Brooks is TWO!

Happy Birthday Baby Boy! 

Since you turned a year old your dad and your brother thrive on rubbing it in to me that you aren't a baby anymore, you're a toddler. Of course, you're still a baby....and a toddler. So you're very fitting for my blog now:) For a long time before you came along, I dreamed of having another toddler to write about in my blog. I can write about anything, of course, but as your brother grew out of the toddler phase I longed to write a post about a toddler that was just fitting for the name of my blog again. Here you are! Right smack dab in the middle of the toddler phase and you're just fantastic at it! 

You're so funny and the best part is, you know it! You love being the entertainment and you get a kick out of making everyone laugh while also cracking yourself up, too:) 

You're so smart! I don't say that to brag, I say that because it goes along with this age-you absorb everything! (Except when you're not supposed to do something...which is also, you guessed it, classic toddler) But really, you know colors: purple, blue (your favorite), red, yellow, green, pink and black and you say them all well. You sort of count, but not precisely. But you try and it's pretty cute. You make lots of animal noises and your pronunciation of words has gotten incredibly stronger lately. All of the sudden, you just started saying full words. Before that, banana, blueberry, Brennan, black beans were all baba:) Now you say sorry (mostly to your brother) in the cutest way "sawee", pizza is "peepa", poop, which you've said for a while and you actually tell us when you poop so hopefully potty training isn't too far off. Cheese started as chee and is now cheese, BEANS with a very pronunciated S on the end and this is probably your fave food, specifically black beans-you will eat them for breakfast, lunch AND dinner and you get so excited about them! Brennan is Bubba, you say GiGi, MawMaw, Mommy, Dada or Daddy, you try to say Brennan's friends names and that's super sweet because you love them all so much! When the big boys are playing, you want to be right there with them. You love to point out that it's dark outside and find the moon. My favorite word that you say is touch. It was the first word that you said perfectly and it was just too darn cute! You also say "uv oo" for I love you which is so precious. When you fart, you say "toot" There's so much more and every day you're coming up with something new and I love to teach you new things!

You love to ride with me!  You ride in it at the store and it's so much easier than trying to keep you in the cart because you do not like to sit still and if we let you out, you're off running around the store! You napped with me almost every day on vacation and Minnie even spotted you:)

I had to post these because they are so precious♥

You throw tantrums, you might have my temper-oopsie. Some of it is typical toddler, fake fussing which is so obvious and very dramatic, but pretty cute. Some of it is full on pissed off that you can't get your toy dog to sit in his truck just the way you want him to or you can't stack a big jar of peanut butter out of the pantry on top of skinny little box of macaroni and cheese. You've had quite the upslide of emotions since you were born so some is toddler and some is just YOU:)

You love to play outside! You love bubbles, being pushed around in the bike trailer, your wagon or on your new tricycle. Climbing on your swing set and going down the slide. Lately, jumping in our big pile of leaves has been big entertainment. 

I've been able to observe you playing with kids a little more lately and you're very good about sharing, mostly when prompted, but you do not like when a toy is just taken from you! I can't totally blame you there:) You LOVE kids! You will run and play with any kids, big or small, and you love babies too:)

You have the least tolerance for your brother over anyone! You two are something else. You kind of set the tone as a baby, you have always been sort of mean to him haha. I figured being 7 1/2 years apart that you would get along so good and it's not that you don't, but you two seriously interact like any siblings who are close in age. You both love to pester each other, you beat up Brennan quite a lot, but most of that is your little personality. Brennan is pretty laid back and takes a lot, but he also gets a little streak where he wants to irritate you just the same. You have your equal amount of snuggles and kisses, too. When you can't find Brennan in the house or he won't let you in his room, you say "Bubba" in the most pitiful and concerned voice, it's so precious. I waited a long time to watch your brother get to be the best big brother so it's a lot of fun getting to see him play with you and care for you. He loves you to the moon and it shows. 

You are so stinking sweet! You just come up and kiss our legs and make that "mmmma" sound when you do it. Every time. Sometimes if you know you've done something wrong and I have a mad look on my face, you will get right up in my face and smile and laugh to make me smile and of course I can't resist. You love to snuggle and rock at night, if I try to lay you down in your bed, you point to the glider and say "ock". That is hard to resist. I do like you to be able to go to sleep on your own though. You sleep with Philbin, your bear, a blankie that you will only pick up on the silky side and lately, Mickey Mouse.

You LOVE Mickey, you really loved meeting and playing with Mickey on our cruise:)

You really love everything though, Thomas and choo choo's, animals, Elmo, trucks, books, music. 

The newest thing that you do that makes me laugh every time is when I ask you or confirm if you want something (to go somewhere, a certain food, a drink) you give the biggest cheesiest smile-it's hard to explain, but so funny! The smile is your way of saying yes and it's the cutest yes...and smile I've seen:)

Most of all, you've changed our lives in unimaginable ways. You made our biggest dreams come true. Happy 2nd Birthday Brooks! We love you so much!!!!

Sunday Funday (with a not so fun part)

I had been so excited about the weather today when looking at the forecast this week. I didn't have anything planned, but I knew I for sure wanted to go on a bike ride. I was pretty bummed this morning when I realized Casey needed his truck to haul lumber to fix his mom's fence. We live on a back road so we load the bikes in the truck and either go in town or to a trail. It seemed cool outside this morning (the brief times I opened the door) so we just hung around the house this morning until I decided what we were going to do. I am a planner-to a T so it's very unusual for me to not have my day planned out (unless we're just staying home). Brennan had stayed at Caiden's house so I had him come home at 10 this morning and offered that Caiden could come play. They both played inside and outside and Brooks took a great nap since he was up later than usual last night and up early this morning. Caiden had to be home by 1 for a hockey game so I decided that was a good time to head out. My mom is a realtor and was having an open house so we went there first. This is the only picture I took, but she was being silly and Brooks was cracking up. Love his little belly laugh:)

Then we headed to my mother in laws where Casey was working on her fence. She has creeping charlie terrible in her backyard. Brennan and I went to work pulling it, but if you've ever pulled those weeds-it's never ending. At least in her yard because she has so much. By the time we were finished, we had filled an entire yard waste bag and it didn't look like we had done anything. 

These 2 had fun playing with the bag before we filled it:)

There is a park near her house and we haven't been there in forever so we decided to head there.  It was the cutest thing, as soon as we got there this little boy, about 2 years old just came up and gave Brooks the biggest hug. I wish I could have gotten a picture of it!

He enjoyed swinging:)

Casey's mom got a loaf of bread to feed the ducks. I know you're really not supposed to feed them bread, but we were in a pinch.

Brennan had his eye on the geese afraid they were going to come after him. 

Haha

Brooks was a little leery, too but he warmed up.

They've added a lot of fun things since the last time were here. 

They had this big slide. Brooks was kind of scared going down, but he signed more every time so he must have liked it. We went down several times. 

Finally, the last couple of times he smiled. 

Then he wanted to climb back up to go down like he does with every slide. 

Brennan wouldn't go down at first, but when he finally did he loved it!

Sweet big bro

Mamaw even went down:)

I noticed that they have an Angel of Hope, I had never noticed it before. I am, of course, drawn to them. We don't have a brick for Reese and Scotlyn anywhere, but my friends have them at an Angel of Hope in St Charles. Most of my baby loss friends live out that way and it's far for us so we never got one there. I spent some time looking at all of the memorial bricks and plaques. One was an infant born in 1922. There was no date. I assume that it was a time when mother's didn't even get to see their babies after they died. It was so taboo back then. It makes me so sad, but also grateful how times have changed and how there is now professional photography being done and specially trained nurses that help grieving parents through this time. I am going to look into getting something for Reese and Scotlyn here. 

I found the plaque in memory of someone I recognized. A teenager who sadly died in a car accident just months after Reese and Scotlyn died. He was the boyfriend of a family member. 

We continued on throughout the park. We walked all the way around the lake and over the bridge along the pathway. 

Brooks insisted on walking the whole time. Up the hills, down the hills. He's a typical toddler:)

We fed more ducks on the other side of the lake. 

When we were finished I snapped a picture of Mamaw and her boys. 

Now comes the not so fun part. We get in the car to leave and I pull out my phone to charge it and I check my pocket where I had put my wedding ring, it was gone. I panicked instantly. I checked all of my pockets, I checked all around the seat since I had just pulled my phone out. My ring had been in the same pocket as my phone, which now I realize was stupid. It was gone. I immediately called Casey to come up there and his mom had already left, but she was closer so I called her to come back as well. My ring is too big, it has been for a while. I lost weight before Brooks and then I lost even more after. I need to get it sized, but our jeweler retired and I need to find a new one. I would like to lose more weight and I don't want to keep getting it resized. Just something I've been putting off. Sometimes it fits good enough to stay on, but when I'm eating clean and losing, which I have been, it slides off. Very easily. I had taken it off when we were pulling weeds because I didn't want to lose it in the yard or yard waste bag. Thinking about that now, it would have been much better than losing it in 

an entire park! 

 I took the kids and backtracked our steps. The whole time I'm thinking, there's no way I'm going to find this. Is it crazy that I am going to search an entire park for a ring when what are the chances I will find it. We started in the grass by the playground because that was the last place I had been when I took my phone out, I remembered trying to see what time it was. I kept thinking of the times I took my phone out along the way, when the last time was that I checked my pocket for the ring. I did keep checking to make sure it was there, although it had been a while since my last check. Brennan and I looked in the grass along the way as we walked toward the walking path. We started back on the walking path where we had ended. It's a big park and there were tons of people. I kept watching people walk by and thinking, what if someone picked it up, would they see me searching and seek me out. Would I post an ad in the paper or on facebook.  Then would people go looking for it and keep it if they found it. Did someone already find it and they're keeping it. It's insured so I started thinking about having to get a new ring. It's custom made and our jeweler retired. Would I call her and beg her to make me a replica. Seriously, severe anxiety. We walked all the way up the path back to this play area where Brooks was climbing. I was really feeling hopeless. I was sure it wasn't long before that I had checked to see if the ring was still in my pocket. I walked to the next area we had been before that. 

I had taken my phone out to take a picture of the plaque of the boy I recognized and sent it to his girlfriend to confirm it was him. I looked down in front of the wall and right there in the middle laid my ring. I couldn't believe it, I was so incredibly relieved. Brennan kept telling me "You are so lucky mom." Yes indeed, it was really a true miracle. 

Look at all these angels who were watching over me♥