I Am Brooke

Brooke is telling her first joke after seeing it on a Backyardigans episode.  Can you recognize the joke from her rendition?

Brooke: Knock, knock

Mommy: Who’s there?

Brooke: Banana

Mommy: Banana who?

Brooke: Knock, knock

Mommy: Who’s there?

Brooke: Orange

Mommy: Orange who?

Brooke: Orange and a banana

Favorite Movie: Cars

Favorite Book: The Sheep Book

Favorite TV Show: Backyardigans

Favorite Toy: markers

Favorite Food: cheese and Mickey Mouse ice cream

Other cool things about me: I can count to eight in Spanish (much to the astonishment of Mommy and Daddy, who probably can’t do it as well as I can)! I am great at helping Mommy give Baby Luke a bath!

Brooke has not been sick with anything at all in over a year. A little over a year ago she had a bad stomach flu that lasted over a week, but she has not even gotten a cold since then. I think that is pretty amazing for a 2 year-old who doesn’t live in a bubble and likes to eat food that falls on the floor. We joke that she is like Bruce Willis in the movie Unbreakable. Well, last night she broke that wellness streak when she woke up in the middle of the night throwing up. She is doing better today with no more throwing up, her fever feeling like it is coming down, and her usual self slowly returning.

Brooke is currently obsessed with the Backyardigans. For those of you without small children, this is a show on Nick Jr/Noggin with these dancing and singing animal characters who have adventures in their backyard.  Anyway, I found this Backyardigan finger puppet craft online but decided I would just print and cut out the characters for Brooke to play with like paper dolls.  They were a huge hit, and now the paper dolls act out the adventures we watch on tv each day.  This morning they had a new adventure called static electricity on the tv screen as Brooke was showing them that they were on tv.  Brooke narrates, “Tyrone, this is Tyrone.  Uniqua, this is Uniqua.  Pablo, this is Pablo.  Austin, this is Austin.”

I am aware that pretty much nobody wants to hear about my child’s potty training adventures, so I have barely mentioned it up until recently. We started working on potty training about 6 months ago but pretty much just let Brooke take it at her pace figuring that when she was interested and ready it would happen. We also didn’t want to push anything with Luke’s arrival and make life any more stressful for Brooke, but in the past week she has taken the last step towards being potty trained. After months of screaming at the mere mention of pooping on the potty, Brooke finally did it on her own Wednesday night and again Thursday night. On Wednesday night we all packed up and ran out to Toys R Us to get the toys we promised Brooke she could get when she finally pooped on the potty. She asked for “Big Buzz” and a JoJo’s Circus play set, and that is what she got. We were so proud and were happy that we could finally make the celebratory purchases. Her rewards are pictured below.