Standing Up!!

OMG!! I was getting Chloe's crib ready for nap time as usual, not expecting anything different... Put the baby on the floor, Pull the crib away from the wall, retrieve lost binkies, push crib back, pick up baby..... wait a minute, Chloe is standing??? Yes between pull crib away from the wall and retrieve lost binkies Chloe learned to pull herself up and stand. Holy cow!

Now all she wants to do is to stand! Well I should say all she wants to do is stand AND crawl as fast as she can. Currently her favorite destinations are the DVD player (broken-thanks Chloe), and the dog bowls in the kitchen. I manage to get her up before she gets into the dog bowls, but unfortunately I wasn't quick enough for the DVD player.

Here is Chloe enjoying some play time in her play nook in the office.

Now that she can stand it is like she has all new toys. She is playing with them from a whole new perspective.

By the way, Happy Birthday Andrew!! 29!!

I heart Daddy!

This is a baby and Daddy post. Chloe has been so animated lately, and it seems some of her favorite times of day are when she gets to play with her Dad. He can ALWAYS make her smile.
Relaxing on Dad's lap. Oh so fun!Playing with Dad's hair---and getting tummy kisses!Ooooh such an awesome new toy! This is how Chloe plays with her toys :)
Right in the mouth, yum!
She is teething, or at least we think she is teething. Sore gums but no teeth yet. Who wants to take a bet on when the first one will make it's debut?

Superbowl

Our day started out with some very excited barking dogs...They wanted to get outside REALLY BAD...Why? Oh because there is a giant moose right behind our fence! We see moose all the time up here, but I still think it is really exciting! They are just so dang big and goofy looking! We did not let the dogs out then, but later after the moose meandered away. It also began snowing which is always fun and beautiful! So on to the day's festivities. Dustin came over and the guys, and Chloe spent some man time brewing some spruce tip beer and making chili. Remember when we collected the spruce tips this last spring? Well we finally put them to some good use.

The brewed beer :) It won't be ready to drink for a few weeks.
But never fear, we had a bunch more that is ready to go. We chill our beer in a special way up here in Alaska. We just stick it in the snow- right outside our door! Since it was the superbowl, Andrew wanted to be sure we had domestic beer- I guess it seemed more American? As you can see the crowd was very patriotic.

Chloe made the rounds at the party and especially enjoyed her time with Conor. She was a very happy, very social girl that day. She must be a football fan.

Chloe wasn't the only one who had a good time. As you can see Andrew also enjoyed the superbowl this year. (Sorry Dustin)

It is always nice to get our friends together, and it seems like these days it doesn't happen too often! I have been busy busy busy with work and then also with organizing and baby proofing. It never ends. I have so much to catch up on..... more blog posts to come!

stripes

I can't believe Chloe can fit into these PJ's already! They are 6-12 month size (so yeah I guess it is only logical that she can wear them) but the thing is that I bought them on a trip down to Seattle when I had just found out I was having a girl. It seems like such a long time ago. I could never have imagined back then how wonderful motherhood would be.

I didn't know how much I would love all of the little things...like tiny fingers

or little dimples, I had no idea that my little wiggly belly bump would grow to be this super happy baby. I hoped she would be healthy, and I prayed she wouldn't have colic, but beyond that I didn't have any real expectations. I certainly didn't expect all of the changes that have happened to us. We expected to get less sleep, and to go out much less but didn't expect that we would laugh a lot more- we laugh all of the time, and are generally complete goofs now. It is hard to take things too seriously when all Chloe wants to do is play with us. When she isn't playing with us she is off in her own world playing and talking to herself- it is just too cute.

We are so lucky!

Give her a hand!

Chloe learned something new today. Photos just couldn't capture the cuteness.

I took a video instead! Shoot I just realized it is sideways........ I always forget that I can't rotate video like I can a photo. Oh well you get the idea.

too cute for one day!

I got Chloe all dressed up to go out and she was being so darn adorable that I had to take some pictures with my i-phone. I can't resist.

Don't you just want to pick her up and give her lots of hugs and kisses! She is the just so cute!

Still Here :)

I just realized that it has been over a week since I have posted anything! Gosh! We are still here, and still doing great! Chloe is growing and changing by the minute! This is both good and also a little challenging for the parents....

Chloe now LOVES to be on her play mat. She rolls around and plays with everything...even tiny tiny pieces of dirt. She may even like the tiny pieces of dirt/rocks/who knows what, more than her toys. She doesn't put them in her mouth but moves the tiny speck around with her fingers while concentrating really hard. Our house isn't dirty, but she finds everything! It is really adorable, except that it reminds me I now need to vacuum twice a day. (not that I do, but I probably should)
She also learned to scoot backwards.....I was working on my computer during one of her mat playtime sessions and looked up to find Chloe all the way across the room. She started right next to me. Oh no. This is when the work really begins, from what I have heard! For about a week she could only scoot backwards, which leads to problems when one gets into a corner. She wasn't too happy to get stuck here, but I got her out right after I grabbed the camera and took a picture.

We also had other adventures over the past two weeks.... We went to Whittier harbor and took pictures for Andrew's work. It was a gorgeous day, very clear and very sunny. We missed the tunnel back to Anchorage and got stuck there for an hour until the tunnel opened again. (the only way into Whittier is through a one way tunnel that was cut through a huge mountain. It is only open for 15 minutes in each direction, separated by 15 minute exhaust clear out times) Well apparently that day they decided to only open it for 5 min each hour.....so we missed the tunnel. Luckily there is a hotel there where we could grab a drink and relax a bit. Chloe loved being out of the car seat with her Dad!

More fun with Dad.

I also finally got my act together and finished sewing a present for baby Mia (who was born before Christmas). Chloe also got into the spirit, and wanted to do a photo shoot...what a sweet girl, right? We can't wait to meet Mia, Congratulations Brian and Natalie!

We had fun with it!

Holy cow, I just realized Chloe is now 8 months old! Wow! Hopefully life will slow down a little in the next while so I can get some more posts up. Pretty soon she will be one, and I want to savor all of the time and capture all of the memories. That might be an oxymoron but with my memory (bad) I have to post, otherwise I will not know where the time went!