Waffles and Monkeys

Chloe has the cutest name for monkeys -- mah-mahs. And she loves her waffles too!

Playing at OMSI

Chloe loves OMSI. . and her favorite part is the water. . where she can pour water using the birds nest. .

The future accountant

When I drive Chloe to school in the mornings, she usually spends the better part of the ride saying "upa". . meaning, get me out of my car seat. . so we usually sing songs to pass the time. A favorite of hers is the "Wheels on the Bus" which Craig has adapted to include animals on the bus and animal sounds. Chloe then says the animals sounds on the second verse. Very cute. Another thing I do is teach her new words to repeat, colors, numbers, and just things we see. So a couple times I have asked her if she wanted to count to 10 with me. I would say "one" then she would repeat it and so on until we got to "ten". Yesterday when i started to do this she was not repeating the number after me but rather saying the next number. I couldn't really believe it. When we got home, I asked her in front of Craig and he couldn't believe what he was hearing either. Guess my little girl is a number lover just like her momma!

The Windy City

Chloe running up to Craig because she wants to see the pictures on the camera, which is making it increasingly hard to ever take her picture!

We finally made it to Chicago this past weekend so that my Aunt Arlene and my brother Gary and his family could meet Ms. Chloe. It was a very quick trip -- we got in Thursday night and left early Sunday morning.

Chloe, napping on Craig before we even left for the airport, rather than saving it for the plane. Rats!

Friday the weather was beautiful, so we got to take the beans to 2 very excellent parks in Chicago, complete with big slides and lots of room to run and play. We also got to spend the day with my Aunt Arlene, who I love dearly and having her meet Chloe meant the world to me. She stayed with us the entire day, which was definitely a treat!

Saturday was passover, and we were all looking forward to the sedar. My sister-in-law Anna had been cooking for 2 days, and even Craig is a fan of the traditional passover favorites like chicken soup and gefilte fish.

Chloe with her cousin Jacob. . helping him practice the piano

Unfortunately Ms. Chloe woke up with a stomach bug on Saturday and i spent the better part of the day changing my clothes and doing laundry. Poor Beans! We contemplated staying longer, but decided it would be better to stick with our original plan and head home early early early Sunday morning. Fortunately, the plane ride was entirely uneventful, as Chloe slept on my lap almost the entire time (so glad we bought her a seat!!). As we were getting off the plane, two people sitting near us separately commented on how good Chloe was on the plane. Little did they know she was quietly spreading her stomach flu germs all around!

My friend Maya picked us up from the airport. . fortunately she picked us up in our car, as the poor baby threw up on the way home from the airport. Much better than it happening on the plane.

Craig picked up the bug Sunday night. So far I've escaped it. And Chloe made a miraculous recovery on Monday afternoon. . good enough that she was able to go back to school today.

All in all, still a good trip. Chloe really enjoyed her cousins Jacob and Isaac. She still talks about them. And she would be talking about her cousin Maddy had she been feeling well enough to play with her too.

Summer Tease and a trip to the Zoo

We had some beautiful weather last weekend. It was in the 80s on Saturday. We definitely made the most of it. We spent the morning at the Zoo. Chloe really enjoyed it. She started running when she saw the giraffes in the distance. She also enjoyed the zebras, monkeys and meer cats. In the afternoon we took Chloe to the park. She amazed us by climbing all the way up the play structure, over the shakey bridge and coming down the curvy slide. We have a little daredevil in the making! The first time she came down the slide it was on her belly, head first. A happy accident.

On the way home from the park we scored some free play equipment from our neighbors -- a 2 room play house and a sandbox shaped as a boat. Pics of both to come once we get them cleaned up!

At the park

18 months already?

Chloe turned 18 months today. Time is just flying by. She certainly is keeping us busy! Last weekend we went to buy her some new shoes. Now every morning she likes to try on all her shoes and decide which ones to wear. And it is usually not the same pair two days in a row. We're going to have a fashion girl on our hands soon.

Chloe continues to talk more. And she still uses her signs. We've been taking her to OMSI quite a bit lately. They have a dinosaur display there that she really likes. This weekend it is supposed to be nice out so we are hoping to go to the zoo. Chloe loves books with animals, signing songs

about animals and making animal sounds. We think she'll really love the zoo!

We're gearing up for our first trip to Chicago next week so that Chloe can finally meet her Uncle Gary and Aunt Eileen, as well as my Aunt Arlene and Uncle Archie.

Here's some pictures from the last month. I'm hoping I get better at updating this blog weekly.

This is Chloe with her 2 favorite men in her life:

We bought Chloe her first radio flyer tricycle which she is having fun riding around. She is also enjoying going to the park and going down the slide by herself. . which will be great news for the summer. . we have lots of nice parks nearby and it will be great to take her there to tire her out!

We had our good friends Kama and Joe and their kids Ella and Max over for a pre-easter brunch to exchange easter baskets for the kids. Chloe loves Ella and the 3 of them had a good time playing together and terrorizing Zack.

Chloe has been really enjoying her school. She has some wonderful teachers and we are really lucky to have her at such a special place. The week before spring break, Chloe and I arrived at school and there were pictures painted by each of the kids in front of their cubbies. Every child's picture was a handprint, except Chloe's, which looked like this:

One thing Chloe does not like is to get her hands dirty. If she is about to fall outside, she'll do anthing not to fall onto her hands. Her teacher said she tried many times to get Chloe to do a hand print. . the best she got was a toe print. . which is the red blot in the middle left :-)

Last weekend we had our friends David and Tamara over for brunch. Tamara brought her dog Bella, who was the perfect companion for Chloe. If only Zak was like this with Chloe -- sweet, patient, happy to have her tail tugged on and just genuinely comfortable with kids.

And here are some other random shots that we wanted to share: