You know you have a problem when...

This was the view from my chair this morning:

So at 9:00 AM I am downing a cappucino and coke simultaneously. Take from that what you will.

What was supposed to be an uneventful day....

I decided that I would come home for lunch today and get some stuff done.  I'm in my bedroom and realize that one of the light bulbs in my fan was burnt out, then I remembered that one of the bathroom bulbs were as well.  So I thought I would head down to the laundry room and get some replacements.  As I get down there, I happen to see some water on the floor.  Hmmm....

As I investigate further, I realize that there is a LOT of water.  Then I realize that it's coming from the water heater.

Suck. 

Really bad.

I head back to work thinking I can make some calls and price a new one.  Wrong.  Apparently you have to know the exact dimensions of your old water heater before anyone will help you.   Jerks.

So I have to go back home and measure.  Then I find out that it's going to cost me more to have it installed than I'm going to pay for the unit itself!  Craziness!

But all was not lost....

Turns out my brother knows how to install water heaters and spent his evening installing mine.  So that was awesome.  Saved me quite a bit. 

 

Random Picture:

 

This is a completely awful picture of me.  I had just finished working out, washing my face, etc.  But it was the best I could do on my own and Chloe's smile is too cute!.  It was taken 9/11/07. 

Nails...

As you can see, I got my nails down the other day. And yes, they actually are MY nails. But that's not the point of this post. You see, usually when I get my nails down, I always end up getting them done by the same guy. And he's from Vietnam. So we usually end up talking about Vietnam a lot.

This time he talked to me a little bit about Tet, which is the Vietnamese New Year Celebration. According to him, this year is not only the year of the pig, but it's the year of the GOLDEN pig, which only happens once every 100 years or something like that. The pig is supposed to symbolize money and wealth, so I suppose the GOLDEN pig is supposed to mean LOTS of money and wealth. He said that everyone wants to have a baby this year. Especially a boy. (Of course, he doesn't think he really believes in that.)

He did give me some interesting customs that they do on Tet:

*They wear all new clothes. New everything. This is supposed to symbolize a new year a new beginning. So you don't wear anything old.
*They don't work. It's supposed to be a day of rest. So they try to prepare the food for the Tet celebration early so they don't have to cook that first day...

I found out that Chloe was born in the year of the dog. I didn't think about the fact that because the lunar calendar doesn't match ours, the years don't really match. You know how if you go to a chinese resteraunt, they have the placemats that list different years for what your symbol is? Well if you were born at the beginning of our calendar year, you probably are the prior years symbol...does that make sense? Also, it just so happens that I'm a dog too...

I'm going to end with a few pictures of Chloe:

I think this pictures is pretty cute...

I got this toy for Chloe a few weeks ago. It's a chair connected to a little table and it sings, reads a story, says the ABC's, etc. She LOVES it. I think it might just be her favorite!

Another picture of Chloe in her Colts outfit today. And check out what she's doing! She's also consistantly taking 8-10 steps now... She's going to be off and running here in the next few days I do predict...

And again, another cute picture!

Swimming Lessons Update

I must tell you all that swimming lessons were a huge hit with Chloe.

I was a little concerned that Chloe might not be into the water so much right now. When we took her swimming over the summer, it took her a while to warm up to it. Also, she's not so much enjoying bath time right now...

But the second we entered the pool, her little face just lit up! I don't think I have ever seen her as excited as she was about anything else. I mean, you can get her really excited for a minute, but this was thirty minutes of pure non-stop excitement for her. She couldn't contain herself! She was splashing, laughing, giggling the WHOLE time. Not for one minute did she stop splashing and laughing. Seriously. I'm not even exaggerating!!!

A little background on the class... Her group was 0-36 months. There were 3-4 other babies, but they all were getting ready to turn three in January. So Chloe was the youngest by far. The class was geared towards "survival training" rather than actually learning to swim. Basically, they wanted to get the babies acclimated to the water and teach them to kick and blow bubbles through their mouth.

Obviously I wasn't going to get Chloe to breathe under water. The instructors told me to only do what I felt comfortable with, but suggested letting her float on her back, or blowing in her face to see if she would hold her breath, then putting her mouth and nose underwater. I decided that I wasn't going to do the face underwater thing, as I didn't want to scare her. I did guide her around a little on her back, but mostly I just held her and let her splash.

I know that she probably didn't learn much, but like I said, my goal was just to make sure she is comfortable in water. And in the end, even if we come everyday and just play, it would be totally worth the money that I paid just to watch her have so much fun!

SIDENOTE: JUST A REMINDER THAT YOU CAN SUBSCRIBE TO THE BLOG!

Swimming Lessons

So Chloe is starting swimming lessons this week. Twice a week, for a half hour. It will last approximately a month.

I know what you all are thinking now...Swimming lessons, huh? And yes, I am aware that she probably won't actually learn to swim. But I'll be in the water with her and I think we'll have lots of fun regardless. And I think Chloe will love it! And depending on how much she likes it, we might do it again.

I've been waiting for this forever. I actually signed her up for the lessons while we were still inVietnam :)

Hopefully I can get some pictures while we are there and post them....

My little rant...

As I mentioned in my last post, there have been two provinces in Vietnam that have been targeted for unethical adoptions and certain agencies that have received the NOID's.

Well, Chloe came from one of those provinces and one of the agencies being targeted.

From those of you that followed this blog while we traveled, you know that we were delayed.

Our G&R was supposed to occur on May 14th. It didn't happen until May 28th. That's two weeks that we were delayed by the Vietnamese side. Why do you ask? I don't know exactly. I know that a lot of agencies wait for an invitation to travel from the provincial government in Vietnam. From what I understand, there usually aren't any delays if you get this. We didn't have that. We just had word that our G&R would be on this date from a government official. But it kept getting pushed back.

These delays absolutely drove us crazy. Do I think that our agency had some fault? Possibly. I think that the Vietnamese government played a huge role in it. They do things when they want to. We went to get the passports, waited all morning, and then the passport people told us to go home because they were going to a wedding. What!?!? They are going to a wedding instead of doing their job? They couldn't have told us that? That's just the way things are. There were several of those kind of delays. It was frustrating not knowing what was doing on, and so we had a lot of time to imagine all the possible things that might be going on. Were are adoptions not going to happen?

I will tell you that at times, our communication with adoppt and staff sucked. Plain and simple. We'd be waiting for the G&R and not find out until after we were supposed to leave that it wasn't happening. But does that mean that our adoptions were unethical? No. Inefficient? Yep. But I can live with that.

After we had our G&R on Monday, the 28th, we were supposed to have our first embassy appointment on Friday, June 1st. Well, Thursday night, I got a call from the facilatator telling me that me and another family would have to wait until Monday. She gave me some excuse kind of blaming the embassy, but I truly believe that it was her fault. She wasn't able to get all the translation done on time. Again, do I think that this delay was because of unethical business practices? No. I just think that our facilitator was relatively new and inexperienced and she didn't get it done and was ashamed of that. I was very upset at the time, but in the end, it doesn't really matter. We got our interview. It was in fact on Monday, June 4th. And it was pretty uneventful. The inteviewer was very friendly.

We had our second interview on Friday afternoon, June 8th. That's four business days later. It took two minutes and very uneventul. We picked up her Visa on Monday, the 11th and left Vietnam that night. So while we were in country for a full month and our G&R was delayed by two weeks, had we been schedule for a May 28th G&R, our process would only have taken two weeks start to finish. Once we got going, there were no delays.

It only took a week for the full US side of things. The next travel group was not delayed at all and got out rather quickly. The next group is the current group that has had some NOID's issued. Not all the families.

Now let me ask you this...if this agency was so obviously unethical, why did the US let all of our cases slide through?

The sad part is that as all of this was going on, I was constantly having to defend my adoption. I was constantly having to correct false rumors that were being presented as fact about my OWN adoption, then I was treated like I didn't know what I was talking about. Basically people back in the US were acting like they knew more about what was going on than what I did. It was crazy what people were saying.

So I have particular sympathy for the people going through this right now. I know how mean, nasty, and condesending people can be.

Do I have reason to believe that Chloe was obtained unethically? Not at all. Does a delayed G&R mean the agency is unethical? Not at all. Do I believe that the process was inefficient? Absolutely at times. Do I believe that the current NOID's are warrented? I don't know. It's not for me to decide. But I can tell you that before I pass judgement, I want proof/facts that they were legit. Until then, I will absolutely support the families over there.

Ethics and NOID's

I know that I am going to have special challenges in raising Chloe that I wouldn't neccesarily face if I didn't have an internationally adopted child.

The big talk in Vietnamese adoptionland right now is on ethics. The US embassy in Vietnam has issued several NOIDS to families who are in Vietnam with their children right now. NOID's are Notices of Intent to Deny. What this means is that the Embassy is saying that they think that there might be a reason that the child doesn't meet US orphan guidelines. Therefore, they won't issue a Visa to the child to enter the US. The problem is that Vietnam has already approved the adoption, so the child belongs to the family in Vietnam's eyes. If issued a NOID, the family has the following options:

1) To relinquish the child back to Vietnam, at which point the child would go back to an orphanage.
2) To return to the US without the Child. The child might be placed in private foster care. Once back in the US, hire an attorney to fight the NOID. Who knows how long this process would take...
3) Live in Vietnam or another country abroad for two years at which point the US will issue a Visa.

NOID's can be issued for a variety of reasons. The US might suspect baby trafficing, the birth family might not realize that the child will be adopted abroad, there might be translation mistakes in the paperwork. As you can see, some of the reasons can range from simple typographical errors to illegal activity.

In the end, I don't want to see a baby being put up for adoption that was obtained without the consent of the birth parent(s). So if these NOID's are actually warrented, I am happy that the US is doing something about it. I'm not going to debate whether NOID's are a good thing or not.

What I would like to address are the rumors, accusations, and plain nastiness that is going on in the adoption world.

There are certain agencies that are going issued these NOID's at this point. The embassy issued a statement about the integrity of adoptions in two specific provinces. Does that mean that every adoption out of those provinces have been unethical? No. Does it need to be looked at? Yes?

What I have a problem with are all the people who are not involved in these specific cases preaching about them as though they are fact, and attacking the families involved. Automatically assuming that all these NOID"s are warrented.

It seems to me like the US embassy in Hanoi might be trying to make an example out of these cases. There have been rumors going on surrounding certain agencies for awhile now, but never have any NOIDS been issued. Then all of a sudden, a huge amount of NOID's. Are all of these actually warrented??? I don't know. And really, neither do most of the people out there who are speculating on them.

It's sad to me to think that some of these options are on the up and up, yet there experience might be forever tainted because of a power play. Of course, it's also sad to me that some of these babies might not have been obtained legally. So I don't know what the answer is.

What I do know is that it's awfully strange to me that out of nowhere the embassy seems to have a bunch of questionable cases. And if all the adoptions from a certain agency really were questionable, then why weren't there any questions with prior adoptions???

I am not by any means saying that there aren't unethical agencies operating in Vietnam. And I truly believe that they should be stopped. But I think that these cases should be based on facts and not rumor and/or speculation. I just hate to think of the effect that this has on innocent families and adoptions that might have been done ethically. And I hate to see so many people acting like they know all the facts about these NOID's. More than the families actually involved.

In all honesty, I would not use an agency that was issued a NOID unless I had proof that the NOID was unwarrented. Does that mean I think the agency is currupt?? No, I can't say that. I just know that I wouldn't want to have to go through the ordeal.

See my next post for why this really hits home for me...

Go Colts!!!!

I didn't get very good pictures...I'll try better next time. But trust me. She was super cute~

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

Don't think I've posted what Chloe is going to be for Halloween yet...

Guess you all will have to come back later tonight or tomorrow for pictures!

Update: I did get my hair done. Maybe I'll post pictures of it too. Got an allover Chestnut brown color (dark) with bright blonde and deep redish highlights. It's really not as bad as it seems. Unless you ask my mom... Or you're over 40 ;)

Teeth and Tax Returns.

I'm the type of person who feels bad for things VERY easily--even if it's not my fault, there was nothing I could have done about it, I had no control, etc. I hate when people get their feelings hurt or terrible things happen to them. I feel really, really bad. To the point where it's not really rational in my opinion.

Now this goes way beyond the typical, "oops, I did this on accident, I'm sorry" type thing. For example, most of you know that I work(ed) in public accounting. And I'm sure you know that many people don't manage their money well.

Well, I was doing the tax return for this particular wealthy family. By wealthy, I mean one of their W-2's alone showed over $2 million in salary. A lot of you might not realize that people with outside income are usually required to make estimated tax payments to the IRS, similar to having money withheld from your paycheck. If you don't do it, you'll end up owing penalties and interest. Every year we would advise this family to make the payments, every year they just wouldn't do it.

Every year this family would have to take out a new loan around April 15th to make their tax payment. And every year they would be surprised. Keep in mind they bring in over $2 million dollars in salary with just the husband. Every year.

This was kind of a running joke in my office, as last year they had to pay over $350,000 at tax time. I'm sure it would hurt anyone to have to make that payment to the IRS. My take was that they deserved it, as they should have been making the payments all year long. They KNEW they would owe a crap load of money. It's hard to feel bad for people like that.

Unless you are me. Unfortunately, I had to call the lady and tell her. I was not counting on this. It was funny until I found out I had to be the bearer of the bad news. So I call this lady and she totally freaks out on me. Like it was my fault!!! I tried to come up with a bright side to the situation, but couldn't really think of anything. I thought about pointing out that if they owed that much, it meant that they made a LOT of money, which is good in my opinion. But I didn't think that would help at that point.

I kind of joke about this, but I felt so bad making this phone call and right after that I was just about in tears. I had to leave my desk and take a walk around the block. And I felt sick to my stomach for the rest of the day. And it wouldn't have irritated me so much if I had a reason to feel bad. But really, I didn't. It was the people's own fault.

Ok--that example went on a little longer than I expected, but you get the point. I don't know if it's a girl thing, or a mom thing, or what, but it seems like here in the last year I've gotten a whole lot more emotional.

It used to be that I could watch the news and nothing would really phase me. Now, everytime I see a sad or tragic story, I automatically imagine what I would feel like if that was me in that situation. And I feel really, really bad. I can't even watch the news anymore it seems like. It's like everything is a lot more real and closer to home.

So where am I going with this...Chloe.

As you've seen in a recent post, she hasn't been feeling well. Well, this weekend I go to get some paper out of her mouth and what do I feel??? Teeth. She doesn't really let me get inside her mouth much, and I think it's gross anyway, so I don't push, but I know for sure I felt teeth. You can't see them yet, but the very top of them have erupted out of the gums. And I could be wrong, but it seems to me like two are coming at the same time, both on the bottom.

Well, she is so miserable. She doesn't sleep and cries a lot of the time, which most of you know really isn't her personality. She wakes up a lot more than normal at night, and she's crying. Not just a normal cry, but the kind of cry where you KNOW that she's in a lot of pain. A LOT. And she just wants me to hold her and not put her down. It's so pathetic. And of course I'm crying with her because I feel so bad that there's nothing that I can do for her. And I think of the fact that she is too young to really understand what's going on. All she knows is that her days are normally fun and happy, then out of nowhere she is in terrible, terrible pain that won't stop. I can't tell you much I hate seeing it. My heart hurts for her and I just want to take away all her pain. I always apologize to her, like it's my fault or something.

I try to put things in perspective by telling myself that all babies go through this type of thing, that its a part of life that all babies live through. And I know that's true, but unfortunately it doesn't make me feel any better. Not at all.

It's funny because the way I'm writing about this, you would think she has some super serious pain filled disorder that will plague her for the rest of her life, when in fact she's just teething. And the worst part is that I think about how this is just the beginning. I'm know there will be tons of times when she gets hurt and there will be nothing I can do about it. I almost feel like I feel worse about things than Chloe does! So I need to toughen up.

On the bright side:

CHLOE IS GETTING TEETH FINALLY!!!!

Pictures!!!

She likes to chase after the camera, so it's hard to get pictures of her now... :)

The box is her new favorite toy of the moment....


I just love this little outfit...my mom says she looks like a little boy in it...Poor Bella!

I REALLY just love this outfit!

Big Yawn... (And as a disclaimer, I'm in the middle of trying to dry my hair. This is how our morning routine goes. I get out of the shower, sit down, turn on Christmas music, and we dry my hair together... :) )

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I am very upset right now.

Chloe had a bad night last night. She was very congested and fussy. As most of you know, she still gets up usually at least three times a night for a bottle. Usually 11ish, 1ish and 4ish. Then she wakes up between 6-7am.

Well, last night sucked. She was up every 30-45 minutes. The child couldn't breathe and was miserable. She didn't even want to eat, she just wanted to be held. I tried using some saline in her little nose, but it didn't seem to help much. She'd go back to sleep and then wake up again a half hour later...

So this morning I gave her some infants tylenol cold medicine. The bottle was almost out so I thought I would go to the store during my lunch and get some more.

Well, to my surprise, I can't. Apparently the FDA has recommended that cold or cough medicine not be given to children under 2. So nothing for a runny nose, congestion, coughing, sneezing, anything. I'm thinking...this can't be right, I'm going to call her pediatrician to confirm.

So I call the pediatrician and this is in fact true. No over the counter cold/cough medicine can be sold.

So what does the nurse recommend I do to alleviate the misery that my child is going through??? Glad you asked. I was given three suggestions:

1-Take a steam shower with her. "The steam should clear up some of the congestion." Ok, lets think about this. First, how long does steam ever actually relieve congestion? For about two minutes after you take it away??? Second, how hot do I have to make the shower in order for it to sufficiently fill up with steam? I'm thinking that after that I won't have to worry about it, as I'll be dealing with third degree burns, as I don't have the luxury of having an actual steam shower.

2- Have her sleep sitting up or standing. Maybe this is cool for some babies, but mine is not one of them. She lays down or she doesn't go to sleep. She doesn't stay asleep for that long in her car seat or anything. She suggested that I elevate part of her crib and that might help. Well, if you've seen Chloe sleep, she's all over the place. She actually crawls around in her sleep.

3- Do nothing. I could take off of work to bring her in to the doctor Friday to prove that she is in fact congested, at which point, they might or might not prescribe something.

Those are my options.

Now why are things like this? Apparently there's a risk of infants overdosing on cold medicine if the manufacturers directions aren't followed. Isn't that the case on any medication???

My prediction???

1 - Many parents aren't going to be able to take off work anytime their child has a cold or stuffy nose. They either don't have the time, can't afford it, etc. It's going to take even longer to get in to the doctor because there are going to be so many "emergency cold" appointments fitted in between already scheduled appointments.

2 - Children will go untreated.

3 - There will be more over doses because those parent's who can't afford to take off work will start using children's cold medicine for their infants and self dosing.

So am I over reacting here???

Here we go...

So Chloe has an attitude. I think that we might be seeing some temper tantrams here real shortly.

Last week I was out of town--Las Vegas. Had a great time. But I was gone from Saturday until Wednesday and I really missed my little Chloe... (I am pleased to add that she was VERY excited to see me, she didn't forget about me:) )

Well, on Wednesday she also learned that she could express herself a little more than she was used to. How you ask? She has learned that she can talk. Now I'm not going to be one of those parents that pretend like my baby girl has suddenly become a big talker. Her word of choice is "da da da da da da da". This is the only sound she really makes. And it doesn't mean any specific thing, rather it's her word for everything. There are many variations of this word for her, all depending on her tone. I thought it was pretty cute...at first.

So I get home in the afternoon and go to take her home from my mom's. I believe that I've written before how Chloe HATES the car seat. Well, she hadn't finished a bottle, so I let her have it on the drive home. As we are driving, I hear "da da da da". Looking back, I realize she doesn't have her bottle, so I reach back, grab the bottle, and give it back to her (all while keeping my eyes on the road). All is well, for a few seconds, until I hear a slightly more agitated "da da da da". I look back again, and again, no bottle. I am coming up on a stop sign, so I reach back again, turn and look at her, and then put the bottle in her mouth. And here is what I witness next: Chloe takes the bottle out of her mouth, THROWS it, turns her head to look at me, and screams (not cries, actually screams) "DA DA DA DA DA!!!!" with the absolute most hateful look I've ever seen on her face! I couldn't believe it!

So I told her that she better stop or her face would stick that way. I went ahead and didn't give her bottle back to her again. When I got home, I took her out of her car seat and then she was just as cute as can be. I think the car seat possesses her:)

Some Pictures...

This is who I entrust my child too while I am at work.... :)

Sidebar: Notice the cute shoes!

Awww....such a cutie!

Attitude

So Chloe is a very good baby. She is usually very easy to deal with. She rarely cries and is usually always happy. I'm sure it's because I'm usually always paying attention to her. And in all honesty, I should probably be encouraging her to play on her own more often, but I figure that can wait until she can get around better and I'm not constantly having to worry about what she's putting in her mouth, where she's going, etc.

She does cry when I walk away from her. No matter what. If she's by herself, she won't stop crying until I come back over there with her, and then she's fine. And it's not like she really wants me to hold her or anything, she just wants to know that I'm right there. And that doesn't really bother me.

Now if she's with someone else, and I walk away, she starts crying, but she'll stop after a few seconds as long as the person gets her attention. And then she won't start crying again until she sees me. And that doesn't bother me either, I think it just shows healthly attachment, as she's ok after a couple seconds.

Now here is what bothers me...

The girl LOVES food. Not baby food so much, but people food. And if she sees it, she thinks she has to have it. And the child will SCREAM until she gets it. And scream unless she CONSTANTLY gets it. Almost a full out temper tantrum. Like if she doesn't get it, she'll start flailing her arms and legs and everything. The problem is that usually it's my food. So if I try to eat it, it doesn't make her happy. And this goes well beyond the typical I'm hungry cry. She's not even hungry a lot of the time, she just wants it. And wants nobody else to get it. It's the kind of cry where it starts out as kind of grunt, then when she doesn't get the food, it turns into an ear piercing scream. Like she knows that I will give her a mouth full just to quiet her down.

At this point, I usually have to fight with myself over two thoughts:

1) On Oct 2, she's be nine months old. She can't possibly be old enough to think that if she throws a fit, she's more likely to get what she wants. She just knows that she wants food and connects screaming at the top of her lungs as a way to get it. (But if that's the truth, why doesn't she do that with everything???) At this point, is this really a battle that I should pick?

2) At what point do you start teaching her what behaviors are acceptable? If she sees that this works to get her food, I'm never going to be able to eat and she'll always get my food. So what I've been doing is if she starts the fake screaming thing, I stick her pacifier in her mouth instead of food. Then I wait until she's stopped screaming before I give her anymore. If after awhile she doesn't stop screaming, she just doesn't get anymore. (I don't starve her obviously, I'm talking about supplemental feeding here)

So my questions is this... at nine months, do babies have the ability to make logical reasoning connections??? I've been trying to work on no with her, but she doesn't really listen...redirection seems to be the way to go, but when we are eating, I really don't have that option. Thoughts???

I can already tell this girl is going to be a handful:)

Poor Chloe...

So I was reading some stuff on the news today or yesterday, or sometime. Apparently there is this massive recall of cribs due to potential safety issues. Most of them happened because the cribs were put together wrong. But what sticks out in my mind is in part of the article it mentions how the crib is the one place where you consider your child safe and don't feel like you have to be in the room with them.

Well, that hasn't really been the case for me. I mean, I do leave her alone in there every night and for naps, but in the back of my mind I always think about what happens if her little foot or arm gets stuck between the slats. Or what if she pulls herself up and topples over the crib. I always am listening for the slightest thump. Especially now that she can sit up all by herself, she crawls over to the edge, tries to pull herself up, and I'll walk in the room after I hear sudden crying and the poor little thing has all her weight against her head, which is stuck against the crib slats. Anyway, my point is that I've always had a little anxiety about the crib.

So today I go to put her to down for a nap. She's so, so sleepy. I leave her in there and go downstairs, and of course I hear a little whimpering on the baby monitor. Well, then suddenly I hear a thud and then hysterical crying. I run upstairs as fast as I can and she's laying face down, crying. I pick her up, and when I do, there's blood smeared all over her face, all over her clothes, all over the blanket. Blood everywhere. Dripping from her mouth. Lots of it everywhere. I was really freaked out at this point. I have a wash cloth and I'm soaking up blood from her mouth. After about 2 minutes, the bleeding stops and she finally lets me look into her mouth, although not too much. The best I can tell what happened is that maybe she pulled herself up in the crib and then fell and busted her mouth/gums on the rail or slats. But I have her a bottle held her for a few minutes, and she was asleep about five minutes later. And it doesn't seem to bother her at all. So we lucked out.

But my opinion sticks. Cribs suck. I'm all about the soft pack n play concept...

First Glimpse of Chloe

If my memory serves me correctly, which it usually does (unless of course I'm talking about misplacing something), I never posted Chloe's referral pictures. I have them out at her shower, but never officially posted, so I thought that I would share.

I'm not sure when the last one was taken, but the first three were taken March 22, which would have made her 2 months and 20 days old.

She was such a cute little thing! It's funny looking back at these pictures now. Of course I was so excited when I first saw them. There's nothing like seeing her for the very first time. But looking back at them now is a little different. At that time, all I could see was her physical appearance. Looking now, I see so much personality in the pictures. The expressive eyes, what those looks mean, I can guess what kind of mood she's probably in, etc. Too Sweet!





These pictures were taken today...meaning there is exactly six months between the time the first three pictures were taken and these. She has changed so much, but you can still see that little 2 month old in these pictures. So precious!!!

NEWSFLASH!!!

Ok--So obviously I haven't been updating this site as much as I have in the past. It's not for lack of things to say. It's kind of because I go so long I can't decide what to say. And I haven't been taking as many pictures as I usually do...

Anyway, I've added a new feature to the blog...you can now subscribe for email updates on the site. You enter your email to the right, and whenever I update the site, you should receive an email about it. At least that's the way it SHOULD work. That way I don't have to tell people that there is an update and you don't have to be constantly checking.

So Chloe had her 9 month well baby check up this past Tuesday. The doctor is very pleased with her development. She is now at 15.7lbs and 27 1/4 inches long. That puts her at 8% and 50% on the growth charts.

As most of you know, I've been dying to get her in a forward facing car seat, as when she's in the Eclipse the sun shines down directly into her eyes. So I asked the doctor when I could do that, hoping for a different answer, and I was told that I really need to wait until she's both at least a year old AND over 20lbs. And then the doctor adds, "At this rate, she's going to be well over a year old before she reaches that 20lb mark." Thanks. So there goes that.

She also wants me to spend the next three months transitioning her off of the bottle and baby food. Unfortunately she's on the lactose free formula, so getting her on cow's milk is really going to be kind of a trial and error process. We'll see if she really is lactose intolerant...

Well, I'm at work, so this is all I'm going to write about now...I really just wanted to tell you all about the email subscription thing...

I'M GETTING BIG!

Isn't my little outfit cute!?!?