Our little dancer

Our little fish

Summer continues to fly by way too fast. It's hard to believe that in less than a month I will be back in school. I'm not ready for summer to be over! Our house is finally painted. I still have the shutters, garage, front deck, and the fence in the backyard to paint yet. Hopefully I can get it all finished before school starts. We haven't really gone on a big vacation this summer but have spent some time away. We went to Wisconsin the weekend of the 4th and plan to go to a Twins game and Como Zoo in mid August.

Brooklyn is quite the little swimmer. We have been swimming a lot lately because she loves it and it tires her out :) It's rather tiring for us too chasing her all over the place. She has no fear and will jump in the 4 ft. water if you are ready for her or not. Here's a few pictures of our little fish.

At Lake Okabena in Worthington

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At the pool

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Showing us how a fish swims

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Going down the slide again...and again...and again...

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On a boat ride

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Hanging out on the dock

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Watching the parade at the Dutch Festival

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Fun with cousins

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Enjoying Grandma's beautiful flower garden

Corn on the cob

Blog-worthy post

I'm so excited about my bargains I just have to share. This past Saturday Pamida had a "Wild-N-Crazy" sale. The first 100 shoppers got a reusable shopping bag with "Pamida bucks" inside (basically a gift card). The store opened at 9:00 so I figured I'd go 15 minutes early just in case there were people already there. To my surprise the parking lot was about half full and there was a line of people waiting for the doors to open. Once the doors opened I received a bag that had $10 Pamida bucks inside and I started shopping. When I checked out, I had to pop a balloon for either 5%, 10%, or 20% off my total purchase. I got 20% off (YEAH!) so here were my bargains:

Puffs tissues--three 216 count boxes: $5.99 - $2.99 (sale) - 20% off=$2.30 ($0.76 a box)
2 liters of pop: $1.59 - $1.10 (sale) - 20% off = $0.39 per 2 liter
Charmin Basic: $6.99 - $3.49 (sale) - 20% off = $2.80 a package
Brawny Big Rolls 6 count: $9.99 - $4.00 (sale) - 20% off = $4.79
Luvs diapers: $13.99 - $5.99 (sale) - 20% off = $6.40 (that's 12 cents a diaper!)

Most of the items had a limit of 4 which is why I didn't buy more :) My total (including my $10 Pamida bucks that I used) was $35.91!!!!!! I saved a total of $58.85...now that makes me excited! :) Here's what I got:

18 month stats

Weight: 28 lbs. 2 oz (90%)
Height: 34.25" (97%)
Favorite toys: Cell phones, dolls, and books
Favorite activities: Being naughty, watching the Wiggles, eating, playing outside, going to the park, going down the slide over and over and over again, going for walks, playing with random objects in the garage, and messing with the computer
Speech and other milestones: She talks a lot! She says between 40-50 words, some of which only Eric and I can understand :) She mimics us a lot too--typing on the computer, answering the phone, sweeping, brushing our teeth, etc. Lately she has been telling us when she has to poop. In the last week she's pooped 3 times on the potty. We'll have to see if this trend continues.
Teeth: 16
Food/Eating: She usually eats oatmeal or toast for breakfast with a fruit or yogurt. Lately she's been wanting to eat cereal like us so she's had a few bowls of Cheerios too. Snacks usually consist of Cheerios, fruit, or crackers. This summer she's been eating a lot of grapes and strawberries for her snacks. Lunch and supper are usually whatever we are eating. She's becoming a little more fussy with meat and I think it's because of the texture. If it's in a hotdish she's okay, but just a plain hamburger or a bite of chicken she usually spits back out. Some nights I combine the meat with veggies or noodles,etc. and that helps her eat it. She loves milk and apple juice. Overall, she is a very, very, VERY good eater (hence her weight :)
Naps/Sleeping: Brooklyn usually takes about an hour and a half afternoon nap. Some days it can be 2+ hours, and other days (like today) only 35 minutes. She goes to bed like a champ at night. She may only have her pacifier in bed so usually we just ask her if she wants her pipe, she says yes, grabs her blanket, and starts climbing up the stairs. Later this summer we are going to take her pipe away so we are enjoying the easiness of it now :) She goes down for her nap around 12:30/12:45 in the afternoon and to bed for the night at 9:00. She usually sleeps through until 7:00. She's come a long way the last 6 months!!! I don't miss those nights of getting up with her 4 times at all! We love our sleep :)
Sickness/Medicine: Brooklyn still will have an occasional ear infection. She takes Claratin every morning and Singulair at night. These allergy meds have definitely helped, although they do get costly. After this month we are going to stop with her Singulair and see what happens. It's an expensive med and the doctor wants to see if she has outgrown any of her allergies. We will still do the Claratin just to keep her nose draining to hopefully avoid another ear infection. She only had the flu once this year, compared to four times in 3 months the year before. I think her immune system is finally developing :)

Brooklyn is such a joy. She makes us laugh every day. It's hard to believe our baby girl is 18 months old already. This is such a fun stage. Eric and I are constantly commenting on all the silly things she does and says. We love you so much Brooklyn Marie!

Now on to the pictures :)
I think she loves vacuuming as much as her Mom! She is not afraid of it one bit. Maybe that is due to the fact that we constantly had the vacuum running when she was younger to muffle out her crying. Hopefully she still loves the vacuum 10 years from now when I need help with my housework! :)

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Having quite the conversation on her play cell phone while pushing her stroller.

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Celebrating Addison's 2nd birthday. Out of the 11 pictures I took of these 3 girls, this is the best one I got. These 3 don't sit still very long...especially when there's frosting in front of them!

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Since I'm babysitting my nieces this month, Addison and Brooklyn get to spend a lot of time together.

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And today they were actually being kind to each other!!!

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Brooklyn loves playing in the sand at the beach. We've gone 2 Saturdays in a row to the lake and she really enjoys it. It tires her out too which is great!

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Not cooperating smiling...

What we've been up to...

Sorry for not posting for so long. We've been busy and now that the school year is over, I finally have time to catch up on things like blogging. Here's a hodgepodge of pictures from the last two months. This is what we've been up to lately.
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Going to the park

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Playing with Addison

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Fighting with Addison

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Digging in drawers and finding things to play with like Mom's headbands

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Relaxing (yes the pop can is empty). You've got to try Cherry Vanilla Pepsi. It's so good!

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Missing my daycare buddy Tanyon. Mom isn't near as fun to play with as Claire, Sophie, and Tanyon are.

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Watching the Wiggles

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Playing with cousins

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Eating...it's what I do best :)

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Getting into everything

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Playing outside

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Being silly

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Playing with our wonderful neighbors and their cute little puppy Cooper

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Sleeping (occasionally!)

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Being cute :)

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And probably the biggest thing we've been up to is shingling our house and painting it. The shingles are done and look great and now on to painting. More pictures of the finished product to come!

Shoes, shoes, shoes

Brooklyn's new obsession lately is shoes. She literally will sit and play with shoes for an hour. She tries putting them on her feet, putting them on her hands, clapping them together, etc. When I was looking at pictures tonight, I noticed a common theme...
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Notice the shoes in every picture? She usually has one, if not two, in her hands all the time. What a goof!

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This is Brooklyn's favorite person besides Mom or Dad. She even

prefers Auntie Shelly over me sometimes which is wonderful! Having a Momma's girl gets a bit annoying at times. I'm always willing to pawn her off...especially if there's no screaming :)

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A few weeks ago we celebrated Easter with my side of the family. The kids did their annual Easter egg hunt. This was Brooklyn first time joining in on the action.

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Addison had it all figured out...

but Brooklyn was a little slow and didn't quite get the object of the game. She still ended up getting a few eggs and a stuffed rabbit she sleeps with every night.

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Have a great week!