Brooklynn is now 3 years old! She loves holding 3 fingers up now when you ask how old she is. We celebrated in Utah and in Texas with family. In Utah, Joe had his "friends", Elsa and Anna come to my parents' house. Joe had Brooklynn open the door for them when they got there, and she could hardly believe her eyes! She ran out and gave them a big hug, and was totally in heaven the entire time they were there. They read us their story, sang songs, took pictures, signed post cards, and totally made the party. Raquel and Madison were SO excited too! It was so adorable to watch them all loving on Elsa and Anna, touching their braids, and just seeing the excitement in their eyes whenever they looked at them. Her party was a FROZEN party and everything came together so nicely! Tiff helped me with the cake and getting everything set up. All of my siblings and their families were there, and Aunt Vicki and their family, minus Kenneth, came too! I hope she'll remember this party, but odds are she won't. So, at least we'll have a chance to try and top it down the road.
As a side note, and just to help me remember........ During that trip I ended up stepping on a toothpick that was in the carpet by the bookshelves downstairs at my parents' house.(I'm pretty sure the kids got into my birthday stuff and dropped it in the carpet) When I stepped on it it went right into my foot above the ball, and I was in total shock! It went in pretty deep, and when I pulled it out, both sides were broken! So I thought there was probably still a piece in there, but wasn't sure. All I knew was that it was super painful to walk on. I took Brooklynn and Madison with me to Instacare and got X-rays taken and the dr cut a slit and tried digging for it, to no avail. Turns out my toe started getting numb about 2 weeks later, and I was still in so much pain and it was growing worse. I had tried soaking it in Epsom Salt water numbers times a day, trying to get it to come out on its own. It continued to grow more and more painful though. Our friends Jason and Stephanie Alder referred me to an orthopedic surgeon, and I ended up having more X-rays(found nothing) and an MRI done on my foot ($700) and $1200 later, I went under general anesthesia in an outpatient surgical center and he was able to find a rather large piece of a toothpick still in my foot! It was above the ball of my foot, where there are a lot of things that could be damaged, so he wanted to put me under to make sure I didn't move during surgery and cause permanent damage. Anyways, so random! Ive got several stitches and have been wearing a boot. I go for my post op appointment on Wednesday.
Anyways, at this point in time Brooklynn is still singing constantly. Today in sacrament meeting she actually sang along from our seat, with the ward choir's musical number. They sang "I am a Child of God" and she sang her little heart out down in the congregation. She's still loving nursery, and I have been participating in a babysitting co-op with some women in the ward, and she loves getting to spend time with her "friends" whenever she gets to go to someone's house or they come to ours.
She has been spending more time in time-out lately because she has been yelling and talking disrespectfully pretty frequently. She gets frustrated with Madison and freaks out or yells, and has also been talking to Joe and me like that.
She's totally into her Disney Movies these days. She loves "The Little Mermaid" and frequently sings "Part of that world" wherever we are. She loves Cinderella and Ice Age these days too.
She loves helping to water the plants and flowers, loves riding her bike to the mailbox after dinner to check the mail, loves getting to bring in any packages that might get delivered to our front door. She's always wanting to help me in the kitchen, or when I clean bathrooms or vacuum. She loves to pick the tomatoes in the garden and bring them in when they are ripe.
She and Madison have their good and bad times. For the most part Brooklynn is patient with Madison, unless she is ruining something that Brooklynn is playing with. Madison has been hitting Brooklynn a lot and Brooklynn is slow to hit back, which I think is impressive. She talks to Madison in kind of a baby voice when they are playing well together, and she'll tell madison something and then say "promise Madison!" I think she learned about promises from "Tangled." So cute!
Brooklynn loves babies and loves when Evan and Camryn come over for co-op and she gets to hold Camryn and help feed her a bottle. I know if we ever have more children that she will be a really big help. She has started calling me mom more frequently instead of mommy or momma. It kind of breaks my heart. I don't want her to grow up so quickly.
She hasn't had any accidents with potty training for so long, and it has beens SO nice to have her out of diapers. Love that part of her growing up. She's been really affectionate lately and loves to come up and give me kisses and hugs. I still rock her to sleep every day for naps, because it would take her SO much longer to fall asleep. At night though, I go in and lay with her in the taco bed and I'll lay with her and sing her 3 songs, and then I give her a hug and a kiss and it's time for her to go to bed on her own, and she does really great. Sometime between 6 and 6:30am she comes down to our room and climbs in bed with us. She'll lay in the bed until Joe showers and gets dressed and then she likes to go in the bathroom with him and watch him finish getting ready. He'll usually help her get a yogurt for breakfast too before he leaves.
I love that sweet little girl and really can't imagine life without her! She and her sister have definitely helped me reach levels of insanity that I never thought possible, but when it comes down to it I'm so thankful they are mine. Sometimes I have to really stop and remind myself how much I wanted children before I had them, and remind myself of the struggle that we went through before Brooklynn.
Madison, oh sweet little Madison! That little girl can either be the sweetest or the most stubborn little terror! She doesn't put up with much, and it's funny to watch her stubborn streak come out if someone upsets her! This past month she has had to start going to time-out because she has started hitting or kicking Brooklynn or Joe and me when she gets frustrated. Brooklynn is usually pretty good about just yelling for me and telling me Madison is hitting her. She's usually slow to hit back, so that's a good thing. Every now and then I have to pry them apart. Madison will start spitting and hitting or throw her head back and just throw a fit if she's tired or upset. Sometimes I can't believe how much fight is in that little body.
She communicates well for how many words she says. Just tonight she came in our room where Joe was laying on the floor after he had given the girls their baths and gotten them ready for bed. Madison was ready for her bottle of milk, so she came in and was pulling on Joe's shirt, trying to pull him up so he would get her milk. He said she walked to the kitchen and pointed to the bottles, then pointed to the fridge, and when he opened it, she pointed to the milk. ha ha ha! That child.
She is saying a lot more words now and it's the cutest thing ever to hear her "talk". She's just started saying "NO" a lot the last couple of days. She can say momma, daddy, hot, bye-bye, all done, uh oh, baby, hot dog, bubbles(cutest thing ever) and ewww.
She's obsessed with her binki and her blankie. She'll climb the stairs and go to her room and get them out of her crib if she forgot to bring them down after she wakes up. Lately she has been waking up 2, 3, or even 4 times a night and crying for me, and she'll have her binki in hand when I go in. She just wants me to cover her up with her blanket. I'll tell ya, if she wasn't so dang cute!!! It's getting old waking up so many times a night.
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