Blogging hiatus

Hello folks! Just wanted to let you all know that I have been and still am very busy doing online work for Concordia University. Because of this part-time work, I won't be posting much on Chloe Chronicles for the coming weeks.

Curious as to my work? Click the link to Concordia's Instructional Design Center and then click WebCT4 Interactive tutorials. Since Concordia just upgraded to WebCT6, I'm recording several new tutorials for them.

I'm very grateful for the work but there's a pressure crunch right now to get these done before the fall term begins. Pray that I get them all done on time!

Yard sale steals

Since Matt was off today, we ran some errands and then scavenged at a few yard sales. It was quite a treat for me to drive around to sales. Usually Chloe and I walk and walk and walk and walk and we don't get to choose whether or not the sale is worthwhile.

Well, today we found an AMAZING yard sale! An old teacher lady was moving out of her home and getting rid of some prime merchandise. We bought this retro blackboard for Chloe's room as well as some cool old stationery (the kind that folds up into an envelope), great children's books, antique tins, hand weights (which I've been wanting since I started my exercise resurgence) and other neat miscellaneous items.

One thing I've puzzled about Ohio is that folks out here don't say rummage sale. They say yard or garage sale. Weird, eh? Have you found any good rummaging deals lately?

New walking photos

We finally captured Chloe's steps on camera! There's only one good shot of her actual walking; the other is an after-walk shot. This girl is so fast Matt literally took almost 10 pictures before we got a keeper. Should I be worried that she's fast already? What am I in for!?!

Sleeping poses

Chloe is such a wiggle worm when she's sleeping and awake! Matt and I constantly chuckle as we sneak in to her room and discover her new sleeping position.

My favorite pose is when she sticks her bum up in the air . . . that's exactly how I used to sleep as a baby girl. Enjoy these photos; hope they don't make you too sleepy!

Another milestone bites the dust

Big news here in the Horn household . . .

CHLOE WALKED THIS MORNING!!!!!

Here's the shakedown. Chloe was standing near the windowsill looking outside as she regularly does. I was sitting on the floor nearby and I held out my arms to her (as I regularly try to coax her to walk to me) when she took 3-4 stumbling steps to me and then fell into my arms. I put her back near the window and tried to get her to walk a second time and she did!

I was so surprised that I didn't even have the camera ready so I missed the photographic moment. I'll try to recreate the first steps and capture it for you all. She looked so cute and excited as she walked to me!

So, her official walking date is July 24, 2006. That means she's hit her milestone at 11 1/4 months old. When did your child/children take their first steps?

Late recipe call for July!

I'm way behind on the recipe blog for July! I've been busy doing some part-time computer work lately and the recipe blog totally slipped my mind. Be sure to check out the fruity recipes from June:

Fruit Ices
Stars and Stripes Torte
Quick and Easy Strawberry Jam
Fruit Sauce for Pancakes/Waffles
Fabulous Four Fruit Crumble
Red, White and Blue Berry Cake
Rhubarb Pudding Cake
Rhubarb Crisp
Rhubarb Streusel Cake
Blueberry French Toast
Blueberry Coffee Cake
Basic Fruit Shake
Strawberry Banana Smoothie
Apple Berry Salsa with Cinammon Chips

July's theme will be Fresh Summer Herbs. Send your recipe submissions to me via email at aliciahorn@hotmail.com.

Our new stray cat

If any of you know my husband outside the classroom then you know he's an animal lover. Cats are his favorite. His last cat, Rocky, had been with him since his NBBC days and it was heartbreaking when he parted with his orange tabby shortly before our marriage.

Last week when a stray black cat lingered on our porch for some attention, Matt was thrilled! And although I've always said (like Ben Stiller's character in Meet the Parents) I was more of a dog person than a cat person, this stray cat has wiggled into my heart. I love it that she rubs her body around my ankles to solicit some pets. She's a very affectionate animal. It's also fun to watch Chloe get excited about the cat and try, in her violent way, to pet her.

Tonight we bought food and plastic bowls, and named her so she is now officially ours. We've made the commitment to take care of her. We've dubbed her "Cleo" so she can match our C-named offspring theme.

Do you have any pets? If so, how did they steal your heart?

Slideshow

Hey blogger pals! I just discovered a new handy-dandy tool for my all-Chloe blog. Check out the cool slideshow at right just under my profile. Pretty neat, eh?

Preventive measures

Isn't Chloe a ham?!? Now that she's getting older, she is becoming more aware of the camera and its function.

I wanted to brag to you all about my darling husband's carpentry skills. In the last few weeks, Chloe has discovered the immense fun of climbing the stairs. Not so fun for me though! I only let her climb if I'm right behind her. I have horrible visions of her losing her balance on our skinny steep steps and falling backwards.

We had bought a gate for the stairs but it doesn't fit due to the molding at the bottom of the wall. So, Matt whipped up this handy-dandy gate for us. It swings on hinges and has a childproof (hopefully it's also Chloe-proof!) latch to prevent Chloe from opening it.

Let's hope this works! What crazy things have you done in attempts to baby-proof?

Date Night!

Matt and I had a much needed date night last night thanks to my neighbor gal-pal, Melinda being willing to babysit. We went out for dinner (taking Chloe with us) and then we came home and got Chloe ready for bed. By the time Melinda arrived, Chloe only had 1/2 hour of awake time left. Chloe LOVES Melinda so she didn't even wimper when we walked out the door. Melinda knows what's up with babies; she has 6 of her own so she's a way more experienced mom than me. And it was kind of a break for Melinda to babysit. Once Chloe went to bed, she watched a movie in peace and quiet. Her house is rarely that quiet! THANKS MELINDA!

After leaving Chloe at home, Matt and I headed out to see the Pirates of the Caribbean sequel: Dead Man's Chest. It was a very entertaining and action-packed movie! Matt and I both enjoy Johnny Depp's acting so it was great fun to watch him in his role as Captain Jack Sparrow. He always provides lots of comedic pauses and one-liners that keep us laughing. I would recommend though that you watch the first Pirates movie before seeing the sequel. There are many returning characters and you need to know some of the first Pirates plot for the ending of the second movie to make sense. It's a good movie-theater flick but don't expect much realism.

Have you seen any good movies lately?

My spelling downfall

I sure wish I hadn't posted about the spelling bee yesterday - now I've done gone and lost and disappointed my blogging cheerleaders!

Here's the story, as is my usual modus operandi in spelling bees I studied difficult words (I had onomatopoeia down cold) and got tripped up on a easy one. When I went to the state spelling bee in 8th grade, my nemesis word was the easy-peasy "mallet". Last night at the library spelling bee my downfall occurred on the word "hippopotamus". Matt had to work last night so I had to take Chloe with me to the bee which was more than a little distracting during my hippopotamus meltdown. I had taken her out of the stroller and was holding her to spell. She had decided to arch her back and hang around upside down while I bungled hippopotamus (I spelled it hippopotamaus). Needless to say, I was distracted and Chloe was the belle of the bee. Everyone loved her cute fat cheeks and antics.

I really should have won that dang spelling bee. I knew all the words after I was eliminated. Ah well, better luck next summer! The library is making the adult spelling bee an annual summer event.

What words usually trip you up, spelling-wise?

Question: How do you spell nerd? Answer: A-l-i-c-i-a

I know that lately it's kind of kitschy and cool to be considered a nerd. Let me assure you that I am not a nerd so I can be cool. In fact, my sister would strongly avow that I am not cool at all. I am a true nerd. A nerd through and through. Here's my proof:

* While I wash dishes I listen to an audio lecture series about the crusades
* My favorite school subject was (and still is) math
* I know all sorts of strange, useless facts about obscure topics like entymology and etymology
* My favorite board game is scrabble

That's all I can think of off the top of my nerdy head. The current reason why I'm convinced I'm a nerd is that I'm involved in an adult spelling bee held at our library this evening. Yes, I'm going to spell in an attempt to win a gift certificate and reclaim my 8th grade city of West Bend championship status. Are you laughing out loud yet? Me, a 28 year old mother and wife will be spelling words like cinnamon, millennium, and bellwether in an actual spelling bee.

Know what is even worse? I made my own spelling word list to study from. I looked at several websites listing the most commony misspelled words (misspell being one of them) and compiled my own list, alphabetized it and printed it in nice neat columns. Here are a few words from my list; see how well you can spell!

accommodate
anoint (I ALWAYS thought this word had 2 ns!)
camouflage
chauvinism
desiccate
embarrassment
fahrenheit
imitate
irascible
liaison
maintenance (since 5th grade I still get tripped up on this word)
misogyny
onomatopoeia (eek! that's a crazy one)
parallel
privilege
puerile
recommend
sacrilegious
separate
tableau
ukulele

Check back tomorrow; I'll be sure to post about how the spelling went! (I can tell you all are biting your nails with anticipation.)

False alarm

Turns out our digital camera miraculously healed itself! I turned it on today and it's working like a charm. Guess it just need some time to rest. Here are some of the latest shots of our soon-to-be-11-month old girl.
























Hey mom, look at how crooked I can walk!






This is how I keep Chloe busy while I'm in the kitchen. She doesn't do much mixing - just lots of banging.
















Chloe looking for fleas in Matt's hair.














Chloe using her newly borrowed walker. It plays music too so Chloe often stops in her walking journey for dance breaks.

A plug for lunar pages

Most of you are probably unaware of my amateur web-designing attempts. I am currently doing a site for Matt and his cronies who are starting an online scholarly journal (I'll give you more info on the journal as it develops). For any of you out there looking for a cheap, reliable, and user-friendly web hosting company I've got just the one for you - lunar pages.

We have the basic plan as advertised on the flashing banner below which includes free domain name. If any of you have done websites in the recent-past you know that previously web hosting companies charged for your domain name and for space each month. It's astounding how cheap it is to get your own website up and running these days!

I also like lunar pages because their customer support is unbeatable. They have always responded to my queries promptly (and believe me, I have lots of queries dearies) and they don't treat me like a dummy-head.

Hope this little advertisement is helpful to some of you fellow computer amateurs out there!

Who taught her to kiss like that?

Don't worry, my provocative title is only referring to Chloe. Lately we've been trying to teach her to give kisses. I sit her on my lap or hold her in my arms and say "Kisses? Kisses?" pleadingly in a voice that would annoy my sister to no end. (She's not a big fan of baby talk.)

Apparently Chloe's learning. Tonight Matt and I sat on the couch with Chloe determined to work on her kissing technique. Usually she just leans in and bonks her head on yours - no real kissing involved. And the unlucky recipient ends up with an aching head (have you seen the size of our daughter's noggin?)

So, this evening after much coercion Chloe leaned forward, opened her mouth and planted her wet drooly lips right smack dab on mine! I've become calloused to lots of leaking baby fluids, but this was kind of gross. It was still cute though. I thought maybe her open-mouthed-beso was a fluke, but she gave me a few more wet ones in succession. I probably encouraged her by my uncontrollable laughter. She just looked so adorably funny as she opened her mouth and prepared for her kiss that I laughed 'til I cried!

What's your story of your kiddo's kisses?

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Well, we've experienced a death in the family. Our faithful digital camera has decided to call it quits. Guess I was working him (I'm referring to our camera) too hard. I'm sure I've taken hundreds, if not thousands, of shots of Chloe using our trusty camera. Maybe Chloe's cuteness was more than he could bear. In any event, we'll be scrounging our pennies to purchase a new camera. Until then, Chloe Chronicles will be Chloe-photo-less. I apologize in advance for sparing you her cuteness. Hope your camera is working fine and that our camera's disease isn't contagious.

My thumb isn't very green

I had such high hopes for my garden. Unfortunately, the only thing that I've harvested so far are these few little pea pods. I had also planted spinach, eggplant, zucchini, and squash into our hard rocky soil. Being the cheap skates that we are, we didn't invest in any special soil, compost, or insecticides. So, the spinach leaves have all been ravaged by insects and the zucchini is still trying to grow. The pea pods tasted delicious . . . let's hope they will yield a few more pods for us this summer.















Our other gardening feat has been to plant climbing roses around the perimeter of our sad grass-less backyard. The 6 rose bushes are planted right next to our wire fence and we have visions of them spreading and weaving points of color to brighten up our icky backyard. These roses are the first we've cut - aren't they gorgeous?

What gardening have you done this summer? Any tips to make my thumb a bit greener?

Some new blogs and pictures of Chloe

Boy, do I love blogging! Seems like all the time I'm coming across old college pals. Check out these nbbcer blogs:
Schuylers
Layers of Fun
Little Rivers
Christian Joe
Sequacity
Paucis Verbis















One of Chloe's many unique sleeping positions.






















Here is my drooly girl causing much destruction in the living room.






















Isn't this the cutest outfit ever? Now that Chloe is proficient at standing and cruising, the windows and screen door are exciting locales.
















This is why I don't get many pictures anymore! Chloe is getting really quick at grabbing the camera.