29 months old and 1 week

I took Chloe to get her hair cut his week. They always style it so cute!

Santa came to Mommy and Me class. (Chloe is not aware that Santa is behind her in this picture!)

Making candy cane ornaments in our Preschool Group

At our friend's house decorating her own gingerbread house. Of course she ate more candy than she put on it.

Frosting Christmas cookies at the park with some friends.

Christmas party! Allen, Gavin, Gavin, MacKenzie, Steele, Emily, Amanda, Audrey, Ryder, Sophia, and Chloe

I really love this time of year, especially having a two year old! It is so much fun to relive our childhood, seeing lights, decorating cookies, gingerbread houses, parties, and seeing Santa. We had a little bit of a sugar overload this week but that is all part of the holiday spirit! Chloe is counting down the days until Santa delivers her new dolly Elizabeth. We have learned that Chloe is not very good at keeping secrets about other people's presents...she has told both Matt and I what she picked out for us:) It is hard to stop buying presents for Chloe this year because I know she is going to enjoy it so much, but we finally finished Christmas shopping! I found a great deal on the Loving Family dollhouse for her...rang up as $16 at Walmart (usually $70), so I think she will be very surprised to get her new dollhouse! The weather was great this past week (in the 70's and 80's) so we got to enjoy the outdoors in December.

Chloe has been playing with her little kitchen and having tea parties, birthday parties, and cooking meals for all of her babies. I just love this age! She definitely has a good imagination.

29 months old

All dressed up for a birthday party

Being silly for the camera

Playing at the Science Center
Hanging out with her buddy Jack at the Village Walk Holiday Festival
She got her face painted. She picked out a gingerbread man:)
We met Santa, but she was not too happy.
We went to the Nutcracker Ballet in Balboa Park.
Eating all the icing from our gingerbread house.
Decorating a gingerbread house with Daddy.

All of us with our finished gingerbread house and our Christmas tree.

This time of year is our favorite! We have been keeping busy with holiday events around town. This past week it rained, so we spent most of our time indoors, going to our classes,the library, and even went to the science museum one day. Chloe picked out a purple rock to buy from the museum gift shop that she bought with her own money from her piggy bank. She was so excited about her new rock! I took her to her first IMAX movie about the ocean creatures and she really enjoyed it, except the parts where fish were eaten by other bigger fish. She would cry every time it would happen, and think she just got used to it by the end of the movie. We braved the rain one day and went to a family holiday festival where she got her face painted, did crafts, and we attempted to see Santa. We got close enough to him so she could ask for a new dolly for Christmas (she already picked out her name. Her name will be Elizabeth) but she still will not sit on his lap. One night the Nutcracker Ballet was on TV and she was just mesmerized by it, so we took her to the real ballet. She loved all of the music, the dolls, the ballerinas, mice, and the kids dressed as candy. We are going to try to make it a yearly tradition. We had fun decorating a gingerbread house together and of course Chloe's favorite part is licking the icing.

28 months and 3 weeks

Our little California girl

Matt, Chloe, and Snowman at the Del Mar Holiday Lights

Me and Chloe enjoying our cookies and hot cocoa

The light displays at the Del Mar race track from our hayride
Chloe and her best buddy "my baby Caro" as she likes to call the cat.
Good thing we have a very nice cat that doesn't mind being squeezed and carried all of the time!
Daddy, Chloe, and Dolly in front of our Christmas tree.

Chloe helped to decorate the tree.
Chloe at December Nights in Balboa Park

The holidays are a lot fun around San Diego because of all the family festivals, parades, and things to do with kids. Since we are not going home this year for the holidays, we have been searching for fun holiday things to do to get Chloe excited about Christmas. We brought her to the Del Mar racetrack which has a huge light display that we viewed from a hayride. She is still very frightened of Santa, but she asked to take a picture with the snowman instead. The library has been having some great winter activities so we went to listen to Christmas stories in our pajamas one night and sign language story time. It was our last day of ballet for the semester and I am amazed at how much Chloe has improved since she started in the summer. We are still taking gymnastics where she is getting very good at doing somersaults on her own. We made homemade Christmas cards for the seniors at the Veterans home, and we went to the park several times this week. As soon as Chloe wakes up in the morning, she says "Mommy, I want to go to the park". She gets her shoes on by herself, gets her dolly, her stroller and is ready to walk out the door. We got a real tree this year and decorated it this week with some help from Chloe. She loves the Christmas lights in the house. I took her to December nights in Balboa park, a huge celebration in San Diego (we have gone every year since Chloe was born) and she had the greatest time going on the rides, eating gingerbread cookies, watching the carolers, and dancing to a Cajun band from Louisiana. She was so hilarious dancing that people gave her Mardi Gras beads:) She just loves making people laugh! Looking forward to more holiday festivities coming up soon!