Brooklyn's Smiles and Our Little Cheerleader

Brooklyn has been all smiles lately. It is so sweet when she smiles now because her whole face lights up and her big brown eyes sparkle. And I am just SO in love with those dimples!


She has also gotten very vocal and loves to coo.



You can tell that Laneah is praised and encouraged a lot from this video. Last week we went to the park and Jason was swinging with Laneah while I was on a bench watching with Brooklyn. Laneah told Jason she wanted down and then she ran over to the benches and told Jason to swing and then she started cheering him on from the bench "go daddy! Yeah!" And on and on. It was so cute I got a little clip of it.

She also likes to cheer when Jason watches sports and will yell "go team" and clap and jump up and down. Jason is, of course, thrilled in her interest in sports and I just think it is so cute.

The Baltimore Aquarium

Last Friday we went to the Baltimore Aquarium. It is located right in the Inner Harbor of Baltimore. The Inner Harbor is right on the water and they have lots of shopping, restaurants, paddle boats, ships and other fun things. The weather was wonderful. We had dinner and then went to the aquarium.

Laneah loved looking at all the cool fish. It was really crowded, but she would always find a way in through the crowd and get right up to the glass to see the fish.

The aquarium is 5 stories high and has a lot of glass walls for you to look out at the bay and the inner harbor. They have sharks, sting rays, fish, alligators, jelly fish and more.
Brooklyn was happy riding in the Bjorn carrier as we walked around.
I love this expression on Brooklyn's face, she is like "hmm, I don't know about this"
Isn't it scary to think that there are sharks with mouths this big? Yikes!
Laneah was fascinated by this jellyfish.

I thought Laneah would really like the dolphin show, but she preferred running around and looking at the fish. The show used to be really fun and action packed, but they changed it and now it is more educational. Plus they had a baby calf (just born last week!) so they asked people not to clap. And Laneah really gets into things like this when there is lots of clapping and cheering. But it was still cool to watch the dolphins do their jumps.



We had a great time as a family and I can't wait to go back to the aquarium. It is one of the best ones I have ever been to.

Laneah at 2 Years and 3 months

Note: This a long post, but there are so many things that I don't want to forget about. Don't feel like you have to read it all, but if you have the time, you should because it is really funny and cute. Of course, I am biased:)

Favorite songs
-Choo Choo

-Skinamarink

-I Love to See the Temple

-Happy Birthday- she loves to sing it and says "Happy buthday you" and then she will pretend to blow out candles. She asks often to blow out candles and when we had cake after Brooklyn's blessings, we let Laneah blow out some candles for fun.

-Rachel Mae *

*My mom made up songs for every child in my family and when my mom was here, she sang my song to Laneah. She loved it and wants to sing it all the time. One night after singing it a couple of times, she said "Neah?" I said "You want me to sing your song?" and she said "yes" So I made it up on the spot and fine tuned it a little since then and she loves it, she wants me to sing it to her all the time. So here it is:

Laneah's song (to the tune of The Saints Come Marching In)

Laneah likes to run and play and hop, and hop
Laneah likes to run and play and hop, and hop
She sings and laughs all day long
and dances to her favorite songs
and then she likes to jump and jump, and jump and jump!

Favorite foods:
-"carrots, pot pie, chee burger, fench fies, broccoli, chocolate, and appie zeus" (apple juice)

New and cute (and some not so cute) things:
- We've gone Dora crazy. I came home from Arizona and Laneah all of the sudden wanted to start watching Dora. She loves to run around singing the Dora song and randomly yells "backpack!" throughout the day. I bought her this Dora night gown with slippers and she was so excited when I gave it to her; she just started yelling "On! On! On!".

-Chuggle (juggle) She thinks that juggling is really funny and will bring you items and ask you to "chuggle"

-She has become very bossy. She will say "blankie(or whatever she wants), right back" and then point you in the direction to go. What she is saying is go get my blanket and come right back. lol.

-Laneah has discovered the art of persuasion and negotiating. The last time my family was here, Laneah wanted something and she looked up at my mom with her big blue eyes and begged "Oh please". It was so sweet and funny. She had never said that before, but she sure got what she wanted so now she never fails to add that "oh" when she wants something. And if you say no more candy, or no more stories, she now tries to negotiate. She will hold up one finger and ask "1"? and if you say no, she will hold up 2 fingers and ask "2"? And then if you say no again she will skip to 5, because she can't hold up three and four fingers yet.

-When you sneeze she says "Bless you", when she sneezes, she says "scuse me" (excuse me) and when she burps or someone else burps she says "goodness"

-Laneah now loves making silly faces. She loves making them in the mirror and anywhere else she sees her reflection. One day I was throwing a load of laundry in and I heard her cracking up. I went to see what she was laughing so hard at. She was standing in the dining room at the french doors that look into the backyard so I thought maybe she was laughing at an animal outside or something. But she was making silly faces in the reflection of the door knob and just laughing hysterically at herself.

-She is very independent and wants to do everything herself and her way:) If we try to help her with something before she asks for help, she will push you away and say "No! Neah!"

-She likes to pretend ride her toy horse and yell "wee haw!" -yee haw. It is really funny because the horse is really small.

-Laneah is really into playing "games". She loves to play games on the computer. Usually I get her to do things by making it a game; like picking up her toys, getting dressed, etc.

-Making up songs and singing by herself. I love this. She hums and sings all the time now. Sometimes it is songs she has heard, and sometimes she makes them up. She has the sweetest little voice.

-Laneah loves making "friends" and holding hands with her friends. She will even look out the window when she hears kids outside and yell "hi friends!", even when the kids are complete strangers. She also says hi to everyone, and if they don't reply, she will keep repeating it until they do, or they are gone.

-She loves to list off everyone's names that she knows and if she meets someone she asks them what their name is. Her favorite people to list off is her family. She loves her aunts, uncles, grandparents and cousins. (In the picture below: cousins Jordon,12 and Blake,4)

-Knows the difference between fast and slow

-A Phone conversation I heard Laneah make up while on her play cell phone the other day:
"Hi! How you doin? Neah at home. Neah go to Chee Cheese (Chuck e cheese) Woove ewe (love you) bye bye"

-"Neah a princess" The only way I can get Laneah to wear a dress is to tell her that she will be a princess in one. As soon as I say that, the struggle is over, and the dress is on. She immediately goes to the full length mirror, does a twirl and laughs while saying she is a princess. Yes, Laneah, you are our princess.
The other day, Laneah touched her hair and it was messy and she said "Oh my hair! Mommy, hair pretty pleasw? (Oh my hair! mommy, make it pretty please). I said "you want me to make your hair pretty?" She said "yes". That was a first.
Laneah is our little firecracker. She is fun, artistic, creative, smart, stubborn and so much more. We love you Laneah!

Brooklyn's 2 months old!

Stats:
Weight: 10 lbs, 10 1/2 ounces- 50th percentile
Length: 23 inches- 75th percentile

Brooklyn is the sweetest baby. She is happy and content and I just love snuggling her. She is giving lots of smiles and showing off those dimples. Brooklyn loves to suck on her fist, especially her knuckles. Her eyelashes have grown in really long and thick. She is very strong and can hold her neck up really well. She likes to move her arms and kicks a lot. She loves to eat and her cheeks just keep getting chubbier, which I love. Brooklyn is very ticklish and squirms all around if you tickle her. She is beautiful and perfect and we love her!

Family Pictures

While my sister was here, we also took some family pictures. They didn't turn out that great. Not because of my sister, she is a great photographer, but with my face, Jason always talking while taking pictures and Laneah being completely uncooperative, it just didn't happen. I just really wanted one good one of the four of us, and although that didn't really work, there are a few that I did like. So here they are.

Brooklyn's Debut

Technically these are Brooklyn's "newborn" pictures, they were just taken a little later than planned (at 6 weeks). I planned the poses I wanted and then my sister took the pictures and I love how they turned out so be prepared for a lot of pictures:)