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!

Teething Bites

It's been awhile since I've updated. Life has been busy! This week I only have a three and a half day which will be nice. Brooklyn has been a little stinker lately. She isn't napping very well during the day and has been getting up 3-4 times each night for a week and a half. I am thinking it's because of her teeth. Her little cheeks get fiery red and so hot. I give her Ibuprofen, teething tablets, Orajel, you name it....none of it seems to help though. We went in to the doctor this week and he did switch her allergy medicine back to the first one she was on. The new one she tried wasn't working. She had a stuffy/runny nose, watery eyes, and was so phlegmy. The doctor said that could be contributing to why she isn't sleeping well either. So we are back on Singulair granules again. Eric and I are very ready for her to start sleeping. Our household is much happier when we all get sleep :)

Other than that, not much else is new. This week is supposed to be really nice and so I am anticipating going on lots of walks and playing in the park. Brooklyn has been playing with our niece Addison a lot lately. It is so fun to see them interact. Usually they get along well...unless they both want the same toy. Here are a few pictures from the last couple of weeks.

Brooklyn and Addie looking absolutely thrilled that I am taking their picture!

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Brooklyn playing with her washer and dryer.

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Nice and comfy on her couch


This is what I get for leaving the Cheerios box out :) Could her grin get any cheesier?!?!?!

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So I tried to get a nice picture of her Sunday before church...

still not cooperating...
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and this is the closest to "nice" that I got. I'll have to try again another time.

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Here's a video of Brooklyn and her moves. She loves music!

Is it spring yet???

Man, am I ever sick of winter! I cannot wait for all this snow to be gone and for it to be warm enough to play outside with Brooklyn, go on walks, go to the park, etc. I get excited just thinking about it! Hopefully spring will bring health! Brooklyn had an awful cold/cough for about a week before it turned into ear infection. Her ear drum actually ruptured. Poor girl! She also had a sore throat/swollen glands so she was put on an antibiotic and a cough syrup with codeine. Since we have been on about every kind of antibiotic and Brooklyn has reacted to quite a few of them, she is on a sulfa antibiotic now that is like thick chalk. The pharmacist couldn't flavor it b/c it lessens its effectiveness so it is a full-fledged wrestling match to get her to take her medicine twice a day. The doctor switched her allergy med too so we will see how that goes. It's a lot cheaper than the one she was on before, but she doesn't take this one very well (it's a liquid where her old one was a powder we would mix with applesauce). She is finally getting back into the habit of sleeping through the night again but is up every day by 5:30. SO EARLY! Sometimes by the time I get to school I am already exhausted. I am hoping that daylight savings will help her sleep until 6:30. That would be awesome!

Other than that, not much else is new. Both of our jobs are going well. We stay quite busy with school and church. Eric is a deacon and we are also youth group leaders. Every other spare moment we have we stay home and sleep. I know, we are such losers. There are many weekend nights where all three of us are in bed by 8:30. LOL...we are dorks!

I haven't taken many pictures lately because the minute I haul out the camera, Brooklyn is in my face trying to grab it out of my hands which usually results in pictures of her arms or fingers.

She loves playing piano. Playing piano while climbing on Dad is even more fun!

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Addie and Brooklyn eating cookies at Grandma's house.

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Dalton and Brooklyn

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Going up and down the stairs is her new favorite activity. Last week Saturday she went up and down our stairs 19 times in a row (yes, I counted!). Maybe she'll start losing some weight now! :)

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and reading books...another one of her favorite things!

Have a good week!

Back in the swing of things

After all the Christmas business, things are finally back to normal again. Brooklyn had another ear infection the beginning of January. A few days later she had her appointment with the ENT in Sioux Falls. We had been anxiously waiting for this appointment to see if Brooklyn needed tubes or not to help with all her ear infections (she's had 6 in the last 9 months). The ENT told us that tubes, in her case, will not be beneficial. He said 9 out of 10 kids have pain from ear infections because of the fluid on their eardrum. Even though she had an ear infection at her appointment, the Dr. could see little to no fluid which even if she didn't have an infection, was unusual. So, she is the 1 out of 10 that suffers from a pulsating ear drum and tubes will not help with that. He also agreed that her infections are probably due in part to allergies so we are keeping her on the Singulair for now and in the future, he suggested adding Claritin also. We are not having her tested for what allergies she has because a) it's a lot of money insurance doesn't pay for and b) at her age the treatment is the same regardless of the allergy. The Singulair has helped clear out some of the mucous in her sinuses/throat....she doesn't sound like a percolating coffee pot anymore when she breathes :)

She is also sleeping better at nights. Not sure if this is due to the allergy medicine or the fact that she is a year old and should have been sleeping through the night a long time ago! She still has her nights where she gets up 3 times (I think b/c of her cold or her molars or a bad dream) but they are becoming fewer and farther between. Some nights when she does sleep through I find myself awake at 2:30, 3:45, etc. just because my body is so used to that. I am not going to complain though as long as I don't have to get out of my warm bed to calm a crying baby :)

She still eats like a champ. Some days she eats the same portion size as I do. It amazes me how much the girl can eat. She loves about any and every food. A few of her favorites are bananas, any kind of noodle/meat hotdish, yogurt, raisins, and oatmeal. She is on whole milk now too. For the first 2 weeks I had to mix half soy milk and half whole milk to see if she still had a milk allergy but now she is on all whole milk and doing fine. She is getting weaned from her bottles which she really doesn't mind too much. She doesn't really care how she gets her food, just as long as she gets it! :)

She is not walking yet. Today I found her standing in the middle of the living room for about 10 seconds and then she drops to the floor. She cruises along furniture without a problem but doesn't seem too interested in walking by herself. I guess I can't blame her....she can speed crawl to about anywhere in the house in a few seconds. I am constantly looking for her b/c I literally will set her down, go get the phone, and then come back to an empty room. She is into everything too. She can unload any drawer, cupboard, purse, diaper bag, etc. in no time. I am realizing my house is no longer going to be "picked up." While I am cleaning one room, she is destroying another :)

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Brooklyn is quite the talker (hmmm...wonder where she gets that from???). Just recently she started having a gibberish conversation with herself or on her play cell phone. It's so funny to listen to! Her favorite word by far is "Emma." She is madly in love with her cousin Emma. She crawls to our fridge, points to Emma's picture, says "Emma! Emma!" and then blows her a kiss. She also says "all done", "hi", "uh oh", "momma", "dada". "papa", and "owww" (out). We have been working with her to say Addie and today she did repeat it once but I think it was by mistake.

She recently has been a pill in the car....usually crying most of the trip, trying to squirm and arch her way out of her buckles. My morning drive to Hills is no longer a peaceful start to my day. No long car trips in our future...that is for sure!

I will leave you with a few pictures of Brooklyn. Have a great week!

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