Long car ride

Brooke was a trooper on the way home from Poplar Bluff. What should have been a 4 hour trip was a 5 hour and 20 minute return trip. The traffic from St. Louis to home was stop and go the whole time with several long stretches of not moving at all. Brooke was tired when I put her in the car and I was pretty confident that she would sleep for a long time, but I was wrong. She slept for a total of about 25 minutes. She was pretty funny for most of the way. She entertained herself for a while by sticking her pacifier between her toes and laughing. I adjusted my rearview mirror to look at her which was obviously not the safest thing to do, but it kept me pretty entertained, too.

I wasn't entertained however when she had her fingers in her mouth and it looked like she gagged. So I'm looking in the rearview mirror reaching backwards to grab her fingers out of her mouth and that was a big mistake . . . it turned it into a game. She kept sticking her fingers in her mouth and gagging herself and I kept grabbing her arm and telling her no and she would laugh. She kept doing it no matter how forcefully I told her to stop I decided to just let her do it and not react since that's what she was going for. So I watched her gagging herself and her eyes were watering and I decided I couldn't take it anymore. So I was reaching back again to tell her to stop and pull her hand out of her mouth when she threw up all over herself. LOVELY! I had to pull over and wipe her off. Luckily she didn't do it anymore after that.

So as we were nearing Columbia and it was 6:45 PM, my mom said she would have some food made for Brooke and that Poppy would bathe her if I wanted to swing by her house. That sounded great to me since Brooke and I were both tired. When I got Brooke out of the car the poor little thing had pottied threw her pants and had a poopy diaper. So the poor little trooper had a wet shirt (from her throw up) and wet pants and she didn't even complain very much! She was so excited to be out of her carseat. Here she is doing a little dance with Nana after getting out of the car.

Fancy Feet from Jaira Grathwohl on Vimeo.

Visit to Poplar Bluff

We made a 4 hour trip down to Poplar Bluff the day after Thanksgiving to stay for the weekend. Ryan and I had to drive separately so he could go straight to work on Monday so Brooke rode in the car with Ryan on the way down since I would have her on the way back. We took her to the park before coming home in hopes to wear her out for the drive home.

Playtime at Park from Jaira Grathwohl on Vimeo.

Robe

Passy Wars

You might be wondering how the passy battle is going, so here is an update. There was definitely a passy battle but it wasn't between mommy and Brooke, it was between mommy and daddy. Daddy doesn't want to take the passy away from his little baby, so I guess we are going to have to wean daddy off the passy before we can start weaning Brooke off of it! :)

Expanding Vocabulary

I know every parent thinks so, but Brooke is sharp. She seems to have a pretty big vocabularly for a 14 1/2 month old. She says a lot of words - more, hot, passy, knock (when she is knocking on a door), back (when we tell her to put something back), duck, baby, milk (she was trying to pick up a gallon last night and it was hilarious), basket, bucket, eye, nigh night, cracker, Baxter (Jen's dog), Men which is how she says Fin which is my sister's cat, . . . The list goes on and on. It is getting more and more fun to watch her learn. She also knows all of her facial features (even though she doesn't act like it in the video) and she's learning animals sounds.

Learning from Jaira Grathwohl on Vimeo.

No Passy

Yesterday my babysitter, Jen, was offering to try to put Brooke down for her naps with her pacifier and I laughed and told her that I shouldn't make her suffer. It should be my job as her mother to take it away. So she inspired me to not give it to her last night so Brooke slept her first night without her "passy". It helped that she played with Poppy last night so he wore her out and she got to bed a little later than normal so she was very tired and went down without a single fuss without her passy. I hope it continues to go so smoothly, but I doubt I'll be that lucky. This morning she did ask for her "passy" a few times and I told her she didn't need it! We'll see how it goes!

Big Girl on a Big Wheel

Brooke had a lot of fun with Poppy this weekend. He played outside with her, took her to the park and pushed her around on a big wheel!

Imitate a Chicken

I wish we could have gotten her to do it longer, but she would only do it for a second or two in this video, but Brooke moves her mouth like she is making a chicken noise, even though she doesn't make any noise. The other day Brooke picked up this little box that had a chicken in it and she brought it over to us and she started moving her mouth like the "bawk bawk bawk" of a chicken. Ryan and I both died laughing. She doesn't perform that well in this video, but maybe we'll capture it better another time.

Chicken from Jaira Grathwohl on Vimeo.

14 Months Old

Our little baby is growing up so fast. She was 14 months old today and she just gets more and more fun. Daddy let her celebrate by giving her a marshmallow (much to mommy's disapproval)!

Halloween

Brooke was a bumblebee for Halloween and when I first put the costume on her she went and pranced in front of her daddy showing it off. It was hilarious.





We went down to Christian Fellowship for their fall festival and she loved all the action. Ryan took her in a bounce house and she enjoyed it.

Halloween 1 from Jaira Grathwohl on Vimeo.

When he got her out he set her on the ground and she took off and shoved in front of some other kids to crawl back inside. So then daddy coaxed mommy to go in there with her, but I felt dizzy after getting out! I'm definitely getting old.

Untitled from Jaira Grathwohl on Vimeo.

Brooke also liked this baby pool that you were supposed to pick a frog out of, but Brooke just kept sticking her hand in the water and never picked up a frog.

Untitled from Jaira Grathwohl on Vimeo.

Overall, Brooke loved all the excitement. As we were trying to leave she kept trying to run back in to all the action!

Untitled from Jaira Grathwohl on Vimeo.