The Day Brooke Turned 14 Months Old

So today our little "Brookie Cookie" is 14 months old... I don't know how that happened, but it did and it has been so much fun. Brooke loves being a toddler and has no idea that she is not as "big" as her sister. She is very much her own little person and is not afraid to let everyone around her know who she is, what she likes and what she wants. Here are some of our favorite things about Brooke at 14 months old:

• She loves to climb up in my lap and perch there - anytime I sit on the floor she stops what ever she is doing and comes to "hang out" with me for a few minutes and will usually give me a little hug and kiss too
• She loves her bed and will literally dive into it when it is nap-time or bed-time
• She loves books and has no tolerance for me putting her to bed without reading a story first
• She loves Minnie Mouse and Dory (from Nemo) but her favorite thing for sleeping is her elephant blankie
• She can tell you what a duck, cat, dog, sheep, and anything that growls say and it is soooo cute but I cannot get her to do it on camera for anything. My favorite is the sheep because she does the "Brookie growl" as part of the Baaaaaa sound.
• She calls Katelyn's friend Sara and my friend Stacey by name - we pick Sara up for school everyday and Brooke always yells "SARA" when she gets in the van.
• She loves the song "Old McDonald Had A Farm" - Brooke always loves to dance and bop to music, but when we sing that song to her or she finds it on one of her toys and gets it to play she really gets into the dancing and will even squeal along to the music
• She says "thank you" clearly enough that other people understand it and will come up and grab me and say in total amazement "Do you realize that your baby can say thank you?" (By the way, yes I do)
• She won't eat a PBJ anymore - she used to love them but now they make her scream, that is unless I take a small piece of it and dip it in yogurt... then she loves it
• After her afternoon nap, she stands at the front door with her hands pressed up against the glass waiting for Katelyn to get home from school. When Katelyn arrives, Brooke squeals with delight and usually won't let her out of her sight for a while
  
• She already doesn't like to be left out of the action when Katelyn has friends come over
• She can easily out-eat her 5 1/2 year old sister at any given meal
• She loves shoes, especially Katelyn's Crocks and carries them around with her while gnawing on the straps. She also loves socks and insists on having one for each hand when she carries them around the house waving them like little flags
  
• She does quite a few "baby signs" very well, but expects you to applaud her mastery of each sign after she does it while simultaneously meeting whatever the need was she was signing for. ***Special note: You are NOT supposed to clap when she does the sign for milk, you are supposed to run because the world is supposed to stop for bottle time
• She still loves to snuggle, especially after she wakes up - she'll hand me her blankie and a stuffed animal that she carefully selects - that means it is time to hang out together for a minute
• She will grab my face, give me a kiss and then pat me on the back for no reason at all

She is such a joy and it is so fun to see her amazing personality in action. Tonight was pizza night - we eat pizza in the family room while watching a movie and we always have Root Beer to drink. Well, Brooke knew exactly what was in Katelyn's cup and she wanted some... we were surprised to see how she went about getting some though. She walked up to Katelyn and gestured for her cup... Katelyn was not in the mood for "floaties" in her coveted root beer, so she told Brooke "No No" and pulled the cup away. I fully expected Brooke to scream at her, but instead she moved right up to her big sister, put her hands up on her shoulders and laid her head down on Katelyn's chest while patting her. Then she carefully lifted up her head to see if Katelyn had changed her mind. We were laughing so hard and of course gave her some root beer so I am sure we encouraged this method and will see it again soon.