Eating

Another photo montage of little Chloe. Lunch time fun with her Lamby (who she doesn't like to let out of her sight these days). On this occasion Lamby got to join her for lunch.

Pretty darn cute. Don't you wish you had this much fun eating lunch?

Here are a few to prove that eating happens at lunch time too :)

Mmmm chicken, bread, blueberries and soy beans!

Someone loves the camera!

I thought I would share what happens when Chloe sees me with a camera!

Sometimes it is hard to get a photo without a smile (or a close up!) Still no teeth, but what an adorable smile!

Starting a New Painting

Since Chloe liked painting so much, I decided to ramp it up! We are going to paint each day on a HUGE canvas for a month (or however long it takes to fill up)!! I painted a base, and Chloe will be painting everything else. We started yesterday, and already we are off to a great start!

Of course Chloe got paint everywhere, but it washes off, no big deal. Although I should double check it washes off the deck before I get too carried away with the next layers.... Chloe sees everything as a canvas :) Here is Chloe's painting day one.

Adorable Trouble

Just thought you might like to see the trouble seeker in action. She can't talk yet, so I will interpret:
"hmm if I could just reach that lamp... or maybe the phone behind the lamp...."
"Okay, I give up on the lamp... what else is around."

"I ...CAN....A-L-M-O-S-T...REACH...IT!!!"

"Seriously, I can almost reach it!" "I am so proud of myself.... now what else can I get into?"

These were taken over the span of about one minute. Multiply that by a lot, and you can see what a typical day with Chloe is like :) Wonderful :)

Dad time

This week I went down to Seattle for an overnight work trip and Andrew got some great one on one time with Chloe. I also got a great nights sleep in a cushy hotel bed. Oh my gosh I didn't realize how WONDERFUL a good nights sleep is. The sleep was great, but it is great to be back because this is what I got to come home to:
Andrew made a play house out of an Amazon box. Chloe sure likes it!!
I think it is the cutest thing ever that he did that for her!

She seems to like it too!

I lust love her so much! It is great to be home.

Caught Red Handed

Proof :)

finally sunny

It is finally nice up here in Alaska. We have had temps in the high 50's low 60's here the last week or so and we are loving it! The last of the snow has melted from the yard, and there are little bits of green cropping up here and there. We have been out biking, walking and lounging on the deck/yard clean up. What a difference a little warm weather makes!

Enough about the beautiful weather on to the headline!!!! Chloe's first steps! These are the first on camera steps!! She only started taking steps a few days ago. So far the farthest she has gotten is about 3 feet, but that equals like 10 steps for her!!

It is really exciting for us to see all of these huge changes day to day, and she is doing so many new things every day it is hard to catch it all!

For instance I can tell she has a little bit of my brother in her as she has been trying to eat the dog food. (Alex liked to eat the cat's food when he was younger; my parents had to put it up on the counter so he couldn't get to it!!! I think I recall a story about us looking all over for Alex and finally finding him in the hall closet inside a giant bag of cat food happily munching away). Well much like her uncle Alex, Chloe goes straight for the dog bowls, dives into the water and sticks the food into her mouth. This all happens in the course of a few seconds. I do not have any pics of this because I am always in a mad dash to drag her away from the food as she kicks and screams in protest. Andrew always asks why the dog bowls are up on the counter when he gets home. Now you know Andrew!! We have one seriously speedy baby on our hands!

Painting

We had a FANTASTIC time painting this week!! Chloe just loves to paint! It does get pretty messy, but we just throw down a drop cloth and then stick her in the bath afterward! Here is a photo of the aftermath :)

a pretty adorable mess if you ask me!

the fruits of my labor!

This was my first really official knitting project. Because it was my first time this hat took me way too long--I had to start over 4 or 5 times, and made countless calls to Amber to clarify the ambiguous (to me) instructions......but it was really fun, and in the end was a "quick" knit. If I did it again at least it would be quick! I love how it turned out and Chloe seems to like it too! It is a bit big, but since summer is fast approaching I guess that is just right. Summer is fast and furious up here and winter will be back before we know it.

Thanks for all the help Amber!!

Yay it is the weekend!!!! It has been another fun week, but thank goodness for Saturday! We did a lot of things this week: Our in-home babysitter stopped returning our calls so Chloe went to daycare for the first time (I could hear her crying all the way outside, it was all I could do not to go back in and get her), we ate lots of strawberries, went on walks, wore shorts for the first time this year, had a date night for the second time in a whole year(thank you Jim and Donna), played at a toy store, moved Andrew out of his office (he is starting a new job on Monday), finished knitting a hat, swept the deck, went to the slush cup in Girdwood, and made some interesting dinners with our glacier valley farm CSA vegetables.

And of course we did a few photo shoots :) Andrew bought this dress for Chloe, isn't he a great Dad?!

We also finally bought the new Chariott for Chloe's riding pleasure. Seriously how can baby stuff be that expensive? Answer- people like us will still buy it. It is pretty awesome, and is made for two kids so currently Chloe has lots of room to spread out and share with her stuffed animal friends. We got this because it has a great bike attachment, and in the winter the wheels come off and it can be mounted on skis! Another bonus is the mesh covering, which will be essential for avoiding mosquito bites this summer. Chloe is still getting used to it, and we hope she will love it, because we want to get out there and enjoy the outdoors again! In the words of my husband, "Yum giraffe meat"!

Okay so here is the part of the post where I solicit your feedback!!!! Please help us! I am ready for a change downstairs, and change is going to come in the form of new paint. We ordered and just assembled our new rug made from Flor carpet squares. We LOVE LOVE LOVE it, but the problem is that is clashes with the wall color, as anticipated. I was thinking of going for a light mocha or latte color in there, what are your suggestions? Also, I am definitely going to need to make new pillows, and accessories....what color? I don't want too much red, but with a rug like that I think I have some other good options.
I also plan to make new dog bed covers out of some sort of ikea home decor fabric. I have a meeting down in Seattle next month and hope to pick up then. The dogs deserve to be trendy too!

So that is where we are at. Chloe is napping and I am going to quick like a bunny clean up after breakfast, paint a few baby canvases with bright base coats for Chloe to "paint"on this afternoon, and maybe do a load of laundry. I would say take a shower, but I pretty much have no hope of getting all that done during one nap. Especially when I spent half of it blogging :)