outings with brookie

Since I am not a huge pet person, and don't plan on having pets in the foreseeable future, I take my little animal lover to the pet store so she can still enjoy seeing the animals.  We have a Petco right by Target (which I frequent WAY too often), so it is pretty convenient.  Her all-time favorite thing about the pet store is seeing "puppy hair cuts", haha, in the grooming station. This particular day she was also enamored with the turtles who were swimming all over the place, and the kitty cats.  She kept telling me in the car that "Brookie needs a kitty cat", and "Daddy needs a kitty cat", haha.  I told her that Daddy doesn't like cats, he likes puppy dogs.  Then she started in with, "Brookie needs puppy dog, too".  

I also took her to Barnes and Noble for the first time last week, which did not turn out as I expected!  I kept talking to her about going to the bookstore and looking at all the different kinds of books, etc, but as soon as we arrived, she was only interested in all the toys for purchase!  I was a bit irritated that they had so many toys in the kid section of the bookstore because it totally took the attention off the books!  And then she saw the train set, and of course she wanted to play with that.  We did manage to read a few books together, but it was short-lived.  (I guess we need to start going to the library instead!)

She did a little tap number on the story time stage, then settled in to read some mine craft book another child had left behind. After seeing this picture, I realized that I definitely needed to retire this little dress.  When standing it doesn't seem too short, but the proof is in the picture I guess, haha.  I was feeling pretty confident that my girl has grown at least 2 inches in the last few months, and I confirmed my suspicions last night at G & G Meador's house.  They started marking their granddaughter's heights on the door to the laundry room, and after measuring Brooke, we saw that she had grown 2.5 inches since July 5th.  That is pretty crazy, but makes since because all of her clothes seem considerably shorter on her!

I really do enjoy taking my little sidekick on outings with me, and I am realizing that I need to take better advantage of the one-on-one time I have left with Brooke.  There are many teaching opportunities throughout the day, I just need to slow down so I don't miss them!