You don’t want to peek, just in case Santa might be lurking about.
Santa in this photo played oh so well by Brooklynn’s new cousin, Kolton.
Category Archives: Brooklynn
oh, christmas… (that’s it)
This is the first Christmas season that Brooklynn has really understood enough to be an active participant in. Last year, we decorated the tree while she was asleep and hoped that she wouldn’t get interested enough in it to pull the ornaments down. It was a successful and uneventful plan.
This year, however, has been a different story. We put the tree up while she was sleeping again, but we didn’t completely decorate it in her absence. We started while she was napping, but she woke up just a few minutes in to the process. After a quick debate, we decided to continue decorating. We have plastic bulbs for a reason after all.
She helped to hang some of the ones on the low branches and did a good job handing some to me to put up high on the tree. She was also around when we redid the mantle and she came outside to watch me put lights on the house.
She had a Christmas concert at school (she still likes to sing Frosty the Snowman) and Rhiannon just finished a round of holiday baking and treat making. I don’t know if Brooklynn has linked all of these things together as one big seasonal item yet, but I imagine she will soon enough. As of right now, she just knows we have some decorations up and everything is Christmas!
Really. It’s Christmas.
Her, turning on the lights for the Christmas tree: “I turned on Christmas!”
Her, pointing to the stocking holder Santa Claus on the mantle: “It’s Christmas. Hi, Christmas!”
Her, talking to her mom’s stomach: “Come out, baby. It’s Christmas!”
Ok, that last one actually works, but you get the idea. I guess as long as she enjoys herself, that’s really what matters.
For you, a picture of our Christmas. (tree)
presenting brooklynn
Last night, Rhiannon and I got to be parents in the audience with a video camera for the very first time. And, thanks to the power of the internet, you get to see it too.
This is the program from her school. What you don’t see in the video is that the stage was lined with over 20 kids and three teachers. I thought everyone stood in line and “performed” very well considering it’s a bunch of two year olds under the lights with a whole bunch of cameras pointed at them1. Out of all of them, only one kid cried and had to leave the stage with his parents. I’ve picked her up from school in the evening when there are only a handful of kids left and it’s a little overwhelming to me, so seeing 20+ small people in a group, standing at attention neatly in a line was beyond impressive.
We didn’t know exactly what to expect – Brooklynn was basically asleep when we got there, but we had a little time to sit in the audience and let her warm up. When she saw her teacher and some of her friends, she was ready to go. You’ll note that while she didn’t do all of the actions, she did sing some of the words, and of course she danced around. In our house we sing and we dance around. We do some actions, and then we dance some more.
She got to bed almost an hour past her normal time, which actually wasn’t bad considering the video was shot at a time that she is usually asleep. This morning, we were talking about what a good job she did at her singing concert last night and she thought it would be fun to go do it again.
Yes, Brooklynn. You just have to wait one short year.
- Wow. Talk about cameras. Video cameras, cell phones, digital cameras. Everything under the sun. And everyone clamoring for a shot of their kid. And yes, I’m just as guilty as everyone else. ↩
slow recovery
In the middle of last week, Brooklynn woke up with a temperature of 103.5. We thought maybe she was just a little toasty from the night’s sleep and would cool down at we ate breakfast, and we were right.
She dropped to a chilly 103 flat.
At that time of the morning, Rhiannon doesn’t really have a chance to put in for a sub anymore without a major headache, so I stayed home. Yes, one of the benefits of my job is that no one has to come replace me if I’m gone for the day. Of course, depending on what I had planned for the day, there is a good chance that the work will still be waiting for me and one day closer to being due. C’est la vie, right?
So I stayed home with Brooklynn and her furnace-like body temperature. She was mopey and lethargic and just wanted to sit on my lap and watch movies. A little medicine and breakfast perked her up for about 20 minutes and then back down she went. I left her on the couch with the iPad playing her Pooh Bear movie to get dressed myself and came back to find her passed out with the movie still playing.
After photographing her, I carried her upstairs. She woke up just enough to inform me that she didn’t want to go to bed, so we laid down in Daddy’s bed. And she proceeded to sleep away the rest of the morning and be up all afternoon.
The next day, she was even warmer in the morning and Rhiannon, with the benefit of a full day’s warning, stayed home. Brooklynn was up all morning and slept the entire afternoon. We kept her home one more day on Friday, and with a trip to the doctor and general prescription of antibiotics, she’s doing better. She still took 4 hour naps, but better.
Yesterday, with no trace of fever, she headed back to school and proceeded to take a 1 hour nap after getting up early in the morning. We got to deal with a cranky toddler who didn’t want to go to bed but was far too tired to stay up any longer. And this morning, after over 11 hours of sleep? I was told to walk away. As in, she yelled, “Walk away, Daddy” as I approached her bed to get her dressed 1.
She ate breakfast in her pajamas.
We’re back to a normal routine of everyone going to work or school, but we’re far from normal.
- Rhiannon threatened to start giving me the same reaction when I wake her up in the mornings from now on. ↩
A, B, C… oh, what?
Brooklynn has gone through several stages in her life of us trying to capture her in pictures and video. The first was indifference, where she may or may not repeat a funny behavior and there wasn’t much you could do to alter her reactions.
Then came the manipulatable stage, where we could get her to laugh or repeat behavior based on our reactions. Following that was a tough stage where she just really wanted to touch any camera or electronic device she saw.
Right now, she knows when we want her to do things again. She is capable of repeating her behaviors on command. The question is will she cooperate.
She just finished two rounds of complete ABCs, so we figured we should get a video of her doing it. Right, we should know better than to expect a full performance on demand. Silly parents.
