Saturday, July 30, 2011

Fresh Produce

We had a Relief Society (the women's organization at church) a few weeks ago and I found out that a food co-op (Bountiful Baskets) for fresh fruits and veggies had finally made it to Western Washington! This was the first weekend since I found out about it that I was able to participate and I am so excited for the yummy, super fresh produce!

Look at my $15.00 basket!!
2 Mangoes, 5 bananas, 8 white peaches, 5 fuji apples, 8 oranges, 1 pineapple, 1 bunch of kale, 7 baby bok choy, 1 eggplant, 1 english cucumber, and 1 bunch broccoli.

Totally worth it!!

Still Just a Baby

We have been getting so frustrated with Brooklynn lately. She is so feisty and strong willed and is in a stage where she thinks it's funny to do things that we are telling her not to do. She loves to dump her food off her plate/bowl and she throws it on the floor if it's not something she wants to eat or if she is done eating. She dumps out her entire box of toys just to dump it out and then will dump it out while we are picking it up. She has started throwing dirt/rocks at people (namely me). She'll turn on/off the TV and then play with the buttons on the side. Nothing we say or do curbs this unwanted behavior. I was talking to my friend Jennie about it yesterday and she helped open my eyes to the fact that Brooklynn is still just a baby! It is so easy for us to forget that she is just barely 1 year old because she is so capable and confident in her movement and abilities. She may be able to climb on anything she wants or run and kick and a ball but she just doesn't have the mental capacity to understand consequences and retain the information of what she should and shouldn't do. Thank you Jen for the reminder that we have a BABY and we are the ones that need to be patient and understanding of her learning and growth!



Friday, July 15, 2011

13 months

When does it become ridiculous to count your child's age by months?! Regardless of any ridiculousness, Brooklynn is now 13 months and 1 week old. She continues to amaze us every day with her intelligence, quirkiness, humor, and her cuddliness. I have to say that I am loving her increasing willingness to give loves to me and Eric. I get so many hugs and kisses throughout my day now, it's awesome! She absolutely loves spending time outside...good thing we have a backyard to play in! She is really good at playing by herself, which is great for me. I can work on dinner or clean up the kitchen while she plays in the backyard (another reason why I love having a backyard). She has increased her climbing skills and is now able to climb on things that she hasn't been able to do alone before. She can now climb on the couch and she pretty much climbs all the toys at the park. She loves to get her own diaper and wipes when she has a dirty diaper or it's time to put on pajamas and will run to her room. She has been such a good eater lately, which is a welcome change of pace. A lot of times when I ask if she wants breakfast or lunch she will run to the kitchen and smack her hands on the fridge. All in all she is just amazing!

She LOVES grapes these days, and is actually into most fruits right now.
She absolutely loves her balls...and loves sitting and
bouncing on them, even if it is her tiny one.
More often than not she has to have both
of her balls at the same time!

Good thing Bryson didn't want his bananas....
Brooklynn stole them all!
Enjoying a cherry! This silly girl eats the cherry whole, pit included
and doesn't want anything to do with the cherry if I take the pit out!
Is it just me, or does she look like 2 years older in this picture?!?!

Friday, July 8, 2011

Celebrating our Independence

We spent the Fourth of July weekend in Wapato with Eric's family. Eric took off Friday and Tuesday so that we could have a super long weekend and I must say it was great to miss the traffic on both ends! We had a great weekend filled with sun, cousins, parks, pool fun, and even a Temple Trip. The only thing that would have made it better would have been Brooklynn sleeping past 6:30 (which, aside from one morning when she woke up at 7:30, was sleeping in for her the whole weekend). But what are you gonna do? 

Warning: you are entering the picture overload zone!

Grandma and Grandpa Compton's basement flooded like a month ago and so Friday was spent helping them put the basement back together so that everyone had a place to sleep.
Brooklynn is such a good helper!
Eric and his Dad putting together the food rotation system.
Now he'll know how to do it when we have room for ours!
Playing with Addison in her seat.
Saturday we went to the Tri-Cities to go to the Temple and then we went to a park for the kids to play in the water before we hit up Famous Dave's for dinner.
Brooklynn was totally in her element!
She was right in there running around with all the big kids.
She kept sticking her head in the fountain, it was awesome!

On Sunday after church and naps we had a little photo session with Grandma and Grandpa. 5 kids under 3...not so easy! Brooklynn was super cranky for some reason and really had no interest in sitting still for the pictures. I think someone got a decent shot though!
From L-R: Trenton, Brooklynn, Addison, Chloe, Bryson
On your mark, get set, GO!
Grandpa was winning, until he veered off to corral
Brooklynn who got distracted by the gravel!
Look at those pointed toes! Maybe she will be a dancer!
We started off the Fourth with a picnic lunch and feeding the ducks at the park. Then we came home and all the kids went down for naps (the only time the whole weekend they all took naps at the same time, well except Trenton, but he's not loud and into everything yet!) and the adults played ladder golf. After naps it was pool time and more playing outside. Of course, there were also fireworks once it got darker. Let me just say, Brooklynn was not a fan! I don't know what the deal is, but even flowers pop and are super loud now. What gives? Luckily Brooklynn slept through the big stuff so we didn't have to worry about her freaking out.
Happy 4th of July!!
First time feeding ducks!

Gotta get the baby ducks fed too!

Grandma helped out with her climbing obsession
She's a fan of taking BIG steps!

Grandma took the kids to roll down the hill....
Brooklynn thought it was more fun to run down!





Brooklynn and Chloe are just a month apart from each other.
Sparklers with Mommy
What a great weekend! Hope everyone had a great Fourth of July as well!

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Finding her Voice

Brooklynn has been developing quite the vocabulary the last few weeks. Truth be told most of her words still aren't full words, but they are close enough to the real thing that we know what she is talking about.
Her words include:
~Dada (occasionally Daddy)
~Jesus
~That
~This
~Yes
~Cookie (sometimes)
~Cracker (also only sometimes)
~Mama (usually only when she is upset/mad/wants something)
~Cat
~Dog
~Yogurt (she says yoyo)

We haven't worked too much on Sign Language, but she has picked up a few signs. she knows "milk", "more", "please", "thank you", and she is just starting to grasp "all done". She was most impressive with Thank You as she picked it up after seeing just a few times. I was actually surprised when she said Thank You for the first time.

Some pictures of the last few weeks:


Brooklynn is lightning fast when it comes to climbing on/in things these days.
Turn your back for 2 seconds and you might find this:
or this:
or this:
or this (my personal favorite):
she really, really loves wipes and found where we store them!
Brooklynn loves this wagon she got for her birthday. It's not really made to be
ridden in, but she's small and they have tons of fun playing with it.
She went down for her nap with her pants on...
Somehow they ended up next to her head!


Going in the hard way!
Helping Daddy rake the lawn.
Checking out her hair.
Getting comfortable with her new potty chair.
Master of destruction!
Trying to figure out how she can get in the car while holding her ball.
This is how I have been finding her lately when she wakes up. She puts her arm up
through the bottom of her shirt and then out the neck. Silly girl!!
Eating dirt because Mommy doesn't feed her enough!