18 Months

A glimpse into my world with Chloe being a full-fledged toddler. I posted some of her amazing facial expressions throughout for your amusement.

This look is reserved for Billy

18 months. Her vocabulary is vast. I couldn't even tell you all of the things she can say because it's so out of control. A few of her groupings along with my expert interpretations include:

1. "Daddy work Daddy home" - Daddy's at work? Daddy should be home making me food.
2. "Bruiser outside OK" - Let's take Bruiser outside. Okay that sounds like a great idea.
3. "Juuuuuuuuuuicccccceeeee! Juice? Juuuuuuuuuuuuuiccccceeeee!" Then I ask, "Do you want juice?" and she says, "Okay! Thank you!".
4. "Be nice" - this is usually just after she's hit one of us. She says, "be nice" then hugs us to try and get out of going into a time-out.
5. "No, No, No! Bruiser" - This one could be that she wants Bruiser to stop what he's doing or she wants to give him something (like food) that we have told her not to give him. It just depends on whether Bruiser is said with authority or with inquisitiveness. 
6. "Oh Mama" - Oh my beautiful Mother. You are so amazing in all that you do!

Mornings....

This is the look I get most often

Here are some of my favorite things she does:

• She loves photographs and will point at all of the ones on the wall and tell us who is in them. Though when she sees a photo of herself she says, "You!" or "Baby!". I love it.
• She adores being outside. Picking flowers, playing on her playground, kicking a ball, riding her bike, it doesn't matter to her. As long as we are outside she is a happy camper (and she's already been camping once that's how much she enjoys the outdoors).
• We spend a lot of time crafting in our house and she will color or paint right along side us. 
• My little independent girl has begun walking into daycare (versus me carrying her). Once inside she takes her lunch box and walks into her room blowing kisses behind her. A little bit of my yearns for a baby that wants me by her side but I know that her confidence will carry her much farther than having insecurities so I blow a kiss and head to work.
• She eats anything and everything. My husband is an amazing chef and he prepares some adventurous meals for us girls. Chloe will chow down some baked salmon and olives. There is a bit of jealousy when Chloe is eating roast with potatoes and carrots for lunch and her teacher is choking down a sandwich. We get a lot of notes.
• She talks to strangers. Randomly, while walking through the grocery store she will say, "HI!" to someone walking past. She put her arms out for a man in CVS to lift her up. She tells people, "bye bye". She smiles at almost everyone unless she's grumpy then they get the stink eye. She is just so incredibly social. 

  

  Girl on a mission

So, I started this blog last Tuesday and I am just now returning to finish it on Sunday night. Sometimes there just isn't enough hours in the day. Here's a prime example of how my little princess impresses me daily. I received tickets to the Lightning game from work. We originally planned on taking Chloe but as Saturday's game approached I started second guessing myself. I'm not one who cares what others think but I was worried that a hockey game just wouldn't interest an 18-month old enough to have her sit in the stands for hours on end. I called Grandma to see if she'd watch her but Grandma had a date with her friends, I knew the rest of the family was going to see the monster trucks so we were out of options. We packed her up and headed to the game with a quick stop at Chick-fil-A to fuel her up. She was of course perfect. She sat in my lap and watched the first period with hardly a whimper even when the goal buzzer blared through the arena. During the intermission we got some drinks and returned to our seats. This time she bounced from Billy to me and then back to Billy. She almost fell asleep in my lap but two of my best friends appeared on the jumbo-tron and I screamed, "That's Jeremy!!!". At the second intermission I looked over at my husband (not a sports guy at all) and realized that the smile on his face was only for me and Chloe was about an hour past bedtime and looked exhausted. We called it a night and she was asleep before we were out of the parking garage. I suppose out of past experiences with children I always assume she's going to have a melt down or just run me until I'm exasperated but she always surprises me with a sweet disposition, curious nature and let's face it she's just a really really good toddler. I definitely lucked out with that.

Serious face

Shock and Awe

We can't take her anywhere without someone stopping to say hello to her, we are constantly approached by people who say how beautiful she is and even at a hockey game I was told that she is well-behaved. Once I guy bought us lunch because he was so impressed with our little family. I just love having Chloe in my life and I am so awe struck not just at how complete strangers respond to her but how she responds to them. Every teacher at her school knows who she is and it takes us forever to walk out the door as they all want to say goodbye to her. 

I led a very cynical life for the first 29 years and I hope she doesn't follow in my footsteps. Billy and I both make an effort to experience new things at least once a month to show her to be adventurous. I can and most likely will talk to anyone around me and that's probably where she gets her social skills and the two of us are rubbing off on Billy. 

Each milestone so far with Chloe has been fun to watch, all are exciting and impressive, it has been one of the greatest things that I have ever done and I feel so grateful to have her as my gorgeous girl.

When things don't go quite as she had planned.