nose?" Her face suddenly lit up and she went rushing down to the edge of the bed and grabbed my bare toes. It was so cute! She looked up at me expectantly and I rewarded her by saying "Good job!" She often plays with my toes and I tell her their name, but I didn't realize she knew what they were. Toes, nose, same thing, right? =)