Brooke at 1

Oh, where do I start with my little Brooke at age 1? She is a brave, adventurous, dramatic, determined little one. She is sleeping much more regularly these days which is fabulous for all of us. Usually, she goes down around 8:30 and sleeps until 8 or 9 in the morning. Then, she will nap for about two hours in the afternoon. Honestly, I never thought that girl would sleep normally! She still isn't talking too much with real words, but she sure likes to babble and scream. Her newest things is pointing and grunting at things that she wants, which, of course, is everything she can't have...soda, candy, chips, etc.
She is very brave and likes to push the limits of what she knows she is not allowed to do. One of her favorite ways to bug her sisters is to turn the receiver off while they are watching tv. She knows that it will turn the tv off and make them really mad. Each time she does it, she just simply looks back at them and smiles a very sheepish grin. Another thing she loves to do is climb up on the fireplace. She used to just get up there and sit, recently, she has decided that standing up would make things a little more scandalous. Again, she looks at me with that little sneaky smile. She might be trouble!!!
Another thing she loves to do is "bodyslam" people and things. She will walk right toward someone and fall belly first right on them! She also loves to belly flop right on the bean bags chairs. The other day she tried falling from a chair onto the bean bags, and she loved it so much that she did it about 10 times in a row!
Anything the girls do, she wants to do. They were both talking on pretend phones, and I looked over and she was holding her hand up to her ear just like them. She is quite the copycat!
She hates to do "baby" things. She would much rather drink from a normal cup than a sippy cup. She wants to use a fork and spoon instead of her hands She wants to walk everywhere instead of crawling. She is definitely trying to do everything they do!
She loves to dance! No matter what she is doing, if she hears some music that she loves, she will stop and shake that booty.
Brooke is my first kiddo to walk by a year old. She was taking steps before her birthday, but now she wants to walk everywhere! The other girls didn't want until they were really steady on their feet, not Brooke. This girl will walk, fall, get up, walk again, fall, and get up. She is determined to stay on her feet, and she is pretty much walking everywhere now. She is so proud of herself, too!
A couple of her tricks - she loves blowing kisses when we put the girls to bed. She plays peek-a-boo on command. She will rub her belly when we tell her to wash herself. She likes to dip her hands in water and then try to drink the water off them.
She still isn't saying any words, but I'm not worried about that. Kacy was slow to talk, but now the girl is a chit-chatter all day long!
Brooke is definitely the smallest of all the girls. She is only 18.5 pounds, and I can't remember what percentage she was in for height, by I think it was around 15%. She can still fit into some 9 month clothes, which is good because it's been chilly this spring, and I didn't have any 12 month winter clothes from the other girls :)
I feel so blessed to have been able to be this beautiful little one's mother for this past year, and I look forward to so many more years to come.