Life in our house, this week, Part 2

Thursday  .... Audrey sick with a fever
Friday .... Chad & I sick with a fever
Saturday ... Carter & Chloe sick with a fever

Oh, January, I am growing to despise you.   Snow days, sick days, Carter's birthday plans ruined.  This is what January is becoming.  :(

Life in our house, this week

The time has come in our family where we need these:

 Lately the craziness at the table has just been ridiculous.  So ....  time to intervene.

I told Audrey and Carter that for every rule they follow completely at dinner time, they will receive one point.  When they reach 100 points, we will take them out for ice cream.  Where they can practice their manners once again.As you can see, they have already earned 10 points ... beginner's luck?

Moving right along....

Chloe has bonked her head at least once a day for the last week or so.

And the following photos show why:

She loves to climb ... and she can now climb the coffee table, the sofa, the chairs ...

and she thinks she's a big kid.  

Only she's not. :)

  Fortunately she seems to have 9 lives...

Lately I am really enjoying watching the kids relate to each other.

"Big Kid" Chloe has taken to joining Audrey & Carter on the couch to watch Saturday morning cartoons.  Chloe's verbal repertoire now includes "Wa-wa" (Dora, as in the explorer) and "Wii"(as in the video game system).  Ugh.

But even more, I am enjoying seeing how Chloe has begun relating one-on-one with each of her siblings.

Audrey's relationship with Chloe is very much your typical big sister role.  Audrey enjoys reading to, carrying around, and "leading" Chloe in all sorts of girly fun.  I can just see the admiration growing in Chloe's eyes.  Everything Audrey has - Chloe wants to get into!

 It's nice because Audrey is old enough to actually help out with Chloe.  And maybe because of the age difference, there is very little jealousy or rivalry.  Audrey has been very helpful lately - so much that Chad & I decided (for a number of reasons) that she should get a small allowance now. 

I have never seen a kid so excited to make up a job chart for herself :)

Then there's Carter & Chloe.

 They are two little lovebugs.

(That is, when Carter is not tackling her or sitting on her head.  Like I said, 9 lives.... Although I really think he does it in love.  Kind of like how junior high boys tease girls they like? Yup, I'm going with that explanation....)

 

 They really do enjoy each other.

And since Audrey is gone at school all day, they spend a lot of time just the 2 of them.

Here they are - YES, watching TV together.  I love how he has his arm around her!

Seriously, they don't watch that much TV but the pictures sure seem to say otherwise!

Oh, and I'll leave you with this little news flash - Chloe STILL loves to chat on that phone!

Little Mommy

How can 18 months go by so quickly?

  

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10th Anniversary

So we're back.  It's amazing what 24 hours or so away from home can do for one's spirits.  Refreshing is the word that comes to mind.  It was nice to be away, it was nice to be away with Chad, and it was nice to be away with Chad in the city of brotherly love. 

We started out with dinner at Bahama Breeze in good old nearby King of Prussia ... because we couldn't leave til rush hour and we certainly didn't want to spend our precious time sitting in traffic on the Schuylkill Expressway.  So we ate and talked and enjoyed the time alone! 

We stayed right across from Penn's Landing and down a few blocks from "Old City".  Penn's Landing is supposedly where William Penn "landed" in Philadelphia.  Now it is the home of a seaport museum and a few old WW2 submarines, as well as being the place to go for fireworks on New Years or July 4th.  (I will admit that I did not know all this before, despite growing up only about 30 miles away.  Actually, much of this trip was an informative history lesson for me!)

 View from our hotel window out toward the Delaware River/Penn's Landing

 Another view toward Market Street

Bundled up out front of the hotel in boots and down jacket, and ready to hit the sights!

This is what stinks about having a January anniversary ... it is never, I repeat NEVER warm out.  Unless you fly off to the Caribbean.  Which we will probably never do until the kids graduate from college ...

 We started at Christ Church .

We saw (and sat in) the pews belonging to George Washington, Ben Franklin, and Betsy Ross.

We also ran into Audrey's teacher & her mom here, no lie!

What are the chances???

Next we headed to the visitor center and saw a 30 minute movie called Independence - a good intro for the things we would see later on.

Independence Hall, which is currently covered in scaffolding.

But we had a great tour and I actually learned a lot!  Probably helps that this time I was actually paying attention and not counting the minutes until the school bus stopped at McDonalds.

I have a totally renewed appreciation for the history surrounding our city.

 

... since we are the "Keystone State"

This is where it all began ... the decision to separate from England, the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the making of the Constitution ...

The tour guide made a point I hadn't really realized before.  When our founding fathers signed the D of I, they really thought they were signing their own death sentences.  After all - they really did not want to start a war.  And if they lost the war (which they realistically thought would probably happen), then they were sure to hang for treason.  But they still felt they needed to take a stand for what was right and fair.

Thank God for people of principles.  I don't feel there are many left these days.

 

We headed over to the City Tavern for lunch.  This tavern has been around since colonial times.

And the founding fathers came here to debate what to do about England way back when.

But ... for us -there was no debating.  Just chatting about our day.  And wondering what the kids were up to.  (Yes it was nice being away from them - But we still missed them!)

We also took a stroll down Elfreth's Alley, also known as our nation's "oldest residential street".

It is so cute and quaint, and people still live in these houses (and have to deal with tourists like us walking through ...)

What a great day.  It is so great to just get to hang out together and have no one asking for snacks and drinks!  Here's to many more great years together (and many more fun trips like this)!

Outta here!

Tonight Chad & I are headed down to Philly .... OVERNIGHT!  (And without children I should add...)

Woo hoo! 

It was our 10th anniversary on January 6th and some awesome friends from church offered to come stay overnight with our kids ... so off we go.  We are planning to spend the day tomorrow checking out the historical stuff that I haven't seen since I was on a field trip in grade school and ran through it all at lightning speed.  Maybe visiting Independence Hall sounds nerdy to some but it sounds fun to me.  Anything that exercises my brain (beyond resolving sibling arguments or thinking about what to make for dinner) sounds good to me right now! 

TTFN!  (Ta Ta For Now!)

Chloe at 18 months

I haven't been keeping up with my monthly updates ... I think from now on I will just post about Chloe's growth and development as interesting changes show up.  

So lately ... well, interesting changes have been showing up.   :)

First:  the positive developments.

Chloe is saying more words.  My favorite new word by far is "Please" ... she signs the word "more" while saying (oh-so-sweetly) "Please!"  It is way cute but now she does have the idea that if she says please (and gives her sweetest smile) that she can have anything she wants.  Which has occasionally led to a meltdown when the request is for cookies for dinner! 

Here is a little sneak peek at her saying please ...

Moving onto other developments ... Chloe has learned to "sing."  Her favorite right now is "Twinkle, twinkle little star" ... she sings it - well, her version of it - while doing hand motions (the best part is that she can make a little diamond with her fingers - too cute).  She enjoys music and also does a little dancing when music comes on.  

Today she started a Mommy & Me swim class.  She really seemed to enjoy it and she was totally relaxed in the water.  She is a little bit of a fishie ... every night after dinner she begs for a bath (with sign language) and if you ask her if she wants to get out ... she hides in the corner of the tub!  

Chloe's new favorite thing is BOOKS.  She loves to look at book after book - as long as they are interactive in some way (lifting flaps, touch & feel, etc.)  I hope she keeps loving books ... like her mama!

And one of my favorite new Chloe developments is that she is giving hugs, kisses, blowing kisses ... and sometimes it is totally unsolicited.  She will just reach for you and say "Ooh-wah!" and hug you.  So sweet.

And now for the more, ahem, "challenging" developments ...

Chloe has become quite the picky eater.  She has about 5 foods that she will dependably eat (well, excluding ice cream, cookies, cupcakes, and the like).  The rest of the time?  I am busy guessing what she might find worthy of putting in that delicate little mouth of hers.  Or cleaning up the mess after she has tossed her plate and every last piece of food on the floor.  You think I'm kidding.  The other night I gave her some macaroni and cheese.  What kid doesn't like good ol' mac & cheese?  Well, I placed it on her tray, turned around and that quickly the whole bowl had been thrown on the floor.  UGH.  So, she had applesauce and crackers for dinner.  Because that is what her highness would allow to pass by her lips that particular night.  This too shall pass, this too shall pass (repeat to self while counting to ten). 

[However, she does have a little bit of table manners lately.  She has been using a spoon with increasing accuracy ... because of course she refuses to let us feed her anything.  Miss Independent!]

Chloe also knows when she is being naughty.  The problem is:  If I reprimand her and she knows I am not happy.... she will turn around and do something even MORE naughty.  It's like a mini-standoff!   Example:  Me:  "Chloe, don't bang that on the coffee table!"  Chloe:  Bangs item even harder on coffee table.  And then throws everything on the coffee table on the floor.  All while giving me a defiant look.  Other example:  Chloe tried to pull something out of the wall socket.  Not good ... so Chad gives her hand a little smack and says "NO Chloe, danger!"  She looks at him, sizes him up, and laughs while trying to pull it out again.  The louder he reprimanded her, the more determined she was to defy us.... My, oh my.   This too shall pass, this too shall pass (repeat to self while counting to ten.)

Chloe has also picked up another skill ... and this one is our own fault ... she wants to play Wii:

Of course, all these "challenges" are a normal part of developing into a little person, so I take the picky, naughty stuff with a grain of salt at this point.  It's all about exploring her world and figuring out boundaries and understanding cause and effect at this point.  She is just exploding with new actions and words and funny stuff each day, and  I am just so happy to have her around.  She is a little ray of sunshine and fills our days with lots of laughs right now!