Chloe - 11 Months

Okay okay I realize that these posts are getting a little out of order, but who would have known the struggle involved with a monthly update?  I jotted down a few notes about a month ago and emailed them to myself.  I'm just now getting around to posting them.  For the record, Chloe is now a whole year old and things have changed a lot since then; however, I will have that update for you at a later date (but don't hold your breath). 

At eleven months Chloe weighs in at 20 pounds. She is getting to be so solid and I think she is going to be built like her Momma. We might have a gymnast on our hands.

Chloe’s favorite thing right now is still Griffin. He is the first thing she looks for each morning. Most mornings start out with Chloe climbing all over Griffin and giving him a dozen or so kisses. He often returns the love by giving her French kisses. Yes, it grosses me out, and I do try to stop it, but Chloe finds it to be hysterical. After a morning make out session, Chloe will proceed to Griffin’s toy bin and take each toy out one by one so that he has to come and get them. He will gently play tug of war with her and she laughs so hard. We are so lucky to have such a good dog!

This month Chloe has taken to pushing cars around on the floor and saying “brrrrrmmm brrrrmmm.” She likes to climb into her laundry basket that is filled with toys. She also climbs the baby gate and does pull ups on the kitchen table. She is incredibly strong and can climb almost anything. Another favorite thing to do is to climb down the stairs to the basement and crawl UP her slide. She can now maneuver herself all over her Step 2 play gym and I’m no longer even worried when I see her standing at the top.

Even though she can climb almost anything, and even though she can stand up in the middle of the room without touching anything, Chloe still refuses to walk. We have only caught her taking one or two steps and only if both hands are preoccupied with cell phones or other electronic devices.

Some of Chloe’s favorite foods right now include anything green. She loves her super greens like broccoli, spinach, peas, and beans. She eats very healthy while at home getting all kinds of fruits, veggies, whole grains, and organic dairy. At daycare, however, I'm under the impression that she eats like a normal kid. I used to pack her breakfast and lunch each day, but it got to be too much work all by myself in the morning, so I let Melissa feed her from her food program. I’m pretty sure that Chloe eats from all of the food groups at every meal; however, the things she eats usually shock me like grilled cheese, for example.  It blows my mind that my baby can eat a sandwich! Chloe’s all time favorite food is blueberries and she will eat them by the fist full.

Chloe says “mama” and “dada” but not all of the time and usually when she really wants or needs something.  Chloe loves the bath now. She finally sits down on her butt and plays after months of just trying to climb out. Chloe got her top left eye tooth this month and has a total of five teeth.  She has really mastered the art of clapping this month.  She loves to clap for herself and has been doing it for a while, but now she has started making noise when she claps. She loves to roll the ball and claps for herself every time she rolls it.  She still hates getting dressed, getting her diaper changed, and long car rides.  These are really the only times that she fusses.

Paul helped take her eleven month pictures. She was clapping and having a great time laughing at her Dada. It is hard to see her sticker, but it was a nice change from last month when she was screaming at me the entire photo shoot!

Chloe's 1st Birthday Party!

We celebrated Chloe's first birthday with a party on January 22nd.  Because we live two hours away from most of our relatives, my parents volunteered to host the party at their home.  I wasn't going to have a theme or spend an awful lot of money on the decorations, but while shopping at Hobby Lobby I came across a zebra print iron-on number set.  I have never been a huge fan of zebra print; however, I thought it would be really cute ironed on a onesie and coupled with the purple tutu I found for her at Gymboree.  I couldn't find zebra leggings on the fly, but I did come across some cow print Baby Legs and I figured those would have to do.  Here is the end result:

From there I picked up some purple table cloths, a roll of zebra print wrapping paper and some zebra gift bags.  We got some balloons last minute from the dollar store and whola... a birthday party!

I found this elephant cake pan at Hobby Lobby.  My mom is famous for making elaborate birthday cakes and I thought it would be a good skill to learn from her.  We made these "sister' elephants the night before the party.  It took just over three hours, but we had a lot of fun making them and chatting over a glass (or two) of wine.

Chloe had a lot of fun eating her cake!  I stole the banner idea from The Macs.  (Side note: If you have never heard of Jess Mac and you visit her web page be prepared to rifle through the last two years of archives.  You will end up sobbing at your desktop, but will walk away amazed and uplifted.)

It was tough to get a good picture of the family, but I do love this picture of Chloe giving me a big kiss. 

I don't have pictures of the amazing food that was cooked single handed by my amazing husband. Paul made fish and beef tacos with all of the fixings.  Everyone was amazed and stuffed.  Good job Dada!

Are You Gonna Eat That?

I have always been a fast eater.  I mean, I can really take it to the face.  Growing up I had no qualms about being a fast eater.  I was basically raised alongside six boys, and, in most cases, it was every man for himself.  It wasn't until high school that I started thinking twice about my eating habits.  Apparently, there is a whole list commonly known rules about eating in public, and a whole list of unwritten rules about eating amongst a group of all girls. 

Like, one rule when eating with all girls is that if you order a sandwich you must immediately cut said sandwich in half, and then proceed to eat only ONE half of the sandwich.  It can be the larger half, sure, but it can only be one half.  Then, and this still gets me, to my horror you must then throw the other half of your eight dollar sandwich away!!  Needless to say, I was the only high school girl carting around a Styrofoam box through Abercrombie & Fitch.  And do you know what I did to the other half of that sandwich within two seconds of climbing into my car alone?  KILLED IT! 

Where I am going with this is that I have been working on suppressing my insatiable desire to inhale my food at first sight for about ten years now.  The problem is that, once you have a baby, you have to eat as quickly as possible, whenever possible.  If you have to eat your morning toast while sitting on the toilet, then you have to eat your morning toast while sitting on the toilet.  No, I will neither confirm nor deny as to whether that is a real life example.  The point is, you only have to invite an old habit back just once and it's back, baby.

So both Paul and I have been inhaling our food now for, oh, about 11.5 months now, and it has become so natural to me that I'm taken off guard when someone else notices.  A few months ago we were out to dinner and Chloe was sleeping in her car seat.  The bus boy dropped off our food, and before the waitress could come see if we needed any ketchup both of us had cleared our plates.  I'm not even kidding.  She looked at us and said "well, you are certainly parents now."  Excuse me?  Oh, she must have noticed that I have eyeliner on only one eyelid, or that I have two different flip flops on my feet (one black with a flower and one brown leather - not even close - seriously, that happened)... oooooh you mean how I tore into my steak like a cavewoman?  That.

Then the other day I was leaving for work and had four bags in my arms, a toddler, a handful of chocolate covered raisins, and the keys to lock the door when I realized I was faced with an epic decision.  Do I stand in the cold of my mudroom and eat my chocolate covered raisins one by one?  Do I put the raisins in my pocket and save them for later?  Do I put them down?  No, I'm kidding, putting them down was never an option.  Instinctively, I tossed back a heaping handful of chocolate covered raisins.  I stored them in my cheek and thanked God for all those years of softball, because I proceeded to eat them like a handful of sunflower seeds, moving them over one by one with my tongue and chewing them individually in all of their delicious splendor.  When I got to the car I caught a glimpse of my fat cheek in my rear view mirror, and I had a flashback to all of the food that is not meant to be eaten like a handful of sunflower seeds, yet I have proceeded to treat as such like popcorn, all forms of candy, nuts, grapes... anything that comes in multiples and is smaller than a quarter, really.  It is really quite disgusting, but I just can't help myself.

Maybe all parents eat like that.  Maybe I have just earned my Bachelors of Parenting Survival Science.  Maybe one of you is reading this right now and has just realized you have been squirreling around the house with a handful of almonds in your cheek! Hey, a girl can only hope!   

I Wanna Meet Santa Claus

Because he knows that someday when we are old and gray I will still be saying "remember Chloe's first Easter and how you made us miss out on a picture with the Easter Bunny," Paul was sure to work in a quick trip to see Santa for Chloe's first Christmas outside of my belly.  We didn't have to wait in a very long line since we went on a Monday night.  There were a lot of tears shed by little boys and girls before and after Chloe in the line.  Paul and I were guessing that Chloe would just sit there with her "blue steel" look and not crack a frown or a smile.  We were right.  What she is doing in this picture here is what she did for three minutes straight.  Santa loved her and asked if he could maybe hold her a little longer - maybe we had some shopping to do?   

She actually looks a little annoyed that we would even bother taking her to see this funny looking man.  But then I think she is actually annoyed at the cameraman who kept saying, "do you have a special way of making him laugh?" Maybe it is my fault for dressing her in all black and misplacing her bow, but she did have on pink boots and a dress for the love of Santa.

Merry Christmas!

I had every intention of sending Christmas cards this year.  I was actually really looking forward to it.  I even had some family pictures taken for the big event; however, it is now December 13, time is running short, and by the time I got them in the mail it would be too late. 

I get a little envious of those women who somehow find the time in their busy schedules to take their baby to a photographer to get the perfect Christmas picture, create the perfect Christmas card, order the perfect Christmas card, and then actually mail the perfect Christmas card in a timely fashion.  As Carrie Bradshaw would say "I will never be the woman with the perfect hair, who can wear white and not spill on it."  So as a last minute option I created a quick Christmas card online for all seven of you to enjoy:

And here are a few other cute shots we got during the photo shoot:

Alarm Clock Exorcism

What makes this alarm clock so evil?

It's a funny story really.  My mom bought me this alarm clock to put in Chloe's room when she was first born, because the pediatrician had recommended that I feed Chloe for ten minutes on each breast.  Being a new mommy I, of course, took this advice as the gospel and insisted on watching the clock, switching at exactly ten minutes. 

The alarm clock has always been something of a pain in the ass, because the whole thing operates using only four buttons and the instructions might as well be in a different language - press mode six times, press function twice, then up-up-down-down-left-right-left-right B, A, Start just to set the time.  Chloe, some day I will explain to you that Nintendo reference.

As it turns out this alarm clock is one of Chloe's favorite toys.  She'll press the buttons and watch it light up for 15 minutes straight.  I rejoice in any object that entertains my daughter long enough to apply a whole face of makeup in the morning.  I was letting her play with it about a month ago in her bedroom when it somehow got pushed below her changing table.  Retrieving the tiny object would have required me lying flat on my stomach and reaching my arm under the table, which seemed like a waste of already rationed energy.  So I just left it there.  A mistake of epic proportions.

Now I mentioned in a previous post that Chloe woke up for one entire month religiously at 2:30 a.m.  You may already know where I'm going with this.  As I'm trying to write this I am shaking my head and laughing that irritated laugh where you can't believe you were so stupid... Yes, she had set the alarm to 2:30 a.m. and being that the alarm lasts for about 20 seconds and goes off only once, Paul and I were never lucky enough to hear the damn thing going off until four nights ago when I woke up and thought "what the heck is that noise?"  Sure enough, Chloe woke up within 20 seconds of the alarm going off. 

So three nights ago I removed the alarm from her bedroom, and for three nights the entire family has slept through the entire night.  Any day now I'm expecting the clock to rotate its head and spew pea soup. 

Blackberry Bliss

Now that the winter is upon us we no longer have the farmer's market as an option for fresh food.  Also, we find ourselves trekking to the grocery store far more infrequently. As a result, I have been stocking up on frozen fruits.  They work well for Chloe because they are already squishy when they unthaw.  In my infinite wisdom I thought a good option would be blackberries.  When I finally got them unthawed I realized they might be a little too messy so I thought I would just feed them to her with a spoon.  Well that lasted for one bite when she took the berry out of her mouth and rubbed it all along her chin.  I thought the hell with it and just gave her the whole bowl to feed herself.  Here are the results:

 If this were a math equation it would be something like Baby + Blackberries = Bath