Brooke stories

All too often I am taking pictures and posting them to give you an idea of how precious our Brooke is to us. However, I then realize all the funny, silly, mind-boggling things she does throughout the day that we can't catch on film and realize I never take the time to share those stories. So here goes as I try to remember some of the more memorable ones.....

Lately Brooke really has gotten a sensitive soul. She has always been very empathetic towards others, but here lately, she gets her feelings hurt waaaaaay too often. Over the littlest things. So, what she does when someone says her name a little too loudly or when she accidently spills a little water, is walk quietly to her room, close the door, and then start crying softly. If we go in, she will tell us her tummy hurts, which is her staple for if anything hurts. In the beginning, while we didn't push it on her, we accepted it and talked her through it. Now, as it has gotten worse, we try to prevent it (stop her before she walks back) or ignore it. I think now she is using it to get the attention. There is a fine line though. So anyway....the other day, I got on to her a bit for swatting at Bailey. She told me with the upmost of attitude, "I'm leaving!" and she proceeded to walk down the hall to her room. I ignored her and noticed as she got halfway down the hall, she turned around, saw that I wasn't acknowledging her, so she came walking back. She came right up to me, looked me dead in the eye and said with the same attitude, "I'm leaving!....In case you can't find me later." And she walked out. I have to admit I about died laughing.

At bedtime, Brad is usually always the one who reads her her story and tucks her in. It is typically (up till recently) very quiet time. I really wish he would be the one to tell this story because I don't know if I'll get it quite right. But anyway, so the routine goes something like this. He reads a short story or book, then turns out the light and rubs (or scratches) her head for a couple minutes telling her he loves her, she's a good girl - stuff like that - then gets up, tells her "Night Night" and walks out. Well, the last week or so, their 'talk time' started. The first night it happened, after he turned out the light, instead of falling asleep, she turned to him and said out of the blue, "You hurt my feelings today." He was taken by surprise of course and asked "how did I hurt your feelings?" She replied, "When we bumped heads", Daddy: "Oh...I'm sorry, it was an accident. Are we ok now?" Brooke: "Ummm...hmmm..." Then as he starts to rub her head, she pulls her arm out of the covers and says "Scratch my arm tonight".
Now, every night, they have these heart-to-heart conversations about what happened that day, how she's feeling or whatever else may be on her mind. Is she really only 2 1/2??!

We also count to 3 if she's doing something wrong. Of course, we never have to get to 3....not even sure what she thinks might happen, but hey. It always works. So, the other day NaNa was here (my mom) and Brooke was instructing Nana to 'get on the bed and lay down to play'. NaNa tried to explain to her that she didn't really feel like laying down at the moment and she would just.......Brooke interrupted quickly..."NaNa, I'm gonna count to 3! 1........2..........." Wouldn't you know, NaNa laid down on the bed before Brooke got to three.

One day, I was playing around with her saying I wanted to get her piggies (her toes). She told me "NO! I don't want you to get my piggies." I got a very sad look on my face and said in a sad voice, "But I wanna get your piggies!" She looked at me ever so seriously, and said, "What? Mommy, I can't understand when you are whining." I guess I have taught her too well.

Then the other day, I asked her to go put her dirty socks in the dirty clothes bin. I told her (in a joking manner of course) that maybe Bailey (our dog) would like to go with her to help. She turned around, looked very matter-of-factly at me and said...."Mommy! Bailey can't do that. He has no arms, only legs and he uses his mouth to carry things! I don't want my socks in his mouth. But thank you for asking."
How OLD is she again?

She knows all the stores around town and every restraunt too. I am not sure this is a good thing. But she is picking up on letters, so it's gotta help right? Of course, just to brag a bit, she has known her shapes and colors since 15 months and since she was such an early talker, she could verbalize the different shapes/colors/numbers. Anyway, so now she is getting things like "B is for Brooke", "C is for Cat", etc etc... And she can tell you any store we pass, from HEB, to Walgreens, to Lowes, Home Depot, Target, WalMart. I promise we don't spend our entire lives in these stores - she just picks up on things. She also knows which stores have what. For example, she knows at Toys R Us, she can ride the train. She knows at Walgreens they have a 'silly witch' (Halloween decorations), Lowe's has Santa Claus and Mickey Mouse (inflatable Christmas decorations) and I can even remember LAST year at this time her wanting to also go to Lowes, because they had a "snowman". Anyway, it's amazing the memory of this little person and how quickly she can pick up on something. She knows all of our real names (all as in the whole extended family too - NaNa, PaPoo, Sammy, Birdie, etc) and most of our ages. She knows our eye colors ("NaNa has blue eyes like me! And Cinderella. Mommy has green eyes" etc), and who our favorite character is (My favorite is Mickey).

We spend a lot of time these days talking about feelings and the different feelings you have - mad, sad, happy, grumpy, upset, etc. This little girl is so grown up for her age. A lot of times we get frustrated with her and then we have to stop and remember - she's only 2! It's easy to forget with her conversation level and her level of understanding it seems. It's hard to believe that only a year or so ago was she just learning to talk and now she is carrying on 'adult' coversations. She says her prayers every night and while sometimes, she likes to rush and get through them, other times you can tell she is really remembering things from her day to pray about. She doesn't just pray for PaPoo....she prays for PaPoo "because he came to see me today and bought me dinner." I mean what kind of 2 year old thinks of these things? And is thankful for these things. We are so blessed to have such a happy, loving child in our midst. I can't tell you how she has changed our lives for the better. And the times that she tries our patience, we have to tell ourselves - she's only 2! She just acts so grown up and mature sometimes.
Anyway, I could go on and on about how great my daughter is, but I am sure ya'll are tired of hearing it! I know I am biased! :)