And A Moo Moo Here!

I did a post in September about Brooke and the funny things she says and does.  Then I started another one probably a week or two later to add a few things I had left off.  Well, now it's January, and I never finished it.  So here is a Brooke update with the old things I can remember, and some of the new things she's doing.  I have about six posts that I started several months ago and never finished, plus I have Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years to write about, so I'm going to try to wrap up the end of the year 2014 over the next week or two.  Why am I always behind?  I guess a New Years blogging resolution is in order!

Don't take a picture of me!

Enjoying some frosting from a cupcake.

She chooses her own breakfast sometimes.

Putting a "hat" on the baby.

The title of this post is because Brooke used to just start singing, "E-I-E-I-O and a moo moo here!"  She loved to sing "Old MacDonald" but that was the only part she would sing by herself.  If I started singing it, she would sing along, but almost always chose a cow as the animal on the farm.  Everything was "And a moo moo here!" She has since stopped singing it all the time, but I bet she was stuck on that for a good month or so.

She fell off my bed after a nap one day and got a nice cut above her eye.

Upside down safety goggles and a backwards Spider-Man mask.

She really loves to sing and dance.  It's so cute to hear her sing different songs.  She got pretty good with "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" and "Rudolph, the Red Nosed Reindeer" this season.  She'll just sit around and play with toys and sing along as she plays.  She often asks Mormor to sit at the piano and play some songs.  Mom keeps a book of children's songs on the piano and Brooke often requests the songs from that book about different animals.  I'm so glad that Mom can do that, and I really want to be able to do it as well.  There's another resolution... start practicing some music!  I tried to play the piano yesterday, as a matter of fact, and Brooke yelled at me to stop and get back in the kitchen because only Mormor plays the piano.  After letting her yell for a while I finished practicing and then went to get my trumpet.  She was fine with me playing the trumpet.  I guess the piano is Mormor's instrument and mine will have to be the trumpet.  Either that, or Brooke will have to deal with not being in charge.  Hmmm, there's a thought.  :)  It's funny how bossy she gets with everyone right now.  It won't be funny for much longer.  She gets away with it at times, but we are having to lay down the law sometimes and it's hard for all of us.  If she weren't so darn cute and funny...

A couple of weeks ago, there was some ballet school program on PBS, so I left it on to see if it interested her.  She just watched for the longest time, and then I asked if she wanted to dance along.  She started twirling and spinning, and then I (yes, I) started dancing with her (it's amazing what this girl can get me to do).  I am not graceful in the least, and neither is Brooke, but we did our best to wave our arms, twirl, and leap like the ballerinas.  Brooke could get up on her toes and dance a little bit.  I cannot.  I thought I took a picture of her dancing, but it was just a video.  Someday I'll learn to post videos.  Anyway, she is so tough and brutish at times, but other times she is a sweet little girly girl who loves to wear dresses and skirts (if she has clothes on), and all things pink.

Our neighbor, Deon Freed, has this doll named Emily.  It used to be her mother's.  She calls it Brooke because she thinks it looks like Brooke.  It kind of does!

Dancing in her jeep with Maddie.

In November, she started calling everything and everyone a banana.  "You're a silly banana!" or, "Hey, you banana!" Or just about anything else she said was banana, banana, banana.  Sometimes we call her a banana or a silly girl or whatever and she'll say, "I not a silly banana!  I Brookie Lou!"  Last night she said, "I Brookie Lou Densen."  She has changed us from the Jensens to the Densens!  She's also really good at repeating lines from shows.  For a while, she was calling people "blockheads" thanks to all the Charlie Brown holiday specials we watched.  We also watched Home Alone several times during the past month, and she's been known to jump up and down yelling, "I'm living alone!  I'm living alone!"  She'll also say, "Keep the change, you filthy animal."  She especially likes to tell about one part in the movie.  Out of the blue, she'll start saying, "The bad guy opened the door and burned his hand."  She would request to watch Home Alone by saying, "I want to watch the bad guys."

Sometimes in the morning, we'll hear her singing in her bed.  Other times, she'll just quietly get out of bed and go lie down on the floor in the hallway outside the bathroom while Sean showers.  For a while, she was waking up in the middle of the night and climbing into bed with us.  Most of the time we were too tired to take her back to her bed, so she would finish the night with us, which wasn't comfortable because she is a wiggly sleeper, just like the boys!

She sleeps with about three blankets, a pillow, and anywhere from five to ten animals/dolls each night.  Then she'll haul them around with her in the morning when she wakes up.  Sometimes they are in the hallway as she waits for Sean, sometimes they end up in the rocking chair, sometimes they are brought into our bed, and sometimes they end up in the downstairs or upstairs family room.

Decorating with the manger characters.

Brooke is in a "no clothes" phase right now.  For quite some time, she has not wanted to wear anything but her diaper.  She used to at least wear a onesie, but now she's not even doing that.  Most of the time it's just her diaper.  Sometimes a hat or cape or some socks are used to accessorize, as you can see in many of the photos, but that's about it.  We can get her to put clothes on to go out, but as soon as she comes inside, the clothes almost always come off.  She won't even sleep in her pajamas.  We put her in jammies each night, but then I would go check on the kids after they fell asleep, and she would always be just in her diaper.  I used to put her pajamas back on while she was sleeping, but now, I usually just put on a pair of underwear or shorts over her diaper so that doesn't come off (it did, once).  When I ask her if she wants pajamas on she says, "No.  I just sleep in my tummy" and she pats her bare tummy.  She knows how to snuggle up in her blanket to stay warm, so I have just stopped worrying about it.  The kids are like Sean and are heaters when they sleep.  I, on the other hand, wear my flannel pajamas and socks, and still snuggle up in a blanket! 

She doesn't always pose for photos, so I had to catch her on the run.  I love this series of pics with her shopping cart!

For a long time, Brooke kept drawing on the walls.  We would tell her not to do it and she would act like she understood and she'd say she wouldn't do it again, but she did.  Several times.  She has drawn on floors, walls, cupboards, books, herself, and recently her dolls.  Lovely.  One day after one of her wall art episodes Sean said, "The boys did not prepare us for her!"  She is a busy, busy girl, and even when she gets in trouble, she's still cute as can be.  In fact, when she gets in trouble or if someone makes her mad, she yells out, "I'm mad, mad, mad!" and then she runs into another room and pouts for a bit, but then she finds something to play with and forgets about being mad, mad, mad. Sometimes, if she's mad and telling someone else not to do something, she'll yell and them and say "Never, ever, ever!"

This must have been her tribute to "No Shave November" or "Movember"

Wall art.

 Brooke thinks she's one of the boys, and does just about everything they do.  She loves to play outside with them, and has no fear of being out there, even by herself.  We have to lock the front door with a key so she can't get out and wander.  She likes to wander up to the Richards' or over to the Brown's, so we have to keep an eye on her.  Inside, she loves to jump on the couch with the boys.  We have one couch downstairs that we let them jump on, not that it stops them from jumping on the upstairs couches, but it helps.  They will pile up the cushions and plan these big jumps saying, "This is gonna be awesome!" and it's so funny to hear Brooke saying the same stuff.  She is brave and fearless, and I'm so glad she's ours!