Growing Family: Brooke 2 1/2

Brookie, Brookie, Brookie! There is so much I can say about this girl. I LOVE LOVE LOVE her, but she is a CHALLENGE! She does what she wants when she wants how she wants...so she thinks. If you are to disrupt her in any task beware of the monster she can become. Its a battle every day and Rusty can tell you I have one sided conversations with him over it, its not so much him speaking just me talking about how she's a challenge, I go over my parenting style, I question my parenting, ask if I am not doing something right...maybe I should try this, maybe that, maybe I need a parenting coach!! LOL you get the point she challenges me a lot. Which is good. I know now that the way you parent one child may not work on the other, I try/am the same to them both, but my difficulty comes when I notice Brooke does not react the same way as Sophia. Sophia and Brooke are sisters, love one another, play amazingly together, are the silliest of kids, but they are completely different people, personalities and do not react the same ways to rules we give.
I know to pick and choose my battles and time outs. But you think it would be simple, when in the street/parking lots, you hold hands, we all do it, Sophia does it EVERY time. Brooke refuses, and feels she can just casually walk into the parking lot. I have approached her so many ways to get the point across that she has to stay with mom and dad for safety. I have to hold so tight as she is pulling away to keep her from getting lose, or Ill have to pick her up like a football and walk with her yelling, quite a sight to see. I also tried not holding her hand, she does walk quite well with me but thats not a 100% time guarantee and I still feel uneasy with so many reckless drivers around. I don't get why this small task is so hard.
One big personality difference is that Sophia is more like me, a person who wants to do what is right. Sophia is happy when she can show you she can do something like follow the rules, or is a big girl. She gets her confidence from that. Brooke I feel has the opposite, she likes to challenge what is right,she likes to do the opposite. Im not saying all the time but majority of the time this is what she likes to do. I want her to be her, I want her to be different from Sophia they are two different individuals but it is hard to parent. I have to praise Sophia for being well behaved, she is my savior a lot of the times! Because she is so good and helps so much it keeps me sane.

With all this said. Brooke is a sweet free spirit. She still loves to share when she wants to, she is the most loving to animals, and loves to cuddle, her big thing is acting like a cat, she'll meow and crawl on the floor, she takes the role seriously. Loves all things cuddly and soft. She loves outdoors and playing in the dirt and collecting all the sticks in the yard, my deck is covered in sticks. She loves to play with Sophia, but she really enjoys play wrestling with her, I guess thats what you call it. They will play fight over a spot on the sofa, or just flat out wrestle I have no idea how they learned it or why they do it but its all in fun. I guess I do remember my sister and I doing it too as kids.
Her speech is coming and at this doctors appointment I shared my concern still for her speech, and as I was explaining to the doctor how she will say some words but will make them have one syllable when they have multiple, as I was saying this I was trying to get Brooke off the chair and she said clear as day "Go away Mommy." the doctor smiled at me and said I think she is just fine. This goes more into how Brooke will do what she wants when she wants, she will talk in sentences but when I ask her to say something she will not repeat. She does have the cutest little face and smile, which also makes it hard, there are times when she is not listening and I use my stern mom voice, she will smile and bat her eyes, and I can't do it. Then Rusty will come to help and he will fall victim to the sweet face as well. I am crazy in love with this girl, its a challenge and a blessing to see her grow into her independent self. My forever baby girl.