Some pictures - finally :-)

It's been awhile since I posted pictures, so here are a few:

This is where Chloe learns to read.



Cora, while we were decorating the house:





check out this yarn I bought - it was regular $6-7 a ball, but I got it for .99 each on sale at Hobby Lobby. I'm rather thrilled. I wanna make the girls sweaters.




and one of those balls of yarn turned into a scarf. The yarn is very different looking, sort of a tape yarn. It's called 'truffles'. I knitted it up on size 11 needles in a drop stitch pattern. you can't even tell I did drop stitch, though I guess that's okay. It really was terrible to work with, and I was reminded of why I prefer plain, boring yarns.


That's about all I have to post. We have been busy getting things done around the house and just enjoying each other's company for the most part. We have a bit more decorating to do, lights to put up, etc. and then I'll get some pictures of those. Sadly, I have very little else to report. :-P

It starts.

I have never gone out early on Black Friday before. I hate people, and I hate large groups of them. I would rather avoid the crowds than save a few bucks. I had every intention of staying home, making breakfast for my family, and avoiding all those crazy people.

And then, I saw the Michael's ad. My mom called me before 5 am. I got up at 6 and went to Michael's. I got some cool stuff - an $80 scrapbook tote for $20, some of my beloved Paton's SWS yarn, an art kit to be stored away for a rainy day, a 1500 piece scrapbook kit, and some little 'toobs' of animals for Chloe's stocking. I got some pretty good deals, I was happy. I also went to Lowes with my mom where she bought a playhouse for Chloe. It's way cute. I was home by 7:00. No way would I go to anything of those other crazy stores, but going to those two was kinda fun.

So we spent the last couple hours cleaning up the house. Chloe's home now, so we're gonna start dragging out the Christmas decorations. I love the day after Thanksgiving - Christmas is my absolute favorite. We're probably not gonna do anything at all today except decorate inside and out for the holidays. :-)

Thankful

I'm thankful for my husband, the most amazing and wonderful man in the whole world.

I'm thankful for my two beautiful little daughters.

I'm thankful for my parents - they've made me everything that I am today.

I'm thankful for our wonderful home and all the nice things we have.

I'm thankful for my big black dog, even if she is a spazz.

I'm thankful for my health and that of my family.

:o)

There are so many things to be thankful for.

Cora's laying next to me. I think she's thankful for boobs and for her incredibly yummy hands.

A great idea

We went to see Santa today. Chloe informed him that she would like more Littlest Pet Shop toys, and that Cora wants a toy robot. He asked if she liked dolls. She said she did, and he said he liked them too and thought they were great toys.

As we were leaving the mall, she was asking me questions about Santa, his reindeer, the elves, etc. I am a devout believer in Santa, and answered all her questions as best I could. She said "I'd really like to have a reindeer for a pet at our house." Then she exclaimed "I have an idea! I need to talk to Santa Clause!" and she turned to run back to him. I stopped her and asked her why.

"Because I'm going to ask him if he'll trade one of my dolls for his reindeer!"

:o)
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To all who have asked me about blogging lately - yes, I'm alright. Sorry I haven't blogged for awhile. Kind of dealing with a lot of personal stuff and have been sort of preoccupied, but I'll start back up again soon. Thanks for your emails and messages.

I think I grew up.

I went out to the bar last night to hang out with an old friend of mine. It's the bar that I used to go to, the place where I met Andrew, used to hang out and drink till the wee hours of the morning once a week and be all crazy and stuff. We used to have so much fun there. I spent the worst part of my adult life hanging out there too, escaping reality, so the place holds sort of bittersweet memories for me.

So I sat there, drinking a glass of cheap wine, and realizing how much I really don't enjoy the bar anymore. I think I've changed. The girls I used to hang out with have all these hanging out with the band, making out with this guy and that kind of stories. My stories revolve around my daughters - Cora rolled over, Chloe can read, etc. I feel like I live in a completely different world than they do now.

And ya know what? I wouldn't have it any other way. The only use I have for bars now is that they provide music and a dance floor, except that going without my husband kind of makes that pointless since I have no desire to dance with anyone but him. I'd much rather spend a couple hours sitting at the library, or having a cup of coffee than at the bar. I left before 9:00 - earlier than most people even get there. :o)

Escape dog... and other antics

I was getting Cora changed and ready this morning, and calling the dog to go outside so we could leave for the library. That's when I heard the door shut. I looked out our bedroom window just in time to see a streak of black fur go tearing down the street wearing a string of hot pink pearls and half of a poodle costume. I went to the door, and there was Chloe, tears running down her face, convinced she had lost her beloved friend forever. It was really hard not to laugh. I went outside with the leash, opened the car door, and a very happy Izzy bounded inside, ready to go wherever the car might take her. Sadly, she was dragged right back into the house and into the back yard so we could leave. I think she was mighty disappointed. It was a good lesson for Chloe though - don't open the door unless you have permission first.

We played some fun games today - Candyland, Chutes & Ladders, Memory. We printed a 'mad lib' sort of thing off Familyfun.com (thanks Sarah!) We played a ton of make believe games where I sit there with Cora in my lap and tell a story and Chloe acts it out. Cinderella is her favorite. There's lots of improv involved that's great for her imagination. I'm on cleaning strike because I'm still convinced I'm dying, so I'm just hanging out with my kids. And that's what we did all day - played, laughed, sang silly songs, ran around with the dog. It was a whole lot of fun.

Ooh! And I have news! Cora rolled over! :o) I'm so proud of her. She did it twice too, so it wasn't just an accident. Those first two months with her had me convinced I'd never have more kids - now I'm a little sad that she's growing up so fast. @@ I'm such a dork. She's so fun though, watching all the cool things she's learning, listening to her coo and squeal and she's starting to really laugh. I love babies so much.

I just saw a bulletin from one of my Myspace 'friends' (really more of a distant acquaintance) saying she's having her birthday party at such and such bar. The time? She says she'll be there by 11:00. That's 11:00 PM. Holy crap! That's like... waaaaay past my bedtime. Do people actually just start hanging out at eleven o'clock? I must be getting old...

"We are gathered here today...."

"... to join Chloe and Isabel in holy granaptachilly (matrimony) "

"I, Chloe -

take thee, Isabel-
To have and to hold, to love and to cherish, in sickness and in health, till 'deaf will do us part'. Izzy, you may kiss your bride.



:o) I love my family.

Speaking of loving my family, here's a great picture of them. I really am the luckiest girl in the whole world.


I was trying to get some pictures of Cora using her hands so I could scrapbook them. Most of them were pretty funky, but here's one that's not bad...



So I was all excited that my man was off this week, except that he left this morning before 6 to go scout a hunting area, and will likely be gone all week trying to kill an elk. We can hope and pray that he gets one, that would be great, but I'm not going to set my heart on it. I'm trying not to be annoyed that he's spending his whole week off walking around on some mountain looking for animals. :-X He does deserve to go do some fun stuff, poor guy works so hard all the time. I just like spending time with him sometimes too.

And in other news... my life insurance policy was denied based on something in my labwork. We don't know what and won't until the insurance company writes a letter and sends it back. Andrew seems to feel fairly certain it was some kind of mistake. I'm fairly certain I'm dying. Seriously, like I can't function because I'm so worried about it. :o( I hope they write back soon. I'm kind of sick to my stomach just thinking about it. Every time I look at my girls I get all teary because I'm not ready to die yet. Okay, I'm probably overreacting. But I'm scared to death that something really bad is wrong with me. So if y'all are the praying type, or just the 'think good thoughts' type, any positive mojo would be really appreciated.

Alright, I'm gonna go hang out with my girls. I'm not in the mood to be super-mom today, so we're just gonna chill out. Laundry and dishes will still be there later.

He's mine again

After two weeks of working, Andrew's off again this week - yay!

Yesterday was a very, very long day spent waiting for him to get home. I went to K-Mart, a place I don't frequent, and found a Barbie car on sale for Chloe's Christmas, and a fairy princess costume that was 90% off, so I paid $3 for it. It'll be good in the box of dress up stuff I plan to give her for Christmas or her birthday as well. Went to Target and got a Baby Einstein video for Cora, a few little stocking stuffers (I love the $1 spot there) and got a cat toy and some cat treats. Yes, we're getting a kitten. Oy. I promised Chloe in January that when she turned 5 she could get a kitten. She hasn't forgotten that promise, so it looks like we'll be getting a new addition come January. I figured I'd get her some kitty stuff and wrap it up for her birthday. Should be interesting to see how the Dog Who Hates Cats handles sharing her beloved family with one of the little furballs.

I also stopped by Joann's and got some new sewing machine needles since my last one just broke, a can of air, and a lightbulb for my machine. I haven't had a working light bulb in my sewing machine in years - I just never think to get one when I'm out. I cleaned up my sewing machine, took it all apart and oiled it and put in the new lightbulb. It's like a whole new machine now. I've taken to sewing diapers using old t-shirts. Andrew is a collector of t-shirts and has WAY too many, so he's getting rid of some of the old ones. I'm cutting them up and making fitted diapers with them. Using those instead of new fabric, it takes the cost of fitted diapers down to about 50 cents each, maybe less if I get remnant flannel, as I've still be using flannel for the outers. And the old t-shirts are very absorbant!

I spent some time looking at the Two Peas website yesterday, getting new ideas for my scrapbooks. So now my little brain is going a million miles an hour with fun ideas and techniques to try. Problem is, I'm almost out of pictures to scrap - ack! I'm actually pretty caught up. I finally scrapped one of the pictures from Cora's birth. I have a hard time with pics like that because they are so special to me, I want their pages to be just as special. I also need to print out our wedding and reception pictures, and I'd like to make a little 8x8 album of them.

Today will be spent going to ballet class, hopefully cleaning up the front yard and porch, and hanging out and enjoying my man a little bit, since he's worked so much lately I feel like I've hardly seen him.

All by myse-elf...

It's Sunday. Usually on Sunday Andrew and I take the girls over to my parents' house for breakfast in the morning. But Andrew left for what will possibly be a 24 hour day of work somewhere around 2 this morning, and my mom's going out of town to a horse driving show. Chloe's at Mark's house, so that means it's just the baby and me, all day long. I'll enjoy that till about early afternoon when I suddenly become bored and lonely and I won't know what to do with myself during the hours til bedtime.

I finished Cora's soaker:



Sorry for the crazy hands in the pic, she has a hard time holding them still anymore. :o)

Size 6 and 7 dpn's, Paton's SWS yarn (love, love, love this yarn. The colorways are awesome and it knits like a dream - it's soy and wool.)

Fern & Faerie's free soaker pattern, not really any changes to it, size small.

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So we had Chloe's friends over again yesterday, this time to our house. They played in the leaves, they played outside, they played inside, it was great. Then came time for them to leave, and Chloe had a melt down. It wasn't just a normal melt down for her - it escalated into a screaming, hitting, scratching and biting herself kind of melt down. It was really awful. I was floored, she's never done that before. They do say 5 is the drama age, but wow. I hope this crap doesn't continue because it's exhausting for both of us. After it was all over, I convinced myself that I'm a failure as a mother because I have produced a child who acts like that. :o( I called her dad and told him what happened, in case he saw the marks on her face and arms and she told him "Mommy was mean to me." She has a scratch near her eye from her own fingernails being raked across her face, and she bit her arm so hard it nearly bled. I just wish I knew what I was supposed to do. Nothing I tried helped at all, she wouldn't stop. :::sigh::: parenting is so hard sometimes.

So I plan to spend today washing diapers, sewing more diapers, maybe knitting a bit on the Monkey socks again that I casted on last night, maybe scrapbooking a little, and possibly leaving the house to do some Christmas shopping. I have no idea what to get most of the people in my family, but I want to be done by the time Thanksgiving rolls around because I don't deal with crazy shopping people very well.

Okay, my baby is telling me she's ready for breakfast. Guess that's my cue!

Sinful...

Here's our first experiment from the Taste of Home show. Oh my god, these things are flippin' amazing. Little blobs of chocolatey goodness. They're bite-sized brownies dipped in melted chocolate chips and topped with nuts and candy. I didn't use their recipe - I had a box of brownie mix in the cupboard that I'd picked up for pennies at the store one time, so I just used that. Then you freeze them for about half an hour till they're pretty firm, cut them into bite sized squares. You melt a bag of chocolate chips with a bit of shortening in it to keep it soft and smooth, then dip the brownies in and sprinkle on toppings. We used pistachios, almonds, candy corn and sprinkles. Chloe was my decorator, and she had a blast with it. These are totally a kid friendly project, and they are ridiculously good. Let's just not talk about fat and calories. :-P

So I'm very excited about the fact that we now have friends within walking distance. There's a girl down the street, Sarah, who has three kids, ages 7, 4, and 2. Her four year old, Elizabeth, is the only kid I've ever met that can give Chloe a run for her money as far as energy goes. They play SO good together, and her older daughter plays great with them too. We've gone to the park a few times now and it's just wonderful to watch them. Chloe always talks about Elizabeth, how she's her 'best friend forever'. And I think we go and do enough things now that Chloe's realizing that just because we have to leave doesn't mean we'll never seen anyone ever again, so she's not really throwing fits when we leave places anymore. I'm glad we've found this family - I hope we keep hanging out. It's also nice to have a mama to hang out with once in awhile. I don't really have friends... just my mom. Not that my mom's not great, but it's probably healthy for me to make a few friends that are my age too.

I love Friday and Saturday - they're the two days we don't leave the house much, if at all. It's a chance for us to just relax and hang out. Today I do need to run and return Evan Almighty to Blockbuster, but I want Chloe to watch it first. It's a great family-type flick, and it's full of tons of funny things that include animals, so I know she'll really like it. And she keeps asking me what an ark is, so this should explain it. Other than that, we'll just stay home. I got everything done on my list yesterday (you should see my craft/computer room! It's so clean!) but I still have laundry to fold. I finished the soaker plus one leg cuff, and I'm halfway done with another but I'm out of yarn. I have about 5 rows to go and I'm out of flippin' yarn. Ugh. I'll get more on Tuesday when we go to Michael's again.

I guess that's enough rambling for now. I better get a head start on things while the baby is still asleep!

Cooking School

I went to the Taste of Home Cooking School last night with my mom. She's gone a few times, but this was my first. It was basically one big commercial mixed with a TV cooking show. It was alright. Not sure if I'd go again or not, but it was interesting enough, I suppose.

It kind of wasn't worth the stress of getting out of the house. Poor Cora was screaming and crying and was very upset while I was trying to get ready, which resulted in me not really being ready. Andrew came home in just enough time for me to race out the door and get there, which meant I left him with the screaming child. Thankfully she went to sleep fairly quickly for him and didn't really wake up. It's easier to just stay home though - I'm just not into going out and doing things in the evenings anymore.

There were some yummy recipes that they did though, and we got a cookbook (really more of a magazine) for attending. I might make something this weekend from it just to try it out. Funny though, all those cooking shows make things look so easy when they do it, but when a real person tries it, usually you end up with something not nearly so tasty for a lot more work. I wish I had someone there to wash all the dishes I made, and everything neatly organized into little bowls so I didn't have to measure. LOL
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So yesterday ended up being utterly fruitless as far as getting things done. I grocery shopped, went downtown and bought a few Christmas presents for the girls (only one more for Chloe, two more for Cora, and I'm done with them!) I made a medium sized diaper pattern and sewed one diaper before Cora got bored just sitting there in her bouncer next to me. I knitted a dozen or so rows on the soaker I'm trying to get done. I got all the laundry caught up, though it isn't folded yet. The house was all neat and clean and looked so nice before I left for the grocery store in the morning. By last night, it looked like I hadn't cleaned it in a week. I need to learn to clean up as I go instead of doing it all at once. My craft room resembles the aftermath of a tornado.

My goal today is to clean it up - it's really, really bad. I also want to bake brownies with Chloe, hopefully take the girls to the park to play with the kids from down the street (and maybe knit more on the soaker while we're there), fold all my clean laundry, and possibly walk to the nearby grocery store to get a few things that are on sale and the ingredients for one of the recipes I saw last night that looked really yummy. We'll see how much I accomplish!

Childhood Fearlessness

She's eating a pomegranate for the first time.

It's a great example of how kids at this age are relatively fearless and trusting. I say "Chloe, try this, it's good." And she does. If it's me that's trying a new food, I'm questioning what all is in it, etc. before I'll even taste it, and even then I do it with great caution.

I love that Chloe's not scared of things immediately like I am.

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We've had a few really good days, minus my crabbiness at night sometimes. Yesterday we went to the library, went to the park with new friends, did lots of fun things around the house.

Cora's figuring out that she can grab things with her hands, and her little play mat with the toys dangling down from it entertains her for long periods now. She's also sort of laughing out loud. I wish I could get it on video to share, it's so damn cute. It's impossible to describe, but it involves some very cute, girly little squeals that delight us to no end. Peek-a-boo is now a favorite game.

We're trying to bring Chloe's reading to the point where she can read simple books. The problem is that when she sees pictures, she just guesses what the words say and kind of makes it up as we go along. I have to remind her to sound out the words. She does better if I just write sentences on a piece of paper, and let her draw the pictures after she figures out what it says. She's been playing this Reader Rabbit game on the computer that used to be my little brother's. It's about 12 years old, and very simplistic compared to most of the games she plays, but she likes it, and it's teaching her tons.

It's taken 2 and a half months, but I finally feel like a normal person again, not all frazzled and overwhelmed. Having two kids is way cooler than just having one - I don't get bored nearly as often. :o)

Well, that took long enough.

The Andrew sweater is finally finished. It could've been done a week ago except I didn't have a tapestry needle to finish it with. I couldn't tell you how many hours of knitting that is - lots - and I'm so glad it's finished.

Pattern: The Man Sweater (It's a free pattern from LionBrand, but you have to register to see it.)
Yarn: Lionbrand Jiffy Thick & Quick in denim, 10 balls
Needles: size 11 and 13. As Jill said, it's a bit like knitting with logs.

Overall, I don't love it, but it does look pretty good on him. It's got raglan sleeves, but they were knitted separately and seamed together. I'd rather just knit it in one piece. The turtleneck is HUGE on it, which I guess is the style, but I could've made it shorter. I actually did a different neck the first time 'round, not following the pattern, and the result was pretty goofy looking. The cable pattern looks good, but is utterly boring once you're past the first four rows.

We'll see if he wears it. I told him he better... sweaters break people up, ya know? :oP

So after ripping my sock the other night, and not getting it casted back on right away, I've decided to make another soaker for Cora, as she really does kind of need them. At least that's something that does get a lot of use. It's funny, I knit SO many things, and hardly any of them get used much. Socks and soakers really are pretty much all that do. I do have a couple of hats I've made that I wear pretty often, and a few scarves, but that's about it. And I force Chloe to wear her sweater occasionally, even though she hates it. If I knit anything else for that child, I'm letting her pick out her own yarn, and it better be chenille because I'm so sick of the "It's itchy!" complaint. LOL But yeah, it seems like everything else turns out less than perfect, and I just put it on the shelf and never wear it again. I should go back and rip stuff out instead of buying new yarns.

So anyhow, I'm gonna go get my second cup of coffee and scrapbook for a few minutes before the girls wake up. I love this time of morning - it's actually quiet!

:::sigh::: what a day

It actually started out as a pretty good day - I was on a roll, getting all my normal stuff done. We had ballet this morning and we got out of the house with plenty of time to spare, even managed to pack a drink and snack for Chloe, stop and Wal Mart and the bank, and get her dressed once we got there without rushing. I thought things were going well - minus the fact that Chloe got in trouble (again) at dance for not listening and being too hyper.

We got home, had lunch, did some phonics lessons, etc. Then all hell broke loose. I'm not sure what happened, but I think we were just all having an off day. Cora didn't actually take a nap today, which isn't particularly good for a two and half month old baby. She got up before 8 and I put her to bed at 7:45 tonight. She slept for a whole ten minutes in between that. Instead, she cried for the last half of the day. I couldn't put her down without hurting her feelings terribly and starting another screaming session. It was easier just to hold her and cuddle her than let her start crying, because once she did, it took half an hour to stop her.

And Chloe - ugh! I'm not sure what got into her today. She was hyper and rambunctious - even more than normal - and was ultra-sensitive. If I said 'no' about something, she fell apart. I accidentally barely stepped on her fingers, after she tripped me by throwing herself on the ground in front of my while I was walking. She cried and cried, way more than was necessary, and kept bringing it up all day about how mean I was and how I don't like her because I stepped on her fingers. I apologized, kissed her fingers, hugged her... that should've been plenty. I barely even stepped down before I realized she was there. It was just one thing after another with her, nonstop today. Most days she's outside from the moment the frost melts off the grass till dinner time, playing with the dog. Today Izzy knocked her down - a common occurrence when you mix a 30 pound kid with a 90 pound dog. But she decided Izzy is mean and she didn't want to play with her anymore, so she was inside and whining all day long.

I finally kinda lost my temper with her at dinner time, when I was trying to make soup with a crying baby and whiny kid hanging on me. She kept going on and on about how horrible the kitchen smelled (I was cooking chicken. It smelled like cooking chicken.) "I don't WANNA smell dinner cooking." "Mom, the kitchen SMELLS bad." "I don't WANNA eat dinner tonight." "I don't WANNA go play in my room." Oy vey! I snapped at her, told her I didn't care if she ate or not but that she better stop whining. She cried for twenty minutes in her room before I could get her to calm down, and she kept telling me how much I don't like her because I'm so mean to her. I felt kinda bad, but my nerves were shot and she just wasn't helping!

At seven o'clock she asked if she could take a bath and go to bed because she was tired. She wasn't kidding - she was asleep five minutes after she laid down, which might actually be a record for her. Cora finally let me nurse her to sleep a little while after. Andrew was in bed at 7:30 because he has to be up for work.

So I poured a glass of Sangiovese and knitted all the way to the heel flap of Monkey before I decided that it's really turning out too big and I needed to change to smaller needles. So I ripped and ripped and ripped and hours of work is now a brown blob of yarn once more. I'm going to start them again, this time on size 1 needles. My gauge on 2's worked out fine, but for some reason it didn't work out once I started knitting the actual sock. So now I'm going to use size 1 needles, which somewhat resembles knitting with toothpicks, only they're not quite as sharp. But the lace pattern is gorgeous, and is easy to memorize (an important factor when I'm interrupted constantly and can't keep track of stitches and rows.)

Here's to hoping tomorrow's a better day. I need it.

The finances of diapers

I was contemplating this as I was folding diapers today, and thought I'd share my findings.

Let's assume your child is in diapers for 3 years. That's 36 months. Disposable diapers, assuming you change your child 8 times a day (the same as you would for cloth diapers), would cost an estimated $40 per month. That's $1440.

A dozen infant sized cloth diapers costs about 20. I like to have 3 dozen, which means I wash about every fourth day, so that's $60. A wool cover, if you knit it yourself or have Grandma do it, costs about $6 in yarn. It's good to have six of them - $36. So that's $96 for about the first 4 months, approximately. Baby will eventually need larger prefolds, about $75 for three dozen, and you'll need 6 covers in medium and large too, maybe costing $9 in yarn each, so $54 and $54. So adding all that up.... $135 for prefolds, $144 for covers, a total of $279.

Of course you can spend lots more than that - fancy all in one diapers, fitted diapers instead of prefolds (running $8 each if you buy them new, as opposed to about $1.65 for a prefold.) You can buy expensive yarn, or pay $25 each for someone to knit them for you. Of course, if you don't have someone to knit them for you for free, you can buy polyurethane covers for about $8 each instead. So there are a ton of variables with cloth diapers - I used my own system as my example.

The great thing about cloth diapers is that you can use them for each kid. If you have 3 kids, and reuse all the same diapers, that means it costs you about $93 for each child - as opposed to $4320 if you put 3 kids in disposables. You may have to replace a few things over the years, but most everything should hold up fairly well. And then, just imagine what you'll save in Pledge wipes when you turn all your old diapers into dust cloths after you're done with them. :-)

And of course the deciding factor for many moms - they're just flippin' cute!

Misc. Update & rambling

Goodness, I haven't blogged in a long time! I'm not even sure where to start. Andrew was off last week. Most days we just stayed home and did stuff here, but one day we went fishing, and another day we went up to the Little Bookcliff Horse Range to look for wild horses. We found a couple and had fun driving on all those dirt roads. Cora wasn't all too impressed though, so we didn't stay long.

I've been on a crafting/organizing kick lately. I've gotten so much scrapbooking done. I'm still not caught up, but I've probably made 20 or so pages in the past couple weeks. I've finished all the knitting on Andrew's sweater as of yesterday, but couldn't finish the seams because I've lost all my darning needles. I'll run and get some today so i can finish it. I don't love it, but it might be alright at least. I also casted on for Knitty's 'Monkey' socks. I think that'll be a slow project. I'm not sure I'll have time to finish them before I really NEED to make Cora some more diaper covers. She's basically outgrown the newborn size ones, and we only have two smalls.

I can't believe how fast she's growing! She's lying next to me, noisily sucking her fingers. Her fingers make her happy - she even puts herself to sleep sucking on them sometimes.

Chloe's learning to read. Just little three letter words with short vowel sounds, but hey, it's something. She can sound out some bigger words too. Aside from our daily phonics lessons (with fridge magnets during breakfast, lunch, and snack) we're involved in a few different activities still - ballet on Mondays, Michael's kid's craft class on Tuesdays and library story time on Wednesday. I'm thinking about adding play dates on Fridays - we know enough kids that we can have someone different over every week of the month. It helps my day go by faster to have some sort of activity in the mornings, and it's great for Chloe to be around other kids and such. Makes for a busy week though, that's for sure!

Hit some Halloween sales yesterday - Wal Mart had some cute little things that I grabbed, to be stored away for next year. They also had wigs on sale for $2.44. I bought a couple to add to Chloe's dress-up stuff for Christmas. I hope she has fun with them - I always wanted wigs when I was little. I was excited to get them so cheap! That way if she destroys them by repeatedly brushing them, I won't be upset. I'd like to make her a few outfits from my fabric stash to play in, and I'd really love to make her a tiger outfit, but can't seem to find any tiger printed flannel.

I guess I don't have much else to report. It's been busy, but nothing particularly interesting going on. These little girls sure do keep me busy!