Chloe's List

Ben tagged Chloe in the meme that I did a couple posts ago, and she's decided that it's time to quit procrastinating and get on with it. So here it is, in her own words. :) 1. I'm just starting to learn to sit by myself. I can sit like a froggy for thirty seconds, but then I tip over. I'm getting better, though. 2. I loooooove to swim in the bathtub! I always take my baths in the big tub with Mommy or Daddy now, and it's FUN. I splash, and swim, and play with Duck and Hippo, and lean over the edge of the tub to look at the floor. I like it when the water splashes down there. 3. I like to play with Moony-chan. He's a little quiet, but he's tons of fun. (Mama says: Moony-chan is the baby on the front of the Moony brand diaper bag.) 4. I'm a little bit shy about meeting new people. You just never know, there are a lot of crazies out there! But so far everybody's been okay.

5. I like to help Mommy on the computer (see above). I make cool stuff happen. See what a good helper I am? 6. I also like to sit outside and look at the trees, especially when it's windy out. Those trees sure can dance! 7. I like to poop. I'm a good pooper. I just don't do it very often, though. 8. I wish I could walk around like Mommy and Daddy, but I can't. But I wish I could. Sometimes when I cry they pick me up and help me stand up like they do. I like that.

More for the Masses

See how obliging I am? You ask, I respond. Remember that. Remember it always.

Don't let me fool you - I can't drink out of this thing.

Chewing, though... well, now that I have down pat!

I like my books. I like them best when they're in my mouth.

I'm a good dancer.

Bye, everyone! I can't wait to meet you!

I have not, by the way, forgotten about your list requests. They're on their way, so stay tuned!

By Popular Demand

Must...please...the masses...must...please... :) Look, I have feet! Ummmm..heehee...I'm stuck again, Mama! I'm licking my blanket. So what. No photo necessary, thank you. Awwwwww... This photo courtesy of Meghan after a nice lunch at Downey... only a little bit interrupted by a fussy baby. :)

Eight Random Things about Me

I've just been tagged by Erica and Heidi to tell you eight random things about myself. It is also my first tagging, so I feel like I'm part of the Kool Kids' Klub now. :) I'm still not sure what my eight things are, but here goes. First, the rules: 1. I have to post these rules before I give you the facts. 2. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves. 3. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules. 4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names. 5. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog. Thing One. I'm typing one-handed with a baby in my lap who wants to help. It's slow, makes for a lot of typos, and I wish they would have taught me how to do this in high school typing class.

Thing Two. Speaking of which, I think that my mandatory high-school typing class was the single most useful class I've ever taken, ever, even though I didn't think much of it at the time. Thanks, Mr. Bessette!

Thing Three. I went to a yoga class once a week for about a year before Chloe was born. I really liked it, and I miss doing it now. It was amazing how much better just that little bit of exercise made me feel - the lower-back pain that I'd been fighting for years went away entirely within a month or so and is only beginning to return now, in a much milder form.

Thing Four. I am completely preoccupied with my "I want to explore everything but I can't move by myself help me NOW MOM NOW" kid right now. I don't know why.

Thing Five. I do my housework in fifteen-minute increments (thus yesterday's saga). Housework is, um, not so much my favorite and tends to completely overwhelm me because it is never done - so why start? Then I feel like crap because I live in a hole. Many of you have observed the literal trash heap I lived in for years because of this (and yes, I do know what literal means). So I have a schedule of chores that I try to go through every week and set my timer for fifteen minutes for most of them. If I don't do the given chore on a given day I'm not allowed to do it on a different day, I just have to wait until next week. Today I'm going to wash a window, clean out the fridge, and update the budget (that one will take more than fifteen minutes).

Thing Six. I heart Miffy (see photo, left). So does Chloe, though she doesn't know it yet. I have a rule that I can't come home with more than one Miffy item anytime I go to Toys R Us. That's how much I heart Miffy. Thing Seven. Last night I made a kind of lemon spice stir-fry with pork, snap peas, and tofu. It was pretty good except that I let the pork get too tough. Thing Eight. While writing the above thing, I wrote "pork" as "prok" at least six times. There. I did it again. What's up with that? Whew! I did it! I have to say, this format actually works pretty well for me and seems like a good way to end the blogstipation I've been experiencing. So here's the deal: It's reader participation time! Leave me a comment saying what kind of list you want to see here and how many items you want on the list and I promise that said list will appear on this blog soon. And no, I won't define soon. My one rule is that I'm going to limit list length to eleven items, because eleven is my favorite number (Thing Nine!) and it's my blog so I can make any rule I want. :) I tag Ben, Sammy, Anita & Bryan, Megan, Steve & Mariko, and Chris. I take no responsibility for those who never update their blogs or decline participation. But Ben, this should help your three-posts-a-week scheme!

Hey Ma, Look What I Can Do!

I just thought I'd do all my blogging for the month today, that's all. :) This is Chloe's favorite noise right now. Cute, huh. This is the end of Chloe's first feeding of cereal. I was using my finger rather than a spoon initially because I'd heard that babies were more likely to accept an unfamiliar substance on a familiar finger than on an unfamiliar spoon. She started humming with every bite somewhere about halfway through the feeding.

Timer Travail, OR Why I Never Go Anywhere

Following in Ben's footsteps with the Rocky and Bullwinkle style title... :) Chloe and I played a fun game this morning (well, mostly Chloe): The Grab-Whatever-Mama-Has-And-Put-It-In-Your-Mouth Game. It's cool, you should try it! Orange juice, oatmeal, kitchen timer... Ooooooo, kitchen timer! While it didn't reach her mouth, Girl Who Can't Throw managed to sweep the timer off the table like a backhanded tennis ball, and it is now an ex-kitchen timer (See rooster photo, left. Understandably tempting, desu ne?). This ushered in a grand adventure, as I quickly discovered that I am incapable of doing chores without my timer (story for another day, I suppose, but here's a hint). So I grabbed the wee babe and popped her in the carseat, thinking that we would take a quick trip to the 100-yen shop where I'd purchased the last one and be back in half an hour. BWAhahahhahaaaa! (That's a diabolical laugh.) First I couldn't figure out how to get to the 100-yen shop. I mean, I knew exactly where it was, but it was on the other side of a divided road and several long intersections later I still hadn't figured out how I was going to get to the other side. Five minutes to the 100-yen shop + 20 minutes trying to get into the parking lot = 25 minutes. So far, not so good. Did I mention that we were trying to beat the naptime countdown? As we finally pulled into the parking lot, a suspiciously inauspicous aroma began to waft up from the backseat. Have I mentioned that the Dear Child had not pooped in nine days? Have I mentioned that the Dear Child has impeccable timing? Do you see where this is going? Yes, there was unchi. On the baby. On the mommy. On the carseat - oh yes, really on the carseat. On the trunk of the car, where she was changed. I have to admit, at this point I was laughing ruefully. If you can't beat them, join them, right? Bwahahaaa, hahaa, hahummmm. The diaper change was nearly complete when a chattering of ladies hastened over to admire Chloe. "Kawaiiiiiii!!!!" ("Cute!") they cried, "How old? What is her name? Kawaiiiiii!!" Unfortunately, Chloe finds the kawaii-shriekers fairly KOwaii (scary) as a rule, and started to cry. Bwahahahaha. Oh, and the 100-yen shop didn't have any timers. I ended up walking to Jusco (where I'd considered parking to begin with, but decided it'd be too long of a walk for a hot day) since naked Chloe (did I mention that this was the one time I didn't have an extra onesie with me?) was now asleep in the Baby Bjorn anyway. I've never seen a naked Japanese baby in public and imagined many disapproving eyes upon us, but nobody said anything to us - nothing I understood, anyway. :) Good thing, 'cuz I was ready with the smackdown. An hour and a half, 780 yen, and one blistered foot later we pulled back into the garage just in time for one of our birdie neighbors to poop on our unusually-clean windshield. The fruit of our labors: one pretty kawaii Hello Kitty timer, which I do think goes quite nicely with my Pooh Bear sewing machine. And yes, I am now too tired to clean the kitchen.

Yummy Cereal!

Today Chloe had her first "complementary food", as they call solids now - a tiny bit of rice cereal! It's earlier than we'd planned to start, but she's been wanting to eat more and more frequently lately. At four months the little piggy should be able to go a lot more than two and a half hours between meals! She's seemed to wake herself up from naps to eat, too, which is new, and woke up this morning at 4:00 a.m. for the first time in at least a month. Mama didn't like that so much. :) Anyway, she did great! I mixed up a little bit of rice cereal and gave it to her on my finger. She did keep some of it in her mouth, and by the third or fourth bite she was opening her mouth for it. She was doing this funny thing where she hummed with every bite. She'd open her mouth, I'd give her the cereal, and she'd suck it off my finger while going, "haammmmmaaaaamaauuuuuummmmmmmm..." It was pretty funny.