Circle of Lights and our trip down town...and other misc pics!

Last Thursday we went downtown to look at the Circle of Lights. It was a little cold outside but Chloe seems to really love the inclement weather...

Here is a view from the middle:

Chloe was mesmerized...

Chloe at Borders...

Don't you just love her boots!?!?!

Flying on a Jet Plane...

Chloe took her first trip across the country this past week! We left this past Thursday to visit Mike, Beri, and Anna in Washington. It was great fun, I can't even begin to tell you! Anna was adopted from Vietnam at the same time as Chloe, so we all spent a lot of time together. I love that we are able to keep in touch and get the girls together, and visiting with Mike and Beri is awesome as well. And a HUGE thank you to Mike and Beri for letting us stay with you!

Chloe was very good on the airplane over, all things considered. There was two 2.5 hour flights each way. Chloe was a little fussy on the plane, but it was because she is now VERY mobile and wanted to move around. Unfortunately, the plane was packed both ways so we had no empty seats. Except on the leg from Denver back to Indianapolis. We had a whole row to ourselves, which was great for her.

First off, Washington is a very beautiful place...very different from the midwest.

Some highlights of our trip:


-Saturday we all went to Sea Side, Oregon. We traveled through the hills, saw where some mudslides occured, enjoyed the scenery. Chloe got to see the ocean for the first time. The weather was rainy and super windy. Chloe LOVED it, as you can see from the pictures!







We got some salt water taffy and candy covered pretzels, which were VERY yummy. We then ate at Doogers and had FRESH seafood. I'm jealous I don't have access to that here! Everything I had was so good. Chloe enjoyed her broccoli, green and red peppers, and carrots.









-Sunday night we went to zoolights at the Portland Zoo. It was fun, but again very rainy. There were a bunch of pretty lights and we really enjoyed the train ride through the zoo. We tried putting the girls in the double stroller, but Chloe hated it. Obviously stroller = restrained. Not for Chloe.









-Chloe showed everyone her sweet dance moves. And believe me, they were sweet. Ask Beri.


-We introduced Anna to Dora.


-Chloe got some awesome boots, you can see them in some of the pictures!



-Anna and Chloe were quite the pair in the car seats. Chloe screamed most of time we were in the car. Now we spent some pretty signficant time in the car seats, many times at least an hour each way. Many people might think that Chloe would eventually calm down. Not the case. She screamed the whole way a lot of the time. And when she wasn't, her and Anna were egging each other on. One would cry, so the other would start. Back and forth. It was so funny.



-It was awesome just seeing the girls together, visiting and seeing how far we've all come. We can't wait to do it again. I'm hoping that we might be able to do something sometime in the future that included all the little girls in our travel group...we'll see!!!

Not sure if you can tell in this picture, but Chloe had been hysterically crying. Why you may ask? Because Anna had been crying. That's it. Too funny.

Again, the trip was so great. It was so nice to be able to spend so much time with Chloe as well, without having to be at work.



Oh yeah, I lost my cell phone while we were there. My new cell phone. I'm still hoping that it might be found. But what do you do... (Of course this bit of news probably surprises very few of you.... )



I just thought this was a cute picture of how Chloe sleeps! :)

Chloe's First Words

Ok--For awhile Chloe has been able to make sounds. Most of the time its da da da da da. But it doesn't mean anything. Or actually it means everything. To her right now, it's just a sound that she can make.

Every once in a great while I can get her to say ma ma, but again, she just says it because I tell her to, and like I said, that's only once in a GREAT while. Now she knows who ma ma is, she just doesn't say it.

Moving on...

"What's that?" Chloe says that all the time. About everything. And when she says it, she's always pointing at something. But again, I'm not sure that she REALLY understands what she's saying. It's just that I do that all the time, point to something and say, "what's that". So now she does that too. So like I said, not sure it counts.

Well, today she started REALLY using a word. Appropriately. And actually, she says it two different ways. What is the word, you say? Are you ready for this???


Mommy?

Nope.

Daddy?

Nope.

Ba Ba?

Nope

Bye Bye?

Nope.

Try again!

Whatever you guessed, it's probably wrong!

OK...now I'm really going to tell you.

I am not kidding, I am going to type this exactly how she says it....


Da Da Da Da Dora!

Exactly like in the song. I admit, I say that to her a lot. It's because of her love for all things Dora. Usually it will get her to calm down if she's upset. I was a little skeptical at first if that was what she was really saying, but she does it anytime she sees Dora--it's never just said randomly. And then I tell her to say Dora, and she does! So there you go :)

Curse of the Christmas Birthday

My birthday is December 29th. Four days after Christmas. And I have always hated it. It always seemed to be forgotten about by most people, as most people's attention is on Christmas. When I was little and in school I hated it because we were always on break during my birthday, so we never got to celebrate it. Now Chloe is going to suffer through the same thing, as her birthday is four days later, on January 2nd.

I will admit that as I get older, the proximity of my birthday to Christmas gets less annoying. But now I have another problem. I have already decided that I wasn't going to go nuts getting Chloe things for Christmas. But now I have to get her birthday items as well. I would love it these two days were spread out more during the year, as I would have a reason to buy her new clothes as she grows, or replace toys that she might have outgrown. But now, there are only so many toys that she can play with at one time. So I'm kind of feeling like I am cheating her.

Here is Chloe's Christmas list for this year:

Fisher-Price Little Superstar Sing-Along Stage- Chloe loves, loves, LOVES, music and instruments. We listen to music every morning and anytime she hears any kind of music she immediately starts dancing. So I think she'll like this!

LeapFrog LittleTouch LeapPad Learning System- I love anything that encourages reading. And I found it at Target on clearance, so I got a GREAT deal on it!

Playskool Swing 'N Score Baseball-I try to keep Chloe involved in things that are active so hopefully physical activity becomes second nature to her. I know that its kind of a boy toy, but I think that she'll like it. We'll see...

Playskool Busy Ball Popper-Balls that fly up in the air...enough said. I think she'll be entertained!

So that's it really from me for Christmas. Birthday is another story. I've kind of been going back and forth on things, but I think that I've finally figured it out.

Not sure if I've mentioned it or not, but Chloe REALLY, REALLY loves Dora the Explorer. I opened one of the sales ads this morning and this is what I saw: What do you think??? The best part is that it's going to be on sale for less than $20! I think that she'll LOVE it!

Playplace and Santa

I want to start by saying that Santa ripped me off today!

I went to the mall thinking that I could take some pictures with Chloe on Santa's lap...

My mistake. Apparently, you can only take your own pictures with a minimum purchase.

Ok--I think I can work with that. I'll just get a small picture. Wrong!

The cheapest package I could get was $25! And that was only for 1- 5x7 and 4-wallets. So I'm totally going to take them to the kodak picture machine to get my money's worth!

Anyway, enjoy!

Sad day and Advice

Today was a very sad for Chloe...it was her last day of swimming lessons!

She missed Tuesday because she was sick, but we thought she still had them next week. But we found out today that was not the case... So maybe we'll sign her up again!

ADVICE:

I think i failed in my video abilities. I am going to go ahead and blame my camera though. There are some things that digital camera just can't do. And I guess mine can't be a video camera as well.

That being said, I want to purchase a video camera. But I want one that somewhat easily lets me upload to a computer. And my budget is somewhat tight... Any suggestions???

Dress Up

On this fine snowy day, Chloe and I decided to play a little dress up. I thought I would see if she had grown into any of her Ao Dais. This was the smallest we had, and the pants were WAY big. But she looked cute anyway...

Ok--So this is my first attempt at using the video feature of my camera. So lets see how this works.

To set the scene, Chloe cries when she's ready to wake up. But the instant that she sees me it turns to a laugh. Now the sound that you hear her make, I think that's her favorite thing to say right now.

FYI--Immediately after I took this video, I picked Chloe up out of her crib and walked three steps and sat down on the recliner with her. I sat her on my lap facing me, and we continued our quest to find our noses. She did very well. Then--out of nowhere--She projectile vomits all over me. I had given her a banana before her nap and she had eaten almost the whole thing. So it was all banana. So I have vomit covering myself and her. She decided to reach down and stick her hand in it and then rub it all over her face. The whole time, she just thinks that it's the funniest thing in the world! And for those of you that don't know, I have a think with vomit. I can't handle it. So it was quite the mess to deal with, all with me trying to figure out how to clean it up without it touching either of us anymore than it had to...

Unfortunately, I think that she's has a virus--She didn't eat much more after the banana. This morning she would only eat about three bites of food and then she got sick again. Same thing with lunch/dinner. :( So here's to hoping she gets better soon!

Swimming Lessons in Pictures...

Ok...here's the best I could do for now. I'm in the process of trying to get someone to come with me so I can actually get pictures of her in the water...

Right as we got to swimming lessons:

Dressed in her swimming suit....

Hanging out in the locker room...

After swimming lessons:

Getting ready to go home!

Cute Pictures

Every once in a while Chloe likes to just chill on the floor.

Chloe was walking around today and I happened to look down and see this bow on her....how cute. Not sure how it got there, but I decided to leave it and see what she did with it. Well, she just leaves it there. It even survived through a nap, until I finally changed her clothes! It's kinda fitting though...

Little Things

So Chloe is STILL not sleeping through the night. She's usually up 3-4 times a night still to eat.

Like I've said before, while I wouldn't mind getting a full night's sleep, I really don't mind getting up with her, as she just takes her bottle and goes right back to sleep. To be honest, I think I'll kind of miss it when she stops getting up.

It's really the cutest little scene. She's crying, so I go in her room and pick her up. She's usually always lying on her stomach and so I have to pick her up and turn her around. She immediately takes one of her arms and puts it around me. She never opens her eyes, but she automatically opens her mouth and starts moving it around waiting for me to put the bottle in it. It's like she's still half asleep, but knows what's supposed to happen. It is too cute. But maybe you have to be there. I would definitely take my word for it though.

NEWSFLASH

I don't think that I've blogged about this, and I'm too lazy to go back and check, but Chloe is officially off and running. Well, not really running, but walking is definitely her preferred mode of transportation now. It is way cute, especially with how little she is.

Today we played in the playplace at the mall for the first time. Chloe LOVED it. She especially loves being around other babies. Unfortunately not all babies love being around her, but she's dealing with it well.

Well, that's all for today...

Happy Thanksgiving

What am I most thankful for this Thanksgiving?

I think this picture speaks for itself:

Chloe's first Thanksgiving:

Waking Up

Enjoying her Rice Crispies breakfast

Her favorite "toy":

Yes, she's standing. And she's going to be in EVERYTHING!

REALLY concentrating on her story:

Chloe and her first turkey leg:

Random Thanksgiving Evening:

Chloe's first Mt. Dew:

(The lid was actually on...you guys think my child gets soda!?!?!)