Kitties

Almost as much as loving cheese, Chloe loves kitties. Here are a few pictures from this month. The stuffed kittens (and big daddy kitty) get daily love. Our real kitties get daily love. And even any picture of a kitty is fair game for hugs, kisses and love.

* always hugging... and squeezing... *

* rocking with them *


* running around before bedtime with them *


* going up and down the stairs with them *


* hugging the pictures on the puzzle pieces of kitties *

And just to dispell yesterday's misconceptions about Chloe and chocolate (as questioned in the comments on yesterday's post), yes, she has tasted of it's goodness (we eat dark chocolate chips everyday here)... and drooled it all over too many shirts. So, although she desires it, she'll have to wait a little while longer to have it again. "Not for baby."

Posted by Bree

Cheese

In case I have neglected to mention it, Chloe loves cheese.

When given a choice, she will choose it over anything else to eat. In the grocery store, she carries it in the cart for us and screams at the checkout counter because she has to give it away (to pay for it).

Yesterday, after kindly helping to unload the grocery bags, she grabbed the cheese, picked up her blankets and a kitten, and went straight to the corner ...

... and attempted to have a snack.

Posted by Bree

Curlies

Posted by Bree

Who can sleep when...

... there are diggers and dump trucks parked right outside your house for four hours!

We had some excitement when the water line in front of our across-the-street neighbors' house broke in the late afternoon and her yard was flooding!

Evan kept begging to get out there and squish in all the mud out there. We decided to just watch from our window instead.

He got to see a a man use a jackhammer, then the digger switched tools from a bucket to a power jackhammer, and we watched the digger load dirt and concrete chunks into the dump truck. It got too dark to really see anything after all that, and by then the men were down in a hole in the road repairing the damage.

How often does that happen, right? So exciting!

Posted by Bree

3 hours

That's how long this boy was outside in the snow on Saturday.

I played with him for an hour watching his huge RC monster truck make tracks all over the yard. Then just as my toes went numb, Mikey, the neighbor boy that Evan likes, came over.

They hauled ice chunks in dump trucks, plowed the sidewalk with the bulldozer/snowplow, stomped in slushy puddles, rode their bikes and teased our cats (who were also outside playing for 3 hours) with snowballs.

He finally decided to come in because he was sweating and drenched. He was soaked all the way through to his clothes. Even his fingers and toes were pruney!

Posted by Bree

A Quiz

I was reading through the compiled list we have of words Chloe says on an everyday basis and was just amazed at how her language has developed! Man, this girl can TALK!! So, I thought we could have a little fun with that on this blog post.

Following are 20 words from a list of hundreds. See if you can figure out what she is saying.... then scroll down for the correct answers. (Clue: several are food or animal related)
At the end of the "quiz" you can evaluate your "score."

1. dock-ick

2. bink-oos

3. wuh-sees

4. me-nose

5. me-nuhs

6. but-eets

7. but

8. ah-poo-saws

9. ung-ee

10. pee-tee

11. wee-pee

12. dop!

13. back-ees

14. muh-key

15. tuh-go

16. ee-bah

17. me-teet

18. uh-fee

19. muh-boes

20. uh-side

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

1. chocolate
2. (wheat germ) sprinkles
3. fuzzies (as in toe-fuzz)
4. tomatoes
5. bananas
6. blankets
7. bed
8. applesauce
9. hungry
10. pretty
11. (hair) clippy
12. stop!
13. basket
14. monkey
15. tiger
16. zebra
17. mitten
18. heavy
19. marbles
20. outside

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Give your self one point for each correct answer. Here is what your results mean:

15-20 points -- you spend way too much time with this little girl!
10-14 points -- you know just enough baby talk to be dangerous
5-9 points -- you probably don't have children and just guessed really well
0-4 points -- you understand her words about as well as her dad does

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Hope you had fun with that. Be sure to post your creative interpretations of Chloe's words in a comment, and then have a great weekend!

Posted by Bree

Random snapshots

Trucks stuck in the mud

RC toys connected with "winches" in a "caravan"


Dump truck and backhoe hard at work

Rolling all around on her new pink ball
(That bruise over her eye is from bonking her head on a bookshelf a couple days ago.)

Sporting a new hair clippy that matches her dress


Drama Queen: hard at work

Posted by Bree

Entertainment

The digital picture frame we got from Gramma is like a movie show for the kids. They sit together and watch it nearly everyday. Evan has memorized the pictures that scroll by -- he points them out in our photo albums: "That one is on the movie pictures... that one is too..."

Chloe narrates the movie picture show: "Dad-eeee! Buh-deeeee! Woy! Piggies!!!"

Here they are looking at the picture of Chloe and her piggy-tails.

And here are the cats looking at a picture of Evan and his huge muscles. So nice that the kids share this with their kitty family, too.

Posted by Bree

Growth

Lots of changes in Evan lately. Lots of doing things for himself. Lots of doing things by himself. Lots of doing things he never liked doing at all before. Finally!


Instead of "I don't like drawing... Mom, you do it."

It has become:

"I think I want to get out my stencils and draw for awhile."

Instead of "I'm hungry for a snack... Mom, you get it"

It has become:

"I'm going to get the bag of carrots for a snack."

Instead of "I don't know how to build with Legos... Mom, you make it."

It has become:

"I'm going to build stairs for the tallest tower I just made."

And my new favorite:

Instead of "I can't read... Mom, you tell it."

It has become:

"I can read this book all by myself!"

Posted by Bree

Guess who...

...loves bathtime?

The sound of the tub filling with water creates a stampede in this house.

First in the bathroom is usually Roy (the cat) -- he's so strangely obsessed with water. He watches the bathtub fill and plays with the incoming water.

Then comes Chloe yelling "baf! baf!!" and pulling at her clothes. She has been known to attempt to climb in with clothes still on.

The last footsteps are Evan's but he moves so fast he always gets in before Chloe. His thing is the w-a-r-m water. It has to be really warm.

They will play in the tub for as long as we let them. (And Roy will sit on the side of the tub and watch them.) Tonight it was 45 minutes! This was surprising since they didn't want toys tonight... just two cups and a washcloth. They were splashing each other and swimming and laughing and having the sweetest time together.

Even after we drained the tub, they still played for another 5 minutes. See the empty tub in that picture of washcloth tug-o-war?? They just love bathtime!

Posted by Bree

10 things making me smile today

1. Looking at pictures of our outside playtime yesterday after dinner (it was a balmy 47 degrees out). Evan was all over that mud puddle in the front yard, and Chloe was close behind him the entire time.

* * * * *
2. Roy cleaning up the breakfast leftovers -- this cat is crazy for Cheerios.

* * * * *

3. Chloe making her "piggy" sound -- like coughing up a hairball.

* * * * *

4. Chloe playing with RC Scrambler -- just like Evan does with the headset controller.

* * * * *

5. Aunt Bryce visiting for a couple hours.

* * * * *

6. Watching Chloe do everything that Evan does.

* * * * *
7. Evan sliding down the pole in the basement. (The stunts this kid comes up with...)

* * * * *
8. Evan taking a rest on his bed with sleepy Roy, his special fuzzy blanket, his stuffed kitten Oreo, and his huge RC monster truck.

* * * * *

9. Finding Roy sleeping in crib with Chloe at naptime (ok, so that only made me smile long enough to get a cute picture, then the naughty kitten was tossed out of the crib).

* * * * *
10. Thinking that there is only one more month of winter.... the light at the end of the long, cold, snowy tunnel is near!!

Posted by Bree

Just business

photo by Evan

Just a few things on my mind about the blog.

**First, if you have signed up for the email updates to my posts (over there on the right), you probably noticed you get them a day late. Not sure how to fix that yet but I'll work on it. Every post we write is saved in an archive automatically so if you miss a day or two you can always find them -- the bar on the right has a list called "previous posts" that you can check.

**Second, if you've checked out our blog and haven't commented yet, please do! Just click the word comments at the bottom of the post and on the next screen you see write "Hi" (or whatever you want) so we know you were here. Then just click "name/url," type in your name and publish it. We'd love to know who is visiting our site ;-)

**Third, we will probably not be posting on Sundays -- today is obviously an exception. But, generally Sunday is family and resting day so you won't hear from us.

Have a great week everyone!

Posted by Bree

Time

After posting yesterday about Chloe being 18 months old, I got to thinking about time. I've gotten into many discussions with people about time.

"Time flies," they say.
I respond, "Not for me."

The day Evan was born does not seem like yesterday.
His years with us have not flown by.

The day Chloe was born does not seem like yesterday.
Her first year didn't fly by.


Strange?

To most people, it is, and I don't really understand why.

Time is just time. We are all given 24 hours a day to live and fill with what we deem to be important or necessary or enjoyable. Busy, lazy, old or young -- all people have the same 24 hours to use.

It is our perception of time that flies.

Maybe you agree with my mom who says the older you get, the faster time goes. I disagree (of course) and say that is because children have no idea what it means to waste time. They just live.

Todd and I have to make a conscious decision everyday to savor, reflect, experience, explore, linger, flow and enjoy each moment we are living in. Time is often wasted wishing for things of the past, worrying about daily details or planning (too much) for the future. Maybe time would slow down for us all if, instead, we could be content with today.

Anyone agree?

18 months

Chloe Elise is 18 months old today.

What a long strange trip it's been. Seriously.

This child has been full of surprises and mystery and puzzling behavior and beauty and sweetness and girly-girlishness. She is feisty and talkative and silly.

She is vibrant.

And she has a sense of humor already. Cute story: Her favorite person, Aunt Bryce (my sister), was her first named relative. She says, "Aw Bicccccce!" (Evan said her name first too but he called her "Zzzzahhhh!") Her joke lately is to refuse to say anyone else's name when we want her to, except Bryce. She started learning to say uncle Chris (Bryce's husband) and she called him "Unco Hweeese" -- cuter in person than in writing. Now when we ask her to say Aunt Bryce or Uncle Chris, this is what she does:

Posted by Bree

Caution: Artists at Work

After Chloe finished drinking (dumping) all the milk from her cereal ...

... we had a busy morning filled with a variety of painting ...

... and music making (very LOUD music).

A good time was had by all.

Posted by Bree

Visit from Papa

Something special about my dad and my kids together. They just love each other. Such a warm and open relationship. Lots of laughs, smiles, silliness, giggles, snuggles... and this visit was especially full of lots of boy time.

After the cats thoroughly sniffed Papa he was fair territory for the kids. Evan noticed that Roy had found a nice perch on Papa's shoulder and thought he' give it a try too. Just climbed right up there!

Anyone who knows this kid knows that he is not a real "warm-up quick" kind of person. He rarely makes the first move on someone. But with Papa, he is just so different!!

Then after Evan and Papa painted monster truck pictures together it was time for some fun. My dad lifted 33-pound Evan up by his head (Evan thought this was the funniest idea ever) Papa really showed his strength here!!

Evan was loving all this wild time in the afternoon -- just like Saturdays with Todd. Some wrestling, tickling, chasing, surprising, lifting, tossing, gnawing...

Just as the boys were mellowing out, it was time to bring Dad's dog, Dexter, in from his car. Oh, boy! Didn't take long for them all to warm up to each other and they just played and played and played.

Evan was still nervous of getting scratched but he really liked playing hide-and-seek and watching Dexter tear up a cardboard box. Evan wanted in on the action and took a few bites of the box himself (I got that one on video)!

When we found some balls for Dexter to chase and chew on, Chloe wanted to play too. She is such a copycat baby -- Fetch girl!!

Posted by Bree