What Brooke's Been Doing Since

Brooke has transitioned wonderfully to being a big sister. The first few weeks after Camille was born were a little harder than normal. Brooke was acting out and throwing more tantrums than usual. And she also was not very interested in the new baby. She kept her distance. But other than that, it was smooth. She hasn't had any jealousy issues with Camille, she hasn't acted against her or tried to hurt her or anything like that. And as time goes on, she gets more and more interested. She talks to Camille now and talks to me about her. She is concerned whenever Camille cries. She still keeps her distance, she rarely holds her or touches her. But she does occasionally rub her head.

Brooke loves to take baths with Camille. I will often put them both in the bath. I run a bath for Brooke and just place Camille's bathing stand in the bath with Brooke. Brooke does her own thing, mostly, playing with her toys and such. She doesn't bother Camille, although she does like to pour water over her, which I think Camille really likes.

Brooke had so much fun with the Grandmas when they were here. And they certainly spoiled her. We watched far too much tv during that time, even for my liking. Brooke got really into "Finding Nemo" and "Frozen" ("the Elsa movie"). And I even succeeded in getting her interested in Tangled a bit. She also watched a lot of Mickey cartoons and "Jake and the Neverland Pirates". It was so cute to watch her see "A Little Mermaid" for the first time. She sat on the couch next to me, clasping her hands, completely enthralled. She kept asking, "What's that?" all the time, and at the shark attack scene, she kept gasping and tensing up. She was so anxious for Ariel and Flounder. It was the most adorable thing.

Little Elf -- present from Gram Fern

Holding Dolly

She loves doing hair, especially my hair. :)

My mom brought her car when she came, so she took Brooke on outings a lot, shopping and what-not. She also loved having some of her aunts and uncles here for Thanksgiving. She pretty much had the time of her life with them! They did all sorts of fun things with her: taking her to the park, reading books, watching movies, playing with toys, etc.

I've noticed that Brooke has started to imitate what I do a lot. She has been such a good mommy to Dolly! She changes her diaper, gets her dressed (in Camille's clothes), and even tries to nurse her. She puts Dolly in Camille's carseat and bouncy chairs. It's really pretty cute how attentive she is to Dolly. Brooke also likes to do her hair and make-up, just like mom. :) Evey time I open up my makeup drawer, she comes over and says, "Okay, I need ..." and then she'll pick something up. Sometimes my comb, sometimes my lipstick ("I need lips!"), my face cream, my eye makeup.

She's been getting into a lot of mischief, too:

• She got into a jar of Desitin and rubbed it all over her face and in her hair. I was putting Camille down for a nap, and when I walked in to see what she was doing, she said, "I'm washing my hair!" It took 4 baths and multiple washings each bath to get it out!

Still has Desitin in her hair, after several washes

• She found my mascara and put it all over her face.

• She's been finding candy in the house and getting into it. Sometimes she'll come to me with a container and say, "Please? Please can I have some candy?"

"Please, Mom? Please can I have some candy?"

• We've had some problems with Brooke taking her clothes and diaper off when she is in bed. Once she took off her pajamas and diaper, threw it out of her crib, and then pooped. She started screaming, and Daniel went in to find poop all over herself and the sheets and blankets. Daniel stuck her into the tub immediately, and then I went up to clean up her bed. Another time, I put her down for a nap, and she did the same thing. That time wasn't quite as messy, but it still took some time to clean up. Suffice it to say, she didn't take a nap. She's done it a few other times, too. We finally had to buy some cheap footsie pajamas, cut off the feet, and put her into them backwards, so she can't get out of them. One time she even had a onesie on. She couldn't unsnap it, so she took her arms out of the shirt and pulled it down over her body, took her diaper off and threw it out of her crib. And she had poop all over her. Crazy!

•  Brooke was throwing more tantrums once Camille was born. And she had been resisting bedtime more and more, especially when the Grandmas were here. We all kind of catered to her and went to her when she woke up in the night. But once the Grandmas left, we stopped going to her altogether. She was just getting used to waking up for the attention. And after ignoring her for a few days, she stopped waking up. And she started taking naps again and going to bed better. I think with all the people here, things were too exciting and she didn't want to sleep at all. And, of course, when she doesn't sleep, she's quite a bit worse in behavior. Lately, though she's been napping again and sleeping better, which makes me much happier. 

• Brooke loves to sing. She likes to sit at the piano and play and sing. She will sing parts of "Twinkle, twinkle", "Bah, Bah, Black Sheep", "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam",  and "Old MacDonald". It's so cute to listen to her. She also sings randomly, just says random words that she knows in a sing-song voice and style. It's so cute. 

Reading to Dolly

Dolly, all diapered up