Brooke

Since I did an update on Brenna, I thought it only fair I share a few updates on Brooke as well. She is 5 1/2 now (a little more, but who's counting?) and I just can't believe how big she is. How grown-up. How mature. How independent. It's still amazing to me that they go from little newborn blobs to walking, talking, reading, deciphering, independent little people in such a short time!

Anyway, Brooke is excelling beyond our expectations at school. She is writing very well. Her handwriting is really good! She is now starting to work on spelling words correctly instead of phonetically. Here's a worksheet from school she did recently where she had to write a Thanksgiving story using certain words listed at the top.

She is reading very fast. She can easily read any of the Step Reader books, whatever stage, now. She can read most of her children's books. She still likes to be read to, however, so we read to her every night from a chapter book of her choice. She (and I) really enjoy The Magic Tree House books. They are fun, suspenseful, and educational! And they are perfect for her age level. We usually check out 3 at a time from the library (we've found that's a good number for the time period allowed), and I fear what we will have to get into after we've read them all! We've probably read about half of them already!

She is also adding in her head now, doing more advanced addition and subtraction (with carrying and such) and doing it only as a problem, instead of needing something to actually physically count. She started a little bit on multiplication, as well.

She is also learning all kinds of other things daily, about places and history and science. It's amazing what they can soak in at this age!

Brooke is still very shy and quiet. She keeps to herself mostly until she gets a good friend. She has to be prompted to say 'hi' to people, and even then it's like pulling teeth! Therefore, she doesn't make friends well. Even kids that try to coerce her into a playtime or conversation don't have much luck and give up eventually. This is certainly her biggest obstacle development-wise. We (or mainly just me I guess) really worry about her transition next year to (big) public school to 1st grade. :(

That being said, apparently the other day at school, Brooke was the trend setter! It was quite unusual for her to be the ring leader. But they were making fall leaves at school. Brooke started taping them to herself and all the other kids thought it was funny so they followed suite. Her teacher thought it was so funny that she actually called me to come take a picture of all her little 'trees' that started with Brooke.

Brooke is also very very sweet spirited. She enjoys your time more than anything. She loves to snuggle. She is empathetic towards others. She may not be able to vocalize it because of her shyness, but she feels for others when they are hurting, physically or otherwise. She has never ever ever gotten in any remote sort of trouble at school or otherwise. She definitely takes after me in that regard. Too scared to do anything wrong or to disappoint. Along the same lines, she gets her feelings hurt easily.

She does have her moments though. We have to be careful to be prompt in curbing the phases of the whining, or the arguing, or the attitude. She is not blatant about her disobedience...she is definitely the more passive-aggressive type. And while she only reserves this dreaded behavior for her parents (and sister), and that is appreciated, we still are quick to nip it in the bud. She is, though, easier to discipline. A quick time-out or taking away of privileges works easy enough for her every time.

She does really love her sister. They fight and don't share, of course, but when it comes down to it, she really adores her. I catch her on many occasions, after I tell her to go to bed, walking to Brenna's bed first, tucking her in and giving her hugs and kisses. She wants to play with Brenna a lot of the time. Of course, she likes to be the one in charge, but she definitely wants Brenna to be there and be a part of it. ;) She's constantly asking Brenna to do things with her...swing, play Barbies, watch a show, etc... and I can't wait to see how their sisterly bond continues to grow as they get older.

Brooke loves to play outside. She loves to jump on the trampoline. She loves to swing high. She loves to ride her scooter or bike (only in the driveway though). She always wants to drive her Barbie Jeep (the battery always seems to be dead when we think about it). She just enjoys being outside.

She is, however, all girl. She wants no part of getting dirty. She loves to match her clothes. She wants say-so in how to fix her hair (usually wanting to just leave it down). She enjoys wearing 'make-up' and playing dress-up. She loves pretty shoes and frilly dresses. And the more sparkly it is, the more pink it is....the better.

She, like Brenna, loves Toy Story...particularly Jesse. She has recently started really getting into Barbies and loves dressing them and fixing their hair. She always wants to take one in the car with us wherever we go.

The majority of her lull time is spent writing, actually. She loves to write notes, lists, letters. She likes to draw pictures, etc. In the car, that is what she is constantly doing. She has a notepad and a pencil with her at all times. She does the same at church too. And at home. She even writes notes to herself (one time to remind her she needed to finish her lunch at school) Just recently I came home from a night out to find this note on my pillow...

(It says, "Dear Mommy, I love you. I hope you have a good day. Love, Brooke and Brenna.")

She also loves to sing, made up songs or real songs or whatever. Just sing. She still does very well in her dance class and is super excited about her performance at Christmas in the Park this year! She is doing ballet, tap, and jazz this year and really enjoys ballet and jazz most. She is also doing well in Kindermusik, learning to play the dulcimer. While I can tell that string instruments are not going to be her forte, she still enjoys going and is learning a lot. Here she is playing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (the first complete recognizable song she learned)...

We do struggle with her picky eating. She is a typical 5 year old I presume that only likes chicken nuggets, macaroni and cheese, and grapes. Besides the occasional carrot sticks with ranch dip, I don't believe there is a single vegetable she enjoys.

She is becoming much more independent these days. She gets herself completely ready in the mornings...from getting dressed, to brushing her hair, brushing her teeth, and cleaning her earrings 3x/day. She takes her showers completely by herself, shampooing and conditioning her hair alone too! She helps out around the house often enough. While we do not have a specific chore list for her, I do rely on her to help out when I ask. She does things like gathering the trash on trash day, setting and clearing the table, helping with Brenna (with things like putting on socks, shoes, going potty,etc), getting lunchboxes in the mornings, putting the dog in his kennel when we leave the house, etc.

All in all we are so very proud of what this little girl is becoming. She occupies such a big space in our hearts and we enjoy her so much! She is constantly surprising us with her knowledge or her funny thoughts. She has such a big heart. You just can't help but love this sweet precious child!