Developmental Update

Chloe has been to the doctor for her 15 month check-up and also for her first MMR immunization. Chloe did extremely well and was a tough little cookie. She has been great and continues to push on.

She is really slimming down, 90th percentile in height at 32", 50th percentile for weight at 22.12 pounds and 50th percentile for head circumference. Dr. Cowley said if she continues at this rate, she will be what every woman wants to be. She projects, about 5'8" (like her mommy) and around 121 pounds (not like her mommy). Here's hoping she has more of the Newell genetics.

I have been concerned with Chloe's learning and have probably been comparing too much with how Cleis learned and what Cleis was doing by this age. Of course ever since Chloe's ear ordeal I've been worried that she is behind in speech. Turns out her vocabulary is actually ahead of what is consider the norm for a 15 month old. It also appears Chloe has a different learning method at this point. Seems she could be a kinetic learner for now. I'm praying this will change. What amazes me though, is she will sit in our laps and want you to read 4-5 books to her at a time but when I bring out the flashcards, she would rather grab them and throw them. So we'll make some teaching changes and see if they work any better. I guess I'll be moving and hanging from the ceiling to teach Chloe her A, B, C's. So far I've switched to using more blocks on working with shapes and colors and it does seem to make a difference. Now is it because it's something new or is she responding?

All in all we received a great report and Chloe is right where she needs to be.

Christmas Pictues

Chloe and Daddy after the Louisville game. Daddy, Mommy and Big Sis (Cleis) had an afternoon out to the Louisville game.

Cleis opening her doll house.

One of my favorites this year. It has been a tough year getting Chloe to take a good picture put this night she did extremely well.

Doodle

I never imagined how much fun an Aqua Doodle could bring to your home.

Chloe received the Aqua Doodle for Christmas (thanks Nana) and it has been a favorite for both of the girls. Chloe is learning how to use the pen and for now is doodling. Cleis on the other hand, has taken to the Aqua Doodle and we have been able to incorporate the Aqua Doodle mat into our preschool time and it has been a tremendous help in her writing.

I'm so glad Chloe is happy to share.

I believe this is going to be a great tool to have for teaching and playing with the girls. Who knows we may have the next Picasso.

Happy New Year

Welcome 2008!!!!!

It was a very low key, and I mean low key here at the Newells homestead. In past we have gone out to a nice dinner or to a party or over to friends. Then about 3 years ago we started having our own party, a Raclette dinner. This year we decided to keep it just us and not have our party so we continued on with the Raclette celebration. (Bernie would be proud)

We started our evening off watching UK play in the Music City Bowl, preparing and eating our dinner. We finished with clean up just in time to watch the last 2:12 minutes of the game. The most exciting two minutes of the game, watching the fumbles and wondering if we were going to go into overtime or was Kentucky going to pull this game off with a win. Yeah for the win.

We had some quality family time before putting the girls to bed and they were able to stay up longer than usual. Cleis wanted to work on her gymnastics and prepare for the gymnastic camp she starts on Wednesday. She is very excited about her camp and starting back to gymnastics. We have been off during the holidays. Chloe wants to dive right in there with her sister. It's funny to watch her put her hands to the floor and want to flip.

We had a great New Year's Eve and today we will round out our New Year celebrations at the Newells with our annual New Year's Day dinner. Who will end up with the most dimes this year???

Here's to a Happy New Year and wishing All the best for 2008...

Links to Websites

http://www.cleisolivia.com/2007Pics.htm


http://www.cleisolivia.com/chloe.htm

Tony has added some updated pictures to Cleis and Chloe's website. Hopefully you can click on the above links and it will direct you to their sites. Otherwise you may have to copy and paste into your web browser to pull them up.

Enjoy.

My How Things Change

As I have spent most of my day still trying to figure out what to do with all of the girls new toys, regrouping, cleaning out toy boxes and organizing the play room I have come to some conclusions.

The first thing I see changing the most is my theory on what goes in a bedroom. When we had Cleis I was very strict with her schedule and where I fed, changed, dressed and played with her at. I made it clear that I did not want toys stored in her room nor did we play in her room. I pushed the theory that the bedroom is for sleep and we play else where. Well at that time we also had more rooms. She had a playroom upstairs and a playroom downstairs.

Then came time we moved her to her big girl room. I loosened up some and I allowed her to have her library of books, her table and chairs to read, play, color and craft at. And I also allowed her to have some of her babies and items in her room. Which I must say have over taken her bed.

And now we are adding a 5 ft. dollhouse to her room. So much for no play items.

Now throw child number 2 into the mix and Christmas celebration and I see myself really getting loose. I haven't done it yet, but I'm thinking of putting a tub of toys in Chloe's room and keeping them in the bottom of her closet so that she will have her toys more accessible and can play.

Am I seeing that I don't have to be so strict and rigid or is it true that you become more relaxed with the second one, and different things matter?

Whatever the answer may be, I think I will be happy with Chloe having some of her toys in her room to play with. So tomorrow, I will hand select some toys to go into her room.

Merry Christmas to All!!!

Well after 3 days of traveling and celebrating 5 Christmas's the girls are enjoying their gifts. Many thanks to everyone for all their goodies. Time well spent in all the shopping that took place.

Cleis has been a delight and is playing really hard with her new things. She spent the morning playing with her dolls and changing their clothes and taking care of them. She has baby Abby and little girl Chloe and they are in good hands. After she tired out from her dolls she went to playing with her horses and playing veterinarian or in Cleis' term, 'Dr. Nerinarian'. When the horses were well taken care of and rested she moved on to her new games for her Leapster. She sat and played with all of her new games and so far Pet Pals seems to be her favorite. Do you see a trend here?

For Chloe she has wanted to play with everything big sissy plays with and unfortunately sissy just wants to play by herself right now. Chloe has been interested in her new plush doll house. I guess you could say Mommy and Daddy have been working hard to get things put away and things put together that we haven't given Chloe all of her goodies yet. Right now she is still carrying Rudolph around and we don't have the heart to take him away yet.

Chloe has enjoyed watching her Daddy learn how to play with is new toy from Santa. Santa brought Tony a RC helicopter and we all have been having fun with the learning curve associated with flying a helicopter, even taking some small beatings.

Christmas has been a wonderful celebration and both of my girls have really enjoyed their Christmas. Whoever says one-year olds are more interested in the boxes, my daughter has proven this wrong. Chloe was excited to open presents and smiled when she pulled on the paper and smiled and laughed even bigger on her next pull to open the present.

Cleis had a great time as well opening presents, the hardest part for her was not being able to immediately play with everything and get everything out. But she quickly understood why and did not question. She made do with what she could play with and moved on.

It was a great Christmas and wonderful to see Christmas through your kids.

***** I will post pictures soon. I left my camera at Dad's and haven't picked it up yet.