Screaming baby

For those of you who only see cute pictures of the smiling Chloe that I post, you might not believe this post. Chloe did not sleep much last night, and took a very short morning nap. She woke up from this nap SCREAMING. And the screaming would not stop. I was able to distract her briefly with toys or going outside, tried feeding her and putting her back to sleep, but nothing worked to clam her down. So finally, I grabbed a Diet Coke and some chocolate and loaded Chloe into the car. Within 5 minutes, she was sound asleep. I always heard about friends who used the car to get their kids to sleep, but I always thought that I would not be one of those parents. I am sorry to all of the parents out there who I thought this about. I understand the desperation after having a crying baby for hours and not knowing what else to do. Chloe is still asleep in the car, which is parked in my driveway with the windows down. I am sitting in the garage watching her, because I am afraid to take her out of the car and have her wake up. Is it sad that I am afraid of my almost 6 month old baby??

Solid food!

So Chloe is about 5 1/2 months old now, and her doctor told me to wait until she was 6 months old to give her solid food, but I just could not wait! Chloe is so interested in food now. Whenever Andrew and I are eating something she tries to reach for it and she loves to suck on water bottles and glasses. Empty ones, of course! Here she is waiting for the food....
Yummy rice cereal! It her her a few spoonfuls to figure out how to swallow, but she got the hang of it pretty quickly! (in these pictures, Chloe's hair looks orangish, but it is really not that color. I think it is the hot pink high chair cover making a funny contrasting color.)
Chloe thinks she is ready to feed herself!!

Loving books!

Chloe had fun going to work with mom this week and getting to meet some of her students! While in the car, she kept a tight grip on her book--her new favorite toy! She loves to drool all over it!! With a teacher for a mom and a grandma who was a reading specialist, I can only hope that her love of reading will continue!

Rolling over

So, Chloe now officially is able to roll from her back to her stomach. For the past few days, I would leave Chloe on her back on her play mat and then return to find her on her stomach. It is sad though, because once she rolls, she usually gets upset and starts crying. I usually find her face down and crying. It is so interesting to me that she knows how to roll over from her stomach to her back, but does not realize that she needs to do so to rescue her at the moment. Oh well. I am hoping she learns this quickly, as I had to go roll her over multiple times during the night last night, because she woke me up with her muffled cries, as she was face down in her crib. I had nightmares of her suffocating. That wisdom of not letting babies sleep on their stomachs was stressing me out!!

Mother's day photos & Swaddling issues

So, I have to apologize that it has taken me a week to get these pictures off my camera, onto my computer, and posted here. I blame two things. First, our desktop computer is broken so Andrew and I have been sharing my work laptop. It seems like whenever I thought about blogging, he was using the computer. Second, I blame the heat! It has been so hot here and it is hard for me to get motivated when it is so hot out!!

Anyway, our mother's day was lovely. Andrew made me a poster of Chloe's hand and foot prints and wrote "I love mom" on it. It was so sweet! He also made me breakfast in bed on Sunday! What a great dad! After church, we had lunch at Andrew's mom's house and celebrated mother's day and Andrew's birthday. Andrew, Pete, and Kristen made a yummy lunch and we had a great afternoon.

Here are a few pictures of the day:

Chloe and me in grandma's backyard. I love her chunky legs!!

Three generations!! This is not the best photo of me or my mom, but I love the expression on Chloe's face. She loves to stick out her tongue and spit everywhere!

The girl cousins...

All the cousins together. Grandma bought matching clothes for all of them. So cute! It is so hard to get them to all look at the camera at the same time!! This is the best photo I ended up with of the five of them.

The following picture was taken today after Chloe's nap:

We put her to bed with both arms tightly swaddled. After an hour, she had managed to break both of them free. It does not seem to matter what type of blanket we use, or how tightly we swaddle her, she manages to get her arms out. We usually find her sucking on her hands and talking and laughing. She is so happy to be free. The only problem is that she cannot sleep unless she is swaddled. We've tried! I think she is ready to sleep without being wrapped up tight, but I don't know how to teach her.....Advice??

Happy Mother's Day!

I do not have any new pictures of Chloe to post. So sad!! I guess I have been busy just enjoying her and not taking pictures. I need to get my camera out....

We continue to be amazed by how quickly Chloe is growing up! Just yesterday, I was holding her and she heard Andrew's voice. She found him across the room and smiled a huge smile when she saw him. Then, he walked closer and Chloe reached out for him to pick her up! It was the cutest thing ever! We tried to get her to reach out to me, but no luck. I guess she is going to be a daddy's girl! I joke around that I am upset that Chloe loves her dad more than she loves me, but I am just kidding, and so thankful that she has such a wonderful dad who loves her so much!

For all you moms out there, happy mother's day! I am really excited that tomorrow is my first mother's day! I am so thankful to have such a fantastic mother and also mother-in-law. I can only hope that I can be as loving and giving as they are when I grow up!!

Busy week!

This has been such a crazy week! The move last Saturday went really well. We had most of our family and Bible Study helping. I was amazed by how much stuff we have and that we filled a huge moving truck. The kids even helped us move!! We will be unpacking boxes forever!! Thanks again to everyone who helped out!!!




Saturday night, while we were eating dinner, we discovered that Chloe had broken out in hives. They were these huge red and white blotches that seemed to take over her body. We called the advice nurse and took her in to Kaiser ER on Saturday night. We saw the world's worst doctor and left without any information, other than the theory that Chloe was allergic to something. Cousin Bekah and my friend Rana were much more helpful in advising us about how to treat allergies. After two days of Benadryl, the hives cleared up and she has been hive-free since Wednesday! I had cut dairy out , as we thought she might have a dairy allergy, but drank some milk this morning, and so far, no hives!!! We are praying that the hives were just a random breakout and that she does not have any food allergies.


The day after we moved, we had Chloe dedicated at church. Luckily, she was hive-free that morning and was in a really good mood. Andrew shared with the church a little bit about Chloe--about how social she is and cries when she thinks she is all alone. Pastor Eric prayed for Chloe and the children's director gave Chloe a PURPLE children's Bible! I don't think that Marisa knew that purple is my favorite color, but she chose well!!

In other Chloe news, she has learned how to suck on her toes!! It is so cute. As soon as she is on her back on the changing table or her play mat, she grabs her foot and the toes go in her mouth. She is getting so strong and is grabbing at toys, my hair, or whatever she can.