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!

Happy Thanksgiving 2009

On our way to the Santa Parade

Chloe, Audrey, and Jack waving to all the cars in the parade

Chloe at Baby Oliver's pirate 1st birthday party
Turkey cupcake decorating party in Mommy and Me class
Our mommy and me gang: Bibi, Belinda, Juliana, Wyatt, Elijah, Chloe, and Christian

Coloring her headband at April's house Thanksgiving
Happy Thanksgiving!

Playing with her dress up toys

We have been getting into the holiday spirit already! We went to a parade at the mall last weekend to welcome Santa and see the tree lighting ceremony. Chloe had fun with her friends waving to all of the cars and jumping around. She went to a pirate birthday party with a treasure hunt. In Mommy and Me class we frosted turkey cupcakes and sang turkey songs. Matt had the day off on Wednesday before Thanksgiving, so he got to attend Chloe's gymnastics class and then Sea World. My friend April invited us over for Thanksgiving this year and we had such a nice time and ate way too much food! We hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving too:)

28 months and 1 week

Chloe doing a "flamingo" in ballet class.

Stretching

Dancing with ballerina wands
Ballet class group photo with Ms. Felicia
Chloe's friend Evyn
Chloe's friends painting placemats with corn on the cob
Chloe and Mommy at ballet recital

Chloe is one busy girl this week! We had our ballet dress rehearsal this week, and I am so surprised at how much Chloe has improved over the last few months with listening to the teacher and participating in class. We just joined a real gymnastics class that Chloe loves. Since she has so much energy and loves to jump off our couches, we thought it would be good for her. We went to the park a few times this week since the weather has been beautiful and finally had some friends over for a playdate at the end of the week. The kids painted placemats and we made homemade butter. Chloe had her recital this week which was so adorable. She made us very proud of her:) Check out the video: Dance Recital Video The quality is not the best, but she is the one on the end. We took her to Chuck E Cheese to celebrate after and out to lunch. Today was the start of some of the holiday festivities around San Diego. We took Chloe to the Santa Parade and Tree Lighting at the mall near our house. They even had fake snow...not quite the same as Rochester:) Chloe is really excited for Christmas to come this year because she knows that she will be getting presents. She knows that someone named Santa will be bringing her a gift this year if she is a good girl. We asked her what she wants and she says that she wants a baby doll, even she has 6 of them already. We are definitely sad to be missing Christmas in Rochester this year, but we are looking forward to celebrating Christmas morning with Chloe in our own house. More holiday festivities to come!

Weekend in Los Angeles (November 14-15)

We went away for the weekend to Los Angeles, about 2 hours from our house to Griffith Park (one of the largest urban parks). We took Chloe on a train ride, pony ride, carousel, hiked up Mount Hollywood, saw great views of the city and the Hollywood sign, and watched the sunset. We stayed over night and the next day went to Griffith Observatory and saw a planetarium show, and then had a picnic at the park. We had a great time! Unfortunately, I lost about half of my pictures of the trip:( But here are few that we took of the rides and our hike. Chloe's favorite thing was the train ride!

28 months old (November 13, 2009)

The week went by too fast and we are sad to have Nana leave so soon! We went to Balboa Park on a train ride with Nana, we took her to our preschool park group, art class, and Ikea. Nana got Chloe a new baby, named Alexis, but Chloe couldn't remember her name at first. She kept asking, "What is my baby's name again?" We also got Chloe some new kid roller skates!