Brooks Week 33

I decided today that Brooks is growing up WAY too fast! He amazes me with something new everyday. It is crazy that he was a completely helpless little newborn just 8 months ago and today he is crawling and pulling up on the furniture!

The past week or so has been a complete whirlwind and full of surprises! Brooks and I have been super busy with our day to day activities. We hosted a sewing day/playdate at my mom’s house last week. It was so much fun to get together to sew and the kiddies had a great time too. Ella and Andrew had so much fun playing with Brooks and ALL the toys…it looked like Toy R Us in my mom’s living room!

Amazingly enough we actually got some things accomplished; a shirt for Andrew and some newly decorated burp cloths for Ella and Brooks.

I know that I’ve mentioned earlier that Brooks likes animals but in reality he LOVES them! Our neighbors just got a bulldog puppy and they bring her by to play with Brooks. At first he didn’t know what to think but now he just giggles and tries to grab Biscuit! It is so funny because we are constantly telling both Brooks and the puppy to be gentle with each other!

Old McDonald is still Brooks’ favorite song and I swear he will stop fussing if you sing it to him…the verse with the cow is his favorite! He also loves for you to ask him about all the animal sounds like “what does the dog say – woof-woof”. He just smiles and stops whatever he is doing to listen to you. This is especially helpful when you are putting him in his carseat…he always fights it just a little but not if you are making all of those animal sounds…go figure!
Brooks got a special package in the mail this week from his Uncle Rick. He is going to be such a little stud muffin once he can grow into his new duds! The hat is the best!!!! Doesn’t Brooks look adorable!?!? But to be honest, Brooks was more excited about the box that the clothes came in! He played with it for a good ½ hour (and in baby time that is a REALLY long time!) Thanks Uncle Rick!
Brooks had a ton of “firsts” this week. His biggest (bigger for me than him) was his first babysitter! Mark was an amazing husband and threw me a super surprise 30th birthday party on Saturday night. I had NO clue and when I showed up at the surprise my mom was there along with the rest of our friends. This was great except that earlier in the evening I had left Brooks with my mom while we went to “dinner”! I was shocked and surprised to say the least but my first reaction was “where is MY baby”!!!! I was quickly reassured that he was with a great sitter that had been hand selected…it was still a little tough to completely relax but the glass of wine helped a lot! Of course he was fine when we got home but I guess he was a little ticked that he wasn’t invited because he decided to stay up half the night…it was not fun for me when he wanted to “hang out” at 3 in the morning! My birthday was fantastic…my best yet! 30 isn’t as bad as I thought it would be!

Some of Brooks’ other firsts include pulling up on the couch today all by himself! He needs to slow down...crawl before you walk Brooks!

His crawling is better but he does this funny thing with his feet…he will get up on all fours and then straighten out his legs and go up on his toes…almost like he wants to stand up. He has also perfected the art of sitting himself back up after being down on all fours…this is HUGE seeing that he is SO much happier with himself and I don’t have to constantly be sitting him back up once he “goes swimming” and gets overly frustrated. Yay for Brooks and yay for mommy! Our sign language is going well…he is starting to get the idea of “more” and “all done” and he isn’t laughing at me anymore…smiling yes, laughing no! He is also starting to repeat sounds that you make. He’s been saying “DaDa” for a few weeks now but this week he has started to say “ MaMa” but that is usually when he is super upset and crying. Just yesterday he said “Ball” and today he has been a little parrot repeating most of the simple words and sounds that I was telling him…”ball”, “bye-bye”, “more”, etc…He was playing on the floor tonight with Mark and he handed Brooks the ball and Brooks said “ba”! Smart little cookie!
I decided to have a popsicle after lunch today and Brooks thought that it looked too good and that he just had to have a try. I gave in and gave him a tiny taste and that was all she wrote! I ended up having to get him his own! Luckily they are an all fruit, no added sugar push pop…and besides that he wore more than he ate! What a big boy!

He also loves fruit in his little mesh bags. They are a great invention because you can put whole pieces of fruit in them and then he can suck and chew it and you don’t have to worry about chunks and choking. Watermelon is his super favorite…it is SO messy but he doesn’t seem to mind!

We tried a new food today and it was a no-go…Brooks can add green beans to his list of dislikes…peas, fresh bananas, and green beans. Like I said he discovers something new about himself daily and it’s so amazing that he is changing and growing up so fast. If it was possible I would keep him a baby forever!