Teacher's Pet

Chloe loves her gym teacher Chelsea. Here is what she typically will do at warm up time, while talking to Chelsea the whole time. And Chelsea lets her. It's pretty cute.

Poor Zacky

Zack's life has gone downhill the last 3 years. Yes, we are now those people. Once we had a baby our dog became just a dog rather than a pampered, spoiled, treated like a child dog. Of course we still love Zack a ton. Though, admittedly, Chloe wishes he was a small cuddly dog and often tells me she wished Zacky would go back to his mom (that is what we tell her instead of getting into the whole end of life conversation).

Anyway, poor Zack. A few nights ago I noticed some blood on his bed and he was licking his back leg. We could not find anything wrong. Then Friday when I got home from work I noticed that there was something definitely wrong with his back leg. To me, it looked like the bone was poking through.

I called the vet and they asked use to bring him in right away. Chloe and Craig took him in and then Craig called me and said it would be major surgery. I thought he was joking, but unfortunately he was not.

So today Zack had surgery on his back leg to remove the growth. Luckily it is not cancer and he should recover just fine. Unfortunately, until he is headed he has to wear what Chloe calls his "conehead". Zack is being a great sport about it though!

They're back!

Last fall soon after Chloe the new school year started I got a call that I was dreading. Shortly after dropping Chloe off her teacher called me and told me that I needed to come get her. "She has lice" she told me, and I promptly panicked.

Chloe has more hair than just about anyone I know. It is long, it is thick and in her almost 3 1/2 years we have never cut the back. I was not sure how this was going to go. And poor Craig, I ended up stripping just about every soft surface in the house to ensure no lice lived! That time I used a chemical lice killer and after 2-3 hours of meticulous hair combing, I had done a good enough job to get her back in to school.

Last week Chloe was sick. High fever, not much else going on, but she just wasn't feeling well. We went to the doctor, and nothing to report. She was finally able to go back to school and when I picked her up on Friday she had a rash on her neck.

Craig took her back to the doctor on Saturday a.m. as the rash was still there, and then called me to report that I was not going to be happy. She had some odd rash, probably a remnant of the fever, and she had lice. AGAIN!

This time, luckily, I did not freak out. Instead, I bought a bunch of Cetaphil Gentle Skin cleaners and took care of it. After doing the Cetaphil treatment, I blew dry Chloe's hair and then flat ironed it. Figured I would make sure those buggers were D-E-A-D!

Never did find a louse, or an eggs for that matter and I also did not go crazy putting all her stuffed animals, blankets, you name it away. And I got rid of them the first time around again. Though I did do a second treatment the next weekend to be sure.

The upside of all this is that Chloe now lets me blow dry her hair, comb her hair, do just about anything with her hair.


Imagine combing through these locks for lice!

Bookends

Happy Valentines Day

Chloe scored some major Hello Kitty Gifts for valentines day, thanks to a work colleague who brought home a backpack filled with Hello Kitty paraphernalia from a recent trip to China. This was waiting outside her room when she woke up on Valentines Day.

Back to where it all began

We met Craig's parents in Puerto Vallarta for a vacation and a trip down memory lane. Craig and were married there a little over 4 years ago.

We stayed at the Westin at the Marina, which was nice. They have a great pool, a great kids club and a trampoline as well. The only bummer was that it rained about two and a half days, which really put a damper (pun intended) on our vacation. Not much to do in PV when it is pouring outside.

All in all, I still love Mexico and Puerto Vallarta especially. I definitely want to go back there every few years if we can.

Chloe making sure her wristband is on securely before going to swim with the dolphins. Well, we didn't actually swim, but we did get to pet, kiss and dance with a dolphin. And I got a very very sloppy kiss from a sea lion.


The woman who cleaned our room would leave these very cute towel animals.


Vacationing Craig style. Warm hot tub, cold beer!


Chloe actually took this shot of John & Ghislaine. She took about 50 pictures of them and I promised my mother in law I would delete them all. Oh well :-)


The portable DVD player, aka the babysitter. A godsend during the rainy days.


And 5 new Fancy Nancy books were quite a hit as well. Although Chloe would tell my French Canadian mother in law that she was mispronouncing the French words.


Kids club activity - Painting Pottery. This turned out to be a super cute pig and it actually made it home safely in the suitcase.


Kids club activity - Treasure Hunt. Chloe loved Tanya, the girl who ran the kids club.


One of our last nights we returned to the Vista Grill where we were married. The evening did not go exactly as planned. . next time Craig and I will go alone :-)


Poor Chloe. They had nothing that she wanted to eat at all. She had some bread, but never even got dessert.


Kids club activity - Pinata Party!


Chloe's turn!


Jumping on the trampoline with Ivy, a little girl we met at the pool.


I really wanted some new sunglasses but Mexican prices ain't what they used to be. I could not bargain this guy down low enough.


Chloe got tired of going downtown to dinner with Craig and I every night and opted to stay home this night. We had a great dinner at a place that they made fresh salsa tableside. Yum!


Cheers! This was our last night in Puerto Vallarta.


One last dip in the pool before heading to the airport . .


Posing with Daddy


Chloe absolutely fell more in love with her crazy Poppa on this trip. They loved being goofballs together.


and Poppa was forced to share his yellow hat with Chloe.


We bought Chloe this giraffe for the pool, but she did not want it to get wet so it spent the entire vacation here.


Dinner at the Mexican restaurant at the Marina. . this was the place to be at the Marina. If you love tequila, you would love this restaurant. They served shots with the margaritas, and then brought us baileys for dessert.


Chloe posing with the animals at the Westin