The Bounce House

This entire post is dedicated to the new bounce house. Chloe's Nana and Nano sent her a Bounce House for Christmas and she has been a bouncing machine. She likes it so much that even when it started snowing we put it up, we just moved it into the garage. We probably bounce 2 hrs a day on average. She just loves it. Chloe has managed to get both Ryan and Caitlin to play with her in the house and of course Doug and I have spent our fare share of time bouncing. It is rated to 100lbs per person and 300 lbs total so we are careful but, you can definitely run around with her in there and as you can see it can easily manage two bigger guys if they are both sitting and playing with her.

ChristmasParty

We went to a Christmas Party for the PTA and if you look closely at Santa you might recognize him. Chloe obviously still wasn't a fan :). She is a tad scared of Santa but did love that he delivers candy canes. She really did have a ball despite what her face looks like in this picture.
This is a picture of the moment Santa entered the room. He was mobbed by the kids and as you can see Chloe wanted to check him out. Santa did a great job. The kids loved him.
Chloe with her friends; Hayden, Emma and Alex. This is the crew that meets up each week for a play date.

Below is Chloe climbing up a ladder all by herself. The Christmas party was at this place that is a warehouse full of bounce houses, this one in particular the kids have to get through a maze and then climb up a ladder and then they go down a slide. Chloe made it up once and she was hooked. She kept going round and round and round. I was surprised she could climb up the ladder it was a tough one but, she did awesome. The second video is of Chloe and Hayden doing their favorite thing, chasing each other. Ok, Chloe always chases Hayden but they both seem to enjoy it that way :).

Dec09

Chloe received a great hand me down tricycle from some friends so, of course we had to try it out. For the first few days it was at the house we did laps with it inside but, alas it had to make its move to the garage to save the Christmas Tree and/or Chloe from distruction.

Chloe and I met up with some of her friends for a ride on the Polar Express. It was a super cold morning so although the kids were decked out in pajamas they were hidden under all of their winter gear. The train ride was quite fun but unfortunately Chloe wasn't a big fan of Santa so, as he made his way through the car she hid. Maybe we will have better luck at the next party. She does now say: "Santa is Ok" and "He is a good guy." There is hope for the jolly fellow yet.

Chloe getting geared up for our Polar Express outing. I absolutely adore this picture of her. She just looks so dang cute.

For Chloe's actual Birthday her school let me bring in Birthday Cupcakes which Chloe insisted should be blue. Why? I have no idea, not even sure she knows what color blue is. But, I made blue cupcakes anyway. The kids sang her Happy Birthday and Chloe ate the cupcake and the candles on top. I know. What? Yes before we could light the candle she had it in her mouth munching on the wax, it was pretty so maybe it looked tasty.

Below is Chloe playing with the puzzles her Aunt Megan sent her. Boy, were these ever a hit, she plays with them every night after dinner right now and most mornings. She knows all the shapes and likes to lay all of the puzzles out and fill them in by shape. So they all get circles, then ovals, then rectangles and so on. She also likes to take the shapes and just turn them into interesting shapes by putting them together. It is great fun.

2nd Birthday

Oh so once again I have posted the pics out of order, sorry. Here Doug is showing Chloe the benefits of leftover Birthday Cake. He put the box on the floor and the two of them had a great time eating all that remained of the cake. It was quite cute.

Chloe's friend Emma came to her party and since Nana and Nano had brought their piano to give to Chloe, Em and Chloe had a place to show off their musical talents. Kids just love to bang away on pianos. We are all learning how to play a few tunes it is fun. Trivia: Did you know Doug can actually read piano music and play tunes? No. Neither did I.

I thought Chloe's Birthday Cake was absolutely beautiful. One of Dylan's friends made it for her. Yes, a 17yr old did all of that work. I was really impressed and everyone said it tasted good too.

Here we are listening to Miss Allison read us a good book.

I love this picture because Chloe just lit up when she saw the baby and the stroller she got from her friend Hayden and his mom Miss Meghann.

Below is a video of Chloe dancing getting ready for her party. Nothing like a little dance to get you going.

November

So I figured before the Christmas festivities got underway and I had even more pictures to post I better get the ones up from Chloe's Birthday and then I realized I hadn't posted since Halloween. Sorry. So I will play a little catch up here. Chloe is doing great. She has her 2 yr Check up tomorrow. She can now count to 11 with no mistakes, she is pretty great with numbers, colors are a different story :). She really can pretty much verbalize anything and everything which is pretty great. She is just so much fun. The top picture is from a few days after Thanksgiving when Nana and Nano were visiting. She has just opened up her presents from them and is playing with a ball.

This picture is from Thanksgiving. Meg and Art were able to make it here to see us. Ryan and Janet came up and Doug by some miracle got a day off in the middle of his stretch and was able to come home for 24hrs. It was perfect. We had a great dinner and afterwards Chloe played and played and played with Ryan and Janet. They were just awesome with her, it was so wonderful to see.

Chloe and I went to her first performance. We went to see a performance at Casa Mana in Ft Worth. It is kid friendly and we went with a group of other kids her age. Here she is all dressed up and waiting to go into the theatre. She did great during the performance but I think she would have enjoyed it more had there been more singing and dancing and less dialogue.

Chloe and I went on a Nature Scavenger Hunt with one of her play groups. Along the way the awesome trail guide and prepositioned artifacts for the kids to find and then she allowed them to pick them up and really explore them. It was awesome. However have to say that maybe a 1 mile loop was a bit much for the little ones especially in the crazy cold wind they have in these parts. Chloe held up like a champ and really seemed to enjoy the experience we would definitely do it again. But I would pack a lunch for her :)

Halloween/HalloweenParty

Ahh so this year I thought it would be a "great" idea to have all of Chloe's friends over for a costume party before Halloween. And actually it turned out to be quite fun. Nana came for the Party and Doug was in town so our child to adult ratio was awesome :). I made Chloe a Flower Princess or Fairy costume and we did get her to wear half of it in the end. Boy was she ever scared of that tutu so it was no small feat to get her in the thing. She wouldn't put on the top or the wings in the end but, hey 50% isn't bad. I just love this picture of her, after we had her all dressed she was dancing around with her marocas (see video at end of post).

We had a craft station at the party where the kids could glue felt cutouts onto pumkins to make jack-o-laterns. You should see how much toddlers love glue :). We were chasing one littlle girl around the living room as she gathered up every bottle she could find and was squeezing with all of her might. Not to worry there were no casualties and we did eventually corner her.

Watch out LadyBug and Princess there is a Monster coming after you!

Just a group shot of most of the kids who were at the pary. Well actually I think three are missing from this shot.

Chloe and myself after I got her into her costume. Yes she got to have her first sucker. You would be suprised how much more willing she was to get in her costume once she was sucking away on sugar. I know not my best mommy moment but, hey a girl has to do what a girl has to do. Lesson learned is probably not to put so much effort into her next costume so I don't care if she wears it or not, ha/ha.


Below is Chloe getting her groove on before the party. Nana is dancing with her and I am the obnoxious one in the background talking, sorry, didn't realize how loud I was until I played back the movie but, Chloe was so dang cute I had to post anyway. In the words of Kiwi "It is what it is"

Halloween 09

Chloe all dressed up for her Schools Fall Festival. My Mom and I got to volunteer at the event and it was great fun to have the opportunity to interact with Chloe and all of her peers.

Here Chloe is at the Fall Festival. Once she realized her Mommy and Nana were at the Party she had a tough time moving away from out stations to do other activities.

Chloe and I met up with some friends at the Pumpkin Patch again this year. The highlight for Chloe was by far and away the bouncy house. That girl can jump and jump and jump, she doesn't care if other kids are landing on her head, knocking her down, what not she just gets back up and jumps. Who knew one kid could enjoy something so much. This picture is of Chloe with her playgroup. She adores all of the kids in her group and usually asks for each of them at least once a day so it is always a treat when we can meet up.

This is Chloe getting her Bounce On.

And of course I couldn't post about a Pumpkin Patch and not include a pumpkin picture. We were trying to round up all of the kids to sit on pumpkins for the picture but well you can imagine that didn't go as planned so :).