Winter has Arrived

We already had our first snow of the season. This is a photo looking off of the front porch looking onto the pasture. The temperatures have dropped and we have our pellet stove on high gear to keep the furnace from staying on all hours. I am still shocked that it is already November.

Chloe is doing great. It is amazing how fast she grows. I already have a large box full of clothes that no longer fit. She started giving me kisses this week. They are a little sloppy and she needs to work on closing her mouth and puckering. Oh they are so sweet and I love them.

To all the moms out there, have you ever had one of those days that the baby is cranky all morning and the constant noise coming out of the child’s mouth is about to send you running for the hills. Well I have had those days too. One day I could not take it any more and went rummaging through the house for a solution. Tupperware, my friends was my answer. I dropped a pile of lids and bowls on the floor in front of her and it was a miracle. She played quietly for the longest time.

Mickey is Chloe’s best bud. After being chewed on, dragged around and dropped in you can imagine all the places. Mickey was starting to look a little grungy. It was time to give Mickey a good scrub down. I was a little scared because I only have the one and if I messed him up, I am not sure what I would do. I did the sink bath with detergent and tossed him in the dryer on air dry. He came out perfect and his white gloves were white again.

Friday FavoritesI will leave you with a favorite thing of mine, or at least something I am really into at the moment. Blue Bell put out a Mango flavored ice-cream and we decided to give it a try. This stuff is so good. I am usually a chocolate girl all the way but every time I have some I am blown away at how good it is.

The Top Baby Blog site reset and everyone went back to zero votes. If you could please just take a moment to click the button below, by clicking it will register a vote for my blog. Thank You.

My Pumpkin

Happy Halloween. Chloe is a butterfly this year for Halloween. I thought I would share some holiday photos with you. Hope everyone has a safe and spooky weekend.

Wordless Wednesday

Hawaii Wrap-up

It is time to end the Hawaii vacation posts. I thought I would show some photos of some of the meals we had and also some of the plants we encountered. The photo above is of Chloe in her pack–n-play that we brought along on vacation for her to sleep in.

Event at the Waikiki Shell

On the Wednesday evening of our vacation we had tickets to the American Dental Associations Distinguished Speaker event. It was held at the Waikiki Shell pictured above. It is an out door stage with the famous Diamond Head behind it.

We had lawn seating tickets which were perfect. They gave you a straw mat per couple, and sense we had Chloe with us and the stroller it worked out perfectly.

Here is Chris and Chloe lounging on the mat. Wow, my husband is a stud. We have been together for over 16 years and it is nice that sometimes I will look at him and he still has it. LOL. There is something adorable about seeing the man you love play with the child you both created.

The event was early enough to give us some time to relax before the sun went down. Here is Chloe discovering grass. We do not have much of it in New Mexico for her to play on.

Here she is tickling her feet with the blades of grass. So precious!

I thought life could not get better than this, enjoying some family time outside.

The speaker that night was Sidney Poitier. It was hands down the best speech I have ever heard in person by a famous person. He is such a wonderfully great man. He did over an hour long talk about his life and broke it down into snapshots, and it was all about his life before the acting career. Truly fascinating and I will remember it forever.

Honolulu, China Town

Chris and I took a day with Chloe and headed over to China town in downtown Honolulu. We had a wonderful time strolling in and out of all the aisles and shops. They also had a wide assortment of fresh fruits and vegetables. The fish markets were particularly exciting. The shrimp was so fresh that it was actually jumping on the ice. Here are some pictures of our day in China Town.












Here are a few of the things I picked up on our adventure through China Town.

Beach Baby

Ahhh the Beach! Can life get any better than sitting under a couple of umbrellas and enjoying the surf and sand? We were on Waikiki beach. The days that we spent enjoying the ocean we would rent 2 umbrellas and 2 chairs for the day. We purchased a mat, some beach towels and a small umbrella that we set up each day in front of our chairs as a little baby play station. It worked well to keep Chloe out of direct sun light. You can see in the photo above her beach space.

Here is a photo you can kind of see how our umbrella and 2 chairs were set up. This is Chloe and her grandmas enjoying some time together. Chloe is telling them a grand story in secret code baby babble. Lucky for Chloe Grandmas understand every word.

Chloe did great at the beach. I picked her up a pail and shovel with lots of toys. My plan was to actually build a sand castle for my little princess but found my self lazing about enjoying the tranquility of the waves crashing a shore and getting to read bits and pieces of some books I brought.




Chloe was not a big fan of the waves crashing in on her toes. I think the next time we take her to the beach we will find a beach that has more of a lagoon, with no crashing waves. That way she can sit at the edge and feel the water gently tickle her toes.

The pool was a bigger success. She liked the pool. Chris brought her in and she would splash around and watch all the other kids playing.



Bringing a 6 month old to the beach is enjoyable. Just make sure to use sunscreen. We bought the spray on kind that worked well and was easy to apply. Also have some kind of sun cover so the baby is not in direct sun light the majority of the time. The cheap little umbrella we bought worked well. We also saw some people who used a little baby tent at the beach. Another recommendation is to use those little swimmers diapers instead of a fancy swimsuit bottom diaper, because if baby goes number 2 in her fancy swimsuit bottom it is not easy to get that off and then you will need to clean them. Not sure where you would do that on the beach. We used the huggies swimmers and when she had an accident we ripped the sides to take it off and easily bundled them up to toss away. Stay tuned more to come of our trip to Hawaii.

Back From Paradise

We are back from spending a week and a half in paradise with our little Hula girl Chloe. We had an amazing time. But now it is back to reality and the mounds of laundry I am stuck with. I took a ton of photos on the trip. I think through out this week I will do several posts highlighting our trip. I just have too much for one. Bear with me while I go through the photos and get my house back in order and I will start posting.

Vacation is all I ever Wanted

We are packing up and heading to Hawaii. We are staying in Waikiki/Honolulu on the island of Oahu. Chris has a Dental Conference and Chloe and I are tagging along for some fun in the sun. Chloe’s Grandmas from Oregon are meeting us there. They are dying to spend some time with Chloe.

This will be our second time to Hawaii. The first time was in May of 2006, where we took a cruise of all the Hawaiian Islands. If you want to read about our adventures from that trip go to the link and scroll down to the trip report dated May 19, 2006. HERE

I will report all about our trip and have plenty of photos to share when we get back. Traveling with a 6 month old, the flight to Hawaii is over 6 hours long. I am not looking forward to that. I am sure to have plenty of information for all you new Mommies who are planning a trip with your new bundle of joy. Have a great week.

6 Months Old

I can hardly believe Chloe is already 6 months old. She is eating 2 mushy meals a day and 5 to 6 bottles of formula. I weighed her a week ago and she was 15 lbs. She is finally starting to take regular naps during the day, and still sleeps through the night.

  I thought it would be fun to show you some comparative photos to see how much she has grown. The one on the left was her first bath a little over 2 weeks old. The one on the right is this month. We have started to set the wale tub into the bathtub instead of the kitchen sink. I now allow her to sit and play a few minutes after washing to get her to like taking baths.

  The one on the left was taken a little over 2 months old. The one on the right was taken today. The big difference now is she hardly sits still where I have placed her. When she was younger you could just plop her somewhere and she would hardly move from the spot.

Yep she is on the go. She is not crawling yet, but manages to get around very well by rolling. At this stage I am starting to worry about child proofing. Here she is with the dust ruffle in her mouth and I am trying to remember the last time I washed that thing.

  Chloe is starting to need teething toys and I found this one at Amazon after doing a little research. It is from the Vulli line of soft rubber toys I believe from France but the toys are sold world wide. You might have heard of Sophie the giraffe teether. I got Chloe the Chan Pie Gnon. It is kind of like a dog squeak toy, but is safe for her to put in her mouth. What I liked about the shape is how easy it is for Chloe to hang onto and switch it from hand to hand. It is a big hit and I might get another one from their line of toys. The reason I did not get Sophie is because I read some reviews on how the legs might poke her nose or eyes while she is putting it in her mouth.

Our little sweet cheeks is 6 months, the time is flying by. One of my favorite things is to check on her sleeping in her crib before going to bed. The kid is just too adorable when she is all cuddled up and a sleep. It is certainly the best ending to a day you could possibly ask for.

Note from Chloe
Psst…. I am down here. I am officially 6 months old and I thought I would share some of my new found wisdom with all the babies in the house.

Tip #1
While harnessed in your car seat and unable to move your head out of direct sunlight try taking your sock off and place it strategically over your face to block the sun.

Tip #2
If you are playing on the floor and you hear Mom approaching cover your eyes you will become invisible. Mom gets a big kick out of this and starts asking where I am. LOL

Tip #3
If you need a little excitement in your life try flipping over on your belly while getting a diaper change.

The Final Tip
Keep them guessing. If you refuse to eat a certain food 3 days in a row then on the 4th day go ahead and chow down like it taste good, then on the 5th day refuse to eat it.

Wordless Wednesday

Labor Day Weekend

We kept busy around here Labor Day weekend. I was able to work on some projects I started a while back. Chris and I took Chloe to one of the local festivals. She showed great interest while we ate a bunch of junk food. It is starting to feel like autumn, my favorite time of year. It is so nice to be able to open the windows and enjoy the crisp breeze.

I finally finished the lap blanket I was working on. I just did a basic single crochet through out the body and finished it with a shell pattern around the outside edge. Chloe was my judge on how it turned out. She did several tests before coming up with her conclusion.

The smell test. Thank goodness I washed it first.

The Touch test.

Finally, the Taste test. At this age everything goes right into the mouth for final scrutiny.

The judgment is in, and Chloe approves. It is a big hit.

   Photo above of a baby girl modeling a free knit pattern found on the knitty website.

Of course I did not wait long to start another project. I have a ton of yarn in my cabinet and my goal is to use it all up. This is my next project; it is called Katja a little tank top designed by Tisra Fadely.. You can find the free knit pattern at knitty in their spring 2006 issue, Go HERE for the pattern. I am using Plymouth Yarn Sunsette in color #23 a light lilac purple. It is a rayon acrylic blend so I will be able to throw it in the washer and dryer. It is super soft and feels like an old worn t-shirt, so I thought it would work nicely next to Chloe’s skin. I will show you my progress. Today the date is 9-9-09 couldn’t resist posting today.

5 Months Old

Chloe is five months old today. This past weekend I was able to sit her up and for the first time she was holding her self up by her arms. From what I have read this is how they will start to sit up on their own. She can only do it for a short period of time then she falls over. This little step is so exciting; I can not wait for her to be sitting up on her own.

At 5 months she does not have any teeth yet but she is working on it. Everything goes right in her mouth and she chomps down on it. She is doing well with her solid foods. I have increased it to 2 feedings a day of the solids. I give her a mixture of rice cereal & applesauce in the morning and I give her a fruit & a veggie in the afternoon. Sweet Potatoes are still her favorite and she can not stand peas or carrots.

Diapers 101
When I was pregnant I decided I did not want a changing table. So what I use is the Sara Bear diaper Caddy. It is a basket with little compartments for all your diaper changing stuff. This made it easy to carry the basket around where ever you do a diaper change. We have found the best way to buy diapers is buying them in bulk. Cost wise you save a lot of money that way. At the moment she is in between size of the brand I usually by so we bought a cheep brand to get us through this size. They work fine except that they do leak more and you end up with more clothing changes during the day. You can also buy the wipes in bulk too. I do not care for the cheaper brand for the wipes. The cheap brand I picked up when I was out of stock, the darn things did not link together so they would not pull up through those wipe containers, very frustrating when you only have one hand. I will not buy the cheap brand again on wipes. When I first started changing Chloe’s diaper I had never done it before. I was slow and nervous and it was worse when people were trying to talk to me when I was trying to concentrate on the task at hand, especially if Chloe was crying at the time. Now that I have changed about 1200 diapers, the changing part is pretty easy.

Note from Chloe
Psst…Hey word on the street, not Sesame Street, my neighborhood is that my Mom was bald as a baby. I can not believe I am just now hearing this. I turned 5 months old today and look at me, just some measly peach fuzz. I have all this stuff I am dealing with like trying to figure out how to crawl, how to get the rice cereal up my nose, & how to avoid naps at all cost. Maybe if I try to make my own hair tonic, I can get my hands on some sweet potatoes and maybe mix it with some applesauce and smear it all over my head. I love sweet potatoes, this might work.

Wordless Wednesday

Solid Foods

Once Chloe hit 4 months at the end of July the doctor gave the go ahead to start her on rice cereal and pureed foods. I started her on rice cereal and she did pretty well. Then I have been trying a different food every 3 to 4 days. So far she likes Butternut Squash, Sweet Potatoes, apple sauce, & bananas. She could give or take pears, and she hates carrots. Solid foods are a whole new realm of messy. Mushy gush gets every where and she will often take a bite of food then stick her thumb in her mouth to finish it, getting food all over her hands and her face. She will also grab the spoon and help me feed her. So far it has been a fun experience and yes I have made the airplane noises while moving the spoon through the air and yes it results in a baby opening her mouth wide for the bite of food. LOL

Chloe has been rolling onto her stomach every time we lay her on her back. She started to hit her head on the ground while in this position. Even though she was on a play mat, blanket and rug, underneath is hard tile so she would start to cry. We found these interlocking foam mats at Sam’s club and we set them up under her floor playing area and they did the trick. She is doing great with the tummy time and I think she will be crawling soon. She just needs to figure out how to get her tummy up and her knees underneath to start the motion.

Chloe has found her feet. Lately she has been holding her legs up for me while I change her diaper. It is pretty funny, like she is helping me. It is only a matter of time before the tootsies end up in her mouth.

Note from ChloePsst…. I have discovered something the adults call a remote. I am not sure what it does but it is very important. At all times the remote is in one or the others possession. When one adult leaves the room the other one will quickly take it into their grasp. I am thinking it controls the universe or something even more important like the mobile on my crib. Every time I try to get a good look at it they quickly take it out of my reach. My advice is if you get your hands on one of these remotes, hide it and don’t let anyone else use it. Catch up with you later.