books

where does the time go? well i'm reading a lot of books on my kindle. a series i love, and read more than once is julie kagawa's iron fey. the third book is out this month and in honor of that she's been doing a book tour on blogs. check out http://juliekagawa.blogspot.com/ for more info.

one of the blog stops is bookalicio.us, i absolutely love pam. just started reading the weird sisters because of her review. seriously, you've got to check out this book. right now pam at bookalicio.us is celebrating her 2 year blog anniversary and giving away a nook color. check out her site to enter http://bklc.us/2y

happy reading ya'll!!!

dear blog, it's me, brooke

I almost forgot all about my blog. I didn't realize it had been so long since I posted anything. So I go from a month til Aeryn's 1st birthday to now, a month before her 3rd! Don't really want to make this long. I recently joined Facebook. Fun stuff. Getting back in touch with a lot of family and friends. We went to Chuck E Cheese for dinner last night. I love skeeball! Someday I will conquer the 10,000 point hole. Right now Aeryn is playing Lego Star Wars on Nintendo DS. She loves playing games.

Signing Time cont.

So here are the pictures. I know, finally. :-) I forgot to tell you that at the Signing Time booth I bought the music cds for the first two Baby Signing Time. One of her Signing Time dvds has a clip from Baby Signing Time, with this song Diaper Dance. Aeryn loves it, and does the dance, too cute! So I bought the cds so she could listen to it on her radio. It's all that's on. We actually just got our first Baby Signing Time dvds last month. I didn't think about getting them, because they cover what she already has learned from the regular Signing Time. But last month I had a post on my blog from a worker for Signing Time. And it was for a preview of the new Baby Signing Time volumes 3 and 4. We are definitely going to get the first two. Aeryn is in love with it! She prefers them to others. When we first watched it, there were some shots of Rachel sitting down, and she's always standing. Aeryn noticed right away. She said "Rachel," pointed to the screen, "Shoes." It's amazing at how creative the Signing Time videos are. All of the music is different. And the songs are pretty catchy, and really not annoying.

Signing Time

I cannot believe it's taken me this long and get my act together so I can blog about this.
Sept. 20th, Aeryn's dreams came true. She met Rachel Coleman from Signing Time. Rachel was in OKC appearing at the Down Syndrome Association of Central Oklahoma Buddy Walk. Unfortunately Tim had to work that day. It was at the OKC Bricktown Ballpark, so that was neat to see where the OKC RedHawks AAA team plays. It was a beautiful field. But you just don't get the awesome feeling you have when you walk into a major league field. The whole day Aeryn was "Rachel. Rachel. Rachel." We got there and went to watch Rachel do a Signing Time performance. Aeryn and I, also some other audience members, got to go up and sing/sign the Silly Pizza Song. Too bad Tim wasn't there to tape it. After the performance, we were able to meet Rachel. They had a backdrop set up with a picture of the treehouse from the videos. Aeryn was pretty tired by this time. So she was really shy with Rachel. But she was okay with Rachel holding her. She wrapped her arms around her and kept a sullen face the whole time. However, her face when Rachel gave her back to me, was one I will never forget. Probably second to the first time I saw her when she was born. This look on her face was utter euphoria and amazement and excitement. Her eyes were so bright. I took some pictures and we got her autograph. I made a little collage of pictures of the day and framed it, and it's hanging in her room.

Here's something funny. While we were waiting to meet Rachel, the mascot for the
baseball team walks by. It's a big red bird with a baseball uniform. But much more to Aeryn apparently. She completely forgot about seeing Rachel. Started following the bird around. It was great because she wasn't shy with him at all. Even let the bird hold her for a picture. I was startled because most kids her age, I think, are usually scared of mascots at first. After a while the bird man had to go to down on the field for some promo shots. Aeryn wanted to follow him. I told her that she couldn't bother him because he had to work. The rest of the day, she randomly said, "Bird. Work."
What an exciting day. On the way home I stopped at a gas station to get something to drink. When we got back in the car, Aeryn wanted to play with my keys. So I gave them to her, all except the ignition key of course. My car requires two keys, one for the doors, and one to start him. When we got home, I'd forgotten the door key was in the backseat somewhere with Aeryn. But I didn't forget to lock my door when I got out. Oh NO!!! I locked my kid in the car. Seriously. The house key was inside with her too. Luckily I have a great brother who put an automatic starter on my car, and was able to start it and get the air going for her. A neighbor across the street is a locksmith, but he wasn't home. So I called my mom. Isn't that what everyone does when they're in trouble? She suggested I call the fire dept. Which I did, and they came. Superheroes. Aeryn and I took them some cookies that Monday.





PS I am just publishing this to get it out, but more will be done to it tonight or tomorrow.

More Stuff

A lot has been going on, and will be going on. I am just going to do things off the top of my head until I get tired.

Aeryn is in soccer now. She loves it! And she's the best at it. I am so proud to be her mom, all the time of course, but when she's doing what the coach is asking and the other kids are running around, so nice. I should mention that the other kids in her class are boys. It's a little Mommy and Me class. They kick the balls around, play games like Red Light/Green Light, pop some bubbles, play with a little parachute, ect. I kind of wanted to put her in dance again, but she really loves soccer. So that was that.
Weather has been great, we've been outside a lot. Aeryn is growing up so fast. Sometimes it seems like she's passed the toddler stage and is approaching adulthood. *sigh I know it will be here before I am ready. Time flies when you're having fun.
I got a new car today. Well not actually new, not even new to me. My Kia, aka DJ, hasn't been driving very well. It's been loud and shaky. I took DJ to Pep Boys, I have a wheel waranty with them, and wanted them to check it out. I told the desk kid that it's loud on the road, and asked if there was anything they could do, he said no. He didn't know what he was talking about. So I just had them rotate my tires because my oil guys told me it needed to be done. I told my dad the story, and he said maybe it was my shocks, and he'd help fix them. But when he hopped on my car, he said it might not be and I should take it in to get looked at. That was last week, but I was so busy I didn't get it in until yesterday. I took it to Firestone on Wednesday, and had them do a wheel alignment. I hate Firestone, the only reason I took it there was because I have a lifetime wheel alignment thingie with them I got before I knew any better. It took 2 1/2 hours. But luckily there is a great place called Incredible Pizza across the parking lot. So I loaded Aeryn up in her stoller and we had a fun time. The first game we played, was a simple one where you hit a button to start and stop the wheel, and each piece on it has a # of tickets you can win. Aeryn's first time she hit the jackpot! 130 tickets! After we played games, there was a line at the ticket counter, so we looked around at some of the other games, and the guy running the go carts let us come ride for free. She was so cute. When she didn't know I was looking at her, she had a look of boredom, like she was a secret agent and has driven much fast cars. But when I'd say something to her about it, she'd light up. The car guys called me and said that I needed new wheel bearings on the back. They could have done it then, but it'd take another 2+ hours. I don't think so. Even after the alignment, DJ drove better. But after I took it in today. WOW!

I can't believe she will be 2 yrs old in one month! No Way!

Planning her party now. Just keeping an eye open for things to get. It's going to be a Pretty Pink Princess Party. The only kids coming are her cousins, all girls( :-( missing the cous' in MI). So why not. The amount of pink I'd like to use would make even Mary Kay blush. But I am not crazy enough to actually do it all. So I am settling for just making the men in the room uncomfortable. hehehe I am so excited for the cake I am thinking about doing. I am for sure going to do a trail run, to make sure I can make it. But that's going to be after I find/make some cute invites.

Some of the things Aeryn is doing. Swinging between two chairs. Doing the "Diaper Dance" from Baby Signing Time. Making a funny face. She pulls her mouth wide with her fingers. Thank you Yo Gabba Gabba for these wonderful laughs. Yes, she still LOVES Yo Gabba Gabba. I think Wonder Pets would give it a run if they were on at the same time. My Friends Tigger and Pooh, naturally. She does the "Think Think Think" with them. But I think she likes Handy Manny more. I find myself watching it sometimes when she's not up yet.

Okay, I am kaput. TTFN

Video Try

I have this video I am just testing. It was taken 08-30, my birthday morning. Krispy Kreme's for breakfast. Hope it works! If so, enjoy! (ps I hate my recorded voice. sorry if it's annoying to you as it is to me.)

Tid Bits

Okay, I am still working on the pictures. But for a bonus, I am going to try to get some videos up too. This entry is because Tim and I have such a smart beautiful girl, and I wanted to get these stories in before I forget them. Lately when it's bedtime and we are reading to Aeryn, she picks up on certain words in the story and remembers them. The next time we read the book, she is right there with it, saying the words. There is a book we read to her called Friendly Fish, and there is a page with a red rock lobster, and when we read it we say rock lobster they way it's sang/said in the B-52's Rock Lobster. There are two other words, rock and seaweed, that we say funky like that. Just to be silly. It's been almost a week since we read it to her and tonight she was on with those words, exactly the way Tim and I read them to her! Her new favorite book is The Monster at the End of the Book(w/ furry, old, lovable Grover). And she knows it so well. My mom said that I was the same way. She thought she had a super genius child who could read at an early age. Turns out, I just a genius child with good memory.

We have a little digital clock that lights up, and her monitor next to her bed. She's a button pusher, and will play with them before bed sometimes. Sometimes we'd forget to turn it back on if she'd turned it off. But tonight, for the first time... she played with it, and then stopped to listen to stories. When we told her it was time to go to sleep, she walked over and turned it on! She knew it was off, and that it needed to be on. We'd never told her to turn it back on the other times she played with it. Catches on quick this one.

The three of us were in the car this evening and Tim was joking around, and made up a little rap. I forget about what. When he finished Aeryn started rapping! She kept a good beat, even though we couldn't understand her(who can understand rap songs anyway). Rock out!

Aeryn is so in love with our dogs. She helps me let them outside, feed and water them, give them treats, and even yell at them. Well, at Puppy anyway. If he's outside and starts barking, she'll yell through the window. If he's in his dog pen making too much noise, she will tell him to be quiet. She really is a grown up in a toddlers world it seems.

She's in the toddler independence stage. Has to try to do everything by herself. Right now she is working to put her shoes on by herself. It's tough. But she'll do it.

The Just Between Friends sale was last week. I love it! Made some money and spent perhaps a little more that I made. But the clothes were so cute! A lot of people over priced them in my opinion. But I suppose everything is going up in price, even consignments.

My attention span is done. I hope you enjoyed this. Don't know when I will get back to it. Love Ya!