The Latest with Brooke

Brooke has still barely mastered full crawling. She CAN do it, but if she has to get somewhere she usually army crawls. I'm still waiting to get a video of it. She simply WILL NOT do it for the camera. She did it for like a week, and then realized that she just has to scoot over somewhere to pull up on. She really only wants to stand. All the time. Even in her sleep.
When we try to get her to lie down to change her clothes or diaper she FREAKS out so much that you would think we pushed her over. I actually am so very careful so that she can see that she didn't just fall, but she gets so mad at us. I have even tried the standing up diaper change but she's not quite stable enough to stay standing so she falls over.
Josh and I both think she will be walking soon, even though I am REALLY not ready for that at all. I thought the crawling would be hard enough to keep track of her. I wasn't prepared for her to do it for a week and then skip to walking. I am afraid that is where she is headed. She can even stand balanced without holding on to anything for a few seconds. She does it by herself, too. She'll hold onto something and then let go and look up like, "Look at me...look what I can do! Look, Ma, NO HANDS!" It's funny.
I read somewhere yesterday that kids that are Brooke's age are exploring things with their hands more and putting less things in their mouth. I do not think she got that memo. She puts EVERYTHING in her mouth. She ate almost an entire wrapper from a can the other day. I was doing dishes and I thought I threw it away. I must have dropped it near her and didn't notice. Then I look down and it was almost completely dissolved. I took it away and told her "NO" and she was so mad at me. I can't believe how upset she got at me taking her candy I mean trash away from her. Today she was chewing on my highlighter which I thought was safe. I looked back over at her and her whole face was black from the ink that was on the bottom. It looks like she grew a little baby beard today. And the worst is that since it's fall there are always these itty bitty leaves that somehow end up all over our carpet. She loves them. She eats them like popcorn. I can't even keep up with the cleaning them up. I vaccuum like twice a day now and they still seem to get in her mouth. She also loves to eat my coupons. Actually anything paper, but especially coupons. I think they look like potato chips to her or something.
There are no pictures on this post because I am at work and BOTH kids are sleeping! Hurray! So I don't have any pictures anyway. I have also not had a chance to really do much on the computer because Brooke is all over the place. She won't let me sit still that long. One of these days...
She's still cute. People keep telling me how big she's getting. And her hair is out of control. It's past her nose now. She's generally such a happy girl.
We are really looking forward to both sets of Brooklynn's Grandparents AND her Great-Grandma coming into town this weekend for her dedication. It's going to be a fun and busy weekend. :)