Brooke

Now time for an update on Brooke. As the kids get older, there may be fewer milestones, but they are still developing and learning and growing. It is so fun to watch and be a part of, yet a bit bittersweet as well to see my first baby growing so.

Brooke loves loves loves school. On Sundays, as we are getting ready for church, she always asks, "Can we go to school instead of church today?" She truly misses school when she's not there. She sleeps late and every morning I have to wake her in time for school. Its sometimes a hassle to get her out of bed and dressed in time, but if given the option of staying in bed or going to school, she always picks school and trudges through the 'getting ready' in the mornings to be able to go.

She is still enamored with Ms Lydia and is on Reading Book 4 I think? I think that is still first grade reading material but I'm not sure. She does simple math (addition and subtraction) easily now on paper and in her head. She loves to write notes to people and her only fault when writing a note is that she sometimes forgets to put spaces between words so they all run together. But otherwise every word is thought up, spelled out and written correctly for the most part. Sometimes it is phonetically correct, while not English-language correct. Her favorite activities at school include playing the computer games, making bracelets for everyone, playing with her friends, reading, and doing workbooks. She loves to show off her work everyday after school.

She also attends Museum classes through the school on Fridays and thoroughly enjoys learning about different creatures and such. She still enjoys Kindermusik and all that accompanies that. She has learned a couple of notes now on her glockenspiel and has learned the correct way to play it. She is able to read notes and write them as well. We continue to be impressed with the level of music education she is getting through Kindermusik.

Brooke still enjoys her ballet class as well and seems to be very excited for the upcoming Spring recital. We got to see their recital costumes the other day for the first time and they were so precious! She loves them as well and can't wait to get hers! I'm a little apprehensive about Daddy finding out that she will be wearing makeup (and a lot of it!) for the recital, but....its a one-time thing anyway. ;)

So with all of her activities, she seems to be one very busy little girl. I only wish we had the time (and money) to enroll her in some sort of team sport as well, but in due time I suppose...

Brooke has a GREAT memory. I don't know if all kids do at this age or if its just a specific trait she was given, but for whatever reason, I do hope she is able to retain this memory. She will remember things from years ago, small instances, or times we were in a particular store, or just random pieces of information or things we've told her. She will pull out a toy she hasn't played with in a while (or even one from when she was a baby!) and remind us who gave it to her and for what occasion. It's a little creepy sometimes!

She is also very polite and kind. She gets atta-boys often from me especially when she is particularly kind or polite. It is definitely a behavior I wish to reward! She will wait for everyone to sit at the table before eating (and also remind us to say a prayer!) She remembers to say 'thank you', 'your welcome', and 'bless you' (after someone sneezes) and reminds us to do the same, as well as many other polite remembrances. Most recently she has started to invite people to play with her...the kids that aren't playing with anybody else. At school or parties or playdates. I am sooo proud of her! To be able to take the initiative on her own to go up to someone and ask them if they want to play with her (which is always scary). This is a big milestone for Brooke, as she has been (and still is!) so shy and reserved.

She is a great big sister. We say this often, but we really couldn't express this enough. She is so patient with Brenna, tries to teach her new (mostly positive) things and does it very slowly and encouraging. She praises Brenna, she tries to engage her into play with her, asking her often if she will come play with her and do things with her. Brenna is truly her best friend in life and I think that's so great!

Of course, she also, ironically enough, likes to do things/wear things the same as Brenna. Ironically, because I always figured it would be the other way around. I thought Brenna would be the one to want to be and do things like her big sister. But it is quite the opposite. Brooke gets upset if she isn't wearing the same kind of shirt or hairbow as Brenna. And this ideal can lead to many fights lately, because she also likes to play with the same toys as Brenna. ;) But they love each other so!

Brooke loves to sing. She particularly loved learning and singing alllll the Christmas songs she could. She is definitely her momma's child in that regard! We both love the Christmas music! But she also enjoys singing songs from her Kindermusik class and off her other CD's and the radio. Along the same lines, she loves to dance. A favorite pasttime after lunch and before naps is to put on some music and dance around the living room. Particularly, and most recently, after seeing them in concert, she loves to dance to Trans-Siberian Orchestra.

She is also still really into playing dress up and likes to get us all involved! She has gotten into more advance pretend play now, inventing games and such. She'll come up to us and say, "you wanna play a game with me? It's called, 'Pop Balloon, don't let it drop'." Recently we caught her playing "scarf jump" with Brenna which didn't sound too good so we had to put an end to that one. She has asked me, on a few occasions, if we can pretend that I'm not there and she is the mommy. We have to be real careful with that one so she isn't too mean to Brenna. ;)

She is probably one of the most addicted-to-TV kids I know without even watching that much TV. We never have our TV on during the day and only TiVo a few shows for the kids and let them watch a 30min show maybe once every day or two. However, if a TV is on whenever wherever we go, she has her eyes glued to it. It doesn't matter what it is! She will watch it! We have to be careful where we sit in a restaraunt to keep her eyes away from a TV. She has grown fond of watching Scooby-Doo these days, but also still really enjoys Mickey Mouse. She loves to watch old musicals with me occasionally and I take her to any age-appropriate plays at our local theatre company. So at least she's not watching too much junk TV, right?

Brooke got a scooter for Christmas and rides it up and down the street (supervised of course!) very well. So much so, that I wish that Santa had gone ahead and got the 2-wheeler instead of the 3-wheeled scooter. But he got a REALLY good deal on it I heard ($18!), so it's been a good start. Maybe for her bday? She has never been much into her tricycle or bike, but is now finally learning to ride a little bit. In part, I think, because of her activity on the scooter. She realized its not all that hard after all. She is also an expert skipper! She can skip like none other. Thanks to Nana for that one, who taught her to skip over the summer. Now, she is a pro and shows off her skill all the time. She likes to skip wherever she goes and has semi free reign. She is also very proud of herself when, at ballet class, it comes time to skip and she can do it so well. Another thing she has recently learned (as in the last few days)...is to whistle! Unfortunately whistling is not something you can really teach. She has wanted to be able to whistle for so long now and finally a few days ago, she started doing it! She is so proud and loves to show off her new-found whistling skills to anyone who'll listen.

She is very picky on her clothes these days... Ahh...the life of a girl. Everything is too tight, too loose, too bright, too itchy. Too something. I finally started telling her, if she doesn't like what she has, we will give it away to someone who will like it. That has given a little relief in that regard. She still gets quite distressed if her shoes aren't tied or fastened tight enough. But if her pants are "too long", she likes to roll them up to her calf!!! (ugh) Drives me nuts. I tell her it looks dumb like that, but she insists they are just 'too long'. I still make her roll them down before we go out in public though. ;)

Her hair is getting long again and oh, how we deal with brushing it.... Every day, after bath and before school, we have to listen how much her tangles hurt. Finally I started telling her she can choose the brush or the scissors. Every time she chooses the brush. ;) When it is all fresh and clean and brushed, though, her hair is sooo pretty!

Brooke is as much a picky eater as I was growing up, yet we still always offer different foods in hopes that one day she'll grow out of it. But her favorites are the ever kid-friendly chicken nuggets, macaroni and cheese, and fetuccini alfredo. She looooooves alfredo. And all things cheese. She's not much a meat eater and definitely prefers any kind of chicken to beef. She finally grew to love pizza as well. Yes, for a long long while, we had a kid that didn't like pizza! But now, she is a fan. She loves treats and sweets and chocolate. Not that she gets them very often, but nonetheless, she loves it.

She still sleeps very well. She will sleep 11-12 hrs at night if given the opportunity (I have to wake her up for school usually) and will still take a good 1-1.5 hr nap every day. I know! I am so blessed. A few times, she has gotten out of bed, at night when she can't sleep to tell us she can't sleep because she misses us so much at nighttime. Such a sweet girl.

Brooke is one very empathetic and sensitive little girl. I have always loved that about her. She worries about other people's feelings. She hates to win at board games because she desperately wants us to win too! She will purposely lose or try to cheat to lose! She is very caring and tries to take care of others (namely her little sister) so much. I wish she was a little more assertive at times (I worry for when she's older and around kids that aren't as nice as some of her friends now), but am so thankful that we have such a sweet sweet girl to have as our daughter. We love her so much!