9 Months!

WOW! Time is really flying...I can't believe that in 3 months, Chloe will be the big birthday girl. She is growing too fast!

Where to begin...so much is happening in Chloe's little world that I don't know where to start. She is crawling very well these days and will follow you if you walk away. We have sectioned off the living room so that she can't get into the kitchen and I am trying to keep her area as clean as possible. I call it the "free zone" because it is shoe free, food free, drink free, dirt free. It's a work in progress, and she is still able to get herself into sticky situations.
**Chloe's Free Zone**

**In a tight spot**

Teeth are of constant concern these days. Chloe has 5 that you can see very well. Three on top and two on the bottom. Today number 3 on the bottom was poking through making a total of 6, but number 7 (which is on the top) will be poking through tomorrow or the next day. She has been cranky and not sleeping very well at night, but soon those little teeth will be here and we can use them for really important things like crunching Cheerios! She is learning to self-feed thanks to the old stand by: the Cheerio! She literally picks them up with her little pincher fingers and bites them in half and them gums them until they are soft. And don't give her too many at once or she'll put them all in her mouth! We've tried other foods, too. Just today she was eating tiny little pieces of chicken nugget and mac and cheese.
**Yum! Cheerios!**

I have been playing with her hair a lot lately. We have tried piggy tails a couple of times and they are very cute, but they do make her look very grown up. She just has so much hair that I don't know what to do with all of it. I even trimmed her bangs because they were in her eyes. The problem with that is that I trimmed them when she had the piggies in and when the piggies are out, the rest of her hair falls down into her eyes anyway. She has a ton of hair and I think it is getting thicker!
**Little Piggies - So Cute!**

**Ton of Hair**

In the past few days Chloe has been pulling herself up onto her knees. Today I was watching her and trying to get a picture, and she was trying to get one foot out to stand. No luck with that yet, but I am sure it is coming soon!
**Pulling up to knees**

Sorry, I know this one was long, so thanks for sticking with us. Chloe is just growing and learning by leaps and bounds these days and there is so much to tell. She remains a very sweet baby and her and Lane get along GREAT! We are looking forward to Spring and Summer with our two wonderful kids! In a couple of days, I will enter a post solely dedicated to Lane.

Crawling!

Chloe is finally mobile! Well, she was mobile by rolling around, but now she is crawling! She started about five days ago moving those little knees, but she couldn't quite get the arms to cooperate. Now she has figured it out and she is on the move! She is very proud of herself



Did you notice the screaming...this is new too. Chloe and Lane like to scream at each other, and sometimes its hard to tell which one is doing the screaming. Fun times!

Lane wanted a video of himself crawling, too...so here it is!
(my camera had a problem focusing)

Sidebar

I added an element to the sidebar for your reading pleasure. I am calling it "Lane-isms" because he says things to me everyday that crack me up and I'm sure they will crack you up, too. I actually got the idea after reading my friend Erin's blog. I will be adding to it often so keep checking back for new Lane-isms. I hope you will enjoy reading them as much as I enjoy hearing them...from the mouth of my babe!

Crazy Kids

So, this is my third post in two days, I guess you could say I'm catching up. It seems like these two sweet kids of mine do new things everyday and I just think they are so darn cute, I have to share them with everyone. The past couple of days have been kind of hard on all of us because Daddy went back to work after having nearly two weeks off. Lane has asked about Daddy every hour on the hour and "why does he have to go to work?" Chloe can't say that so she just grumps around all day. I have to take up the slack of having my two extra hands removed. Paul has had a hard time too because, of course, he would much rather be home with us than at work. So...here is a little glimpse of what these kids have been up to the past few days:

TEETH!!

Well, I finally got good pics of Chloes new little teeth. She had just finished eating Plums and Rice Cereal, so her face is messy, but she was goonin' so I had to take the pictures.

First, for the bottom two....



And the top two. TOO CUTE!!!

7 - 8 Months and Christmas!

Okay, so this one is going to be a long one... I haven't updated in a while and my only excuse is that we have been super busy with the holidays. Now things have slowed down a bit and I can reflect on the past 2 months.

***

First of all, on Nov. 21 Chloe turned 7 months old! She is sitting confidently these days and reaching for toys on the floor around her. Every now and then she falls over and face plants into the carpet, but she doesn't seem to mind. That way it is easier to reach the toy she wants. She now has two little teeth on the bottom and is working on one on top. We had her 6 month check up the week before and she weighed 14 lbs 4 oz and was 26 inches long. Her weight was in the 11th percentile and her height was in the 56th percentile. She actually LOST about a pound from the last visit, but the Dr seemed to think that was fine as long as she was still growing and didn't lose any more. She said it could be due to the fact that she is moving around a lot more and that her appetite has probably leveled off.
The next week...we were all sick with colds.

***

December was an exciting month for us all! We started off the holiday season decorating our tree and then going to Paul's work Christmas party and the kids got to see Santa and they each got a present. Lane asks daily if Santa is coming today and then he checks under the tree. When I finally started putting a few presents under there, he really thought Santa had come and he was SO excited! Somewhere around the middle of the month, we went to the mall to see the "Real" Santa and get our picture made. Lane had a whole list that he rattled off to Santa, which I'm sure only we understood, but that's okay. Chloe is rolling ALL over the place and is now working on both top teeth, so all she wanted for Christmas was her two front teeth. HAHA...She got them! As we get closer to the Big Day...our community center had a Christmas party and the kids got to see yet another Santa, this time they got to see him separately. The week before Christmas, Momma got mastitis and that put her down for a good two days. Antibiotics helped greatly and so did Daddy! Thank goodness he was able to take a day off to take care of Momma and the kids! Once Momma felt better, she made lots of candies and goodies for the neighbors and also got the annual Christmas Cards mailed.

***

Which brings us to Christmas... We stayed home this year for the first time since Lane was a baby. It was so nice to wake up in our own home and go down to see what Santa had brought. We ate dinner with our wonderful neighbors and then sang Karaoke after the kids all went to bed...it was a GREAT Christmas!

***

Okay, thats it for now...I will do another update soon...after Chloe's nine month check up. Hope y'all had a Merry Christmas and Happy New year!

Busy...

I know its been a while since my last blog, but we have been quite busy with the Holiday season...no excuse! I promise to get some pictures together and post them in the next day or two. Until then, I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and that your New Year will be blessed!

Love to all who reads these words.....