Chloe Update

Chloe is now 2 years 7 mos. Her biggest accomplishment in the last few months was getting potty trained! This was a really big deal and it made life a lot easier (and cheaper). She trained up in about 2-3 days shortly after her 2nd birthday. She's been pretty consistent ever since. Way to go Chloe! OH and another big one, she's now in a big girl bed in Taylor's room. This was huge. She was afraid of the bed for the first few weeks. Then one day she decided she wanted to sleep in it and has been in it ever since. She still naps in her crib but sleeps at night in her bed.

Chloe is all about the rules. (At least one of the kids is). One of our rules is no food or drink in the playrooms or bedrooms. Chloe will scream "oh no, no food in here, Coby no food in here!!!" every time Coby sneaks into the playroom with a cracker. She gets really upset about it and will even start crying if I don't make him take it out. She's also really obedient, most of the time. She's a rule follower, a people pleaser and she keeps her siblings in check. Now if I can get her to continue this pattern into adolescence and get the scoop on what Taylor and Coby have been up to that would be nice. :)

One of Chloe's favorite things to say are "I'm so happy!" After she has been crying she'll announce to everyone that "She's happy now." It's pretty cute. She also says "Watcha doin' mama?" quite often. She's also really in tune to how people feel. If I'm ever sick or tired she'll come up to me and say "what's wrong mama?" Today I said I was just tired and she brought me her favorite blanket and said "Here mama, this blanket will make it all better." So sweet!

She's really into her letters these days. She LOVES to make letters out of chopsticks, sticks, blades of grass, her food, just about anything. Today she came up to me and said "Look mama the water made a "T"! Sure enough when I dumped the water out of one of their cars outside it made the letter T. Chloe also LOVES to sing. She has a few songs she loves, and she's really bossy about the songs she lets you sing. If I ever start randomly singing a song, she'll go "NO mama, no sing ABC's, sing Row Row your boat instead!"

She's also likes to report on everything she sees. If she sees a bug she'll scream "A bug, a bug, I see a bug, t-t get the bug!" And she'll say this for hours on end until someone says "wow Chloe a bug." Taylor gets kind of annoyed with this and she often says things like "okay Chloe I'll smash the bug, see it's gone now, no more bug", then she'll go back to putting her puzzle together or whatever else she was doing. Another one of her favorite thins to do is announce very loudly when someone enters a room. If Coby comes downstairs after a nap she'll let everyone know that he's awake now. And if Grandma shows up at the front door she'll get super happy and run and tell every one she sees that Grandma is here. "Mama, mama, Grandma's here! You see, Grandma's here!!!!!" And she usually says something like "I'm so happy now."

She is very energetic, she never just walks into a room. She's either running or bouncing or hoping everywhere she goes. She never slows down and she often wipes out because she's constantly bouncing off the walls. She will tell me, however, when she needs a nap. Today she came up to me and said "Mom, I think I'm ready for my nap now." She naps about 2-3 hours a day and sleeps 10-11 hours at night (although she's in bed from 7-7).

She's a major follower, she copies everything Taylor does, everything. Taylor is the boss and Chloe doesn't seem to mind. She plays very nicely with her sister because they are so different. One thing that's funny though is that when they are out of the house Chloe takes over the leader role and Taylor is often the shy, quiet one. Chloe make friends very easily, at the park or play areas. It's going to be interesting to see how things go this fall at preschool.

Chloe is still a great eater. She eats just about anything. It's really nice to have at least one child who is easy to feed. :) She's getting really tall, and now wears size 3T clothing.

Chloe a such a joy to be around. She continues to be a super sweet, happy child. She has the best laugh ever, and she smiles non-stop. We can't imagine our lives without Chloe in it. What a blessing she is to us.

Don't tell Chloe

Sometimes when Chloe takes a super long nap, I let Coby and Taylor have popcorn parties in the living room and watch old school mickey mouse youtube videos.

Coby Update

Coby is pretty much as sweet as they come. He's about 19 months now. He's extremely active, he never slows down. He loves to climb, run and jump. He doesn't get very far off the ground when he jumps but it's very cute. He also loves giving kisses to everyone in the room.

He follows simple commands, and understands alot of what we say. He's not nearly as verbal as the girls were at this age, but he says mama, papa, ball, baba. He knows what he wants and gets really really mad when we can't figure it out. We're hoping he starts talking more soon! We just took away his sippy cup/bottle. He was miserable for the first few days, but now he's fine and eating alot more. He's really into feeding himself with a spoon these days. He likes baby food again. He won't eat veggies or fruit unless they come from a jar. He's super picky about the textures of food so we're working on trying to get him to eat more of a variety. My big goal this summer is to get him to eat a blueberry. :)

He loves loves loves his sisters (most of the time). He wants to do whatever they are doing and he thinks everything they do is funny. He's super easy to make laugh and he has the cutest laugh/smile you've ever seen. He's really into stacking blocks, or just about anything he can find. His other favorite things to play with are his shape sorter, puzzles, cars, and of course his slide. He likes to go down headfirst and backwards.

He's also a big cuddler these days. He comes up to Jake and I throughout the day just for a hug. He'll let you hold him for 10 minutes or so then he's back to playing. He'll even fall asleep on you occasionally while you're holding him, which he hasn't done since he was about 4 mos. old. I love it! He continues to be our best sleeper. He sleeps 7-7 at night and lately has been napping 3-4 hours each day from about 12-4.

He still has not figured out how to bite or hit his sisters, even though they deserve it. :) The boy is a sweetheart! The one naughty thing he does is headbutt when he wants something. When I take him out, he tries to headbutt and tip over kids twice his size. He'll run and grab the ankles of a 4 year old kid and knock him over. He does this when he wants a turn on the slide but doesn't want to wait in line. :) My rule when we are out is that if he makes 3 kids cry I take him home.

Oh and he is HUGE. He's in 3T clothing right now. They fit him perfectly. He has his 18 month appointment next month so I'll have a more accurate update then. I'm guessing he's around 30 lbs.

"It's no kid's birthday!"

Last week was my birthday. We celebrated by having dinner at my parents house and then (here's the best part), we left the kids with Grandpa and Grandma and went back home alone. It was SO nice to have a few days off. Best birthday present ever!

Taylor and Chloe still say "Happy Birthday!" every night when we put them to bed. They've been doing this since Christmas. I'm not really sure if they understand what a birthday is yet, but they do know it involves cake, candles, presents and of course birthday hats. All day Chloe was saying "It's mommy's birthday, it's Chloe's birthday, it's Taylor's birthday, etc. Taylor kept getting really mad at her and saying "It's no kid's birthday!!! It's only mommy's birthday!"

Jake was able to come with my to the Dr. on Thur since the kids were away. It was pretty exciting seeing a baby on the ultrasound. I guess you never really believe it till you see it. I think my due date is early Nov, so I'm about 3 months along. Coby will be 2 and the girls will be 3 by then, so we feel like it's good timing. Things never work out how we plan them to but at least it's not triplets! I feel like one baby will be SO easy compared to what things were like when Coby was a newborn. And having my family here this time to help will make a huge difference. My mom's offered to take the kids for a week or two when the baby is first born. I can't even imagine how awesome that will be to just come home to an empty house to recover and get settled with baby #4.

Quote of the day

Said while walking to the park:

"Look, Mommy there's a red stop sign! It's not a circle, it's an octogogogaon."

Accidents Happen

Easter Package from Gamma

Jake's mom and my mom both spoiled the kids this Easter (like they do for EVERY holiday). They got more than enough from both sets of Grandparents, Jake and I told the Easter bunny to skip our house this year. :) Here's the kiddos having fun with Gamma's Easter package.

Taylor has carried around these three little ducks for days. She loves them! That's her "Don't mess with my ducks" look!

Of course making a mess is WAY more fun than playing with your new toys.

The aftermath

Good thing they're old enough to clean up now!

Taylor wanted me to take a picture of her smiling while cleaning up. I really hope she gets over this creepy smile phase soon. :)

Happy Easter from Chloe

The only one who would sit and smile for an Easter photo.



She is just so cute I want to squeeze her!

Easter Egg Hunt

Tulip Fields

Last week we took a trip to the tulip fields with my dad's sister, brother in law and daughter Noelle. The tulips weren't in full bloom so we're going back next week to see them again. Here's a few photos of our trip.

Big Boy

This happened a couple of weeks ago, but Coby wanted to make sure I documented it. He's big now, he eats with a spoon.

Make up

The girls had never seen make up before Anna's wedding day. All of the bridesmaids got ready together so I brought the girls to join in the fun. About and hours before the wedding and found them trying to put make up on. And the other day I found Taylor on the bathroom counter, looking in the mirror covered in eye shadow.

Never Ever

Let your 2 year olds pee alone.

Tiny Dancer

Well, maybe not so tiny. Coby danced for about 45 minutes by himself while everyone ate. He was so thrilled when Great-Grandma finally decided to join him. He was so cute in his little suit! Here's our little dancer boy.