It's a Conspiracy!

Ok, first things first, my computer. is. messed. up. AGAIN! This time, after yet another 2-3 nights on the phone with Answers by Gateway they determined that either the memory is going bad or the motherboard is (which sounds very serious to me). So, they said a new memory card is not too expensive so we were going to try that, but when we went to Best Buy the Geek squad said it sounded more like the motherboard and that there was not much that could be done about that. So, we are just getting a new one (or tower anyway, since we just got a new monitor a few months ago), but we have to wait until I get paid. So, for now, it will work very sporadically (usually for about 10 minutes or so) before completely and unexpectedly without warning, shutting down and losing any information you were working on. And we don't have the Internet hooked back up, so I guess pictures will few and far between for a little while! AHHHH!

Secondly, we have decided to turn our house over to a realtor. We have come to realize that with Matthew's additional duties and his "volunteer"(speaking of conspiracies, boy did they pull one over on me when they told me he quit. He just no longer gets paid. At least he loves it. And it's a good thing I love him.) football coaching that it would be very difficult to even show the house if anyone wanted to see it. I'm bummed about that b/c the realtor fee will really cut into our profits, but I think it is necessary. So, she is coming on Friday. So, if you know anyone interested in it you could tell them if they talked to us before Friday they might get a better deal :).

And lastly, today we took Evan to his open house for preschool. He was SO excited and loves his teacher, Ms. Becky. I had one of her daughters for two years and Matthew had her younger one last year, so we were excited, too. Anyway, Matthew had taken Evan to work with him this morning and then Chloe and I met them at 11:00 for the open house. After the open house we ran to get something to eat and then were going to drop Matthew back off at school. When Matthew got out, Evan said,

"You mean Mom is driving me?!"

Matthew kind of laughed and said, "Yeah, son, sorry about that."

And Evan said, "Oh noooo! Puh-leeeaase! You drive me, puh-leeeease!"

Of course, Matthew found this very amusing.

I did not.

Seriously, I am not that bad of a driver!

It's a conspiracy!

Holding Steady

Chloe went back for another weight check today. She weighed 18 pounds 8 ounces (which is a rough estimate since she totally freaked out and would not sit on the scale and so I had to get on the big people's scale with her and then subtract my weight off. I was not happy about getting weighed and requested they not enter my weight in her records, LOL, just kidding). That is up from 17 pounds 15 1/2 oz a month ago, so she basically gained 1/2 a pound in a month. I have no idea how much weight a typical 12 month old gains in a month, so I really don't know if that is good or not, but it kept her nice and steady on the 5th percentile line. So, Dr. Blevins was glad that her growth curve seemed to be leveling out and not going down anymore as it has been the last few times and we got the ok to wait until her 15 month checkup to come back.

I really don't know how the girl is so skinny considering what she eats... this morning she ate an entire Eggo waffle with butter and syrup, every last bite and half of a big banana. It might not be so good now, but someday she will be very very thankful for that metabolism. I sure wish I had it!

Got Milk? (Part 2)

I hope to soon not have milk because....

Mmmm!

Chloe has decided she will drink a little milk. This was what was left of her second cup of milk by lunchtime yesterday. So what did the trick?

A little peer pressure. Turns out it works for milk and toddlers, too, not just alcoholic beverages and teens. We started putting her in our bed beside brother in the morning and turning the cartoons on. We handed them both a cup of milk and she happily drank hers, watching brother out of the corner of her eye the whole time to make sure he was still drinking. At first she only took a few sips, then she started drinking about 1/4 of a cup. Now she will drink about 1/4 to 1/2 a cup in bed and then some more with breakfast and more throughout the day.

I measured and figured out that her cup holds 1 1/2 cups, so that is about 12 ounces. So, yesterday she drank 2 whole sippy cups full so that should be about 24 ounces which I believe is within the acceptable range. So, we have officially weaned! Whew! I was beginning to think I'd be nursing forever.

SUCCESS!

A Real, Live Toddler!

It's official! Chloe is a real, live toddler. She's toddling around and chasing her brother, feeding herself chicken noodles, and into EVERYTHING! She is definitely keeping me on my toes. I chase her all over the house all day long. It seems that she is attracted to danger like a magnet... the stairs, doors that are not fully closed, the fireplace, the hard countertops. We barely avoid a hundred catastrophes a day and we don't manage to avoid a handful more. She currently has a big bruise on her chin from hitting the coffee table on her way down and yesterday she hit her mouth on the hearth and busted her lip. At first I couldn't tell if it was her lip or her one precious top tooth that was bleeding! It would just be our luck to wait for 12 months for a tooth and then her knock it out. But, a Popsicle made it all better.


Here is a video of her feeding herself some chicken noodle and toddling through the house chasing after brother. Notice the near disasters in the video, LOL. Don't forget to stop the music so you can hear her calling for "bubba", it's hilarious!





And as I was cleaning her highchair up from the chicken noodle she was playing in the pantry. I didn't really think there was much she could do damage to in there until I heard a loud noise, came running, and found this.



And for the record, I did not pick every piece I could up and put it back in the box and do not plan to use it for dinner soon, rationalizing that the boiling water would take care of any germs. Who would do such a thing? ;).

Steven Evan Seagal

The uniform is "scratchy". Even tough ninjas are sensitive to "scratchy" clothes. A t-shirt helped that.

Crouching Tiger Chloe, Hidden Dragon

More of Us, Unedited

May the force be with you...

The force is strong with this one.

Chloe loves going for walks in the wagon. Evan will go to amuse her, but he's not so into it anymore.

What a good daddy he will be someday... you know, way way in the future when I'm old and gray.

Hollywood, here I come!

Working in the garden... our garden is huge this year, but we've not had time to correctly care for it and therefore we haven't gotten as much harvest as we usually do. What a shame.

Evan got to hold Oliver all by himself for the first time over Memorial Day weekend (yes, I'm behind). Mom looks a little nervous, LOL.

Ok, I have a few more folders that I really want to edit before I share them, but then I think I will almost be caught up!

Now the kids are clamoring to go outside before it rains so I better run.

Guess what? Chloe drank a 1/4 of a cup of milk this morning in three different settings, but that's progress, right?

Fun With Friends on the Fourth

We had the best time visiting my good friends, Amanda, Chad, Alysse, and Clay, at their new house over the 4th of July. We also got to see our other good friends who will remain anonymous on my blog since they are not into the whole bare-all on the Internet world of blogging. We are getting to be quite a large group with 5 kids currently and one more on the way! It was wild, but fun!

Friday night we went out to eat and then headed to a local festival.

The cast of characters:

Evan

"B"

Clay

Alysse

All the gang...

Eight Seconds???

Uh-oh! Going...

Going....

GONE!! (He did not last eight seconds!)

Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys!

Too late! "B" was the cowboy of the group! He was fearless!

Cowboy Up!

Ride 'em, cowgirl!

The Cowboy Way...

I insisted that we leave the big double stroller at home and that Evan was big enough to walk. I was wrong. But, Matthew stepped right up to the plate. What a dad!

Who'd have ever thought back in the day that this would be how we'd be spending a Friday night before the 4th of July! And then we headed back to our minivans, LOL!

No, the kids did not remain in this sleeping arrangement. Most ended up in the bed with parents, but it was cute while it lasted.

Saturday the plan was to go to the pool and then cookout. But it was freezing! The kids swam for just a little while and they were blue and shivering so we had to head back in. Chloe went downhill fast from there because she refused to nap, so we ended up just packing up right after we ate hoping she would sleep in the car.

We headed to our old college town and campus and drove around a while looking at all that had changed and reminiscing. It was fun. And best of all, Chloe got a little bit of a nap!

All in all, our 4th of July weekend was a total blast!