The Brooks’s Do Dallas: Part III

At the Fort Worth Stockyards

We talked to cowboys before the steer runWe attempted to watch a gun fightNatalie chased Norah with a hair brush in front of the Live Stock Exchange (remember the bed head post? That was what the back of her hair looked like). All four Brooks grandkids watching the poniesNorah rode GhostyEvelyn rode Blackie but the owner of the ponies had her give a pony hug to Bluebell after her ride. I guess Blackie isn’t the hugging kind.Louis rode Clyde and hated it. He hurled himself off into Matt’s armsAlice rode Bluebell and seemed to enjoy it. I think she took it pretty seriously. You can tell she wants to be one of the big kids like Norah.

The Brooks’s Do Dallas: Part II

I want to get this post done quickly so it will be archived in 2012 but I’ll update it with better pictures as soon as Ashley gets home sends me the ones she took – no pressure Ash . . .

Louis and Alice were non-stop adorableness together.

Evelyn and Norah also had some good timesAnd Norah and Grandpa Dean raced a Cheetah at the new Perot Museum. Look how fast they were!The cheetah was long gone in just a second but they were still too fast for whatever setting I had the camera on

The Brooks’s do Dallas: Part I

My entire family was together in Dallas this holiday. My older sisters, Emily and Ashley arrived with their families in time for Christmas dinner and Natalie came Thursday (she couldn’t miss a whole week of work). Everyone (except us) stayed in a nearby hotel and we used our house as a hangout. It was so much fun to be together, cook together, eat together and play together. We crammed a lot into to a single week: two aquariums, the Nature and Science Museum, a visit to the Fort Worth Stockyards, the Arboretum and some swimming at the hotel. It was pretty cold here by Dallas standards but we dressed warm and made do. The trip was a huge success and my only regret is that we didn’t think to take a picture of all of us together. We’ll just have to get together again soon.

The Children’s Aquarium at Fair Park

This outing was my favorite. This little aquarium was designed with children in mind so many of the exhibits were low enough for even the babies to see without being held. It was also nearly empty so we just let them run around as much as they liked.Alice LOVED this place. We’ll definitely be going back.An albino alligator!A decent partial group photoMy dad is always picking fights

Christmas

We celebrated Christmas this year in our own home around our own tree for the first time. My parents arrived Christmas Eve and and spent the night in our house so they could see the kids open their presents Christmas morning. Christmas Eve we had a nice salmon dinner and then Norah told us all the Christmas story using paper figurines (like the kind you would use for a flannel board) and read the Polar Express with Grandpa Dean. I let Norah open one present early: a homemade flannel nightgown from Mimi and then she put out carrots for the reindeer and cookies and milk for Santa. There was a bit of debate over whether Santa should have 2 or 3 cookies. Norah won and three cookies were left out and she was off to bed. Norah was so excited for Christmas that she had trouble falling asleep and got out of bed a few times to see if Santa had come. At one point we thought she was asleep for sure and my dad helped himself to an Oreo only to have Norah come out to check on things one last time. She immediately saw there was a cookie missing and everyone sort of froze for a second. Thankfully we hadn’t put out any gifts yet so I told Norah the truth and let Grandpa Dean take the fall.  Norah was appalled that he had eaten one of the cookies – the look on her face was priceless –  a mix of shock and utter disappointment in his character. He tried to reason with her that Santa really only needed two cookies since so many children were leaving them but Norah reprimanded him and marched over to the pantry to replace the cookie. It was so much fun to see her excitement and belief in Santa but I did feel a tinge of guilt for lying to her. Hopefully she’ll forgive me.

We couldn’t trust our kids to not unwrap presents so we didn’t put out any until Christmas morning. Once everything was out I thought it looked pretty magical.Santa left Alice a Rocking moose, a toy remote and snack containers. He brought Norah a scooter(thank you Susan), binoculars and a magnifying glass. They were all big hits. Of course they were also spoiled by both sets of grandparents as were Bryan and I. We mostly took video of the girls opening presents but I did get a picture of one of Norah’s favorite gifts: new ballet slippers from MimiShe was also pretty excited about her ukulele. A few weeks before Christmas Norah started telling me that she hoped Santa would bring her a banjo. It was so random that I dismissed it but she brought it up again and again. I asked her a few different times what she’d want if she could only have one present and she consistently said a banjo. I found a toy banjo but it didn’t really make music and real banjos were way to expensive to satisfy a whim so my parents bought her a ukulele as a compromise. Our primary pianist is a Ukulele enthusiast and she gave me some preschool age appropriate music to try with Norah so that is going to be one of my projects for 2013.

My favorite gift was a growth chart Bryan made me. Norah measured 37.25 inches and Alice measured 29.5 inches.Bryan making us pancakes Christmas morning with his new griddle

Norah in December

Norah has finally taken an interest in drawing. This is the one area I’ve been concerned about in her development because we could never get her to even scribble. Alice started trying to scribble a few months ago and I was distressed when her drawing was about as good as Norah’s. I think 90% of the credit for the breakthrough goes to her preschool teachers who have insisted on her coloring (they once in exasperation made her take home a coloring page that she had refused to do at school as homework and said she had to finish it!). 10% of the credit goes to her uncle Matt who coaxed her into coloring on Thanksgiving day and praised her profusely. I don’t know what exactly happened but it was like a light switch turned on. She has been a coloring fanatic ever since and is quickly catching up with her fine motor skills. A few days ago she asked Bryan how to spell Santa and wrote the letters all on her own.

Norah is also warming up to the idea of speaking Spanish. She’s been attending Dallas Spanish House since the last week of August but was staunchly opposed to speaking any Spanish. She learned her colors but that was about it and I was wondering if I was wasting my time driving her 20 minutes to this school but I think she may be turning a new leaf. She has started asking us how to say various things in Spanish and sometimes I’ll hear her in the back of the car practicing “Buenos Dias! Buenos Dias? Bu-ay-nos Di-as. Como estas?  Como ESTAS? . . .” It is so interesting – she used to do that when she was 2 - I’d always hear her practicing in the back seat. I’m hopeful that she’ll start picking up vocabulary much more quickly now that she’s expanded her definition of “real words.” She used to tell Bryan “don’t speak Spanish, only speak real words” ha ha. Here she is with one of her preschool teachers – Ivonne.
She had a preschool party and they sang and danced to “Feliz Navidad”This has seriously been the best Christmas season ever for me. Norah is so enthusiastic about all the simple pleasures of Christmas from decorations to Christmas music to Santa sightings.”A Christmas tree!! I see a Christmas tree!” “Please please please can we listen to Christmas music?” “are these treats for Santa?” It’s just non stop. She talks about Santa all the time – wants to get him a gift, write him a letter, visit him, give his reindeer some treats etc etc. She’s so cute sometimes that I feel like someone must be coaching her with a script. When she saw Santa at our ward Christmas party she was a little starstruck and hardly said anything at all but when he started to go she called out “Don’t forget Alice Santa!”It just melted my heart that she was worried about her sister getting presents because Alice couldn’t tell Santa what she wanted.

Norah and I have been making a lot of holiday treats for neighbors and friends. I took a picture of this one because we used a cake pan my dad gave me that belonged to my grandma Brooks. Norah and I had a lot of fun making this treat together. And for good measure here is a picture of Norah on a ridiculously beautiful December day at the zoo. Random note: Lately Norah won’t look at the camera when I take her picture. If I ask her to she will for a split second but even if I capture it, the picture is usually blurry because she’s moving her head (see above!).

Alice in December

Alice is suddenly asserting herself all the time. If we’re doing anything with Norah she knows immediately that there is a family activity going on and she wants to be included. She was such a easy going baby that I suppose I started taking her laid back ways for granted and began doing reckless things like eating m&m’s in front of her. She knows exactly what it sounds like when I open the cupboard where I hide them and if she’s in earshot she will walk over and insist on one. Just today she stood in that corner of the kitchen begging and reaching up to that cupboard. I kept thinking she wanted me to pick her up until it finally dawned on me that she wanted an m&m. After this bag is gone I’m not buying anymore!

Alice has also started playing on playgrounds – which conveniently we can still do here in December. She absolutely loves slides. She can’t go down enough times. When I get tired of putting her on the slide she resorts to climbing up the stairs herself and heading down head first (I stop her and flip her around). I just love this age!

Perhaps the most exciting development around here is the changing interaction between Norah and Alice. They are playing together (and fighting) more and more. Alice has a great sense of humor and thinks Norah is hilarious and Norah naturally feeds off of the laughter. They dance to music together, spin around in circles laughing when they fall down, and attempt to play catch. One of the favorite games is walking around the house, Alice in front, Norah in back with her hands on Alice’s shoulders saying “choo choo.” I always think Alice is a under duress when I see this and start to intervene but Alice is always smiling. She loves attention from her big sister and and increasingly Norah is seeing the value of having a constant playmate available.

This is in front of the new Perot Museum of Nature and Science on December 8th. We’ve had such beautiful weather this month. I have to remind myself it is Christmas time because it feels like September to me most days.

Bryan Art – 2012

Here’s the initial set of exercises from the book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain which I picked up in 2012.

Self Portrait

Headless horsemen. I never quite finished this one.

Alice’s First Birthday

Alice turned one yesterday and we had a little birthday party in her honor. I was trying to keep things simple: cake and ice cream + next door and across the street neighbors. Minutes before we were expecting our friends I was applauding myself and taking pictures of Alice’s cake. I was so pleased with how it turned out and feeling grateful to Real Simple magazine for both the chocolate sour cream frosting recipe (amazing) and the idea to decorate with strawberries – beautiful yet easy – one might even say “real simple.”But oh how the mighty fall! I thought I saw a few bald spots on the cake and started slipping a few more strawberries in and then I got frosting on the cake dome and as I was trying to wipe it off my slick strawberry juiced fingers fumbled and the dome slipped and smashed onto the table, making a deep scratch on the table and shattering glass onto the cake and strawberries. Our sweet little birthday girl, who already on edge because it was close to bed time, burst into tears. Norah, who had been waiting all day to eat cake also started to cry when she realized the cake had been compromised. So while both kids were pretty much hysterical Bryan and I cleaned up the glass and scrapped off all the frosting on on the cake. Mercifully, I had left over strawberries and Real Simple had quite the generous frosting recipe so there was enough to re-frost the cake. We let Alice/Norah open a present to cheer them up and all was right in the world. Harper and Willa adore Alice and came over to wish her a happy birthday. They told us many times that they were “so glad Alice is finally 1” and “don’t call her baby Alice, she’s not a baby anymore.” Oh they crack me up! You might remember from past posts that Alice is not allowed in the playroom with them for safety reasons. I’m always getting after them for hugging her too tightly and telling them to be more gentle and I think they were hoping now she’d allowed to play with them. . . not going to happen. I know they love her but the temptation to put her in the doll crib is too strong lol.Alice loved her cake, especially the strawberries, and tried to eat it with a fork. She’s been insisting on using a fork lately and even tries to pick up her cheerios with a fork.And here she is in new birthday jammies with her shopping cart and dolly. She is really enjoying her birthday presents and Norah has been very good about letting her play with them first.Thank you to everyone who sent birthday wishes yesterday. I was really touched and gave Alice extra hugs and kisses on your behalf.

Alice's 1st Year Recap

Thanksgiving

Bryan’s entire family got together in Virginia for Thanksgiving this year. Norah did lots of baking while we were there. Here she is making green bean casserole with Courtney, orange rolls with Mimi and pumpkin pie with me.Susan invited Ashley, Matt and Louis to join us for the feast. We had beautiful weather so we headed outside for some pre-dinner playtime at the park. Norah insisted on playing tag and chased us around – I caught Matt using Ashley as a block.Guy busted out his Red Ryder BB gun. He acted like the red rider had been in the closet since we were all together last Christmas but we think he may have been secretly practicing because he nailed the target.Of course it is always fun to see these two togetherRemember this blog post? That was about 8 months ago – look at them now!

Not pictured but greatly enjoyed were several delicious meals by Susan, youtube video watching, black Friday shopping and TWO trips to Zinga for frozen yogurt! We can’t wait to visit Bryan’s family again.