Funny Face

Practicing with Photoshop...

Original Photo:

Snow Day!

A foot of snow! Seriously!

The up side is that I took the day off so I wouldn't have to try and brave the roads. So Chloe and I got to spend the day snowed in together! What did we do???

First, we looked out the back door and saw this:


Lots of snow! So what to do? Hmm....

We went and got a bowl of snow and the following:

And made snow ice cream!!!! (I'm sorry if anyone finds this completely disgusting. Apparently I let Chloe do a whole bunch of disgusting things. Poor child. It was even suggested that social services should be called on me for letting my child eat gross, polluted, bacteria infested particles that fall from the sky. Or something like that. But she did love it. She's been talking about snow ice cream all day...I highly recommend it! )



We also got in some quality snow time outside!

New Year's Resolutions

I am going to publicly announce my New Year's resolutions, in hopes that it will help me stick with them. I'll think I'll do one post for each resolution. So here goes:

1. Be more consious about the things that I do.

I have this tendency to not think about the things that I do when I do them. Or I do a lot of things very absentmindedly. I often misplace things. It's not neccesarily because I'm lazy, I just don't think about the things I'm doing. For example, sometimes I'll get my wallet out of my purse and instead of putting it back, I put it in my pocket? Why? I don't know...it would have taken me the same amount of time to put it in my purse rather than my pocket. And it's not just that it inconveniences me...sometimes the results cam be very bad! Let's look at the past week alone (granted, this isn't a typical week...):

Sunday I went grocery shopping. I have a two door mistusbishi Eclipse. I get out of my car and pull the seat forward so I can get Chloe out. I'm kind of sitting on kneeling in the back seat when I see a gift card I had previously purchased. (Don't ask why it was in the back seat...) So I grab it, wrip it out of the paper packaging, and grab Chloe. Well. Sometime between then and the time I reach the checkout line, I realize that I can't find it. Did I mention that it was a $75 Mastercard gift card???

Yesterday I pull into the drive thru at Arby's. My plan was to grab something quick for Chloe to eat on our way to swimming lessons. I order, then pull up to the windown. I go to reach for my wallet, when I realize I can't find it. I check all the usual places:my purse, my pocket, passenger seat, behind the driver seat. Nothing. I tell the guy at the window that I can't find my wallet, and ask if he minds whether I pull into a parking space and look for it. He responds for me to just take the food, if I find it, pay for it, if not, don't worry about it. Pretty awesome guy. So. I pull into a parking space and search my car. Nope. Not there. I flash back to picking Chloe up from my mom's.

I grab my wallet and put it in my pocket. We leave. I get to my car and try to open the door. It's locked. So I start to reach into my pocket for my keys. Can't reach them...my wallet is in the way. I take my wallet out of my car and put it on top of my car. I unlock my car. By this time Chloe has made her way back towards my mom's house, so I go grab her and put her in the car. Then I drive 3.6 miles to Arby's. So either the wallet is in my car, or I never removed it from the top of my car. I have my mom go look for it maybe 10 minutes later...she can't find it.
When I get home, I search my car again. Today I searched it once or twice more. Then I went to my mom's and walked the path that I took when I left. Correction: I walked the first mile (1.0 miles per google maps). Then I walked that same path back. So two miles round trip. In the snow. Windchill of 15 degrees. And no wallet.

So let's recap what I've lost: Driver's licence, Debit Card, Credit Card, Savings Account Card, Insurance Cards, Circuit City Card, Zoo Membership, Children's Museum Membership, HSA Card, and gift cards.

It wouldn't be so bad if it was only credit cards and such...I can easily replace those. But I had about $130 in Walmart gift cards, and a $20 gift card. Those, coupled with the other gift card, means I've lost a total of about $225. Nice. And I have no way to spend any money.

I'm hoping it turns up. I'm going to go search my car again...

Happy Birthday Chloe!!!

Here's Chloe's 2nd Birthday Montage. And I'm also posting some cute pictures from today for those of you who don't want to sit through the whole video!

Enjoy!

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

If you missed Chloe's slide show from last year, you can view it here.


Public Service Announcement:

So as most of you know, my house was broken in to a few months back. They took off with a big flat panel LCD TV, my Ipod and Ipod transmitter, some cash, my cell phone, and my lap top. Now all that is just stuff. The scariest part is that Chloe and I were upstairs sleeping at the time. But I digress. My point is that with my laptop gone, I lost ALL my pictures of Chloe. I had not backed them up anywhere. So this slide show was made possible by me going back through my blog and downloading pictures, and from pictures my mom took. So Thanks! And keep all your doors locked, alarms on, and pictures backed up!

Christmas

This just wasn't quite Chloe's year for Christmas. She had a good time and everything, but it wasn't like she was super excited or anything. She kind of preferred just doing her own thing to opening up presents. Every once in a while she would show some interest, but most of the time, it was like she was just trying to appease us. I'm pretty sure that I opened more of her presents than she did! So here are some pictures of throughout the day!

So here we are first thing in the morning. Take a look at me...it's definitely first thing. Way before Chloe normally gets up. The place had been to just let her sleep...unfortunately she's such a light sleeper that didn't work out.

Here is Chloe "reading" Kelli's "book". Or at least that's what she (Chloe) calls it. Seems like every one has one of these...but I, unfortunately, am not a member of the cool kids club...

Chloe with her new little bean bag chair. And flashlight. That kid...

Once Chloe got this nifty little thing, she left all the action and found herself a nice, quiet little corner to hang out in. And just played. Wasn't really interested in opening any more presents. This is actually pretty neat...it's a bunch of cuts of meats and vegetables that are held together by velcro. You use the little knife to cut them up in pieces. Chloe loved it! It's the first thing she's done each morning she's been up since.

This is Chloe and her new friend, Aaron. He apparently made quite the impression on her. Chloe doesn't really take to ANYBODY, even after being around them several times. This was one of their first meetings and she was climbing all over him and dragging him around. Crazy. I can't really think of any reason why. Except maybe he's a Bears fan... ;)

Chloe and her cookie:

Her new horse. Funny story. Chloe really loves horses. We're at home Christmas night and I'm watching her...and she's pretending she's riding it, yelling, clear as day, "Yee Ha!" "Giddy-Up!". I'm thinking to myself, what the...??? She's not really saying that. I have NO idea where she picked that up from. But then I turned on Dora. Or I mean boots. And there was an episode with Pinto the pony. And Dora, I mean Boots, yells Yee Ha!, Giddy Up throughout the whole thing. It was a new episode, so she picked that one up quick...

The end of the afternoon:

And here was Chloe's big present. Her very own train table. And she loves it! She plays with it at least twice every single day.

That was Christmas in a nutshell. Be on the lookout for a more action packed post in the next few days...we've got lots of news!

Christmas Eve

NO!!!!

So "No" is Chloe's new favorite word. Within the last few weeks, she's mastered using it in phrases. Literally she uses a no in front of every word she says to show her disinterest in it. I think she says it so much because she knows it annoys me...

You don't believe me? Just watch. I have proof. And then there is some video of her dancing to her guitar playing. She usually does quite an impressive job of playing and dancing, but of course, never when the camera is on! So without further ado...some pictures and video!

Date Night

Me.

Pho.

Vietnamese spring rolls.

Grey's Anatomy.

What a night.

I admit, spending an hour eating in front of the TV probably wasn't the most productive way I could be spending my kid free hours, and eating take out by myself might be a bit pathetic, but it was nice. And relaxing.

I look forward to a second date.


And a little cuteness:

Oh Goodness...

What a lazy blogger I've been.

So Chloe has a stubborn streak a mile long. Probably several miles actually.

The funny.

I've talked before about how Dora was Chloe's first real word. And it wasn't even just Dora, she actually did the D-D-D-D-Dora. You all know the theme song. Well,about a few months ago, she just stopped saying it. I think I might have blogged about this recently. Everything is Boots now. At first I didn't think anything of the fact that when Dora came on she would say Boots. But then I told her to say Dora. Her response? Boots. I have tried EVERYTHING. I have tried bribing her with candy. Toys. I've even stooped as low as to withhold toys from her. But nothing works. I would have her say a bunch of random words really quick so she didn't have time to think, but the immediate response to Dora was always Boots.

I used to think that maybe it was a subconsious thing, but her responses have somewhat evolved. Come of the common responses we get now to "Can you say DORA?":

-"Boots."
-"Boots!!!!" (this is being screamed)
-Just a straight scream at the top of her lungs.
-No! Boots.
-No! I say Boots! (This is my favorite)
-Huge sighs
-or she's starting now to just ignore the question.

After Mark dropped her off one day, I tried a new tactic. Being funny. So I'm like, "Tell Dora bye-bye!" She kinds of laughs, so I repeat it, encouraging her to say it. I repeat it again, and she laughs. I again tell her to say it. "Say Bye-Bye Dora!". She looks at me, looks at him, then looks right back at me, I kid you not, and says, "See you later Boots!" Seriously!

The not so funny.

When Chloe is done eating something she has the tendancy to just throw it down. I'm pretty sure she's old enough at this point to follow directions. So today she had one of those pop ice things. You know the popcicle in the long plastic thing? Well, she has me cut it down as she goes so that she can get it out, as she's not quite able to keep pushing it up. She gets to the bottom and then just throws it on the floor. So I'm like, "No, No. Pick that up." She yells no and runs away. So I go get her and bring her back to the spot. Tell her again to pick it up. She yells no and is throwing a fit at this point. She's trying to run away but I won't let her. I again ask her to pick it up. She throws a fit and just starts hitting and kicking it. She finally reaches down and picks it up. Only to immediately throw it again. I put her hand down there and she REFUSES to pick it up. I bet we sat there on the floor for 10 minutes repeating this sequence as she's acting like she's being tortured. She finally picks it up. We walk over and get it in the trash. Whew!

We have showdowns like this a few times a week. She definitely give me a run for my money.

And to end with some pictures:

Zoo Boo

Ok. So. Halloween. I decided to dress Chloe up like a lion. Why, you ask? Because it's so freakin' cute to hear her go around roaring! I had to do it! I know, I know. But watch the video and you'll see. (You'll also notice her refusal to say Dora. Instead she says Boots. Each and every time.)

Today we went to Zoo Boo. Chloe had an awesome time dressing up in her costume and visiting with the animals. And here are the pictures to prove it!