Water Baby

Brooke loves the water. Anytime I put sunscreen on her, she asks, "Simmin' poo?"


Medinah, the pool that we go to most often, has a great baby pool, complete with little fountains in the water. Brooke calls them "All gone...up!" because Matt and Grammie Deb taught her how to step on them to make them disappear then reappear.




She's also becoming more comfortable in the big pool and likes to stick her face in the water. She also really likes to jump in to us from the edge, which is tricky because we don't always hear her/she doesn't always say "Ready, set, go!"



And what baby doesn't like to be thrown in the air?


She always likes to make sure that she can be contacted, even at the pool. In this picture, she was calling Aunt Jamie to tell her about her day. I'm not sure what they were talking about, but the conversation lasted about 10 minutes.


The pool isn't nearly as relaxing as it used to be, but it's also much more fun.

Yo My Goodness

Brooke has become very vocal and I would say that I understand what she's saying at least 80% of the time. That doesn't mean that you would, though. Sometimes she'll start to sing a song and it takes me a minute to place the tune, but once I do, the words are clear as day. I haven't had my camera around for many of these songs, but I'm hoping to catch some soon.

Anyway, the other afternoon, Brooke was asking me for something and it sounded like "wah-wer". You would probably think she's asking for water, but I know that her word for water is "wah-wee". We were in the kitchen, so I started pulling out random things hoping to hit the jackpot. She finally changed her request and said, "tair," and went to her booster. I put her in her chair thinking that we were getting somewhere. At least now I knew that she wanted to eat something.


Then she started to ask for "faht", so I gave her one of her forks. This did not make her happy, but she kept saying "faht". Okay, so now we have 2 things to figure out. Out of desperation, I pulled out a spoon instead and she smiled and emphatically said, "faht!". (Guess we need to work on that one.) Anyway, now I know that she wants something to eat that she needs a spoon for that may sound something like "wah-wer"...are you on the edge of your seat or did the pictures give it away?


Yogurt! I was pretty impressed with her ability to give me context clues - and my abilities of deduction. I guess we make a good team. She took her first couple of bites really well, so I went to change the laundry. I came back and found her looking like this. It's too soon to tell, but I wonder if we have a lefty on our hands?

Baby, Baby, Baby Oh

This is a photo of Brooke on the 4th of July (sunglasses courtesy of Aunt Tina). At some point in the last couple of months, Brooke has become a "Baby" and "Blankie" girl when she's tired. I may have subconsciously encouraged it because I think it's cute when kids have a lovie. And I'd much prefer her have a blankie and doll that she's attached to than suck her thumb until junior high like I did. We can hopefully stave off some orthodontist bills that way.

The doll in this photo is her "awake" baby. She's starting to pretend with her and include her in some of her play. She also has two "sleep" babies that are plush. One stays in the car and the other in her bed. She requests them around the time we start to see her sucky face.

Family Vacation

While we've gone on many trips since Brooke has been born, we'd never been on one with just the three of us until this week.


We spent a few nights in South Haven, MI. It's a really cute town a few hours away. Our condo was in the perfect location for us - very close to both town and the beach, with views of the marina. We only had to get in our car once for groceries. For some reason, we equate not driving much with a good vacation.



This little stand was on our walk to the beach. I think it got lost on its way to a location that's a little more tropical than Michigan. On our first day there we got ice cream and Brooke would ask for "ite team" every time we passed after that. We usually obliged.


Every morning, we'd wake up and eat, then take a walk to one of the local playgrounds. The coolest by far was this playground called Kids Korner Park. I think a few years from now we could easily spend an entire day there. At this age, Brooke was content to do a little exploring and a lot of observing of all the big kids.







She LOVES swings and found them anywhere we went - including the beach, where we ventured each afternoon. The weather could have been a bit warmer, but it was sunny and rain-free so we weren't complaining.



Speaking of the beach - I thought she had gotten over her tactile issues with sand when we went to North Avenue Beach a few weeks ago, but that was not the case. She spent the first evening just drawing in the sand.




By the next day, she was happy to play with her sand toys ($7 very well spent at the local store) and was used to the dry sand.








The wet sand was a whole other issue, but by the end of our third day she was venturing into the lake without us. It's great that she's finally at an age where we can just watch her splashing and playing from the shore...Totally kidding. We were very nearby.





I've realized that summer = skinned knee season.


It was fun to just walk around town and watch Brooke charm the locals. She's at such a fun age and is really starting to put things together. She thought that the dog wearing glasses was pretty funny.



After her afternoon nap, we'd head out to dinner and another serving of ice cream. We also stopped by Channel Wine Bar one evening. They had Rombauer Chardonnay and welcomed kids (they had a t.v. playing cartoons!) - it would have almost been rude to pass it up. Brooke was very well behaved as she enjoyed her "dapes".



We made it to the sunset 1 1/2 nights (it had technically already set one night, but the sky was still pretty). Then we came home, put Brooke down for the night, and watched lots of episodes of the first season of our favorite show, "Friday Night Lights."


We had a great time and it ended too soon!