Leaf it to Chloe

Forgive the recent lack of Chloe photos. I think the snap-a-photo-everyday phase is finally wearing off of this first time mommy. :)

Great-grandma painted this adorable fall t-shirt for Chloe. Thanks, g-squared!














Mom, stop with the flashes, will ya?!?

A Thankful Weekend

After reading Heather's recent post and watching a despairing movie this weekend (Syriana) Matt and I found ourselves praising God for the family we have. We are so thankful that we have a healthy family with healthy God-strengthening relationships. We praise Him for a loving extended family, too! We are blessed and fortunate people.

We quietly celebrated Matt's 32nd birthday Saturday. He requested jambalaya for his birthday dinner and I also made some yummy homemade french bread and french crumb apple pie. He also enjoyed cinnamon rolls, a new packer t-shirt, a donald duck comic book, and then we watched a movie together (Syriana as referenced above. Extremely interesting story but very sad).

Yesterday was church day and Chloe only made it 10 minutes in the nursery. :( Unfortunately, this week's workers weren't as patient as last week's. This time Matt got her out and they had a ball walking around the church and getting coffee for me (our church has an awesome coffee shop in the building). To try to prevent her crying-for-mommy-attitude Matt's been taking her and dropping her off in the nursery room. That strategy didn't seem to do much good this week though! Any other ideas mommies?

A sluggish day

Well, today was the antisythesis of yesterday. I was in bed early last night but ended up staying up until midnight reading a book! Though it was late it was incredibly delicious to just read an engaging book (Madman by Terry Groot).

So, Chloe and I slept until 8 this morning and that set the tone for our sluggish day. We moved slowly, missed Chloe's reading time at the library, and were both generally crabby. Chloe must be struggling with something because she hardly ate anything today and was super whiney this afternoon. And she even threw her first real fit! That's not a first I'm proud of . . . she was tugging at my legs as I tried to clean up the kitchen and I gave her a stern "No". She collapsed on the floor, curled up on her side and screamed! I told her no again, and then just let her have her scream.

Boy, was it frustrating to endure her crying! What tricks of the trade do you moms suggest for handling such things?

Thankfully, Chloe finally collapsed for a nap about 3:45 and I happily joined her for some zzzzzs. Matt whisked us away to Subway for dinner and a very comprehensive Wal-Mart excursion.

And now, all is quiet. Ahhhhhh. Thank goodness God's mercies are new every morning.

Ah, the joys of waking up early

Last night I finally made myself go to bed before 10 in order to aid my early-morning waking. It is such a lovely feeling to be up, showered and sipping my cup o' joe (a yummy cup of some peanut butter chocolate harry and david coffee - thanks mom!) before the household wakes. Unfortunately, I didn't get up as early as I liked and alas I don't have enough time to exercise before Chloe rises. But I still feel great for not being such a lazy sluggard!

Today Chloe and I are off to our first Moms' Club of Cuyahoga Falls meeting. Our local MOPS group disbanded so we'll see what the Moms' Club is all about. Sounds to be more involved than MOPS was with montly Moms night outs, daytime activities, a book club and community service projects.

What's on your agenda for today?

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrgh!

Avast, me hearties! Here be the day long awaited . . . tis September 19th - the official Talk Like a Pirate Day!

Here are some basics in pirate lingo:
Ahoy! - "Hello!"
Avast! - Stop and give attention. It can be used in a sense of surprise, "Whoa! Get a load of that!" which today makes it more of a "Check it out" or "No way!" or "Get off!"

Aye! - "Why yes, I agree most heartily with everything you just said or did."
Aye aye! - "I'll get right on that sir, as soon as my break is over."
Arrr! - This one is often confused with arrrgh, which is of course the sound you make when you sit on a belaying pin. "Arrr!" can mean, variously, "yes," "I agree," "I'm happy," "I'm enjoying this beer," "My team is going to win it all," "I saw that television show, it sucked!" and "That was a clever remark you or I just made." And those are just a few of the myriad possibilities of Arrr!


To find out how pirate-y ye be, here be the pirate test. Ahoy, mates!

A loss and a victory

The Packers let us down again this week with another loss, leaving them with an 0-2 record for the season start. Sigh. We have been blindly optimistic about our favorite team but it looks like it will be a dull, depressing season for the Pack. What team are you rooting for this season?

We also experienced a small victory in our battle with Chloe and our church's nursery. Chloe's been expelled from nursery for 3 weeks running, and yesterday she made it through an entire service! She'd always done fairly well in the nursery but for some reason moving into the 11-18 month room was difficult. Thank God for a patient worker yesterday! He stuck by Chloe and didn't let her cries bother him. He played by her side and though she wasn't the happiest camper, he was determined to help her make it through.

How do your kiddos handle the nursery? What ages/phases did they go through in their bouts of separation anxiety?

Opinions

I realized today that Chloe's hair is long and thick enough to be put into a ponytail atop her head! Yay! I have always liked the pebbles and bam-bam baby look.

This morning when I tried this new look on Chloe, Matt laughed and thought I was joking. He said she looked like a smurf.

I tried repeatedly to get a good shot of her ponytailed-head this morning and this was the best one. What's your opinion on my little smurfette's new hairdo?

Anyone need formula?

Now that Chloe is a cow's-milk girl, we have no need for the 6 cans of formula sitting in our pantry. We receive WIC assistance from the state of Ohio so the formula cost us nada. I would love to send these to someone out there in need of formula! I know how crazy expensive these cans are and I would hate for them to go to waste.

Vaccine blues

Yesterday Chloe received her 12-15 mos. shots at our local health department. She's usually a tough cookie and yesterday was no exception. Of course we both cried (as usual) when the needles pierced her chubby thighs (can you believe how deep they stick them?!?). But by the time we were leaving the clinic, she was only wimpering. An hour later she was her old self again, babbling and exploring.

Wellllll, today was a different day altogether! Both Matt and I were feeling sick, nauseous, and sleepy. Chloe was a crab this afternoon and evening so we busted out the children's tylenol and put her to bed early. I'm guessing what happened was that the small doses of viruses contained in the vaccines spread to all of us. Has this happened to anyone else?

One of my favorite words

. . . is the word FREE. I'm always on the hunt for good bargains at second-hand stores and yard sales but Sunday we hit the jackpot. We were on our way to church and noticed that a neighbor was holding a yard sale. As we were running a bit late, we didn't stop but decided to stop on the way home from church. By the time we got to the sale, the sale was over and the folks told us to take whatever we wanted for FREE! There were tons of little girl clothes which were mostly too big for Chloe but I took them anyway. The price was right and I can always put them away until they fit . . . with the way Chloe grows, that might be sooner than I think. I also got a mega-blocks set and truck for Chloe as well as the book "What to Expect during the Toddler Years".

What a blessing that yard sale was! I felt like a vulture gobbling up some tasty morsels as I stuffed clothes into bags to take home. God is so good to provide for our needs in creative and surprising ways like this!

My pretty, pretty princess

Thanks to our recent visit with Grandma Horn, Chloe has added 4 beautiful new dresses to her wardrobe. I'm proud to say that the one she wore to church today (and pictured here) was partly my handiwork! Matt's mom is a sewing wiz and doesn't even use patterns. Can you imagine not using a pattern?!? I sure can't.

Anywho, I had cut out the pieces for this dress but never gotten around to sewing it together. So, my mother-in-law gave me a hands-on lesson in sewing a dress. She'd show and I'd sew. She even created the little sleeves! She simply said, "This dress would be nice with some little sleeves, you don't think so?" and then away she went at cutting them out. I wish I would have been taking notes because I KNOW I won't remember her tips for bias and hem sewing.

So, here are a few photos of my pretty, pretty princess. Dresses like these are hard to come by these days; you should have heard all the compliments Chloe received this morning.





















Mom, that red light warns me that some bright flashes are coming my way. Don't blame me for a funny face!



















I couldn't help but coordinate with my cutie-pie. It must be sub-conscious because Matt wore a red plaid shirt to church this morning too! Does this happen to anyone else?






















Here's Chloe's blue fairy princess dress. It reaches almost to the floor and is made of some lovely blue sheer material. I was thinking of using this as a princess Halloween costume for Chloe. I'd make a hat and maybe try to find some princessy-gloves. What do you think?






















This is the best photo I have of another of Chloe's new dresses. She fell asleep in the car on the way home and had to be taken up for immediate nappage. I'll work on getting a better photo to show off this lovely dress.

A change of recipe plans

Well, I don't know about you, but I'm having a vvvvvvvvvvvvvvery (to quote Dr. Jacquot) difficult time finding recipes for this month's theme on the recipe blog (see post below). I don't have any recipes that only take 5 ingredients!?! How about I change the requirements to 5-8 recipes? Sound good?

Now, let's get some good recipes for this month's theme - SIMPLE SUPPERS. Email your simple supper recipes of 5-8 ingredients to me at aliciahorn@hotmail.com.

I know I dropped the ball this summer with the recipe blog but I'd like to start up again with renewed fervor. Is anyone out there still interested in our recipe swapping blog?

September call for recipes

Calling all cooks! This month's recipe blog theme is (drumroll please) SIMPLE SUPPERS. Email your simple supper recipes which use 5 ingredients or less to aliciahorn@hotmail.com. If you have any ideas for future themes, let me know!

A wonderful visit

Matt's folks have been visiting us for the past few weeks and flew out yesterday. We had a fantastic time enjoying their company and watching Chloe interact with them. I've posted the pictures of our visit below in a slideshow. I'm blessed to have such great in-laws!


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And in this corner . . .

. . . weighing in at 27 1/2 pounds, 32 inches tall is the one, the only, Chloe-meister! Do you think I should enlist her in professional baby sumo wrestling? Doesn't this photo just scream "couch potato in training"? Or maybe "baby beer belly"? (root beer that is).

Don't get me wrong, I love my little Chloe girl. But this photo cracks me up and I wanted to share it with you. Enjoy! And suck in that gut!

A Rare Family Photo

Ok, so it's not the best family photo ever but I'm grateful for it. Do you know how hard it is for us to get all three of us in a picture together? We still don't know too many people here in Ohio so it seems our only family pictures are taken when we have visiting company. Matt's folks have been here visiting us for the past two weeks (which explains my lack of blogging) and this photo was clicked during a trip to a nearby nature park.

You can see how incredibly tall Chloe is in this photo. Weighing in at 27.5 pounds, she's almost too much of an armful for me!

What's your secret for snapping family pictures? Do you use a self-timer?

Blogging How-To Question

Does anyone out there know how to post a movie clip to your blog? I've been trying to upload a brief movie clip as an image but that doesn't seem to work.

Any suggestions?

This girl is GOOD

Chloe continues to amaze me with her ever developing skills and comprehension. Tonight Matt read her a story before bedtime and then Chloe slid off his lap, almost successfully attempted to put the book in place on her bookshelf, turned her doorknob and opened the door, walked into the room where Matt's folks are staying and finding no one she then peered into all the other upstairs rooms. Then she went to the gate, which Matt only recently built, and fiddled with the lock!

As Matt's dad would say, "Clever girl!" What have your kids done that surprised you?

Another injury to report

Poor little Chloe! Today she tripped going into the kitchen and fell smack dab on our iron-shelving-unit (our makeshift pantry). So, now she has a big bruise on her forehead and a matching bruise on the bottom of her right cheek.

Sigh. I have a feeling this is the beginning of many more tumbles, bumps, and bruises. Since she's still learning to walk, she totters and loses her balance often. And she's so heavy and tall (past the 97th percentile) that she fall easily. Usually she lands on her bum and there's no harm done.

Do I need to do more baby-proofing? Or just watch her more closely? Help me, you experienced mums!

Our first semi-serious injury

It's hard to see in this photo, but Chloe garnered a cartoon-sized lump on her forehead this morning. She was sitting in the hallway playing and then next thing I know, she's screaming her head off. Turns out she leaned forward to get her balance to stand up, misjudged the distance to the doorjamb, and konked her head right into the hard old wood door frame.

A knot on her head swelled up so quickly we both cried and cried and I tried to convince my mother-in-law to let me take Chloe to the hospital. After 15 minutes, and many cold compresses later, Chloe was almost back to normal. She was playing like nothing had ever happened! The bump has since gone down and now there's only a purplish bruise on her lovely forehead. Thank goodness she's got bangs to cover up the bruise. I was afraid the nursery workers would give me evil looks for child neglect or something like that.

Boy, babies sure are resilient! I can't believe how much it upset me to see her hurt. Can you imagine watching a child fight cancer and lose? How heartbreaking! Thank the Lord for my healthy, happy and TOUGH baby girl!

Recipe ideas for September

Ok, I've been a slacker with the recipe blog lately. I admit it. August has come and is almost gone and we haven't done any August recipes.

So, to get a jump on September, I need your help. What type of recipes would you like for September? Here are the themes in my brain:

* Fall Apple recipes
* Soups
* Comfort foods
* Simple Suppers (5 ingredients or less)

What are your thoughts? Any other ideas for next month's recipe theme?

Poor Pluto!

It's a sad day for solar system teachers. The ninth planet, Pluto, has just been demoted to the title "dwarf planet" and is no longer considered a true-bonafide planet by scientists. Today the International Astronomical Union made history by voting to create new guidelines for the definition of a planet and hence stripped Pluto of it's planetary status. Read all about it in today's article on the BBC website. So, now instead of 9 planets in our solar system we have 8. I can no longer use the mnemonic device to help students remember 9 planets (My Very Educated Mother Just Showed Us Nine Planets) since the 9th planet is not a planet now. :(

Poor Pluto! What a major rejection. Any thoughts of remorse over losing our very small icy distant planet?

Eurorails Mania

Matt's folks are here visiting and one of our new traditions is to play a long game of EuroRails. It takes several evenings of play to finish it but it's well worth the time and effort. The basic premise of the game is to build railroad track throughout Europe and then to make money delivering goods to various European cities. We're learning geography as we play since the cities are all listed in their native language (Vienna = Wien, Munich = Munchen) and the country borders aren't marked. We're still in the midst of play, so I'll let you know who wins! The winner will be the first to connect 7 major cities and earn 150 million euros.

Have any of you heard of EuroRails? What unusual games do you play with your family?

Weekend Visit

We had a splendid but quick weekend visit with Matt's bro and family. We were in time to see our nephew and niece, Zach and Paige, perform in a choral concert Friday night. Plus we did some shopping, ate ice cream, played games, and attended church together.

Chloe's cousin, Grace, is just 6 months older than her. Grace is walking well and talking up a storm! She's a cute little peanut and is getting very good at saying "Chloe". They still don't interact much together (though Chloe was quick to grab toys away from Grace and Grace looked sad and hurt).

We had such a great time visiting, that I hardly took any photos! Check out our scant pictures from the visit here or by clicking the picture below.

Happy 4th Anniversary to us!

Matthew Clive Horn and I celebrate our 4th wedding anniversary today. As I don't have a scanner, you'll have to settle for pictures of pictures (I took photos today of our wedding pictures just for you bloggers so forgive the poor resolution).

I can hardly believe it's been four years all ready! I am married to the most gracious, humble, and kind husband in the entire world. Matt is my best friend and the man I admire most in the world.

Thank you esposon, for four wonderful years. It feels more like four weeks than four years. Here's to fifty more!

The Big Birthday Weekend

Well, it's Wednesday and the birthday festivities have concluded. My mom and grandmother traveled from Wisconsin to help celebrate and it was fantastic to have them around!

After a day or so, Chloe warmed up to both her grandmas and started giving them hugs and smiling for them. She also is walking ALL OVER THE PLACE! It's so funny to watch her get her balance and change directions in the midst of her tottering steps. We shared many a hearty laugh observing her walking and climbing antics.

Besides the birthday party, we went shopping, played Scattergories, got wet with Chloe in our town's interactive fountain, and just hung around enjoying Chloe. As you can imagine, we took loads of pictures. Check them out here in my photo album blog or click the photo below.

Happy 1st Birthday Chloe!

My family is still in town visiting but I wanted to quickly post a few photos for you of Chloe's first birthday party. We just had family and friends for a cookout and cake. No party theme or anything, just streamers, balloons, and a picture chronology of Chloe's growth through the months.

Chloe didn't react to her cake as I predicted. She didn't want anything to do with it! We think it's because the frosting was a strange consistency or because everyone was looking at her and pressuring her. After the kids went outside, Matt placed just a piece of cake on Chloe's tray and then she ate it like it was nothing special. :) No attacking or devouring - just her regular eating style.

Enjoy the photos, we'll post more later this week.

NO MORE BOTTLES!

Yesterday I bravely put away all of Chloe's bottles and gave her nothing but sippy cups all day. Surprisingly, she didn't put up a fuss even for her evening bottle. We bought some bright new sippy cups for her yesterday, maybe she was too busy exploring them to worry about her bottles?

Anyways, I am doing a 1/2 formula 1/2 whole milk recipe with her to get her tummy used to the cow's milk.

Freedom!

Transitions

Transitioooooons, transitions! (to be sung Fiddler of the Roof style)

With less than a week left before Chloe's momentous birthday, she's all ready transitioning to "big girl" status. Today she skipped her morning nap, which was largely due to a john deere backhoe digging across the street which she couldn't stop watching and talking to, and I'm forcing her to abandon bottles.

I've been giving Chloe a sippy cup since about 9 months so she's very familiar with the cup routine. But she doesn't seem to want to drink it when it contains formula. Today she's hardly drunk (or drank, my grammar expert isn't around to assist me) any liquids even though I've been following her around like a hound-dog with her cup. Tomorrow I can go to the grocery store and get some milk - maybe that will do the trick. Don't tell my doctor that I'm giving her cow's milk 6 days before her birthday! :) A gal pal of mine suggests putting a bit of Ovaltine in with the milk to help her transition. Any suggestions oh wise and experienced bloggers?

Please, pretty please

Chloe signed please today! Even though she continues to shock me with her awareness, this one really took me by surprise. In my noviceness as a mom, I started showing her the sign for please several months ago but got tired of it when she just stared at me blankly.

Tonight while Matt and I were eating supper and Chloe was cruising around us begging for crumbs (I do feed her, she had just eaten earlier than us tonight since Matt got home late) Matt pleaded, "Please?" to Chloe and did the sign. Chloe signed please like a pro!

Now it's our task to be consistent so we can keep this signing jazz up. The only other sign I know is thank you, so that will be next. Have you tried sign language with your children? If so, do you have any tips?

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.