Brooke's 4th Birthday

I can't believe my little Brooke is 4 years old!! Her life is going by too fast. I look back at pictures and videos of when she was a baby, and I miss that little baby. But I'm loving the little girl she's turning into as well! Here's a little about Brooke:

• She still loves to read. For this birthday, I decided I wanted to buy her a little chapter book. I did a little research and found some great suggestions for chapter books for little kids. I bought her the "My Father's Dragon" series, 3 books. We've read the first 2 books already, since her birthday on Monday. And we've loved it! She always asks to read more of her dragon book, and I'm liking that we are reading meatier books together. I also bought the complete set of Roald Dahl's children's books, so we might start making our way through some of the simpler ones after our dragon books.
• We're having a little trouble with her getting out of bed at night. She will sometimes get out of her bed repeatedly, which I consider a big problem, especially with the prospect of having Camille share rooms with her at some point in the not too distant future. We bought this little bunk bed set used for $50 a few weeks ago, which is kind of fun. Brooke's already sleeping in the lower bunk, and I think they'll love sharing that little room and bed someday. Aaaaanyway ... Brooke takes a while to settle down and go to sleep, and I've threatened to get a lock on her door so she can't get out. She's consequently done a lot better this week. I always give her a few books to look at before going to sleep, and that seems to be helping. She reads a while, looks at the pictures; then when she's ready, she leaves her books in her doorway, gets in her bed and goes to sleep. The little cutie. The little stinker. I don't know what's going to happen when Camille gets in there.
• She's been saying the cutest things:
• She calls the sample people at Costco "bakers"
• Once I asked Brooke to help Camille with somethings, and Brooke says, "I can't. I'm being a statue."
• One day while shopping, we pass the marshmallows, and Brooke asks if we can get them. I say no, and she says, "But if we don't buy marshmallows, then we won't be able to roast them!" The lady just down the isle and I both laughed out loud.
• Brooke, to me, "You got it, sister!"
• Brooke to Daniel: I want to watch a little tv; Daniel to Brooke: I want you to look in my eyes and tell my why you love me; Brooke to Daniel: I love mom; (bwahahaha!)
• "Mom, I love you. You're my best friend!" And my heart just melted.
• "Mom, when are we going to buy my baby brother?" She's been very interested in having another baby in the family, especially a baby brother...
• She's been calling me "mother" a lot lately, which I find really hilarious and charming.
• She loves to sing. She's been learning new songs in primary, and she keeps asking for new songs at bedtime. One day, she was singing about grapes and cherries, and it was so funny! And another day, she was singing in this really hideous squawking voice, she sounded just like Scuttle in The Little Mermaid.
• This girl loves TV. The first thing she asks for when she wakes up is to watch a little TV. Sometimes I let her, and sometimes I don't; and when I don't, all hell breaks loose! She's been loving this little Puffin show on Netflix, and some other shows that I don't like as much. Or new episodes of the shows she's loved in the past, like Jake and the Neverland Pirates or Sophia the First. She's a big TV gal.
• I've sometimes woken up too late to workout before the girls wake up, so on those days, I do my workout while they are breakfasting. When Brooke finishes eating, she likes to join me in my exercise. I really love it! She tries to mimic my movements, and we have a lot of fun together. It does get a bit hard to move around and exercise when we throw Millie into the mix, though...
• Brooke LOVES her friends, and she's always asking about them and to have them over and such. And EVERYONE loves to play with Brooke. It's kind of fun to watch her with other kids. I don't know how she does it, but kids of all ages and maturity levels get along with her and like to play with her. And she likes playing with them. She's got a real gift for loving people.

I'm sure I'll think of more later, but this is just a bit. I love my little spunky, kind-hearted, sweet, helpful girl! She is such a joy!

We didn't do much on her birthday. We had Cocoa Puffs for breakfast, because that's what she wanted and I caved. She opened her presents after breakfast; she started opening them while I was cleaning up the kitchen and Daniel was upstairs, and I caught her and sort of got after her about it without really meaning to, and she cried. I think she thought I was mad that she'd started opening them, but I tried to explain that we all have to be there so we can watch her open and make a big deal of it. I felt bad for making her cry.

Anyway, we got her a big box for her playdough (and I bought some cool new cheap kitchen tools for playdough, and made a couple new batches for her); some crayons, coloring books and stickers (which she was the most thrilled about. She's been coloring almost non-stop since her birthday); the Dragon Book; and a couple of kids card games. Gramma and Grampa Holbrook sent her a little Anna play dress.

We went on a little birthday outing, to look for an Ariel for her cake, and also to get some french fries from Chic-Fil-A. Then it was lunch and quiet time. We started her new book after quiet time, and she watched TV for a while, while Millie slept.

We had homemade pizza for dinner (she was, of course, involved in the making process), and I threw in a salad and corn on the cob to complete the meal. And we did cake after dinner. She wanted a green Ariel cake, and I happily delivered! It was so fun to decorate and make. But ... it didn't taste great. I froze the cakes because I'd read that that helps in the frosting process. But I think it ruined the flavor a little bit. Bummer. Ah, well. Live and learn.

And after cake we had a quick family home evening and played one of her new games. I think she had a nice birthday. I hope she enjoyed it as much as I did.

*The Birthday Girl's little sister*

*Brooke really wanted to curl her hair. We tried some little foam curlers, and her hair ended up CRAZY! (Some of the curlers in the back fell out) But she loved it and it was cute.*

*SOOO excited about the crayons!!*

*Ariel Cake*

 

Getting My Motivation Back

Motivation to write in my journal has been very low the last month or so. Maybe because it's been so long that I feel like I have to catch up. So ... let's not do that. Here's a few bullet points from the last month:

• Adam and Emily came to visit us a few weeks ago for their summer vacation. They stayed with us a week and we all had a great time. We spent the day in Malibu at the beach one day, they did their own thing for a few days, we went swimming with Emily and took her to Hurricane Harbor one day. We played games together at nights, when the girls went to bed, and Emily and I had a fun little girls night with Brooke. We let her stay up late, painted our nails and toenails while we watched Beauty and the Beast. I think she felt so special staying up like a big girl, and we had fun.
• Daniel's been working a really ton, so we haven't seen him much. We do our own thing, and he works a lot. Poor guy! He hasn't been sleeping much, or working out at all, and he has no time to just relax and veg. The girls and I have been keeping busy with housework, going to HH and the pool, doing some shopping. The past couple of weeks I've actually been really busy watching other people's kids for a little bit during the days. Last week, I had a preschool meeting with the other moms doing preschool with us, and the kids ran around and played together, which was really great for everyone involved. The kids all played so well together, we were dying from all the cuteness.
• We are PREGNANT!! We found out a week ago that we are expecting our 3rd Baby! And we couldn't be more thrilled! I've been quite baby hungry for a few months. Julie had her baby, a little boy named Arro, and seeing pictures that she posts on social media is just killing me! He looks so sweet and cute, and I just want my own! And now, we'll be having one of our own. I haven't noticed many pregnancy symptoms yet, other than that I am STARVING ALL OF THE TIME. I don't remember being this bad with Brooke or Camille; I remember being a little more nauseous with them (maybe that's still coming this time). But I am so hungry all the time right now, like I cannot get enough food. I finish eating and am still feeling hungry, even though I eat a lot. So, though it's probably not great that I'm eating a ton, ... I'm eating a ton, in an effort to satisfy and be comfortable. I also think my sense of smell has heightened already. I'm noticing bad smells around the house a lot more. I cannot believe that we're going to have 3 kids relatively soon! It's been hard to wrap my head around it. We haven't told anyone yet, so maybe that is a contributing factor. We'll probably start telling people in a few weeks, but we'd like to keep it to ourselves for a little while.
• Brooke's birthday! Her 4TH BIRTHDAY! I can't believe I have a little 4 year old already. And she's just such a cute little 4 year old. We're having lots of fun with her. The tantrums have gone down in frequency and intensity, which is nice, and she's become so helpful with things. She loves helping me set the table now, wash mirrors and windows, clean parts of the bathroom, make dinner, fold the rags, ... the only thing she sometimes complains about is picking up the toys and books in the loft. We still fight about that every now and again. I'll do a separate post about Brooke's birthday and about what she's up to these days.