Almost 2!?!?!?!

My beautiful little girl!!

I cannot believe that in 2 1/2 months we will have a 2 year old! 

(And in 3 months we will have a new baby!)

Relaxing with Daddy and watching March Madness.

Brooklynn is turning into quite the talker the last few weeks. She is picking up words right and left (she will finally say "more" and not "nee") and is even starting to ask me questions. She of course has discovered, "why?" and I hear that all the time. But she completely shocked me a few weeks ago when she walked into the kitchen and said, "doing mama?" That simple question  has now evolved into "watcho doing?" Sometimes with a mama thrown in there and more often than not "doing" becomes "doinginging." Those extra "ing"s are just so cute!! She even will ask where we are going or what is happening (and yes, with the extra "ing"s).

She loves playing in her kitchen while I am cooking.

I am constantly amazed at how smart she is and how quickly she picks things up. She is now a pro at her colors, things are no longer all blue or red! She has counted up to 6 on her own (if we point to objects for her). She will often count off to do something, but it is generally "2,3,4" or "3,4,5." For some reason she does not like to start with 1! She will say the alphabet with me, or rather repeat the letters, but has become a pro at picking out letters that she sees. One of her favorite new activities is to climb into my lap and pick out the letters on my shirt/sweatshirt. She has even started calling out letters that she sees on road/store signs. She also has a few letters that she knows the sound of.

We got some new headbands and she had to put them ALL on!

The best new development, in my opinion, is that I am starting to be able to reason with her. I can give her choices, which have the same outcome, and let her choose which way she would like to do it. I can give her warnings of when things, like naps/bedtime, are going to happen and she seems to go a little more peacefully. Yesterday I told her that we were going to read 2 books and then it was naptime. She went to get a book and I reminded her that we were reading just 2 and then it was naptime. She looked at me with a sugary sweet face and said, "One?!" like she was trying to convince me of it. Worst. Bargainer. Ever.

She loves to have books read to her (finally) and she
also loves to lay on the couch and "read" to herself.

One of the hardest things that we are working on right now is her getting frustrated with not being able to do something or when things get stuck or aren't working how she wants them to. (She is very much like her Aunt Ali). She shrieks and screams and the little vein in her neck pops out, not fun! I feel like I am constantly telling her to settle down or calm down so that we can fix it. Fortunately I can make use of her newly forming reasoning skills and help her to find a solution to the problem, usually to try again or start over.

Such determination!

She is very much in the "I do it" stage and I hear that pretty regularly throughout the day. Eric even tricked her into picking up toys the other day when she didn't want to. He told her that he would do it since she didn't want to and all of a sudden it was "I help you!" It was pretty awesome. She has mastered "I want some!" And I heard that about just about everything on our grocery shopping trip yesterday!

She loves to help Daddy make his protein shake!

Helping Nana make Kool-Aid

She loves trucks, buses and trains (we live really close to the train tracks so anytime we go anywhere we pass the trains) and we spend our time in the car looking for them. She can be very particular and only want to see buses or only want to see trucks, which can be challenging (especially when she wants to see buses on the weekend!).

She stole her P-Pa's seat (she is a HUGE seat stealer....
don't get up if she is around she doesn't believe in "tap, tap, seat back")

Enjoying some pre-bedtime popcorn with Daddy.