Brooke celebrated her third birthday on May 28th. I want to take this opportunity to write down as many things about her and what she is like at three. Sorry for the randomness, but I have to do this quickly and things probably won't segue smoothly.
When Jack was her age, he would open up a sandwich take the meat off and just eat the bread. Claire would open up a sandwich, eat the meat, and leave the bread. I wondered which one Brookie would do, but in this area, like so many others, she is not like either one, but is her own little self. Brookie LOVES fruits and vegetables. She will leave the sandwich and instead eat 3-4 helpings of broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots. She likes salads, too. A salad where she can dip the individual components of the salad in salad dressing (usually ranch for her) is as good as dipping french fries in ketchup.
Her speech is a constant source of entertainment for all of us. She loves the "jooper jumper" at Kiddie Park. She likes to eat holly hops (lolly pops). She uses a unique sentence structure. Instead of saying, "Jack has a book," she will say, "Jacks have a book". She also has the cutest trouble when L's are in words. Elephant becomes Ephelant. Hobby Lobby is Hobbly Lobbly. "All of it" is "Ov-uh-lit". "Probably" is "Plob-aby". She often orders her sentences backwards getting cause and effect reversed. Once she said, "I'm sick because I want tylenol". She was trying to say, "I want tylenol because I am sick" but the reverse (the way she said it) was actually the real truth! She just wanted tylenol because she likes the chewable bubble gum flavored pills.
She likes to imitate phrases and things that she hears. One day, she was on her cell phone (toy) all day and she kept telling people, "I pri-she-ate-it [I appreciate it]". The older kids say, "Oh, snap!" when something goes wrong and one day, that was her phrase on her cell phone, "Oh snap, I have to go!" Sometimes when Jack or Claire are disobeying and I want to get their attention, I will say, "Jack Settle . . ." or "Claire Settle . . .". So when Brookie wants to get my attention, she will say, "Mommy Settle you need to listen!"
Her favorite Bible story for the past few months has been about Jacob and Esau. Last night at bed time she told me she was going to hold Jacob's hand so he would not be afraid about Esau wanting to kill him. Then she wanted me to "pray about that to God" (that God would protect Jacob). Then she told me she was someday going to have a rock for a pillow (like Jacob slept on when he dreamed his famous dream). (This is all from her little preschoolers Bible that we read together each morning).
Last night she also told me that when she grows up she is going to be the teacher and not Miss Nadine (her teacher at mother's day out). This is interesting because Miss Nadine says that Brookie is her "helper" at school -- giving directions like "listen to Miss Nadine", "Time to line up", "put your finger on the wall" (the way they help the little ones stay in line when they walk down the hall), "no, not that wall, the other wall". At home, she plays school and will often do circle time with imaginary friends, calling on them to answer questions and gently correcting someone who speaks out of turn.
She has been daytime potty trained for quite a while, meaning that she only needs a pull-up at bedtime (she does not even need one for naptime). She was the by far the easiest child to train out of all three and I am so proud of her and also thankful that she has been easy since we are so busy. I am still trying to figure out what to do for night time though. How can I not remember what I did with Jack and Claire to help them stay dry through the night?
Brookie is in the beginning phases of recognizing letters. One night she wanted to "read" Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? to David and me. She opened the book and paused on the title page and then pointed and said, "B!" Then she pointed to two b's and said, "Two B's!" She can almost count to 20 but for some reason she usually leaves out the number 15. Her favorite books right now are It's not easy being big", "Just me and my Dad", "Wait for me said Maggie MacGee" and "Good Night Moon". In Good Night Moon, she told me that someday that would be her room. As you can tell, she likes to talk about what will happen "someday".
In the car, she wants to listen to "Jesus Songs" -- what she calls a CD entitled, "Hide Them in Your Heart". She also seems to have an amazing spatial awareness. She is like a map. Once we went to the Red Cross to drop Jack off for Cub Scouts. The next day when we went past the turn to go there, she asked, "Are we going to the Wed Cwoss?"
She has decided that she likes our dog Murphy, but not our new, teething puppy Cherry because, "Cherrys bite" (again her cute little sentence structure).
I seem to be her favorite person, which is so special to me. One night, she put her arm around my neck and pulled me to her and said, "You're my mommy." She has never cried for me when I drop her off at school, but when I pick her up, she often says, "I missed you. Did you miss me?" One day while she was napping, Claire and I left to go around the neighborhood to gather signatures for a petition to protest the jail. When she woke up, David snuggled her for a bit, and then took her outside to play. At some point she went back inside and when she did not come out again for about 5 minutes David went in to check on her. He found her curled up under her desk crying, "I want my mommy". It was not a loud, temper tantrum sort of episode, he said, just a very sad cry like her heart was broken. When I arrived home she was happily playing again, but she gave me big hugs.
She is my sunshine -- Not a roller coaster of emotions, just a happy little girl almost all of the time. A joy . . .
