she's walking!

I KNEW IT! she's walking! this past weekend, she decided that she was done with just a few little steps here and there and is a walking machine! now she walks at every opportune moment and does so until she's so tired that she can't walk anymore! lots of fun. am in total denial that tomorrow is august 1st and that means that school will be back in session soon. i officially start back on the 21st..but will be there a few days early to set up my new room and go to new teacher orientation. lots to do between now and then!

10 months old

our girl is growing so fast! no walking yet...just a few steps at a time. lots of babbling and being social. she ALWAYS gets attention every time that we go out in public. summer's been great, aside from the few heatwaves that we've had. otherwise, all is well. just wanted to add some new photos for her 10 month milestone.

fourth of july eve

summer is awesome. it's been super nice getting to hang out with dave and chloe every day....sleep in, sort of. :), lounge, eat, read, etc. have had a busy couple of weeks. summer is the best time to get all of my "errands" done...smog check, doctor appointments. feeling like i've gotten a lot done. PLUS...all the visiting. kiki, chloe, and i went over to santa cruz last weekend to visit catherine, carrie, and malcolm. had a nice little lunch. kiki took all the pics though. will work on that. visited with cousin tiff and syndey this week. can't believe how grown up sydney is! 3 1/2 already and in her big-girl room. the biggest news is that i've met my half-sister elisabeth. we started emailing about 2 months ago and have met in person a few times. we went up to my mom's yesterday and they got to meet for the first time. "e" is super cool, like me (ha!) and we have a great time together. chloe's 9 month checkup was monday...currently 19 pounds, 14 ounces. she's doing really well. we've been eating solid foods for a few weeks now. she's become OBSESSED with "o" cereal and likes eating from mom's spoon. she always makes a funny face when i give her something new to try, but so far, there hasn't been anything that she absolutely refuses. of course, now that i've written that down, she won't eat tomorrow. :) she's perfected the princess wave and is still super hilarious. she loves toys that make noise and we suspect a percussionist out of this girl. she's also been taking a few steps a day unassisted...mostly between furniture or parents. she's gonna be walking before we know it. for sure by the end of the summer. she's always smiling and mostly happy....except in the car for extended periods of time. here's a link for the whole slew of recent pics. the link is at the VERY bottom of this entry after all the pics...just cut and paste it into your browser to enjoy.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLandingSignin.jsp?Uc=b2h0app.2hebnpr1&Uy=-wrw0pc
&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0&UV=886623716128_1918340
46605&localeid=en_US

9 months and counting

well, summer's finally here. it's only been a week since school's been out, but what a luxurious and glorious week it's been. been to meet the new math department at saratoga...super nice and very helpful. checked out my new room and am anxious to get in there to make it my own. unfortunately, summer school is in there until august so i have to be patient! something i suck at. :) have been enjoying time with chloe and dave. we spent father's day at chloe's grandparent's house with uncle mike and aunt kate. good times. she LOVES uncle mike and likes to show off her "big arms" to him. she recently discovered that she can wave both arms at the same time..hilarious (see video). she also has taken to what we call "soccer pose"...see the photo above. she loves music...shakes her maracas and plays with the baby tambourine..anything that makes noise is her favorite. she also has discovered that she can touch the piano keys and make noise. it makes her laugh. suffered through a 3 day heatwave last week. makes the days feel like forever...thankfully, we have the A/C, but it still sucks. yesterday we finally had relief...in the 70's and the doors and windows open all day. awesome. chloe has her 9 month well-baby checkup next week. am anxious to get her current stats. i think she's around 24 pounds right now and she's super tall. she can reach to the top of many tables in the house and feel around for any items that are lying about. she's still cruising around furniture and using her walk box in the kitchen. yesterday she took one step unassisted a few different times, so i know that the walking is soon to come. she's super fun and gets attention everywhere we go. she's almost always happy and smiling. we're so lucky. :)

almost summer!

can't believe that it's already june! thinking back to last year when i was just halfway done with the pregnancy to how much has happened is astounding. i certainly do not miss being pregnant! chloe is doing great. she is working on getting her top teeth as her bottom two chicklets continue to come in more and more. she's hilarious and fantastic. starting to free stand while holding toys in both hands. she hasn't quite figured out the walking thing yet, but it's not long now. her favorite things to do right now is sing and babble. "bob" is still a very popular word, but "hi" and "hello" are not far behind. she's getting into looking at books and turning the pages. she likes "brown bear, brown bear, what do you see" and a "touch and feel" book. she still loves to harass the cats. lois actually got so tired of being screeched at that she bit chloe. it certainly took chloe by surprise...but it hasn't sunk in yet that she needs to be gentle...although we're working on it. she likes to go for walks in the stroller and actually fell asleep with her head on the tray last weekend....she was completely folded in half. i tried to sneak in the house to get a picture, but she woke up before i could get the camera.  she also likes to sit on the driveway in the evening and watch the cars drive by and gets super excited when kids coming from the park with their moms and dada stop and say hi. also this month, she gets to sit in the shopping cart now that we're not using the infant carseat anymore. that's been a new experience that she totally loves....and as i'm sure you can guess, she gets LOTS of attention from complete strangers...must be because she's sooooo cute! i'm her mom...i can brag, right? thankfully, i only have a few more days of school left and then the entire summer is ours. i will be moving my classroom as i got a new job teaching at saratoga high school next year. it's been a tough decision to leave lincoln after 9 years there, but i just can't pass up the $$ they're willing to pay me for the same job i'm doing now. am a little nervous and excited...so we'll see. BUT....am sooo looking forward to hanging out with chloe all day, every day and getting to do some fun day trips with her to the beach, the pool, and maybe to happy hollow with cousin sydney. 

ps. there are new photos on kodakgallery.com, but it won't let me post the url...if you've been to the gallery before, you probably can see the new folder. check it out and let me know if it works. 

The 7th month

Happy May Day! Chloe is a mover! In the last month, she has gone from "sort of" crawling to a crawling machine! Her favorite things to do are to chase the cats and try to get the cats' food and water bowls. The funny thing is, though, when she's going towards something she's not supposed to, she pants really loudly and gives herself away....except when she snuck up on the water bowl and we didn't hear it until there was water everywhere! Just like bath time! She's also perfected pulling herself up to pretty much anything...the coffee table, the walls, your legs. Her best move is walking around the coffee table and then deciding she wants something on the floor, so she flops down on her butt in a loud whump! She's babbling up a storm too. Her favorite "word" is bob. Everything is bob. We ask her "bob who?" and she smiles. We discontinued feeding her solids as I think I was giving her too much and she got really constipated and stopped sleeping very well. I figure when she's ready, it'll happen. She likes eating in the high chair, so we still give her some cereal on the weekends, but it's not an every day thing. She's been enjoying rides around the neighborhood in the stroller and going down the driveway to watch the cars drive by. My favorite thing is when I come home from work and she gives me a big hug and an open mouthed "kiss" on my cheek. I also love waking up with her on the weekends and having her smiley self crawl all over me to wish me a good morning. She is a happy baby overall and I love getting to know her more and more every day.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLandingSignin.jsp?Uc=b2h0app.6qnpy0f1&Uy=853xp
b&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0&UV=8916750458_564846
624605&localeid=en_US

6 months and counting

chloe is crawling! our giant baby is now 18 pounds 3 ounces (probably more since this was on 3/21) she's in the 85th percentile for weight now...but that's only because she's burning so many more calories by moving around so much! she's not so much into her exersaucer or her bouncy chair anymore as all she wants to do is crawl! we had to clear out the dining room to give her her own little play area as the crowded living room with all the cords and plugs and dvds were becoming a bit treacherous. she's super happy most of the time. we started some rice cereal over my spring break, but i think that i was giving her too much and it gave her really bad tummy cramps...and thus wasn't sleeping more than an hour in a row. UGH. she oftentimes talks to herself and loves to shove her bib and any tags that she can in her mouth. she loves to see herself in the mirror and when daddy gives her a pony ride. she smiles all the time as you can tell by the open mouth in every one of the photos! enjoy. videos have been taking a long time to upload....so i'll work on that. here are some pics.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLandingSignin.jsp?Uc=b2h0
app.a6jhao45&Uy=heady1&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode
%3Dfromshare&Ux=0&UV=772519401728_969876643605&
localeid=en_US