Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Fun, Fun, Fun.....







Playing Mommy!!!

If you had asked me 2 months ago if I had made the right decision to do the mommy job for awhile, I would have told you I think I made the wrong the decision. But the past 3 weeks have been rewarding of my mommy duties.

Cleis and I are more on the same page now and communicating better. She enjoys her time at the YMCA, playing in the adventure center. It gives her time to interact with her peers and have some time without mommy around. Playdates are wonderful too. Our latest finding has been the indoor playground. Fun was had by all including little Chloe.

I'm really starting to look forward to Spring and Summer and hopefully still doing the mommy job. We will spend time going to the park, taking walks, making visits to the creek, going to the pool, playing at our farm and hanging out on the deck at the pond. Looking forward to spending more time on the boat this summer and having cook outs. Can't wait.

Friday, February 23, 2007

She Did It!


I can only hope that last nights sleep was an example of what is coming. Chloe had her best night ever. After her bath we had cereal time. Which she loves and reminds me of a birdie taking the worm from his mommy. I nursed her around 9:00, we had a little activity time and then I put her to bed.


Now I was having a hard time reading her signs. I knew she was tired but I wasn't sure that laying her down was going to work. I went ahead and tried it. She made a couple of fusses but within 2 minutes she was quite. I usually like to give her one last nurse before I turn in but last night we skipped that nurse. I figured she would be up in her 3 hours BUT she wasn't. She slept on and she slept all the way till 6:15 this morning. Yeah Chloe!!!


What a wonderful night! Thank you Chloe and lets have more of those.

Thursday, February 22, 2007

Photo Shoot







Today we took Chloe for a photo shoot. Cleis also decided she wanted her picture made too, so we had some made of her as well.

I'll post a few and I'll be mailing them out over the next few days.

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Giggle

Chloe can now produce a full blown giggle. This morning on the changing table I was talking to her and laughing at her beautiful smiles. I started doing itsy bitsy spider and tickled her with my fingers near her clavicle. She burst into this giggle. I had to do it again to see if I could get the same response, I did. It was wonderful, so all day I've been doing the tickle and I can't wait to get that laugh.

So now we not only have all the babbling, and she has lots to say at times, we now can have a giggle thrown in there. In the midst of her babbling I know I've heard "Hi" and the other day I heard what sounded like "Mama". I could be wishing but it sure did sound like "Mama". I wish I could run the video all the time and not miss a minute.

****see below for some new pics.

Friday, February 16, 2007

Yummy in my Tummy

We were planning to start Chloe on her cereal this coming Monday, but she changed our mind and we decided to go ahead and introduce cereal to Chloe tonight. She absolutely loved it. I couldn't get the spoon back to her fast enough. You would have thought she had been eating cereal all along as well as she did.

What made us give in and start a couple of days early? Well for the past day and a half she has wanted to nurse more. She also did not seem satisfied after finishing her nurse so I had been nursing her on both sides, still not satisfied. She was practically eating her fingers. She starred at us while we ate dinner and if her thoughts could speak, they would have been saying "Where's mine"! So there you have it - she won her parents over and we gave in.

The true test is going to be - will she sleep any longer? This week she has already improved by leaps and bounds, she has been sleeping about 6-7 hours in a stretch.

See pictures below of her enjoying her cereal.

Thursday, February 15, 2007

Tender Moment

This morning during activity time Chloe did a first and melted my heart. We were doing our normal routine of working on our exercise of rolling over, saying our ABC's, doing pat-a-cake and practicing our vocabulary. Of course one of the first words I'm wanting to hear is 'Mama'.

We were laying there on the bed and I'm repeating Mama over and over again to her and she reaches up with both of her hands and grabs my face with her big beautiful smile. A moment a mom will never forget. I'm sure this will be just one of the many joyous occasions I will share with her.

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Happy Valentine's Day!

We started our day off with Cleis' Valentine party at the library. She had a great time at storybook hour, where she enjoyed Mrs. Sherry's readings. Then she exchanged Valentines with her friends and enjoyed the social time, while getting wired on sugar. Afterwards we stopped by to visit Tommy Turtle at Daddy's office where Cleis fed Tommy a worm. She absolutely loves this turtle. I don't know how she will handle it when we have to let him go, but he is getting so big and outgrowing his aquarium.

Chloe has been a good sport today. She slept through library time and her visit to Daddy's office. She even allowed me to enjoy lunch before wanting her lunch. She is such a good baby!

Mommy won out on the dinner vote. Since my whole gall bladder deal I could not eat Mexican and for the past couple of weeks I've had the craving for Mexican. So I decided lets give it a try and we went for Mexican tonight. Tony and Cleis were hoping for Sushi but we'll do that another time.

I did a little photo shoot with the girls today and I will get those added and I'll do an album in my Shutterfly account as well. Cleis is becoming a hamm for the camera. I think she could make a great model.

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Healthy Report

Chloe had her 4 month check-up today and doing extremely well. Her weight is 16.9, putting her in the 90th percentile for weight. Her length is 25 in. placing her in the 50th percentile for height. We have a chub-chub. She has met all her developmental milestones, plus some.

The doctor says we can start her on cereal anytime now. Tony and I have not decided when we will start but I'm sure we won't wait long.

The doctor asked where does she sleep? and what do you have in her crib? Well, I knew I had broken the rules for this question. Awhile back I had put one of my t-shirts in her crib in hope she would sleep longer if she thought I was near. I'm not sure if this worked or not but it gave us (me) some sweet memories. Many times I would go in and she would be holding my shirt. This wasn't the only no-no I had to change either. When Chloe goes down in her crib for night, I go a little overboard. She is swaddled with her wrap, then swaddled in a blanket, then into her Halo bag (without her arms), where she is then laid into her wedgie. But it doesn't stop here, I lay blankets on top of her as well. Needless to say I have removed the extra step of swaddling and the extra blankets.

Chloe had three vaccinations in her thighs and one oral vaccination today. She did really well with her shots. She cried very little this time. At her 2 month check-up she screamed.

I will post pictures soon. I'm getting behind in downloading them.

Monday, February 12, 2007

New Tooth

Chloe has a tooth at 4 month and 3 days.

Chloe has given us numerous signs that there was a tooth on the way. Her #1 sign was the drooling. She can soak an outfit with her drooling, #2 sign she wants to gnaw on your hand and the #3 sign has been more saliva leading to her coughing or gagging.

Up to this point Chloe has been a 100 % breast-fed baby. I hope this early teething does not bring nursing to an end. I have really enjoyed nursing her and after those first couple of weeks it has been so easy to do.

We are thankful she has not been a crabby teeth er (at least not yet). The little guy (tooth er) is barely through her bottom gum. You can feel and you can see it, if you look real hard.

Stay tuned for more updates as we have a pediatrician appointment tomorrow. This is our week of doctor appointments. Today, Tony and Cleis both had appointments. Cleis received a GREAT report from Dr. Eid. We can drop her "Quack, Quacks" to one puff, morning and night. Dr. Eid was also very proud of how well she does her inhaler. He said, he's not seen many three - year olds do puffs and big deep breaths like Cleis can.

******UPDATE******
Chloe not only has one tooth, she has TWO. They are coming in at the same time. I noticed both of them while I was giving her a bath on this same night. Sweet little girl has had a rough week but honestly, you would never know it. She has been wonderful.

Friday, February 9, 2007

Chloe Four Months

Today Chloe turns four months old. Where has the time gone? During this time Chloe has made some great milestones.

I'll start first with SLEEP!!!! This is a great accomplishment, Chloe is beyond the waking of every hour of every night. Those were killer nights. I'm not sad to see those go. She is now sleeping anywhere from 4-7 hours at a time, on average about 5 hours.

One of my favorite milestone is her laugh, about 3 weeks ago Tony had her laughing at 'Boom, Boom'. About a week ago I had her laughing at me speaking Spanish to her. She likes the rolling 'R'. Her laughs are becoming daily now and it's wonderful to hear her little voice.

I've given Chloe the nickname of little 'chub-chub' because of how quickly she has outgrown things. When we found out we were having a girl, I thought this is great since I have tubs and tubs full of girl clothes. Then I thought about it and said Chloe is going to be a season off. Well as it is tuning out Chloe is fitting right into Cleis' clothes just fine. It has been nice to have all of these pretty things.

Chloe has many favorite activity items. I think her favorite is her Jumperoo. She really enjoys bouncing around in it. She's even found it can be an excellent napping spot. Because she enjoys the Jumperoo so much she doesn't use the bouncy seat or swing. Another favorite activity is storybook time. Whether it be her sister or me reading to her she enjoys her books. Cleis likes to read her library books to her every week. My favorites are the Usbourne books we have, especially hunting for the duck. Another happy time is bath. She does a lot of smiling during bath and works on her vocabulary during this time. Chloe doesn't enjoy her Bumbo seat as much but she tolerates it for me.

This time has gone by quickly and while it's sad to see my baby grow out of this baby stage it's also welcoming of the new things to come.

Thursday, February 8, 2007

Hearing Voices

Last night was like any other night until 12:02 a.m. when Chloe began crying. I knew she couldn't be hungry because I had fed her at 10:30. Plus she's reaching the point I'm not going to go in every time she cries and feed her. Not a habit I want to get started. So I let her cry. And she cried and cried.

Then I heard "Please go feed her Mommy". I became alert and thought was that Cleis or am I imagining that I'm hearing things. I wasn't imagining, next I heard "Go feed her mommy". I looked over at the clock and Chloe had been crying for one hour and four minutes. So I got up to go feed her and when I opened my door Cleis says, feed her. I apologized to Cleis and told her to go back to sleep.

I went into Chloe's room, fed her and tucked her back in bed. Everyone was happy at this point and sleeping except for Mommy. I went back to bed but could never fall back to sleep because I wanted to hear Chloe if she cried again. I didn't want her waking Cleis again.

What a night! Real voices verse the imaginary voices. Who won? I think they both did and I lost sleep.

Monday, February 5, 2007

Super Bowl Raclette Party

Wow, what a busy weekend but a fun weekend.

A few weeks ago we had our friends Chris and Joy and their daughter Emma over to our house for Raclette and chocolate fondue. We all had such a great time that Chris and Joy decided they wanted to buy a Raclette for themselves. So they ordered up a Super Bowl Raclette party.

Cleis & Emma had a great time playing and Karoking. Cleis loved all the animals and trying to find the kitties. While Chloe enjoyed the commercials and snuggling up with her daddy. The parents had overly full belly's but still enjoyed the game.

We owe our Raclette good times to our friend Bernie, from Switzerland. Thanks Bernie!

Saturday, February 3, 2007

Chloe's Playdate

Today I packed up Chloe and we went over to our friends Matt and Jenn's house to have a baby food making play date with their little girl Mareyna. She is 2 1/2 months older than Chloe.

I know Chloe is still a few months off from consuming baby food but Jenn was making some up for Mareyna and I wanted to be there so I could learn what it was all about. I can't wait to get started. Not only am I happy about the cost I will be saving but the nutritional value behind fresh food. It's going to be wonderful. When Cleis was a baby I did a little bit with her but it was more stage 2 foods. I'm going to start from the beginning with Chloe. I also adventured out and tried the acorn squash Jenn was making. I learned that I like acorn squash and will now be making that for our family dinners on a regular basis.

Mareyna and Chloe had a great time. They talked back with each other, of course Mareyna had a lot more to say but Chloe laughed with her. We sat them across from each other in their Bumbo seats and they looked and reached for each other.

It was a great day and we look forward to having more play dates together and the moms making food together.

Friday, February 2, 2007

New Blog Site/Catching Up

I haven't blogged in awhile because I was not happy with the format of the other site. I'm sure all my English majors/teachers out there were cringing. It would not allow me to write in paragraphs, no matter what I tried. When I would publish everything ran together. Now I have found this site and I believe it's going to work much better. Also it will be even better if I can link it to Cleis' domain (website).

Getting on to what the real business is all about, my two beautiful girls!

I can't believe how strong Chloe is. Her Jumperoo (thanks Meme & Papaw) must be working and making her legs strong. I also think her new little chair the Bumbo seat (too cool) is contributing to her being so strong. Another factor is her belly time. She doesn't particularly enjoy it but I make sure she is on her tummy at some point of every day. I think if Chloe continues on at this pace, we may have another early walker on our hands, which is okay by me.

We are so blessed to have two happy little baby girls. Cleis was a very happy baby and smiled all the time. I remember we had this toy we called Mr. Smiley because Cleis would smile at 'him' all the time. Chloe is also full of big smiles. If you flash a big happy face her way you'll recieve a big happy face back. Her smile is so heartwarming. As a side note, her flirty smile gets her daddy. These girls sure do know how to get their daddy wrapped around their pinky.

So far, Chloe has been a wonderful and easy baby. The Baby Whisperer has proven it does work. We have the E. A. S. Y. routine mastered. My 'Y' is usually a 'C' though, when Chloe is napping Cleis is having her activity time.

Cleis spends her activity time playing games on the computer. I am amazed at the great educational games in cyber space to be played for free. I have found some excellent websites that we can go to and play matching games, math games, letter games, and coloring pages. We read lots of books, work puzzles and play board games. I know she isn't getting what she would if she was in school but Tony and I are both extremely impressed with the level of intelligence Cleis shows.

I'm not sure where Chloe is on her size/weight right now, we have a four month check-up coming in a couple of weeks but I know she has outgrown her bath tub. She isn't quite ready to sit up either so bath time is becoming a bit difficult. Not to mention my extra helper. I have to really watch my helper or she gets a little excited with the water. Cleis loves washing her baby sister's hair but come rinsing time Cleis gets carried away in dumping the water. There has been a couple of times Chloe gets more than her head rinsed. She's taken in a few gulps of water.